174 "QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1898. 
with good roots, and are strong and healthy growers, req uiring less moisture 
when transplanted. They grow off readily, soon getting out of the way of 
pests, and you havea more uniform field at topping and at cutting time. 
If you desire to test the vitality of your seed before sowing, take a few 
in your fingers and sprinkle them on a hot stove; if they are good they will pop 
and crackle, but if not they will burn and crumble away. When ready to 
sow your seeds, mix them with cornmeal or slacked lime, as this will show on 
the bed, and you can see what you are doing. Lime is preferred, as itisa good 
fertiliser. After sowing do not rake, but tramp or pat in the seed with the 
back of a spade. 
Do not sow all your seed at once, but at intervals of two weeks, that you 
may have plants of the proper size for transplanting when wanted ; sow more 
than you are likely to need, that you may be able to select the strongest and 
best plants. In’order to keep your plants free from disease and insects, and 
to get the very best results, it is necessary to canvas your beds. Take boards 
and set them on edge all around the bed, driving stakes on either side to keep 
them in place, and thus form a box around it, closing the joints with earth so 
as to make them insect-proof. The boards should come 5 or 6 inches aboye 
the sop of the bed. Drive a row of nails on the outside of the box, 10 or 
12 inches apart, all around, leaving 1 inch projecting; have a sheet made, of 
the thinnest cheese cloth, the size of the bed, with holes around the edges to 
correspond with the nails driven into the box; stretch this sheet over the bed, 
slipping the holes in the edges over the nails. If the bed is large, lay small 
poles across the box frame at short distances, to keep the covering from 
sagging. Be sure to get the very thinnest cloth, that light and air may 
penetrate. : 
Canvassed Seed Bed—Canvas half withdrawn. 
This covering usually stays on all the time until the bed is abandoned 5 
but watch your plants, and, if they do not appear strong and healthy, you can 
remove the covering during the heat of the day, say from 11 to 8 o’clock, when. 
insects are not moving about. Make a ditch around the bed to carry off the: 
water during rainy weather. If it is necessary at any time to water the plants, 
it should be done about sundown; the covering laid off, and, as soon as the 
watering is finished, replaced. 
It is best to draw the water for this purpose in the forenoon, and let it 
stand in the sun and get warm, as cold water chills both the plants and the 
soil. It will be found that a canvas-covered bed retains the moisture better 
than any other, and also induces a more uniform temperature. 
