84 
T H E G A II D E N M A G A Z I N E 
March, 1915 
regular equipment. For any one who 
already has a wheel-hoe, their cost is so 
little that they may be readily afforded. 
Perhaps the most important of all of these 
are the hoes with extra high “standards” 
or guards. I emphatically recommend the 
purchase of a pair of these in addition to the 
regular equipment. 
Plowing. — Generally, except in cases 
where the ground is already in good con- 
dition from previous planting, more satis- 
factory work can be done with the spade or 
spading fork, than with any hand-plow I 
have ever tried or seen. The same is true 
of hand raking of the seed bed, to level and 
prepare it for the drill. The hand wheel- 
plow, however, is often useful 
in loosening up ground that 
has already been plowed or 
spaded, and has lain for some- 
time before you are ready to 
plant it, or in plowing small 
furrows for putting in manure, 
or in which to plant peas or 
beans or corn with the drill. 
Seed - sowing. — Have the 
ground made as smooth and 
fine as it is possible to make 
it with an iron rake, and 
always freshly prepared. If 
anything happens to prevent 
your planting as soon as the ground is 
ready, go over it again just before you do 
plant. Set the drill as carefully as you can 
for the seed you are going to plant, and 
then test it on a board or a smooth floor 
to see how it will work. It will drop the 
seed usually a little thicker on such a surface 
than in the garden. Watch the seed care- 
fully, 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 fall- 
ing from the hopper 
all right. Keep the 
rear roller wheel 
clean. If the soil is 
a little moist, and 
tends to stick to it, an 
occasional tap with 
the wrench — which 
should always be 
carried along in 
one’s pocket — 
will dis- 
lodge 
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 dis- 
tinctly 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, 
“Attachments.” From left to right: Onion or fender hoe; regular type; new style cultivator 
tooth with wide bottom cultivator teeth to work close up to row and old style also shown 
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 little 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 carefully 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 be- 
tween the rows, destroying the young weeds 
and breaking up the crust. When using 
the discs, push the machine along steadily, 
without any thrusting movement. The 
slight ridges left will be leveled down by the 
next cultivation, working the soil over 
thoroughly. The first cultivation after 
the plants are up — and it should be given 
just as soon as they are up enough to mark 
the rows — should be given with the hoes 
with extra high standards or guards already 
mentioned. They permit very close and 
rapid work 
without 
throwing 
The weeder attachment may be used for raking lightly over the soil before the plants come up 
any soil on the plants, which is impossible 
with the regular hoes. 
Immediately following this cultivation 
the first hand weeding should be done, even 
if there seem to be very few weeds visible; 
between the plants, as between the rows, 
they should be destroyed as soon as they 
sprout, and not allowed to grow until they 
are so big as to threaten the existence of 
the crop. After weeding the soil between 
the rows will be more or less packed down 
hard, and the next cultivation should be 
given with the cultivator teeth on the 
machine, to loosen the soil up again. There 
are three types of cultivator teeth which 
may be had: the regulation narrow ones; 
the “gang” of three or more 
together, of which the best 
have the ones nearest the 
row work shallower and nar- 
rower than the ones in the cen- 
tre; and the separate teeth 
with extra wide bottoms which 
have the advantage, where 
the weeds have begun to get 
a little ahead, of cutting them 
off as well as breaking up the 
soil. 
Every ten days or two 
weeks after this cultivation the 
garden should be run over be- 
tween rows with the ordinary hoes attached 
to destroy any weeds which may be sprout- 
ing and maintain the dust mulch. If the 
ground seems packed at all at any time 
substitute the cultivator teeth for the hoes. 
The soil should always be worked over as 
soon as it is dry enough after a rain. With 
crops such as beans, which are sometimes 
benefited by a slight hilling, the hoes or 
the disc attachments, set so that they 
throw the soil toward the row instead of 
away from it, may be used for very rapid 
and uniform work. As a general thing, 
however, level cultivation is to be pre- 
ferred to hilling as the loss of water from 
evaporation is not so great. Toward the 
end of the season, when crops which 
have been planted close have begun to 
fill up the rows, the vine lifters should 
be put on, and the single wheel used, 
with the hoes set close together, or the 
“sweep” or scuffle hoe attachment used 
in their place. 
For ordinary work, going once in a row 
at each cultivation will be sufficient. If the 
weeds have begun to get a little ahead, and 
the first time over does not get them all, 
or where the rows are too wide for the hoes 
or cultivator teeth to work up close to the 
row on either side, go twice, or three times 
if necessary, until the work is thoroughly 
done. Weeds that are only partly de- 
stroyed will continue to make a rapid 
growth, particularly in moist weather, 
and if they once re-root after the main 
tap-root has been broken, you will have 
your hands full, as they form a mass 
of fine fibrous roots to which the earth 
clings, so that each cultivation simply 
moves them around a little without 
succeeding in putting them out of busi- 
ness. 
