234 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



phosphates or guano, we do it before the rakiiig. I generally 

 put on my onion bed four or five hundred pounds of phosphates 

 to the acre, before the raking. Just as the horse gives the final 

 ploughing, 1 have my men follow the plough and scatter the phos- 

 phates or ihe guano, and then the men rake it in. 1 may say, in 

 regard to raking, that there is a great deal of difference in raking. 

 Those who have never practised it are hardly aware what a dif- 

 ference there is. There is sucli a thing as raking a bed very 

 fine and not very smooth, leaving it a sort of rolling prairie. 

 When raked in that way, it is very hard for the seed sower to 

 do its work properly. It is very important that the bed should 

 be rak6d, not only fine, but level. 



Sowing- or Planting- Seed. — We put our onion rows fifteen or 

 sixteen inches apart ; carrots, about the same ; flat turnips, 

 about the same ; rutabagas, two and a half feet apart, so that 

 we can get the cultivator between the rows. Of course, when 

 roots or vegetables are raised on a large scale, machines are 

 always used. There are various sowing machines. They 

 might be classified as dropping machines, shaking machines, 

 stirring machines and brushing machines. The dropping ma- 

 chine simply drops the seed down. It depends simply on gravi- 

 tation. This machine will not sow well beets or parsnips, as a 

 rule ; it does very well with onion, sage and carrot seeds, when 

 very clean ; when there is any impediment, you want some- 

 thing more efficacious. The brush machine has a little revolv- 

 ing brush, which brushes the seeds out, preventing their clogging, 

 in the hopper. Then comes the shaking machine. The Dan- 

 vers machine is a very good type of that. That machine jars 

 or shakes tlie seed-box by means of a spring. That does very 

 well for small seeds. Then comes the stirring machine ; that 

 operates by a stirrer or agitator inside, whicji keeps the seed in 

 motion while the wheel revolves. That variety of machine I 

 consider the best, as far as I have tried, for the stirrer plays 

 right over the hole into which the seeds drop, and keeps them 

 from bedding up. Tiiese machines need to be used with good 

 judgment. It depends more upon the man than the machine, 

 as a rule ; and it is surprising what a difference it will make 

 in the crop whether you have a first-rate man or a second- 

 rate man to tend the machine. A few hours' work by a first- 

 rate hand is sometimes worth ten dollars rather than to 



