Seeds and Seed Sowing. in 



the whole surface be mellow and even. This is easily accom- 

 plished in a clean loam, sand or muck. Often the only tools 

 required are plow and smoothing harrow. In most cases the 

 roller can be used alternately with the harrow to good advantage, 

 and the surface thus made perfect ; but on less friable soil, and if 

 no Meeker disk harrow is at hand, the finishing touch must be 

 given with a good steel rake. On clayey and very lumpy 

 ground the preparation will require more labor, if not a greater 

 variety of tools. The Disk or Cutaway harrow can be used to 

 break up the lumps, and to bring the surface in proper shape for 

 the smoothing harrow. This may be followed with a Meeker 

 (small disk) harrow, and the latter, if properly used, leaves the 

 ground as smooth as if raked over by hand. 



Straight rows make the garden attractive, hence it is always 

 preferable to mark off the rows of the desired width, or at least 

 make a perfectly straight mark, or draw a line for the first row, 

 and then use the 

 marker attached to 

 the drill, always 

 trying to correct 

 any deviation from 

 the straight line. 

 The small roller 

 back of the seed 

 coverers firms the 

 soil, when properly 

 prepared, suffi- 

 ciently to make the 

 use of the feet for 

 this purpose en- 

 tirely superfluous. 



SOWING BvH AND. 

 For the home 

 garden, and where 

 only small quanti- 

 ties of any one 

 variety are planted, 

 as in test plats for 

 instance, the use of 

 the drill is hardly desirable, and hand sowing is far preferable. 

 A little practice will enable any one of average skill to make a 

 clean job of it. The rows are marked out with the garden 

 marker, and the operator, taking the seed paper in left hand, 

 walks along the row and drops the seed evenly from the right 

 hand held in the position shown in picture. The little finger 

 and its neighbor form a sort of receptacle for a quantity of. seed 

 which gradually works down, and is evenly dropped by the 



Sowing Seed by Hand, Covering and Firming. 



