That every Grain should produce an Ear affording an hundred Grains, is not like to be their conjecture who behold the growth of Corn in our Fields, wherein a common Grain doth produce far less in number. For barley consisting but of two Versus or Rows, seldom exceedeth twenty Grains, that is, ten upon each Στοῖχος, or Row; Rye, of a square figure, is very fruitfull at forty: Wheat, besides the Frit and Uruncus, or imperfect Grains of the small Husks at the top and bottom of the Ear, is fruitfull at ten treble Glumæ or Husks in a Row, each containing but three Grains in breadth, if the middle Grain arriveth at all to perfection; and so maketh up threescore Grains in both sides.
Yet even this centesimal fructification may be admitted in some sorts of Cerealia, and Grains from one Ear: if we take in the Triticum centigranum, or fertilissimum Plinii, Indian Wheat, and Panicum; which, in every Ear, containeth hundreds of Grains.
But this increase may easily be conceived of Grains in their total multiplication, in good and fertile ground, since, if every Grain of Wheat produceth but three Ears, the increase will arise above that number. Nor are we without examples of some grounds which have produced many more Ears, and above this centesimal increase: As Pliny hath left recorded of the Byzacian Field in Africa. Misit ex eo loco Procurator ex uno quadraginta minus germina. Misit et Neroni pariter tercentum quadraginta stipulos, ex uno grano. Cum centessimos quidem Leontini Siciliæ campi fundunt, aliique, et tota Bœtica, et imprimis Ægyptus. And even in our own Country, from one Grain of Wheat sowed in a Garden, I have numbred many more than an hundred.
And though many Grains are commonly lost which come not to sprouting or earing, yet the same is also verified in measure; as that one Bushel should produce a hundred, as is exemplified by the Corn in Gerar;[210] Then Isaac sowed in that Land, and received in that year an hundred fold. That is, as the Chaldee explaineth it, a hundred for one, when he measured it. And this Pliny seems to intend, when he saith of the fertile Byzacian Territory before mentioned, Ex uno centeni quinquaginta modii redduntur. And may be favourably apprehended of the fertility of some grounds in Poland; wherein, after the account of Gaguinus, from Rye sowed in August, come thirty or forty Ears, and a Man on Horseback can scarce look over it. In the Sabbatical Crop of Judæa, there must be admitted a large increase, and probably not short of this centesimal multiplication: For it supplied part of the sixth year, the whole seventh, and eighth untill the Harvest of that year.
The seven years of plenty in Ægypt must be of high increase; when, by storing up but the fifth part, they supplied the whole Land, and many of their neighbours after: for it is said,[211] the Famine was in all the Land about them. And therefore though the causes of the Dearth in Ægypt be made out from the defect of the overflow of Nilus, according to the Dream of Pharaoh; yet was that no cause of the scarcity of the Land of Canaan, which may rather be ascribed to the want of the former and latter rains, for some succeeding years, if their Famine held time and duration with that of Ægypt; as may be probably gather’d from that expression of Joseph,[212] Come down unto me [into Ægypt] and tarry not, and there will I nourish you: (for yet there are five years of Famine) lest thou and thy Household, and all that thou hast come to poverty.
How they preserved their Corn so long in Ægypt may seem hard unto Northern and moist Climates, except we consider the many ways of preservation practised by antiquity, and also take in that handsome account of Pliny; What Corn soever is laid up in the Ear, it taketh no harm keep it as long as you will; although the best and most assured way to keep Corn is in Caves and Vaults under ground, according to the practice of Cappadocia and Thracia.
In Ægypt and Mauritania above all things they look to this, that their Granaries stand on high ground; and how drie so ever their Floor be, they lay a course of Chaff betwixt it and the ground. Besides, they put up their Corn in Granaries and Binns together with the Ear. And Varro delivereth that Wheat laid up in that manner will last fifty years; Millet an hundred; and Beans so conserved in a Cave of Ambracia, were known to last an hundred and twenty years; that is, from the time of King Pyrrhus, unto the Pyratick War under the conduct of Pompey.
More strange it may seem how, after seven years, the Grains conserved should be fruitfull for a new production. For it is said that Joseph delivered Seed unto the Ægyptians, to sow their Land for the eighth year: and Corn after seven years is like to afford little or no production, according to Theophrastus;[213] Ad Sementem semen anniculum optimum putatur, binum deterius et trinum; ultra sterile fermè est, quanquam ad usum cibarium idoneum.
Yet since, from former exemplifications, Corn may be made to last so long, the fructifying power may well be conceived to last in some good proportion, according to the region and place of its conservation, as the same Theophrastus hath observed, and left a notable example from Cappadocia, where Corn might be kept sixty years, and remain fertile at forty; according to his expression thus translated; In Cappadociæ loco quodam petra dicto, triticum ad quadraginta annos fœcundum est, at ad sementem percommodum durare proditum est, sexagenos aut septuagenos ad usum cibarium servari posse idoneum. The situation of that Conservatory, was, as he delivereth, ἱψηλὸν, εὔπνουν, εὔαυρον, high, airy and exposed to several favourable winds. And upon such consideration of winds and ventilation, some conceive the Ægyptian Granaries were made open, the Country being free from rain. Howsoever it was, that contrivance could not be without some hazard:[214] for the great Mists and Dews of that Country might dispose the Corn unto corruption.
More plainly may they mistake, who from some analogy of name (as if Pyramid were derived from Πύρον, Triticum), conceive the Ægyptian Pyramids to have been built for Granaries; or look for any settled Monuments about the Desarts erected for that intention; since their Store-houses were made in the great Towns, according to Scripture expression,[215] He gathered up all the Food of seven years, which was in the Land of Ægypt, and laid up the Food in the Cities: the Food of the Field which was round about every City, laid he up in the same.