Sowing and Planting 95 



radishes or an acre of onions. For crops to be sown 

 directly where they are to go, the chapter on Prep- 

 aration of the Soil takes us to this point, and as 

 stated at the conclusion of that chapter, the final 

 preparation of the bed should be made only imme- 

 diately prior to its use. 



Having, then, good seeds on hand and the soil 

 properly prepared to receive them, the only problem 

 remaining is what way they shall be put in. The 

 different habits of growth characteristic of different 

 plants make it patent at the outset that there must be 

 different methods of planting, for very evidently a 

 cabbage, which occupies but three or four square feet 

 of space and stays in one place to make a head, will 

 not require the same treatment as a winter squash, 

 roaming all over the garden and then escaping under 

 the fence to hide some of its best fruit in the tall 

 grass outside. 



The three systems of planting usually employed 

 are known as "drills," "rows" and "hills." I do not 

 remember ever seeing a definition giving the exact 

 distinctions between them ; and in horticultural writ- 

 ing they seem to be used, to some extent at least, in- 

 terchangeably. As a rule "drills" refer to the grow- 

 ing of plants continuously in rows, such as onions, 

 carrots or spinach. "Rows" refer to the growing 

 of plants at fixed distances apart in the rows such 

 as cabbage, or potatoes — the cultivation, except hand 



