PROPAGATION AND CHAP. 



is best if the seed be actually pressed by the earth in 

 every part ; and many seeds, if not all, are best situated 

 when the earth is trodden down upon them, 



86. Of course the ground should be good,, either in 

 itself, or made good by manure of some sort. But, in all 

 cases, the ground should Refresh; that is to say, it 

 should be dug just before the act of sowing, in order that 

 the seeds may have the full benefit of the fermentation, 

 that takes place upon every moving of the earth. 



87. Never sow when the ground is wet ; nor, indeed, 

 if it can be avoided, perform any other act with, or on, 

 the ground of a garden. If you dig ground in wet 

 weather, you make a sort of mortar of it : it binds when 

 the sun or wind dries it. The fermentation does not 

 take place : and it becomes unfavourable to vegetation, 

 especially if the ground be, in the smallest degree, stiiF 

 in its nature. It is even desirable, that wet should not 

 come for some days after ground hits been moved j for, 

 if the wet come before the ground be dry at top, the earth 

 will run together, and will become bound at top. Sow, 

 therefore, if possible, in dry weather, but in freshly- 

 moved ground. 



88. The season for sowing will, of course, find a place 

 under the names of the respective plants j and, I do 

 hope, that it is unnecessary for me to say, that sowing 

 according to the Moon is wholly absurd and ridiculous ; 

 and that it arose solely out of the circumstance, that our 

 forefathers, who could not read, had neither Almanack 

 nor Calendar to guide them, and who counted by Moons 





