188 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
Little Oardcuers and Uttlc fiar. 
dens. 
When we saw the picture given below of the “ Lit¬ 
tle Gardeners,” in an English magazine, “ Our Little 
Folks,” we thought it one that would please our little 
folks, for no doubt there are already many little garden¬ 
ers among them, and we wish to have many more. Every 
one of our American Agriculturist family of youngsters 
should have a garden of some kind, and grow something. 
Those who live in the country, where la^d is not counted 
by feet and inches, tut where there is so much room that 
there is no trouble as to the space, should be sure and 
have a garden of good size. Those who live in villages, 
where each house has a 
what happens after it is sown, let us consider what we 
shall sow. Here we are met with a difficulty—young 
people have not, generally, much money to spend. We 
could take a seed catalogue, and pick out a list of the 
best—but perhaps most of you could not buy them. 
Many of you saved seeds last year, no doubt, and can ex¬ 
change these with others who have done the same. Then 
many of you must know those who have gardens, who 
will willingly give you seeds, for real lovers of flowers are 
always liberal in this way. Still many, to get a start, 
must buy. The beginner should start witli annuals—i. e., 
those plants which bloom the first year from the seed. 
Most seedsmen put up collections for 25c., 50c., or $1, 
of the best annuals, and probably seeds may be had 
good sized yard and gar¬ 
den, can no doubt, if 
they ask for it, and agree 
to take care of it, have a 
small bed—a few square 
feet that they can call 
their “ garden.” But we 
must not forget that a 
great many of our read¬ 
ers live in cities; the 
parents of many of our 
youngsters, who are in 
crowded towns and cities, 
take the American Agri¬ 
culturist because they ex¬ 
pect to move into the 
country at some future 
time : others because 
they were brought up in 
the country, and love to 
read about it; others foi 
its useful articles in ad 
dition to soil culture; 
and so in this way we 
have many readers among 
city children. What shall 
these do for a garden, 
whose back yard is hard¬ 
ly large enough to allow 
of the drying of the 
weekly washing ? They 
must take to window- 
boxes, or even to pots, 
and whatever will hold 
earth. They can make 
a very good window-gar- 
den in a common wooden 
box, 6 or 8 inches broad 
and deep, and as long as 
the window-sill. A box 
of this kind, strongly 
nailed all around, and filled with earth to within an inch 
or so of the top, will allow of the growing of many inter¬ 
esting plants, and be a source of a great deal of pleasure. 
Of course, it would be better to have a regular garden with 
a plenty of room, in which to grow a great many things, 
but those who really love plants, will contrive to have 
them somehow, and will content themselves with even 
one, if no more are to be had. In the engraving we have 
a fine place in the country, with an abundance of room 
for the garden, and it is evidently a place where there is 
a gardener who has supplied the children with plants 
already partly grown in pots, which they have only to set 
out in the garden, where they will grow on and bloom. 
This is all very well for those who are so Bituated that 
they can have such things, and as on such places there 
is a gardener, the children who can make their garden in 
this way, will need no help from us, as the gardener will 
tell them what to do with the plants. But the great ma¬ 
jority of our youngsters will start their garden, be it 
large or small—even a window-box, with seeds. Of 
course there are many desirable plants that arc not raised 
from seed; the florists raise these from cuttings, and sell 
the small plants in little pots. Those who can afford it, 
can purchase these, but we will assume that in our 
“ little garden ” the plants are to be all raised from seeds. 
Did you ever think what a wonderful thing a seed is f 
No matter if a mere speck—like a Petunia seed, or as big 
as a bean—each seed is a perfect wonder. Though to all ap¬ 
pearances, lifeless, dry, hard, and unpromising, expose 
it to the proper conditions, and a plant soon comes from 
it! We go to see wonderful tricks of magicians, 
who burn up a handkerchief, and afterwards return it all 
nicely ironed and perfumed, and wonder at it—but no 
trick ever played by the most skilled of these performers 
is half so wonderful as the production of a green, living, 
growing plant from a seemingly dead and dry seed. Yet 
this, which is almost a miracle, is so common, is con¬ 
stantly going on all about us, that we do not stop to 
think how very grand it all is. The farmer scatters what 
seems like dry and lifeless chaff, and there appear acres 
of green meadow—yet what happens in each little grass 
seed, is as wonderful in its way, as the motions of the 
planets. But before we talk of sowing the seed, and 
l TIIE LITTLE GARDENERS ."-Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
are the principal points : 1st, “ sufficient heat.”—If you 
were to sow your Balsam, or your Portulaca seeds, as 
soon as the ground thaws, but while it was still cold, you 
would probably not find one to come up. The Sweet 
Pea, and some others, might stand this treatment, but 
as a rule, seeds should not be sown until tbo ground is 
well warmed. 2d, “sufficient moisture.”—If you sow 
your seeds in perfectly dry soil, no change will take 
place in them ; they will be at the end of one month, or 
six months, just as they were put in; place them in 
moist soil, but not wet, and they will soon swell, burst, 
and a little plant will appear, and this has a relation to 
2d, “sufficient air.”—We can not now give space to tell 
you all about seeds, or why they should need air; you 
must accept this and 
some other things as 
facts. Ordinary moist 
soil contains an abund¬ 
ance of air; wet soil 
does not, as the water 
fills up the pores of the 
soil, the seeds will have 
too much water, and no 
air; hence they can not 
grow. So your garden 
should not be too wet; 
in most of the States it 
is not likely to be too 
dry. A very good general 
rule, is to sow your seeds 
in the open ground at the 
time the farmers are 
planting their corn. 
Though our garden talk 
is already long, there are 
two or three things yet 
to be said. A great fault 
is sowing the seeds too 
deeply. Large seeds, like 
those of the Sweet Pea, 
and Morning Glories, 
may be put an inch deep, 
while the finer seeds, as 
those of the Petunia, etc., 
are so very small, that 
sown so deep as this, they 
would never be heard of. 
Such fine seeds need but 
the slightest possible cov¬ 
ering with earth. All the 
seeds above named, may 
be sown where they are 
to stay, but all except 
Morning Glories, Migno¬ 
nette, and Sweet Peas, 
may be as well trans- 
more cheaply in collections than in any other way. If 
about to start a garden at the least expense, we should 
buy the seeds in “ mixed” packets, and thus get a num¬ 
ber of varieties for the price of one; each packet of mixed 
seed will give several varieties, from which seeds can be 
saved for next year—the different colors being kept 
separate, and thus a large supply be had for another 
year. The catalogues of the seedsmen offer the varieties 
of each plant—Asters, for example, a dozen or more dis¬ 
tinct varieties in separate packets; and then, “finest 
mixed ” at the same price of the separate packets. If 
the mixtures are fairly made, and we have no reason to 
suppose that they are not, a packet of mixed seeds 
should give from three to six different colors, from 
which the seeds may be saved separately. Taking the 
popular annuals, our selection would be, for those sold 
at 5c. the packet. Asters; Balsams (Touch-Me-Nots); 
Candytuft; Convolvulus (Morning Glories of the finer 
kinds, for we must have some climbers, you know); 
Mignonette (should be in every garden, for its fragrance); 
Sweet Peas (charming low climbers, and excellent to 
cut); Petunias; Drummond's Phlox (Phlox Drummondii , 
one of the most brilliant of all annuals, and in great 
variety); China Pinks; Portulaca; Stock Gilliflowers 
(called Stocks, the Ten-Weeks sorts are best); Double 
ZinDias (showy, large, and for the garden only). If 
some wish to expend more on a greater variety, they 
can easily do so, but we have in mind a small expendi¬ 
ture, and such plants as are likely to bo satisfactory in 
a large or small garden, or even in a window-box, and 
wo have tried to name such as will be showy in the 
garden, and for the most part, useful for cut-flowers. 
We know those who never cut flowers, but are great ad¬ 
mirers of them as they grow in the garden, and others to 
whom a flower is of but little value if it can not be cut, 
and placed in a vase in the house, or made into a bouquet. 
We have mentioned the wonderful things that happen, 
when the dry and apparently lifeless seeds are “ exposed 
to the proper conditions.” In starting our garden, we 
must know what those “ conditions ” are, as, having 
bought, or otherwise procured our seeds, we wish them 
to give us plants. We must have 1st, sufficient heat; 
2d, sufficient moisture; and 3d, sufficient air. These 
planted as not. It may be that some of you do not 
know what transplanting means, so we will explain it. 
The seeds are sown, and the young plants allowed to get 
an inch or so high; then these little plants are taken up 
very carefully, a cloudy, damp day being the best, and 
planted out where they are to flower. You can, if you 
choose, sow the seeds of all the others, in a box, pan, or 
pot of earth, in a sunny window, and then transplant 
the young plants, when they get large enough to handle, 
to the garden, oryou can sow them in a nice spot in your 
garden, and when large enough, set them where you wish 
them to bloom. We are always apt to sow seeds too 
thickly, and it is well to thin them, and set out the plants 
taken up in the thinning, in another place. If you must 
transplant when it is not moist and rainy, water the Beed- 
bed well, and also the place where the little plants are 
to be set. Then after ihe plants are put out, and the 
weather is sunny, you must shade the little things, which 
may be done with shingles set so as to screen them, or by 
newspapers, kept from touching the plants by means of 
some sticks stuck near them. To keep the papers from 
being blown off, put some earth on their edges. Having 
thus far started your little garden, by telling you about 
sowing seeds, which may be those we have named, or 
any others that you can get, what we especially wish you 
to do is to watch the seeds as they come up, and how the 
little plants behave afterwards. In some cases you will 
see a pair of seed-leaves, as they are called, and the next 
leaves that appear will be quite unlike these—the “ rough 
leaves,” as the gardeners say. Your Sweet Peas will 
show no seed-leaves at all, while those of your Morning 
Glories will be large, broad, and green. If you love your 
little plants, you will watch all these things, and we will 
try to tell you more about them hereafter. 
Plants from Cuttings, or “ slips,” as they are called, 
are often easily raised. If some friend gives you a “ slip ” 
of a Geranium, a Rose, or other p.ant, you have only to 
set it in a pot or box of very light sandy soil; pure sand 
is better than stiff clayey soil, and give it a plenty of 
light, but not much direct sun. Keep the earth moist, 
and usually in two or three weeks (and with some others 
much sooner) it will push out little roots, when it may 
be set out in better soil in the window-box or garden. 
