Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 535 



budded trees in preference to grafted ones ; too much crossing of 

 wood I believe to be injurious. As fur pruning, experience teaches 

 me that June is the best time. 



How Much Seed-Wheat to the Acke ? 



Mr. Nathan Shatwell, Concord, Jackson county, Michigan. — In 

 view of the vast amount of wheat that is annually sowed, it is a singu- 

 lar fact that farmers are so diverse in. opinion with regard to the 

 amount of seed necessary to be sowed to the acre. In western New 

 York two bushels per acre is considered little enough, while in the 

 same latitude in , Michigan and other western Spates, a bushel to a 

 bushel and a quarter is the more cotnmon amount, though some sow 

 one and a half and even two bushels. The three farmers that gained 

 the prizes at the State fair in Michigan, reported in The Detroit 

 Tribune, held at Jackson this fall, for the best five acres of wheat, 

 sowed respectively one and a half, one and a quarter, one and seven- 

 eighths bushels per acres. The amount per acre raised were 3-i 6-60, 

 44 17-60, 24 27-60 bushels per acre. Thus one and a quarter bushels 

 of seed raised the largest number of bushels, and the one who sowed 

 one and a half bushels of seed raised more than he who sowed one and 

 seven-eighths. Supposing the land to be the same, the less seed the 

 more wheat ; but such, probably, was not the fact. But why do 

 farmers, and the best of farmers too, disagree so widely in regard to 

 the amount of seed necessary per acre ? Does not the quality of land, 

 early and late sowing, materially affect the amount of seed necessarily 

 per acre ? Does not rich, heavy land, sowed early, needless seed than 

 land of poor quality, or good land sowed late in the season ? This, I 

 think, is the fact, and that seed should be regulated somewhat accord- 

 ing to the time of sowing, or quality of tlie land sowed. A bushel 

 and a peck per acre was thought to be sufficient twenty-five years 

 ago in western New York ; now two bushels is none too much. If 

 such is correct, farmers sowing after corn, and necessarily late, should 

 be more profuse with their seed. What say the Club ? Light on this 

 subject, I think, would be useful. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — For many years, Mr. Mechi, one of the best 

 farmers in England, has been urging upon farmers the importance of 

 putting in their wheat better, but using less seed. He uses a drill 

 that works exactly, and with it he seeds with a peck to the acre, 

 and gets the best of crops. If a peck to the acre, instead of five or 

 six pecks, will answer, our farmers ought to know it, for the bread- 

 stuff thus saved would feed half the poor of Europe. 



