CHAPTER VII 
THE ART OF MAKING THINGS GROW 
Good tilth brings seeds ; 
111 tilture, weeds. — Tupper 
The easy assurance of this phrase may possibly suggest a 
get-rich-quick scheme, or a proprietary medicine. But we know 
very well that the expert has learned by experience many a 
short cut to successful gardening. Moreover, he is only too 
glad to pass along his devices to any young gardener who 
will stop long enough to listen. These devices sound trivial 
enough in themselves, but they usually connect with some 
established agricultural principle. They remind one of elec- 
tric wires, which are of little use unless they can establish 
connections with the central dynamo. 
Perhaps there is no time when a friendly hint is more ap- 
preciated than when the first planting of one’s first garden is 
finished. The rush is over ; the seeds lie snugly tucked in 
the ground ; and over the surface a thin blanket of dry earth 
has been lightly spread. Taking a last look at his work, the 
young gardener involuntarily draws a sigh of relief. This 
says as plainly as words that he considers his part of the con- 
tract fulfilled, and that now he depends upon Madam Nature 
to do hers. This attitude is quite common to beginners ; we 
are not all so frank, however, in acknowledging it as the young 
girl who had been brimming with enthusiasm in getting her 
garden under way, but who, a little later, wrote to a friend 
that she had finished planting, and that since then there was 
really nothing for her to do ; she was waiting for her plants 
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