86 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



that all the seeds will have vegetated, and the young plants 

 attained a size fit for transplanting into nursery -beds or lines. 

 In sowing this, and most otlier seeds, the ground should be 

 deeply and finely dug ; and as the beds for this seed are to be 

 formed by having a portion of the surface pushed off with the 

 back of a rake, or what is called cufHng, amongst nurserymen, 

 it is necessary, for the better executing that process, that the 

 ground be dee})ly and finely raked as the process of digging 

 goes on. When the ground is thus prepared, the beds are 

 marked off at the required breadth, which is generally from 

 three to four feet, and the process of cuffing is then proceeded 

 in, in the following manner : — 



After the ground is dug, and raked fine, as above, measure 

 the purposed width, stretch the garden-line, and run it off 

 along the side by the tread of your feet ; return with one foot 

 in the tread of the other, and so as to form an alley of three 

 times the breadth of your foot. Having shaped the bed by 

 these means, and being provided with a wooden-headed or 

 cuffing-rake, stand on the alley on the opj)osite side of the 

 bed ; turn the rake on its back, and push off the earth from 

 the one half of the bed to the purposed depth, as far as the 

 side of the alley marked by your feet, being careful to keep 

 the earth so pushed off cjuite straight. When one side is 

 finished, turn round, and do the other in the same maimer. 

 Having completed the culling of the bed, carry the rotted haws 

 in a close-wrought basket in one hand, and with the other lift 

 them out ; and with a sudden dash, cast them along the half 

 of the bed next to you ; turn round, and do the other side in 

 the same manner. If your seeds be good, they should lie 

 within one-fourth of an inch of each other. Having com- 

 pleted the operation of sowing, if the state of the seeds will 

 allow, draw a roller of about sixty pounds weight, and exactly 

 the breadth of the bed, along it, which will press in the seeds, 

 so as they will maintain their place during the operation of 

 drawing on the earth again, which is presently to be done. 

 If, however, the seeds be too moist to allow the roller to pass 

 over them without sticking to it, beat them in with the back 

 of the spade. The operation of fixing them in the soil being 

 performed by one or other of these means, take the rake. 



