38 Sowing of Seeds : Planting of Walnuts, etc. 



with the soil aroiind its roots should be taken up with a hoe or 

 spade, and set in the new place. The "bore-spade," elsewhere 

 described, may be used to advantage for this purpose. [ 198.] 



144. Seeds may be lightly covered with a hoe, or, better still, 

 with an iron rake, which is made for this purpose. This is made 



25. Strong Iron Rake for mellowing the Surface and covering Seeds. 



of sufficient strength for working among the roots of trees, and is 

 of great use in exposing a fresh surface when we would wish to sow 

 seeds in vacant places in the woods, as well as for surface work gen- 

 erally, where we would wish to freshen the soil without moving it 

 from its place. Another instrument is used to some extent by 

 planters that may perhaps be understood without a figure. It con- 

 sists of a heavy iron disc, some eight or ten inches across, with a 

 long handle coming up from the center, and a series of long iron 

 spikes on the under side. When this is struck into the ground, and 

 turned around by the aid of a cross-bar in the handle, it mellows 

 the soil on a circular spot as large as the disc, and as deep as the 

 spikes are long. A dibble or pointed stick should never be used in 

 planting seeds, or at least not unless it makes a hole much larger 

 than the seeds and has a guard to regulate the depth. If small, and 

 used carelessly, the seeds may be covered too deep, or they may 

 lodge part way down the hole, leaving a void space under them. 



The Planting of Walnut and other Nut- Trees. 



145. In a dry climate, and in the fine prairie soil, it is difficult to 

 transplant any of the oaks or nut-trees without great risk of losing 

 them, and it will be generally found better to plant them where 

 they are to remain. In doing so, it is an excellent plan, and some- 

 times very necessary, to give them in the first years some protection, 

 by the aid of the fast-growing kinds, such as the white willow or 

 the cotton wood, set in alternate places in the rows, and to provide a 

 belt of the latter alone around the outside of the grove. 



