58 SOWING 



the seeds are sown or planted with the utmost care as to 

 rhe distance apart. There should be very little necessity 

 to thin the plants. It is a waste of money to sow seeds 

 thickly and then have much thinning to do. Under glass, 

 with seed of good quality, treated as already described, 

 the need of thinning scarcely arises. Outdoors the matter 

 is different, for there one has to contend with changes of 

 the weather and with natural enemies that are not so much 

 under one's observation. If the seeds are planted directly 

 into the soil, place them 3 in. apart if in single rows, but 5 

 in. or 6 in. apart in the double rows. The latter, of course, 

 means that there are two lines of plants in the one trench, 

 at 5 in. belween each line. The soil must be agreeably 

 moist and firm. Soil that readily falls apart after being 

 squeezed in the hand is in the right condition. Cover the 

 seeds and firm the soil moderately with the back of a rake. 



SOWING IN POTS 



Sowing in small pots is a convenient and generally 

 safe method of raising stock, either for planting outdoors 

 or in the open. Costly varieties, as we have said, are best 

 treated in this way; also to plant out immediately in 

 succession to another crop and so save time, the method of 

 raising the seedlings in pots is the one adopted. It means 

 extra work, certainly, for the pots have to be filled, staged 

 and watered, and the seedlings transplanted, but many 

 growers consider this work pays for itself in the end, and 

 proves a good investment. 



Paper pots of the " Long Tom " type are good to use, 

 being long, moisture holding, kindly to the roots and cheap. 

 The 23^-in. ordinary pots are also favored, and one seed 

 may be sown in each. It is a radical mistake to crowd 

 seeds into these pots because the roots, which should be 



