14 



then passed along the ridges,* in the miildle of which the seed 

 is dibbled, so that the plants may receive all the benefit which 

 can be derived from the maniire."t 



'' The ?eed is deposited about an inch deep, whilst the moist- 

 iire is fresh in the earth J and covered by drawing a garden rake 

 along the rows. After this, the light roller is again passed along 

 the ridges, [to press the earth upon the seeds] and the work is 

 finished." 



* These narrow ridges, as formed by the plough, are sharp : by passing 

 a light roller over them they are flattened to a breadth of eight or nine in- 

 ches. The light roller, drawn by a horse, that walks in the furrow betweeii» 

 them, flattens two ridges at a time. Thus rolled, the manure will be cov- 

 ered eight or nine inches deep. 



t A dibble is a siraplt- tool, wliich may be of dilTerent sizes and form?, ac- 

 cording to the uses it is intended to serve. If for setting (in transplanting) 

 cabbages or other like plants, it may be a round stick about an inch and a 

 quarter in diameter, shaved down at one end (in a slope of eight or ten in- 

 ches long) to a blunt point. An old spade or shovel handle is well adapt- 

 ed to the purpose. If much used, the slope may be advantageously cover- 

 ed smoothly with iron. But for putting in seeds^ the dibble may be in the 

 form of the letter T. To make one, take a piece of wood about three feet 

 four inches long, and about an inch and a quarter square. In one of the 

 sides bore holes in a line, and insert teeth at the proposed distance of the 

 plants in the row: if for Mangel Wurtzel, at ten, eleven, or twelve inches 

 apart: and let the teeth be as long (projecting from the head-piece) as the 

 proposed depth at which the seeds are to be sown. On the opposite side 

 of the head-piece, bore a hole in the middle, large enough to receive a 

 handle of convenient length. On the top of the handle fix a cross-piece 

 five or six inches long, to be grasped by the band in using the tool. With 

 it, as many holes for seeds will be made, at every movement, as there are 

 teeth in the head. The handle may require bracing, in like manner as a 

 rake handle and its head are braced by means of bows. 



It now occurs to me, that perhaps the li|;ht roller used in levelling the 

 tops of the ridges may be set with teeth, and thus perform the additional 

 office of making holes for the seed ; and with vastly greater expedition 

 than by dibbling. A light roller, long enough to flatten two ridges at once, 

 of thirteen inches in diameter, and furnished v/ith two sets of four teeth 

 each, to pass along the middles of two adjoining ridges — and the four teeth 

 of each set being inserted at equal distances in a circle of the roller, — the 

 holes for the seed would be made at the desired distance of near one foot 

 from each other. The teeth should be so shaped as to leave the holes 

 made by them fairly open. For this purpose they may be an inch and a 

 half wide and three quarters of an inch thick, where their shoulders are 

 fayed to the roller, and taper tlience to a rounded thick edge at their ex- 

 tremities. The same teeth, if not too long, may serve to regulate and ex- 

 pedite the sowing of the Ruta Baga seed. 



:{: It is very important f o have seeds of all kinds sown as soon as possible 

 after the ground is ploughed and prepared to receive them, and before the 

 moisture of the fresh stirred earth is dissipated by tiic sun and drying 

 winds: otherwise some may never vegetate, or not till after a fall of rain ,; 

 and so precious lime may be lost, and an uneven crop be produced. 



