PKACTICAL MANAGEMENT OF SOILS. 41 



regulates the quantity of the seed, Professor Tanner says, 

 is this " The early sowings require less seed, whilst for the 

 later sowings, the quantity should be gradually increased ; 

 and again, as the soil and climate become more favourable 

 to the growth of wheat, less seed becomes necessary. The 

 iirst sowings will take 5 to 6 pecks per acre, whilst the 

 latest will range up to 8 pecks, and on poor land, up to 

 .is many as 1 pecks. The influence of soil upon the quan- 

 tity of seed to be sown is very marked, the richer the soil the 

 less the seed required ; this is accounted for by the supposi- 

 tion that in rich lands the plant tillers better than in poor 

 soils, throwing up a greater number of poor stems. In poor 

 land, therefore, more seed is necessary to increase the stems 

 and to enable the crop more thoroughly to search for food 

 in the soil." 



28. The depth to which the seed should be sown depends 

 upon the closeness of the soil, and therefore changes with 

 different textures of soil. On loamy soils, a depth of one 

 inch is found to be the best, but in proportion as the soil 

 becomes lighter should the depth be increased till it reaches 

 1J and 2 inches. The mode of ploughing in seed-wheat 

 with a three or four-inch furrow, the Professor says, is 

 clearly wrong, for at such a depth, the plant will not es- 

 tablish its roots in the soil, and its growth upwards will be 

 much delayed. If any difference in the depth is to be 

 made in loamy soils, it should be made thus : the early 

 seed should be sown the deepest, as then there is plenty of 

 time for the growth of the plants, and a deep growth insures 

 a firmer root ; but no variation in depth should exceed half 

 an inch. The lighter the soil the greater the depth, for 

 the firmer the root obtained. 



29. In sowing Spring Wheat the soil need not be so 

 firm as for autumn wheat ; but the difference is only one 

 of degree. For when wheat is sown upon land not suffi- 

 ciently firm, the plant fails in the severe weather of winter; 

 the more solid the bed, therefore, the firmer the hold of the 

 roots in the soil ; so that frosts cannot dislodge the plants. 

 The great necessity then for a firm seed-bed in autumn arises 



