Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-07-18
Thin Seeding Of Grain.


 country than by English farmers, with l whom three to three and one-half lbuskels of oats are often deemed nee- Z 4Ssary, says American Cultiyator. Eng
 5h summers are nearly always moist, Ss8nd as farm land is generally rich It needs this thick seeding to make the plants crowd each other from the start and thus prevent too 1uxuriant growth. Here such seeding on land of mod crate fertility might not produce any thing but the straw of grain without any heads. We once drilled some oats in field and found at the end of ths row that wider balk was made than the single width of the drill passing across the rows at each end would cov- CT. We were only sowing with the drill two bushels of seed per acre, so we thought, not to leave any balks, to drill twice across each end. But the second drill width, though it made good appearance, early dried up and amounted to nothing about the time De oats should head out.
 &f clean, sound, plump oats can be had, bushel and half drilled in with some phosphate is better than a great CT quantity. There is no crop, not even wheat, to which commercial. phosphate is so well adapted as the sseat. With this light seeding of oats, which should always be drilled early, we gave the oats light narrowing just after tfe young shoots began to come up. This broke down the ridges be- tween the rows, and entirely covered the leaves that first put forth. But it save a great stimulus to root growth, and in a few days two Or three or may be more shoots would be put forth by the root for every leaf that was destroyed. The narrowing also loosened the surface soil, so that any d0ust formed by rains will be broken. Rhe new leaves will start up 80 quick ly and so plentifully that 10 more crust will form on the surface through the season. Such grain always GOV CTS the ground at harvest with bet ter crop than can be got from two to two and one=hatf bushels of seed sown per acre, but not narrowed after the grain comes up.
 The grain grown from such light seeding is nearly always plump and full, and is worth more for seed than grain grown in the usual way. On rich land with fair season we have grown 90 to 100 bushels Of oats from 50 light a seeding as one and one-half bushels per acre. Nor need this be sur Drising as a single eat grain has been known to produce six to seven stems. bearing head well filled with oats. It is plain that as usually sown much of the seed oats fail to produce any t fhing Oats are often threshed while Tti1l damp from the field, and if such oats are put in close bins the vitality Of their germ Is quickly destroyed by heating. To make sure Of getting sound seed oats they should not be threshed until winter, and never be allowed to heat in even the least degree. Every such seed put into the ground will not only grow, but it can be made to produce a hundred fold, though this 5. is hard to secure under ordinary crop conditions All our grains are doubt less for our climate sown more thickiy than is necessary. More attention to the quality of seed and it's ability to germinate would pay farmers better. Grain that either will not grow, or that makes such a feeble growth that neigh boring grain dwarfs it, is about the most expensive manure farmer can use. Yet this is what many farmers are doing with a large part of the seed grain that they put into the soil, where it simply rots and furnishes plant food for the seed that could germinate.