GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 23 



is wheeled over the ground is being so improved that it 

 will sow almost all kinds of grass seed. 



Depth to Bury the Seed. The depth at which grass 

 seeds should be buried will be influenced by the size 

 of the seed, the character of the soil, the nature of the 

 climate, the season of the year at which the seed is sown 

 and the relative inherent vigor of the seed. As a rule 

 the relation between the size of the seed and the depth 

 at which to bury it is both close and intimate. The 

 larger the seed, the more deeply does it require to be 

 buried, and the smaller it is the more shallow the cover- 

 ing that best meets the conditions of growth. But the 

 inherent vigor of the seed has also a qualifying influ- 

 ence. The more vigorous the seed the better it can 

 withstand burial too deep, or too shallow to furnish the 

 best conditions for growth. 



No one of these influences, probably, is so great as 

 that of soil conditions. As a rule, the lighter the soil, 

 in the sense of its being sandy, the more spongy it is in 

 the sense of the particles lying lightly upon each other, 

 and the less capable it is of resisting the influences of 

 surface evaporation, the more deeply should the seed 

 be buried and vice versa. It would probably be correct 

 to say that for all the cultivated grasses some covering 

 would be preferable to none at all. In some instances 

 the roller following the sowing of the seed, prior to 

 the falling of rain, will provide a sufficient covering, 

 and there are instances in which rain alone will pro- 

 vide a covering. Particularly is this true of seeds that 

 are sown on clay soils in the autumn where heavy 

 rains in that season and in the winter following tend 



