454 On the comparative Merits of Thick and Tliin Sowing. 
7-Incii Drills. 
SEED 
per Acre. 
Number 
of 
Sheaves, 
Produce 
of 
20 Sheaves. 
TOTAL 
assumed Produce 
of the 
5i Roods. 
Produce 
per Acre. 
7 Pecks 
936 
Busli. pk. qts. 
1 2 4 
Qrs. bush. p. 
9 4 0 
Qrs. bush. qts. 
6 3 5 
Balance in favour of the narrow drills^ 7 bushels and 7 quarts 
per acre. 
The greater number of sheaves produced by the wide drills 
can only be accounted for by the greater size and strength of the 
straw, which, however, produced ears very little superior to the 
rather weaker but more numerous stems from the 7-inch drills. 
It should also be stated that the 9-inch drills had the advantage 
of being once well hoed, which the 7-inch drills had not. 
Wood Hall, near Neivport, Essex, 
1 Sept. 1848. 
Note. — I have formerly tried many experiments on sowing both wheat 
and rye upon light and heavy land, on a large farm in the North of Germany, 
and always found that thick .sowing was best on the light porous soils, but 
on clays thin sowing was better, and dibbling best of all — whether drilled 
or broadcast — both in the saving of seed, the quality, and the quantity of 
the crop. This, however, only applies to wheat, as rye is, in that country, 
seldom sown in any other than poor, sandy soils.^ — J. F. Burke. 
A series of experiments for many years in the same district is required 
to settle the question in such district. In one large district it is found best 
to sow 2 bushels of seed in drills 9 inches apart, and that is there the gene- 
ral system. In another more or less seed is required, dependent on climate, 
soil, elevation, exposure to wind, game in more or less abundance, birds, 
insects, &c. No one lule is good for every district. The increase in these 
cases of Mr. Wolfe, estimated by the peck, is nearly twenty-seven fold. 
The increase of each individual grain that produces corn is, in the gene- 
rality of seasons, iiom 120 to 150 fold, as I have proved by counting the 
grains in an immense number of instances. Is it not worth while to con- 
sider the causes of this great difference and at least apparent loss to the 
farmers ? — Portman. 
XXV. — The Far mill of Devonshire. By Henry Tanner. 
Prize Report. 
Extent and Population. 
This county contains, according to the late trigonometrical 
survey, 1,654,400 acres of land, of which 1,200,000 acres are 
arable, meadow, or pasture, and 454,400 acres remain in an un- 
cultivated state. 
The population, by the census of 1841, was 533,731, of whom 
