Note 207 — CHAP. XIV. Of Change of Species.

A Charlock could not rob a Turnep, and starve it, more than several Turneps can do, unless the Charlock did take from it the same Particles which would nourish a Turnep; and unless the Charlock did devour a greater Quantity of that Nourishment than several Turneps could take.

Flax, Oats, and Poppy, could not burn or waste the Soil, and make it less able to produce succeeding Crops of different Species, unless they did exhaust the same Particles which would have nourish’d Plants of different Species: For let the Quantity of Particles these Burners take be never so great, the following Crops would not miss them, or suffer any Damage by the Want or Loss of them, were they not the same Particles which would have nourished those Crops, if the Burners had left them behind, quiet and undisturbed. Neither could Weeds be of any Prejudice to Corn, if they did draw off those Particles only that suit the Bodies of Weeds, the rest lying all quiet and undisturbed the while. But constant Experience shews, that all Sorts of Weeds, more or less, diminish the Crop of Corn.