PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 95 



A third method of propagating wheat, viz., by 

 transplanting the suckers at regular distances from 

 the seed-bed into another prepared to receive them, 

 has been practised on a small scale, and is found to 

 yield abundantly ; but it is so embarrai^d with ex- 

 pense as to render it entirely unfit (oB^eneral use. 



Of the produce of wheat very different accounts 

 have been given. To the extraordinary fertility of 

 Byzantium, already mentioned, Pliny adds that in 

 Leontiun*, in Sicily, its produce was one hundred 

 for one ; yet Cicero, who had been quaestor of that 

 island, asserts that the produce of Sicily was but 

 ten or twelve for one.* To conciliate these high 

 and opposite authorities, M. Yvart has supposed 

 that the product mentioned by Cicero was an aver- 

 age one of the whole island ; and that that report- 

 ed by Pliny was the result of one or more trans- 

 planting experiments ; an opinion rendered probable 

 from the fact that the parent stems and their off- 

 spring had been sent to Rome by the procurator of 

 Augustus. 



Some calculators have supposed, and on data not 

 easily refuted, that the maximum produce of this 

 grain over the whole face of the globe, and in a 

 series of any ten given years, will not exceed six 

 bushels reaped for one bushel sown.f 



VII. Of Pease. 



The pea is a native of the southern parts of Eu- 

 rope, and is found growing spontaneously in the 

 western parts of our own continent. The family 

 is a large one, containing several species ; but of 

 these the field-pea alone comes within the scope of 

 our present purpose. Of this there are two varie- 

 ties, denominated, from their colour, the gray and 



* Orat. contra Verrem. 



t The reader will remember that, on our plan, turnips follow 

 wheat as they do rye, and without any difference in cultivation 

 See article 3d of this chapter. To repeat what we have sale 

 there would be useless. 



