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and 7 iu Nebraska. Tue average proportion of spriug-wheat drilled 

 throughout the country is 30. per cent. A still larger proportion is 

 seeded by the use of some style of broadcast seeding-machine, leaving 

 the remainder to be sown by hand, mostly in lands having stumpy or 

 uneven surfaces, Avhere fields are small, or where new farms have been 

 opened, and cnltivation attempted before the pioneer could find means 

 to procure drills or seeders. A very small proportion is actually seeded 

 by hand, far less than in the cultivation of winter-wheat. In the East- 

 ern States, to a considerable extent in the Middle States, almost exclu- 

 sively iu the Southern States, and in the region south of the Ohio, hand- 

 sowing is practiced ; and when a machine is used in putting in winter- 

 wheat, it is generally a drill, very rarely a broadcast seeder. 



Various forms of broadcast seeders, which are a great improvement 

 on broadcast sowing by hand, are nsed in the West. They have come 

 in since drills, and for firing sowing have displaced them in many lo- 

 calities. A j)rincipal reason assigned for this preference, especially in 

 corn-growing Illinois, is their better adaptation to sowing after corn, 

 without plowing, which is a prevalent practice. It is slovenly but 

 cheap, and a scarcity of farm-labor compels its adoption by the aver- 

 age farmer. Our Kankakee correspondent says that " farmers who 

 drill winter- wheat, broadcast their spring crop, and declare that corn- 

 land harrowed in grows less to straw and is less liable to fall down." 



There is another ground of opposition to the drill, which is a di 

 rect confession of slovenly farming. It is very common in the whole 

 northwest, and api:)ears to constitute very prominent objection. It is 

 that the drill leaves between the rows wide spaces " in the best possi- 

 ble condition for the growth of every kind of weed." In the case of 

 the corn-land, the mellow row-spaces are already full of weeds at the 

 time of planting, and their presence and future growth are the result 

 of the absence of all preparatory culture, with which the drill has no 

 connection whatever. As the drill alone, running among grass and 

 weeds, over corn-hills, was found to be impracticable, a compromise 

 was made between negligence and labor, and a cultivator and broad- 

 cast seeder were combined to accomplish the least amount of work ad- 

 missible at the lowest cost ; and as this sort of cultnre is the rule iu 

 the spriug-wheat region, the seeder largely predominates, the drill be- 

 ing used only in sections where more thorough culture prevails. It is 

 admitted generally, throughout this region, that in dry soils the drilled 

 wheat, which is x)ut in at a uniform and greater depth, gives more sat- 

 isfactory resnlts. In Dane County, Wisconsin, it is declared that 

 " drilling does as well always, and iu dry seasons better." If a dry, 

 sandy field is late sown, it should be drilled, says the Pierce County 

 correspondent. In Saint Croix it is aflflrmed that " in dry ground, or 

 when dry weather follows, drilled wheat produces four or five bushels 

 more per acre. In Fillmore, Minnesota, a great wheat-growing coun- 

 ty, our correspondent asserts, from an experience of fourteen years, 

 that " diilliug produces three to five bushels more per acre, with one- 

 eighth to one-fourth less seed." In Olmsted it is thought " drilling is 

 not superior to broadcasting, except in dry seasons." Our Houston cor- 

 respondent prefers a mixed practice, deeming it " a good plan to drill 

 both ways, one way east and west, that the weeds may be more shaded, 

 and then cross-drag to scatter some of the grain." In Nicollet the drill 

 " is best if fields are kept clean." In Freeborn the seeder " is most nsed, 

 worked among grubs, stones, and in wet land, but the drill is best in dry 

 soil." Similar views are reported throughout Iowa. Fonr-fifths of the 

 areais sown broadcast. It is universally believed that the seeder is better 



