66 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



Sowing Seed With Machine. When the soil is prepared 

 for best work with a garden drill, it is generally in the best 

 condition for the germination of seeds. The whole surface 

 should be fine, mellow, and even. There are only one or 

 two garden seeds that cannot readily be sown with any of 

 the half dozen good garden drills that are on the market. 



Fig. 20. The Planet Jr. type of combined drill. 



Garden drills when properly used will sow and cover seed 

 much more uniformly than it can possibly be sown and cover- 

 ed by hand, and they are a necessity in any well-managed 

 garden of over a quarter of an acre. 



It is of the utmost importance to have straight rows 

 in the garden, for they are more economical of space than 

 crooked rows and are more perfectly cultivated with the 

 wheel hoes and cultivator; besides, crooked rows are 

 unsightly and slovenly. It is generally desirable in using 

 a garden drill to mark off the first row with a line to get it 

 straight. If this is done to begin with the subsequent 

 rows may be kept parallel by using the marker always 

 found on such machines, providing constant care is used. 

 Some growers prefer to mark out all the rows with a marker 

 and then run the seed sower in the marks, but for a careful 

 workman this is useless labor. 



Seed drills are made with a point to open furrows, a 

 coverer for filling in after the drill, a wheel for compacting 



