USE OF THE FEET IN SOWING AND PLANTING. 217 



practical work in all kinds of gardening operations, have 

 benefited hundreds; but I consider the short paper here 

 given on " The Use of the Feet in Sowing and Planting " 

 the most important and valuable I have ever written, 

 if I have succeeded in making my meaning clear; for 

 the ignorance on this subject is widespread; and when 

 we consider the hundreds of thousands of acres of all 

 kinds of farm products that fail annually from no 

 other cause than that the seeds have not been properly 

 firmed in the soil, we can readily imagine the loss 

 from such neglect and the importance of making known 

 the remedy. 



Although, to the thousands of amateurs who are in- 

 terested in gardening work, the loss resulting from a few 

 seeds failing to germinate, or a few newly-planted plants 

 failing to grow, is not often estimated by dollars and 

 cents, yet the annoyance and disappointment of failure 

 are inducements enough to use the best means to attain 

 success, which I believe will rarely fail to be attained if 

 the directions which have been given for " The Use of 

 the Feet in Sowing and Planting" be strictly followed; 

 for the necessity for the operation of firming the soil is 

 just as essential in the tiniest flower bed of the garden 

 as in the large plots of the market garden or the broad 

 acres of the farm. 



The above essay on " The Use of the Feet in Sowing 

 and Planting " was delivered at the annual meeting of 

 the National Association of Nurserymen, Florists, and 

 Seedsmen, held in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1880, and at the 

 meeting held in Chicago the next season I was gratified 

 by the information obtained from a gentleman connected 

 with the press, who publicly stated that the above article 

 had been copied and republished in hundreds of news- 

 papers throughout the land, and that the information 



