STARTING PLANTS IN THE HOUSE OR HOT-BED. 23 



plant food is necessary, and in this case leaf -mould is bet- 

 ter than moss. Equal parts of sods, sand and well-rotted 

 manure made into a compost and worked over, and 

 sifted until it is fine, is a favorite material for potting 

 plants. 



Dried muck from the swamps is an exceedingly useful 

 material for the gardener. In many sections of this 

 country it can be obtained at little more than the cost of 

 cutting, drying, and carting it. No gardener ever has 

 too much of it. It has many excellent properties. It 

 will make heavy soil light. It will make dry soil moist. 

 It will make cold soil warm. It is an excellent absorb- 

 ent of water and gases. It is itself a manure, and can 

 be used to great advantage in our stables, cow-houses 

 and pig-pens, as well as for mixing with manure in our 

 compost heaps. The practical difficulty is in getting the 

 muck dry and keeping it dry. We want a place for stor- 

 ing it, and above all we want to form the habit of getting 

 muck and using it on our farms and gardens. No one 

 doubts its value, but we hardly know how to commence 

 its use. It is, however, a very simple matter. We usu- 

 ally throw up the muck in the summer and let it lie in 

 a heap until winter, when we have plenty of leisure to 

 draw it. Another plan is to throw it up in July, turn it 

 over a few weeks later to facilitate the drying, and early 

 in the fall, before heavy rains set in, draw it to a shed, or 

 cellar, or barn, where it can be kept dry and ready for 

 use at any time. The farmer who has a good supply of 

 dried muck on hand will find it of great use in many of 

 his gardening operations. 



The boxes I have used for starting plants are two feet 

 and one half long, twelve inches wide, and three inches 

 deep, made of half -inch stuff. A screw at each end, 

 about an inch from the top on the outermost corners, is 

 wound round by a piece of wire two feet eight inches 

 long, the other end of the wire being twisted round to a 



