GROWING EARLY PLANTS 



189 



necessary. I well know that plants can be grown in tlie common 

 dwelling house, and possibly very good plants, but they are not the 

 best, and if we enter into this work, we certainly want to produce 

 the best plants possible. 



The building of the greenliouse does not necessarily call for a 

 great outlay of money. One can be built by any gardener who is a 

 mechanic enough to do a part of the work himself for about one 

 hundred dollars. This will build a greenhouse eleven by thirty feet, 

 which will answer all purposes for starting about forty thousand 

 plants. Such heating arrangements may be installed as you choose. 

 I prefer hot air, using stoves placed about one-third the distance from 

 one end of the house with pipes running under the beds, which ^viW 

 give sufficient bottom heat. During sunshiny weather, no fire is 

 needed. Have the stoves one-third the distance from the end of the 

 building, running the other two-thirds of the pipe directly under the 

 bed, so that you get the bottom heat from these pipes. One reason 

 why I like stoves is that, during sunshiny weather, you can allow the 

 fires to drop and the temperature ^-ill remain right by proper airing 

 of the house. 



SOWING SEED 



I will first speak of the sowing of the seed. Of course, all under- 

 stand that soil made up of hea^w loam, leaf mold, and fine sand is 

 the best. This should be well fined and sifted before using it to start 

 most plants. I prefer sowing the seed in flats, then when at the 

 proper size removing to other flats, greenhouse beds, or hotbeds, to 

 finish their growth before setting in the field. 



Many,- when sowing seeds in flats, sow broadcast, which does not 

 give the best results, as this does not give an even gro-^iih, and also 

 there is a greater loss of damaged plants at the time of removal. 

 For these reasons and others, I recommend all seeds to be so^m in 

 rows, whether in flats or beds, allowing the sunshine to better reach 

 the plants and make them the same size at the same age. I found 

 some difficulty at first in having all good seeds to germinate, o^^dng 

 to uneven depth of covering. This was overcome by using an im- 

 plement made by nailiiig small cleats on the bottom of a board, the 

 size of the flats used. Fill the flat full of soil, then press the board 

 upon it firmly. This will leave a firm, square-bottomed trench for 

 seeds to be sown in. 



