Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-04-09
Sowing Vegetable Seed.


Country Gentleman.
readers of the three requisites for starting
the seeds of early sOwn vegetables. Let
the soil be well pulveriZed, sufficiently
moist, and do not plant too deep. The
seeds of such plants as parsnips, peas, let
tuce, &C., which are not cut down by frost,
may be safely planted as early as the
ground is ready. The sell must be well
pulverized, and neither in Jumps nor in
wet, adhesive mass. This is the first re-
quisite. 1t must be sufficiently moist,
which is nearly always the case early in
the spring without much care. The third
point is not to plant deep. Seeds are
sometimes buried beyond the reach
of the air, and lie dormant, or
rot. Many sorts buried three or four
inches under the surface are in no bet
ter condition than if thrown away. If
only an inch, nearly all will grow. Seeds
men are sometimes denounced for selling
bad seed, merely because the purchaser
has placed them where they cannot ger
inmate. The smaller the seeds, the shall
lower should be the covering, and the best
mode is by sitting fine earth over them.
The depth will of course vary, but the
best general rule is never to cover them
more than five times their diameter in
depth-rather less is better. They will
come up frequently at a greater depth,
but long time will be required, and the
plants for time will be feeble. A greater
depth is admissible in sandy than in a
heavy or clayey soil, and with a dry than
in quite moist soil. A light pressure may
be made on the surface after the seeds are
planted, and heavy one, even to the tread
of the foot, on a dry soil. Peas will come
up from a considerable depth. and will
succeed better and bear longer than when
planted shallow. If young gardeners will
experiment at different depths with various
seeds, and with various degrees of COM
preston of the surface, they will soon ac-
quire more of good practical knowledge on
the subject than by means of volumes of
written directions; and such experiments
are very easily made, care being taken to
keep a record of all the various paintings
to prevent mistakes of memory.
1t happens often that heavy soils are
kept too wet to work to advantage until
the opportunity for sowing early has
passed. If the ground has been previously
prepared, so that it presents clean sur-
face, the sowing may be made directly on
the top, without disturbing it, or making
drills, covering the seeds by sitting on them
dry ana pulVerlZeu SOILS from some ury ol
sheltered spot (the operator standing on a
board) and in this case One-half of the
usual depth will answer, as they will OBJ
tain supply of moisture freely from be
low, anda fine covering need not be SO thick
as a coarse one. In all cases, pressing the
surface is useful and renders termination
more certain by bringing the moist parti.
cles in closer contact with the seed-prO-
vided it is not sufficient to cause the earth
to adhere in a mass and become baked
hard when it dries. Careful observation
and practice will soon enable any one to
know just when the right degree of pres
sure is used. Much less is needed for early
sOwn seeds than for the tenderer kind a
month or two later, when dry and warm
weather may have set in.
Mistakes are often made by supposins
seeds always grow best if the sowing is
followed by rain. On the contrary, they
more frequently succeed better if sowed
after rain. On soil already wet enough,
the operation should be performed before
rain, as it may be too plastic afterwards.
But when the earth inclines to be rather
dry and crumbles into hard, small humps
these prevent close contact with the seed
and are in better condition, and crumble
finer, after being moistened and partly
softcned by a shower.