USE OF THE FEET IN SOWING AND PLANTING. 97 



must amount to many millions annually. For the mis- 

 chief done is not confined only to the less important 

 garden operations, but even Corn, Cotton, AYheat, Tur- 

 nips and other important crops of the farm often fail, 

 in hot and drj soils, by being sown without being firmed 

 sufficiently to prevent the dry air shriveling or drying 

 the seeds. Of course, the use of the feet is impractic- 

 able in firming seeds on the farm, but a heavy roller, 

 applied after sowing, is an absolute necessity under cer- 

 tain conditions of the soil, to insure perfect germination. 

 From the middle of April to nearly the end of May of 

 this year, in many sections of the country, there was 

 little or no rain. Such was particularly the case in the 

 vicinity of New York City, where we have hundreds of 

 market gardenprs, who cultivate thousands of acres of 

 Cabbage, Cauliflower and Celery, but the " dry spring ' 

 has played sad havoc with their seed-beds. Celery is 

 not one-fourth of a crop, and Cabbage and Cauliflower 

 hardly half, and this failure is due to no other cause than 

 that they persist in sowing their seeds without even tak- 

 ing the precaution to firm the soil by rolling. 



We sow annually about four acres of Celery, Cabbage 

 and Cauliflower plants, which 'produce probably five 

 millions in number, and which we never fail to sell 

 mostly in our immediate neighborhood to the market 

 gardeners, who have, many of them, even better facil- 

 ities than we have for raising these plants, if they would 

 only do as we do, firm the seed after sowing, which is 

 done thus : 



After plowing, harrowing and leveling the land 

 smoothly, lines are drawn by the " marker," which 

 makes furrows about two inches deep and a foot apart ; 

 after the man who sows the seed follows another, who, 

 with the ball of the right foot, presses down his full 

 weight on every inch of soil in the drill where the seed 

 has been sown ; the rows are then lightly leveled longi- 



