13 



so often lead to erroneous conclusions that no satisfactory and certain progress 

 can be made by their aid. Hence the fact that but few things connected with 

 our agriculture have been determined. . Most of them remain now, as they were 

 a quarter of a century ago, unsettled questions, because results have been so 

 imperfectly seen. But even by them some questions have been settled, though 

 obscurely, and among these is the general conviction of the utility of drill- 

 sowing, as is manifest from the above extracts of the correspondence of the De- 

 partment. 



Experiments should be made in every latitude, and hence this Department 

 cannot make them. But in the establishment of the Industrial Colleges, under 

 the donation of Congress, the future of our agriculture will not labor under the 

 disadvantages of the past and present ; but as the soil becomes more worn by 

 our vast production, there will be found the means of determining the agencies 

 of every result, and these, once clearly seen, can be controlled by an enlightened 

 agricultural art. 



4. In the absence of such experiments we must rely on general results, and 

 not on individual cases, which are determined by unobserved incidents, and by 

 inherent differences of two or more modes of cultivation. Thus as to drill and 

 broadcast sowing, we must learn their peculiar diflerences, so that we may de- 

 termine the results of each as modified by season, time, soil, manure, depth and 

 number of ploughings, and the pulverization of the soil. The purposes of this 

 article Avould be uncompleted if a brief examination of their peculiar differences 

 was not made. 



Drilling has two general objects in view — saving of seed, and such disposal 

 of it as will best tend to the production of a perfect plant. Of the first, nothing 

 more need be said than has already been. Of the second, everything is at- 

 tained if the root is well grown in the fall, for such root resists freezing out ; it 

 has acquired sufficient vital power to resist freezing in ; it pushes forward the 

 spring groAvth of the plant to early maturity, thus avoiding rust, and overcom- 

 ing the attacks of the fly, and it insures a large crop by sufficient stooling, and 

 by better filling the grain. Essential to such results are, of course, a rich soil, 

 properly prepared, and timely sowing ; but these do not belong to the sowing, 

 and therefore cannot now be properly considered, for its office simply is to place 

 the seed in the ground. It has in view four things : to place it at the proper 

 depth ; to distribute it equally, so as to allow equal space to each plant ; to 

 give it protection during winter ; and to allow spring cultivation. These will 

 be briefly considered in the order stated. 



1. Proper depth of jilcinting . — Every observing farmer will admit that ordi- 

 narily the fall growth of wheat determines the success of the crop. Now, in a 

 cliniiate like that of the United States, where the dry Indian summer prevails 

 from the first of October to the middle and end of November, it is of the last 

 importance to place the seed at that depth where the roots will be shielded 

 from the surface droughts, and can reach the uprising subsoil moisture. Drill- 

 sowing places the seed about three inches below the surface of the drill furrow. 

 As the roots grow, they pass beneath the drill ridges, thus increasing this depth 

 from the surface. In very dry seasons this is of much advantage, but not mate- 

 rial in moist ones. And to this fact, probably, we owe the diiferent results 

 stated by the correspondent from Jersey county, Illinois, from harrowing and 

 rolling after the wheat was drilled in. 



Broadcast sowing, especially if harrowed and not ploughed in, but barely 

 covers a large portion of the seed. In this condition it is subjected to the 

 influence of the Indian summer droughts, and forced to seek moisture in the 

 dews and slight showers of this season. To learn what effects on the fall 

 growth of the root these different depths of planting have, we need but examine 

 the state of the roots in the spring. Having done this carefully, after a winter 

 of very injurious freezing out, we can confidently declare what that state is. 



