Annuals 239 



fertiliser as directed for the seed boxes. Now put a thermometer 

 in the hotbed and close the sashes. Not until the first heat has 

 subsided, and the temperature falls to seventy degrees, is it safe 

 to sow seeds. One sometimes sees hotbed plants, that have 

 started thriftily, suddenly turn yellow just as they become well 

 grown and ready to transplant. This indicates that their roots, 

 having pushed through the too-shallow soil in search of food, have 

 come suddenly in contact with the hot manure when the precau- 

 tion of placing a two-inch layer of old, thoroughly decomposed 

 fertiliser between it and the soil has been omitted. 



To hasten germination, soak seed in tepid water over night. 

 Fine seed, like the tobacco plant's or petunia's, need be only 

 loosely sprinkled over the surface of a small square area and 

 pressed into the soil with a smooth, flat piece of board about ten 

 inches long and half as wide, having a handle like a stove brush 

 on its upper surface. It is the work of only a few minutes to 

 make this little tool, which will be found very useful in the garden, 

 too, when one comes to plant poppies and other small seeds, which 

 will not bear transplanting, in the open ground. A pointed stick 

 for making straight little furrows to drop all but very small seeds 

 in is another helpful trifle. Repeated sowings, either in the 

 hotbed or out of doors, at ten-day intervals, will insure a pro- 

 longed succession of bloom. Most novices make five mistakes in 

 planting seeds: first, in not working over the surface soil long 

 enough to pulverise it and remove every lump and pebble; second, 

 in burying seeds too deep; third, in not firming the soil about them 

 so that the first feeble roots may come in immediate contact with 

 their food; fourth, in sowing too thick; and fifth, in allowing the 

 seeds, or seedlings, to dry out. The finest seeds should be scat- 

 tered over the surface and merely pressed into the earth, as has 



