[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.