COVERING GRASS-SEED. 139 



fully, and find that fifty, sixty, eighty, or ninety of those 

 seeds germinate, it is reasonable to infer that fifty, sixty, 

 eighty, or ninety per cent of the seed is good, and that the 

 balance is not. That is a very easy matter, but it requires 

 some care ; and farmers generally will not take the pains. I 

 would, as a general rule, save a sample- of the seed I had 

 sown ; and then, if there were any difficulty, I could investi- 

 gate, and find out where the blame really was. It does not 

 alwaj's follow, by any means, that, because seeds do not 

 germinate, it is the seller's fault. The merchant may take 

 infinite pains with his seed, be cautious when he buys, and 

 of whom he buys ; and yet the seed may not germinate 

 well, because the farmer has not sown it properly. Seeds 

 so small as those of the grasses must be covered very 

 slightly. If buried too deep, they will fail to germinate; 

 and if, as was the almost universal practice a few years ago, 

 they are harrowed in with a tooth-harrow, a very consider- 

 able portion of the grass-seeds are buried too deeply, and 

 will not germinate. In that case, it is the farmer's fault. 



To avoid that difficulty, in sowing grass-seeds, instead of 

 using a common iron-toothed harrow, I believe it would be a 

 great deal safer to use a common brush-harrow ; but a simple 

 wooden drag is one of the best things that I have ever used. 

 It is cheap, and easily made. Here is a little model that Mr. 

 "Ware had last year at Worcester. The one I used six or 

 seven years ago was like this, except that it had not that 

 cleat on the bottom. I think that would be an improvement. 

 This is very much like a common drag, or " stone-boat " as it 

 is often called ; only the front bevels up so as to avoid the 

 little bunches that make uneven and bad work. It is eight 

 feet long, made of common plank, and is three feet and a 

 half wide, with this inclined portion about a foot wide. The 

 one I made was, perhaps, a foot and a half longer, and bev- 

 elled up a little more than that. I always used that when sow- 

 ing grass-seed. It was the next best thing to an expensive 

 roller. A good many farmers cannot afford to buy a first- 

 class roller ; and this was made to avoid that expense, and see 

 if something could not be devised which should be equally 

 good, and which any farmer could make himself. It is use- 

 ful for many other purposes, and vastly better than a toothed 

 harrow. It is sometimes advisable to go over the ground 



