no 



after the seed has been dropped. The seed may be 

 planted either in drills or hills as desired. Some 

 seed, however, as squash, and a few others, cannot 

 be readily planted by means of the drill, and must 

 be planted by hand. 



Hand planting is nearly always necessary In ac- 

 curate experimental work of various kinds. The 

 amount of seed necessary to be sown will depend upon 

 the purity of the sample, the vitality, the nature 

 and condition of the soil at planting time, the 

 prevalence of insect and disease enemies, etc. It is a 

 common practice to plant a great deal more seed 

 than is really necessary under favorable conditions 

 in order that good stands may be secured. Thin- 

 ning is necessary, not only to give the leaves an 

 opportunity for full development and the best ex- 

 posure to sunlight and air, but to provide the proper 

 soil area from which the plants can secure their 

 food supply. Thinning should, therefore, be done 

 as soon as possible after the plants are large enough 

 to render the work practical. Early thinning avoids 

 checking the growth of the plants to be left and pre- 

 vents the wasting of available food. Thinning is done 

 in various ways, depending upon the kind of crop. 

 The great variety of hand weeders in common use 

 adapt themselves as readily to thinning the smaller 

 cultivated plants as to the removal of weeds. 

 Onions, radishes and beets are usually thinned by 

 hand or with some one of the very small hand im- 

 plements, while cotton may be thinned by what if- 

 commonly known as "chopping out" with the hoe. 



The practice of starting many plants in specially 

 prepared seed beds and transplanting to field con- 

 ditions largely eliminates the necessity for much 

 thinning. As a matter of fact, this is one of the 



