HOTBEDS Zt 



ing under control, mote shallow planting may be 

 practiced which will make a few days' gain in time 

 of germination. There is one similarity, however, 

 in all planting — ^the earth should be pressed firmly 

 over the seed. The reason is this: when the seed ger- 

 minates it sends out a little shoot with tiny, very tiny, 

 little feelers on the end ; now if this shoot in emerg- 

 ing finds itself in a little depression between two 

 grains of earth — a cavity too small to be noticeable 

 to the eye — ^it may not in those first critical moments 

 of infantile life be able to connect itself with the 

 atoms of earth on which its sustenance depends, for 

 tbat little hole in the earth may prove a big and lone- 

 some chamber to the little rootlet, across which it 

 may not be able to creep in time. But if the earth 

 is fine and soft and pressed snugly about each little 

 seed there will be no disastrous spaces to cause decay. 



A piece of flat board with a handle on one face is 

 a very handy tool to use in planting the hotbed. This 

 will press the earth down evenly and is much better 

 than the hand as it does not leave depressions in the 

 ground to hold moisture and occasionally cause the 

 fatal damping off so destructive to plant life. 



In planting the hotbed the seeds should be classified, 

 planting, as far as possible, those requiring the same 

 degrees of heat and air and moisture in the same sec- 

 tion of the hotbed. Plants which make a tall, vigor- 

 ous growth from the' start should be plarited in the 



