Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1873 — Drilling Wheat. [ARTICLE]

Drilling Wheat.

One would suppose that it made little difference how wheat is sown, and yet people have noted that on land of as nearly as may be similar quality, arid in most circumstances probably the same, either one or the other will sometimes be much more successful than the other. Sometimes it is the drilled wheat which is the best, sometimes that sown broadcast, and the result is that there are two parties, each advocating one or the other of these methods, as "if one only could possibly be the best. But when we look at the circumstances accompanying each failure, we see that it is not the method of sowing so -much as the depth of the seed which injures success- and again, that the proper depth of the seed depends on the soil in which wheat is sown, the manner in which the soil is prepared, and the season which follows the sowing. In view of all these facts, we have never been able to decide which mode of sowing is the best as a mode; but for the regular seeding of; a piece of ground there-rs nothing like the drill. Each square inch has its own seed, and no plant need have more or less than the piece of ground we desire it to occupy. The different results arise from the facts we have stated in this way: When a wheat plant sprouts a few roots come out just above the grain, and the sprout makes its way to the surface;' when it gets there it_pushes out another set of roots just at the surface, and commences to stool out. The real life of the plant does not cotnm.ence~~uritil the sur-' face has been reached and a start made in thjs way. Now if the grain is put an inchtbelow the surface by the drill, it has to work its way up; and the ease with which it will do this depends on how the soil is pulverized and what its texture is. If it be sand.v it will come to the surface, no-matter if put three inches deep; or in heavier soHyif well worked and no rain follows. But if it becomes wet, and the soil settles firm, the sprouting germ cannot come to the surface easily, and it rots away.. Here we see how it is possible that- drilled wheat results badly. Broadcast sowing does not genetally bury the seeds deeply; and hence on stiff ground, where the deep-drilled seeds woulcrrot, if circumstances favored the shallow seeding, it would be thought to be against the drill. But there are many circumstances which at times operate against this system. In those springs when there is much freezing and thawing, for instance, the broadcast grain will be much more likely to thrown out than the drilled. In such a season the grain which has the deepest hold on the ground will be the most successful. Thus we see that if we could always be sure of getting the drilled wheat well through the surface it would have an advantage over the broadcast, while on the other hand, if there be continuous covering of snow, and little alternate freezings and thawings, the broadcast wheat would do at least as well. It is not the system, but the circumstanc-. es which.follow the system which tell.— Purn-'y's Press. ' L —ln most of the New Haven (Conn.) carriage factories, and in some other manufactories, the employes are now. working on short time—from seven to four hours. r .