Note 132 — CHAP. IX. Of Wheat.
Reading edition
The same Plant that, when poor, sends out but Two or Three Tillers, would, if well nourished by the Hoe, or otherwise, send up a Multitude of Tillers, as is seen in hoed Wheat, and sown Wheat.
[133]Mr. Houghton relates Eighty Ears on one single Plant of Wheat, and a greater Number has been counted lately in a Garden: Those Eighty, reckoned to have Fifty Grains apiece, make an Increase of Four thousand Grains for one; but I have never found above Forty Ears from a single Plant in my Fields; yet there is no doubt, but that every Plant would produce as many as Mr. Houghton’s, of the same Sort, with the same Nourishment; But I should not desire any to be so prolific in Stalks, lest they should fail of bringing such a Multitude of Ears to Perfection. The Four hundred Ears, that I numbered in a Yard, were not weighed, because they were told before ripe; and the greatest Weight of Wheat that ever I had from a Yard, was the Product of about Two hundred and Fifty Ears, and some of them were small.
[134]I have numbered One hundred and Nine Grains in One Ear of my hoed Cone-wheat of the grey Sort; and One Ear of my hoed Lammas-wheat has been measured to be Eight Inches long, which is double to those of sown Wheat. I have some of these Ears now by me almost as long, the longest being given away as a Rarity; and indeed ’tis not every Year that they grow to that Length, and ’tis always where the Plants are pretty single. But there is no Year wherein One Ear of my hoed does not more than weigh Two of the sown Ears, taking a whole Sheaf of each together without choosing. The Sheaves of the hoed are of a different Shape from the other; almost all the Ears of the hoed are at the Top of the Sheaf; but most of the other are situate at the lower Part, or near the Middle of the Sheaf.
[135]Seed Cone wheat coming all out at the same Heap, planted all at the same Time, and on Land of the same Sort adjoining near together, the Wheat that was sown produced Grains so small, and that which was drilled so very large, that no Farmer or Wheat-buyer would believe them to be of the same Sort of Wheat, except those who knew it, which were many. One Grain of the drilled weighed Two of the sown, and there was twice the Chaff in an equal Weight of the sown, being both weighed before and after the Wheat was separated from the Chaff.
[136]The Fact of this nobody can doubt, who has observed the different Products of strong and of weak Plants, how the one exceeds the other.
The greatest Difference of having an equal Crop from a small Number of strong Plants, and from a great Number of weak ones, is, that the Soil is vastly less exhausted by the former than by the latter, not only from the latter’s exhausting more in proportion to their Number when young, and whilst each of them consumes as much Nourishment as each of the small Number; but also from the different Increase that a strong Plant makes by receiving the same Proportion of Food with a weak one: For it appears from Dr. Woodward’s Experiments, that the Plant which receives the least Increase carries off the greatest Quantity of Nourishment in proportion to that Increase; and that ’tis the same with an Animal, all who are acquainted with fatting of Swine know; for they eat much more Food daily for the first Two Weeks of their being put into the Sty, than they do afterwards, when they thrive faster; the fatter they grow, the less they eat.
Hence, I think, it may be inferred, that a Plant, which, by never having been robbed or stinted by other Plants, is strong, receives a much greater Increase from an equal Quantity of Food, than a Number of weak Plants (as thick ones are), equalling the Bulk of the single strong Plant, do.
And this of the Doctor’s have I seen by my own Observations confirmed in the Field in Potatoes, Turneps, Wheat, and Barley; a following Crop succeeds better after an equal Crop, consisting of a bare competent Number of strong Plants, than after a Crop of thick weak ones, cæteris paribus.
Thus the hoed Crops, if well managed, consisting of fewer and stronger Plants than the sown Crops of equal Produce, exhaust the Ground less; whereby, and by the much (I had almost said infinitely) greater Pulveration of the Soil, indifferent good Land may, for any thing I have yet seen to the contrary, produce profitable Crops always without Manure, or Change of Species, if the Soil be proper for it in respect of Heat and Moisture; and also as Crops of some Species, by their living longer, by their greater Bulk, or different Constitution, exhaust more than others, respect ought to be had to the Degree of Richness of the Soil, that is to produce each Species: The Sowing and the Hoeing Husbandry differ so much both in Pulveration and Exhaustion, that no good Argument can be drawn from the former against the latter: But tho’ a too great Number of Plants be, upon many Accounts, very injurious to the Crop, yet ’tis best to have a competent Number; which yet needs not be so exact, but that we may expect a great Crop from Twenty, Forty, or Fifty Plants in a Yard of the treble Row, if well managed.