37 



only to the ordinary agricultural seeds; some seeds may be 

 too delicate to resist, uninjured, even its moderate action, 

 but the farmer should experiment and decide this for 

 himself. In many European countries in Scotland 

 especially, the use of the blue vitriol solution as pickle for 

 seed has effected an immense amount of good in that 

 country. Less than thirty years ago it was usual to lose, 

 by blackball and other fungoid diseases, from one to eight 

 bushels of grain per acre, while at the present day, in the 

 best-farmed districts, it is difficult to find a single diseased 

 head of grain ; to some extent this is due to other 

 causes, but the result is chiefly to be attributed to the 

 general use of blue vitriol in pickling the seed. 



" But all the foregoing goes for little or nothing if the 

 seed is not placed in the soil in a proper manner, and to 

 this we would invite particular attention ; for of all the 

 evils that result from the wretched agricultural practice 

 followed in this country, not the least is the loss produced 

 by bad sowing, especially by sowing too thickly. Indeed, 

 from thick-sowing alone we have no hesitation in assert- 

 ing our belief that, on at least two-thirds of the arable 

 land of India, an annual loss is experienced equal in 

 amount to the full rent demanded by Government on dry 

 land, and equal to one-quarter of the rent demanded for 

 wet land. We have known instances of native cultivators 

 sowing as much as 300 Ibs. of paddy-seed on each acre of 

 land to be cropped. The quantity of paddy-seed generally 

 broadcasted for a crop is not so much as this ; it varies 

 between 100 and 200 Ibs, per acre a quantity still far in 

 excess of the amount needed ; for some of the best crops of 

 country paddy that were ever produced under broadcast 

 sowing, were raised from less than 50 Ibs. of seed per acre. 

 The waste of seed thus caused by the low agricultural 



