Culture 
15 
best thing, which is the scrapings from the 
under part of good rank sod, must be 
taken. Scrape them with a rather sharp 
metal edge, thus breaking all the root 
particles in them up into a fine mass. 
Screen one part of this soil to one part 
of dry leaf-mold from the woods, or two 
parts of the soil to one part of thoroughly 
rotted, fine manure, through a quarter- 
inch mesh sieve. I find a wire basket, such 
as the household departments sell for 
lowering eggs or potatoes into a kettle to 
boil, just the thing. Then add sand 
enough to the mixture to make it crumble 
apart readily, even when moistened. Usu- 
ally one-third sand is about right. 
This work of preparing soil will doubt- 
less seem a fearful task, and I am sure no 
one ever did it without getting very tired 
of the job; but not a great amount needs 
to be prepared, for flats are very shallow, 
and three inches of earth is the most ever 
needed. Some, indeed, use but two. And 
getting the earth ready is the one thing 
that cannot be slighted without jeopardiz- 
ing all the subsequent work undertaken, 
through the plants being weaklings and 
poor specimens at the start. I find this 
