G2 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



" It is all very well to talk of sowing in September, but 

 in many districts this year all hands were then employed 

 in harvesting, and in late districts seed time will probably 

 be in November and December. On my own farm, ex- 

 perience has taught me the danger of so small a quantity 

 as one peck per acre, and I know of some cases this year 

 where one peck of Mr. Hallett's wheat on one acre has 

 been found to produce only three quarters of inferior 

 quality per acre on land which generally produces five or 

 six quarters. Parties who have been thus unsuccessful, 

 should, equally with those who are successful, communi- 

 cate their results for the information and guidance of their 

 brother-farmers. 



" Absurd quantities of seed continue to be sown as a 

 general practice ; but I would advise my brother agricul- 

 turists to feel their way down to a proper minimum quan- 

 tity, suited to their soil and climate, by small experiments 

 in their fields. I see so many farms where weeds are 

 allowed to luxuriate and perfect their seeds almost undis- 

 turbed, in competition with the cereal crops, that in these 

 it would be the height of folly to attempt thin sowing. 

 There they must sow thick, to pre-occupy the ground and 

 smother the weeds, as they will not clean-hoe. Thin 

 sowing, to be successful, demands, like a thinned turnip 

 crop, a frequent use of the hand and horse-hoe, to which 

 much of the land of this kingdom is still a stranger." 



43. While much has been written on the advantages of 

 thin sowing, thick sowing, however, has not been without its 

 advocates. It is well known that broad-casting is more in 

 general favour in Scotland, and some districts of England, 

 than drilling ; and it is hard to believe, as suggested by 

 Mr. Barclay, " that so great an advantage as the sowing of 

 a bushel and a half of seed per acre can have been over- 

 looked for so many generations. It seems more reasonable 

 to suppose that long practical experience has taught the 

 farmer the more prudent course of a liberal supply of seed." 

 Mr. Barclay, here quoted, in a communication to the Royal 

 Agricultural Society's Journal, gives the result, in a tabular 



