Country Life
THE ANNUALS' ANNIVERSARIES.
An Easter journey through country places, especially English villages, those simple communities that have no like- ness the world over, is well worth while if only to watch the people in their gardens celebrating the festival of the seed. There is a growing fashion for sowing in other seasons, in autumn and even late summer ; and the results are to be commended to every gardener. But Easter is the date on which every cottager concentrates ; and his ideal is an Easter that is very dry and very early, a consummation enjoyed to the hilt in the week preceding Easter. If it is dry all the work is easy. The soil crumbles, the rake slips through it, the seed lies snug and may be covered with a movement of the rake as light as the hand can make it. The earlier the sowing the earlier the flowering ; and what is more, the longer lasting. But this quality is best assured, in species and varieties that will endure it, by autumn sowing.
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