Mtices for a Young Farmer. xxvii 



tied. Yet, in England, the Farmer's Journal, (a most valua- 

 ble publication,) is filled with disputes on this subject; espe- 

 cially on the question, whether poor land should or should 

 not be sown thickly ; and rich land thinly ? — Poor land should 

 not be sown at all, with wheat, or any grain requiring much 

 nutriment ; if any adequate return be counted upon. It seems 

 that spring wheat is sown thick ; as far as three bushels to 

 the acre ; in the month of April, or beginning of May. A 

 kind— the triticum cestivum of the Botanists, may be hoed, 

 dibbled, or harrowed in, on bare places, where grain sown in 

 the autumn has failed ; and will ripen with the autumn sown 

 grain. It is bearded* with white straw and reddish grain ; 

 and does not mildew. The Talavcra, or Spanish wheat, is 

 now in great credit in England. Possibly spring wheat 

 would generally escape the fly. No successful means have 

 been taken to gain a perfect knowledge of agricultural facts, 

 in regard to this formidable foe ; although we have so long 

 suffered under its desolating ravages. Oats may sometimes 

 attract the fly and save your wheat ; as Buck-wheat sown oi< 

 accidentally growing among corn-hills, invites the grub from 

 your corn-plants. 



The drill husbandry, and seeding with instruments for sow- 

 ing in drills, calculated to save, as well as more regularly to 

 distribute and nourish the seed, have had many vicissitudes 

 of opinion and practice in Europe. Here, experience has 

 been so much confined to a few, that it would be hazardous 

 to pronounce, decisively, concerning it. It has zealous ad- 

 vocates ; and should be an object of experiment, where cir- 

 cumstances warrant and require the practise. 



Some contend for the efficacy of plaster sown on the winter 

 grain; both for its beneficial operation on the growth of the 

 plant, and to repel the fly. In the l * Inquiries on Plaster/" 

 republished in the 2d vol. of the Memoirs, a suggestion of its 

 uses to repel the fly was made; and lately if has been alleged 

 that it has been attended with success. But as to its use 

 in increasing the growth or productiveness of the plant, great 

 differences of opinion exist. When grass, (clover especially.) 

 is sown 07i the grain, as is now the common practice, plaster 



