Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-10-08
THICK AND THIN SEEDING.

The fact that plants yield more largely
when they are furnished with abundant room,
and that the thin seeding of crop, up to GER
tain limits, yields better harvest than any
thicker seeding, is no new thing. We read Of
it in the works of the most ancient writers
upon agriculture, and early historians record
facts illustrative of the advantages of sowing
thinly, and of the extraordinary yields of
grain from single seeds. Nevertheless the
subject is as fresh as ever, and we see every
year good farmers wasting large amounts of
seed, and sacrificing large portions Of their
crops. We have recently seen piece Of oats
sown with one bushel to the acre, which yield
ed better crop than aneighboring field sown
with four bushels to the acre. A few years
ago we divided ten acre field into five por-
tions, and sowed them with wheat at the rate
of one bushel, FIVE pecks, six pecks, seven
pecks and two bushels of seed to the acre.
There was no perceptible differencein the soil
of the field, nor any in the manuring, prepa-
ration, or sowing. At harvest time there was
a very perceptible difference in the yield, the
thinnest sowed portion being by far the best
of the field, and the thickest portion the worst.
Near the edge of the field, upon the thinnest
sown part, where the seed had been thinned
out by some pigeons, there were some stools of
wheat with thirty stalks, each bearing an ear
and in this part of the field the difference was
mostly shown in this way, and in the length
of the ears. The other side of the field,
where two bushels had been sown, produced
much shorter ears than this portion.
At meeting of the Midland Farmer Club,
held at Bennington, England, in June last,
Major Hallet read paper upon thin sowing
and selection of seeds. 1t was Illustrative of
his experiments in raising what he calls 'ped-
igree wheat" He exhibited single plant
Of wheat from a single seed planted alone,
which bore 81 stems, one of barley of the
same character bearing 10 stems, and one of
oats with 81 stems. He stated that crop of
wheat he had sown with single seed 8 inches
apart each way produced 1OS bushels per
acre. He suggested the experiment he tried
of drilling 8 quarts of wheat per acre early in
September, and one quart additional for each
week to the end of the month. Also that
seed be selected from the produce of these
plots for future sowing, with reference to its
hardness, its trueness to type, its quality OF
the grain, its productiveness, its power of til
lering or casting up numerous stems, its stiff
ness of straw, and its earliness of ripening.
His plan of selecting seed was to take the
most perfect grains from the largest ear of
the plant with most stalks, and plant them 50
that the grain from each ear occupied row
by itself, each grain occupying hole in the
row, and the holes IL inches apart. This
plan was repeated yearly, taking each year
the best grain produced. BY this course in
several years he had succeeded in doubling
the length of the ears, in trebling their con-
tents, and in increasing the tillering power
FIVE fold. Five pints of wheat planted II
inches apart each way, upon an acre ofground
in September, gave, 1,O01 $50 ears, or 81, ,76O
ears in excess Of the crop from 6 pecks per
acre sown upon the adjoining field. Later
paintings reduced the crop somewhat: Two
plants with "a ears each gave 1911 and
1,S7s grains 30 ears per foot, with 4S
grains to an ear, will produce SO bushels per
acre. A bushel of wheat produced by this
thin sowing contained 100000 grains, while a
bushel of ordinary wheat contains 100000
grains. Here is interesting matter for con-
sderation, and if, as seems scarcely to be
doubted, thin seeding is more productive
than thick, it might be very profitable to ex'
pertinent in this direction. 1t is necessary to
remember that for such. seeding, to be sue
cessful, the soil must be rich and free from
weeds. and that the crop also must be kept
free from weeds by thorough cultivation
Although with better farming than we now
have we can raise large crops, yet it is certain
that the possibilities of better farming are not
yearly realized as yet.-America" Agricul
tatrist.
FRUIT AND HEALrH.-Dr. Hunt said al
recent meeting of the Warsaw Horticultur
al Society, that an, "absence of fruit implied
doctors bills" We have urged for many
years the Importance of a regular supply O
ripe fruit to prevent disease, and insisted thai
the best medicine chest which an emigratlng
family could carry to newly settled country
would be box of early bearing fruit trees
currant, gooseberry and raspberry bushes, ane
strawberry plants. We knew a family wh(
moved to the West, and took with them
! ,vbiob 1octod thon