The Mill.
London. Published by W. Darton Jun. Oct. 5, 1815.
“Hold, you wasteful little fellow!” cried his grandpapa. “I did not tell you to root up my field at one stroke. Let me see, however. Observe what a wonderful increase here is. These seven stalks have all sprung from one single grain, and each ear contains, perhaps, twenty grains; which gives us in all a hundred and forty grains instead of one.”
Arthur. That is astonishing, indeed! So there always grows a hundred and forty times as much wheat as is sown?
Mr. Mansfield. No, no, I did not say that. In this instance it is so; and sometimes it may even happen to produce more; but a great deal of seed rots in the ground, without ever growing at all: of what does come up, some is spoilt before it is ripe, and the ears that come to perfection do not all yield so well as these. I believe, therefore, that taking the kingdom throughout, we only gather about eight times the quantity we sow.
Arthur. How long is wheat growing, pray, sir?
Mr. Mansfield. Nine or ten months generally. No sooner is the harvest of one year got in, than we begin to prepare for that of the ensuing year. We plough the land, and sow it again immediately. Some seed, indeed, is not sown before the spring, but that never produces quite such good crops.
Charles. What is the use of ploughing, grandpapa?
Mr. Mansfield. To break up the earth, which would otherwise get so hard that no corn could grow in it. When a field has been ploughed, a man walks over it, and scatters the seed all over the field. Then it is raked in by an instrument full of great iron teeth, called a harrow. Care must afterwards be taken to keep it free from weeds, but besides that nothing more can be done. It is left for the rain to water, and the sun to ripen it.