PEPPERS. 161 



right. On the other hand, if the water drains off 

 immediately, and the soil becomes dry to the depth of 

 one-half inch in the course of four or five hours, in the 

 sunshine or gentle wind, too much sand has been used 

 and a little more clay should be introduced. Make 

 the rows about three inches apart and drop the seed 

 about three to the inch. Cover the seed to the depth 

 of about three-fourths of an inch. Before the seed- 

 lings begin to crowd one another they should be trans- 

 planted, and this time about an inch in the row and 

 the rows three inches apart. Before they begin to be 

 spindling in this bed they should be transferred to 

 another bed, this time planting the seedlings three by 

 three inches. 



A very successful and handy way is to make use of 

 two and one-half, three-inch and four-inch flower-pots 

 in their respective orders. When these flower pots 

 are used the soil should be the same as in hot- beds 

 without flower pots. 



The seed should be sown from 40 to 60 days before 

 the average time of the last frost. The rapidity with 

 which the seedlings come along will depend npon the 

 amount of sunshine and warm weather, and also upon 

 the attention of the gardener, consequently the state- 

 ment as to the time required for the seedlings to grow 

 to planting out size cannot be made definitely. 



SOIL AND PREPARATION. 



A warm sandy loam that retains moisture in the 

 subsoil will be found very excellent. In preparing 

 land for peppers care should be taken to remove all 

 decaying matter and rubbish from the field. This 

 does no damage in some sections where gardening is 

 carried on extensively, but in the Lower South it 

 should be avoided. 



Lay the rows off two or two and one-half feet apart 



