But if Land sown with Wheat be not hoed, its Surface is soon incrustate; and then much of this Water, with its Contents, runs off, and returns to the Sea, without entering the Ground; and in Summer a great deal of what remains is exhaled by the Sun, and raised by the Wind, both in Summer and Winter. Some there are who think it a fatal Objection, that the more an Interval is hoed, the more Weeds will grow in it; and that the Hoe can produce, or (as they say) breed in it as many Weeds in one Summer, as would have come thereon in Ten Years by the old Husbandry. But by this Objection they only maintain, that the Hoe can destroy as many Weeds in One Summer, as the old Husbandry can in Ten Years. And they might add, that since all Weeds that grow where the Hoe comes, are killed before they seed, and that few of those Which grow in the old Husbandry, are killed[143] before their Seed be ripe and shed; these Objectors will be forced to allow, that our Husbandry will lessen a Stock of Weeds more in one Summer, than theirs can do to the World’s End; unless they believe the equivocal Generation of Weeds, than which Opinion nothing can be more absurd. [143] Weeds cannot be killed before they grow, but will lie dormant, as they do in our Partitions, and in their sown Land; and while Seeds are in the Ground, they are always ready to grow at the first Opportunity, and will certainly break out at one time or other; so that preventing their coming, is only like healing up a Wound before it be cured. Some object against my Method of[144] weighing a Yard, or a Perch in Length of a Row, saying, this does not determine the Produce of a whole Field. [144] I did not weigh this Yard, as different from the other Yards round about it, for I had much Difficulty to determine which Row I should chuse it in; when I was going to cut in one Row, it still seemed that another was better, and I question whether I did chuse the best at last.