40 FOR BETTER CROPS 



There has been great improvement in machinery for seeding 

 small grains. The hoe drill, and especially the disk drill and 

 the shoe drill, place the seeds in the moist bottom of a freshly 

 made furrow and allow the soil to at once fall back as a 

 covering. 



Following with a Scotch harrow or other drag to complete 

 the covering is often an aid to uniform germination and insures 

 the plantlets becoming firmly rooted. 



Conditions Determine Amount of Seed — The amount of 

 seed varies greatly with the openness or closeness of texture of 

 the soil, and its fertility; also with the temperature and rainfall, 

 and with the earliness or lateness of planting. 



When conditions such as dense, moist, cool soil prevail for a 

 long period, inducing the grains to stool well, less seed will be 

 necessary. On the other hand, an open, drouthy, infertile soil, 

 warm weather, and a short stooling season, will make necessary a 

 larger amount of seed for a full stand of plants. 



Some of these conditions are in conflict, as the inability of a 

 soil poor in fertility to support a heavy crop. 



The amount of seed best to use in each agricultural district 

 for each crop, each kind of soil, and each time of seeding must 

 be determined by formal experiments or by wide practical 

 experience of farmers in that district. 



Since the farmer cannot predict with certainty what the 

 weather is to be following a given date of seeding, he must take 

 into consideration all other available facts and use his best judg- 

 ment; not departing too widely from what is known to be the 

 best average amount of seed to be used. 



Some General Rules as to Amount of Seed — About one- 

 sixth less seed is needed when the drill is used to place the seeds 

 at a uniform depth than when they are broadcast and placed at 

 different depths by cultivating them in. Only the average 

 extremes in amount of seed to sow are given here, because local 

 requirements differ so widely. 



They may be stated as follows: Wheat, five to eight pecks: 

 oats, eight to ten pecks; barley, seven to nine pecks; rye, seven 

 to nine pecks; millet, two to three pecks; flax, for seed, two to 

 three pecks; buckwheat, two to three pecks. 



As a rule little more can be done for the growing crop of 

 closely drilled or broadcast grain than to pull out by hand large 

 weeds or such weeds as wild mustard, the seeds of which ripen 

 with the ripening grain and re-seed the field. 



In some foreign countries, women and children are employed 

 to pull out the weeds and even to hoe between the narrow drill 

 rows when the plants are several inches high. We are glad that 

 our country has such high rates of wages that this is impracti- 

 cable; and that our farming is on a broad basis of machine 



