eed be without it. After once passing the infant stage no
difficulty need be experienced. It will thrive in any ordinary soil and
will do well in a window box with only a moderate amount of light, and
that not even direct sunshine. Gardeners often grow it beneath benches
in greenhouses, where it gets only small amounts of light. No one need
hesitate to plant it.

The seed is very slow in germinating, often requiring four to six weeks
unless soaked before sowing. A full day's soaking in tepid water is none
too long to wake up the germs. The drills may be made in a cold frame
during March or in the open ground during April.

It is essential that parsley be sown very early in order to germinate at
all. If sown late, it may possibly not get enough moisture to sprout,
and if so it will fail completely. When sown in cold frames or beds for
transplanting, the rows may be only 3 or 4 inches apart, though it is
perhaps better, when such distances are chosen, to sow each alternate
row to forcing radishes, which will have been marketed by the time the
parsley seedlings appear. In the open ground the drills should be 12 to
15 inches apart, and the seed planted somewhat deeper and farther apart
than in the presumably better-prepared seedbed or cold frame. One inch
between seeds is none too little.

In field culture and at the distances mentioned six or seven pounds of
seed will be needed for the acre. For cultivation on a smaller scale an
ounce may be found sufficient for 50 to 100 feet of drill. This quantity
should be enough for any ordinary-sized family. In all open ground
culture the radish is the parsley's best friend, because it not only
marks the rows, and thus helps early cultivation, but the radishes
break, loosen and shade the soil and thus aid the parsley plants.

When the first thinning is done during May, the parsley plants may be
allowed to stand 2 inches asunder. When they begin to crowd at this
distance each second plant may be removed and sold. Four to six little
plants make a bunch. The roots are left on. This thinning will not only
aid the remaining plants, but should bring enough revenue to pay the
cost, perhaps even a little more. The first cutting of leaves from
plants of field-sown seed should be ready by midsummer, but as noted
below it is usually best to practice the method that will hasten
maturity and thus catch the best price. A "bunch" is about the amount
that can be grasped between the thumb and the