9 5 6 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



performed ; and further gives it as his opinion that "neither 

 the drill, the dibble, nor the men who use either can ex- 

 ercise any influence over the crop after the seed is sown in 

 a proper manner." We are by no means disposed to ac- 

 cept this dictum as the right one. What is the proper 

 manner of sowing the seed 1 it may be by the system of 

 drilling, or, perhaps, by that of dibbling ; it is probable 

 that one is better than the other. There is no doubt that 

 one way of sowing seed any seed will be done in ac- 

 cordance with the habits of the plant than another. To 

 say that all plans of sowing are alike good is not borne 

 out by analogy or by facts, so far as we know and are pos- 

 sessed of them. As dibbling seems, for instance, to be the 

 best mode of sowing wheat, inasmuch as it favours the after 

 development of the plant more than any other, so do we 

 incline to the opinion that it is equally the best way to 

 plant the bean seed. Certainly experiments which we have 

 made in the field all go to favour this view, and there was 

 no difficulty in telling which was the best crop, the drilled, 

 the dibbled, or the broadcasted. So far then from agree- 

 ing with Mr. Vallentine that the mode of sowing can ex- 

 ercise and does not exercise an influence in the after growth 

 of the plants, we believe that it does exercise an influence, 

 and an important one. Which of all the three ways of de- 

 positing the seed is the best, absolutely we are not prepared 

 to say, further than we conjecture that dibbling is the best; 

 but still all circumstances of culture incline us to believe 

 that in this, as in other departments, the three degrees of 

 comparison exist, good, better, best. It would not form a 

 useless kind of inquiry on the part of the Agricultural 

 Societies of the Kingdom to ascertain which is the best. 



53. The broadcast system of sowing beans being put out 

 of court as, by almost universal consent, the worst mode of 

 sowing beans, and the drilling and dibbling retained as 

 the two best, the question arises what are the best dis- 

 tances at which to sow the beans, that is, the distance be- 

 tween the rows. We have already pointed out Professor 

 Tanner's views on this point; but we may say, what many 



