152 SOWING, PLANTING, ETC. 



487. Quantity of Seed. The plants should cover the 

 whole ground, each having just room enough to allow 

 its full and complete development and no more. To 

 learn how much seed will be necessary for this we 

 must consider the character of the soil, its preparation, 

 its fertility and the tune of sowing. The quality of 

 the seed, the extent to which it is apt to tiller or send 

 up side shoots, and the manner of sowing must be 

 taken into account; also the habits of growth of the 

 plant whether it is large and rank or otherwise, and 

 the mode of tillage to be adopted all these must be 

 regarded. 



488. The richer the soil and the more manure there is 

 used, the ranker the plant will grow. The ranker the 

 growth the more space will it require for its full develop 

 ment. On the other hand, in a poorer soil, the plant will 

 grow less rankly, so that more seed will be required to 

 cover the ground with plants on poor and scantily manured 

 land than on rich land well manured. 



489. The better the seed the less will be required. If 

 the climate and soil are very favorable to the plant, a 

 smaller quantity of seed will be needed, since a larger 

 number of plants will grow from the same quantity of 

 seed. So the earlier the sowing is finished, the less seed 

 may be used provided the season is favorable. 



490. If the soil is perfectly clean and free from weeds 

 less seed is necessary. Much also depends on the distri 

 bution of it, and the more uniformly it is spread the less 

 is required. For this reason hand or broad-cast sowing 

 requires more seed than machine or drill sowing. In 

 general, it may be said that winter wheat and rye, and 

 other winter grains, require less seed than the spring 

 varieties. 



