The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-03-29
M;'ht Ratttt+
How, When, and Where to Sow Seed.
From Hendsrson's Gardening for Profit.


From Hendsrson's Gardening for Profit.
As seed-sowing is the starting-point
Of cropping, thorough knowledge of
the conditions necessary for the germi-
nation of the different species or varie-
ties will go far toward putting the tyro
in gardening we'll on the way to success.
The very general want of knowledge in
this matter is too often the cause of
much undeserved censure upon the seeds
man, for in nine cases out of ten the
failure is not with the seeds, but results
from the TIME or manner of planting.
When the owner of garden sends his
order for seeds to the scotsman, it is
generally complete list of all he wants
for the season. They are received, and
the interesting operation of sowing is
begun; first, in hot-bed, if he has one,
often as early as the first week in Feb
ruary Ga month too soon, by the way
and in go indiscriminately, at the same
date, and under the same sash, his seeds
of cabbage, caulifower, lettuce, and
eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. Yet
even in the waning heat of this early
hot-bed, where a thermometer would
possibly not indicate more than so de-
grees, he finds in week or so his cab
bage, lettuce, and caulifower coming
through nicely, but as yet no elephants,
peppers, or tomatoes. He impatiently
waits another week, makes an examina-
ton, and discovers that instead of his
tomatoes and egg-plants beginning to
vegetate, they are rotting. 1t is now
plain to him that he has been cheated !;
he has been sold old seed and if he
does nothing worse, he forever after
looks upon the scotsman he has patron
lied as yenial wretch, destitute of
principal and honesty. But he must
have tomatoes, peppers, and egg-plants,
and he buys again from another seeds
man, warranted honest. He renews his
hot-bed; it is now month later, and a
bright March sun, with milder nights,
gives him the proper temperature in his
hot-bed,-7O or 80 degrees,-and his
eyes are at last gladdened by the sprout-
ing of the seed. April comes with warm
sunshine, inviting him to begin to make
garden " outside. He has yet part of
the original lot of seeds that he bought
in February. But as he is still entirely
befogged about the cause of his failure
in the first hot-bed, he begins his open
ground operations with little confidence
in his seeds, but as he has got them,
they may as well be tried, and again he
sows in the same day his peas and Lima
beans, radishes and pumpkins, onions
and sweet corn. Hardy and tender get
the same treatment. The result must
of necessity be the same as it was in
the hot-bed; the hardy seeds duly vege-
tate, while the tender are, of course,
rotted. This time he is not surprised,
for be is already convinced that seeds
man No. is rascal, and only wonders
how any of his seeds grow at all; SC
he again orders from scotsman No. 2
for the articles that have failed. Here
circumstances continue to favor the lat
ter, for by this time the season has adj
vanced in its temperature, and the seeds
duly vegetate. Every farmer knows
that, in this latitude, he can sow oats in
March or April, but that if he plants his
corn or pumpkins at the same time, they
will perish. This he knows; but he
may not know that what is true of the
crops of the farm is equally true of the
garden, Hence the Importance of q
knowledge of the season, when to SOW
vegetable seeds, or set plants. The
temperature best fitted for the germina
ton of seeds of the leading kinds viii
be best understood by the tabular form
given below:
Vegetable seeds that may Vegetable seeds that ma,
be in this latitude be sown in the open ground
from the LIST to tho end Of in this latitude from til
April, thermometer in the middle Of June, thermome
shade averaging $50: ter in the shade averasin,
Beet, 600: