6 
repeated watering, thus excluding the air. The soil then 
becomes sour and the plants grown in it become stunted. 
The screen with the finest mesh is used only for small 
seed; for general use the sieve with a 14-inch mesh is the 
proper size; for larger plants a coarser mesh should be 
used. 
Figure 1, plate 7, shows two tampers, a square and a 
round one. The square one is easily made from a piece 
of one or two-inch lumber, and may be about 3 x 6 inches 
or longer. An ordinary brick may serve for a tamper, but 
is too heavy to be used for any length of time. The round 
tamper is useful when sowing seed in pots, an empty 
flower pot answering the purpose. A dibber is a small 
stick about the size of a lead pencil. It is used when seed- 
lings are transplanted. Wooden meat skewers make ex- 
cellent dibbers. 
The name of the plant and date of sowing the seed 
should always be written on a label. Later in the summer 
the plants blooming at the same time might fit into some 
particular scheme. This scheme could not be duplicated 
another season unless a record were kept of the time the 
plants were started. Moreover, many plants in the seed- 
ling stage look so much alike that confusion might result 
unless they were labeled. 
Watering cans and methods of watering seed pots and 
boxes.—The average sprinkling can that is sold in the 
stores throws a rather coarse stream of water. Ex- 
tremely fine seed are barely pressed into the soil when 
sown and when watered with a heavy stream they are 
almost entirely washed away. Better types of cans may 
be purchased from seed stores and florists’ supply houses. 
With a little care and patience seedlings may be started 
without the use of a watering can or with one of the 
poorer types. Figure 2, plate 7, shows two methods of 
watering seed. Setting the pot in a bucket of water and 
allowing the water to come up through the hole in the 
bottom until the surface of the soil becomes moist is an 
excellent way. With this method there is absolutely no 
danger of disturbing fine seeds as would be the case if 
PUDOR’S, INC., PUYALLUP, WASH. 
