SOWING AND PLANTING 



41 



V 



Plant labels are often wanted in the garden, but as 

 ordinarily made are usually soon rendered unreadable by 

 the action of rain and sun. Seedsmen sell excellent and 

 durable metal labels, but they are not very cheap. Here's 

 a good idea from Prairie Farmer: Cut two 

 pieces of lath (as shown in the illustration), 

 and fasten together at top with one tiny clinched 

 nail — so that the short piece of protecting cover 

 will swing. Only the part to be written on 

 need be smooth. The name may be written in 

 pencil, or the printed name from the seed envel- 

 ope may be glued on. The labels may be used 

 many seasons, gluing fresh names over, or 

 erasing and rewriting. 



Here's a method of raising flower plants, melons, etc., 

 in the house for transplanting outdoors, without the expense 

 of buying pots. Take old fruit cans 

 and unsolder them in the fire. Tie 

 the tins together with a stout string, 

 and set them on a board (see pic- 

 ture). Fill with earth and plant 

 seeds. When ready to transplant, 

 cut the string, and the earth with 

 its mass of roots can be lifted and 

 set in a hole in the ground, without disturbing the roots 

 in the least degree. The tin, of course, flies open when the 

 string is cut. (Some gardeners start early melons, etc., 

 indoors on inverted thick pieces of sod.) 



Usually it is cheaper and better to buy seed than to 

 attempt to grow and save it. Sometimes, however, there are 

 advantages in home saving, and many successful gardeners 

 produce at least one or two kinds of seed at home. But 

 unless a man is making a specialty of something, and is 

 located in a place where its seeds are at their best, I doubt 

 the advantage of home-grown seed. Good seed means careful 

 yearly selection; good judgment; knowledge of the variety; 

 a S3^stematic discarding or "roguing'' of undesirable speci- 

 mens; and an ideal type in mind, toward which the strain 

 is constantly pushed. Remember that the tendency of 

 improved kinds of plants is to deteriorate or revert to 

 early types, and only a careful annual selection and ''weeding 

 out" can prevent a backward tendency. Plants, like animals, 

 may be "bred up," but it requires patience and skill to do it. 

 If you plant little potatoes ever}^ year, or select inferior 

 tomatoes for seed, or have seed melons where squash pollen 

 can mix with them, good results are not likely to be attained. 

 Keep most seeds that you save in a mouse-proof, insect-proof 

 tin box in a dry place; seed corn on the ear should be hung 

 up by the husks, in the attic; seed potatoes need to be kept 

 in a dark, cold cellar, or stored in an outdoor pit. 



