GUIDE 



[5] 



SEED SCATTERING. 



After the last hard frost, when the ground becomes workable during the rainy 

 season, is the time to plant most seeds for trees in open country. To scatter the seeds, a 

 prudent person carries the seeds he wishes to sow in a tray fastened at the hip and will 

 cover the field he is sowing at a regular pace. With each step, he takes a handful of seeds 

 and distributes them as uniformly as possible over a specified area. If the seeds are too 

 fine to hold in his hand, he can mix them with dry soil or sand and distribute the mixture 

 together. Sowers (machines that can distribute seeds very uniformly) have been invented; 

 but they're not used either because they don't fully accomplish their purpose, are too 

 expensive, or because custom resists it. [Translator's note: The Industrial Revolution 

 came later to France than it did to Britain. At the time this book was published, there still 

 may have been considerable opposition to the use of machinery in French agriculture.] 



SOWING IN FURROWS. 



Sowing in furrows is widely used for trees in nurseries. It consists of laying out a 

 furrow in a recently worked field - its width and depth depends on the kind of seeds one 

 intends to plant in it - distributing the seeds in it as uniformly as possible, and covering 

 them with fine soil at a suitable depth. The soil at the bottom of the furrow is then firmed 

 with the back of a rake and covered with leaf mold or other fertilizer as the situation 

 requires. 



