HOME VEGETABLE GARDENING 
THINNING OUT THE SEEDLINGS 
P ARTLY because most seeds may be bought cheaply, 
partly because the gardener wants to make sure of a 
good, full row of seedling plants, most people sow seeds 
much more thickly than they should. This makes it 
necessary to pull up a good many of the superfluous seed- 
lings and this is called “thinning outY 
The main purpose of thinning out is to give each plant 
a fair chance for normal development. Plants growing 
in “crowded ” rows will become spindly and either not 
form a properly developed product at all (as, for instance, 
lettuce) or the crop will be seriously cut short, as with 
beans and other plants of which we eat the product rather 
than the plant itself. 
Thinning out' is most important work and should be 
done promptly. How to do it and when or how to plant 
so that thinning, in connection with some classes of plants, 
does not have to be done is told under the respective chap- 
ters. 
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