160 FARM MECHANICS 



in check rowing than when the corn is planted in drills. 

 The greatest objection to hill planting is the crowding 

 of four corn plants into a space that should be occupied 

 by one plant. 



A great many experiments have been tried to scat- 

 ter the seeds in the hill, so far without definite results, 

 except when considerable additional expense is in- 

 curred. However, a cone suspended below the end of 

 the dropping tube usually will scatter the seeds so 

 that no two seeds will touch each other. They may not 

 drop and scatter four or five inches apart, but these 

 little cones will help a good deal. They must be ac- 

 curately adjusted so the point of the cone will center 

 in the middle of the vertical delivery tube, and there 

 must be plenty of room all around the cone so the 

 corn seed kernels won't stick. The braces that hold 

 the cones in place for the same reason must be turned 

 edge up and supported in such a way as to leave 

 plenty of clearance. The idea is that four kernels of 

 corn drop together. They strike the cone and are scat- 

 tered in different directions. They naturally fly to 

 the outsides of the drill mark which scatters them as 

 wide apart as the width of the shoe that opens the drill. 

 The advantage of scattering seed grains in the hill has 

 been shown by accurate experiments conducted at dif- 

 ferent times by agricultural colleges. 



GRAIN DRILL 



To know exactly how much seed the grain drill is 

 using it is necessary to know how many acres are con- 

 tained in the field. Most drills have an attachment 

 that is supposed to measure how many acres and frac- 

 tions of acres the drill covers. Farmers know how 

 much grain each sack contains, so they can estimate as 



