Nine-tenths of the failures in flower culture come from improper treatment of the seeds and young plants; and we urge every one who makes an attempt to train and care for flowers, to study our descriptions of each variety found in the succeeding pages, observing the following general rules: - -

Make the surface as fine and smooth as possible. Do not plant any of the seeds when the ground is wet.

Cover each sort of seed to a depth proportionate to its size; the finest, like portulaca, not more than one-quarter inch deep; those the size of a pin head one-half inch, and those as big as a pea one inch.

Press the soil down firmly over the seed. After making the soil as fine as possible with the rake, make it, for the smaller seeds, still finer, by crushing the lumps up in the hands.

Procure a bit of lath (it would be better if planed smooth) about two feet long, press the edge down into the soil evenly, so as to make a groove as deep as the seed is to be planted; scatter the seed along this, allowing four or five of the larger, or fifteen to twenty of the smaller seeds to the space one plant is to occupy when grown. Take care not to spill any of the seeds between the rows. Cover the seed by pinching the earth together over it; then turn your lath flat-ways, and press the soil down firmly and evenly.

Put a little stick at each end of each row, so as to mark it, then pull up all weeds that appear between the rows the first day they can be seen. Do not pull plants out of the row unless you are sure they are weeds.