[253] On an undung’d low Six feet Ridge, we have Three Rows, Eight Inches asunder, all which being equal, during the Winter, but each of the Two outside Rows at Harvest producing Ten times as much Wheat as the middle Row doth, all Three together produce a Quantity equal to One-and-twenty of this middle Row. Now, supposing the Roots of this Row not to reach through the outside Rows, so as to receive any Benefit from the ho’d Intervals, then this Row might only be equal to one of Nine Rows, which should have been drilled Eight Inches asunder on this Ridge, and then our Three would only be equal to Twenty-one of such Nine Rows. But since it can be demonstrated, that the Roots of our middle Row do pass through both the outside Rows far into the ho’d Intervals, we may well suppose it to be at least double to what it would have been, if it had no Benefit from the Hoeing, and then our Three will be equal to Forty-two of such Nine unho’d Rows. Thus our Crop is Thirty-three in Forty-two (or almost Four Parts in Five) increased by the Hoeing; for though many Fields of Wheat have been drilled all over in Rows Eight Inches asunder, it never has been judged, in Twenty Years Experience, that a Crop so planted, though not ho’d, was, by its Evenness and Regularity, less, _cæteris paribus_, than a Crop sown at random. They object against us, saying, That sometimes the Hoeing makes Wheat too strong and gross, whereby it becomes the more liable to the Blacks (or Blight of Insects): But this is the Fault of the Hoer; for he may choose whether he will make it too strong, because he may apply his Hoeings at proper times only, and apportion the Nourishment to the Number and Bulk of his Plants. However, by this Objection they allow, that the Hoe can give Nourishment enough, and therefore they cannot maintain, that there is a Necessity of Dung[254] in the Hoeing-Husbandry; and that, if our Crops of Wheat should happen to suffer, by being too strong, our Loss will be less than theirs, when that is too strong, since it will cost them Nine times our Expence to make it so. [254] As for the Quantity of vegetable Matter of Dung, when reduced to Earth by Putrefaction, it is very inconsiderable, and, of many sorts of Manure, next to nothing. The almost only Use of all Manure is the same as of Tillage; _viz._ the Pulveration it makes by Fermentation, as Tillage doth by Attrition or Contusion; and with these Differences, that Dung, which is the most common Manure, is apt to increase Weeds, a Tillage (of which Hoeing is chief) destroys them, and Manure is scanty in most Places, but Tillage may be had every-where. Another Difference is, the vast Disproportion of the Price of Manure and that of Tillage. _Note_, As we have no way to enrich the Soil, but by Pulveration of Manure, or of Instruments, or of both; so Nature has ordain’d, that the Soil shall be exhausted by nothing, but by the Roots of Plants.