Of the TroduUion ofneMt Tlants . 105 ?

crease from the fruits, and pulse, and Vines which we have planted. A matterlurely that mull needs be exceeding profitable, for a man to receive an hundred,bushels in usury as it were, for one bulhel that he hath lowed. Which yet I wcu'dnot have to be so understood, as if a man should still expect to receive an hun-dreds for one, precisely or exactly so much;for sometimes the year, or the air and•weather, or else the ground, or else the plants may not perform their parts kindly;

•and in this case, the encreaie cannot be so great. (but yet it shall never be so little,but that it shall be five times more then ordinary;) but if thole things do performtheir parts kindly together, you shall receive sometimes for one bushel, an hun-dred and fifty by encreaie. This may seem a paradox to some, and they will thinkthat we promise impossibilities ; but surely if they would consider all things rightly*they should rather think it a paradox, why half a bushel well sown or planted,shouldnot yield two hundred bushels encreaie, seeing that one grain or kernel that isplanted and takes kindly, doth oft-times spread his root, as we see, andfructifie in-to sundry and many stems, sometimes into fifteen, and in the ear of every one ofthose Halks, are contained sometimes threelcore grains? I spare to mention herethe ground that lies in Byzatium in Africa, whereof Vhr.y speaks, which, for onegrain that was planted in it, did yield very neer four hundred stalks, and theGover-nour of that Country sent unto Nero three hundred and fourty stems growing our ofone grain. Buc let us search out the cause whereby this comes to pass. Some thinkthat the encreaie commonly falls out to be so little, because the greater part of thefruit which is cast into the ground, is eaten up of worms, or birds, or moles, andof other creatures that live in the emh. But this appears to be false, because onebushel of Pulse being planted, never yields above fifteen. Now the Pulse or Lu-pines, is of it (elf so bitter, .that none of. thole devouring creatures will taste of it,

Bin let it lie safe and untouched: and when they are grown up, you shall common-ly finde about an hundred grains in the cods of every stalk. Others referre thecause hereof unto the weather, as if the fruit were annoyed with over much cold,or heat, or rain, so that the fields are sometimes frozen with cold, and sometimesparched with heat, whereby they are sometimes more fruitful, and sometimes morebarren. But this cannot be the true reason, because that though the weather benever so kindly, ye that cannot make one encrease into thirty. But not to wan-der or range any further about, we must know that all grains that grow withinthe ear or the husk, are not prolifical, that is, they are not all fit to yield encrease;for God hath appointed some of them for the food and sustenance of living crea-tures, and others for feed. There are some grains in an ear, which areas it wereabortives, such as degenerate from their natural kind, and will not fructifie at all,but rot aud waste away into putrefaction. There are other grains in an ear, suchas are easier to be stript out of their husk, which are fitter for propagation, and arebetter enabled by nature thereunto. Besides that, sometimes it falls out, that seedsor grains are not planted in due season; or if they be, yet sometime? the Husband-man doth not bestow that due labour and industry in lookingunto them, which thekind of the fruit requires. Wherefore if we can meet with all these impedi-ments, we may procure encrease according to our hearts desire. For the seeds will f ^be larger in the roots, and when they have spread their roots under the earth of agood length, then will they send up a greater number of stems, and bring forthgood store of ears. Therefore you must make choice of your seeds or grains, notof the forwardest , nor yet of the backwardest, because they commonly areweakest, but of the middle sort: then wash them and cleanse them from all ci-ther seeds; and besmear them with fat ointments, and with the grease of oldGoats; and let them be continually supplied with sufficient heat, and luffuiencmoisture; then lay them in soft and warm mould carefully manured; for the live-lier that the heat of the mould is, the better will the seeds close with it,and become more eager to propagation, and embrace it more sweetly, as themale would do by his female. So shall your yout feeds be more enlivcd, and

bring forth a more legitimate and a larger encrease. Let them be plance i in

a c the