THIN AND THICK SOWING. 65 



44. Mr. Barclay seems to have been aware that the 

 shallow depth to which the land was ploughed must have 

 had an influence upon the productiveness of the thin sown 

 samples ; hut, even admitting this, he thinks that the large 

 differences between the produce obtained could have hardly 

 been made up had the land been ploughed deeper. It 

 seems to be pretty well established, that where thin sowing 

 is practised, deep and effectual tillage of the soil is impera- 

 tively necessary ; and it certainly is a strong point in favour 

 of the thin seeding system, that it does thus involve the 

 necessity of deep and careful stirring of the soil and its 

 weeding, for where these are attended to, bad farming can 

 scarcely be said to exist. Further, Mr. Barclay has overlooked 

 the fact that early sowing is an essential element of success 

 in thin sowing. Now, from our own experience alone, we 

 should have had no difficulty in predicating, that the thin 

 seeding carried out so late as the 7th of December, would 

 not produce either good quality or great quantity of grain or 

 straw. Be it noted here, that ice are not advocating thin 

 against thick sowing ; it is our duty chiefly to draw up the 

 the best information on the subject at our disposal, adding to 

 it, here and there, such remarks as we can give, likely to elu- 

 cidate any of the points opened up. Indeed, so far as the 

 question involved is concerned, we should be disposed to 

 counsel that it be kept an open one, for we feel assured, that 

 no one mode of practice is universally applicable to all locali- 

 ties, irrespective of soil and climate. In one locality, with 

 peculiarities of soil and climate understood, we might strongly 

 advocate the adoption of the thin mode of sowing ; while in 

 another, we would as strongly advocate the very reverse mode 

 of proceeding ; and yet we could give a reason why we did so, 

 which would abundantly clear us from the charge of incon- 

 sistency. A firm conviction of this great truth that agri- 

 culture is not a fixed science, but open to all the disturbing 

 influences of elements, themselves disturbed, as soil, climate, 

 locality, difference in manorial and regenerative agents, 

 would, we feel assured, keep down the persistency, or shall 

 we say, the dogmatism, of those who, with good reason 



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