Part 6

Next to Hoeing, and something like it, is Transplanting, but much inferior; both because it requires a so much greater Number of Hands, that by no Contrivance can it ever become general, nor does it succeed, if often repeated; but Hoeing will maintain any Plant in the greatest Vigour ’tis capable of, even unto the utmost Period of Age. Besides, there is Danger in removing a whole Plant, and Loss of Time before the Plant can take Root again, all the former Roots being broken off at the Ends in taking up (for ’tis impossible to do it without), and so must wait until by the Strength and Virtue of its own Sap (which by a continual Perspiration is daily enfeebled) new Roots are form’d, which, unless the Earth continue moist[38], are so long in forming, that they not only find a more difficult Reception into the closing Pores; but many Times the Plant languishes and dies of an Atrophy, being starv’d in the midst of Plenty; but whilst this is thus decaying, the hoed Plant obtains a more flourishing State than ever, without removing from the same Soil that produc’d it.

[38] But when the Earth doth continue moist, many transplanted Vegetables thrive better than the same Species planted in Seeds, because the former, striking Root sooner, have a greater Advantage of the fresh-pulverized Mould, which loses some of its artificial Pasture before the Seeds have Roots to reach it. The same Advantage also have Seeds by soaking till ready to sprout before they are planted. To both these the Moisture of the Earth is necessary.

’Tis observ’d that some Plants are the worse for Transplanting[39]. _Fenochia_ removed is never so good and tender as that which is not, it receives such a Check in Transplanting in its Infancy; which, like the Rickets, leaves Knots that indurate the Parts of the Fennel, and spoil it from being a Dainty.

[39] As most long Tap-rooted Plants are; for I have often try’d the Transplanting of Plants, of _St. Foin_ and _Luserne_; and could never find, that any ever came near to the Perfection that those will do which are not removed, being equally single.

Tap-rooted Grasses and Turneps are always injured by Transplanting; their long Root once broken off never arrives at the Depth it would have arriv’d unbroken; as for this Reason they cut off the Tap-root of an Apple-tree, to prevent its running downward, by which it would have too much Moisture.

Hoeing has most of the Benefits without any Inconveniences of Transplanting; because it removes the Roots by little and little, and at different Times; some of the Roots remaining undisturb’d, always supply the moved Roots with Moisture, and the whole Plant with Nourishment sufficient to keep it from fainting, until the moved Roots can enjoy the Benefit of their new Pasture, which is very soon.

Another extraordinary Benefit of the new Hoeing[40] Husbandry is, that it keeps Plants moist in dry Weather, and this upon a double Account.

[40] Hoeing may be divided into Deep, which is our Horse-hoeing, and Shallow, which is the English Hand-hoeing; and also the Shallow Horse-hoeing, used in some Places betwixt Rows, where the Intervals are very narrow, as sixteen or eighteen Inches; this is but an Imitation of the Hand-hoe, or a _Succadaneum_ to it; and can neither supply the Use of Dung, nor of Fallow, and may be properly called Scratch-hoeing.

First, as they are better nourished by Hoeing, they require less Moisture, as appears by Dr. _Woodward_’s Experiment, that those Plants which receive the greatest Increase, having most terrestrial Nourishment, carry off the least Water in Proportion to their Augment: So Barley or Oats, being sown on a Part of a Ground very well divided by Dung and Tillage, will come up and grow vigorously without Rain, when the same Grains, sown at the same Time, on the other Part, not thus enriched, will scarce come up; or, if they do, will not thrive till Rain comes.

Secondly, The Hoe, I mean the Horse-hoe (the other goes not deep enough), procures Moisture to the Roots from the Dews, which fall most in dry Weather; and those Dews (by what Mr. _Thomas Henshaw_ has observ’d) seem to be the richest Present the Atmosphere gives to the Earth; having, when putrefy’d in a Vessel, a black Sediment like Mud at the Bottom. This seems to cause the darkish Colour to the upper Part of the Ground. And the Sulphur, which is found in the Sediment of the Dew, may be the chief Ingredient of the Cement of the Earth; Sulphur being very glutinous, as Nitre is dissolvent. Dew has both these.

These enter in proportion to the Fineness and Freshness of the Soil, and to the Quantity that is so made fine and fresh by the Hoe. How this comes to pass, and the Reason of it, are shewn in the Chapter of Tillage.

To demonstrate that Dews moisten the Land when fine, dig a Hole in the hard dry Ground, in the driest Weather, as deep as the Plough ought to reach: Beat the Earth very fine, and fill the Hole therewith; and, after a few Nights Dews, you’ll find this fine Earth become moist at the Bottom, and the hard Ground all round will continue dry.

Till a Field in Lands; make one Land very fine by frequent deep Plowings; and let another be rough by insufficient Tillage, alternately; then plow the whole Field cross-ways in the driest Weather, which has continued long; and you will perceive, by the Colour of the Earth, that every fine Land will be turn’d up moist; but every rough Land will be dry as Powder, from Top to Bottom.

Altho’ hard Ground, when thoroughly soak’d with Rain, will continue wet longer than fine till’d Land adjoining to it; yet this Water serves rather to chill, than nourish the Plants standing therein, and to keep out the other Benefits of the Atmosphere, leaving the Ground still harder when ’tis thence exhaled; and being at last once become dry, it can admit no more Moisture, unless from a long-continued Deluge of Rain, which seldom falls till Winter, which is not the Season for Vegetation.

As fine hoed Ground is not so long soaked by Rain, so the Dews never suffer it to become perfectly dry: This appears by the Plants, which flourish and grow fat in this, whilst those in the hard Ground are starved, except such of them, which stand near enough to the hoed[41] Earth, for the Roots to borrow Moisture and Nourishment from it.

[41] As when Wheat is drill’d late in very poor Land, so that in the Spring the young Plants look all very yellow; let your Hoe-plough, making a crooked Line, like an Indenture, on one Side of a strait Row of this poor Wheat in the Spring, turn a Furrow from it; and in a short time you will see all those yellow Plants, that are contiguous to this Furrow, change their yellow Colour to a deep Green; whilst those Plants of the same Row, which stand farthest off from this indented Furrow, change not their Colour till afterwards; and all the Plants change or retain their Colour sooner or later gradually, as they stand nearer to, or farther from it; and the other Rows, which have no Furrow near them, continue their yellow, after all this Row is become green and flourishing: But this Experiment is best to be made in poor sandy Ground, when the Mould is friable; else perhaps the different Colour may not appear until the Furrow be turn’d back to the Row, having lain some time to be somewhat pulveriz’d (or impregnated) by the Weather, _&c._

This Experiment I often made on Wheat drill’d on the Level before I drill’d any on Ridges.

The plowing one Furrow in sandy or mellow Ground makes a Pulveration, which is enjoy’d first by these Plants that are the nearest to it; and also delivers them from the Weeds, which, though there may be very few, yet there is a vast difference between their robbing the Wheat of its Pasture in the Row, and the Wheat’s enjoying both that and the whole Pasture of the Furrow also.

I never remember to have seen a Plant poor, that was contiguous to a well-hoed Interval, unless overpower’d by a too great Multitude of other Plants; and the same Exception must be made, if it were a Plant that required more or less Heat or Moisture, than the Soil or Climate afforded.

And I have been informed by some Persons, that they have often made the like Observations; that, in the driest of Weather, good Hoeing[42] procures Moisture to Roots; tho’ the Ignorant and Incurious fansy, it lets in the Drought; and therefore are afraid to hoe their Plants at such Times, when, unless they water them, they are spoil’d for Want of it.

[42] When Land is become hard by lying too long unho’d, the Plough in turning a deep Furrow from each Side of a single Row of young Plants (suppose of Turneps) may crack the Earth quite through the Row, and expose the Roots to the open Air and Sun in very dry Weather; but if the Earth wherein the Plants stand be fine, there will be no Cracks in it: ’Tis therefore the delaying the Hoeing too long that occasions the Injury. But to hoe with Advantage against dry Weather, the Ground must have been well tilled or hoed before, that the Hoe may go deep, else the Dews, that fall in the Night, will be exhal’d back in the Heat of the Day.

There is yet one more Benefit Hoeing gives to Plants, which by no Art can possibly be given to Animals: For all that can be done in feeding an Animal is, what has been here already said of Hoeing; that is, to give it sufficient Food, Meat and Drink, at the times it has occasion for them; if you give an Animal any more, ’tis to no manner of Purpose, unless you could give it more Mouths, which is impossible; but in hoeing a Plant the additional Nourishment thereby given, enables it to send out innumerable additional Fibres and Roots, as in one of the Glasses with a Mint in it, is seen; which fully demonstrates, that a Plant increaseth its Mouths, in some Proportion to the Increase of Food given to it: So that Hoeing, by the new Pasture it raises, furnishes both Food and Mouths to Plants; and ’tis for Want of Hoeing, that so few are brought to their Growth and Perfection[43].

[43] A Ground was drill’d with Ray-grass and Barley, in Rows at Five Inches Distance from each other; it produced a pretty good Crop of Ray-grass the second Year as is usual; there was adjoining to it a Ground of Turneps, that were in Rows, with wide Intervals Horse-ho’d; they stood for Seed; and amongst them there was, in Room of a Turnep, a single Plant of Ray-grass, which, being hoed as the Turneps were, had (in every one’s Opinion that saw it) acquired a Bulk at least equal to a Thousand Plants of the same Species in the other Ground; tho’ that vast Plant had no other Advantage above the other, except its Singleness, and the deep Hoeing.

I have seen a Chickweed, by the same means, as much increas’d beyond its common Size; and a Plant of Mustard-seed, whose collateral Branches were much bigger than ever I saw a whole Plant of that Sort; it was higher than I could reach its Top, and indeed more like a Tree than an Herb; many other sorts of Plants have I seen thus increased beyond what I had ever observ’d before, but none so much as those.

In what Manner the Sarrition of the Antients was performed in their Corn, is not very clear: This seems to have been their Method; _viz._ When the Plants were some time come up, they harrowed the Ground, and pull’d out the Weeds by Hand. The Process of this appears in _Columella_, where he directs the Planting of _Medica_ to be but a Sort of Harrowing or Raking amongst the young Plants, that the Weeds might come out the more easily: _Ligneis Rastris statim jacta Semina obruantur_. _Post Sationem Ligneis Rastris Jarriendus, & identidem runcandus est Ager, ne alterius generis Herba invalidam Medicam perimat._

They harrowed and hoed _Rastris_; so that their _Occatio_ and _Sarritio_ were performed with much the same Sort of Instrument, and differed chiefly in the Time: The first was at Seed-time, to cover the Seed, or level the Ground; the other was to move the Ground after the Plants were up.

One Sort of their Sarrition was, _Segetes permota Terra debere adobrui, ut fruticare possint_. Another Sort was thus: _In Locis autem frigidis sarriri nec adobrui, sed Plana Sarritione Terram permoveri_.

For the better Understanding of these two Sorts of Sarrition, we must consider, that the Antients sowed their Corn under Furrow; that is, when they had harrowed the Ground, to break the Clods, and make it level, they sowed the Seed, and then plowed it in: This left the Ground very uneven, and the Corn came up (as we see it does here in the same Case) mostly in the lowest Places betwixt the Furrows, which always lay higher: This appears by _Virgil_’s _Cum Sulcos æquant Sata_. Now, when they used _Plana Sarritio_, they harrowed Length-ways of the Furrows, which being somewhat harden’d, there could be little Earth thrown down thence upon the young Corn.

But the other Sort of Sarrition, whereby the Corn is said _Adobrui_, to be cover’d, seems to be perform’d by Harrowing cross the Furrows; which must needs throw down much Earth from the Furrows, which necessarily fell upon the Corn.

How this did contribute to make the Corn _fruticare_, is another Question: I am in no doubt to say, it was not from covering any Part of it (for I see that has a contrary Effect), but from moving much Ground, which gave a new Pasture to the Roots: This appears by the Observation of the extraordinary Frutication of Wheat ho’d without being cover’d; and by the Injury it receives by not being uncover’d when any Earth falls on the Rows.

The same Author saith, _Faba, & cætera Legumina, cum quatuor Digitis à Terra extiterint, recte farrientur, excepto tamen Lupino, cujus Semini contraria est Sarritio; quoniam unam Radicem habet, quæ sive Ferro succisa feu vulnerata est, totus Frutex emoritur_.

If they had ho’d it only betwixt Rows, there had been no Danger of killing the Lupine, which is a Plant most proper for Hoeing. What he says of the Lupine’s having no need of Sarrition, because it is able of itself to kill Weeds, shews the Antients were ignorant of the chief Use of Hoeing; _viz._ to raise new Nourishment by dividing the Earth, and making a new Internal Superficies in it.

Sarrition scratched and broke so small a Part of the Earth’s Surface, amongst the Corn and Weeds, without Distinction, or favouring one any more than the other, that it was a Dispute, whether the Good it did in facilitating the Runcation (or Hand-weeding) was greater, than the Injury it did by bruising and tearing the Corn: And many of the Antients chose rather to content themselves with the Use of Runcation only, and totally to omit all Sarrition of their Corn.

But Hoeing is an Action very different from that of Sarrition, and is every Way beneficial, no-way injurious to Corn, tho’ destructive to Weeds. Therefore some modern Authors shew a profound Ignorance, in translating _Sarritio_, Hoeing: They give an Idea very different from the true one: For the Antients truly hoed their Vineyards, but not their Corn; neither did they plant their Corn in Rows, without which they could not give it the Vineyard-hoeing; Their Sarculation was used but amongst small Quantities of sown Corn, and is yet in Use for Flax; for I have seen the _Sarculum_ (which is a Sort of a very narrow Hoe) used amongst the Plants of Flax standing irregularly: But this Operation is too tedious and too chargeable, to be apply’d to great Quantities of irregular Corn.

If they ho’d their Crops sown at Random, one would think they should have made mad Work of it; since they were not at the Pains to plant in Rows, and hoe betwixt them with their Bidens; being the Instrument with which they tilled many of their Vineyards, and enters as deep as the Plough, and is much better than the _English_ Hoe, which indeed seems, at the first Invention of it, to be designed rather to scrape Chimneys, than to till the Ground.

The highest and lowest Vineyards are ho’d by the Plough; first the high Vineyards, where the Vines grow (almost like Ivy) upon great Trees, such as Elms, Maples, Cherry-trees, _&c._ These are constantly kept in Tillage, and produce good Crops of Corn, besides what the Trees do yield; and also these great and constant Products of the Vines are owing to this Sort of Hoe-tillage; because neither in Meadow or Pasture Grounds can Vines be made to prosper; tho’ the Land be much richer, and yet have a less Quantity of Grass taken off it, than the Arable has Corn carried from that.

The Vines of low Vineyards[44], ho’d by the Plough, have their Heads just above the Ground, standing all in a most regular Order, and are constantly plowed in the proper Season: These have no other Assistance, but by Hoeing; because their Head and Roots are so near together, that Dung would spoil the Taste of the Wine they produce, in hot Countries.

[44] From these I took my Vineyard Scheme, observing that indifferent Land produces an annual Crop of Grapes and Wood without Dung; and though there is annually carried off from an Acre of Vineyard, as much in Substance as is carried off in the Crop of an Acre of Corn produced on Land of equal Goodness; and yet the Vineyard Soil is never impoverished, unless the hoeing Culture be denied it: But a few annual Crops of Wheat, without Dung in the common Management, will impoverish and emaciate the Soil.

The Vine indeed has the Advantage of being a large perennial Plant, and of receiving some Part of its Nourishment below the Staple; but it has also Disadvantages: The Soil of the Vineyard never can have a true Summer Fallow, tho’ it has much Summer Hoeing; for the Vines live in it, and all over it all the Year: neither can that Soil have Benefit from Dung, because though by increasing the Pulveration, it increases the Crop, yet it spoils the Taste of the Wine; the Exhaustion of that Soil is therefore supply’d by no artificial Help but Hoeing: And by all the Experience I have had of it, the same Cause will have the same Effect upon a Soil for the Production of Corn, and other Vegetables, as well as upon the Vineyard.

All Vineyards must be ho’d one Way or other[45], or else they will produce nothing of Value; but Corn-Fields without Hoeing do produce something, tho’ nothing in Comparison to what they would do with it.

[45] Vines, that cannot be ho’d by the Ploughs, are ho’d by the Bidens.

Mr. _Evelyn_ says, that when the Soil, wherein Fruit-Trees are planted, is constantly kept in Tillage, they grow up to be an Orchard in half the Time they would do, if the Soil were not till’d; and this keeping an Orchard-Soil in Arable, is Horse-hoeing it.

In some Places in _Berkshire_ they have used, for a long time to Hand-hoe most Sorts of Corn, with very great Success; and I may say this, that I myself never knew, or heard, that ever any Crop of Corn was properly so ho’d, but what very well answer’d the Expence, even of this Hand-work; but be this never so profitable, there are not a Number of Hands to use it in great Quantities; which possibly was one Reason the Antients were not able to introduce it into their Corn-Fields to any Purpose; tho’ they should not have been ignorant of the Effect of it, from what they saw it do in their Vineyards and Gardens.

In the next Place I shall give some general Directions, which by Experience I have found necessary to be known, in order to the Practice of this Hoeing-Husbandry.

I. _Concerning the Depth to plant at._

II. _The Quantity of Seed to plant._

III. _And the Distance of the Rows._

I. ’Tis necessary to know how deep we may plant our Seed, without Danger of burying it; for so ’tis said to be, when laid at a Depth below what ’tis able to come up at.

Different Sorts of Seeds come up at different Depths; some at six Inches, or more; some at not more than half an Inch: The Way to know for certain the Depth any Sort will come up at is, to make Gauges in this Manner: Saw off 12 Sticks of about 3 Inches Diameter: Bore a Hole in the End of each Stick, and drive into it a taper Peg; let the first Peg be half an Inch long, the next an Inch, and so on; every Peg to be half an Inch longer than the former, till the last Peg be six Inches long; then in that sort of Ground where you intend to plant, make a Row of Twenty Holes with the half-Inch Gauge; put therein Twenty good Seeds; cover them up, and stick the Gauge at the End of that Row; then do the like with all the other Eleven Gauges: This will determine the Depth, at which the most Seeds will come up[46].

[46] In the common way of Sowing tis hard to know the proper Depth, because some Seeds lying deep, and others shallow, it is not easy to discover the Depth of those that are buried: But I have found in drilling of black Oats, that when the Drill-Plough was set a little deeper for Trial, very few came up: Therefore ’tis proper for the Driller to use the Gauges for all Sorts of Seeds; for, if he drills them too deep, he may lose his Crop; or, if too shallow, in dry Weather, he may injure it, especially in Summer Seeds; but for those planted against Winter, there is the most Damage by planting too deep.

When the Depth is known, wherein the Seed is sure to come up, we may easily discover, whether the Seed be good or not, by observing how many will fail: For in some Sorts of Seeds the Goodness cannot be known by the Eye; and there has been often great Loss by bad Seed, as well as by burying good Seed; both which Misfortunes might be prevented by this little Trouble; besides ’tis not convenient to plant some sorts of Seed at the utmost Depth they will come up at; for it may be so deep, as that the Wet may rot or chill the first Root, as in Wheat in moist Land.

The Nature of the Land, the Manner how it is laid, either flat, or in Ridges, and the Season of Planting, with the Experience of the Planter, acquired by such Trials, must determine the proper Depths for different Sorts of Seeds.