THIN SOWING

Press, Volume VII, Issue 686, 10 January 1865, Page 5

THIN SOWING

The following letter was addressed to the editor of the Times by the well-known agriculturist, Mr. Mechi : — Sir, —A good plant of grasses and a full crop of corn may he obtained by sowing a moderate quantity of seed corn, provided the land is in good condition as to manure and cultivation. As an experiment, I dibbled, last October, one wheat kernel in each hole four inches apart. This required one peck of seed per acre. The produce was 59 bushels per acre of fine heavy red wheat, and the quantity of straw 56 cwt. per acre, all accurately weighed and measured. It was taken upon a clover lea, mowed for hay in the spring, and afterwards manured and fed with cake. The land was a tenacious but drained clay, for which I pay a rental of £1 per acre. On highly farmed land, where grass seeds are sown, two to three pecks of wheat, four pecks of barley, and four pecks of oats would be an ample seeding, and very likely produce a more abundant return than the present absurd quantities usually sown, as in Hampshire, &c, where three bushels of wheat, four of barley, and five of oats not only diminish the produce of grain but smother and destroy the clover or grass seeds sown with them. The evils of thick seeding are amply proved by the statistical fact recorded by Mr. Cairo, that for each kernel or bushel we only get an increase of eight. In the case of my peck an acre, the increase was 236 for one, and it was the heaviest crop on my farm, both in grain and in the weight of straw. When town sewage finds its way into the i country a very large area of land will be devoted to the growth of grass and the production of meat, far good grass land certainly pays better than corn, the expenses being so much less. A friend of mane, a good practical farmer, so frequently had his clover plants destroyed by the four bushels of oats which he sowed, that he determined on reducing his seed of the oats to one bushel, to save his clover. Instead, of the expected loss of his oat crop he told mc that he not only got a full plant of clover, but the best crop of oats he. ev/Q* grew. I am, Sir, your obe'lw«\t ws**'ant» | " j. J. MtECBLf. I Tihtree-lia}};. near Kelvedon, Essex, Oct. Q.