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XIX. — On the Advantage of Thick Sowing. — By David 
Barclay, M.P. 
The following is the result of some experiments which I made 
last year, in order to ascertain the relative merits of thin and thick 
sowing wheat, drilling, dibbling, and by broad-cast. They were 
conducted with great care upon 5 acres of level land of uniform 
quality, being a good deep loam on a chalk subsoil, following a 
clover ley folded by sheep. The land was ploughed about 5 
inches deep, as it was not thought desirable to bury the sheep- 
dressing below that depth. The seed was put into the ground 
about the 7lh of December, 1843, and the wheat was hoed in the 
spring of 1844, except the acre sown by broad-cast, which was 
harrowed instead of being hoed. The plants in Nos. 2 and 3 
(thin sowings) were by much the strongest, and looked the best 
throughout the season, until the approach of harvest, when it be- 
came evident that the quality of the grain and straw was inferior, 
more particularly on No. 2, which appeared to have suffered a 
little from mildew. 
Samples of the different lots were submitted to an eminent mil- 
ler, and the value of each determined by him ; the straw was 
valued at the market price. (See next page.) 
The results of these experiments are very remarkably in favour 
of thick sowing, and particularly of the old broad-cast system; and 
if not conclusive against the doctrine of thin sowing, so strongly 
and, I may add, so ably advocated in the present day, should at 
least induce caution on the part of farmers before they depart 
from the practice of their forefathers. Indeed it is difficult to be- 
lieve that so great an advantage as the saving of a bushel or a 
bushel and a half of seed per acre can have been overlooked for so 
many generations. It seems more reasonable to suppose, that long 
practical experience has taught the farmer the more prudent 
course of a liberal supply of seed. It may however be contended, 
that had the ploughing been deeper and the seed put earlier into 
the ground, the result would have been different : this is not> im- 
probable, and it is possible the deficiencies in the quality and 
quantity of thin-sown wheat and straw might have been less ob-' 
servable, but the large differences which my experiment indicates 
could hardly, I think, have been made up. I have this year 
repeated the trial of thin-sowing, having drilled one acre on the 
26th of October last (the land having been deeply ploughed) with 
1 bushel of seed, the rest of the field having 2 bushels per acre. 
The result I shall be happy to communicate if desired. 
