122 EXPERIMENTS ON WHEAT. Part 11. 



fpoke of before : their flalks were only bent ; but fo much indeed as 

 to hinder the plough from pafling in the alleys. To remedy this, 

 M. Diancourt ordered them to be earthed-up with a fhovel, and then 

 the plough was able to work. 'Tis true this did not re-inftate them 

 fo v/ell as the hufbandman had done thofe in the laft mentioned 

 piece of ground : but however, they kept upright till the third and 

 lafl: plowing, which was given towards the end of July. 



The fineTl tufts on thefe grounds had not above lixty ftalks ; but 

 on the other hand very few had lefs than twenty. M. Diancourt 

 fays nothing farther of thefe three fpots : but he infifts flrongly on 

 the following experiment which he made with fpring corn. 



In March, M. Diancourt fowed fpring wheat in lingle rows, 

 three feet afunder, and the grains in the rows at the diftance of 

 eight inches from each other. The farmers of that country, fur- 

 prifed at what he was doing, affured him that his crop would never 

 yield above a few pints. To convince them by their own expe- 

 rience, M. Diancourt propofed to one of them to fow after his own 

 way, a fquare bordering on, and exad:ly like that which he had fowed 

 in this new way. 



From the time of fowing, till within a month of harveft, the far- 

 mer's field promifed infinitely more than M. Diancourt's, who could 

 hardly perfuade himfelf that he ihould have even tolerable fuccefs, 

 when he compared his 1 8 little fingle rows, three feet diftant from, 

 one another, with the farmer's field which was covered like a mea- 

 dow. But a little before harveft, the ears of the rows appeared from 

 four to fix inches long and very thick ; whilft thofe of the fiirmer, 

 which fuftered by drought, were very poor, and not above an inch 

 or two in length. In fhort, the farmer who had fowed 34 pounds 

 of grain, reaped neat i 26 pounds and a half; and M. Diancourt, 

 who had fowed but one ounce, reaped betwixt 92 and 93 pounds. 

 Thus, the farmer's crop in three years would amount at moft to the 

 value of 169 pounds of wheat, whilft M. Diancourt's would be 279 

 pounds ; which is almoft double the other. 



In March i7t;3, M. Diancourt prepared two arpents of ground in 

 his park, in order to fow them with wheat the next September : 

 and that this ground might not be ufelefs during the fix intermediate 

 months, he laid it out in beds, in June, and planted them with 

 beans, fome in fingle and others in double rows ; the beans being 

 a foot afunder in thofe rows. In the beginning of Odlober, an 

 knmenfe quantity of beans was gathered off this fpot. The fingle 



rows 



