54 Breeding of Plants and Animals. 



01 five rows a foot apart may be planted. By discard- 

 ing the outer two rows on either side there are eleven 

 rows left. By leaving off one row in planting, the little 

 plots may be blocked out ten hills' square, 100 plants in 

 each. But as some hills are usually blank, necessitating 

 counting the actual number of plants harvested in the 

 centgener trials, there is no special advantage in Having 

 the plots exactly ten planks wide. Boards li'l-^ sled 

 runners resting on the track carry the machine. A sys- 

 tem of levers enables an operator to places grapples in 

 holes four inches apart in the track and carry the ma- 

 chine forward four inches for each new row. Through 

 a strong cross piece connecting the two runners are 

 fifteen holes through which pass tubes, serving as drill 

 holes extending a few inches into the soil, the depth 

 being regulated by the thickness of the runners. These 

 tubes extend upward nearly two feet. Above them is 

 a cross frame bearing fifteen pint cups. A man sits on 

 a comfortable seat and drops one seed, in -some cases 

 two or three, into each cup, then tips the cross frame 

 and drops seeds into all the fifteen hills at the same in- 

 stant. 



The operator of the levers throws the machine for- 

 ward four inches, and the rows are thus rapidly and 

 accurately planted. The operator and the dropper thus 

 are able to plant the seeds at uniform distances apart 

 each way. 



To make the depth uniform a board straight-edge 

 is used to dress down the soil between the two tracks, 

 leaving it two inches below the top of the track at 

 all points. Wheat is usually planted two inches deep 

 and as it falls through these tubes it always lies on 

 moist soil at the bottom of the furrow. It is observed 

 that seeds planted wdth this machine germinate much 

 nearer at the same time than do those put in carefully 

 with the hand dibble. The soil needs some attention 

 after planting. Heavy rains often require going 

 through the narrow rows with small two-inch tined 

 hoes to break up the crust. Usually one cultivation is 



