PREPARATION OF THE LAND FOR SEED 



157 



Fig. 62. The ideal condition. 



251a. The Fig. 58 shows a drained soil supplied with mois- 

 ture held by capillarity in the smaller interstices, while the 

 larger channels have been relieved of free water by percolation. 

 Fig. 59 represents a supersaturated soil from which air and heat 

 are largely excluded. If 

 seeds remain for a few days 

 in this undrained soil they 

 fail to germinate, and may 

 rot. Should stagnant water 

 remain in the soil for some 

 time after the plants have 

 appeared above ground, they 

 will turn yellow, and may 

 perish (194). All this empha- 

 sizes the necessity of prepar- 

 ing a seed-bed adapted to the 

 wants of the plant to be 

 grown, and of maintaining 

 such soil conditions as are 

 best suited to the wants of 

 the plant during its entire 

 period of growth. 



253a. "Care should be 

 exercised not to sow very 

 small and slow-germinating 

 seeds, as celery, carrot, 

 onion, in poorly prepared 

 soil or in land which oakes. 

 With such seeds it is well 



to sow seeds of radish or turnip, for these germinate quickly 

 and break the crust, and also mark the row, so that tillage may 

 be begun before the regular-crop seeds are up." Bailey, Gar- 

 den-Making, p. 37. 



255a. The expense of preparing the land can often be ma- 

 terially diminished if the land is plowed some little time before it 

 is planted, in such a way that the elements can act upon the soil 

 through the process of weathering. In such cases, the furrow- 



Fig. 63. The result of shallow planting. 



