SOWING. 
which would very soon tell upon the dryness of 
soil, if there were a continuance of dry weather 
for several successive days, more especially if this 
were accompanied by sunshine. From what I have 
now stated, I humbly hope that you cannot fail 
to perceive the close connection which subsists 
between the mechanical condition of the soil and 
the result of germination; and that you have 
at the same time felt satisfied of the degree of 
certainty and point which all the processes of 
preparing the soil assume, when the principles 
-on which they depend are fully understood and 
appreciated. 
“‘ Hitherto we have spoken only of the condi- 
tion of the soil at seed-time ; we shall now ex- 
amine into the various methods in use for sowing 
the seed, and determine what effect these can 
have upon the value of the resulting crop. It is 
well known to you all, that, until lately, the 
grain crops were almost universally sown broad- 
cast upon the furrow-slice, which process has 
the effect of imitating, to a certain extent, the 
drill-system. A very few considerations, how- 
279 
ever, will suffice to point out, that with this 
system of sowing your success is so far dependent 
upon the skill of your workmen, that you may 
be considered completely at their mercy. To 
demonstrate this, let us refer to the figures 
below, which are designed to show the effects 
produced by bad ploughing and bad sowing, as 
compared with the results obtained by the use 
of machines. In fig. 5, you have an example of 
bad ploughing. You will at once perceive, that, 
in this case, the ploughman has either had a 
very unsteady pair of horses, or has been but 
little experienced in his puiploymient! At a, for 
example, he has given his plough too much land, 
and has turned over a slice considerably troaden 
than it should be, thus producing, as is shown 
in fig 6, a space in which too much seed will 
lodge. "At 6 he has laid the slice too upright, 
thus producing what is technically termed a 
proud furrow, and which in another manner 
affects the sowing by allowing the seed to slip | 
down between the two slices, and consequently | 
become buried to far too great a depth below 
Fig. 5. 
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Again atc, by leaning the plough 
to the side, he has turned over a slice consider- 
ably thicker at the top than the bottom, which, 
in its turn, will influence the crop by stirring 
too little soil at certain places, and thus produc- 
the surface. 
ing an active soil of different thicknesses. Be- 
sides these, there are various other faults in 
ploughing, each one of which has a distinct and 
visible influence on the growing of the crop. On 
a field thus carelessly turned over, the sower pro- 
ceeds to scatter the seed ; and here, again, you 
will at once perceive the effect which the per- 
formance of this operation will have on the re- 
sulting crop. To the left of fig. 6,1 have sup- 
posed a good sower to be employed, but still he 
is labouring under the disadvantage of following 
a bad ploughman. The figure represents in sec- 
_ tion the position of the seeds as determined by 
the condition of the furrow-slice, and you will 
at once notice several important errors. Ata 
there is too much seed; at 0 it is far too deep 
a . 
— 
below the surface; at ¢ it is much nearer the sur- 
face, and so forth. On the right, again, of fig. 6, 
I have endeavoured to represent the injury af- 
fected by a bad distribution of the seed, even 
although the ploughing has been performed in 
the most masterly style, as in the furrow-slices 
immediately above in jig. 5. In this case at e the 
seed is far too thick, owing to his not having 
opened his hand soon enough when delivering it 
out, and on this account the crown of the ridge 
is much too thinly supplied. This is a very 
serious, but I fear too common a fault ; at least, 
if we carefully observe the brairding of fhe Falls 
in spring, there is nothing more common than 
to see the furrows green, whilst the crowns of 
the ridges are still nearly bare. 
“Let us now turn our attention to the results 
likely to be produced by these various errors. 
We have already seen that the requisites for ger- 
mination are air, moisture, and a certain degree 
of warmth; and I may here observe, that the 
See ly 
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