The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-28
Rnkc OF thc Gnrden.

The rake is to the garden what the
smoothing harrow is TO the field, asserts
a correspondent of the American Guilt
vator IL is more, or in many places II
may with advantage, take the place Of
the cultivator and the hoe. Many times,
in preparing the land for sowing onions
or other small seeds, wooden rakes are
brought into rcquisition for removing the
Jumps and the trash that might interfere
with the successful operation of the hand
drill, wheelhoe or weeder But for ordl-
nary garden operations, nothing equals
"a properly constructed steel rake. This
should have from twelve to sixteen teeth,
and the shape of the latter is quite i'm
portant Some are made straight. but for
most effective work, especially level
ing the surface. they should be
slightly curved inward. such rake with
a moderately long handle, will do great
execution i'm a garden. If 1t be backed by
a vigorous, active man.
In smoothing the ground preparatory
to sowing seeds, rake with teeth OF the
shape indicated may be most effectively
used with a sort Of pushing motion in
connection with a drawing one, The sur
face may be thoroughly fined, and TINS
Will aid greatly both IN the germlnatlon
of the seeds and in the after-cultiNation.
But rarer use for the garden rake is
i'm place of cultivator and hoe after the
seeds are sOWn. and also after the plants
are up The surface frequently becomes
crusted especially after heavy rains, ana
unless the seeds are sown very shallow a
careful stirring of the surface by means
of the rake VIII bring up this crust, de-
stroy many embryo weeds and assist the
tiny plants in coming to the light. TINS
is precisely what the farmer does In his
corn and potato fields when he goes over
them with his smoothing harrow.
This year small piece or potatoes
was planted in burrows, just enough SOL
drawn over to cover the seed pieces and
fertilizer afterward scattered In the fur
rows. Just before or about the time the
shoots began TO appear, rake was used
to draw more soil into the burrows
and level the surface. This destroyed
millions of incipient weeds and left q
smooth and mellow surface through
which the potato plants came
surface SR sp'G Of the ground in which
We're sown my peas. sweet corn, beets,
onions, satisfy. parsnips, radishes etc
It saves n tremendous amount of after
the advantages of the soil mulch, which
aids 50 greatly in conserving the mois-
But the rake should take the place OF
the hoe in the garden more frequently
than II does If the garden has been
neglected until the weeds are large and
tough, the rake will do but little execu-
ton. II isn't worth much for cutting
off large weeds But the work should
be begun before this stage is reached,
and repeated frequently enough %
teeth of the rake present SO
much less resistance TO the
SOIL imam tue tuAc VI ire hoS, ,dliu. ~
much more ground can be covered on ac-
count of the greater width of the rake
that the same expenditure of power will
produce much greater results than
would be possible with the hoe. The lat
ter cannot be dispensed with entirely
but l use a rake far more than / do a
hoe in my own garden. A hoe with a
short rake on the back Is made, and is
very convenient for stirring between
narrow rows and among closely Sc;
plants in the flower beds. A rake leaves
the surface much smoother and nicer
than does the hoe.