PREPARATION OF SEED-BED. 341 



the spaces between the plants should be progressively 

 lessened, so that a larger number of smaller plants may 

 be carried on the same area of surface. If the bed 

 has been properly prepared, and a sufficient growth of 

 young plants secured, they may easily be rendered avail- 

 able for planting out at several distinct periods, as soon as 

 the ground has been cleared of the preceding crop. After 

 the winter tares are fed off, for instance, as Mr. Davis 

 recommends or after rye or ryegrass, cut green for spring 

 keep, after the ground is cleared from the early potatoes 

 or peas, and even after the earlier straw crops, as winter 

 oats and rye, are harvested they may be advantageously 

 planted, and thus rendered available for a crop. 



In such cases it is desirable that the seed should have 

 been sown at different periods, so that the plants be not 

 too far advanced for the later transplantings ; that the 

 soil be deeply tilled, properly worked, and in good heart ; 

 and that attention be paid to the state of the weather, so 

 as to secure as much as possible those conditions of mois- 

 ture and shade so necessary to the well-doing of all trans- 

 planted vegetables. A few days' delay in sowing or 

 planting is of very little importance, compared with the 

 condition of the soil as to moisture at the time the seed 

 is germinating, or the plant resuming its functions, in its 

 new abode. If these conditions are secured to them, and 

 the young plants take root kindly, there is but little 

 fear for their healthy growth, and their yield at the end 

 of the season will in all cases be considerably more than 

 could be expected from any of the varieties of turnips 

 offered to us for late sowing. 



In preparing the seed-bed for growing plants for trans- 

 planting, the size must be regulated in accordance 

 with the number of acres to be planted. Two ounces of 

 seed is about the quantity to be sown on a square rod, 

 and this will produce from 4000 to 5000 good plants. The 



