OF AGRICULTURE. 185 



square feet, or forty-seven feet square that 

 is, on very nearly one-twentieth part of an 

 acre. 



Again, we may thus say, that where we require 

 now three acres, one acre would be sufficient for 

 growing the same amount of food, if planting 

 wide apart were resorted to. And there is, 

 surely, no more objection to planting wheat than 

 there is to sowing in rows, which is now in general 

 use, although at the time when the system was 

 first introduced, in lieu of the formerly usual 

 mode of sowing broadcast, it certainly was met 

 with great distrust. While the Chinese and the 

 Japanese used for centuries to sow wheat in 

 rows, by means of a bamboo tube adapted to the 

 plough, European writers objected, of course, to 

 this method under the pretext that it would re- 

 quire too much labour. It is the same now with 

 planting each seed apart. Professional writers 

 sneer at it, although all the rice that is grown in 

 Japan is planted and even replanted. Everyone, 

 however, who will think of the labour which 

 must be spent for ploughing, harrowing, fencing, 

 and keeping free of weeds three acres instead of 

 one, and who will calculate the corresponding 

 expenditure in manure, will surely admit that 

 all advantages are in favour of the one acre as 

 against the three acres, to say nothing of the 

 possibilities of irrigation, or of the planting 



