I shall not go about to compute the Difference of Expence bestow’d in the _Roman_ Culture and in this; yet it will appear theirs was incomparably more chargeable, and that the Excess of Charge was occasioned by their Error in the Theory of Husbandry. They sow’d it so thick, that the Plants must needs be very small; and when Ten of them were no bigger than one good single ho’d Plant would have been, in the same Space of the Earth’s Surface, they could have but a Ninth Part of the Earth’s Depth, which the one would have had. The Defect of Depth must be therefore made up, in some Measure, by the extraordinary Richness of the Surface. Upon this Account few Lands were capable of bearing _Medica_. Their sowing it so late made the first Waterings necessary; and the Shortness of the Roots required the repeated Rigations, after the Crops were cut: For _Columella_ saith in _Lib._ ii. _Cap._ 11. _Cum secueris autem, sæpius eam rigato._ But had it been cultivated by the hoeing Method, the Tap-roots would have descended as deep as a Well, and, from the Springs below, have sent up Water to the Plants, besides what the Hoe would have caused the horizontal Roots to receive from Dews at the Surface above. At how much a cheaper Rate Water is supply’d by these Means, than by carrying it perhaps a great Way, and then sprinkling it by Hand over the Beds, which were made Ten feet wide between Path and Path for that Purpose, let any one judge; as also what a laborious Task it was to pick out the Grass with Fingers from amongst it, in the hard dry Ground in the Summer, after mowing the Crop, as _Columella_ directs in his foremention’d Chapter, which the Horse-hoe would have done with Ease, at a Twentieth Part of that Expence. However, since they saw the _Medica_ was as impatient of Grass as the Vineyards were, ’tis a Wonder they did not give it the same Culture with the _Bidens_, which would have been much better and cheaper, than to cleanse the _Medica_ with Fingers. Indeed Fingers were made before the _Bidens_; but sure the Effect of its Use in raising Juices to the Vine, had inspired the _Romans_ with more judicious Speculations, than to give that for a Reason why they ho’d the _Medica_ with their Fingers, rather than with the _Bidens_.