38 AMERICAN GARDENER. 



156. Of course the ground should be good, 

 either in itself or made good by manure of some 

 sort, and, on the subject of manure, see Para- 

 graphs 28 and 29. But, in all cases, the ground 

 should be fresh ; that is to say, it should be dug 

 just before t -e act of sowing, in order that the 

 seeds may have the full benefit of the fermen- 

 tation^ that takes place upon every moving of 

 the earth. 



157. Never sow when the ground is wet ; nor, 

 indeed, if it can be avoided, perform a*iy other 

 act with, or on, the ground of a garden. If you 

 dig ground in wet weather, you make a sort of 

 m ortar of it : it binds when the sun or wind dries 

 it. The fermentation does not take place : and 

 it becomes unfavourable to vegetation, especially 

 if the ground be, in the smallest degree, stiff in 

 its nature. It is even desirable, that wet should 

 not come for some days after ground has been 

 moved ; for, it the wet come before the ground 

 be dry at toji, the earth will run together, and 

 will become bound at top. Sow, therefore, if 

 possible, in dry weather, but in freshly-moved 

 ground. 



158. The season for sowing will, of course, 

 find a place under the names of the respective 

 plants ; and, I do hope, that it is, when I am 

 addressing myself to Americans, unnecessary 

 for me to say, that sowing according to the Moo?i 

 is wholly absurd and ridiculous, and that it arose 

 solely out of the circumstance, that our forefa- 

 thers, who could not read, had neither Almanack 

 nor Calendar to guide them, and who counted by 

 Moons and Festivals instead of by Months and 

 Days of Months 



