sow 



sow- 



on poor lands, and marks sterility. 

 A good liming and tilth are wanting to 

 improve such soils, not because they 

 are sour, or the sorrel should be kill- 

 ed, but because they are poor lands. 

 The wood (oxalts) sorrel grows only 

 in rich places. 



SORREL-TREE. Andromeda ar- 

 borca. A handsome shrui)bery tree 

 in the North, with beautiful white 

 racemes of flowers. In the South it 

 becomes a large tree. 



SOUTHERNWOOD. Wormwood. 



SOWENS. A dish made from oat- 

 meal. 



SOWING, AND SOWING MA- 

 CHINES. " The sowing of the seed 

 has always been looked upon as one 

 of the most important operations of 

 husbandry. Much of the success of 

 the future crops depends on the time 

 and the mode in which the seed is 

 committed to the earth. After the 

 land has been well prepared by ju- 

 dicious tillage and manuring, many 

 accidents and circumstances may dis- 

 appoint the hope of the farmer, and 

 the crop may be scanty or fail alto- 

 gether. The weather and the sea- 

 sons are not under his control ; but 

 much also depends on his own judg- 

 ment and skill. If he selects the best 

 seeds, chooses the proper season for 

 sowing them, and has them carefully 

 distributed and properly covered with 

 earth, as their nature requires for the 

 most perfect germination, and thus 

 also protects them from the voracity 

 of birds or insects, he will have a 

 much greater prospect of success, 

 under all circumstances, than if he 

 were careless or negligent. 



" The most common mode of sow- 

 ing the seed is by scattering it as 

 evenly as possible over the ploughed 

 surface, as it lies in ridges from the 

 plough. The harrows follow, and 

 crumbling down the ridges, cover the 

 seed which has fallen in the hollows 

 between them. It requires an ex- 

 perienced sower to scatter the exact 

 quantity over a given surface, with- 

 out crowding the seed in one spot, 

 and allowing too great intervals in 

 another. Hence the farmer who 

 does not himself sow the seed, inva- 



riably chooses the most experienced 

 and skilful labourer to perform this 

 work. Notwitlistanding every care 

 and attention on the part of the farm- 

 er, the labourer will often relax and 

 become careless, and the result ap- 

 pears only when it is too late to rem- 

 edy it. This has given rise to the 

 various attempts which have been 

 made to invent machines for sowing 

 the seed, such as should ensure per- 

 fect regularity. Of some of these 

 we will now give a short account. 



"One of the simplest of these ma- 

 chines consisted in a hollow cylin- 

 der, with one or more rows of holes 

 in a line parallel to the axis. These 

 holes can be stopped in part, if re- 

 quired. The seed is put into the cyl- 

 inder, the length of which is equal to 

 the width of the land, or stitch, which 

 it is desired to sow at a time. By 

 shaking this when held horizontally 

 and at right angles to the path of the 

 sower, the seed is scattered with con- 

 siderable regularity. One inconve- 

 nience of this instrument is, that it 

 requires to be filled frequently, and 

 that much still depends on the atten- 

 tion of the operator. Accordingly, it 

 was very soon laid by. The idea, 

 however, was followed up and im- 

 proved upon in the sowing barroic, 

 an instrument still extensively used 

 for sowing grass seeds. It consists 

 of a wooden trough placed on the 

 frame of a light wheelbarrow. An 

 iron spindle, furnished with circular 

 brushes at regular intervals, runs the 

 whole length of the trough, and is 

 turned by means of simple machin- 

 ery connected with the vsheel. Op- 

 posite each brush is a brass plate, 

 with holes of different sizes, which 

 can be partly closed by means of a 

 circular slide. According to the size 

 of the seed to be sown and the quan- 

 tity to be scattered, the holes are 

 opened or shut. The seed is put 

 into the trough, which has a cover or 

 lid ; and by merely wheeling the bar- 

 row in a straight line, a breadth is 

 sown equal to the length of the trough, 

 usually 12 or 15 feet. But this ma- 

 chine cannot conveniently be used in 

 wmdy weather, which disperses the 



739 



