380 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
THE QUESTION OF QUANTITY 
Is more easily settled, though there is by no means a unity of 
theory or uniformity of practice, the world over, in respect to 
how much of any given kind' of seed should be sown to the 
acre. 
Plausible arguments array themselves in favor of both sparse 
and thick sowing. One party maintains that a full seeding affords 
security against the failure liable to result from an intermix¬ 
ture of worthless seed, or bad seeding, as also from unfavora¬ 
bleness of season, partial destruction of insects, &c., &c.; 
that the thick standing grain prevents weeds from growing, and, 
for all the reasons enumerated is sure to yield a larger crop. 
The other party answers these arguments by declaring there 
is no excuse for either worthless seed or bad seeding ; that the 
season is quite as apt to favor one system as the other ; that 
the dwarfed and sickly growth of plants crowded together is 
sure to invite the attacks of insects , and, for a like reason, 
allow a rank growth of weeds—and then proceeds to adduce 
other and positive arguments in favor of “a moderate quantity 
of seed.’’ Of these the most weighty is the universally recog¬ 
nized principle of vegetable physiology—that every plant, in 
order to its most healthy growth and perfect development, re¬ 
quires a sufficient area of the soil for the roots to supply them¬ 
selves with all needed food, and space enough between the 
stems to insure the full work of sunshine and air. It is also 
—and truthfully—asserted that, in case there should be a slight 
deficiency of seed, nature will make up for it by putting out 
“suckers” and thus filling up the space to the full extent of 
her capacity to supply the requisite materials for growth. 
Thus stand the arguments pro and con, and the question, 
taking practical and definite form, reiterates itself: Of thick 
sowing and sparse sowing, which is the best?—to which we 
make the paradoxical answer, neither and both. By this we 
simply mean, that first extremes are not well in matters of seed¬ 
sowing any more than in other things; and, secondly, that it is 
