SEEDING, PLANTING AND YIELDS 



135 



is broken up by subsequent tillage ; or if the crop is not tilled, as the cereal grains, the seed-bed 



disappears by the action of the elements and the natural settling together of the soil. The seed-bed is 



therefore only an epoch in the care of the field. 



The comminuting tillage tools leave the ground loose and more or less open. In this loose earth the 



seed is readily incorporated. But the earth may be 



too loose to promote the best germination. In such 



cases the roller is used to compact the earth. The 



soil-grains are then settled about the seeds, and the 



subsurface moisture passes up from grain to grain or 



through the small cavities, and supplies the seed. 



This moisture is on its way toward evaporation into 



the air; therefore it is well to break up the com- 

 pact surface by tillage, as soon as the plants are well 



established, in order to prevent the further loss of 



moisture, particularly if it is the case of a spring-sown 



crop. The com- 

 mon practice of ^S. 204. combined disk-drill and force-feed seeder, 

 tramping on the row in making garden hereby finds explanation; 

 and it is probable that the custom of spatting the hill with the 

 hoe in the steadfast old days when we planted corn by hand, had 

 other merit than merely to mark the spot where we had dropped 

 five kernels from a bed-ticking bag. 



The quantity to sow. 



The reader will want to know how much seed of the various 

 things is required for an acre. This information was once easy 

 to give, when fields were small and every one followed the cus- 

 tom of his father or his neighbor. But now we plant in hills at 

 all distances, or drills at all distances, or semi-broadcast at no 

 distances, and we grow crops for more purposes than were ever 

 dreamed of in the old philosophy. The tables, therefore, represent 

 either averages or extremes, and the person who is looking for 

 precise direction is likely not to find it, and he is told that it all 

 depends on conditions, and as likely as not he does not know what the conditions are. However, a table 

 has been compiled from good sources, and the reader is referred, for further information, to the articles 

 on the special crops comprising the major part of this book ; from these sources the reader should 

 be able to derive some help. 



Fig. 205. A six-foot seeder, with grass 

 seed attachment. 



Alfalfa (broadcast) 



Alfalfa (drilled) 



Artichoke, Jerusalem 



Barley 



Barley and peas 



Bean, field (small varieties) . . 

 Bean, field (large varieties) . . 



Beet 



Beggarweed (for forage) . . . 



Beggarweed (for hay) 



Bent-grass 



Berseem 



Blue-grass 



Brome-grass (alone, for hay) . . 

 Brome-grass (alone, for pasture) . 

 Brome-grass (in mixture) . . . 



Broom-corn 



Broom-com (for seed) 



Buckwheat 



Bur-clover 



Quantity op Seed Pee Acre. 



20-25 lbs. Carrots (for stock) 



15-20 lbs. Cassava 



6-8 bus. Chick-pea 



8-10 pks. Chicory (and by cuttings) . , . 



1-2 bus. each Clover, alsike (alone, for forage). 



2-3 pks. Clover, alsike (on wheat or rye 



5-6 pks. in spring) 



4-6 lbs. Clover, Egyptian or berseem . . 



5-6 lbs. Clover, Japan (lespedeza) . . . 



8-10 lbs. Clover, Mammoth 



1-2 bus. Clover, red (alone, for forage) . 



J-1 bus. Clover, red (on small grain in 



25 lbs. (pure) spring) 



12-15 lbs. Clover, sweet (melilotus) .... 



15-20 lbs. Clover, white 



2-5 lbs. Clover, yellow (for seed) .... 



3 pks. Clover, yellow (in mixture) . . . 



1 pk. Corn 



3-5 pks. Corn (for silage) 



12 lbs. Cotton 



|~1 lb. Cowpea 



4-6 lbs. 

 By cuttings 

 30-50 lbs. 

 1-li lbs. 

 8-15 lbs. 



4-6 lbs. 

 5-1 bu. 



12 lbs. 

 12-15 lbs. 



16 lbs. 



8-14 lbs. 

 2 pks. 

 10-12 lbs. 

 3-5 lbs. 

 lib. 

 6 qts.-l bus. 

 9-11 qts. 

 1-3 bus. 

 1-lJ bus. 



