Chap. VI. O/Hoeing. f 9 



will come up at ♦, for it may be fo deep, as that the 

 Wet may rot or chill the firft Root, as in Wheat in 

 moid Land. 



The Nature of the Land, the Manner how it is 

 laid, either flat, or in Ridges, and the Seafon of 

 Planting, with the Experience of the Planter, acquired 

 by fuch Trials, muft determine the pioper Depths 

 for different Sorts of Seeds. 



II. The proper Quantity of Seed to be drill'd on 

 an Acre, is much lefs than muft be fown in the com- 

 mon Way ; not becaufe Hoeing will not maintain as 

 many Plants as the other -, for, on the contrary, Ex- 



Eerience (hews it will, ceteris paribus ^ maintain more; 

 ut the Difference is upon many other Accounts : 

 As that 'tis impoffible to low it fo even by Hand, as 

 the Drill will do ; for let the Hand fpread it never 

 fo exactly (which is difficult to do fome Seeds, efpe- 

 cially in windy Weather), yet the Unevennefs of 

 the Ground will alter the Situation of the Seed ; the 

 greateft Part rebounding into the Holes, and lowed 

 Places ; or elfe the Harrows, in Covering, draw it 

 down thither ; and tho' thefe low Places may have 

 Ten Times too much, the high Places may have 

 little or none of it : This Inequality leifens, in Effecl, 

 the Quantity of the Seed ; becaufe Fifty Seeds, in 

 Room of One, will not produce fo much as One will 

 do ; and where they are too thick, they cannot be 

 well nourifhed, their Roots not fpreading to near 

 their natural Extent, for Want of Hoeing to open 

 the Earth. Some Seed is buried (by which is meant 

 the laying them fo deep, that they are never able to 

 come up, as Columella cautions, Ut abfque ulla Refur- 

 rettionis &pe fepeliantur) : Some lies naked above the 

 Ground ; which, with more uncovered by the firfb 

 Rain, feeds the Birds and Vermin. 



Farmers know not the Depth that is enough to 

 bury their Seed, neither do they make much Dif- 

 ference in the Quantity they fow on a rough, or a 



fine 



