CULINARY HERBS 33 



in the garden; tnat is, when the soil is moist and 

 warm and the season has become settled, the plant- 

 lets may be removed to permanent quarters. 



If the seed be sown out of doors, it is a good prac- 

 tice to sow a few radish seeds in the same row with 

 the herb seeds, particularly if these latter take a long 

 time to germinate or are very small, as marjoram, 

 savory and thyme. The variety of radish chosen 

 should be a turnip-rooted sort of exceedingly rapid 

 growth, and with few and small leaves. The rad- 

 ishes serve to mark the rows and thus enable culti- 

 vation to commence much earlier than if the herbs 

 were sown alone. They should be pulled early — 

 the earlier the better after the herb plantlets appear. 

 Never should the radishes be allowed to crowd the 

 herbs. 



By the narration of a little mcident, I may illus- 

 trate the necessity of sowing these radish seeds 

 thinly. Having explained to some juvenile garden- 

 ers that the radish seeds should be dropped so far 

 apart among the other seeds that they would look 

 lonesome in the bottoms of the rows — not more 

 than six seeds to the foot — and having illustrated 

 my meaning by sowing a row myself, I let each one 

 take his turn at sowing. While I watched them all 

 went well. But, alas, for precept and example! To 

 judge by the general result after the plants were up, 

 the seedsman might justifiably have guaranteed the 

 seed to germinate about 500 per cent, because each 

 boy declared that he sowed his rows thinly. Never- 

 theless, there was a stand of radishes that would 

 have gladdened the heart of a lawn maker! The 



