Part 12

When Gentlemen saw the middle Row on low Ridges so much inferior to the outside Rows, they were convinced of the Effect of deep Hoeing; for they said, there was no other Reason for this so visible a Difference, except the outside Rows standing nearer to the pulveriz’d Intervals than the middle Row did.

And when on high Ridges the middle Row was nearly or quite as good as one of the outside Rows, I was not convinced, that they were not diminished by the middle Row, as much as the Produce of it amounted to: And this I now find to be the Case; for Four Rows of Oats, without a middle Row, produced somewhat more than the same Number that had a middle Row; Two of which treble Rows were taken on one Side, and Two on the other Side of the double Rows, purposely to make an unexceptionable Trial. And it is, as far as I can judge, the same in Wheat.

’Tis true, I began my Horse-hoeing _Scheme_ first with double Rows; but then they were different to what they are now; for the first had their Partition uneven, being the parting Space, whereby it was less proper for Hand-hoeing, which I then seldom used, except for absolute Necessity, as to cleanse our Poppies, and the like. The Intervals also were too narrow for constant annual Crops.

By all these Three Methods I have had very good Crops; but as this I now describe is the latest, and is (as it ought to be) the best; I publish it as such, without Partiality to my own Opinions; for I think it less dishonourable to expose my Errors, when I chance to detect them, than to conceal them: And as I aim at nothing but Truth, I cannot, with any Satisfaction to myself, suffer any thing of my own knowingly to escape, that is in the lead contrary to it.

I have a Piece of Five or Six Acres of Land which I annually plant with boiling Pease, in the very same manner as Wheat; except that the Second Horse-hoeing (which is the last) throws the Earth so far upon the Pease as to make the Two Rows become One. These Pease cannot be planted until after the 25th of _March_; else Two Horse-hoeings might not be sufficient. The same Drill that plants Wheat plants Pease; only sometimes we change the Spindle for one that has its Notches a little bigger.

I drill no more Barley, because ’tis not proper to be followed by a Crop of Wheat without a Fallow; for some of the shattered Barley will live over the Winter, and mix with the Wheat in the Rows, and can scarce possibly be thence timely taken out, its first Stalk and Blade being difficult to distinguish from the Wheat; and this is a great Damage to the Sale in the Market; and for the same Reason I plant no more Oats.

The First Hoeing is performed by turning a Furrow from the Row.

We are not so exact as to the Weather in the First Hoeing; for if the Earth be wet, the Hoe-plough may go nearer to the Row, without burying the Wheat; and the Frost of the Winter will pulverize that Part of the[116] Furrow, which is to be thrown to the Wheat in the Spring, altho’ it was hoed wet.

[116] The Word Furrow signifies the Earth that is thrown out, as well as the Trench from whence it is thrown by the Plough.

Neither is it necessary to be very exact as to Time; but it must never be till the Wheat has more than One Blade; and it may be soon enough, when it has Four or Five Leaves, so that it is done before[117], or in the Beginning of Winter.

[117] But if the Wheat is planted very late, it may not be _hoeable_ before the Winter is past; nor is there such a Necessity of hoeing the late planted before the great Frosts are over, as there is of the early-planted; for the later ’tis planted, the less time the Earth has to subside, and grow hard.

_Note_, By Winter we do not mean only those Months that are properly so reckoned, but also such other Months as have hard Frosts in them, as _January_, _February_, and sometimes the Beginning of _March_.

The greatest Fault you can commit in Hoeing, is the First Time, when the Furrow is turned from the Row, not to go near enough to it, nor deep enough. You cannot then go too near it, unless you plow it out, or bury it with Mould, and do not uncover it; nor too deep, unless you go below the Staple of the Ground.

Servants are apt to hoe too far from the Rows, going backwards and forwards, in the Middle of the Intervals, without coming near the Rows: This loses most of the Benefit of Hoeing, and is very injurious to the present Crop, and also to the Two succeeding Crops; for then there will be a Deficiency of pulverized Earth; and nobody can suppose, that the hoed Earth can be of any Benefit to the Rows, before the Roots reach into it; and when ’tis far off, few of the Roots reach it at all; and those that do reach, come there too late to bring the Plants to their full Perfection: Therefore, if the First Furrow was not near enough, nor deep enough, plow a Second Furrow at the Bottom of the former, which will go deeper than the First, and break the Earth more; besides taking away from the Rows such unmoved Ground, which the First Plowing may possibly have missed. If this can’t be conveniently done soon after the First Hoeing, do it before the Ridge is turned back in the Spring.

Always leave the Furrows turned up, to make[118] Ridges in the Middle of the Intervals during the Winter; and then the hollow Furrows, or Trenches next the Rows, being enriched by the Frost[119] and Rains[120], the Wheat will have the Benefit of them earlier in the Spring, than if the Trenches had been left open in the Middle of the Intervals.

[118] Tho’ the Ridge in the Middle of the Interval should, for Want of sufficient Mould, or otherwise, be too low to give Shelter, yet there is generally some Earth falls to the Left of the Hoe-plough, and lodges upon that Part which is left on the Outside of the Row; which, notwithstanding that Part be very narrow (as suppose Two or Three Inches), yet a small Quantity of Earth lying thereon, so near to the outside Row, gives an extraordinary Shelter to the young Wheat plants that grow in it.

Shelter is a great Benefit to Wheat; but yet Nourishment is more: for in the Winter I see the Wheat-plants upon the most exposed Part of the Ridge flourish, when single Plants in the Bottom of the Furrow are in a very poor languishing Condition, without any Annoyance of Water, they being upon a Chalk Bottom.

[119] Frost, if it does not kill the Wheat, is of great Benefit to it; Water or Moisture, when it is frozen in the Earth, takes up more Room than in its natural State; this Swelling of the Ice (which is Water congealed) must move and break the Earth wherewith it is mixt; and when it thaws, the Earth is left hollow and open, which is a kind of Hoeing to it. This Benefit is done chiefly to and near the Surface; consequently the more Surface there is, by the Unevenness of the Land, the more Advantage the Soil has from the Frost.

This is another very great Use of the Ridge left in the Middle of the Interval during the Winter; because that Ridge, and its Two Furrows, contain Four Times as much Surface as when level. This thus pulverized Surface, turned in in the Spring hoeing, enriches the Earth, in proportion to its Increase of internal Superficies, and likewise proportionably nourishes the Plants, whose Roots enter it; and that Part of it wherein they do not enter, must remain more enriched for the next Crop, than if the Soil had remained level all the Winter.

[120] It is a vulgar Error that the Winter Rains do not enrich the Earth; and is only thought so, because we do not see the Effect of them upon Vegetables, for lack of Heat in that Season. But some Farmers have frequently observed, that one half of a Ground plowed up just before Winter has produced a Crop of Barley as much better than the other Part plowed up at the End of Winter, as is the Difference of a Dunging, even when there has been very little Frost.

The outside Rows of Wheat, from which the Earth is hoed off before or in the Beginning of Winter, and left almost bare till the Spring, one would think should suffer by the Frost coming so near them[121], or for want of Pasture: But it appears to be quite contrary; for where the Hoe has gone nearest to a Row, its Plants thrive best: The Earth, which the Frost hath pulverized, being within the Reach of the young short Roots, on that Side of the Row, from the Top to the Bottom of the Trench, nourishes them at first; and before the Plants have much exhausted this, as they grow larger in the Spring, the Ridge from the Middle of the Interval is thrown to them, having a perfectly unexhausted Pasture, to supply their increasing Bulk with more Nourishment.

[121] In very light Land, perhaps, we must not hoe quite so near to the Rows of Wheat, as in strong Land, for fear the Winter should lay the Roots bare, and expose them too much to the Cold; but then we may be sure, that, in this Case, the Roots will reach the Interval at a greater Distance than in strong Land; yet such very light Land is not proper for Wheat.

The Row standing as it were on the Brink of this almost perpendicular Ditch, the Water runs off quickly, or doth not enter but a very little Way into this deep Side; so that, the Earth at the Plants being dry, the Frost doth not reach quite to all their Roots to hurt them, tho’ the Distance from the Air to the Roots be very short; and dry Earth doth not freeze as wet doth, neither is this Ditch much exposed to the cold Winds.

The Spring-hoeing is performed after the great Frosts are past, and when the Weather will allow it; and then turn[122] the Ridge from[123] the Middle of the Interval, to the Rows on each Side by Two Furrows as near as can be, without covering the Wheat; in doing which have regard to the Row only, without looking at the Middle of the Interval; for ’tis no matter if a little Earth be left there; the next Hoeing, or the next save one[124], will move it.

[122] ’Tis an errant Mistake of the Vulgar, when they imagine that the immediate Benefit of fresh Earth to Plants is from that Part which remains uppermost; for ’tis from turning the impregnated pulverized Side downwards, to be fed on by the Roots, that gives the _Pabulum_ or Nourishment of the fresh Earth to Plants: The other Side, being turned upwards, becomes impregnate also in a little time.

[123] But note, that when we see Weeds coming up near the Row in the Spring, we plow again from the Rows (and sometimes can plow within one Inch of the Row) before we turn down the Mould from the Middle of the Interval.

[124] If at the next Hoeing we turn another Furrow towards the Row (which is seldom done), then ’tis the next that moves the remaining Earth, left in the Middle of the Interval: But if the next Hoeing be from the Row (as it generally is), then that covers the Middle of the Interval; and then ’tis the next Hoeing after that, that turns all the Earth clean out of the Middle of the Interval toward the Rows.

As to how many times Wheat is to be hoed in the Summer, after this Spring Operation, it depends upon the Circumstances[125] and Condition of the Land[126] and Weather[127]; but be the Season as it will, never suffer the Weeds to grow high, nor let any unmoved Earth lie in the Middle of the Intervals long enough to grow hard; neither plow deep near the Rows in the Summer, when the Plants are large[128], but as deep in the Middle of the Intervals as the Staple will allow; turning the Earth towards the Wheat, especially at the last Hoeing, so as to leave a deep, wide Trench in the Middle of each Interval.

[125] If the Land was not sufficiently tilled or hoed in the precedent Year, it will require the more Hoeings in the following Year.

[126] The poorer the Land is, the more Hoeings it should have.

[127] A wet Summer may prevent some of the Hoeings that we should perform in a dry Summer.

[128] Our Hoeing deep near the Plants, when small, breaks off only the Ends of the Roots; but after the Roots are spread far in the interval, the greatest Part of them, being then on the Right-hand Side of the Hoe plough, might hold fast on that Side, and not be drawn out; and then the whole Roots would be broken off close to the Bodies of the Plants: Therefore at the Second deep Hoeing, that turns a Furrow from the Row in the Summer, we go about Four or Six Inches farther off from the Roots than the time before; but we go nearer or farther off, according to the Distance of Time between those Two Hoeings: Yet we may hoe _shallow_ near to the Plants at any time, without Injury to their Roots, but, on the contrary, it will be advantageous to them.

We augment our Wheat-crops Four Ways; not in Number of Plants, but in Stalks, Ears, and Grains.

The First is, by increasing the Number of Stalks from One, Two, or Three, to Thirty or Forty to a Plant, in ordinary Field-land.

And we augment the Crop, by bringing up all the Stalks into Ears, which is the Second Way; for, if it be diligently observed, we shall find, that not half[129] the Stalks of sown Wheat come into Ear.

[129] If a square Yard of sown Wheat be marked out, and the Stalks thereon numbered in the Spring, it will be found, that Nine parts in Ten are missing at Harvest.

I saw an Experiment of this in Rows of Wheat that were equally poor: One of these Rows was increased[130] so much, as to produce more Grains than Ten of the other, by bringing up more of its Stalks into Ears, and also by augmenting its Ears to a much greater Bigness; which is the Third Way: For, whatever _Varro_ means by saying, that the Ears remain Fifteen Days _in Vaginis_, ’tis pretty plain, that the Ears are formed together with the Stalks, and will be very large, or very small, in proportion to the Nourishment given them[131].

[130] These Rows were drilled a Foot asunder, not hoed; and were, by the Shallowness and Wetness of the Soil, very poor in the Spring; and then, by pouring Urine to the Bottom of this Row, it was so vastly increased above the rest.

[131] Like as the Vines, if well nourished, bring large Bunches of Grapes; but if ill nourished, they produce few Bunches, and those small ones; and many Claspers are formed, which would have been Bunches, if they had had sufficient Nourishment given them at the proper time.

The last and Fourth Way of augmenting the Produce of Wheat-plants, is by causing them to have large and plump Grains in the Ears; and this can no way be so effectually done as by late Hoeing, especially just after the Wheat is gone out of the Blossom; and when such hoed Grains weigh double the Weight of the same Number of unhoed (which they frequently will) tho’ the Number of Grains in the hoed are only equal, yet the hoed Crop must be double.

Thus, by increasing the Number of Stalks[132], bringing more of them up into Ear[133], making the Ears larger[134], and the Grain plumper, and fuller of Flour[135], the Hoeing Method makes a greater Crop from a Tenth Part of the Plants[136] than the sowing Method can.

[132] The same Plant that, when poor, sends out but Two or Three Tillers, would, if well nourished by the Hoe, or otherwise, send up a Multitude of Tillers, as is seen in hoed Wheat, and sown Wheat.

[133] Mr. _Houghton_ relates Eighty Ears on one single Plant of Wheat, and a greater Number has been counted lately in a Garden: Those Eighty, reckoned to have Fifty Grains apiece, make an Increase of Four thousand Grains for one; but I have never found above Forty Ears from a single Plant in my Fields; yet there is no doubt, but that every Plant would produce as many as Mr. _Houghton_’s, of the same Sort, with the same Nourishment; But I should not desire any to be so prolific in Stalks, lest they should fail of bringing such a Multitude of Ears to Perfection. The Four hundred Ears, that I numbered in a Yard, were not weighed, because they were told before ripe; and the greatest Weight of Wheat that ever I had from a Yard, was the Product of about Two hundred and Fifty Ears, and some of them were small.

[134] I have numbered One hundred and Nine Grains in One Ear of my hoed Cone-wheat of the grey Sort; and One Ear of my hoed Lammas-wheat has been measured to be Eight Inches long, which is double to those of sown Wheat. I have some of these Ears now by me almost as long, the longest being given away as a Rarity; and indeed ’tis not every Year that they grow to that Length, and ’tis always where the Plants are pretty single. But there is no Year wherein One Ear of my hoed does not more than weigh Two of the sown Ears, taking a whole Sheaf of each together without choosing. The Sheaves of the hoed are of a different Shape from the other; almost all the Ears of the hoed are at the Top of the Sheaf; but most of the other are situate at the lower Part, or near the Middle of the Sheaf.

[135] Seed Cone wheat coming all out at the same Heap, planted all at the same Time, and on Land of the same Sort adjoining near together, the Wheat that was sown produced Grains so small, and that which was drilled so very large, that no Farmer or Wheat-buyer would believe them to be of the same Sort of Wheat, except those who knew it, which were many. One Grain of the drilled weighed Two of the sown, and there was twice the Chaff in an equal Weight of the sown, being both weighed before and after the Wheat was separated from the Chaff.

[136] The Fact of this nobody can doubt, who has observed the different Products of strong and of weak Plants, how the one exceeds the other.

The greatest Difference of having an equal Crop from a small Number of strong Plants, and from a great Number of weak ones, is, that the Soil is vastly less exhausted by the former than by the latter, not only from the latter’s exhausting more in proportion to their Number when young, and whilst each of them consumes as much Nourishment as each of the small Number; but also from the different Increase that a strong Plant makes by receiving the same Proportion of Food with a weak one: For it appears from Dr. _Woodward_’s Experiments, that the Plant which receives the _least_ Increase carries off the _greatest_ Quantity of Nourishment in proportion to that Increase; and that ’tis the same with an Animal, all who are acquainted with fatting of Swine know; for they eat much more Food daily for the first Two Weeks of their being put into the Sty, than they do afterwards, when they thrive faster; the fatter they grow, the less they eat.

Hence, I think, it may be inferred, that a Plant, which, by never having been robbed or stinted by other Plants, is strong, receives a much greater Increase from an equal Quantity of Food, than a Number of weak Plants (as thick ones are), equalling the Bulk of the single strong Plant, do.

And this of the Doctor’s have I seen by my own Observations confirmed in the Field in Potatoes, Turneps, Wheat, and Barley; a following Crop succeeds better after an equal Crop, consisting of a bare competent Number of strong Plants, than after a Crop of thick weak ones, _cæteris paribus_.

Thus the hoed Crops, if well managed, consisting of fewer and stronger Plants than the sown Crops of equal Produce, exhaust the Ground less; whereby, and by the much (I had almost said infinitely) greater Pulveration of the Soil, indifferent good Land may, for any thing I have yet seen to the contrary, produce profitable Crops always without Manure, or Change of _Species_, if the Soil be proper for it in respect of Heat and Moisture; and also as Crops of some _Species_, by their living longer, by their greater Bulk, or different Constitution, exhaust more than others, respect ought to be had to the Degree of Richness of the Soil, that is to produce each _Species_: The Sowing and the Hoeing Husbandry differ so much both in Pulveration and Exhaustion, that no good Argument can be drawn from the former against the latter: But tho’ a too great Number of Plants be, upon many Accounts, very injurious to the Crop, yet ’tis best to have a competent Number; which yet needs not be so exact, but that we may expect a great Crop from Twenty, Forty, or Fifty Plants in a Yard of the treble Row, if well managed.

All these Advantages will be lost by those Drillers, who do not overcome the unreasonable Prejudices of the unexperienced, concerning the Width of Intervals.

In wide Intervals, we can raise a good Crop with less Labour, less Seed, no Dung, no Fallow, but not without a competent Quantity of Earth, which is the least expensive of any thing given to Corn; the Earth of a whole good Acre being but about the Tenth Part of the common Expence; and of indifferent Land, a Twentieth; and such I count that of Five Shillings and Six-pence _per_ Acre.

The Crop enjoys all the Earth; for betwixt the last Hoeing, and the Harvest, there remains nothing but Space empty of Mould in the Middle of the Intervals.

’Tis an Objection, that great Part of those wide Intervals must be lost[137], because the Wheat-roots do not reach it; but as we generally turn the Mould towards the Row at the last Hoeings, there is no Part of it above Two Feet distant from even the middle Row, and Seventeen Inches from either of the outside Rows.