The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1911-07-21
AGRICULTURAL POINTERS.
one Who Should Know Gives Some
Pointers on Planting Of Seed
In This Country.

The success of a farmer does not
rest wholly on putting seed in the
ground and then awaiting the action
or nature to produce a harvest The
observing and experimenting farmer
is learning something new all the
tlme, and the application of what he
thus learns makes for surer and more
prolific harvests. II. II. Granger. who
mas secured land in this vicinity, has
learned much from experience and ex-
pertinent valuable in the operation of
farm. He calls attention to one
mistake quite common in this county,
and that is over seeding The impress
sion seems to prevail among some
farmers, at least one would so infer
from the methods pursued, that the
more seed put in the ground the larg-
er the resultant crop. Mr.. Granger
says this is great mistake, as on
new ground 10 to 20 pounds of seed to
the acre is ample, more than that
amount is detriment and loss. The
amount of seed sown is increased as
the years the ground is cropped in
crease, but 40 pounds to the acre is
about the limit of the amount that
ever should be sown. AS an illustra-
tion of his contention he mentioned
the result of light and heavy sowing
on piece of land in this valley this
year. In one part of the field three
or four bushels of oats were sown to
the acre. On another part small
amount of grain was hastily and care
lessly scattered by hand. When the
sprouts first came up the heavily
planted section was Il mas of green
like il lawn. The thinly scattered
grain came up in tufts, But as the
grain is reaching maturity the thickly
sOwn field is sickly, yellow, and the
heads are light. The thinly sown sec
tion is bright, The stocks vigorous and
the heads full and heavy He explains
the difference by the statement that
when there is heavy seeding the
ground has no. the capacity to nOur-
ish all the seed. and hence the crop
fails to mature. or yields lightly. On
the other hand the seed more sparcely
sown have chance to stool out, and
S thus able to spread out and receive
the benefit of all nutriment in the
soil The thinly sOwn seed in the in
stance quoted will yield many fold
more than that portion where seed
were thickly planted. MIR. Granger
farmed for a number of years in the
Big Bend. and states that one of the
heaviest yields of wheat that he had
ever observed was in a field where
the poverty of the hOmesteader per-
mitted him to SOW only Is pounds OF
seed to the acre. Results in this case
demonstrated that the granger was
lucky when he thought he was out OF
luck. He was farming new ground
for the first time, and had he had the
means h. would probably have put
in so much seed that his crop would
have been n failure. What the writer
does not know about farming would
make q volume OF enormous size, and
hence is not in a position to commend
or disapprove this contention of light
seeding. He repeats information OBJ
taired in a casual conversation on the
subject with a gentleman whose long
experience entities his conclusions to
careful consideration. 1t strikes him
however, as a very important matter
to the agrioulturist and worth inves-
tigation 1t might be good idea for
the graneers 10 induce Mr.. Granger
to give his experience before grange
meetings. He knows how to express
himself on the subject, and further
more knows wnat he talkh & about
when on the subject.