GARDENING FOR CHILDREN. 
359 
inequalities which remain after digging are 
broken and laid level. Show him that the 
lumps may be broken by striking them with 
the back of it, and spread abroad and levelled 
with the teeth, which should be drawn and 
pushed backward and forward all over the 
surface until it is even and smooth. Of course 
the smoother it is left with the spade after 
digging the less there will be to do with the 
rake, and the rougher it is left from digging 
the more labour there is to level it. If any 
part of the ground is to be sown "broad cast," 
as it is called, which means evenly all over it, 
the rake is of use in another capacity, because 
when the seed is sprinkled over the surface, 
the rake is used to stir all the surface, so as to 
let the seeds into the ground ; but there is 
another way of sowing, which brings us to 
the use of another implement, the hoe: this 
is, sowing in drills or rows. In this operation 
the garden-line is stretched tight where you 
wish the row of seed to be sown. With the 
corner of the hoe a furrow is made, by draw- 
ing it along the line and pressing it gently 
into the soil ; when the furrow or drill is 
made according to the depth required, and 
even all the way, the line has to be removed 
to the distance that the next row is to be, 
which of course is according to the space in- 
tended between the rows, for, according to the 
seed intended to be sown, there may be three 
inches, or any other distance up to as many 
feet. The hoe is always used for this among 
other purposes, but it should be explained that 
it is also used to chop up weeds and plants, 
which are to be thinned, and which operation 
may be shown at the proper time. In these 
drills, as in broad cast, the youth should be 
shown how to spread the seed very thinly and 
very evenly, not so close as to impede each 
other's growth and waste the seed ; and he 
should also be shown that if the seed be fairly 
covered it is all that can be required. Gene- 
rally, however, the larger the seed the deeper 
it may be placed in the ground ; and it is no 
bad rule to cover seed with as much soil as the 
seeds are thick, so that peas and lupines would 
be deeper than mignonette or larkspurs. 
It may, however, be expected that we should 
say something of the plan of the gardens be- 
fore there is any sowing, but in plots all alike 
and upon too small a scale to exercise any 
ingenuity there can be hardly any plan. The 
very best that could be adopted by the prin- 
cipal of a school would be beds of four feet 
wide, because they can be managed without 
trampling on them, and admit of being treated 
as two borders of two feet wide, or one border 
of four feet wide ; or part of each may be 
treated as a bed, particularly for any subject 
which the youth may be desirous of cultivat- 
ing in particular. The seeds that are to bloom 
where they are sown may be placed in patches 
those which require planting out may be sown 
in drills across the bed. In families where 
children have their little plots, the same care 
should be taken to form the plots alike, and, if 
possible, four feet, or three feet six, should be 
the width, because it is the width which is 
suggested by all bed culture in mature gar- 
dening ; and in all things, the nearer the 
child's recreation is like proper gardening the 
more real service it does him. Find the young 
gardener in the seed best adapted for his 
success and therefore gratification. Migno- 
nette will do to bloom where it is sown, and 
will also plant out well to fill up future 
vacancies. Sweet peas will engage him in the 
operation of sticking ; two or three roses at 
the proper time for planting out will be pleas- 
ing and attractive ; but let all his perennials 
and biennials be his own raising, or raised 
under his observation, as would be the case if 
some are raised by his brothers or brother- 
pupils at home or at school. He will take 
infinitely more interest in them than if they 
are. given to him ready to flower, which is too 
often the case ; for see a child's garden where 
we will, there are to be found unhealthy plants 
moved too forward to do any good, and there- 
fore only calculated to excite feelings of dis- 
appointment, by comparison with others more 
healthy, or plants of the same growth where 
the sickly ones came from : whereas, if the 
youth sows at a proper time, is taught to thin 
them where they are sown, and to plant out 
those that require it, these productions will be 
as flourishing as any others about them or 
near them. This gives the young gardener 
unalloyed pleasure. He sees his efforts suc- 
ceed, his ambition is aroused, and he becomes 
an enthusiast in one of the most useful and 
gratifying occupations, — an occupation which 
enlarges the mind, and teaches youth the 
necessity and the value of forethought, with- 
out w r hich gardening would be a mere farce. 
As soon as the seeds are up, and the plants 
well growing, the attention of the pupil should 
be directed to thinning them out where they 
are too thick to grow well, except those to be 
planted out, and clearing them of weeds. It 
should be explained to him that if the plants 
are too close they have not room to spread 
and grow, and that the roots being crowded 
into too small a compass have not sufficient 
nourishment, and that the only way to remedy 
this is to remove all but the proper quantity. 
If they happen to be much too thick, occasion 
should be taken to show that it is a fault in 
the sowing, and that they ought not to have 
been so thickly laid in the ground. Still, as 
they always require a little thinning, even 
with good sowing, it may be shown how far 
apart they should be to blow well ; and by no 
