[108] ’Tis said to grow mostly in some Islands of the _Archipelago_, and some Author describes it _Triticum spica multiplici_: There is another Sort of Wheat that has many little Ears coming out of Two Sides of the main Ear, but this is very late ripe, and doth not succeed well here, nor is it liked by them who have sown it; yet I have had some Ears of it by chance among my drill’d Wheat, which have been larger than those of any common Sort. I have not as yet been able to procure any of the _Smyrna Wheat_, which I look on as a great Misfortune; but I had some of it above Forty Years ago. When Wheat is planted early, less Seed is required than when late; because less of it will die in the Winter than of that planted late, and it has more Time to tiller[109]. [109] To _tiller_ is to branch out into many Stalks, and is the Country Word, that signifies the same with _fruticare_. Poor Land should have more Seed than rich Land, because a less Number of the Plants will survive the Winter on poor Land. The least Quantity of Seed may suffice for rich Land that is planted early; for thereon very few Plants will die; and the Hoe will cause a small Number of Plants to send out a vast Number of Stalks, which will have large Ears; and in these, more than in the Number of Plants, consists the Goodness of a Crop[110]. [110] A too great Number of Plants do neither tiller, nor produce so large Ears, nor make half so good a Crop, as a bare competent Number of Plants will. Another thing must be consider’d, in order to find the just Proportion of Seed to plant; and that is, that some Wheat has its Grains twice as big as other Wheat of the same Sort; and then a Bushel[111] will contain but half the Number of Grains; and one Bushel of Small-grain’d Wheat will plant as much Ground as Two Bushels of the Large-grain’d; for, in Truth, ’tis not the Measure of the Seed, but the Number of the Grains, to which respect ought to be had in apportioning the Quantity of it to the Land. [111] Our Bushel contains Seventy Pounds of the best Wheat. Some have thought, that a large Grain of Wheat would produce a larger Plant than a small Grain; but I have full Experience to the contrary. The small Grain, indeed, sends up its first single Blade in Proportion to its own Bulk, but afterwards becomes as large a Plant, as the largest Grain can produce[112], _cæteris paribus_. [112] Farmers in general know this, and choose the thinnest, smallest-grained Wheat for Seed; and therefore prefer that which is blighted and lodged, and that which grows on new-broken Ground, and is not fit for Bread; not only because this thin Wheat has more Grains in a Bushel; but also because such Seed is least liable to produce a smutty Crop, and yet brings Grains as large as any. I myself have had as full Proofs of this as can possibly be made in both Respects.