MANURE AND TOOLS USED. 31 



covered with straw or sedge, over which six inches of loam 

 are placed, well beaten with the back of a shovel. When cold 

 weather comes on, pile on enough litter to keep out frost ; 

 provide air-holes every rod in the length of the pit, for venti- 

 lation. Plough a deep furrow around the pit to carry off 

 surface water. 



The manure used on the market-garden is mostly horse- 

 manure, with some night-soil and hog-manure. Land in- 

 tended for early cabbages and greens is usually manured in 

 the fall with coarse manure, ploughed under. The manure 

 applied in spring is worked as fine as possible, so as to be 

 available at once for plant-food. When the horse-manure 

 is very coarse or strawy, it is used thus for hot-beds in its 

 fresh state ; but in summer it should either be thrown into a 

 cellar to be trampled by hogs, or composted with night-soil 

 and loam in the field. When handled in this way it does not 

 heat excessively, and makes a manure that cannot be excelled 

 for forcing a rapid growth of vegetables. 



The tools used for market-gardening are some of them not 

 much known elsewhere : the seed-sower most approved is the 

 revolving brush, a modification of the Willis machine. The 

 scuffle-hoe or shove-hoe is much used in running between the 

 rows of greens, onions, and beets: land can be tilled with 

 this tool almost as cheaply as by the cultivator and horse, 

 and the rows are only fourteen inches apart where it is used. 



The garden-marker is a very convenient tool for marking 

 the places for transplanting celery, cabbages, lettuce, &c. It 

 is a wheel about four feet in diameter, provided with handles 

 like a wheelbarrow : the tire is provided with movable pegs; 

 which can be adjusted at such distances asunder as are re- 

 quired for the various plants in question. When the land has 

 been properly prepared, it is only necessary to trundle this 

 tool along the row, and the pegs mark the places where 

 plants are to be set. 



The preparation of the land for garden-crops is a point 

 that requires the application of considerable skill. The best 

 gardeners plough rather deeply, ten or twelve inches : the land 

 endures drouth better when thus handled than when shallow 

 ploughing is practised. Many of them run a subsoil plough 

 after the common large plough every second year, to loosen the 

 subsoil. To make the land mellow and fine enough for most 



