[245] It may be asked, How ’tis possible that Eight Hoeings, which are but equal, in Labour, to Two plain Plowings, should so much exceed Three plain Plowings, as to procure as good or a better Crop without Manure, than the common Three Plowings can do with Manure, and enrich the Land also. The Answer is, That each Hoeing of the Five or Six being done to the Wheat-plants, though it does not clean plow the whole Interval underneath, yet it changeth the whole external Superficies (or Surface) thereof, whereby it becomes impregnate by the nitrous Air, as much as if it were all clean plowed at the time of every Hoeing, and the Weeds are as much stifled, or suffocated. _Their One Year’s Tillage, which is but Two Plowings before Seed-time, commonly makes but little Dust; and that which it does make, has but a short time to lie exposed for Impregnation; and after the Wheat is sown, the Land lies unmoved for near Twelve Months, all the while gradually losing its Pasture, by subsiding, and by being continually exhausted in feeding a treble Stock of Wheat-plants, and a Stock of Weeds, which are sometimes a greater Stock. This puts the Advocates for the old Method upon a Necessity of using of Dung, which is, at best, but a_ Succedaneum _of the Hoe; for it depends chiefly on the Weather, and other Accidents, whether it may prove sufficient by Fermentation to pulverize in the Spring, or no: And it is a Question whether it will equal Two additional_[246] _Hoeings, or but one; tho’, as I have computed it, one Dunging costs the Price of One hundred Hoeings._ [246] Additional, because there must first be several Hoeings to make our treble Row equal to an undunged Six-feet Ridge of sown Wheat. When they have done all they can, the Pasture they raise is generally too little for the Stock that is to be maintained upon it, and much the greatest Part of the Wheat-plants are starved; for from Twenty Gallons of Seed they sow on an Acre, they receive commonly no more than Twenty Bushels[247] of Wheat in their Crop, which is but an Increase of Eight Grains for one: Now, considering how many Grains there are in one good Ear, and how many Ears on one Plant, we find, that there is not One Plant in Ten that lives till Harvest, even when there has not been Frost in the Winter sufficient to kill any of them; or if we count the Number of Plants that come up on a certain Measure of Ground, and count them again in the Spring, and likewise at Harvest, we shall be satisfied, that most or all of the Plants that are missing, could die by no other Accident than want of Nourishment.