The different Condition the Land is left in after a Crop[240], by
the one and the other Husbandry, is not less considerable than the
different Profit of the Crop.
[240] If indifferent Land be well pulverized by the Plough for one
whole Year, it will produce a good Crop: But then, if, instead of
being sown, it be kept pulverized on for another Year without being
exhausted by any Vegetables, it will acquire from the Atmosphere
an extraordinary great Degree of Fertility more than it had before
such Second Year’s Pulveration and Unexhaustion. This being granted,
which no Man of Experience can deny, what Reason can there be why
such a Number of Plants, competent for a profitable Crop, may not
be maintained on it the Second Year, that may keep the Degree of
their Exhaustion in _Æquilibrio_ with that Degree of Fertility,
which the same Land had acquired at the End of the First Year of
its Pulveration, the same Degree of Pulveration being continued to
it by Hoeing in the Second Year? Or why may it not produce annual
Crops always, if the same _Equilibrium_ be continually kept? Two
unanswerable Reasons may be given why this _Equilibrium_ cannot be
kept in the random Sowing, as it may in the Hoeing Method; _viz._
First, In the former, the Land is by the Number of sown Plants and
Weeds much more (we may suppose at least Five times more) exhausted:
And, Secondly, No Pulveration is continued to the Soil, whilst the
Crop is on it; which is that Part of the Year wherein is the most
proper (if not the only proper) Season for pulverizing. Therefore,
allowing, that, in the random way, a Soil cannot, for want of
Quantity of vegetable Food, continue to produce annual Crops without
Manure, or perhaps with it; yet that is no Reason why it may not
produce them in the Hoeing Culture duly performed.
A Piece of Eleven Acres of a poor, thin, chalky Hill was sown with
Barley in the common Manner, after a hoed Crop of Wheat; and produced
full Five Quarters and an half to each Acre (reckoning the Tythe);
which was much more than any Land in all the Neighbourhood yielded
the same Year; tho’ some of it be so rich, as that One Acre is worth
Three Acres of this Land: And no Man living can remember, that ever
this produced above half such a Crop before, even when the best of the
common Management has been bestowed upon it.
A Field, that is a sort of an Heath-ground, used to bring such poor
Crops of Corn, that heretofore the Parson carried away a whole Crop of
Oats from it, believing it had been only his Tythe. The best Management
that ever they did or could bestow upon it, was to let it rest Two
or Three Years, and then fallow and dung it, and sow it with Wheat,
next to that with Barley and Clover, and then let it rest again; but
I cannot hear of any good Crop that it ever produced by this or any
other of their Methods; ’twas still reckoned so poor, that nobody cared
to rent it. They said Dung and Labour were thrown away upon it, then
immediately after Two sown Crops of black Oats had been taken off it,
the last of which was scarce worth the mowing, it was put into the
Hoeing Management; and when Three hoed Crops[241] had been taken from
it, it was sown with Barley, and brought a very good Crop, much better
than ever it was known to yield before; and then a good Crop of hoed
Wheat succeeded the Barley, and then it was again sown with Barley,
upon the Wheat-stubble; and that also was better than the Barley it
used to produce.
[241] These Three hoed Crops were of Turneps and Potatoes.
Now all the Farmers of the Neighbourhood affirm, that it is impossible
but that this must be very rich Ground, because they have seen it
produce Six Crops in Six Years, without Dung or Fallow, and never
one of them fail. But, alas! this different Reputation they give to
the Land, does not at all belong to it, but to the different Sorts
of Husbandry; for the Nature of it cannot be altered but by that,
the Crops being all carried off it, and nothing added to supply the
Substance those Crops take from it, except (what Mr. _Evelyn_ calls)
the celestial Influences; and that these are received by the Earth, in
proportion to the Degrees of its Pulveration.
A Field was drilled with Barley after an hoed Crop; and another
adjoining to it on the same Side of the same poor Hill, and exactly the
same Sort of Land, was drilled with Barley also, Part of it after the
sown Crop, the same Day with the other; there was only this Difference
in the Soil, that the former of these had no manner of Compost on it
for many Years before, and the latter was dunged the Year before:
Yet its Crop was not near so good as that which followed the hoed
Crop[242]; tho’ the latter had twice the Plowing that the former had
before drilling, and the same Hoeings afterwards; _viz._ Each was hoed
Three times.
[242] This was a Wheat Crop, and often well hoed.
A Field of about Seventeen Acres was Summer-fallowed, and drilled with
Wheat; and with the Hoeing brought a very good Crop (except Part of
it, which being eaten by trespassing Sheep in the Winter, was somewhat
blighted); the _Michaelmas_ after that was taken off, the same Field
was drilled again with Wheat, upon the Stubble of the former, and
hoed: This Second Crop was a good one, scarce any in the Neighbourhood
better. A Piece of Wheat adjoining to it, on the very same Sort of Land
(except that this latter was always reckoned better, being thicker in
Mould above the Chalk), sown at the same time on dunged Fallows, and
the Ground always dunged once in Three Years; yet this Crop failed
so much, as to be judged, by some Farmers, not to exceed the Tythe
of the other: That the hoed Field has received no Dung or Manure for
many Years past, is because it lies out of the Reach for carrying of
Cart-Dung, and no Fold being kept on my Farm: But I cannot say, I think
there was quite so much Odds betwixt this Second undunged hoed Crop
and the sown; yet this is certain, that the former is a good, and the
latter a very bad Crop.
I could give many more Instances of the same Kind, where hoed Crops
and sown Crops have succeeded better after hoed Crops than after
sown Crops, and never yet have seen the contrary; and therefore am
convinced, that the Hoeing[243] (if it be duly performed) enriches
the Soil more than Dung and Fallows, and leaves the Land in a much
better Condition for a succeeding Crop. The Reason I take to be very
obvious: The artificial Pasture of Plants is made and increased by
Pulveration only; and nothing else there is in our Power to enrich our
Ground, but to pulverize it[244], and keep it from being exhausted
by Vegetables[245]. Superinductions of Earth are an Addition of
more Ground, or changing it, and are more properly purchasing than
cultivating.
[243] This is more especially meant of Fallows in the common
Husbandry, and a moderate Quantity of common Dung, or the Fold: And
there may be such a poor Sand, or other barrenish Soil, so subject
to Constipation in the Winter, as to require Dung when planted with
Wheat, there being no general Rule without Exceptions; and ’tis
impossible for me to know the Number of these Exceptions. Well it is
for the Hoer, whose Land is of such a kind, that he can keep it in
Heart without Dung by Hoeing; for when he has no Fold, he plows his
Ground with Oxen, and plants it mostly with Wheat, the Straw whereof
being for other Uses, he can make but very little Dung.
[244] These Two are all we have in our Power; for pulverizing
includes an Exposure to the Atmosphere; without which, I think,
it cannot be reduced to Particles minute enough, or have their
Superficies so impregnated as to become a fertile Pasture for Plants.
The Experiment related by Mr. _Evelyn_ of artificial Pulveration,
seems to prove such an Exposure necessary; as also the frequent
turning (or incessantly agitating) that fine Dust for a Year, before
the barren exhausted Earth was made rich and prolific; For, besides
the Benefit of Pulveration and Impregnation, Land is more enriched
in proportion to the Time of Exposure, during which it is free
from Exhaustion, and continually receiving from the Atmosphere:
Therefore frequent Turning and Exposure are both contained in the
Words _pulverize_, _and not exhaust_; and to comply with the latter,
we should endeavour, that our Land may be never exhausted by any
other Plants than by those we would propagate, and by no more of
them neither, than what are necessary for producing a reasonable
Crop; which, upon full Trial, will be found a very small Number
in companion to those that are commonly sown; and then, if the
Supply from the Atmosphere by Help of the Pulveration exceeds the
Exhaustion, the Land will become richer, tho’ constant Crops are
produced of the same Species; as in the Vineyards; and the Soil of
these is so much improved by a bare competent Exhaustion, and the
usual Pulveration, that after producing good annual Crops without
Dung, until Age has killed the Vines, they leave the Soil better than
they found it; and better than contiguous Land of the same Sort kept
in arable Field-culture.
By Pulveration are meant all the Benefits of it that accrue to the
Pasture of Plants; and by Exhaustion, all the Injuries that can
be done to that Pasture, except Burning. And as the Benefits of
Pulveration visibly continue for several Years, so do the Injuries
of Exhaustion; which appear by the Ends of some of my Rows that have
been cleansed of Weeds in their Partitions by the Hand-hoe, and the
other Ends of the same Rows not cleansed; the Difference is visible
in the Colour of the Wheat in the Third and Fourth following Crops,
equally managed; and this is no more to be wondered at, than that Two
unequal Sums, being equally increased or diminished, should remain
unequal, until an Addition to the lesser, or a Subtraction from the
greater, be made; which, in case of the Soil, must be either by a
greater Pulveration, or a lesser Exhaustion. ’Tis by this that both
Ends of these Rows in time become equal: For tho’ Ten Plants that
produce an Ounce of Wheat, insume more _Pabulum_ than one Plant that
produces the same Quantity (the Reason for which is given in the Note
on _p._ 121.); yet a Plant that produces Six or Seven Drams, insumes
less than one that produces an Ounce; for a Plant which produces Six
Drams of Wheat cannot be a poor one, and therefore insumes no more
_Pabulum_ than in proportion to its Augment and Product. Thus the
Soil of those Ends, which, by being doubly exhausted by Weeds and
Wheat plants, was made poorer, gradually recovers an Equality with
the other Ends, by being for several Years less exhausted than the
other Ends are by larger Plants, whilst the Number of Plants, and the
Pulveration of each, are equal.
To the Reasons already given there is another to be added, why Horse
hoed Wheat exhausts the Soil less than sown Crops, where the Product
of Wheat produced by each is equal: Which Reason is, that the former
has much less Straw than the latter; as appears by the different
Quantities of Grain that a Sheaf of each of equal Diameter yields;
one of the former yielding generally double to one of the latter; for
a Sheaf of the sown has not only more small Under-ears, but also its
best Ears bear a less Proportion to their Straw than the other; for a
Straw of sown Wheat Six Feet high, I have found to have an Ear but of
half the Size of an Ear of drilled Wheat on a Stalk Five Feet high,
having measured both of them standing in the Field, and rubbed out
the Grain of them. This Difference I impute to the different Supply
of Nourishment at the time when the Ears are forming.
Thus the sown Crop exhausts a Soil much more by its greater Quantity
of Straw.
And this is one Reason why annual Crops of sown Wheat cannot succeed
as Crops of Horse hoed Wheat do. There must be Dung and Fallow to
repair the Exhaustion of the sown; neither of which are necessary for
Crops of the Horse-hoed.
[245] It may be asked, How ’tis possible that Eight Hoeings, which
are but equal, in Labour, to Two plain Plowings, should so much
exceed Three plain Plowings, as to procure as good or a better Crop
without Manure, than the common Three Plowings can do with Manure,
and enrich the Land also.
The Answer is, That each Hoeing of the Five or Six being done to
the Wheat-plants, though it does not clean plow the whole Interval
underneath, yet it changeth the whole external Superficies (or
Surface) thereof, whereby it becomes impregnate by the nitrous Air,
as much as if it were all clean plowed at the time of every Hoeing,
and the Weeds are as much stifled, or suffocated.
_Their One Year’s Tillage, which is but Two Plowings before Seed-time,
commonly makes but little Dust; and that which it does make, has but
a short time to lie exposed for Impregnation; and after the Wheat is
sown, the Land lies unmoved for near Twelve Months, all the while
gradually losing its Pasture, by subsiding, and by being continually
exhausted in feeding a treble Stock of Wheat-plants, and a Stock of
Weeds, which are sometimes a greater Stock. This puts the Advocates for
the old Method upon a Necessity of using of Dung, which is, at best,
but a_ Succedaneum _of the Hoe; for it depends chiefly on the Weather,
and other Accidents, whether it may prove sufficient by Fermentation
to pulverize in the Spring, or no: And it is a Question whether it
will equal Two additional_[246] _Hoeings, or but one; tho’, as I have
computed it, one Dunging costs the Price of One hundred Hoeings._
[246] Additional, because there must first be several Hoeings to make
our treble Row equal to an undunged Six-feet Ridge of sown Wheat.
When they have done all they can, the Pasture they raise is generally
too little for the Stock that is to be maintained upon it, and much
the greatest Part of the Wheat-plants are starved; for from Twenty
Gallons of Seed they sow on an Acre, they receive commonly no more than
Twenty Bushels[247] of Wheat in their Crop, which is but an Increase
of Eight Grains for one: Now, considering how many Grains there are in
one good Ear, and how many Ears on one Plant, we find, that there is
not One Plant in Ten that lives till Harvest, even when there has not
been Frost in the Winter sufficient to kill any of them; or if we count
the Number of Plants that come up on a certain Measure of Ground, and
count them again in the Spring, and likewise at Harvest, we shall be
satisfied, that most or all of the Plants that are missing, could die
by no other Accident than want of Nourishment.
[247] And they have oftener less than Sixteen Bushels; and in the
Harvest 1735, a substantial experienced Farmer had no more than Four
Bushels of Wheat to an Acre throughout a Field of Forty Acres, being
robbed by Poppies; and I have known a Crop that has amounted to do
more than Two Bushels to an Acre, and some Crops less, tho’ dunged
and fallowed; so that, taking the common sown Crops of Wheat one with
another, they are thought not to amount to Sixteen Bushels to an
Acre, _communibus annis_.
They are obliged to sow this great Quantity of Seed, to the end that
the Wheat, by the great Number of Plants, may be the better able to
contend with the Weeds; and yet, too often, at Harvest, we see a
great Crop of Weeds, and very little Wheat among them. Therefore this
Pasture, being insufficient to maintain the present Crop, without
starving the greatest Part of its Plants, is likely to be less able
to maintain a subsequent Crop, than that Pasture which is not so much
exhausted.
When their Crop of Wheat is much less than ours, their Vacancies, if
computed all together, may be greater than those of our Partitions and
Intervals; theirs, by being irregular, serve chiefly for the Protection
of Weeds; for they cannot be plow’d out, without destroying the Corn,
any more than Cannons firing at a Breach, whereon both Sides are
contending, can kill Enemies, and not Friends.
Their Plants stand on the Ground in a confused manner, like a Rabble;
ours like a disciplin’d Army: We make the most of our Ground; for we
can, if we please, cleanse the Partitions with a Hand-hoe[248]; and for
the rest, if the Soil be deep enough to be drill’d on the Level[249],
in treble Rows, the Partitions at Six Inches[250], the Intervals Five
Feet; Five Parts in Six of the whole Field may be pulveriz’d every
Year, and at proper times all round the Year.
[248] Of all annual Weeds.
[249] This is only put as a Supposition; for I have for these several
Years left off drilling on the Level, and do advise against it;
because altho’ Mould should not be wanting for the Partitions in deep
rich Land, yet it is much more difficult to hoe on the Level than on
Ridges.
[250] But when it is drilled upon Ridges, the Proportion is less, by
how much the Partitions, being thicker in Mould, contain more than
a Sixth-part of the whole Six Feet of Earth, and the Proportion of
unexhausted Earth will be alter’d likewise; and I only mention these
Distances to avoid Fractions.
The Partitions being one Sixth-part for the Crop to stand on, and to be
nourished in the Winter, one other Sixth-part being well pulveriz’d,
may be sufficient to nourish it from thence till Harvest[251]; the
Remainder, being Two-thirds of the Whole, may be kept unexhausted, the
One-third for one Year, and the other Third of it Two Years; all kept
open for the Reception of the Benefits descending from above, during so
long a time; whilst the sowed Land is shut against them every Summer,
except the little time in which it is fallow’d, once in Three Years,
and a little, perhaps, whilst they plow it for Barley in the Winter,
which is a Season seldom proper for pulverizing the Ground.
[251] This may be done, tho’ the Roots of a competent Number of
Plants run through the Whole, in the manner herein before explained.
Their Land must have been exhausted as well by those supernumerary
Plants of Wheat, while they lived, as by those that remain for the
Crop, and by the Weeds. Our Land must be much less exhausted, when it
has never above one Third-part of the Wheat-plants to nourish that they
have, and generally no Weeds; so that our ho’d Land having much more
vegetable Pasture made, and continually renewed, to so much a less
Stock of Plants[252], must needs be left, by every Crop, in a much
better Condition than theirs is left in by any one of their sown Crops,
altho’ our Crops of Corn at Harvest be better than theirs[253].
[252] Therefore, whenever a Soil receives more Supplies of fine Earth
from the Atmosphere, than is exhausted by all the Plants that grow
in the Soil, it becomes richer; but if the contrary, then it becomes
poorer.
[253] On an undung’d low Six feet Ridge, we have Three Rows, Eight
Inches asunder, all which being equal, during the Winter, but each
of the Two outside Rows at Harvest producing Ten times as much Wheat
as the middle Row doth, all Three together produce a Quantity equal
to One-and-twenty of this middle Row. Now, supposing the Roots of
this Row not to reach through the outside Rows, so as to receive any
Benefit from the ho’d Intervals, then this Row might only be equal to
one of Nine Rows, which should have been drilled Eight Inches asunder
on this Ridge, and then our Three would only be equal to Twenty-one
of such Nine Rows. But since it can be demonstrated, that the Roots
of our middle Row do pass through both the outside Rows far into
the ho’d Intervals, we may well suppose it to be at least double to
what it would have been, if it had no Benefit from the Hoeing, and
then our Three will be equal to Forty-two of such Nine unho’d Rows.
Thus our Crop is Thirty-three in Forty-two (or almost Four Parts in
Five) increased by the Hoeing; for though many Fields of Wheat have
been drilled all over in Rows Eight Inches asunder, it never has
been judged, in Twenty Years Experience, that a Crop so planted,
though not ho’d, was, by its Evenness and Regularity, less, _cæteris
paribus_, than a Crop sown at random.
They object against us, saying, That sometimes the Hoeing makes Wheat
too strong and gross, whereby it becomes the more liable to the
Blacks (or Blight of Insects): But this is the Fault of the Hoer;
for he may choose whether he will make it too strong, because he may
apply his Hoeings at proper times only, and apportion the Nourishment
to the Number and Bulk of his Plants. However, by this Objection
they allow, that the Hoe can give Nourishment enough, and therefore
they cannot maintain, that there is a Necessity of Dung[254] in the
Hoeing-Husbandry; and that, if our Crops of Wheat should happen to
suffer, by being too strong, our Loss will be less than theirs, when
that is too strong, since it will cost them Nine times our Expence to
make it so.
[254] As for the Quantity of vegetable Matter of Dung, when reduced
to Earth by Putrefaction, it is very inconsiderable, and, of many
sorts of Manure, next to nothing.
The almost only Use of all Manure is the same as of Tillage; _viz._
the Pulveration it makes by Fermentation, as Tillage doth by
Attrition or Contusion; and with these Differences, that Dung, which
is the most common Manure, is apt to increase Weeds, a Tillage (of
which Hoeing is chief) destroys them, and Manure is scanty in most
Places, but Tillage may be had every-where. Another Difference is,
the vast Disproportion of the Price of Manure and that of Tillage.
_Note_, As we have no way to enrich the Soil, but by Pulveration of
Manure, or of Instruments, or of both; so Nature has ordain’d, that
the Soil shall be exhausted by nothing, but by the Roots of Plants.
A Second Objection is, That as Hoeing makes poor Land become rich
enough to bear good Crops of Wheat for several Years successively,
the same must needs make very good Land become too rich for Wheat. I
answer, That if possibly it should so happen, there are Two Remedies
to be used in such a Case; the one is to plant it with Beans, or some
other Vegetables, which cannot be over-nourished, as Turneps, Carrots,
Cabbages, and such-like, which are excellent Food for fatting of
Cattle; or else they may make use of the other infallible Remedy, when
that rich Land, by producing Crops every Year in the Hoeing-Husbandry,
is grown too vigorous and resty, they may soon take down its Mettle, by
sowing it a few Years in their old Husbandry, which will fill it again
with a new Stock of Weeds, that will suck it out of Heart, and exhaust
more of its Vigour, than the Dung[255], that helps to produce them, can
restore.
[255] Dung made of the Straw of sown Corn generally abounds with the
Seed of Weeds.
There is a Third Objection, and that is, That the Benefit of some
Ground is lost where the Hoe-plough turns at each End of the Lands:
But this cannot be much, if any, Damage; because about Four Square
Perch to a Statute Acre is sufficient for this Purpose; and that, at
the Rate of _Ten Shillings_ Rent, comes to but _Three-pence_, tho’ this
varies, according as the Piece is longer or shorter; and supposing the
most to be Eight Perch, that is but _Six-pence_ _per_ Acre; and that
is not lost neither; for whether it be of natural or artificial Grass,
the Hoe-plough, in turning on it, will scratch it, and leave some Earth
on it, which will enrich it so much, that it may be worth its Rent for
Baiting of Horses or Oxen upon it. And besides, these Ends are commonly
near Quick-hedges or Trees, which do so exhaust it, that when no Cattle
come there to manure it, ’tis not worth the Labour of plowing it.