IMPROVEMENT OF LAKD. 93 



in tliis case any slight accident or disease, or it may be mismanagement, 

 may result in a serious loss in the crop, from there not being sufficient 

 plants to keep good the crop when part of the plants are injured from 

 any cause. When very thick sowing is resorted to, the ear is generally 

 small, from the plants not having sufficient room for full development. 

 It may be remarked, that when any kind of grain is sown in drills 

 by a proper machine, considerably less is required than when sown by 

 hand broadcast ; generally speaking, one-fourth less is found sufficient. 



As this point has a strong bearing on the success of farmers generally 

 in the cultivation of their crops, they should not fail to ascertain carefully 

 from experiments what quantity of seed per acre gives them the best 

 return. I am aware that but few pay any decided attention to this, and 

 sow generally too thickly, and consequently reap an inferior crop of grain 

 and not only inferior grain, but poor root-crops as well. It frequently 

 happens that we find farmers not giving either the potato or the turnip 

 sufficient room for development, and the result is that the crops pro- 

 duced are generally light compared with what they are under a system 

 of culture by which greater space is given to the plants, and which, 

 therefore, is better calculated to secure their full development in all 

 respects. 



Having in the foregoing remarks on the tillage, drainage, manuring, 

 and sowing of land, shown that farmers, generally speaking, at the pre- 

 sent day, are not sufficiently acquainted with these operations so as to 

 insure their full efficiency in bringing out the latent capabilities of the 

 land, it is therefore to be inferred that they do not understand the 

 nature of the powers which they possess capable of increasing the pro- 

 ductiveness of their land by the right application to it of those agencies. 

 It is not enough that a fanner should be what may be generally 

 termed well acquainted with these departments of his business ; he 

 must be possessed of an intimate knowledge of all of them in order 

 to insure his having, as it were, a complete command over the latent 

 capabilities of his land ; for without this he would fail in having com- 

 plete success as a profitable cultivator, and probably would also fail to 

 be able to guard against being a robber of the soil. I have known 

 men who perfectly understood the nature and application of draining, 

 and the advantages of it to the land and crops, who notwithstanding 

 made but indifferent fanners, just because they did not understand how 

 to deal with and apply tillage and manuring along with it. Indeed, 

 there are many men to be found who make one particular branch of 

 farming their special hobby, and who carry out that hobby in all their 

 views, as if in it alone lay the essence of good farming. One takes up 

 draining, another fine ploughing, or it may be deep ploughing, another 



