SEED BEDS 227 



nursery this packing requires to be done with con- 

 siderable care as the parcels of plants may have to 

 travel long distances to their new destination. The 

 sizing of the plants in itself takes time and requires 

 some care, work which women could be depended upon 

 to do and do well. The smaller plants will probably 

 be placed to one side to be put back into a break to 

 spend another year in the nursery All weakly ones 

 and diseased plants will be collected into heaps and 

 burnt. Their elimination is desirable on all counts. 

 We have now to consider the preparation of the seed 

 beds. The areas required for sowing the seed are far 

 smaller than the areas termed breaks. The seed bed is 

 usually 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet wide raised above the 

 ground surface and has on either side a narrow alley 

 which permits of the bed being weeded later on. The 

 soil of the seed bed has to be carefully and finely pre- 

 pared, a work which women could be easily trained to 

 perform. The seed is sown uniformly over the surface 

 or in drills, rolled in and a covering of earth spread 

 over it, the thickness varying with the size of the seed. 

 A light roller is then drawn over the bed and this part 

 of the process is finished. But not so the attention 

 required on the beds. Almost from the time of sowing 

 the seed and throughout the summer the beds require 

 constant weeding. Boys have usually been employed 

 in the past, boys whose fingers are often all thumbs. 

 For such work women or girls with their deft fingers 

 are eminently more desirable. They would not only 

 do the work better, but would bring to it a greater 

 patience. For it is so easy to pull up the small tree 

 seedling instead of the weed. And the careful weeding 



