THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



be sown. The soil should be moist, not wet or dry, 

 and if for any reason it should be wet, it must be 

 turned over and over and dried out until in a con- 

 dition to use; if too dry, it may be watered with 

 warm water from the sprinkler of the watering 

 pot and then allowed to lie under the sash until 

 the moisture is uniform. Soil which adheres to the 

 trowel in working is too wet to plant. It should 

 fall apart after being pressed in the hand, not 

 form into a ball or lump. 



Before sowing the various seeds it will be well 

 to obtain a supply of narrow strips of wood, 

 which may be used to divide the various plats of 

 seed from each other, by sinking them half way 

 into the ground between the different sowings of 

 seed. This is of moment, especially where more 

 than one variety of different kinds of plants are 

 sown as cauliflower, cabbage, or tomatoes. Where 

 but one kind of seed is sown in a sash, or one cab- 

 bage and tomatoes, for instance, in which there 

 can be no difficulty in distinguishing them, it will 

 not be necessary; still the presence of these little 

 barriers prevents the washing of fine seed when 

 the plats are watered, and defines the boundaries 



of the plats. When one lives in the vicinity of a 



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