MODES OF SOWING THE SEED. 49 



It should be stated that the 9-inch drills had the advan- 

 tage of being hoed. It will also be noticed that the quan- 

 tity of seed was not equal in both cases. Much of the 

 value of experiments of this sort is lost through the inad- 

 vertence or carelessness which prevents the simple rule being 

 attended to, that the trial should be equal in all respects. 

 Here the question to be decided was the influence of width 

 of the drills upon the seed sown, and yet the quantity of 

 this was not equal. In another trial by the Messrs. 

 Dixon of Withani in Essex, the quantity of seed used 

 in the two widths was very properly the same, at the rate 

 of three bushels per acre. The width of the stetches or 

 furrow was in both cases 10 feet, but one half of the 

 stetches carried 19 rows or drills, the other half 13 rows. 

 The whole quantity of land thus sown in equal divisions 

 of 19 and 13 rows or drills to the stetch of 10 feet was 

 3 roods 37 poles. The produce was as follows: 



Bushels. Pecks. Stones. Ibs. 



19 rows, 348 sheaves, 23 If, weighing nett 106 8 

 13 374 21 Of 96 8 



Our narrow rows did not stand up so well as the wide, but 

 yielded a shade the better sample. The soil was of a mixed 

 quality, and the seed was of the variety known as " the 

 golden drop." 



37. The method of sowing generally adopted on the Con- 

 tinent is the broadcasting but the more advanced agricul- 

 turists are fast adopting the drilling, or, as they term it, 

 " cultivating in rows " or lines. On the relative advantages 

 of the two modes, we find that some of their leading men 

 have experimented extensively, so that in this department, 

 as in others connected with agriculture, we find ready to 

 our hands much information that is more or less practically 

 valuable, always, at all events, suggestive in our own prac- 

 tice. The following, from the pen of M. J. A. Grand- 

 voinnet, on the relative advantages of broadcasted (volee) 

 and drilled (en ligne) crops will be useful in this direc- 

 tion : 



" A greater amount of work is really necessary to obtain 



D 



