Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-09-18
HOW Much seed wheat to the Acre.

wish to add my testimony in favor of
thin seeding. Until within three or four
years | had not given the matter a
thought, but followed the example of my
neighbors and sowed from five to six
pecks to the acre. In the fall of 1876 my
nelghbor, by a mistake of setting the
drill, sowed seven bushels of seed on
eight acres. was in the field when he
was cutting it, and think l never saw a
heavier growth of straw, and the appear
lnce was that, if any fault could be found,
it was too thick on the ground. Since
that time neither my neighbor nor nv
self have sown over one bushel to the
acre, and our wheat crops have been uni
formly heavy.
In the fall of 1877 l sowed a two-acre
patch of wheat, and on one acre used
half bushel and on the other a busheI
of seed. 1t showed a marked difference
in the fall, but stooled in the spring so
as to cover the ground as completely on
one part of the field as the other When
we harvested it, neither the man who
drove the reaper nor the binders could
see any difference in the yield. shocked
it and found fifty-one shocks on one side
and fifty-twO on the other, and it threshed
siXty-five bushels, or bushel to nineteen
sheaves. This year we had the same
two-acre piece in wheat, and ordered it
sowed, the first acre one-half bushel and
the other three pecks. The drill was a
new one, and after my man had sOwn
about a fourth of an acre he found that
he was getting on very little seed. and
changed the drill to three pecks. When
the wheat came up there were many
places from two to four feet in the drill
without grain, and it made such a sorry
show that on the first of April | deter
mined to plow it up, and drove on it
with the team for that purpose, but [
finally changed my mind and left 1T. The
result was fair crop of wheat, certainly
as much as twenty bushels to the acre,
but not up to the average of the field.
cannot tell just how much seed was used
on this plat, as the drill man did not tell
me of the mistake, and | only found it
out after it came up, but l do not think
it could have been more than at the rate
of six quarts to the acre.
A friend of mine who was for many
years a successful wheat grower in War
rem county, Ohio, and who grew an aver
age of thirty-seven bushels to the acre to
the entire crop for one year, assures me
that he has experimental till he is salts
fled that three pecl1s of seed will grow a
better crop than a larger amount. | be-
lieve it will be found that every farmer
who has given the matter a fair trial has
been pleased with the result of thin seed
ing. Another thing which makes it look
reasonable that thin seeding is best, is
that we find an average of about thirty
grains in head, and as each grain must
produce one head, if any, and may pro-
duce several, it necessarily follows that
if we sow one bushel to the acre, and
every grain produces one head, we must
have thirty bushels to the acre. What,
becomes of the rest of the seed when we
SOW five or six pecks and harvest only
twelve or fifteen bushels, as is generally
the case? 1t does not seem that it would
be very difficult to so enrich and pulver-
ize the soil of wheat field that each
stalk would tiller and produce from four
to six heads, and this would make, if they
were of average size, from thirty to forty
bushels per acre. Probably it would be
running too much risk to sow as little
as a peck to the acre, but I believe
that three pecks are ample for any rich,
well-prepared soil. l expect to thresh
tomorrow a six-acre field which was
sowed with that amount of seed, and will
report the average yield and make some
comments on it in another number. In
the meantime let us hear, between this
and seeding time, from farmers who have
sown less than a bushel to the acre, for
in the multitude of counselors there is
Safetv.-COr Ohio Former,