Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-11-03
Thin Seeding of Grain.


 Less grain. per acre is sown in this country than by English farmers, with 1 whom three to three and one-half bushels of oats are often deemed nee- essary says American CuItivator. Eng fish summers are nearly always moist, and as farm land is generally rich 1t needs this thick seeding to make the plants crowd each other from the start and thus prevent too luNuriant 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 the row that a wider balk was made than the single width of the drill passing across the rows at each end would GOV 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 the oats should head out.
 If clean, sound, plump oats can be had, bushel and a 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 oat. With this Iighc seeding of oats. which should always be drilled early, we gave the oats light narrowing just after tte yorng shoots began to come up. This broke down the ridges be- tween the rows, and entirely covered ahe leaves that first put forth But it gave a great stimulus to root growth and in 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 !oosened the surface soil, so that any crust formed by rains will be broken. The new leaves will start up so quick ly and so plentifully that no more crust will form on the surface through the season. Such grain always eoV- CTS the ground at harvest with a bet ter crop than can be got from two to two and one-half 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 a fair season We have grown so to 100 bushels of oats from SO light a seeding as one and one-hali bushels per acre. Nor need th1s be sur- prising as a single oat 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. thing. Oats are often threshed while still damp from the field, and if sucf oats are put ir close bins the vitality of their germ is quickly destroyed by heating. To make sure of getting soun6 seed oats they should not be threshet until winter, and never be allowed tC heat in even the least degree. Every such seed put into the ground vii not only grow, but it can be made tt produce 8 hundred fold, though thiI is hard to secure under ordinary croI conditions. All our grains are doubt less for our climate sown more thick! than is necessary. More attention u the quality of seed and it's ability t germinaJe would pay farmers better Grain that either will not grow, or tha makes such a feeble growth that neigh boring grain dwarfs it, is about tn most expensive manure a farmer cal use. Yet this is what many farmer are doing with a large part of the see' grain that they put into the soil wher 1t simply rots and furnishes plant foo' tor the seed that could germinate-