SEEDING THE FLATS 



123 



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either strew it delicately broadcast, or else we prepare to 

 sow it in rows. Laying the ruler along the line where the 

 first row is to go, we mark it faintly in the sand by means 

 of the blunt point of the seed trowel, or by pressing the edge 

 of the ruler slightly into the sand. Along this line we sow 

 the seed, either shaking it from the seed-paper or from the 

 palm of the hand, or patiently, one by one, dropping the seed. 



It is worth while to take pains with this. 

 Use the point of the seed trowel, and 

 whether you have sowed broadcast or in 

 rows, push the seed into the proper spaces. 



Then cover the seed. This is done by 

 sifting over it the proper thickness of sand. 

 Then with the ruler, or the float, press the 

 sand snugly everywhere over the surface. 

 This is called firming it. But with the 

 very tiny seeds, and with the seed of celery, 

 we simply press the seed into the sand, 

 without covering it at all. 



Now we should mark the row. Get a 

 little wooden label, a bit of cardboard, or 

 even a slip of stiff brown paper. On it copy the name that 

 was on the seed package: "Tomato, Stirling Castle," or 

 "Poppy, Gaw's Victoria." Mark also the date. We need 

 these facts so as to tell the different plants apart when 

 they appear (for at first they will look nothing like to- 

 matoes or poppies), and also so as to know when to expect 

 the appearance of the seedlings. And now we are ready to 

 plant the rest of the flats. 



One kind of seed should be planted differently from all 

 others. Members of the squash family (which besides the 

 squashes includes the cucumber, melon, watermelon, mar- 

 rows, and gourds; sometimes they are called the cucurbits) 



Fig. 67. — Label 

 everything you sow. 

 In the flats a piece of 

 stiff paper will do. 



