Starting the Plants 83 



my necessity mothered the following invention, an 

 adaptation of the principle of sub-irrigation. To 

 have filled the flats in the ordinary way would not 

 have done, as it would have been impossible ever to 

 wet the soil through without making a solid mud 

 cake of it, in which seeds would have stood about as 

 good a chance of doing anything as though not wa- 

 tered at all. I filled the flats one-third full of 

 sphagnum moss, which was soaked, then to within 

 half an inch of the top with soil, which was likewise 

 soaked, and did not look particularly inviting. The 

 flats were then filled level-full of the dust-dry soil, 

 planted, and put in partial shade. Within half a day 

 the surface soil had come to just the right degree 

 of moisture, soaked up from below, and there was 

 in a few days more a perfect stand of seedlings. I 

 have used this method in starting all my seedlings 

 this spring — some forty thousand, so far — only 

 using soil screenings, mostly small pieces of decayed 

 sod, in place of the moss and giving a very light 

 watering in the surface to make it compact and to 

 swell the seed at once. Two such flats are shown 

 facing p. 86, just ready to transplant. The seed- 

 lings illustrated in the upper flat had received just 

 two waterings since being planted. 



Where several hundred or more plants of each 

 variety are wanted, sow the seed broadcast as evenly 

 as possible and fairly thick — one ounce of cabbage, 



