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A gentleman informs us, that in a very dry spring, 

 lie soaked some barley, for 24 hours, in some black 

 water which had oozed from his stables and dunghill; 

 after which he mixed the seed with some sifted wood 

 ashes, to make it spread regularly, and sowed some 

 fields with it. He also sowed other fields with the 

 same seed dry ; but the crop from the latter was, Uke 

 his neighbour's, very poor, mixed with weeds and 

 green corn when harvested, while the produce of the 

 other was three times as great, without any small or 

 green corn, or weeds at harvest. Among the best farmers 

 it is a disputed point — " whether much or little seed 

 shoidd be sown. If the early part of the season be 

 dry, the plants will not only be stinted in their growth, 

 but will send out off-sets ; and if rain afterwards fall— 

 an occurrence that must be expected during some part 

 of the summer, often at a late period of it — the plants 

 begin to throw out shoots which wiU not ripen with 

 the remainder ; consequently an unequcd sample is 

 produced, and the grain is for the most part of an in- 

 ferior quality. But if you sow a sufficient quantity 

 to ensure a full crop, without depending on its send- 

 ing out off-sets, your crop will grow and ripen evenly, 

 and all your grain will be g-ood." So says one ; now 

 hear the other side of the matter — "Whenahttle seed 

 (says a noted farmer) is given to the ground, the pro- 

 duce is greater and the corn is less liable to lodge ; for 

 when corn stands very close, the stalks are drawn up 

 weak, and on that account are less able to resist the force 

 of the winds, or to support themselves under heavy rain. 

 In poor lands sow thin, or your crop will be worth 

 little. Farmers who do not reason on the matter will 

 be of a different opinion, but the fact is undoubted." 



Now, hear me, Martin Doyle : — I tried very thin 

 sowing last year, and I had so many off-sets I'ipening 

 unequally, so miserably thin a crop, and so bad a grain, 

 that I shall, in future, give a fuU quantity of seed, 

 agreeably with the advice first quoted : but I advise 

 you on this, and every other doubtful point, to make 



