Thus, by increasing the Number of Stalks[132], bringing more of them up into Ear[133], making the Ears larger[134], and the Grain plumper, and fuller of Flour[135], the Hoeing Method makes a greater Crop from a Tenth Part of the Plants[136] than the sowing Method can. [132] The same Plant that, when poor, sends out but Two or Three Tillers, would, if well nourished by the Hoe, or otherwise, send up a Multitude of Tillers, as is seen in hoed Wheat, and sown Wheat. [133] Mr. _Houghton_ relates Eighty Ears on one single Plant of Wheat, and a greater Number has been counted lately in a Garden: Those Eighty, reckoned to have Fifty Grains apiece, make an Increase of Four thousand Grains for one; but I have never found above Forty Ears from a single Plant in my Fields; yet there is no doubt, but that every Plant would produce as many as Mr. _Houghton_’s, of the same Sort, with the same Nourishment; But I should not desire any to be so prolific in Stalks, lest they should fail of bringing such a Multitude of Ears to Perfection. The Four hundred Ears, that I numbered in a Yard, were not weighed, because they were told before ripe; and the greatest Weight of Wheat that ever I had from a Yard, was the Product of about Two hundred and Fifty Ears, and some of them were small. [134] I have numbered One hundred and Nine Grains in One Ear of my hoed Cone-wheat of the grey Sort; and One Ear of my hoed Lammas-wheat has been measured to be Eight Inches long, which is double to those of sown Wheat. I have some of these Ears now by me almost as long, the longest being given away as a Rarity; and indeed ’tis not every Year that they grow to that Length, and ’tis always where the Plants are pretty single. But there is no Year wherein One Ear of my hoed does not more than weigh Two of the sown Ears, taking a whole Sheaf of each together without choosing. The Sheaves of the hoed are of a different Shape from the other; almost all the Ears of the hoed are at the Top of the Sheaf; but most of the other are situate at the lower Part, or near the Middle of the Sheaf. [135] Seed Cone wheat coming all out at the same Heap, planted all at the same Time, and on Land of the same Sort adjoining near together, the Wheat that was sown produced Grains so small, and that which was drilled so very large, that no Farmer or Wheat-buyer would believe them to be of the same Sort of Wheat, except those who knew it, which were many. One Grain of the drilled weighed Two of the sown, and there was twice the Chaff in an equal Weight of the sown, being both weighed before and after the Wheat was separated from the Chaff. [136] The Fact of this nobody can doubt, who has observed the different Products of strong and of weak Plants, how the one exceeds the other.