HOW, WHEN AND WHERE TO SOW SEEDS. 109 



tion of seeds, and where plants from seeds of the early 

 vegetables, or tender plants for the flower border, may 

 be raised nearly as well, and with far less attention, than 

 in a hot-bed. Instead of hot-beds, we use our green- 

 houses for the purpose, using shallow boxes in which we 

 sow the seed ; these are made from the common soap 

 box, cut into three pieces, the top and bottom forming 

 two, and the middle piece, bottomed, making the third ; 

 these form cheap, convenient boxes. Fill these nearly 

 full with the soil recommended, and, after sowing, press 

 nicely down level and make the surface soil moderately 

 firm ; keep moist in a temperature in the window of 

 from sixty to seventy degrees, and your little trouble will 

 soon be rewarded. 



In this way seeds' should be sown thickly, and after 

 they have mado the first rough leaf, should be again 

 planted out into the same kind of box, from one to three 

 inches apart, according to the kind, and placed in the 

 window to receive similar treatment as the seeds ; but as 

 the season advances, in mild days the boxes should be set 

 out of doors, care being taken that they are brought in 

 before night, and that the soil in the boxes is never 

 allowed to get dry. 



I know what is usually the first thing the novice in 

 gardening does if he gets any choice seed or favorite cut- 

 ting ; ho has somehow got the belief that there is some 

 hidden virtue in a flower pot, and he accordingly sows 

 his seed or plants his cutting in a pot, but in nine cases 

 out of ten they are destroyed, or partially so, by the con- 

 tinued drying of the soil in the porous flower pot. If 

 early in the season, let delicate seeds be sown in the 

 kitchen or sitting-room window, in the boxes as recom- 

 mended, or if late, in the open border ; but seeds should 

 never be sown in pots, as even in experienced hands they 

 are much more troublesome and uncertain than boxes. 



ROTATION OF CHOPS. Cultivators of the most limited 



