i8 WHAT THE PLANT IS MADE OF [chap. i. 



year is advanced enough to ensure sufficient warmth 

 in the soil, or without a proper preparation of the land. 

 Of course some seeds require artificial heat, but all will 

 grow more quickly on a southern slope, or where the soil 

 is not kept cold by lack of drainage or insufficient 

 preparation. The great art of the farmer — the prime 

 act of husbandry, in fact — lies in the preparation of a 

 proper seed bed, and its character may in most cases be 

 summarised in two words : fine and firm. It must be 

 fine, to ensure that all the seed can be put in at the 

 proper depth, because there is a proper depth for each 

 seed depending on its size ; it must be firm, to keep the 

 seed and the infant plants properly supplied with 

 moisture. Sometimes the seed is soaked before sowing, 

 though on the farm this is only occasionally done with 

 mangold seed, which has a thick, coarse husk. Occasion- 

 ally the soaking may very much quicken up the 

 germination, but it is not so easy to sow wet or even 

 damp seed evenly, and there is some danger in sowing 

 soaked seed in dry soil, lest a drought should follow and 

 the seed should perish after its premature start. 

 Lastly, as air is necessary to the germinating seed, the 

 soil must be working freely at sowing time ; if the seed 

 is plastered into wet heavy soil or the surface is smeared 

 over by incautious cultivation, the seed may die, or 

 become very weakly for want of air. Certain kinds of 

 heavy land, again, are apt to develop a tight, glazed skin 

 on the surface, if seeding on a fine tilth is followed by 

 heavy rain and later by drying winds and sun ; a roller 

 should be put over the land to break the crust and let 

 the air in to the seed. 



As soon as the young root has got anchored in the 

 soil and the young shoot has spread its first leaves into 

 the air, the function of the seed is over and the plant 

 begins its independent existence. 



