8 HOW TO PLANT. 



the Gulf of Mexico, or on the borders of the great Lakes, 

 has its time for planting corn, fixed by years of observa- 

 tion and experience, and which, in a series of years, 

 varies but very little. Corn requires a dry and warm 

 soil, the weather should be well settled, and the season 

 of cold storms past. Wherever these conditions are 

 found, without regard to the month, corn may be safely 

 planted, and with it, all other tender plants. 



It is more difficult to fix upon the time for hardy 

 plants. Cabbage, and all of its family, peas, turnips of 

 all kinds, beets, parsnips and others are hardy. When- 

 ever the frost is out of the ground and the soil is dry 

 enough to work, the seeds of hardy plants may go in. In 

 all the Northern States, "as soon as the ground is in 

 good working order" is a sufficiently definite time for 

 planting the seeds of all. 



COVERING THE SEEDS. 



The proper covering of the seeds, after they have been 

 deposited in the drill or row, has much to do with the 

 success of the crop. If in covering the seeds are buried 



BOAJID EOR COVERING SE3D. 



so deep that the germ, the little plant within the seed, 

 can not reach the surface, it dies. Though the seed may 

 have been perfectly good, there will be no crop. Among 

 the various devices for covering seeds, is one principally 

 in use by cotton planters, and is the one referred to in 

 this work, when after sowing seeds it is directed to 

 "cover with a board." This implement is made of 

 strong, tough timber, one inch thick, about eighteen or 

 twenty inches long, and six inches wide, slightly curved 

 underneath as in figure 1. This board is attached to any 



