If they stay too long in the frames they are poor specimens, 
small and weak, in the garden. It is often well, for the sake of 
convenience to sow such things in flats in the little individual 
paper squares that are so great a help when the time for trans- 
planting comes. Potted plants should always be hardened off 
before setting out in the spring by a couple of nights in a 
covered cold frame and one or two nights in an open frame. 
Sweet Peas are so important that they must be treated in a Sweet Peas 
class by themselves. If you have not followed the popular 
method of fall planting, for which you can not use the tender 
wrinkled varieties, you should get them in as soon after March 17 
as possible. One should make sure of perfect seed germination. 
Otherwise, some of the hard seeded varieties may lie dormant in 
the soil for months, and unless conditions are just right all white- 
seeded peas and some of the varieties having flowers of lavender, 
blue or mauve are apt to rot. Soak the seeds in warm water for 
twenty-four hours or in Farmogen for 15 minutes. Many of 
the wrinkled varieties are very hard and these can be soaked 
for thirty minutes in pure sulphuric acid, washing the seed in 
three waters afterwards. This stimulates germination and is 
also excellent for stale seed. Mr. George W. Kerr, of Burpee's, 
discovered this process when treating seed for disease. This 
treatment will increase the germination by 25 per cent. 
Thorough preparation of the ground is the secret of good grow- 
ing. Make a trench two feet wide and two feet deep. Mix the 
sub-soil with well-rotted stable manure and with the top soil 
mix bone meal, Avood ashes and superphosphate of lime at the 
rate of two or three ounces per yard. Tread on the trench to 
pack it. Then with the hoe make a furrow three inches deep 
and fill in with three inches of clean sharp sand. In this sand 
make a furrow two inches deep and then place your seeds six 
inches apart, cover with sand and make firm. Many people 
prefer to pot their Sweet Peas. They should then be planted 
as early as possible in February in pots or flats in a cold-frame, 
cool greenhouse or mild hot-bed. They can be set out in early 
April, six inches apart, making sure that the roots are not 
twisted. 
Uncovering : The weather alone determines when the cover- Tj Nm vERTNT 
ing shall be removed, but like your child more plants have 
suffered from too much than too little covering. The heavy 
stuff should be removed during the last of March, the loose 
under-straws lifted and dropped back allowing air to circulate. 
Later, when raked off, it should not be carried away but left to 
be put back hastily if a severe frost threatens. The straw blows 
all over and it is a great eye-sore ; you bear it as long as you can, 
then order it carried off and the next night the ground freezes! 
Once the covering is off you must wait for the little green shoots 
in order to locate all the bulbs, annual seedlings and late 
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