CONDITIONS OF GROWTH. 201 



through it better, every seed is covered perfectly and is about 

 sure to vegetate. 



In planting the smaller seeds, as the carrot, parsnip, onion, 

 and the various grass seeds, care should be taken not to cover 

 too deep, as many of them start so feebly as not to have suffi- 

 cient strength to reach the surface of the ground with heavy 

 covering. 



The distance apart that seed should be sown must be gov- 

 erned by the size to which the plant attains when mature. 



All plants or trees, to become fully developed and to arrive 

 at their greatest perfection, must have sufficient room to grow. 

 They cannot become what they should be if cramped or con- 

 fined in any way. This is well illustrated in a thick growth of 

 wood, where there is from necessity a constant contest going on 

 between the neighboring trees for the food in the soil, and a 

 more perfect development of the top in the air, one tree trying 

 to overtop another, so that it may expand and spread its 

 branches and leaves more fully to the light and influences of 

 the atmosphere. If it succeeds in overtopping its weaker 

 neighbor, the latter will grow weaker and weaker, and at last 

 will have to give way to its more powerful competitor, which 

 will thus acquire the room necessary for its full development. 



In planting our seeds, therefore, economy of seed and of cul- 

 ture and the perfection of the crop demand that we should 

 plant at the right distances and thin to the proper number of 

 plants to obtain a full crop, not leaving the plants to expend 

 their energies in overpowering and destroying the next plant, 

 instead of fully developing itself; or, as a rule, not to try to 

 grow two plants where there is only room for one. 



After all, what is a seed that it should require from the cul- 

 tivator so careful a preparation of the soil and planting ? Wiiy, 

 it is a little embryo plant encased in a shell or husk ; an at- 

 tempt of a plant, or a provision made by which to reproduce 

 itself. Watch its course wiien planted, and see it develop into 

 a perfect plant, and you will find one of the most interesting 

 and wonderful things in nature. The first thing that takes 

 place is the swelling of the germ and the sprouting of the little 

 root ; we may call it the birth of the plant. This little root 

 strikes down into the soil. It seems to have the same instinct 

 that animals have at their birth ; the first thing it does is to 

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