PREPARATION OF THE SOIL AND SEEDING. 341 



dition of the land, whether distributed evenly, and the nature of 

 the season that is to follow. By consulting the table which 

 gives the number of seeds to the ounce, and a little calculation, 

 it will be seen how thickly the grass would grow provided every 

 seed produced a plant. 



In the opinion of the writer, it would be better, in most cases, 

 if farmers used less seed to the acre and took more pains to get 

 the land in better condition. Suppose we sow 12 quarts of 

 Timothy seed and 4 pounds of red clover to the acre. This will 

 make 18,944,000 seeds of Timothy and 6,024,000 seeds of clover, 

 a total of 24,968,000 seeds, or about 4 seeds to the square inch. 

 Using finer seeds in mixtures, as prescribed by some of the 

 English people, they often sow from 50,000,000 to 100,000,000 

 seeds to the acre, or not far from 8 to 16 seeds to each square 

 inch. In either case there can be room for only a small portion 

 of the plants should all the seeds grow and thrive. 



Where the plants are crowded closely together, the stems of 

 grasses and clovers are more slender and less likely to become 

 woody. There is probably no danger of sowing too much seed, 

 excepting in the matter of economy. If the young plants are too 

 numerous, the stronger will soon starve and crowd out the 

 weaker. 



Under favorable circumstances one seed produces a plant 

 which "tillers" and contains a large number of culms. Even 

 with the best of chances, there will be much loss of seeds and 

 young plants, what proportion no one can tell. The seeds should 

 be well grown, well harvested, well cleaned, and true to name. 

 Some experimenter in Great Britain found 1,100 plants (probably 

 culms) to a square foot of good meadow land, and on water 

 meadows the number was increased to 1,800 plants. 



Sinclair found from 634 to 1,798 distinct rooted plants of 

 various species in one square foot in nine separate localities. 

 Where rye grass grew alone, there were only 75 plants. In a well 

 31 



