On Grass Lays^ Manures^ £dV. 333 



number of stems, supported and nourished by much 

 fewer original roots. 



To illustrate this, I could readily refer to numerous 

 tillering or suckering fruit-bearing plants. Thus, one 

 grain of corn will produce numerous stalks, but their 

 production is found trivial, when compared with the 

 same number of stalks, standing also in one cluster, 

 but suckered, and each proceeding from its own grain, 

 and supported and nourished from its own original 

 root : and were it not too laborious to sucker wheat, 

 to one stem, and a sufficiency of seed was introduced 

 to meet this practice, it would soon display crops ex- 

 ceeding credibility. 



When wheat is sown in a climate similar to that 

 near Philadelpliia, previously to the 15th of October, 

 two bushels per acre may be found sufficient, increas- 

 ing the quantity, in proportion as the season advances, 

 until the 5th of November, after which three bushels 

 will be found little enough, — If barley or oats are sown 

 early in the spring, three bushels per acre may suffice, 

 particularly of the former, but an addition, equal to the 

 progress in season, should be added to both, for they 

 also tiller, in due proportion to the time when they are 

 sown. I believe that little, if any seed can be saved, 

 by the drill, without very serious injury to the crops, 

 and this opinion is progressing in England, where a 

 false economy in seed, for a long time prevented that 

 full display of the very superior crops, which may be 

 grown, when this instrument is properly applied. Eng- 

 lishmen sow grass seeds profusely, and in this they 

 are perfectly right, and excel us greatly, who sow far 

 too little, for this economy in seed, gives rise to nu- 



