HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 
1912 
should not be placed directly on any hot 
surface. Lettuce and cabbage will fre¬ 
quently sprout in two days; other seeds 
take from four to ten, even with artificial 
heat. Just the minute they begin to push 
through the soil they should have full 
light, as otherwise they will immediately 
get drawn and weak, and may be ruined 
in a single day. A pane of glass held in 
place just over the seed box, during the 
sprouting period, will do much to keep it 
from drying out. 
Water should not be given again until 
the soil in the seed box becomes quite dry, 
which, if prepared as directed above, 
should not be until after the seeds are up. 
When it is required, it should be applied 
with a very fine rose spray, or better still, 
with a sub-irrigation tray like that illus¬ 
trated on page 44. 
Transplanting 
For several weeks succeeding the 
sprouting of the seeds — and you can start 
several hundred in one common sized flat 
—keep them in the full light and give 
them all the air possible while maintaining 
the required temperature, which during 
the day should be ten to twenty degrees 
higher than at night. Let them grow 
slowly—they will be all the better for it. 
Water only on bright mornings, so that 
the foliage will always have a chance to 
dry off before night. If you take these 
two precautions, you should escape the 
dreaded “damping-off” fungus, which at¬ 
tacks the tender stems just at the soil level 
and destroys millions of seedlings yearly. 
As soon as the second true leaves form, 
the seedlings will be ready for “pricking 
off” into other flats. These are prepared 
in much the same way, except that manure 
or bone meal is used to enrich the soil, and 
a layer of manure is placed for drainage 
in the bottom of the flats, which are usual¬ 
ly three inches deep. The soil need not 
be as finely sifted as that for seeds. The 
little plants are put in about two inches 
apart each way, fifty being a good num¬ 
ber for a 13 X 19 flat. They should be 
lifted carefully from the seed box, and set 
in to one-half to two-thirds their length. 
Hold the seedling between the right thumb 
and forefinger, make a hole with the fore¬ 
finger of the left hand (or with a small 
sharpened stick) and drop it into place, 
firming it into position with the thumbs 
and forefingers of both hands. 
After transplanting give a light water¬ 
ing with a fine spray, and keep the newly 
transplanted seedlings in the shade for a 
day or two, especially during the noon 
hours, if it is bright. They can then be 
moved to cooler quarters, such as a cold- 
frame, and the warmer spot used for the 
on-coming tomatoes, eggs, peppers, etc. 
Buying and Handling Manure 
The average home gardener pays alto¬ 
gether too little attention to the matter of 
enriching his soil — whether it is that of 
garden, flower beds or lawn. With the 
commercial grower nothing takes prece¬ 
dence over this: he knows as a matter of 
dollars and cents experience that he has 
got to put plant-food, and lots of it, into 
his soil if he expects to get crops that will 
pay him for his labor. Attend to the 
purchasing of your manure early. Quite 
likely you can buy it and have it hauled 
cheaper now than later. It may be spread 
directly on the frozen ground, but a bet¬ 
ter way is to have it built up into a com¬ 
pact square heap, mixing with it anything 
you can find or get that will rot — old 
leaves, old sod, street sweepings, garbage 
—it’s all like putting coin in the bank. 
It used to be a very common practice to 
cover the lawn over each fall or spring 
with a heavy dressing of manure. I be¬ 
lieve as good results are to be had, with a 
great deal more convenience and agree¬ 
ableness, by using prepared sheep manure, 
or a mixture of chemicals at the rate of 
twenty-five pounds of nitrate of soda, 
twenty-five pounds of muriate of potash, 
and seventy-five of acid phosphate, or fine 
bone. This should be put on just as the 
grass starts in the spring. 
How to Save Money on Your 
Flower Garden 
I have often wondered why so many 
people — including thrifty housewives for 
whom plants do splendidly — wait until the 
day before Decoration Day before buying 
the plants, geraniums, heliotrope, petunias, 
daisies, or whatever they want. Why not 
go to the florist the end of this month, or 
during March, while his stock is complete 
and the plants are small, and get two or 
three dozen, for what you would pay for 
eight or twelve late. Often there is a cor¬ 
ner of the hotbed or frame, or surely a 
nice sunny window, where they would be 
kept and enjoyed, and repotted to larger 
pots as they outgrow their present berths, 
as indicated by a white mass of roots en¬ 
veloping the ball of earth within the pot. 
A Garden on a Mountain Top 
^^ONTRARY to the opinion of all the 
^ “old inhabitants” I have successful¬ 
ly carried on a market garden in the 
mountains for three years — altitude. 9,000 
Hotbeds high up on a mountain proved suc¬ 
cessful enough to grow vegetables for market 
feet. The first year I devoted almost 
wholly to experimenting. I planted some 
of nearly every variety of seed from all 
the catalogues, and kept accurate tab on 
the results. The second or third years I 
knew just what to do, and the results 
were astonishing — at least to the “croak¬ 
ers.” I now have about, two acres and ex¬ 
pect to increase to five next season. The 
whole thing has been intensely interesting 
as well as instructive. Peas do remark¬ 
ably well, but I early learned to discard 
all smooth varieties, and settled down on 
first, American Wonder; second, Gradus: 
third, Nott's Excelsior. One and two give 
about equal results, both early and hardy, 
and fine flavor. 
The enclosed view shows my hotbeds. 
Long Peak in background, altitude 14,274. 
Notwithstanding the fact that on May first twelve inches of snow fell and the temperature 
ranged from 12° to 55°, the seedlings in the beds prospered 
