Note 112 — CHAP. IX. Of Wheat.
Reading edition
Farmers in general know this, and choose the thinnest, smallest-grained Wheat for Seed; and therefore prefer that which is blighted and lodged, and that which grows on new-broken Ground, and is not fit for Bread; not only because this thin Wheat has more Grains in a Bushel; but also because such Seed is least liable to produce a smutty Crop, and yet brings Grains as large as any.
I myself have had as full Proofs of this as can possibly be made in both Respects.
’Twas from such small Seed that my drill’d Lammas Wheat produced the Ears of that monstrous Length described in this Chapter. I never saw the like, except in that one Year; and the Grains were large also.
And as full Proofs have I seen of thin Seed-wheat escaping the Smut, when plump large grain’d Seed of the same Sort have been smutty.