PLANTING 
91 
waste. On the other hand, although crowding seed seems the 
height of extravagance, this mistake, if taken early enough, 
may be rectified by a brave thinning. Where seed sowing 
is concerned, children are always prodigals. Nothing seems 
to shake them in the belief that if some is good, more is 
better, and neither the solemn warnings of their elders, nor 
their own fuzzy rows of crowded seedlings, where a plantlet 
has not half a chance, will cure them of this fallacy. Their 
illusions are destined to be shattered, however, when it comes 
to thinning, — for thin they must, reluctant though every 
youngster is to pull up a single one of his precious plantlets. 
It really does seem little short of heartless, considering that 
they have grown at our bidding, to root up the tender things. 
Yet, — comforting thought, — these same seedlings maybe 
transplanted ; and even when this is not advisable, they need 
never be a dead loss, for they can be tucked back into the 
earth bed and so contribute their mite toward enriching it. 
The temptation to waste seed is lessened, and the per- 
centage of failure in seedlings is reduced, by sprouting the 
seeds before putting them into the ground. Such preparation 
gives them a surer and a quicker start. Again, particularly in 
small gardens, seeds, instead of being scattered, will almost 
always be planted in drills, — drill being another name for a 
shallow furrow. With some seeds it pays to take even further 
trouble. A Lima bean, for example, laid on its edge with the 
eye down, far outstrips one which, dropped in hit or miss, 
must twist itself around. 
Make the drills absolutely true by ruling them with the aid 
of a garden line and a sharp stick, or by pressing a hoe 
handle into the soft earth. The more precisely this is done, 
the handsomer the effect, and the more easily the plants are 
cared for. The distance apart for these drills depends upon 
the spread of the full-grown plant, both above and below 
