SOWING OF THE SEED. 237 



ports them. All the more urgently need the question be 

 asked now at a time like the present, when the question is 

 so often asked, " how are we to find food for our stock ? " 

 often asked, indeed, not often satisfactorily answered. The 

 subject then of action, on the part of our Societies, to take 

 up the settlement of points connected with crop cultivation, 

 is of great importance, second, indeed, we venture to main- 

 tain, to none ; and the advocacy of which is in no-wise out 

 of place in a series of papers, the one object of which is to 

 gather up, from a wide variety of sources, all or nearly all 

 that can be said on the subject. NOT is it the most con- 

 vincing proof, if proof indeed is needed, of the amazing 

 apathy of our leading Agricultural Societies on some of 

 the most important departments of cultural economy, that 

 in these papers we have little information to give of much 

 value derived from the direct and immediate action of these 

 Societies. True, it may be said that these Societies give 

 liberally it cannot be said they give prizes for Essays 

 on these very points. This, we take it, does not convey a 

 correct notion of how the matter stands. These Essays are 

 often, nay we say, almost always, very good ; but if based 

 upon practical experience, that experience being that of in- 

 dividuals, must necessarily be limited ; and if experiments 

 are detailed, these also must be limited ; and we have al- 

 ready insisted upon this, that the points about which so 

 much uncertainty exists, can only be decided, if, indeed, 

 they are at all capable of decision, by an extended series of 

 experiments under different circumstances of soil, climate, 

 and locality. Can this extended series ever be undertaken 1 

 will it ever be undertaken by individual enterprise ? There 

 is but one answer, and one only, to this question. What 

 that is needs not to be here at least explicitly stated. 



35. There are still some points connected with the seed 

 and sowing of oats to which we must refer here. As regards 

 the quantity of seed to be employed, we find the same 

 diversity of opinion existing which we find to exist amongst 

 practical men on the wheat and barley crop ; some insist- 

 ing upon thick, some upon thin sowing. It is worthy of 



