354 THE YOUNG FARMEE's MANUAL. 



IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS. 



503. "Whatever the manner of sowing may be, the sower 

 should endeavor to travel with an even step, and in a straight 

 course, and not step sometimes three feet or more, and sometimes 

 one foot or two feet, because any variation in the steps will tend 

 to sow the grain unevenly. A sower who has long legs and 

 takes long steps, is too apt to get over the ground so fast that he 

 will not distribute a sufficient amount of seed, unless he has a 

 very large hand. On the contrary, he whose legs are very short, 

 and who takes short steps, if he has a large hand, is very liable 

 to sow too thick. Most sowers are quite apt to scatter much 

 grain in bunches and streaks, when they bring their hands back 

 from the grain preparatory to casting it. The hand should grasp 

 as much as is thought proper, and be brought back even with his 

 side, as high as the hips, and extended the entire length, when 

 the hand, in the act of casting the grain, should always move hori 

 zontally, and not rise nor fall, when in the act of sowing. (See Par. 

 496.) Beginners are very apt to cast their grain in streaks three 

 or four times as thick along their tracks as it is a few feet distant. 

 Some sowers give their grain an upward heave as they cast it, 

 throwing so far that the courses will overlap each other several 

 feet. This practice is not as good as it is to have the courses 

 overlap a very little. When they overlap too much, the grain 

 will be too uneven. A sower should not cast too high nor too 

 low. If he casts too high, the grain will be too thin in the middle 

 of the courses ; and if he casts too low, the grain will be too thin 

 at the junction of the courses. A sower who casts his grain low, 

 if he casts it the most proper distance, will always sow more 

 evenly than he who casts his grain very high ; and this is more 

 particularly true in 



SOWING GRAIN WHEN THE WIND BLOWS. 



504. No sower, however skillful, can sow grain evenly when 

 the wind is blowing furiously, or hard enough to change the 

 course of the grain as it is cast from his hands. If the wind 



