PLANTING 91 



waste. On the other hand, although crowding seed seems the 

 height of extravagance, this mistake, if taken early enough, 

 may be rectified by a brave thinning. Where seed sowing 

 is concerned, children are always prodigals. Nothing seems 

 to shake them in the belief that if some is good, more is 

 better, and neither the solemn warnings of their elders, nor 

 their own fuzzy rows of crowded seedlings, where a plantlet 

 has not half a chance, will cure them of this fallacy. Their 

 illusions are destined to be shattered, however, when it comes 

 to thinning, — for thin they must, reluctant though every 

 youngster is to pull up a single one of his precious plantlets. 

 It really does seem little short of heartless, considering that 

 they have grown at our bidding, to root up the tender things. 

 Yet,. — comforting thought, — these same seedlings maybe 

 transplanted ; and even when this is not advisable, they need 

 never be a dead loss, for they can be tucked back into the 

 earth bed and so contribute their mite toward enriching it. 



The temptation to waste seed is lessened, and the per- 

 centage of failure in seedlings is reduced, by sprouting the 

 seeds before putting them into the ground. Such preparation 

 gives them a surer and a quicker start. Again, particularly in 

 small gardens, seeds, instead of being scattered, will almost 

 always be planted in drills, — drill being another name for a 

 shallow furrow. With some seeds it pays to take even further 

 trouble. A Lima bean, for example, laid on its edge with the 

 eye down, far outstrips one which, dropped in hit or miss, 

 must twist itself around. 



Make the drills absolutely true by ruling them with the aid 

 of a garden line and a sharp stick, or by pressing a hoe 

 handle into the soft earth. The more precisely this is done, 

 the handsomer the effect, and the more easily the plants are 

 cared for. The distance apart for these drills depends upon 

 the spread of the full-grown plant, both above and below 



