J-JIA' 1, 1916 



557 



mail should not be promoted, but that the 

 man who smokes is to be discredited as well. 

 Now, I should like to know whether this 

 means the man who smokes during working 

 hours or the man who smokes only wlule on 

 duty. I do not believe that there are any 



at present among our two or three hundred 

 employees who smoke during working 

 hours; but it pains me to see how many 

 young men as well as old knock the ashes 

 out of their pipes when they come up to 

 the office door to mark their time. 



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HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING 



HAND CULTIVATOKS — SOMETHING NEW. 



When I spoke about hand cultivators on 

 page 505, June 15, I had not noticed the 

 advertisement in our issue for May 1, page 

 13 of the advertising department, of the 

 Barker machine. I humbly beg pardon, not 

 only of the manufacturers of the machine 

 but of our readers as well, for failing to 

 scan our own advertising pages a little more 

 closely. I have now been using one of the 

 little Barker machines for three or four 

 days, and it almost seems to me that this is 

 going to bring about a revolution in garden- 

 ing without the use of horse power. Not 

 only here in the North, but clear down in 

 Florida there are thousands of people who 

 hesitate about going to the expense of a 

 horse for market gardening. 



A year ago I spoke of the need of a gas 

 or electric motor to supply power, especial- 

 ly for the use of young boys or old men like 

 myself. The advertisement I have referred 

 to makes this statement : "A boy with a 

 Barker beats ten men with hoes." This 

 sounds pretty strong; but where your gar- 

 den is free from stones, clods, and trash, a 

 smart boy might come pretty near the above. 

 The picture of the machine explains it. 

 Those ten steel blades chop up the weeds in 

 advance of the steel scufile-hoe that follows. 

 Where the gTound is just right, say just af- 

 ter a rain, even here in our Medina stubborn 

 clay soil you can run the machine as fast as 

 you can walk; and the ground looks, after 

 the machine has gone over it, almost as if it 

 had been passed thru a sieve. 



Another very important matter, you can 

 run this little machine closer to all sorts 

 of stuff, say that which is just coming up, 

 or larger, than any other tool I ever got 

 hold of. Most cultivators will throw chunks 

 of dirt on the plants, perhaps knock them 

 over, and, if a rain comes shortly after, 

 they are very much injured. This tool can 

 be tipped so as to run close to the plants 

 without doing them any injury or ,disturb- 

 ing the roots, and at the same time cut off 

 or chop up every weed. It also knocks the 

 dirt from the roots of the weed so there is 

 but little tendrnry for it to take root and 

 start again. 



We are often told that the weeds should 

 be killed before they come to daylight — that 

 is, before they have time to s'rrt and get 

 above ground. And this is very good in- 

 struction. But what are you going to do 

 when it rains as it has been doing here in 

 Medina so far this year (as well as last), so 

 it is only now and then you can get on the 

 ground with either plow or cultivator? Af- 

 ter the weeds once get up, say two or three 

 inches high, the only remedy I have ever 

 known is a sharp hoe. But this little ma- 

 chine beats a hoe with a vengeance. But 

 you will have trouble if your ground is 

 stony, especially where there are stones 

 about the size of a hen's egg. They will get 

 between the two blades of the scuffle-hoe, 

 and then the machine wiU stop suddenly. 

 Cornstalk stubble that was not plowed un- 

 der, or the roots of docks, etc., also make 

 trouble. 



Now, T think T have made an improve- 

 ment in the use of the machine already — at 

 least the manufacturers of the machine have 

 not mentioned it so far as I know. I was so 

 anxious to try it here in our garden that I 

 started out before the garden was suffi- 

 ciently dry. The consequence was, the steel 

 blades and the iron wheels that hold them 

 were soon covered with clay that dried on ; 

 and our clay is of such a tenacious nature 

 that when it dries on anything one will al- 

 most need a hammer to make it let go. Af- 

 ter cleaning the blades and other parts a 

 few times so they would do good work I got 

 the oil-can and greased the thing all over. 

 Then I rubbed off the oil and mud until the 

 metals were clean, and gave it another coat 

 of oil. Since then the machine has kept 

 clear from the accumulation of clay very 

 much better, and I think the blades will ul- 

 timately get scoured bright and smooth. 



There are three sizes of the machine — 6, 

 8V2, and 11 inches. Mine is the 8^/2 size. 

 Where your garden stuff is planted wide 

 enough apart to permit using a horse, you 

 want to make about three trips in each row. 

 First, go clear up to the plants on the right 

 side and then on the left, and then down 

 through the middle; but if you can go as 

 fast as you can walk comfortably, it does 



