THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



119 



natural form, and not be interfered with by the too near 

 approach of neighbouring plants. " Sigma's" plan is 

 to plant from ten to twelve grains of wheat in each 

 square foot of ground, inserting each graia at a depth 

 suitable for its germination, so that the growth of every 

 seed is secured. 



With reference to details of i)ractice, " Sigma" has 

 some useful remarks. Of these we now present a 

 resume. The system should be carried out early in the 

 season, the greatest success being ensured by doing this 

 —say from the latter end of August to the first week in 

 October. At this season three grains in each hole will 

 be sufficient, the rows being nine inches apart, the in- 

 tervals in the rows eight to twelve inches. The depth 

 varies according to the soil ; in light land one-and-a- 

 half, and in heavy not deeper than one inch. The 

 " plants will nearly touch in the course of two months, 

 crossing in the ground, and are not liable to become 

 ' winter bound,' for every stem is stout, stiff, and hard, 

 and grows horizontally." As the season advances more 

 seeds should be put into the holes ; after the 1st of Oc- 

 tober five or six seeds to each hole— five or six to the 

 half foot amounts exactly, in average sample, to five 

 gallons per acre. " There is nothing to be com- 

 pared with machine-planted seed," says " Sigma," " for 

 regularity. If you seed early, and place the plants in 

 stools (four, five, or six plants to each stool growing up 

 out of a small hole as a single plant), at nine inches 

 apart every way, you will find that before winter the 

 plants or stools will become so bushy and circular that 

 the intermediate soil will hardly appear. The plants 

 will be three times the size of those 'thickly seeded,' 

 having room to extend their shoots every way ; the roots, 

 likewise, having a longer time for growth, will be found, 

 if examined, to have extended a great depth after their 

 food, particularly if tbe soil be poor and well drained. 

 Here it is not an unusual thing to be able to trace them 

 five feet below the surface. The roots that extend side- 

 ways also, onpoor land, seek their food at great distances, 

 searching for inorganics, to stiffen the straw and stay 

 the plants in wind and rain. To a crop of this descrip- 

 tion, where the land is so poor that the plant has to 

 search far and wide through the soil for food, a little 

 guano in spring has a most marked effect. This is ray 

 plan of growing wheat; my plants become giants, not 

 pigmies, and bear a crop in proportion." 



Dibbling on the ordinary system cannot be carried 

 out on light lands in a very dry season, as the holes fill 

 up as fast as the dibber is withdrawn. On the con- 

 trary, in a very wet season, on strong and stiff clays, 

 the seeds in the holes cannot be properly covered up by 

 the bushes which are drawn over them. By tbe use of 

 Sigma's "corn planter," both these evils of the old 

 system are completely obviated — in the first, namely 

 on light ilands in dry weather, because the making of 

 the holes and the deposition of the seed are thus de- 

 pendent on each other. To the lander side of the angular 

 seed-box, a row of Torn four to eight, brass nozzles or tubes 



are fixed, in the inside of which the steel dibbers work 

 up and down by means of the handle. The instrument 

 being jerked on to the ground, the nozzles penetrate 

 into the soil as far as the bottom of the box to which 

 they are fixed. The steel dibbers are then withdrawn, 

 the action of withdrawal of which permits the seed to 

 fall from the seed-box into the holes made by the 

 nozzles ; when the dibbers are made to descend, push- 

 ing the allotted portion of seed into its own hole. The 

 seed being thus deposited before the nozzles which make 

 the hole are withdrawn, the objection of the old system 

 is completely obviated. Nor is this operation of the 

 instrument an old one, as at first sight it might appear 

 to be ; thirty-four of the necessary movements can be 

 made on the average in a minute, giving with a five-row 

 machine 170 holes filled, and all executed in the most 

 perfect manner. In wet weather, on strong stiff clay, 

 the holes or water-cups, which cannot be well closed on 

 the old system, do not exist when Sigma's iustrument 

 is adopted, inasmuch as the diameter of the holes is ex- 

 ceedingly small. On wet land the seed should never be 

 deposited more than an inch below the surface. 



Not the least recommendation of the instrument is 

 that with it the work done cannot be " scamped :" even 

 with the most indifferent attention given to its working, 

 the seeds cannot fail to be deposited, and with the 

 greatest uniformity of depth. The amount of work 

 done by a strong lad or man per day is equal to one 

 acre, and this amount is more easily performed than half 

 the extent on the old system. The depositors, or " corn 

 planters," are made to deposit the grain in rows of the 

 usual width apart, namely, 9 inches ; and if the intervals 

 between the rows be also 9 inches, the stools all then 

 stand in squares, which admit of every facility for hoe- 

 ing. In using a machine with five depositors to make 

 ten rows of corn on a 7 feet stetch, the depositor is in 

 the first place brought close to the furrow ; the operator 

 then works backwards, depositing the seed in the rows 

 at intervals of 8 or 9 inches, till the end of the field is 

 reached, when the operation is reversed to the other 

 end of the field. 



To induce some of our readers to give the system a 

 fair trial, we in conclusion, show (in the words of Sigma) 

 the satisfaction that awaits them by so doing : "Few 

 until they have tried it can form any idea what a crop 

 of dibbled wheat is like, the seed being inserted at even 

 distances, and at a proper depth ; it totally differs from 

 every other method, the vigour of the plants — not the 

 over-luxuriance producing mildew, all iiags and no 

 corn — the efforts made by nature to fill up every space, 

 and, when further advanced, the stiffness of the straw, 

 resembling sticks, the length and weight of the ears, are 

 interesting and instructive to observe." 



To those desirous of knowing more of the contents of 

 tbe pamphlet which " Sigma" has published, than the 

 space at our disposal has permitted us to give, we may 

 mention that it is obtainable at Mr. Ridgway's, the 

 publisher, Piccadilly. R. S. B. 



