Of the 1710 entries, 178 (or 10%) were applied to the hands and 1532 (90%) were applied to the seat; therefore, it appears that the seat was preferred on a 9 to 1 basis.
The first observation is that the preference of caning the hands or the seat was not dependent on age. Within statistical error, it can be seen that all age ranges from 11 through 16 experienced roughly the same ratio, the seat being favored 85% to 95% depending on age, and 90% on average.
Further, there was no quantifiable factor (who did the caning or what the offense was) that convincingly lead to a preference of caning the hands or seat. It appears this was simply up to the discretion of the person meting out the punishment on those particular occasions. The one standout was this: More than 2 strokes on the hands were exceedingly rare and even when 2 were given, the notations that followed many times read “one on each hand”.