The Objections most likely to prepossess Peoples Minds, and prevent their making Trials of this Husbandry, are these: First, they will be apt to think, that these wide, naked Spaces, not being cover’d by the Plants, will not be sufficient to make a good Crop. For Answer, we must consider, that tho’ Corn, standing irregular and _sparsim_, may seem to cover the Ground better than when it stands regular in Rows; this Appearance[52] is a mere _Deceptio visus_; for Stalks are never so thick on any Part of the Ground as where many come out of one Plant, or as when they stand in a Row; and a ho’d Plant of Corn will have Twenty or Thirty Stalks[53], in the same Quantity of Ground where an unho’d Plant, being equally single, will have only Two or Three Stalks. These tillered ho’d Stalks, if they were planted _sparsim_ all over the Interval, it might seem well cover’d, and perhaps thicker than the sown Crop commonly is; so that tho’ these ho’d Rows seem to contain a less Crop, they may contain, in reality, a greater Crop than the sown, that seems to exceed it; and ’tis only the different Placing that makes one seem greater, and the other less, than it really is; and this is only when both Crops are young. [52] For the Eye to make a Companion betwixt a sown Crop and such a ho’d Crop, it ought, when ’tis half grown, to look on the ho’d Crop across the Rows; because in the other it does so, in Effect, which way soever it looks; but whatever Appearance the ho’d Crop of Vegetables (of as large a Species as Wheat) makes when young, it surely, if well managed, appears more beautiful at Harvest than a sown Crop. [53] I have counted Fifty large Ears on one single ho’d Plant of Barley. The next Objection is, That the Space or Interval not being _planted_, much of the Benefit of that Ground will be lost; and therefore the Crop must be less than if it were planted all over. I answer, It might be so, if not Horse-ho’d; but if well Horse-ho’d, the Roots can run through the Intervals; and, having more Nourishment, make a greater Crop. The too great Number of Plants, plac’d all over the Ground in common sowing, have, whilst it is open, an Opportunity of _wasting_, when they are very young, that Stock of Provision, for Want of which the greatest Part of them are afterwards starv’d; for their irregular Standing prevents their being relieved with fresh Supplies from the Hoe: Hence it is, that the old Method exhausting the Earth to no Purpose, produces a less Crop; and yet leaves less _Pabulum_ behind for a succeeding one, contrary to the Hoeing-Husbandry, wherein Plants are manag’d in all Respects by a quite different Oeconomy.