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130 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMER. 



May 



montli should now be looked after - if 

 set too shallow, as we suppose many of 

 them will be, put them in deeper, and 

 keep them clear of weeds and the soil 

 mellow about them — don't mulch them 

 with bright straw, or the sun will burn 

 them up. 



If you have some weedy grassy bor- 

 der, not easily accessible with the plow 

 on account of trees or other cause, 

 plant to potatoes by dropping the seed 

 on the surface and putting on some six 

 inches of straw or hay, if half rotten 

 all the better. In this way you get a 

 good crop of potatoes, and have your 

 border renovated in the bargain. 



If you wish to manure your corn or 

 potatoes, better do it immediately after 

 planting, by scattering the manure 

 broadcast, than to plow it under. One 

 load of manure on the surface is worth 

 two plowed under. 



Sheep will need shearing the last of 

 the month, and we hope none of our 

 readers will repeat the barbarous prac- 

 tice of washing them. It is time that 

 this bad habit should be weeded out. 



Fruit trees should be examined, and 

 if found to lean over, excr.vate under 

 the opposite side, but not cut the roots, 

 and bring the tree back to its position, 

 when the earth can be replaced, and 

 the tree securely staked, until the roots 

 have made a firm hold of the soil. 



A Chapter on Flower Seeds. 



Great is the tribulation of our lady friends, in 

 regard to the germinating of flour seeds, in which 

 the seedmen are often called very^ — very naughty 

 names. From hearing this so often repeated by 

 ladies old, ladies young, pretty misses and kind 

 old maids — that we had come to have great faith 

 in their sayings on this very important subject. 

 but of late years we have cut loose from a large 

 number of fossilated ideas, that a careful investi- 

 gation has made vanish like the baseless fabric of 

 a dream, and among them this cry against the ras- 

 cally seedsmen hag laelted almost into thin air. 



We would like to say it had entirely done so. The 

 practice of mixing old seeds with new, or even 

 selling old for new, is not as yet obsolete ; nor do 

 we ever expect the race will die out entirely until 

 the millennium shall dawn its light day upon us. 

 We will ferlessly assert that nineteen-twentieths 

 of all good flower seeds are lost from mismanage- 

 ment and sheer ignorance ; at least this used to 

 be our luck ; until the last few years, that we have 

 adopted a rational system of culture ; and now 

 have no trouble with good seed. We sow seed 

 beds in the open ground, in boxes and pots, set in 

 hot beds or the green house. We prefer the hot 

 bed or green house ; as in that way we have early 

 plants, and, of course, early flowers. But few of 

 our readers have a green house, and some of them 

 no bot bed ; we, therefore, give instructions for 

 both modes. Heal and moisture are essential ele- 

 ments in the growth of plants, and without which 

 seeds will not germinate. In sowing in the open 

 border early in May, afier the soil has become 

 warm, rake the beds very fine and smooth, sow the 

 seed on the mellow surface, and pack the earth on 

 them with the back of the spade. Yery few flow- 

 er seeds need any further covering, unless of large 

 size, like four o'clocks or cobea scnadeus. If cov- 

 ered too deep they will not grow at all, and when 

 sown shallow, often dry out and are thus lost. We 

 have good luck when several days of rainy weath- 

 er succeed the sowing, and bad luck when it comes 

 off dry and warm. Here is the rub and just what 

 we must guard against — dryness. The best way 

 is to cover the bed a foot deep with twigs, pru- 

 nings of schrubs or trees, none of which should 

 be more than half an inch in diameter. This bush 

 covering will prevent evaporation and radiation, 

 and the bed will not require watering unless in a 

 very dry time, and the seeds are thus kept damp, 

 and even if on the surface will grow ; but on ex- 

 amination it will be found that they have all been 

 well bedded in the loose soil by the packing down 

 with the spade. After the plants are of good size 

 they are transplanted, during a wet time, and 

 should it come off warm and dry shade with a 

 board, shingle, or cabbage leaf for a few days. Th« 

 brush should be gradually removed from the seed 

 beds, so as to harden the plants to the air and sun 

 Do not be in a hurry to transplant, but let the 

 plants get of good size. We never think of sow- 

 ing flower seeds when the plants are to stand but 

 always transplant. When a hot bed can be had 

 the best way ig to sow in boxes, and whin the 

 plants get from leaves prick them out into a large 

 hot bed, or into cold frames, that is, make a good 

 nice bed to plant them in, so that the plants will 

 have plenty of room, say three or four inche* 



