ECONOMY IN THE USE OF SEEDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3348, 15 May 1918, Page 8

ECONOMY IN THE USE OF SEEDS.

Owing to the nation's needs, it is imperative that farmers should consider where possible economies may be made in the use of farm seeds; no waste should be permitted. It is immaterial whether we consider the sowing of cereal seed or the smaller seed sown tor fodder crops, one may safely affirm that it is a very common practice to sow seeds too thickly. Less seed and better soil conditions would mean a considerable saving without jeopardising the crop in any way. Our immediate concern is in sowing of cereals this present season. Every bushel of grain sown unnecessarily means so much less for feed purposes. There is nothing in the theory that by a heavy seeding one is more likely to secure a crop. That depends largely on climatic conditions, on the germinating capacity of the seed, and the conditions of the land, whether heavy, light, or a medium soil; whether the grain is small or large, or descendant or not from a strain of seed which tillers freely, etc. There is, too, the degree of skill displayed in pickling and planting tne seed. A lot of seed is destroyed in the pickling or lost by planting too deeply. Good seed may have been bought, but ruined, or at least its vitality impaired, in pickling the grain to kill the fungoid sjDores, if one is not careful in their methods. No doubt many acres of wheat and oats are sown every year with seed which has been pickled is bluestone, and it does apparently well -enough. It should bs considered, however, whether dipping the pickled wheat subsequently in lime-water may not be advisable so as to neutralise the bluestone. May not many acres sown in cereals be thinly stocked with plants, entirely on account of faulty germination due to careless work with the bluestone solution? Two things are necessary before the grower is justified in resting satisfied that his methods are correct in important details. In the words of an expert: "If the grain is to be sown® at once, and if the soil conditions favour early germination, then liming may be omitted. But both conditions must be present." Lime water should be made by stirring of freshly-burnt lime with lOgal of water, and allowing the sediment to settle. The lime water should then be poured off into another cask, and the treated wheat immersed in it for two or three minutes. Should freshly-burnt lime not be available, of - slacked lime should be mixed with lOgal of water and the bluestoned wheat dipped in that for two or three minutes. The milk of the lime thus obtained does not require to be strained off, as must be done in the other case. It is necessary to make fresh lime-water now and again, as the constant

dipping of the butts* of wheat saturated with Milestone gradually changes the lime water into a condition in which it is useless. For the same reason the bluestone and lime should not be mixed to make a pickling solution. The chief advantages of using lime-water, in addition to the bluestone, are (1) that a farmer can pickle all his seed wheat at his own convenience, ready for sowing, without running any risk of the germination being affected; (2) that a. better germination will be obtained if the seed should happen to lie in the ground for some time before soil and weather conditions are favourable for germinating processes. Writing in December, 1917, the director of the Canterbury College, Mr R. E. Alexander, says that he is fully satisfied that there is a waste of seed wheat generally in sowing too much seed per acre. He found from inquiries made by would-be growers of Hunters wheat that they contemplated sowing from one bushel to two and a-half bushels per acre. He contrasts this with the rate of sowing of a heaw, stiff paddock on the college farm, where 701 b of Hunter's wheat per acre was sown, and then th 3 crop was too thick, and queries, "What would it have been if we had sown 1201 bor 1501 b per acre? It could not have matured, and yet I know the Latter quantities were sown." Of course, there are wheat and wheats, and a lot will depend on the size of the berry and its antecedents. The college cereal seeding r>er acre, which Mv Alexander finds suitable to the conditions at the home farm, are of interest. In large grain varieties of wheat 901 b to 1001 b per acre, small grain varietm 701 b to 801 b, autumn oats one and a-hnlf to two bushels per acre, spring oats one and a-third to two and a-quarter bushels per acre, barlev two bushels per acre are customary quantities per acre. Crops depend, we know, on the weather and other circumstances which farmers do not control; hut they can, and sortie do, make war-time efforts in view of thj vital needs of food production, particularly cereal foodstuffs. One direction in which savings may be made we have Indicated, satisfied that too Httle care generally is evinced in the selection and use of grain for seed purposes.