Planting the Garden 



be governed accordingly. Of course it is not 

 possible for anyone to tell positively what the 

 weather is going to be, but old residents will 

 be able to tell you what may reasonably be 

 expected in your locality, and it is safe to be 

 governed by the wisdom which has grown out 

 of years of obser\'ation on their part. 



It must be borne in mind that earliest plant- 

 ings do not always give the earliest returns. 

 The thing to aim at is to get the seed in the 

 ground just as soon as the latter is in the right 

 condition for it, and not before. If seed is planted 

 before the soil is warm and while it is wet, the 

 chances are that it will fail to germinate. Even 

 if it does come up it will make a slow, poor 

 gro\\i:h until such time as weather and soil 

 are favorable, and quite often, by that time, 

 seedlings from early planting will be in a dis- 

 eased condition which will prevent them from 

 doing themselves justice until the effects of 

 too early planting have been overcome. And 

 by that time, nine times out of ten, seedlings 

 from later plantings, when everything was 

 favorable to healthy, vigorous growth, will 

 have got ahead of them. It will therefore be 

 seen that the gardener who gets his seed into 



45 



