“ The seed at first coming out is very white, but within a day it becoms greenish, then red, at last by little and little gray, which colour it retains alwaies, the most coloured of an obscure gray, being the best; those grains, which never quit their whiteness, having no fecundity in them.
Each female emits ordinarily some 300. grains, more or less, some of them not being able to render them all, and dying with them in their belly. One ounce of seed will require an hundred pair of Cases, of as many Males as Females. ”

“ What the colour of it? Upon what grounds it is used? What time of the year it is to be laid on? How many loads to an Acre? What Grains Marled Land will bear, and how many years together? How such Marled Land is to be used afterwards, &c?
7. The kinds of Grain or Seed, usual in England being supposed to be either Wheat, Miscelane, Rye, Barley, Oats, Pease, Beans, Fitches, Buck wheat, Hemp, Flax, Rape; We desire to know, what sorts of Grains are sown in your Country, and how each of these is prepared for Sowing? Whether by steeping, and in what kind of Liquor? ”

“ Now that there may be no want of such fresh Air, the Fire must alwaies be kept burning in the Chimney, or at least as frequently as is necessary: For which purpose there must be two of the Iron Grates or Chimneys, that when any accident befals the one, the other may be ready to be in its place, the Coals being first well kindled in it; but when the fire is neer spent, the Chimney or Grate being haled up to the dore, is to be supplied with fresh fuel. ”

“ The Tool being placed, is to be struck upon with an Hammer, the heavier the better, either suspended by a Shaft turning upon a Pin, or otherwise, so as one man may manage the Hammer, while another holds the Tool or Piercer. It it be hung in a Frame, or other convenient way, he that manageth it hath no more to do, but to pull it up at first as high as he can, and let it fall again by its own weight, the motion being so directed, as to be sure to hit the Piercer right. ”

“ Air through the Tube, without which it cannot burn, which yet it will do, as is obvious to conceive, (all Illustrations, and Philosophical Explications being here superfluous,) and so, while the Air is drawn by the fire from the farthest or most inward part of the Mine or Adit, fresh Air must needs come in from without, to supply the place of the other, which by its motion doth carry away with it all the vapors, that breath out of the ground ”

“ Then the end of the lower Wedge being about an Inch longer, than that of the upper outwardly, and flatned, priming Powder is to be laid upon it, and a piece of burning Match or Thread dipt in Brimstone or other such prepared combustible Matter, fastned to it, that may burn so long, before it fire the Powder, as he, that orders it, may have time enough to retire quite out of the Pit or Adit, having first placed a piece of Wood or Iron so, as one end thereof, being set against the end of the lower Wedge, and the other against the side-wall, so as it cannot slip. ”

“ Before they begin to spin, and about the latter end of their feeding, they must, saith the Author, be often changed, and have Air enough, by opening the Windows of the Room, they are in, if it be not too ill Weather; else, saith he, the Silk that is in their Belly, will cause so extraordinary a heat in them, that it burns their gutts, and sometimes bursts them ”

“ The steeled end is so shaped, as makes it most apt to pierce the Rock, the Angles at that end being still to be made the more obtuse, the harder the Rock is. This Tool is to be first held by the hand, in the place, where the Hole, to be made for the use, which shall here be shewed, is to be placed ”

“ Those Gentlemen, which do constitute the Committee for considering of Agriculture, and the History and Improvement thereof, have begun their work with drawing up certain Heads of Enquiries, to be distributed to persons Experienced in Husbandry all over England, Scotland, and Ireland, for the procuring a faithful and solid information of the knowledg and practice already obtained and used in these Kingdoms ”

“ The higher the Shaft of the Chimney is, the Fire draws the Air the better. And this Invention may be made use of in the Pits or Shafts, that are Perpendicular, or any wise inclining towards it, when there is want of fresh Air at the bottom thereof ”

“ Though the Invention of breaking with ease, and dispatch, hard Rocks, may be useful on several occasions, the benefit is incomparably great, that may thereby accrue to those, who have Adits or Passages to cut through hard Rocks, for making passage for Water to run out by, in Mines of Lead, Tin, or any other whatsoever ”

“ He maketh the best marks of their maturity for spinning to be, when they begin to quit their white Colour, and their green and yellow Circles, and grow of the Colour of Flesh, especially upon the tail; having a kind of a consistent sofeness, shewing that they have something substantial in their Stomachs.
As for their Working, he gives this account of it, that the first day they make only a Webb; the second, they form in this Webb their Cases, and cover themselves all over with Silk ”

“ At the mouth or entry of the Adit there is a structure raised of Brick, like a Chimney, some 28. or 30. foot high in all: at the bottom, two opposite sides are (or may be) some 51/2 foot broad; and the other two, 5. foot: the wall 11/2 Brick thick. At the lower part of it, is a hole, some 9. or 10. inches square, for taking out of the Ashes, which when it is done, this Ash-hole is immediately stopt so close, as Air cannot possibly get in at any part of it. Then, some 3. foot above ground or more, there is on that side, that is next to the Adit or Pit, a square hole of 8. or 9 inches every way ”

“ Or by mixing it, and with what?
8. There being many sorts of Wheat, as the White or Red Lammas, the bearded Kentish Wheat, the gray Wheat, the red or gray Pollard, the Ducks-bill Wheat, the red-eared, bearded Wheat, &c. ”