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In returning from the gardens on the other track, they brought cargoes of shallow trays filled with little plantlets just lifted from the seed beds. This cargo-bearing process, on the part of the tram cars, continued throughout the day as often as required, making light work for all concerned. To witness the work under the shed as it goes bravely on is a pleasing sight.
The radishes serve to mark the rows and thus enable cultivation to commence much earlier than if the herbs were sown alone. They should be pulled early the earlier the better after the herb plantlets appear. Never should the radishes be allowed to crowd the herbs. By the narration of a little incident, I may illustrate the necessity of sowing these radish seeds thinly.
In proof of this view they exhibit, as we have described, the ancestral characters in the young plantlets, and this production of bi-pinnate leaves has probably been retained at the period of the corresponding negative mutations, because of some distinct, though still unknown use.
In a little while the whole slope was dotted with minute plantlets standing at attention in the blaze of the sun. They did not stand for long. The bundle-like buds swelled and strained and opened with a jerk, thrusting out a coronet of little sharp tips, spreading a whorl of tiny, spiky, brownish leaves, that lengthened rapidly, lengthened visibly even as we watched.
The rows are made about 15 inches apart, the seeds dropped 1 inch asunder and 1/2 inch deep and the plantlets thinned to 6 or 8 inches. Since the plants run to seed quickly, they must be watched and cut early to prevent loss and consequent seeding of the ground. On favorable land the yield may reach or even exceed 1,500 pounds to the acre. Uses.
Further, the forked-over ground should be hoed every week during the remainder of the season, to destroy lurking plantlets. The other perennial and biennial herbs may be readily propagated by means of stem cuttings or "slips," which are generally as easy to manage as verbenas, geraniums and other "house plants."
When the seedlings are large enough to be handled they are transplanted to small pots or somewhat deeper flats or boxes, a couple of inches being allowed between the plants. When conditions are favorable in the garden; that is, when the soil is moist and warm and the season has become settled, the plantlets may be removed to permanent quarters.
In doing so it had evidently found place for an uncommonly large number of plantlets from its seeds and correspondingly it had commenced to vary in almost all organs and qualities and nearly in all imaginable directions.
The rooting may take place in a regular cutting bench, or it may occur in the soil out of doors, the plantlets being transplanted to pots as soon as they have rooted well. If a large number of plants is desired, a hotbed may be called into requisition in early spring and the plants hardened off in cold frames as the season advances.
With the majority of the herbs this is the most likely direction in which to seek success. Suppose we have sown a packet of parsley seed and we have five thousand seedlings. Among these a lot will be so weak that we will naturally pass them by when we are choosing plantlets to put in our garden beds. Here is the first and simplest kind of selection.
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