308 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have a six tined implement that will work to perfection, and it is very 

 cheap. If you can get the old Hexamer hoe, which is adjusted with 

 a wedge to hold it in place, you will have about the same implement, 

 but you can take a long handled manure fork with six tines and have 

 a tool made that will answer the purpose excellently. 



Mr. C. W. Merritt : One of the best tools the farmer or gar- 

 dener can use is the twelve toothed cultivator with a pulverizer drag- 

 ging behind. In my experience of twenty-five years I have never 

 found a tool which gave me so much satisfaction. I use a small one- 

 horse plow in the rows of berries and then go over with that twelve 

 tooth cultivator between the rows which pulverizes the soil thorough- 

 ly and deep enough. 



Mr. C. E. Older : I failed to hear one tool spoken of, and that is 

 the Breed weeder. Those weeders give the greatest satisfaction, but 

 the ground must be thoroughly prepared before it can be used, but 

 in strawberries and small fruit you can go through them with one 

 horse, and it kills the weeds before they come up, and it keeps the 

 ground thoroughly pulverized. You can go over ground twice in a day 

 with the weeder where it would take you a week to go over with the 

 hoe. There is one farmer in our county that uses the Acme harrow. 

 I consider it one of the best tools for the orchard or for the farm, 

 and I consider it essential to use the Acme harrow before you get 

 ready to use the Breed weeder. Taking the little Planet Jr., wheel 

 hoe and the horse hoe, they make a very satisfactory combination. 

 Keeo the horse going and let the horse do all the work possible. 



Mr. J. P. Andrews : What is your soil ? 



Mr. C. E. Older : It is a light soil. 



Mr. Oliver Gibbs : I just want to say a word. The commer- 

 cial gardener and the home gardener in the preparation of the soil 

 need about the same tools, but when you come to the tools for the 

 home garden, instead of labor saving tools they are luxuries and not 

 necessities. I have nearly all of them, but I am always reminded of 

 the remark of Mr. Stickney, of Wisconsin, that the best tool he had 

 was the old fashioned Dutch hoe. Let me substitue the Warren hoe, 

 and you may have all the rest of them ; I have not much use for 

 them. 



Mr. Frank Yahnke : I would like to make a remark on the sub- 

 ject that Mr. Richardson brought up about planting three rows to- 

 gether. I have been a gardener almost all my life. I never could 

 make a success planting three rows together and then cultivating on 

 the outside and working the center with the hoe. You cannot find 

 the average farmer willing to do that ; he will not work with the hoe 

 if he cannot work with the horse. I can plant the rows twenty inches 

 apart and still get through with the cultivator by setting it close to- 

 gether. If you are careful you do not cover anything, and you will 

 hardly have any hand work to do. Most farmers do not like to work 

 with the hoe. Encourage him to use the horse, and he will plant 

 vegetables ; advocate the planting eighteen inches to two feet 

 apart and then use the horse hoe. and he will hardly have any hand 

 work to do. I planted a piece of land in sugar beets for cattle, and 

 I worked them with the horse hoe, except that I used a narrow hoe 



