208 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



this hoeing and cleaning is not by any means general; yet 

 if the reader will draw to recollection what has been given 

 in a former part of the present chapter as to the habits and 

 characteristics of the barley plant, he will at once perceive 

 that the growing crop will be immensely benefited by being 

 cleared from weeds, and the soil consequently well stirred, 

 so as to admit abundance of light and air, and allow the 

 atmospheric influences thus to operate in their usual bene- 

 ficial way. As to " dibbling," from what we have heard, 

 and from the result of numerous experiments of our own, 

 we are inclined to think it is even more specially valu- 

 able for the barley than it is for the wheat crop so much 

 so, that if the difficulties attendant upon carrying it out on 

 the large scale are considered such as to be prohibitive of 

 the system, we would at all events most unhesitatingly 

 recommend its adoption in all cases where a special supply 

 of seed is to be raised from some favourite variety, or where 

 experiments are being carried out. The whole question of 

 thick and thin sowing is invested with so many points of 

 immensely practical importance that we shall be pardoned 

 if, in addition to what we have already said upon it in a 

 previous paper, we here draw attention to some very sug- 

 gestive remarks 011 it by M. Bodih, of the Agricultural 

 School at Rennes, who is a strong advocate of thin-sowing. 

 Referring to the well-known dicta, " On rich land sow thin ; 

 you will always have sufficient seed;" and, "On poor soil 

 cover the field with seed you cannot put in too much," 

 M.'Bodin says that it will be worth while to inquire from 

 whence the notions involved in these sayings have sprung, 

 and how it is that it has come to be believed that putting 

 a large number of plants into land which does not contain 

 nutritive principles, and few into soil which contains much 

 nutriment, opposed as seems written on their face, to com- 

 mon sense. Under the impression that sowing thickly 

 would choke the weeds, M. Bodin has adopted it in the 

 case of certain crops, but the results obtained taught him, 

 he says, a lesson. By sowing thickly on poor soil, each 

 grain produces only one stem, and that stem only one ear ; 



