496 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUIIE. 



JitNE 



or setting out plants in a straiglit line, I 

 want to give you some illustrations. The 

 ligure on the foregoing page comes from the 

 cata]o;4uo of t!ie '" Planet Jr." gaiden-tools. 

 The wheel-hoe is arranged with a pair of 

 knives that go close ujj to tlu^ plants, as you 

 will notice. These knives are ground shm'p 

 on a grindstone, so they will go through the 

 soil easily, and cut up every thing before 

 them. Well, if your plants are in a line you 

 can set them so close together that tlie soil 

 will break up fine from one knife to another, 

 so that, after having run through it, the cul- 

 tivation is finished. If you had them in ir- 

 regular lines, one plant one side of the line 

 and one plant the other side, you would be 

 under the necessity of doing a lot of hand- 

 work to get your rows cleai- from weeds. If 

 you have ever weeded rows of onions or 

 parsnips, you can form some idea of how ex- 

 pensive it is. Before sowing your seeds or 

 setting out your plants, it is an excellent 

 idea to strew ashes along in the furrow ; or, 

 if you choose, put in guano, properly pre- 

 pared poultry maiuire, phosphate, bone dust, 

 lime, plaster, or any other of these substances 

 used as fertilizers. All have their office for 

 different crops or different soils. The han- 

 diest thing we have ever used for thi.s pur- 

 pose is a machine from the '' Planet Jr." 

 folks. We give a cut of it below. 



in the fertilizer, and cover it up, at one opei'- 

 ation ; but it will seldom pay to use such an 

 implement for market gardening, where we 

 seldom sow more than a single acre to any 

 one crop. A boy from twelve to fifteen 

 years old will run the fertilizer-drill, and 

 consider it fun. I should consider it well 

 worth all it costs, for distributing ashes 

 alone. If dry peat is sprinkled under the 

 roosts of your fowls, and the whole rak(=d 

 over occasionally until it gets perfectly dry, 

 this machine will sow it in the drills beauti- 

 fully. For sowing smaller seeds, such as 

 celery, turnip, cabbage, onion, sage, carrot, 

 spinach, salsify, parsnip, beet, and some- 

 times be;ins and peas, a machine is illus- 

 trated on the f<jllowing page. 



This machine is much like the other, only 

 it is smaller. It has a roller for rolling the 

 seeds after they are sown. It has also a mark- 

 er. If the seeds are dropped in furrows of 

 the right depth, and the soil is nice and 

 pi'operly prepared, we usually do the cover- 

 ing with the smoothing - harrow. If the 

 ground is dry, I woidd then go over it all 

 with a heavy roller. 



Of course, it is not vccc^sary to have any 

 of these drills for sowing seeds, although it 

 was a great convenience and a saving of time. 

 Some market gardeners decline to use seed- 

 drills of any sort, saying they can not afford 



lUh " I'l, \NI 1 Jit MFD 



The machine holds half a busiiel. It is 

 filled up at a little door shown in front. It 

 has a hollow drum, or i)arrel ; and if you 

 want to sow bone dust and phosphate mixed 

 together, the machine is the licst mixer, per- 

 liaps, ever invented. It is easily adjusted, 

 so as to make your fertilizer go in fast or 

 slow, as you choose; and it dusts it, too, 

 among the soil at the bottom of the furrow 

 to perfection. The same implement droi)S 

 peas, beans, and corn to perfection, although 

 it does not cover them up. I know tiiere are 

 other machines made that sow the seed, i>ut 



AM) n irni i/ri{ Ditii.r 



to take the chances of having ground, so ex- 

 pensively i)repared, improperly seeded. They 

 maik out their ground as menti(;ned above, 

 then the seeds ani put in by hand, the own- 

 er prefei'iing to see with his own eyes that 

 every foot of giound has the proper amount 

 of seeds. 



The next thing is to cover the seeds. Per- 

 haps you think this is a very simple matter, 

 and that notliing further is necessary than 

 to get some dirt over them in whatever way 

 comes handiest. Well, under some circum- 

 stances throwing dirt over the seeds will do 



