MARCH 261 



siieeessful here. This particular first week in March, 

 1899, is perfection for all gardening work. I never saw 

 the ground in such a good state — pulverised by night 

 frosts, without being too dry and dusty. The garden- 

 ing papers say there has not been such a sunny 

 February for thirty years. 



The paper of instructions sent out by the secretary of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society with the seed of the 

 Shirley Poppy is so excellent, and such a help for many 

 annuals, that I cannot do better than copy it. One of 

 the reasons people fail with hardy annuals is, as I said 

 before, from not sowing them early enough : 



' 1. On as early a day as possible in February choose 

 a plot of ground sixteen to eighteen feet square or there- 

 abouts, give it a liberal dressing of rich dung, and dig 

 it in well, and leave it to settle. 



' 2. For sowing, choose the first fine, open day in 

 March, free from actual frost, when the ground works 

 easily, and rake the surface over. 



' 3. Mix the seed with five or six times its own bulk 

 of dry sand, so as to make it easier to sow it thinly. 



' 4. Scatter the mixture thinly, broadcast, .over the 

 raked surface, and rake it again lightly. 



' 5. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, 

 if there should be any bare patches in the bed, move 

 with the tip of a trowel a few tiny clumps from where 

 they stand thickest. 



' 6. As soon as the bed shows regularly green, stretch 

 two lines across it parallel to each other, at eight inches 

 apart and, with a Dutch hoe, hoe up all between the 

 lines, sparing those plants only that are close to each 

 line. Move the lines and so hoe all the bed, which will 

 then consist of a number of thin lines of seedlings eight 

 inches apart, and the hoed-up ones lying between. 



' 7. About a week later stretch the lines again eight 



