The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-03-06
SOWING GARDEN SEEDS.
From the Maryland Farmer.

Few persons have any idea of the
enormous waste from the careless SOW
ing of seeds. The annual sales of gar
den seeds in the United States, may be
reckoned by millions of dollars, and if
We say that one-fourth of all the seeds
sown are wasted, we may have some
idea of the enormous loss.
Most of the wasted seeds are from
careless habits of sowing, or of prepare
ton or treatment of the ground before
sowing of the seeds. If a seed is good,
there is no reason why every one should
not grow, unless destroyed by insects or
vermin, and the proportion of losses by
those agencies is very small indeed
The most of the failures come from too
deep sowing, or from the ground being
so badly prepared that the surface dries
before the seeds sprout. They dry out
or rot out. Every one must have seen
how seeds, when self-sown, freely grow.
Let radish or turnip 60 to seed, and
waste itself on the surface about the
parent plant, and it makes little differ
ence how hot or dry it may be, they will
usually be found sprouting in great
abundance. The decaying portions of
the old plant make little shade, and
the seeds being on the surface where the
gases necessary to termination can
affect them, have no difficulty in growing.
The mulch keeps slight moisture SO
that oxygen can act, and this is about
all that is needed to make a seed grow.
What is called nutrition or nourishment,
is simply the destruction of one form of
matter to sustain another form of life.
The carbonaceous matter stored up in
the seed, must be started on its road to
decomposition before the living germ can
make any use of it, and this is the pro-
vince of the oxygen Of the atmosphere
and water together to do.
To get seeds to grow we'll then, we
must prepare the soil SO that the seeds
shall lie on the surface where the oxygen
can act,-and yet that the surface be so
manipulated that it willkeep moist until
the seeds sprout This is done by max
ing the surface as FINE and vet as FIRM
as possible. A loose soil, into which
ones feet sink an inch or more, is not
fit for the sowing of fine seeds. The
moisture escapes through the large air
spaces. 1t is very different, however,
when the spaces are small-say about
the diameter of fine sewing needles.
Dry air does not penetrate here 1t is
moist air, and this is just what we
want. Thorough pulverization is the
technical term. The thorough crushing
of every particle Of earth to powder.
Farmers seem to understand this bet
ter than gardeners. They plough and
then roll the ground. The rolling is
not to make the ground hard, but to
pulverize it. Before the rolling, ones
feet will sink several inches into the
loosened ground, afterwards scarcely an
impression is made,-and yet every good
farmer knows the firm ground is best
for the seed. 1t is quite certain that if
this principle was as we'll understood in
gardening, not half the seed would be
required that is generally employed.
No one ever thinks Of using a roller in
a vegetable garden. The soil is loose,
and soon dries out,-and hence the seed
has to be deeply put in to keep them
moist. If very dry time comes it is
all right; but with rain, the surface
packs, as gardeners call it, and the oxy-
gen being cut off, the food matter of the
seeds, started on decomposition, decays
and the germ goes with it.
If the soil is made as fine and firm as
it ought to be, the most delicate seeds
need no more than pressing in from
the surface. A farmer friend of the
writer is one of the most successful
turnip raisers. He sows his seed
broadcast, but never harrows them in.
The ground is ploughod and rolled, then
the seed sown and the ground again
rolled, pressing the seeds into the soil.
1t seems to make no difference with his