Page:How and what to grow in a kitchen garden of one acre (IA howwhattogrowin00darl).pdf/32

 sift the dirt through a coal sieve, as it then makes a fine bed for the seeds and young plants.

Place the sashes on as soon as this is done; handling the manure and repacking it will produce some fresh heat and it will still be too warm to sow any seed, but the heat will destroy such weed seeds as may be in the soil, and the steam and gases arising from the manure will tend to put the soil in the finest possible condition for forwarding the growth of the young plants. A thermometer should be placed in the soil of the bed every day or two, to see if the temperature has fallen sufficiently to admit of sowing the seeds. As soon as the temperature has fallen to about 75°; or, if no thermometer is at hand, as soon as the top sod is only perceptibly warm to the palm of the hand, the bed should be sprinkled, and as soon as this has dried off a little, rake it up thoroughly and sow the seed. The seed will produce finer and stockier plants if sown in drills about six inches apart, which will admit light and air to the roots of the plants, and will permit a weekly hoeing. In planting seeds, the depth of their covering should be about five times the diameter of the seed, and this covering should be firmly packed around them after planting. The starting and planting of these beds must be calculated, so as to have the plants ready to set out as soon as the garden can be worked. In this vicinity (Philadelphia) the first sowing of cauliflowers, lettuce, beets and early cabbage should be made about February 15th, or even earlier, depending on the forwardness of the season or of