* 



1 am not ignorant that no certain ftandard can 

 be fixed for the quan::- lin which ought to 



be fovvn per acre: this mull differ as the circurn- 

 ftances differ that attend it. The foil, the fcafon, 

 the Ihite of the land, and the lize of the grain, re- 

 quire juore or lcis, as thefe are di. 



For inftance, Wheat: a very rich fertile foil, in 

 good tilth, requires lefs feed by one-third than a 

 poor hungry one : this may appear paradoxical 

 to thofe who do not reafon on the matter. They 

 will fay it is unreafonable to fuppofe a poor foil 

 will fupport a greater crop : — Granted ; but I make 

 no fuch fuppoiition. The cafe is this: in a rich 

 fertile foil every root produces much the greateft 

 number of (talks, perhaps ten or twenty ; while 

 thofe in a poor foil have only two or three. In 

 the one cafe, if you fbw more feed, the ground 

 will be overftocked with plants, which will draw 

 each other up weak, and produce much draw in- 

 deed, but little corn. In the other cafe, if you 

 fow only the fame quantity of feed on poor land, 

 it will be understocked, and the crop fmall. For 

 if, through the poverty of the foil, a root of wheat 

 cannot extend its tide fibres more than two or 

 three inches round, what good purpofe can it an- 

 fwer to have them a foot apart? Half the ground 

 is loft. Hence it follows, that a double quantity 



ot 



