SOWING AND PLANTING IN DRY AREAS 177 



der dry farming conditions. To say that it has no place, 

 as some have said, is putting the matter strongly. There 

 may be certain soil conditions at the time for sowing 

 which would preclude the use of the drill, but would not 

 at the same time forbid sowing on the broadcast plan. 

 Such an occasion might arise from a soil so moist near 

 the surface as to make it impossible to do good work 

 with the drill. So much superior is drill sowing over 

 broadcasting, that the aim should be to sow even such 

 small seeds as alfalfa and grasses with some form of drill. 



THE DISC PRESS DRILL. 

 Courtesy American Seeding Machine Co., Springfield, Ohio. 



The amounts of seeds to sow. In dry areas the 

 amount of seed that ought to be sown is worthy of the 

 most careful study, because of the influence which the 

 amount of seed sown exerts upon the crop yields. It 

 would seem correct to say that in semi-arid areas the less 

 the amount of the precipitation the less the amount 

 of the seed that is called for. This conclusion is 

 based upon the influence which the moisture supply 

 present in the soil exerts on plant development. When 

 the number of plants growing on a certain area is in 



