196 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



of barrows for this purpose, I have never yet had 

 one that worked well and could be depended upon, 

 especially in tenacious or heavy, loamy soils. It is 

 preferable, therefore, to take a piece of joist four 

 inches square, or a round stick of the same diame- 

 ter, half or just as long as the lands are wide. Fill 

 this with iron or wooden teeth, in wedge shape, as 

 far apart as you wish to have the rows ; put a pair 

 of fills to it, and hitch on a stout num or steady 

 horse, and once or twice going through the land 

 completely drills it from one to two inches deep. 

 Then follow immediately with the seed, dropping it 

 by hand, or from a long-necked bottle, or a tin cup 

 with a hole in the bottom, and a stick handle attach- 

 ed to it, shaking the cup or bottle as you walk along, 

 and following sharp with the eye to see that the 

 seeds are evenly dropped. Careful children of ten 

 years old can do this with more ease and facility 

 than grown persons. As fast as the seed is dropped, 

 cover it with the hoe ; in heavy soils, about half U^ 

 \hree quarters of an inch deep ; in sand or light grav- 

 el, twice this depth. 



The rows may be from one to three feet apart foi 

 a field-crop ; two and a half to three feet is the 

 best. This distance enables one to use the cultiva- 

 tor for weeding without danger of cutting or cover- 

 ing the plants as it passes through the rows. The 

 product is not so great per acre from wide rows ; but 

 land being cheap and labour dear in America, we 

 must study to facilitate manual operations at the 

 same time that we have reference to a good yield. 

 Four pounds of seed per acre are generally consid- 

 ered enough, but it is better to have a dozen extra 

 j)lants to thin out than to be obliged to transplant 

 one. Those transplanted do not thrive half as well 

 as those that remain where they vegetate ; besides, 

 the labour of transplanting is more expensive than 

 extra seed and the time required for thinning. I 

 therefore mean, in sowing, to have a good seed 



