THE CULTIVATOR. 
August* 
246 
cows were better than those of his sire, Wye Comet. 
Abel Chapin, Esq-, bred and fed three or four very large 
and fine steers of his get. One in particular, though 
not as large as two others he had, was sold to Mr. Sar 
geant, and slaughtered in Springfield before he was 
six years old. 
His live weight was,. 2,627 lbs. 
Dead weight, quai'ters, hide and tallow,. 2,023 “ 
Loss,... 604 e: 
Or about 23 per cent. I did consider this steer the best 
animal of the kind I ever saw, and the nearest in every 
point to perfection.” 
From the pedigree of Red Comet, as given by 
Mr. Watson, it appears that he was one-half of the 
blood of Wye Comet, one-fourth of the blood of For- 
tunatus or Holderness, one-eighth of the blood of 
Denton, (Young Denton of the Herd-Book,) and one- 
eighth common or “ native 5 blood. From what we 
have seen of the stock of thi bull, and from all the in¬ 
formation received, we have reason to believe that he 
was an animal of uncommon usefulness, and that the above 
account does him and his stock no more than simple 
justice. 
Our readers will now, perhaps, be able to understand 
why we have placed the extract from Sebright as a 
text at the head of this article. The design is to enforce 
the idea therein contained, that male animals of good 
promise should be fairly tried and the character of 
their produce ascertained, before they are either ex¬ 
tensively used or rejected. Could this be done, it 
would prevent great losses from the use of poor stock- 
getters, and might in many cases be the means of sav¬ 
ing and making generally useful, animals whose good 
qualities might not otherwise be known. 
SOWING WHEAT. 
Mr. Tucker —Few persons are aware how very 
much the yield of the wheat crop depends upon the 
manner upon which the seed is deposited in the soil. 
I risk nothing in saying that fully one-third could be 
added with certainty to every farmer's crop by due at¬ 
tention to this point. The proper depth at which seeds 
should be deposited in the soil, has engaged the atten¬ 
tion of the most eminent agriculturists and scientific 
men of Europe, and its vast importance acknowledged 
by them. 
Baron Yoght, of Flotbeck, near Hamburg, has most 
ably discussed this subject in the British Farmer's 
Magazine, vol. 4; and Mr. Patrick Sheriff, of Mungo’s 
Wells, near Haddington, in Scotland, has written in 
the early numbers of the Quarterly Journal of Agri¬ 
culture, some articles so practically convincing and so ! 
much to the point, that I think you could not do your 
readers a greater favor or service than to give them 
to them entire, if the work I allude so is within your j 
reach. If seeds be placed by accident or design at 
such a depth in the earth, as to be out of the influence 
of the air, and though they may be surrounded by the! 
requisite degrees of heat and moisture, they will never¬ 
theless remain dormant. 
We have many instances of the truth of this in every 
day practice, and of the imperishable properties of 
some kinds of seeds when excluded from the influence 
of the air. If seeds are dropped on the surface of the 
ground, they will remain uninjured and unaltered so 
long as the air is perfectly dry; but in moist air ger¬ 
mination commences, and the point of the root will 
quickly protrude and find its way into the soil. This is 
the ordinary* process of nature; but experience has 
taught us, that though nature distributes grain and other 
seeds generally on the surface of the spot where pro¬ 
duced, yet there is a proper depth at which all seeds 
should be deposited, and which is specially suitable. 
This depth is obviously that which, while it yields 
the necessary degrees of heat, moisture, and darkness, 
is yet within the requisite influence of the air. The 
drilling system is approved, not only from its equal 
distribution of the seed, but because by it, seeds are 
also laid in at an equal depth; this last circumstance is 
regarded as one of the principal advantages of the ma¬ 
chine. Now, Baron Yoght has endeavored to show 
that seeds may be deposited too deep even by the drill, 
and in all cases when seed is sown before harrowing, 
much of it will be laid deeper than it should be, and 
consequently lost. Of this there can be no doubt. 
Every one acquainted with sowing must allow that seed 
may be buried too deep; and every body acquainted 
with the structure of culmiferous plants and their man¬ 
ner of growth, must be convinced that if seeds are just 
covered so as to be sufficiently shaded from the sun’s 
rays, it is enough. Mr. Sheriff clearly proves, that all 
seeds with what he calls “ coronal roots,” no matter at 
what depth the seed is deposited and germinates, that 
so soon as it reaches within one-half an inch of the 
surface of the earth it will then put forth its coronal 
roots, and from them make a new start.. There is no 
fact connected with agriculture more easy of proof than 
this; any farmer may take a flower-pot filled with 
earth, and in it deposit three or four grains of wheat at 
different depths, from an inch downwards, and satisfy 
himself of this fact, as well as the weakly and sickly 
state of all that are sowed below the depth of one inch, 
as compared with the one sown at that, the proper 
depth. 
Explanatory of these assertions, Baron Voght has 
appended to his paper figures of five different kinds of 
grain in five different states of growth, caused by the 
different depths at which they had been deposited in 
the earth. I annex two of these, as sufficient to illus¬ 
trate my subject. 
The dotted line is the surface of the ground; a , rep¬ 
resents a healthy plant of wheat from a seed laid in at 
j the proper depth, viz., one inch beneath the surface; b, 
I shows the growth of a plant from a seed which has been 
| laid in two days. This last, it will be observed, vege¬ 
tated, although two or three inches under the surface, 
threw out its seminal or first roots, and sent up its first 
shoot bearing two leaves into the air; but as the first 
branch of the culm rises therewith, and remains near 
the surface; it also throws out roots, and entirely super¬ 
sedes those that were first produced from the grain. 
To every practical and observant farmer it must be 
evident that this unnecessary waste of vegetable power 
must be both hurtful and unnatural; besides, the young 
plant must be more liable to accidents from the changes 
of the weather, slugs, and insects, during the ascent of 
the first shoot, and before the principal root is formed, 
than if started from its natural position at once- 
To guard against over-deep sowing, or burying the 
seed altogether so as not to germinate at all, it is evi¬ 
dent that no seed should be sown until the ground is 
first harrowed, and made level, and when sown, a light 
harrow passed over the field, will cover the seed suffi¬ 
ciently to insure a safe and good crop. Of these facts ex¬ 
perience had long since convinced me, but if any doubt 
had remained in my mind about it, the crop of wheat 
