tc.,--are good to use
in this way, but cow manure is the safest and best. Place three or four
inches of half-rotted manure in a galvanized iron pail, fill with water,
and after standing a few hours it will be ready for use. The pail can be
refilled. As long as the liquid becomes the color of weak tea it will be
strong enough to use. Give from a gill to a pint at each application to
a six-or eight-inch pot. The other manures should not be made quite so
strong. For liquid chemicals see page 19 or mix up the following: 5 lbs.
nitrate of soda, 3 of nitrate of potash and 2 of phosphate of ammonia,
and use 1 oz. of the mixture dissolved in five or six gallons of water.

At the beginning of the growing period and at frequent intervals during
the early growth of plants they must be repotted. The operation is
described on page 40.

[Illustration: From left to right, cabbage seedlings just right for
transplanting; seedlings of stocks; lanky seedlings that have been too
thickly sown. These last should be set deeply, as indicated by the cross
line]

[Illustration: An attractive and efficient flower bay was made here by
waterproofing the floor, building plant shelves and isolating the whole
when necessary with the curtains]

As soon as danger of late frost is over in the spring the plants should
be got out of the house. It is safest to "harden them off" first by
leaving them a few nights with the windows wide open or in a sheltered
place on the veranda. Those which require partial shade may be kept on
the veranda or under a tree. Most of them, however, will do best in the
full sun and should, if wanted for use in the house a second season, be
kept in their pots. The best way to handle them is to dig out a bed six
or eight inches deep (the sod and earth taken out may be used in your
dirt heap for next year) and fill it with sifted coal ashes. In this,
"plunge," that is, bury the pots up to their rims. If set on the surface
of the soil it will be next to impossible to keep them sufficiently wet
unless they are protected from the direct rays of the sun by an overhead
screening of lath nailed close together, or "protecting cloth"
waterproofed. Where many plants are grown for the house such a shed,
open on all sides, is sometimes made.

Care must be taken not to let plants in "plunged" pots root through into
the soil. This is prevented by lifting and partly turning the pots every
week or so. They will not root through into the coal