126 EXPERIMENTS ON WHEAT. P.irt II. 



" The month of March being likewife very rainy, and not having 

 leifure to go into the country, my alleys ftill remained without cul- 

 ture, which they received for the firft time the twenty-firft or 

 twenty-fecond of April, with my fmall plough. 



" A month after, that is to fay, about the twentieth of May, my 

 alleys were plowed again with the cultivator. This was of great 

 fervice to the ground, by breaking the clods which my fmall plough 

 had left in April. From this time, I conceived great hopes : my 

 plants branched out confiderably j their blades grew very large, and 

 of a deep green ; whilft the wheat in the neighbouring fields was 

 poor and flinted, and of a yellow green. 



" I could not poiTibly give my alleys any other plowings after 

 May, by reafon of the rains which were almoft continual. 



" In the beginning of Auguft I vifited my corn, which did not yet 

 feem thoroughly ripe ; efpecially that of the beds ; but it was in- 

 comparably finer than the neighbouring wheat j the ftalks were much 

 ilronger, taller, and more vigorous than any in the common way, 

 and the ears at leaft twice as long and well filled. I judged that 

 they would require a fortnight more to ripen them : but a few very 

 hot days made them turn yellow, and they were reaped at the fame 

 time as the other wheat of the country. 



" I fay nothing of the rains which hurt the harvefl, nor of the 

 quantity of weeds which the wetnefs of this year produced in all 

 lands, and particularly in the beft. Like others, I had a great many 

 weeds in my ground ; but the ftrength and tallnefs of the wheat 

 in the beds, and in the part that was fowed with the drill-plough, 

 got fo far the better of thofe enemies, that the crop fuffered little 

 by them. 



" The part fowed in the common way, and for which 6-^ pounds, 

 4 ounces, and 2 pennyweights of feed "was ufed, yielded 480 pounds 

 of grain, after deducing the tythe : confequently the neat produce 

 was 417 pounds. The produifls of other parts of this field (the tythe 

 likewife deducted) were as follows. The fpot fowed in equally di- 

 flant rows, with the drill-plough, and with 25 pounds 5 ounces of 

 feed, yielded at leaft 500 pounds of grain, and would certainly have 

 produced more, had it not been for the mifmanagement of the drill- 

 plough, which I mentioned before. The neat produce here, was 

 therefore 474 pounds, 1 1 ounces. The beds which were fowed 

 with. 2 1 pounds, i ounce and 2 pennyweights of feed, yielded 660 

 pounds j and for their neat produce, 638 pounds, 14 ounces. 



"' I fupprefs all the reflexions which naturally occur in favour of 



thefe 



