April, 1918 
31 
wheel-hoe. You should have one or the other. 
Whatever the tool used, the object is to get 
the surface thoroughly loosened up again to a 
depth of several inches. If no other tool is 
available, you may have to do it with an 
ordinary hoe or with the spading fork. 
When this work has been done, we are 
ready to use the rake. And the next thing 
for the beginner to learn is that this imple¬ 
ment is not to be used in the same manner as 
it would be in raking grass. 
In the latter case, the object is to rake up 
everything there is on the surface of the 
ground; in the garden, to rake up as little as 
possible. In preparing the garden, the rake 
is used primarily for leveling the surface, and 
only incidentally for gathering up such pieces 
of manure, small stones, plant stems and other 
rubbish as may be on the very surface of the 
ground. Care must be taken not to dig things 
out from under the surface, if they can pos¬ 
sibly be covered up so that they will not inter¬ 
fere with planting. The more stones that can 
be removed, of course, the better; but every¬ 
thing else that will decay should as far as 
possible be left under the soil. It all adds 
humus to the garden, and humus, as we know 
from a preceding article, is as essential as is 
manure or fertilizer. 
The rake, then, should be used with a back- 
ward-and-forward motion to level down all 
ridges and fill up hollows, and lightly remove 
any loose trash from the surface, leaving a 
perfectly level, fine, moist strip of ground 
ready to receive the seed. 
The next step is to mark off the first row. 
Don’t just go ahead and guess at it. It will 
probably not take over ten minutes at the most 
to get it perfectly straight and parallel with 
or at right angles to the edge of your garden 
or the side of the house or the sidewalk— 
whichever is the most natural line to go by in 
laying out your garden. That first row will 
determine the general appearance of the entire 
garden; make it straight and true. 
If you have a right angle to make, here is 
a simple method of determining whether you 
have it exact or not. Measure off 6' from 
the comer along one line, and 8' from the 
corner along the other. If it is a true right 
angle, the diagonal between the two points 
should measure exactly 10'. If it does not, 
you can adjust one side or the other until the 
angle is a true one. 
Different Methods of Planting 
The actual getting of the seed into the soil 
is the next thing to be done. There are four 
distinct kinds of planting: in drills, in rows, 
in hills, and transplanting or setting out 
plants. While these four operations have 
points more or less in common, nevertheless 
they are quite different and, to some extent, 
each requires different preparation of the soil. 
First of all, for the beginner, let me ex¬ 
plain that by “drills” we mean plants grown 
in a continuous row so close together that no 
effort is made to have them at regular dis¬ 
tances, or to cultivate between the individual 
plants. Radishes, spinach and many other 
things familiar to everyone are grown by this 
method. “Rows” signify that the plants are 
set at regular distances apart, but so close to¬ 
gether that cultivation is done only in one 
direction, except for the use of the hand hoe 
or rake. Cabbages, peppers and potatoes are 
familiar examples of vegetables grown in rows. 
By “hills” is meant the setting of the vege¬ 
tables so far apart in both directions that cul¬ 
tivation is given both ways, and each group 
(Continued on page 12) 
Cover the first plant¬ 
ing of peas about 1" 
deep, in a wide drill 
The back of a wooden 
rake is excellent for 
covering shallow drills 
Then turn the rake as 
shown at the right, to 
firm down the soil 
Use a wooden rake for 
the final smoothing of 
the garden before 
sowing 
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