I 
SEEDING THE SOIL. 389 
1. A well constructed drill is susceptible of adjustment so as 
to enable the farmer to plant his seed at different depths, cor¬ 
responding to the differences which may characterize the soils 
of different fields, or of different portions of the same field, as 
suggested under the head of “Depth.” 
2. The tooth of the drill which deposites the seed, at the 
same time, clears out of the way all hard lumps and stones, so 
that the seed is left in the finest tilth the soil can afford ; while 
the harrow must bury some of it under them. 
3. The drill leaves the seed in regular rows, so that the 
plants, when grown, may have the benefit of a more perfect 
circulation of air and access of sunlight. This is a matter of 
great moment during spells of warm, “ muggy ” weather, and 
may often be the occasion of saving the crop from mildew and 
rust. 
4. This same row arrangement allows of that thorough cul¬ 
tivation of a variety of hitherto neglected crops, which we are 
glad to know are beginning to be popular, and are bound to be¬ 
come universal. 
5. When sown with a drill, the seed lies at the bottom of a 
little furrow, which serves the double purpose of draining the 
land in a wet time, and of securing a covering for the otherwise 
naked roots of the tender plants in the winter and spring, through 
the natural crumbling down of the little ridges on either side 
as a result of freezing and thawing. This is also important 
and not unfrequently prevents “ winter-killing,” a most prolific 
source of the failure, in these northern latitudes, of nearly all 
fall sown crops. 
6. By means of the drill the farmer in enabled to sow mixed 
seed much more perfectly than is possible with the hand ; and 
all at the same time. 
7. The drill affords an admirable means for applying various 
kinds of manure to the soil just when and where they are cal¬ 
culated to do the most good. Lime, ashes, plaster, bone-dust, 
powdered manure from the hennery, Ac., as well as the guano, 
