COVER SEES LIGHTLY

Shannon News, 6 February 1925, Page 1

COVER SEES LIGHTLY

Darkness has been generally held to be essential to germination. It is not, though in general terms seeds grow best in the dark-with a tlr.u covering of earth sufficient to shut out the light. Nature is a flat or surface sower, and it is marvellous that nature’s successful method of shedding seeds on the surfac e has not taught cultivators the importance of covering seeds lightly. Seeds should be covered less to preserve them in darkness than to maintain them in a medium state of moisture and warmth, and no better rule can be laid down than to cover seeds with a coat of earth the thickness or depth of theiir diameter. This is a rule that covers th e whole of seed sowing, and is especially valuable for small seeds. It may be departed from with safety with respect to large seeds,, though it is by no means certain that any advantage is gained by sowing beans, for instance, from four to six inches deep instead of two. Large seeds are able to resist the influence of a deep bed, and, perhaps, master it, for the larger the seed possibly the less important flatness becomes. It is small seeds that suffer most from deep sowing. Millions of these dre killed annually from this cause. Seedsmen are often blamed for lack of quality, when, perhaps, the real explanation is that the seeds have found a living tomb in the earth.'