Chap. IX. O/Wheat, 121 



from a Tenth Part of the Plants (/) that the fowing 

 Method can. 



' All 



and that which was drilled To very large, that no F armer or Wheat- 

 buyer would believe them to be of the fame Sort of Wheat, ex- 

 cept thofe who knew it, which were many. One Grain of the 

 drilled weighed Two of the fown, and there was twice the ChalF 

 in an equal Weight of the fown, being both weighed before and 

 after the Wheat was feparated from the Chaff. 



(t) The Fad of this nobody can doubt, who has obferved the 

 different Products of ftrong and of weak Plants, how the one ex- 

 ceeds the other. 



i The greateft Difference of having an equal Crop from a fmall 

 Number of ftrong Plants, and from a great Number of weak 

 ones, is, that the Soil is vaftly lefs exhaufted by the former than 

 by the latter, not only from the latter's exhaulting more in pro- 

 portion to their Number when young, and whilft each of them 

 confumes as much Nourilhmen* as each of the fmall Number ; 

 but alfo from the different Increafe that a ftrong Plant makes by 

 receiving the fame Proportion of Food with a weak one; For it 

 appears from Dr. Woodward's Experiments, that the Plant which 

 receives the leaj? Increafe carries off the greatcjl Quantity of 

 Nourilhment in proportion to that Increafe ; and that 'tis the 

 fame with an Animal, all who are acquainted with fatting of 

 Swine know ; for they eat much more Food daily for the firll 

 Two Weeks of their being put into the Sty, than they do after- 

 wards, when they thrive falter; the fatter they grow, the lefs they 

 eat. 



Hence, I think, it may be inferred, that a Plant, which, by 

 never having been robbed or fiinted by other Plants, is ftrong, 

 receives a much greater Increafe from an equal Quantity of Food, 

 than a Number of weak Plants (as thick ones are), equalling the 

 Bulk of the fingle ftrong Plant, do. 



And this of the Doctor's have I feen by my own Obfervations 

 confirmed in the Field in Potatoes, Turneps, Wheat, and Barley; 

 a following Crop fuceeeds better after an equal Crop, conlifting 

 of a bare competent Number of ftrong Plants, than after a Crop 

 of thick weak ones, ceteris paribus. 



Thus the hoed Crops, if well managed, confifting of fewer and 

 ftronger Plants than the fown Crops of equal Produce, exhauft 

 the Ground lefs ; whereby, and by the much (I had almoft faid 

 infinitely) greater Pulveration of the Soil, indifferent good Land 

 may, for any thing I have yet feen to the contrary, produce pro- 

 fitable Crops always without Manure, or Change of Species, if 

 the Soil be proper for it in refpecr, of Heat and Moifturo ; and 

 alfo as Crops of fome Species, by their living longer, by their 



greater 



