The whole Expence of an Acre of drilled Wheat.
| l. | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| For Seed | 00 | 02 | 03 |
| For Tillage | 00 | 04 | 00 |
| For Drilling | 00 | 00 | 06 |
| For Weeding | 00 | 00 | 06 |
| For Uncovering | 00 | 00 | 02 |
| For Brine and Lime | 00 | 00 | 01 |
| For Reaping | 00 | 02 | 06 |
| Total | 00 | 10 | 00 |
| The Expence of an Acre of sowed Wheat is | 04 | 00 | 00 |
| To which must be added, for the Year’s Rent of the Fallow | 00 | 10 | 00 |
| Total | 04 | 10 | 00 |
If I have reckoned the Expence of the drilled at the lowest Price, to bring it to an even Sum; I have also abated in the other more than the whole Expence of the drilled amounts unto.
And thus the Expence of a drilled Crop of Wheat is but the Ninth Part of the Expence of a Crop sown in the common Manner.
’Tis also some Advantage, that less Stock is required where no Store-sheep are used.
II. Of the different Goodness of a Crop.
The Goodness of a Crop consists in the Quality of it, as well as the Quantity; and Wheat being the most useful Grain, a Crop of this is better than a Crop of any other Corn, and the ho’d Wheat has larger Ears (and a fuller Body) than sow’d Wheat. We can have more of it, because the same Land will produce it every Year, and even Land, which, by the Old Husbandry, would not be made to bear Wheat at all: So that, in many Places, the New Husbandry can raise Ten Acres of Wheat for One that the Old can do: because where Land is poor, they sow but a Tenth Part of it with Wheat.
We do not pretend, that we have always greater Crops, or so great as some sown Crops are, especially if those mention’d by Mr. Houghton be not mistaken.
The greatest Produce I ever had from a single Yard in Length of a double Row, was Eighteen Ounces: The Partition of this being Six Inches, and the Interval Thirty Inches, was, by Computation, Ten Quarters (or Eighty Bushels) to an Acre.
I had also Twenty Ounces to a like Yard of a Third successive Crop of Wheat; but this being a treble Row, and the Partitions and Interval being wider, and supposed to be in all Six Feet, was computed to Six Quarters to an Acre. And if these Rows had been better order’d than they were, and the Earth richer, and more pulveriz’d, more Stalks would have tillered out, and more Ears would have attained their full Size, and have equall’d the best, which must have made a much greater Crop than either of these were.