Sow′er.
Among the ancient
Egyptians the modes of seeding were various.
It was common to sow on the mud left by the retiring
Nile as he receded within his banks, —
Osiris retiring from the lap of
Isis, according to the mythology of that great and learned nation.
The seed was then tramped in by driving goats or sheep over the soil, as we see by paintings in tombs near the pyramids.
The more usual practice, however, was to cover it by the plow or hoe. A painting in a pyramid at
Memphis shows the sower carrying a basket and sowing broadcast in advance of the plow.
The
Hebrews sowed grain broadcast.
Sometimes from a basket, probably, as in
Egypt, and sometimes from a pocket made by a fold of the garment.
This was a common receptacle for things to be carried, such as a measure of wheat or a lamb.
“Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” — Luke VI. 38.
“He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom.” — Isaiah XL. 11.
In
Ohio it is common to use a two-bushel bag; the bag-string is tied to one lower corner, the bag carried over the right shoulder and under the left arm; the left hand holds the mouth open, so that the right hand may be readily reached into it to gather a handful of seed, — a cast for each step of the right foot.
“Doth the plowman plow all day to sow?
doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place?” — Isaiah XXVIII. 24, 25.
Seed in ancient
Greece was sown by hand and covered with a rake. — Theophrastus, 371 B. C.
One form of broadcast sower consists of a long hopper, provided at bottom with small opening, through which the seed passes.
The openings are adjustable in size by means of a register plate, and are fed to the openings by a perforated plate above, which is reciprocated by a lever.
The hopper may be 10 or 12 feet long, and is slung by a strap over the back of the neck, leaving one hand free to steady the hopper, while the other operates the trigger.
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Broadcast sower. |
The same device is mounted on a barrow, and the feedinglever operated by a trigger, cam, or other device put in motion by the wheel.
In
Rogers' broadcast sower, operated by hand, the seed passes from a bag fixed upon the shoulder of the person sowing, to a revolving scatterer connected with the bag, and rotated alternately in opposite directions by a strap worked by a reciprocating rod, the seed being thrown out by centrifugal force.
See broadcast sower; fertilizer sower, seed-sower; drill, etc.
