DIBBLE AND DIBBLING, The common garden dibble is an implement too well known to require any lengthened description. A round piece of wood, about an inch and a half in diameter, sharpened at the point, is the most simple and common form. To allow it to be more easily pressed into the ground, a handle is usually added. This is all that is needed for a garden dibble. In some parts of England, where labor is plentiful, large breadths of wheat are put in with the dibble. Several dibbles are usually joined together, and made of sufficient length to enable a man to perform the operation, as he walks backwards, without much stooping. Children follow with the seed, and drop two or three grains of wheat in every hole. The dibbler is often used to put in beans. By dibbling, a considerable saving of seed is effected. From one bushel to six pecks of wheat is the usual quantity required to sow an acre. Dibbling is thought to be advantageous for light lands which are in good condition. More recently, several
ingenious machines for dibbling have been constructed. The one most worthy of notice is'Newberry's horse-dibble, which sows from one to seven rows, and accomplishes the operation with great nicety and accuracy. Being an expensive machine, however, it has not come into general use. Dr. Newington has invented a hand-dibble, a very per fect implement of its kind; the same machine makes the holes and deposits the seed at once. This has been a useful article on small holdings, and it is the greatest favorite at the present moment.
Dibbles of every kind are unsuitable for stiff or clayey soils; the soil, compressed and hardened around the hole which they make, not readily admitting the young fibers of the root, and retaining water to the injury of the young plant.