148 THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



easiest way to do this is to sift the seeds through a wire 

 screen with a mesh of two-twenty-fifths of an inch. This 

 will allow the smaller seeds to pass through while the larger 

 seeds remain above. 



Radishes grow most quickly in a cool, moist soil of sandy 

 loam. The seed may be planted in drills one-half inch deep, 

 and in two or three days the two seed-leaves or cotyledons of 

 the young seedlings will push upward through the ground. 

 They will grow rapidly and will need only to be weeded and 

 thinned to about an inch apart. If desired, they will readily 

 bear transplanting at about the time that the fourth leaf 

 appears. They should be kept well watered, and should be 

 pulled as soon as they attain a good size for table use. The 

 more quickly they grow, the better they are, and the less likely 

 they are to be stringy and tough. If left in the ground long, 

 they become hard and unfit for use. Before many weeks 

 they will send up blossom stalks on which the white flowers 

 will appear. 



Radishes are pre-eminently a spring crop. The seed 

 should be planted as soon as the ground is in good condition 

 to work, and a succession of sowings should be made every 

 ten days until early in June. It is hardly worth while to 

 attempt to grow them throughf the summer, unless you have 

 a partially shaded place where you can give them plenty of 

 water during dry times. Another crop, however, may be 

 grown in the fall, sowing the seed about the first of Septem- 

 ber. Good strains of the quickest growing ^•a^ieties will 

 readily mature in a month. 



There is a special class of radishes that may be grown in 

 summer. They grow to large size without becoming tough 

 or going quickly to seed. A variety recently introduced from 



