Seed drill
Seeds are spaced out using fluted paddles which rotate using a geared drive from one of the drill's land wheels.
A seed drill can be pulled across the field, depending on the type, using draft animals, like bullocks or by a power engine, usually a tractor.
In older methods of planting, a field is initially prepared with a plow to a series of linear cuts known as furrows.
Seeds that land in the furrows have better protection from the elements, and natural erosion or manual raking will cover them while leaving some exposed.
Less obvious are the effects of over seeding; all crops grow best at a certain density, which varies depending on the soil and weather conditions.
Another reason is that the mineral resources of the soil will also deplete at a much faster rate, thereby directly affecting the growth of the plants.
[2][3][4] This multi-tube seed drill has been credited with giving China an efficient food production system that allowed it to support its large population for millennia.
[2][3][4] In the Indian subcontinent, the seed drill was in widespread use among peasants by the time of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century.
[5] The first known European seed drill was attributed to Camillo Torello and patented by the Venetian Senate in 1566.
Seed drills would not come into widespread use in Europe until the mid to late 19th century,[failed verification] when manufacturing advances such as machine tools, die forging and metal stamping allowed large scale precision manufacturing of metal parts.
The seed drill employed a series of runners spaced at the same distance as the plowed furrows.
Behind the drills were a series of presses, metal discs which cut down the sides of the trench into which the seeds had been planted, covering them over.
The result is an increased rate of germination, and a much-improved crop yield (up to eight times compared to broadcast seeding[7]).
A field planted using a seed drill is much more uniform, typically in rows, allowing weeding with a hoe during the growing season.
