Chap. I. BARLEY, OATS, AND RYE. 299 



half that quantity: "There will, fays he, be a much greater produce. 

 ** and the corn will be lefs liable to lodge, as I have many years ex- 

 *' periencedj for when corn or any other vegetable ftands very clofe, 

 *' the flalks are drawn up weak, and fo are incapable to refift the 

 " force of winds, or bear up under heavy rains : but when they are 

 *' at a proper diftance, their ftalks will be. more than twice the fize of 

 *' the other, and therefore are feldom laid.——— I havefeen expe- 

 *' riments made by fowing barley in rows a-crofs divers parts of the 

 ** fame field, and the grains fowed tliin in the rows, fo that the 

 " roots were three or four Inches afunder in the rows, and the rows 

 ■" a foot diftance : the intermediate fpaccs of the fame field were at 

 *' the fame time fown broad-caft in the ufaal way. The fucccfs 

 " was this : the roots which ftood thin in the rows,.tillerated out from 

 •• ten or twelve, to upwards of thirty ftalks on each root : the ftalks 

 ** were ftronger, the ears longer, and the grains larger than anyof thofe 

 ** fown in the common way : and when thofe parts of the field where 

 •* the corn fown in the ufual way has been lodged, thefe parts fowed 

 «' thin have fupported their upright pofition, againft wind and rain, 

 ** though the rows have been made not only lengthways, but crofs 

 " the lands in feveral pofitions, fo that there could be no alteration 

 " in regard to the goodnefs of the land, or the fituation of the corn: 

 " therefore where fuch experiments have been frequently made, and 

 *' always attended with equal fuccefs, there can be no room to doubt 

 *' which of the two methods is more eligiblej fince if the crops were 

 -*' only fuppofed to be equal in both, the faving more than half the 

 " corn fown, is a very great advantage, and deferves a national con- 

 ^' fideration; as fuch a faving, in fcarce times, might be a very great 

 *' benefit to the public. 



" I know the farmers in general are very apt to complain 

 ** if their corn does not come up fo thick as to cover the 

 ■" ground green in a ftiort time, like grafs fields : but I have often 

 *' obferved, that when from the badnefs of the feafon it has come 

 " up thin, or by accident has been in part killed, their corn 

 " has been ftronger, the ears longer, and the grain plumper; fo that 

 " the produce has been much greater than in thofe years when it has 

 *' come up thick: for the natural growth of corn is to fend out many 

 " ftalks from a root, and not to rife fo much in height : therefore 

 " it is entirely owing to the roots ftanding too near each other, when 

 *' the ftalks are drawn up tall and weak. I have had eighty-fix 

 " ftalks upon one root of barley, which were ftrong, produced 



Q^ 2 " longt 



