186 
On Rape-dust. 
least, half a bushel per acre. This every one knows to be the case. 
And yet there is no produce from it ; for a large quantity remains 
uncovered, and is pilfered )jy the birds, or perishes — it being well 
known that seeds, though supplied with heat and moisture, cannot 
vegetate properly under the influence of light. 
From this we conclude that, as there is much waste of both 
seed and manure by the broad-cast plan (owing to the two not 
being placed in proximity, and at a uniform depth), if we would 
secure as good a crop as we do by drilling, where the manure and 
seed are placed in close contact, we must apply a much greater 
quantity of both. Therefore, by using the drill, we have, what we 
asserted, a sailing in the cost of produce ! 
Practical evidence of this saving is afforded by the well-known 
fact, that as good crops are now produced by 4 and 5 cvvt. of rape- 
dust, as were, on its first introduction, obtained by 9 and 10 cwt. 
sown broad-cast. 
The gain in the quantity of produce, from an application of 
rape-dust on the drill system, is thus explained : — 
We know that the plant in its infancy feeds upon the matter in 
the seed. But after it has developed certain fibres, it begins to 
take up nourishment from the soil, while the green leaf, or shoot, 
which it has sent upwards, extracts carbonic acid from the air. 
We know, also, that if its fibres find no food near, they increase 
in number and length, and spread over a large surface. Thus we 
find that plants growing in very poor soils have an immense num- 
ber of fibrous roots, and a poor stunted stem. The reason is, 
that the plant has exhausted its vigour in its efforts to maintain 
life ; for these numerous roots have been formed at the expense 
of the matters which ought to have assisted the growth of the 
stem. By placing, therefore, the manure under the seed, the 
plant will have no necessity to exhaust itself by such fibrous ex- 
tension ; and, as decomposition will be going on at the time when 
the plant is rearing its stem and putting out the green leaf, it will 
be well supplied with liquid and gaseous food at the most critical 
period, and consequently will be able to develop a stouter stem 
and leaf, and in less time than if the manure was farther distant 
or more diffused. Indeed, it is a matter beyond question that the 
sooner the plant escapes from that state of transition, in which it 
cannot be said whether it derives its food from the seed, the soil, 
or the atmosphere (the state in which it is commonly said to be 
" spaining "), the sooner its organs for extracting its food from 
the air and the soil are developed, the more vigorous will be 
their growth, and the more efficient their use in the process of 
vegetation. 
From the drill method of applying rape-dust the plant also 
derives a better supply of moisture, so necessary to supply it with 
