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Silvio Corradi, was a good farmer even before being an interested inventor with a desire to link the different aspects of science. From his experience in the field of agriculture he created a new system of seeding that yielded from only one wheat seed, between ten and twenty equal ears with four to six grains per level, instead of two or three, arriving at a head of wheat containing almost twice the usual number.
It seems a result worthy of the most modern scientific experiments on GMO( Genetically modified organisms) but, like in every project of the brilliant researcher from Vigatto, the reply to every question was simple. Simple, yes… but it required Corradi’s exceptional intuition to discover it. He was never in contrast with Nature’s laws and instead he was in harmony with them and respected them. One of the fundamental aspects of Corradi’s theories was that the worst results are obtained by cruelly forcing nature, whilst listening to Nature with wisdom and a good dose of logic brings out the best.
Corradi, once again starting from his personal experience and taking advantage of his acute powers of observation, had noticed that the traditional equipment used in sowing wheat, had many defects. It did not allow an equal distribution of the seeds, which instead remained in disorderly mounds. The earth to cover the seed was also distributed unequally.
Hence, some uncovered seed instead of germinating became a meal for the birds and the insects. |
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This lack of even distribution of the earth created with the first rain little channels that swelling rapidly with water lead to part of the seed rotting. The incorrect accumulation of seeds lead to a fight for survival between the germinating plants to no advantage.
How to solve all these problems? Corradi suggested minimal but effective changes to the traditional seeders, coupled with a different technique of working the land. First the land should be prepared to be sufficiently flat, compact and covered with a first layer of manure. After this first step, the number of seeds to sow should be reduced significantly and seeded precisely to avoid bunching, leaving each seed the vital space needed to grow to its best. Paradoxically, less seed meant a better harvest contrary to what was then thought, because fewer seeds grew healthier.
The next step was a modification to the furrowing machine. It was a disk different from those commonly adopted.
Passing by the seed it created a channel from which rose a mound of earth that then fell on the seeds covering them evenly with earth and fertilizer. The channels that were formed provided an escape route for the rain water which no longer flooded the seeds.
After this Corradi suggested a step that would generate pressure, known as "rolling" (just like a steam roller), to press the land to the seeds, creating for them the warm and welcoming embrace essential for good plant growth.
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The roots grew at their pleasure, spreading out and without pressure from other seedlings. All the vital energy of the plant was unleashed to the shoot that grew fast, robust and very lush.
Corradi found that tilling has virtually no limits, so that every seed could produce a real basket of grains. In this way the ears were more pleasing to the eye, more homogeneous, but most importantly much richer- Each ear produced at least 70 grains compared to a normal average of 40!
The early budding due to lower growth effort made the plants shorter and hence more resistant to wind, snow, frost and other weathering.
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| The experimentation on wheat tilling was continued by the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Parma, with tangible results. |
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