April, 1915 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
297 
work, if it is not overlooked altogether, is 
done by planting the seeds of the several 
things here and there about the garden 
where space and opportunity offer. An 
easier way is to have a small plot devoted 
exclusively to this purpose, where the 
plants, being all in one place, can be more 
effectively watched. If the garden is near 
the house and convenient to the water sup¬ 
ply, the seed-bed may be made up in one 
corner of it. An empty hotbed or cold- 
frame will make an ideal spot, or, if 
neither of these conditions is available, 
the seedbed may be made on the south 
side of a fence or wall or the side of a 
house or shed, which will protect it from 
the north, and where it can be handily 
managed. One of the essentials for it is 
good drainage; and, unless the soil is 
naturally dry and light enough, a few 
wheelbarrow loads of light loam should 
be added to the surface—after it is 
spaded up. A board set on edge along 
the front will hold it in place and make a 
neat-looking job. Such a seedbed can be 
managed about the same way as a frame, 
and the plants watched daily, protected 
from insects and thinned out as soon as 
they are large enough, and watered when 
necessary. By the time they are needed 
in the garden they will be strong, thrifty 
plants conveniently situated for taking out 
and transplanting. Very often when they 
are planted in the garden, and sometimes 
even when they are in a specially pre¬ 
pared seedbed, the plants are allowed to 
remain too close together, with the con¬ 
sequence that they crowd each other and 
grow up tall and spindling. The rows 
should be made from 6" to 12" apart, ac¬ 
cording to the size of the seed and the 
size you expect to have the plants, before 
shifting them to a permanent position. 
Another important job to be done late this 
month, some Saturday afternoon, about 
four to six weeks before it is safe to plant 
corn in your neighborhood, is to make 
use of paper pots or dirt bands to start 
early hills of cucumbers, melons, lima 
beans, and, if you wish the earliest sweet 
corn you ever had, some hills of this also. 
Dirt bands are simply paper pots without 
any bottoms. They may be packed into 
a flat which will furnish the bottoms or 
may be placed on newspapers. The for¬ 
mer method has many advantages, as a 
number at a time may be handled and 
carried to the field without disturbing 
them. The 4" or 5" size should be used, 
fill with light, rich compost, water 
thoroughly, and after they have been 
drained out enough to be friable again, 
plant in each pot a number of seeds (about 
half or two-thirds as many as you would 
put into a hill out of doors of the variety 
being planted). They should be given a 
suitable temperature in a frame—the 
corn, of course, will not require as much 
heat as others—and protected from in¬ 
sects. The beans and melons should be 
thinned out to two or three plants a hill 
when well up. 
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