JANUARY: THIRD WEEK 17 



board or a smooth floor to see how it will work. It will drop 

 the seed usually a Httle thicker on such a surface than in the 

 garden. Watch the seed carefully, at least at the end of each 

 row, to see that it is running out all right. A small lump of 

 dirt in the bottom of the seed spout or a bit of trash caught 

 on the opening plow, may catch the seed and carry it along 

 for some distance and then drop it in a bunch, even when it 

 is falling from the hopper all right. Keep the rear roller 

 wheel clean. If the soil is a Uttle moist, and tends to stick 

 to it, an occasional tap with the wrench — which should al- 

 ways be carried along in one's pocket — will dislodge it. 

 Mark the first row out just as straight as you can get it 

 with your garden line or a piece of string, and don't be too 

 lazy to make a new straight line as often as the rows may 

 begin to get a little crooked. This is important not only for 

 looks: every crooked row means additional work every 

 time you work it throughout the whole summer. 



Cultivation. Cultivation should be begun before the 

 plants get above ground. Where the planting has been 

 done with a wheel hoe this is possible because the rows are 

 distinctly marked. There are two ways of getting the 

 best of any weeds that may start ahead of the seeds you 

 have planted. First is to go over the whole surface of the 

 garden, very lightly, with the weeder attachment, or the 

 rakes. The best time for this is just after the seed has 

 sprouted in the ground, and before the sprouts have got up 

 too near the surface. Millions of Uttle weeds will have 

 germinated and be above the soil, but so small you can 

 hardly see them until they begin to collect, like tiny pink 

 and white threads, on the tips of the weeder fingers; then 

 you will realize how many hours of work later in the season 

 you are saving yourself. The other way is to use the disk 

 attachment with a double-wheel hoe. With the disks care- 

 fully adjusted, and with the outside ones of each gang of 

 three removed if the rows are closer than fourteen inches 

 apart, you can shave right up to the row without throwing 

 any dirt over it, nicely "discing" the ground between the 

 rows, destroying the yoimg weeds and breaking up the 



