CHAPTER IV. 



DIRECT SOWING- 



In direct sowing success depends on the correct appreciation 

 and due observance of the following six conditions: 



I. Proper selection of the species to sow ; 



II. Employment of good seed (this has been fully dealt with in 

 pages 145-151); 



III. The most favourable season for sowing ; 



IV. The quickest, cheapest and most effective mode of prepar- 

 ing and sowing the ground ; 



V. The right quantity of seed to sow ; and 



VI. Adequate care of the sowings until they are established, 



SECTION I. 

 Selection of the species to sow. 



On the proper selection of the species to sow more than on any 

 other consideration depends the success of direct sowings. In 

 nurseries seeds are sown in highly prepared soil within a small 

 manageable area, and are carefully protected during germination ; 

 while, after germination has taken place, the young plants receive 

 almost individual attention and are carefully guarded against all 

 harm. In direct sowings, on the other hand, the work is spread 

 over such immense areas, that anything like minute supervision 

 and tending is quite out of the question ; the seeds, and after them 

 the seedlings, receive a minimum of attention, and the latter are, 

 from their most tender age, left more or less completely to take 

 care of themselves. Whence the great importance of a correct 

 choice of the species to be sown. 



This choice is, at the very outset, necessarily limited to those 

 species which can best fulfil the object in view. That object may 

 be very various. It may be the production of certain special or 

 general classes of timber, fruit, &c. in quantities proportionate to 

 the probable demand, or the raising of a preliminary or nurse crop, 

 or the protection of hill-sides or the plains country below, or a 



