THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 353 



ridge, sowing with the same hand half way to the next middle 

 furrow. 



500. Some farmers sow from a basket suspended from their 

 neck, walking in the middle of the strip to be sowed, and casting 

 at every step, alternately, with both hands. I never could dis 

 cover any advantage in this manner of sowing. Indeed, I do 

 not approve of it, because it requires a long practice before a 

 man can become an ambidexter able to use both hands in sow 

 ing with equal facility. There are those who can sow very 

 evenly with both hands, alternately, but if the sower is not ex 

 ceedingly careful he will sow more unevenly in this manner than 

 when he sows with only one hand. 



SOWING BY STAKES. 



501. When the ground is not prepared by furrows and ridges, 

 nor by marks, (see Par. 498,) the idea is to sow by one or two rows 

 of stakes, placed at a given distance. In sowing with one row 

 of stakes, which should be not more than eight or ten rods apart, 

 set a stake where you commence, twenty-two feet or seven paces 

 is my rule from the margin of the plot to be sowed. Sow along 

 the margin eight or ten rods, and plant another stake seven paces 

 from the margin, and so on clear across the field. Now, in re 

 turning, sow from the row of stakes half-way to the margin of 

 the field, or up to where it has been sowed. Now, set the first 

 stake seven paces farther on, at the end where you first com 

 menced, and sow up to the row of stakes. According to this 

 mode the sower casts with only one hand in sowing both ways. 



502. When two rows of stakes are used in sowing, they are 

 placed eleven feet apart, or as far apart as the width of the strip, 

 which is sowed at one through, and one row of stakes is carried 

 by the other row, at every through or time across the field. Sow 

 ing with two rows of stakes consumes too much time in removing 

 them. When a sower uses two rows of stakes, he usually walks 

 between them ; although some sowers choose to walk in the line 

 of one row, and sow with the right hand when going one way, 

 and with the left hand when going in the opposite direction. 



