Year: 1874

With the single exception of grass seed, the
farmer has little to do in the way Of opening
the earth and preparing it for the reception
of seed for the remainder Of the season.
Gardeners to be sure will be engaged for
some weeks in lifting various plants and
roots from the garden and nursery, and trans
planting them into their proper locations, but
so far as committing the seed to the earth is
concerned, farmers in general can Stay down
the shovel and the hoe," and await in peace
the coming of another spring. But now,
while men are looking away from the seed to
the fruit, from the earth to the harvest, is the
right time to consider different methods, and
arrive at sure conclusions and fixed decisions
with regard to sowing and planting seed,
rather than encounter the pressure of an ad-
vancing season and the risks of hasty judg-
ment.


Ordinarily it is safe to take lessons in the
school of Nature, and to initiate her pro-
cesses, but in the present case we prefer the
artificial method of man to her own broad
cast husbandry. As the result of experience
and observation we do Eot hesitate to recon-
mend the introduction Of drill cultivation for
all tillage crops, whether in farm or garden.
Conformity to the command, "Cease to do
evil and learn to do welr' is all that is neces-
sary in order to arrive at perfection in moral
ity; and in agriculture we make long strides
in progress, when we simply leave off bad
habits, and rid ourselves of some practice
which must have fastened upon our ancestors
as new fashion or conceit, or in some other
unaccountable way. We might advocate this
method negatively, by saying that no good rea-
sons have been given for continuing the old
way, neither can they be in opposition to this
one which is comparatively modern; were it
not that the selfevident arguments in its
favor are sufficiently convincing.


By the introduction of the drill system it
has been demonstrated that smaller amouna
of seed is required. In New England, where
it is not much in use except in gardens, this
statement will not be readily admitted, and
yet we are sure that it has proved to be true
in the case of carrots and turnips, whenever
it has been substituted for broadcast sowing
So far as potatoes are concerned it would
hardly seem that there would be any percep-
tible difference between the Two methods in
heir cultivation; but we know some farmers
who have succeeded in raising good crops
from four or five bushels of seed per acre in
drills, while others, in the old way, were
wasting three or four times the amount to ac-
complish the same result. But in England
where in this matter the season of expert
ment has long since passed, and its successful
practice is the order of the day, it is well
known that in sowing wheat a bushel of seed
per acre is saved, and still more of barley and
oats,


In this country when grain has been sown
and covered in the earth, it receives no more
care or thought until the harvest; and the
necessary consequence of this neglect has
been that there is constant diminution in
the amount produced by each acre, probably
in the case Of all the grains, but most notice
ably and most alarmingly in respect to wheat,
| the most valuable of them all. By the drill
| method, the farmer is enabled to enter his
| field of grain and with the plow and cultiva-
| tor and horse hoe, stir the soil and remove
the weeds, and thus give the growing croI
the full benefit of all the elements of fertility
| the earth contains.


When Jethro Tull said to the agriculturist:
| of England,-"You must not shut the gat
directly you have sown the seed. You mus
SOW your seed at such distance apart as t,


allow horse hoe to pass between it. Turl


the particles of earth and let them have tn


action of The atmosphere, and they wou


have food for their plants;;' he recommends,


a policy which has increased the productive


ness of every wheat field.


These considerations of themselves wonl


not bring convincing weight, were it not tha


they are followed by the almost necessary re


suit of an increase of yield, as statistical agr


culture has already satisfactorily demonstrat


ed. With the knowledge of this fact, W


have not been able to account for the tenac


ty with which farmers cling to the Indian sy;


tenn of planting cornsin hills. Were hire


man to dig hole in the earth and therei


plant together three or four shade or fru


trees, would he not be at once dismissed b


any sensible employer for his incompetene,


and at the same time informed that the roo


Of single one required the entire space give
to all, that the given Space could only affol