For all these
purposes, the disk is usually equally efficient.
Sowing
It has already been indicated in previous chapters that proper
sowing is one of the most important operations of the dry-farm,
quite comparable in importance with plowing or the maintaining of a
mulch for retaining soil-moisture. The old-fashioned method of
broadcasting has absolutely no place on a dry-farm. The success of
dry-farming depends entirely upon the control that the farmer has of
all the operations of the farm. By broadcasting, neither the
quantity of seed used nor the manner of placing the seed in the
ground can be regulated. Drill culture, therefore, introduced by
Jethro Tull two hundred years ago, which gives the farmer full
control over the process of seeding, is the only system to be used.
The numerous seed drills on the market all employ the same
principles. Their variations are few and simple. In all seed drills
the seed is forced into tubes so placed as to enable the seed to
fall into the furrows in the ground. The drills themselves are
distinguished almost wholly by the type of the furrow opener and the
covering devices which are used.
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