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| of time. 
| 342 BROADCAST SOWING. 
ers, is an annual, has a height of about 18 inches, 
and was introduced in 1800 from Spain. All 
these species, but particularly Briza maxima, are 
grown in gardens as ornamental plants ; and two 
other species, of a non-ornamental kind, the 
humble and the red, were recently introduced. 
BROADCAST SOWING. The sowing of either 
fields or garden-plots by scattering or aspersion. 
This method of sowing is contrasted to the drill- 
method ; it was, for a very long time, the only 
one practised ; and, till quite a recent period, it 
was always performed by hand. ‘The broadcast 
sowing of fields by hand requires such nice, 
peculiar, and yet simple dexterity, as almost to 
defy verbal description ; but at the same time, 
| is so well known in all the rural districts of the 
civilized countries of the world, as not to need 
to be described. The measured step, the regular 
manipulation, and the artificial cast of the sower 
can be learned only by observation and practice. 
An experienced and skilful sower regulates the 
prescribed quantity of seed to the acre with ad- 
mirable precision, and asperses the seed over 
each portion of the ground with exactly equal 
distribution ; but an inexperienced or a careless 
| sower lifts the seed in unequal handfuls, gives 
more seed to one part of the field than to ano- 
ther, leaves naked streaks between the asper- 
sions of the successive casts, makes an irregular 
play of fingers in each opening of the hand, or 
fails to make due allowance for the disturbing 
power of the wind upon the seed. Every step or 
throw of a bad sower is sometimes distinctly 
traceable at harvest in alternations of compara- 
tively bare intervals and thickly crowded curves. 
Irregular broadcast sowing not only offends the 
eye and wastes the seed, but occasions the crop 
to be unequal and deficient, and causes a most 
mischievous distribution of the seeds of ryegrass 
and clover which may be sown with the grain. 
These seeds require to be scattered or sown by 
very small pinches; and when not equally dis- 
tributed by a judicious twirl of the hand in 
throwing them out, they grow up in such a man- 
ner that a third or even upwards of a third of 
the field is totally unprovided with any other 
vegetation than weeds, and the “wales” or 
crowded curves, on which the bulk of the seed 
was thrown, are so crowded with plants as to be 
unable to produce them in a vigorous condition. 
Sowers in Scotland and Ireland carry the seed in 
a sheet slung over the right shoulder; and those 
of some districts in England carry it in a basket, 
hung round the neck, and held by the left arm 
thrust through the handle. Some very expert 
sowers sow with both hands, throwing it right 
and left, and doing double the work of single- 
hand sowers; but they can hardly be expected 
to sow as regularly with the left hand as with 
the right, and may be supposed to occasion more 
loss by inequality of work than gain by saving 
The broadcast sowing of clover and 
grass-seeds, is considerably more difficult than 
BROCCOLI. 
that of grain, and frequently requires to be per- 
formed by a different arrangement, the sower 
either making narrower casts or going twice 
over the field. Broadcast sowing in gardens is 
generally required on so very small a scale that 
only the most lumpish bungler performs it ill. 
Broadcast sowing in the fields, where not su- 
perseded by drill sowing, is now, in some of the 
best agricultural districts of Britain, particularly 
in the lowlands of Scotland, performed by means 
of broadcast sowing-machines. The earliest of 
these machines in Scotland was first used in the 
year 1817; and they have since been materially 
improved in construction, so as to perform their 
work with at once regularity, efficiency, and 
economy. They deposit seeds with the same 
nicety as the drill sowing-machines, and occa- 
sion very considerable profit over the hand-sow- 
ing method by the saving of the seed, and espe- 
cially by the equal growth and superior quality 
of the crop. The broadcast sowing - machine, 
which is modelled in the museum of the High- 
land Society, and which may be regarded as a 
fair specimen of the several varieties in use, is 
adapted to the sowing of all the white grains and 
the grasses. 
and sows a breadth of 18 feet; but is capable of 
contraction to 15 feet, or less if required; and 
can be regulated to sow from two to five bushels 
per acre. It is mounted on three wheels, the 
front wheel being on a swivel-bar, and one or both 
of those behind serves to turn the distributing- 
machinery. 
consists in a line of small thin-toothed wheels 
revolving within the seed-chest, each wheel be- 
ing immediately over a distributing orifice; and 
through these orifices the seeds are discharged 
by the revolution of the wheels, which are im- 
mersed in the grain. A perfect graduation of 
the orifices is obtained by means of a slider which 
has an equal number of perforations coinciding 
exactly with the orifices, when the full opening 
is required. But the sliders are capable of ad- 
justment to any degree of contraction of the ori- 
fices by means of a screw ; and again, by a lever, 
the orifices can be shut entirely and reopened to 
the same extent as before as often as may be re- 
quired.” A sowing-machine for grasses is this 
common broadcast machine, with the addition 
of apparatus, for the express purpose of sowing 
down with grass seeds. A roller follows imme- 
diately after the seed; and the roller is followed 
by a harrow. See the articles Sowine and Sow- 
1In@-MAcHINES. 
BROCCOLI. A well known cultivated sub- 
variety of the cabbage species. The common 
cabbage, viewed as inclusive of all varieties and 
subvarieties, is botanically designated Brassica 
oleracea ; the variety of it which has a clustered 
florification, somewhat in shape like miniature 
bunches of grapes, is designated Brassica oleracea 
botrytis; and the broccoli subvariety of this, as 
distinguished from the cauliflower subvariety, 
“ It is drawn by one or two horses, | 
The principle of the distribution | 
