SELECTION" OF SEED QUANTITY SOWN. 833 



injured by storing, and is unfitted for reproductive 

 purposes. 



The "drill" should always be used for depositing 

 the seed. In a crop grown for fibre purposes, it is of 

 great importance that the plants should be as uniform as 

 possible in their growth, both as to their development 

 and their time of maturity, in order that the resulting 

 produce in fibre should make an even sample, which 

 always is a matter of money importance in the market. 

 This can never be secured so completely by "broadcasting" 

 as by "drilling." By the former, the seeds are irregularly 

 distributed over the surface, and deposited at irregular 

 depths; the first influencing materially the relative 

 growth of the plants those having most surface area 

 growing stouter and more vigorously than those having 

 less, while the seeds deposited near to the surface ger- 

 minate and throw up their stems more rapidly than those 

 buried at a greater depth, the plants generally retaining 

 their superiority during the whole growth of the crop. 

 Where the crop is cultivated for fibre purposes only, the 

 quantity of seed per acre should be less, and the drills be 

 drawn at less distances apart, than when grown for the 

 double produce of fibre and seed, which, indeed, is the 

 common practice. The spaces between the rows should 

 not be less than from 15 to 18 inches for either fibre or 

 seed purposes. A plant possessing the vigorous habit and 

 rapidity of growth of the hemp requires good access 

 to light and air, to enable it to digest properly and elabo- 

 rate into its own structure the food materials it has 

 obtained from the richly manured soil in which it is 

 grown. At less distances than 15 to 18 inches these 

 necessary conditions cannot be secured to it, and the plant 

 must suffer in proportion. 



The seed, which germinates very rapidly, should be 

 deposited as near to the surface as possible, especial 



