212 HOW TO GROW GOOD CORN. 



that in samples too thin and poor for even the farm- 

 yard poultry to pick up, yet that much of this is 

 capable of germination. 



Still, theory and practice confirm the assumption 

 that in England very much seed is wasted by being 

 too thickly sown ; and, if a farmer can get his land 

 well prepared and in good time, we conclude, as a 

 matter of practical experience, that just half the seed 

 usually sown will be better than the double quantity; 

 but we should, as a rule, make a difference of at least 

 half a peck for each week that we were beyond the 

 best time of wheat-sowing in any particular district. 

 On our own farm we sowed four and six pecks of 

 wheat where double the quantity had been the rule 

 before Christmas, and from six to eight pecks after- 

 wards ; six pecks of barley and oats, where a sack had 

 previously been the rule. With the wheat and barley 

 we were right, except in the very late-sown of the 

 latter, when time was only sufficient to grow a single 

 head, and not to allow of stooling. Here a sack 

 would have given a better result. The same with our 

 oats : thin seeding caused them to run to straw ; they 

 were on a poor sand, taller than the men who cut 

 them ; but had we doubled our seed, we conclude we 

 should have had shorter straw and more corn. 



If, then, these things be so, the judgment of the 

 farmer will be best shown in rightly weighing all the 

 circumstances of his case ; and in the matter of seed- 

 ing, as with physic, he will find that homoeopathy 

 alone is only quackery. 



