GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 21 



to the direction to take, but following the marks made 

 by the grain drill ma} 7 sometimes be found a sufficient 

 guide. 



The hand machine most in favor is usually spoken of 

 as the "wheelbarrow seed sower/' from the fact that the 

 distributor of the seed is wheeled over the ground on 

 a light hand barrow. The distributor usually sows 

 about 12 feet in width each time it passes along or across 

 the field, but some are made to sow a wider area. This 

 form of hand machine may be used when considerable 

 wind is blowing, as, when the seed falls from the same, 

 it has not far to fall, until it reaches the ground. It 

 sows seed evenly, may be used at any time during the 

 day, and can be managed by a person not skilled in 

 hand sowing, but it cannot be used with advantage 

 when the soil is in that condition that would cause it 

 to cling to the wheel or to the feet of the sower in any 

 considerable quantities. Other kinds of hand sowers 

 have been used, but none of these answer the purpose 

 better or even as well as .the hand sower referred to. 

 However, hand machines which are strapped to the 

 shoulder and are operated by a crank, find favor with 

 not a few, and they are certainly very suitable for scat- 

 tering seed over lands encumbered by "brush," that is 

 by a growth of young trees and bushes. 



When grass seeds are sown with the grain drill they 

 are more commonly sown by means of what is termed a 

 "grass seed sower attachment," which is used in con- 

 junction with the drill while the latter sows grain, and 

 it is placed so as to drop the seeds in front of the grain 

 tubes or behind them, as desired. The grass seeds thus 



