THIN AND THICK SOWING. 61 



colour throughout, never having turned yellow in spring. 

 This, we may remark in passing, we have found to be an 

 invariable attendant upon the plants of thin-sown wheat, a 

 healthy greenness most refreshing to look upon. But the 

 2-bushel plants of Mr. Mechi turned yellow, the 3-bushel 

 plants still yellower, and were decidedly the worst plants 

 in the field. Mr. Mechi, in a later communication to an 

 agricultural journal, has the following, the perusal of which 

 will be interesting : 



" It must never be forgotten that thin sowing is the 

 parent or first cause of large and vigorous ears to select 

 from ; on this point there can be no mistake, seeing that 

 thick sowing has an exactly reverse effect, diminishing and 

 crippling the growth of the ear, until, with extreme quan- 

 tities, there is scarcely a good kernel or good ear. There- 

 fore, in order to get good ears to select from, we must sow 

 moderately. It would be a very dangerous experiment to 

 sow generally so small a quantity of seed as one peck per 

 acre. In highly cultivated, warm, mellow soils, free from 

 weeds, and in good heart, where harvest is ready by the 

 1st of August, or earlier, such small quantities may be 

 sown, provided the sowing is done early ; but we must 

 ask ourselves how much, or rather how little, of the 

 land of this kingdom is in the state I have described. One 

 kernal in a hole, at intervals of 9 inches by 4, would, 

 under favourable circumstances, be ample, and produce 

 much more than if four times that number were sown ; but, 

 then, we have rooks, French partridges, birds, mice, arid 

 wiroworm to contend with. 



" The latter may be easily got rid of by sowing or plough- 

 ing in rapecake, with or without salt, the latter to be com- 

 mended. Light-land men* would be astonished to see our 

 cold tenacious birdlime -like seed-beds in a wet seed-time, 

 even where well drained and deeply cultivated. The seed- 

 ing of friable manageable soils cannot be compared with 

 such a state of things. Besides, the time of harvesting 

 depends upon the quantity of seed sown, and the period at 

 which it is sown. 



