USE OF THE FEET LN SOWING AND PLANTIlxG. 99 



and yet may be too damp to be trodden upon or rolled. 

 In such cases these operations may not be necessary at 

 all. lor if rainy weather ensue, the seeds will germinate 

 of course ; but if there is any likelihood of a continued 

 drouth, the treading or rolling may be done a week or 

 more after the seed has been sown, if there is any reason 

 to believe that it may suffer from the dry, hot air. An- 

 other very important advantage gained by treading in 

 the seed is, that when we have crops of Beets, Celery, 

 Turnips, Spinach, or anything else that is .sown in rows, 

 the seeds to form the crop come up at once ; while the 

 seeds of the weeds, that are just as liable to perish by the 

 heat as are those of the crop, are retarded. Such of the 

 weed seeds as lie in the space between the rows where the 

 soil is loose will not germinate as quickly as those of the 

 crop sown ; and hence we can cultivate between the rows 

 before the weeds germinate at all. 



Of course, this rule of treading in or firming seeds 

 after sowing, must not be blindly followed. Very early 

 in spring or late in fall, when the soil is damp and there 

 is no danger from heated, dry air, there is no necessity 

 for doing so. 



Now, if firming the soil around seed, to protect it 

 from the influence of a dry and hot atmosphere, is a 

 necessity, it is obvious that it is more so in the case of 

 plants whose rootlets are even more sensitive to such in- 

 fluence than the dormant seed. 



Experienced professional horticulturists, however, are 

 less likely -to neglect this than to neglect in the case of 

 seeds, for the damage from such neglect is easier to be 

 seen, and hence better understood, by the practical 

 nurseryman ; but w r ith the inexperienced amateur the 

 case is different. When he receives his package of trees 

 or plants from the nurseryman, he handles them as if 

 they were glass, every broken twig or root calls forth a 

 complaint, and he proceeds to plant them, gingerly 



