CHAPTER VI 

 SEEDING MACHINERY 



Seeders and Drills 



136. Development. Seeding by hand was practiced universally 

 until the middle of the last century. Seed was either dropped 

 in hills and covered with the hoe, or broadcasted and covered 

 with a harrow or a similar implement. In fact, in certain 

 localities in the United States hand dropping is practiced to 

 some extent at the present time. Broadcasting seed by hand is 

 practiced in many places. 



A sort of drill plow was developed in Assyria long before the 

 Christian era. Nothing definite is known of this tool, but it 

 was evidently one of the crude plows of the time fitted with 

 a hopper, from which the seed was led to the heel of the plow 

 and drilled into the furrow. Just how the seed was fed into 

 the tube we do not know. The Chinese claim the use of a 

 similar tool 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. 



Jethro Tull was perhaps the first to develop an implement 

 which in any way resembles our modern drill. In 1731 he pub- 

 lished a work entitled "Horse Hoeing Husbandry," in which he 

 set forth arguments to the effect that grain should not be broad- 

 casted, but should be drilled in rows and cultivated. This is, 

 in a measure, like the system promulgated by Campbell, and 

 which bears his name. Tull designed a machine which would 

 drill three rows of turnips or wheat at a time. He used a coulter 

 as a furrow opener and planted seed at three different depths 

 His reason for this was that if one seeding failed, the others 

 coming up later would be sure to be successful. Tull, like many 

 others who spent their lives in invention, died poor, but he was 

 successful in developing a line of drills, horse-hoes, and culti- 

 vators. 



American development. The first patent granted to an Ameri- 

 can was that Eliakim Spooner in 1799. Nothing remains to 

 tell us of the nature of this device. Many other patents followed 



