Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1875 — Thick or Thin Seeding of Grain. [ARTICLE]

Thick or Thin Seeding of Grain.

Of late years the practice of sowing or drilling wheat and other grains more sparingly has much increased. The change is partly due, we hope, to better cultivation, better preparation of the soil, and especially to the use of the drill, which secures a perfect covering of the seed at uniform depth. In sowing oh the fiirrow, especially on new land among stumps and stones, not more than half the grain would grow, and often less thap that. If the drill distributes evenly the quantity of grain really needed for a good seeding is very small—much less than any farmer thrnksof sowing:- Some curious calculations on this subject show that a bushel of wheat contains al>out 600,000 grains, enough to give, if distributed evenly and all grew, a' plant to every three square inches of One peek per acre would leave the plants only six inches apart, which is really closer than need be for a good crop. An English tanner by handplanting wheat, the grains nine inches apart, has secured a crop of sixty bushels per acre. It is commonly urged by farmers that thick seeding protects wheat from the severity of the winter by insuring a large growth of tops. But as each individual plant is crowded and stunted it is less fitted ,to endure the severity of winter. Often on fields which looked promising in fall we have seen the ground entirely bare in spring. There is, of course, a slight advantage in the decaying stems and root* erf the plants which die, as manure, but it is the dearest fertilizer that any fanner can use. If wheat is to be used as a fertilizer let the portion not absolutely needed for seed be malted, so that it will not grow, and distribute with the rest. Of course no farmer would do that, but it is more sensible than sowing more seed than is needed with the idea of benefiting the crop. There is shrewd sense in the English proverb: The worst weed for the wheat plant is another wheat plant. Other weeds might take something not needed for wheat, bnt the surplus wheat plants rob the soil of what la most needed to be retained tor the crop. We have noted some experiments in thick and thin sowing of spring grain. In most cases the results were apparently favorable to the thin seeding, especially where” the ground was rich. Unfortunately, the experiments were not accurately made, and only the general result can be stated. Thick seeding apparently did best on soil not rich enough to allow the grain to spread from the root. As a rule, Uie richer the land the leas seed required or allowable.

A farther conclusion on this subject seems lb be that thin seeding gives larger and heavier grain than where the plants are crowded closely together. By mistake last spring on the home farm a few bouts of barley were drilled in at the rate of little more than a bushel per acre. The barley for several weeks appeared quite thin, but before harvest became nearly as thick as the other, and we fancied was a heavier head and berry than the remainder ot the field sown at the rate of two and one-half bushels per acre. On the headlands, where the drill overlapped, sowing five bushels per acre, the barley was almost a failure, small straw, smaller heads and very small grains. This view in favor of light seeding is confirmed by Mr. Mechi, the celebrated English farmer, who says in • the English Agricultural Gazette that he has reduced the seeding of barley from three bushels to six pecks per acre, and that where three bushels is now sown the crop is too light in grain for malting, and is fit onjv tor grinding. We think mat on all rich land six pecks of

barley and the same of oats are 1 tetter than heavier seeding. For wheat one bushel, or five pecks at most, ought to be sufficient wherever wheat should be sown. —Rural New Yorker.