JULY: FIRST WEEK 171 



All the above may be kept through the winter; besides 

 these there is ample time for early peas, lettuce and radishes 

 to mature and furnish a very acceptable variety for the table 

 during the several weeks of fall and winter. Gradus and 

 Early Morn, tall sorts, and Blue Bantam and Laxtonian are 

 all splendid quick growing peas. Grand Rapids for a 

 " curly sort" and Big Boston for a heading variety, I con- 

 sider the best of the lettuces for late plantings. Seeds 

 should be sown a little at a time until September, the last 

 plantings giving plants to transplant to the frames. Crim- 

 son Giant is an unsurpassed radish, very firm and mild. 



The great secret in getting a "good stand" from seeds 

 planted during the hot dry weather, is to "firm" the seed 

 into the soil. Seed for these late sowings should be planted 

 deeper than in the spring; and when planted by hand the 

 seeds should be firmed into the bottom of the drill with the 

 back of a hoe, or the sole of the foot before covering it. The 

 necessity of having the soil thus pressed up firm and close 

 to the seed is twofold. It insures more moisture being ab- 

 sorbed by the seed to start germination, and it gives the 

 sprouting tap-root of the seed a congenial environment; 

 whereas, when it strikes out into a soil space filled with hot, 

 dry air, as is in the case in the germination of loosely planted 

 seeds, it is doomed at the start. 



