The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



spiked or spring tooth harrow; this part of the 

 work should be very thoroughly done ; too fine a 

 seed bed can never be produced, whatever the 

 means employed and the use of drags and har- 

 rows by no means spells the whole operation of 

 fitting a garden for planting. After the drag- 

 ging the garden rake is in order and the ground 

 must be raked over and over until thoroughly 

 fine and free from roughage of sticks, stones, 

 clods and the like. If any weeds have been 

 drawn to the surface in dragging they must be 

 pulled out and thrown aside. If there is a dead 

 furrow in the middle of the plot then the raking 

 should be towards that from both directions so 

 as to fill it in as much as possible and so restore 

 the level of the ground. 



It is not necessary to rake the entire garden at 

 once if time and strength are at a premium. One 

 may rake a space sufficient for the first planting 

 and when that is done rake another space and so 

 equalize the labor, but it is easier to rake soon 

 after the preliminary fitting is done than to leave 

 it until a rain has packed the earth and made it 



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