270 CAMPBELL'S SOIL CULTURE MANUAL 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



QUANTITY OF SEED. 



What the necessary amount of seed per acre is, is a 

 question somewhat complex, as there are many little de- 

 tails some of which have much to do with the quantity 

 of seed and the final crop result. Therefore, we find it 

 entirely out of the question to outline imperative rules for 

 the real or necessary quantity of seed. 



We well remember a book published about twenty-five 

 years ago which had a table giving the required amount 

 of seed for the different farm crops. As we now under- 

 stand soil physics / soil fertility and the moisture question, 

 this table seems not only very inconsistent, but ridiculous. 

 For example it says "75 to 90 pounds of winter wheat per 

 acre on good rich soil." To cover practically what was 

 meant by the language we would now say that on good 

 soil scientifically fitted from 15 to 20 pounds of winter 

 wheat, and if more was sown, the chances would be very 

 much in favor of less yield of grain and a poorer quality 



On the Burlington Model Farm in the autumn of 1904 

 a piece of summer tilled land was by mistake seeded with 

 thirty pounds of seed, and the result was straw and heads 

 enough for seventy bushels per acre, but it was so thick 

 that the straw became weak and more or less of the entire 

 field went down. The yield was only 46J bushels per acre, 

 the grain testing only 58 pounds. The stubble was so 

 thick, long and more or less matted that we were obliged 

 to burn it off to plow. This same field was seeded again 



