THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



April, 1914 



Seed Boxes. 



An empty galvanized tooling iron 

 case makes an excellent seed bed. 

 Make a number of holes with a 

 large brace and bit in the bottou: 

 of the cases for drainage, put in a 

 layer of gravel or charcoal, and 

 nearly till with the compost. Rake- 

 the soil in the case smooth, press 

 it down, and draw a number of 

 shallow drills across the surface 

 of the soil about half an incli 

 deep, and from 2 to 3 or 4 inches 

 apart. At this rate you can get 

 one row 2^ feet, long, ol each of, 

 say, 24 kinds of flower seeds in a 

 6-ft. case. Fill the earth back on 

 to the drills, press down well, and 

 water, using a very fine rose. 



By sowing in drills vou can save 

 space, economise your soil, can 

 weed the rows perlectlj-, and be 

 sure you are not pulling up flow- 

 ers. You can transplant perfectly 

 by using an old knife or a small 

 fiat, thin-bladed trowel, to cut 

 out just as much or as little as 

 you want without disturl^ing the 

 rest. Always water when you 

 transplant, l;ut if the weather is 

 moist and warm no watering may, 

 after the first one, be necessary, 

 but usually a watering every day, 

 or two or three days in autumn 

 and si)ring, will be necessary. 



Never allow the soil of the seed- 

 b^,}d to dry after the first day, 

 as if the young germ' of the seed, 

 after starting, once become dried 

 (and a few hours of hot sun is 

 sufficient to do this), the life of 

 the seed is gone, and cannot return 

 or revive. 



It is a very elementary lesson, 

 but it is a very necessary one, to 

 insist upon keeping the soil once 

 moist always moist ; and, further, 

 to reduce the shading immediately 

 growth is observed, and to so man- 

 age matters in this respect that 

 one's tender plants feel this bene- 

 ficiallv and not injuriously, as is 

 much too frequently the case with 

 them when removing the whole of 

 this from above. If scrim is used 

 reduce the time by a little every 

 dav. If branches are employed 

 take a few off the bed or box or 

 pan every day until your plants 

 are sufficiently advanced as to ap- 

 preciate their removal altogether, 

 and vour young seedlings will 

 grow sturdily and thrive admir- 

 ably, and your seedsman will es- 

 cape a castigation he has very 

 frequently not deserved. Where 

 much bedding has to be done it is 

 essential in order to save time to 

 have one set of plants (seedlings 



generally) advancing while the beas 

 are occupied by the other things in 

 bloom. The former are usually 

 kept in the background until want- 

 ed, and it is not always possible 

 to pick and choose one's time to 

 plant. The beds should be made 

 as fine as possible and also receive 

 a thorough watering. Some people 

 think this is well done if the sur- 

 face is moist, but we assure them 

 it is not so ; saturate the soil tho- 

 roughly until, in fact, 'it will ab- 

 sorb no more. When moderately 

 dry next day rake the surface very 

 fine. I'lant out in the afternoon 

 or evening. Mulch the sufface be- 

 tween the plants with dried grass 

 taken froan the lawn mower, or 

 short litter of any description, wa- 

 ter in your plants, and the chances 

 are no more will be requisite for a 

 week. Treated in this manner the 

 soil in your beds will not run to- 

 dclier, will not crack, and every- 

 thing will be in the most congenial 

 condition for ramification by the 

 tender roots. 



Time of Ciermination. — 



Some seeds, such as pansy, 

 phlox, carnations, will come up in 

 from eight or ten days to a fort- 

 night ; others, such as rose seed, 

 clematis. Sturt pea, and most of 

 our natives will take months un- 

 less the seed is soaked to artifici- 

 ally weaken the hard shell and al- 

 low the germ to burst at once. 



In the early autumn and late 

 spring, and, of course, all through 

 the summer, while the sun's heat 

 is strong, shading of seed boxes 

 and beds is most necessary to pro- 

 tect the soil from drying up too 

 quickly, and the tender plaiitlets 

 from being scorched. Little, if any, 

 of this will be required now. 



There is no necessity to flood 

 .secdboxes or pots with water; too 

 much will rot the seed. There is 

 no need to keep the seed boxes o.'' 

 pots covered in- the later autumn 

 or early spring ; you will lose seed 

 and plants bv rotting and damp- 

 ing off. 



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Sowing Seeds. 



One of the first essentials for 

 germination for the finer seeds is a 

 lieht, fairly rich, porous soil. To 

 make this you want equal propor- 

 tions of well<lecayed vegetable 

 matter, such as old leaves, grass- 

 es, weeds, etc., and thoroughly de- 

 caye<l manure, such as the .sifted 

 soil from a -cow camp under a 

 gum tree. Cow-'dunsr is especially 

 good, as it is not .so heating as 



other kinds of itianure. If you 



cannot get stuff from a cow camp, 

 a good way to get a lot of nice 

 peaty soil is to dig up a number of 

 good spadefuls of grass sods with 

 the green moss and a mass of 

 fibrous roots attached and pile 

 them grass side down in a heap 

 to decay. The following season 

 add to the above a proportion of 

 good sand from some riv;er or 

 creek l)ed or bank, and a fourth 

 of good rich loamy soil. Vegetable 

 matter, manure, loam, and sand ; 

 this compost will give the perfect 

 material in which to raise your 

 seed. 



— Planting in the Borders. — 



If planting* in the open beds or 

 borders, make a light covering of 

 this compost half an inch thick, 

 scatter the seed thinly, cover witln 

 same soil to a depth of one-eighth 

 or a quarter of an inch, according 

 to the size of the seed, then flatten 

 it well down with the back of a 

 spade or a board. 



When the weather is showery no 

 other care will be necessary than 

 the thinning of the plants. This 

 should always be done if they come 

 up quickly, or the plants will later 

 on choke and starve each other. 

 One well-grown plant is worth a 

 score of weedy ones. If you can 

 make time for it, you will prefer 

 to plant your seeds in small beds 

 or boxes, for transplanting later 

 on. 



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The Value of Digging. 



The great mechanical effect of 

 dig-ging is that it makes the soil 

 finer in grain, and the finer the 

 grain the greater is its fertility. 

 It is well known that all the food 

 taken up from the soil must be 

 absorl)ed in solution in water. 

 No solid particle, however minute, 

 can pass through the membrane 

 that acts as a covering to the 

 young roots and root-chairs. But 

 it is a peculiarity of all plants 

 that their roots are slow to take 

 up water tjiat is free to drain 

 away from the soil. The water 

 they really take ' in is the water 

 that' clings to the surface of each 

 little damp particle of soil, as such 

 water is more highly charged with 

 food slowly disolved • out of the 

 little solid mass to which both the 

 film of water and root-hair are so 

 closely attached. Ordinary digging 

 tends to break up the soil into a 

 finer mechanical condition, and so 

 tends to increase its water-holding 

 power. ' 



