IV. CULTIVATION IN GENERAL, 



and Festivals, instead of by Months, and days of 

 Months. 



89. As to the act of sowing, the distances and depths 

 differ with different plants, and these will, of course, be 

 pointed out under the names of those different plants j 

 but, one thing is common to all seeds ; and that is, that 

 they should be sown in rows or drills; for, unless they be 

 sown in this way, all is uncertainty. The distribution of 

 the seed is unequal ; the covering is of unequal depth ; 

 and, when the plants come up in company with the 

 weeds, the difficulty of ridding the ground of the latter, 

 without destroying the former, is very great indeed, and 

 attended with ten times the labour. Plants, in their ear- 

 liest state, generally require to be thinned ,- which cannot 

 be done with regularity, unless they stand in rows ; and, 

 as to every future operation, how easy is the labour in 

 the one case, and how hard in the other ! It is of great 

 advantage to almost all plants, to move the ground some- 

 what deep while they are growing j but, how is this to 

 be done, unless they stand in rows ? If they be dispersed 

 promiscuously over the ground, to perform this operation 

 is next to impossible. 



90. The great obstacle to the following of a method 

 so obviously advantageous, is, the trouble. To draw lines 

 for peas and beans is not deemed troublesome ; but, to 

 do this for radishes, onions, carrots, lettuces, beds of 

 cabbages, and other small seeds, is regarded as tedious. 

 When we consider the saving of trouble afterwards, this 

 trouble is really nothing, even if the drills were drawn 

 one at a time by a line or rule , but, this need not be 



