SOWING AND PLANTING IN DRY AREAS 181 



yields from the former are usually less than those from 

 the latter. 



Where the land has been properly prepared it will 

 seldom happen that the moisture in the soil will not be 

 sufficient to produce prompt germination. But this may 

 occur in exceptional instances. When it does the question 

 arises as to whether the sowing of the crop should or 

 should not be deferred until rain falls. The safer plan 

 will be to wait as long as it may be safe to wait without 

 incurring hazard through undue lateness in sowing, and 

 then to put in the seed. If rain comes the crop will prob- 

 ably succeed. If it does not come, the only direct loss 

 incurred is that of the seed and the labor of sowing, as 

 the ground will remain in good shape for receiving other 

 seed sown in the spring. 



The time to sow spring grain. The aim should be to 

 sow grain in the spring as early as the work can be prop- 

 erly done, and without incurring hazard to the plants, 

 and for the following reasons: (1) To insure germina- 

 tion in the seed. (2) To give the plants all the benefits 

 that can be obtained from a relatively . long period of 

 growth. (3) To mature them before the very hot and 

 dry weather arrives. When the preparation of the land 

 has been begun the previous year and under suitable 

 conditions, it is very seldom indeed that the moisture in 

 the soil will be too much lacking for germinating the 

 seeds of cereals when these are sown in season. When 

 the plants are given as long a season for growth as the 

 conditions will admit of, they attain to a vigor of matur- 

 ing that could not be reached save under very exceptional 

 conditions by plants of the same variety th,at are sown 

 late. This means that the yields will be relatively less. 

 When sown early, growth is so far advanced that, when 

 the season of warm weather comes, which may always be 

 looked for in midsummer in semi-arid countries, they will 



