Part 8

Another Thing I have more particularly observ’d, _viz._ That the more successive Crops are planted in wide Intervals, and often ho’d, the better the Ground does maintain them; the last Crop is still the best, without Dung, or changing the Sort of Plant; and this is visible in Parts of the same Field, where some Part has a first, some other Part a second, the rest a third Crop growing all together at the same time; which seems to prove, that as the Earth is made by this Operation to dispense or distribute her Wealth to Plants, in Proportion to the Increase of her inner Superficies (which is the Pasture of Plants); so the Atmosphere, by the Riches in Rain and Dews, does annually reimburse her in Proportion to the same Superficies, with an Overplus for Interest: But if that Superficies be not increased to a competent Degree, and, by frequent Repetitions of Hoeing, kept increasing (which never happens in common Husbandry) this Advantage is lost; and, without often repeated Stercoration, every Year’s Crop grows worse; and it has been made evident by Trials, which admit of no Dispute, that Hoeing, without Dung or Fallow, can make such Plants as stand in wide Intervals, more vigorous in the same Ground, than both common Dunging and Fallowing can do without Hoeing.

This Sort of Hoeing has in Truth every Year the Effect of a Summer-fallow; tho’ it yearly produce a good Crop.

This is one Reason of the different Effects Plants have upon the Soil; some are said to enrich it, others to burn it, _i. e._ to impoverish it; but I think it may be observed, that all those Plants, which are usually ho’d, are reckoned among the Enrichers; and tho’ it be certain that some Species of Plants are, by the Heat of their Constitution, greater Devourers than those of another Species of equal Bulk; yet there is Reason to believe, that were the most cormorant Plant of them all to be commonly ho’d, it would gain[58] the Reputation of an Enricher or Improver of the Soil; except it should be such, as might occasion Trouble, by filling it full of its shatter’d Seeds, which might do the Injury of Weeds to the next Crop; and except such Plants, which have a vast Bulk to be maintained a long Time, as Turnep-Seed[59].

[58] But this must be intended of the deep Horse-hoeing; for Turneps that stand for Seed, are such Devourers, and feed so long on the Soil, that tho’ they are Hand-ho’d, such a shallow Operation doth not supply the usual Thickness of those Plants with Pasture sufficient to raise their Stems to half their natural Bulk; and they leave so little of that Pasture behind them, that the Soil is observ’d to be extremely impoverished for a Year or two, and sometimes three Years after them; but ’tis otherwise with my Horse-ho’d Turnep-Seed; for I never fail’d of a good Crop of Barley after it, sown on the Level in the following Spring, tho’ no Dung hath been used on the Land where the Turnep-Seed grew for many Years. And also my Barley Crops thus sown after two successive Crops of Turnep-Seed without a Fallow between them, are as good as those sown after a single Crop of it. For I have several Times made these Turnep-Seed Crops annual, that is, to have Two Crops of it in Two Years, which would in the old Way require three Years, because this Crop stands about a Year on the Ground, and is not ripe till Midsummer, which is too late to get that Land into a Tilth proper to plant another Seed Crop on it the same Summer; neither can the Soil be able to bear such another Crop immediately after being so much exhausted, and unplowed for a whole Year, except it be extraordinary rich, or much dunged: However, Two Crops of Turnep-Seed immediately succeeding one another, is what I never knew, or heard of, except my own that were Horse-ho’d; and of these the second Crop was as good as the first; their Stalks grew much higher than they usually do in the common Way; and tho’ the Number of Plants was much less, their Produce was so valuable, that the _Vicar’s Agent_ declared, he made Twenty Shillings _per_ Acre of his Tythe of a whole Field which he tythed in Kind. The Expence of these Crops was judg’d to be answered by the Fuel of the thresh’d Stalks. It must be noted, that the extraordinary Value of these Crops arose, not from a greater Quantity of Seed than some common Crops; but from their Quality, Experience having brought this Seed into great Esteem, on account of its being perfectly clean, and produced by large Turneps of a good Sort, and of a proper Shape; for those that are not well cultivated are very apt to degenerate, and then their Seed will produce Turneps of a small Size, and of a long rapy ill Shape.

[59] Turneps run to Seed, not till the second Summer.

The wider the Intervals are, the more Earth may be divided; for the Row takes up the same Room with a wide, or a narrow Interval; and therefore with the wide, the unho’d Part bears a less Proportion to the ho’d Part than in the narrow.

And ’tis no Purpose to hoe, where there is not Earth to be ho’d, or Room to hoe it in.

There are many Ways of Hoeing with the Hoe-Plough; but there is not Room to turn Two deep clean Furrows in an Interval that is narrower than Four Feet Eight Inches; for if it want much of this Breadth, one, at least, of these Furrows, will reach, and fall upon the next Row, which will be very injurious to the Plants; except of grown St. Foin, and such other Plants, that can bear to have the Earth pull’d off them by Harrows.

Thus much of Hoeing in general may suffice: And different Sorts of Plants requiring different Management; that may more properly be described in the Chapter, where particular Vegetables are treated of.

It may not be amiss to add, that all Sorts of Land are not equally proper for Hoeing: I take it, that a dry friable Soil is the best. Intractable wet Clays, and such Hills as are too steep for Cattle to draw a Plough up and down them, are the most improper[60].

[60] For by hoeing cross the Hill, the Furrow turn’d against the Declivity cannot be thrown up near enough to the Row above it; and the Furrow that is turn’d downwards will bury the Row below it.

That ’tis not so beneficial to hoe in Common-fields, is not in Respect of the Soil, but to the old Principles, which have bound the Owners to unreasonable Customs of changing the Species of Corn, and make it necessary to fallow every Second, Third, or Fourth Year at farthest.

CHAP. VII.

_Of_ WEEDS.

Plants, that come up in any Land, of a different Kind from the sown or planted Crop, are Weeds.

That there are in Nature any such things as _inutiles Herbæ_, the Botanists deny; and justly too, according to their Meaning.

But the Farmer, who expects to make Profit of his Land from what he sows or plants in it, finds not only _Herbæ inutiles_, but also _noxiæ_, unprofitable and hurtful Weeds; which come like _Muscæ_, or uninvited Guests, that always hurt, and often spoil his Crop, by devouring what he has, by his Labour in Dunging and Tilling, provided for its Sustenance.

All Weeds, as such, are pernicious; but some much more than others; some do more Injury, and are more easily destroy’d; some do less Injury, and are harder to kill; others there are, which have both these bad Qualities. The hardest to kill are such as will grow and propagate by their Seed, and also by every Piece of their Roots, as Couch-grass, Coltsfoot, Melilot, Fern, and such-like. Some are hurtful only by robbing legitimate (or sown) Plants of their Nourishment, as all Weeds do; others both lessen a legitimate Crop by robbing it, and also spoil that Crop, which escapes their Rapine, when they infect it with their nauseous Scent and Relish, as Melilot, wild Garlick, _&c._

Weeds starve the sown Plants, by robbing them of their Provision of Food[61], not of their Room (as some Authors vainly imagine); which will appear by the following Experiment.

[61] A Tree of any Sort will spoil Corn all round it, in a large Circle; half an Acre of Turneps has been spoil’d by one: Hereby ’tis plain, that Trees rob as Weeds; because ’tis not by their Shadow, there being as much Damage done by them on the South-Side, where their Shadow never comes, as on their North-Side: Nor can it be by their dropping; for ’tis the same on the Side where a Tree has no Boughs to drop over the Plants, when they are also at a very great Distance from all Parts of the Tree, except its Roots.

Let three Beds of the same Soil, equal, and equally prepared, be sown with the same Sort of Corn. Let the first of these Beds be kept clean from Weeds: In the Second, let a Quantity of Weeds grow along with the Corn; and in the Third, stick up a Quantity of dead Sticks, greater in Bulk than the Weeds.

It will be found, that the Produce of the Corn in the First will not exceed that of the Third Bed; but in the Second, where the Weeds are, the Corn will be diminish’d in Proportion to the Quantity of Weeds amongst it.

The Sticks, having done no Injury to the Corn, shew there was room enough in the Bed for Company to lodge, would they forbear to eat; or else (like Travellers in _Spain_) bring their Provision with them to their Inn, or (which would be the same thing) if Weeds could find there some Dish so disagreeable to the Palate of the Corn, and agreeable to their own, that they might feed on it without robbing; and then they would be as innocent as the Sticks, which take up the same Room with the Weeds.

The Quantity of Nourishment Weeds rob the Corn of, is not in Proportion only to their Number and Bulk, but to the Degrees of Heat in their Constitution; as appears by the Instance of Charlock and Turneps, mention’d in the Chapter _Of Change of Species_.

’Tis needless to go about to compute the Value of the Damage Weeds do, since all experienc’d Husbandmen know it to be very great, and would unanimously agree to extirpate their whole Race as intirely, as in _England_ they have done the Wolves, tho’ much more innocent, and less rapacious than Weeds[62].

[62] If we consider the Crops they utterly destroy, and those they extremely diminish; and that very few Crops escape without receiving Injury from them; it may be a Question, whether the Mischief Weeds do to our Corn, is not as great as the Value of the Rent of all the Arable Lands in _England_.

But alas! they find it impossible to be done, or even to be hoped for, by the common Husbandry; and the Reasons I take to be these.

The Seeds of most Sorts of Weeds are so hardy, as to lie sound and uncorrupt for many Years[63], or perhaps Ages in the Earth; and are not kill’d until they begin to grow or sprout, which very few of them do, unless the Land be plow’d; and then enough of them will ripen amongst the sown Crop, to propagate and continue their Species, by shedding their Off-spring in the Ground (for ’tis observ’d they are generally ripe before the Corn); and the Seeds of these do the same in the next sown Crop; and thus perpetuate their savage, wicked[64] Brood, from Generation to Generation.

[63] The Seeds of _Lethean Poppy_ (call’d _Red-weed_) have lain dormant 24 Years (the Land being, during that time, in _St. Foin_) and then at first Plowing they came up very thick; this I have seen, and so will many other Sorts of Weeds, when the Ground has lain untill’d for an Age.

[64] The _French_ call them, _les Herbes Sauvages, & les mechantes Herbes_.

Besides, their Seeds never all come up in one Year, unless the Land be very often plow’d; for they must have their exact Depth, and Degrees of Moisture and Heat, to make them grow; and such as have not these, will lie in the Ground, and retain their vegetative Virtue for Ages; and the common usual Plowings, not being sufficient to make them all, or the greatest Part, grow, almost every Crop that ripens increases the Stock of Seed, until it make a considerable Part of the Staple of such Land as is sown without good Tillage and Fallowing.

The best Defence against these Enemies, which the Farmer has hitherto found, is to endeavour their Destruction by a good Summer-fallow: This indeed, if the Weather be propitious, does make Havock of them; but still some will escape one Year’s Prosecution. Either by being sometimes situate so high, that the Sun’s Heat dries them, or sometimes lying so deep, that it cannot reach them; either way their Germination, which would have proved their Death, is prevented.

Another Faculty secures abundance of them, and that is, their being able to endure the Heat and Moisture of one Year without growing; as[65] wild Oats, and innumerable other Sorts of Weeds, will do; for gather these when ripe, sow them in the richest Bed, water them, and do all that is possible to make them grow the First Year, it will be vain Labour; they will resist all Enticements till the Second; that is, if you gather them in Autumn, you cannot force them to grow until the next Spring come Twelve-month; and many of them will remain dormant even to the next Year alter that, and some of them longer.

[65] I have not try’d wild Oats by sowing them in a Bed myself, but have been so informed by others; and my own Experience hath frequently shewn me, that they will come up, after lying many Years in the Ground; and that very few Sorts of Weeds will come all up the first Year, as Corn doth: If they did, the Tillage of one Year’s Summer-fallow might extirpate them.

By this Means, One Year’s Summer-Fallow can have no Effect upon them, but to prepare the Soil for their more vigorous Growth and plentiful Increase the next Year after; and very rarely will the Farmer fallow his Land Two Years successively; and often the Dung, which is made of the Straw of sown Corn, being full of the Seeds of Weeds, when spread on the Fallows, incumbers the Soil with another Stock of Weeds, as ample as that the Fallowing has destroy’d; and tho’ perhaps many of these may not grow the next Year, they will be sure to come up afterwards.

The other old Remedy is what often proves worse than the Disease; that is, what they call Weeding among sown Corn; for if by the Hook or Hand they cut some Sorts (as Thistles) while they are young, they will sprout up again, like _Hydras_, with more Heads than before; and if they are cut when full-grown, after they have done almost their utmost in robbing the Crop, ’tis like shutting the Stable-Door after the Steed is stolen.

Hand-weeders often do more Harm to the Corn with their Feet, than they do Good by cutting or pulling out the Weeds with their Hands; and yet I have known this Operation sometimes cost the Farmer Twelve Shillings an Acre; besides the Damage done by treading down his Wheat; and, after all, a sufficient Quantity of them have escaped, to make a too plentiful Increase in the next Crop of Corn.

The new Hoeing-Husbandry in Time will probably make such an utter Riddance[66] of all Sorts of Weeds[67], except such as come in the Air, that[68] as long as this Management is properly continued, there is no Danger to be apprehended from them; which is enough to confute the old Error of equivocal Generation, had it not been already sufficiently exploded, ever since that Demonstration of _Malpighius’s_ Experiment. For if Weeds were brought forth without their proper Seeds, the Hoeing could not hinder their Production, where the Soil was inclined naturally to produce them. The Belief of that blind Doctrine might probably be one of the Causes that made the Antients despair of finding so great Success in Hoeing, as now appears; or else, if they had had true Principles, they might perhaps have invented and improved that Husbandry, and the Instruments necessary to put it in Practice.

[66] A very pernicious, large, perennial Weed, like _Burrage_, with a blue Flower, infested a Piece of Land, for Time out of Mind: Hoeing has destroyed it utterly; not one of the Species has been seen in the Field these Seven Years, tho’ constantly till’d and ho’d.

[67] I have now a Piece of Wheat drill’d early the last Autumn upon an Hill, fallowed and well pulveriz’d: Part of it was drill’d with Wheat in double Rows upon the Level Nine Years ago, Horse-ho’d, and the Partitions thoroughly Hand-ho’d to cleanse out the Poppies, of which the Land was very full; the other Part of this Piece was never drilled till this Year: The whole Piece hath not been before this Winter Horse-ho’d. Now the Partitions of the Part that was never any Way Ho’d, are so stock’d with Poppies matted together, that unless they are taken out early in the Spring, they will totally devour the Rows of Wheat; but in the other Part that was ho’d so long since, there are now very few Poppies to be seen. Both these Parts have had several sown Crops of Barley together since, and have lain with _St. Foin_ these last Five or Six Years.

[68] And except also such Weeds, whose Seed is carried by Birds, which is the most common Manner of transporting the Seeds of Vegetables from Field to Field, against the Content of the Owner: For Birds, whether great or small, do not care to eat their Prey where they take it, but generally chuse some open Place for that Purpose. ’Tis, I am persuaded, by this Means chiefly, that a Vineyard or Field, made ever so clean from Grass, will, in lying untilled a few Years, be replenished with a Turf of that neighbouring Species of Grass, which best suits the Heat and Moisture of the Soil: Yet there are some Species of Seeds that Birds (at least such as frequent this Place) do not affect; else the Burrage-weed (mentioned in _p._ 77.) would have appeared again in my Field in some of the many Years since the Hoeing has extirpated it there; for it grows plentifully in the unplowed Way adjoining thereto.

The Seeds of some Weeds may be suspected to come in the Air; as the Seed of the Grass that grew in the _Cheapside_, in the Time of the Plague; but it might come from Seeds in the Dirt, brought thither by the Feet of People and Cattle, and by the Wheels of Coaches, Carts carrying Hay: Or otherwise continual Treading might keep it from Growing; and when the Treading ceased, ’tis no Wonder the Seeds should furnish the Streets with Grass.

And I have observ’d on the Floors, two Stories high, of a lone, ruinous, uninhabited House, being long uncover’d, a sort of Herb growing very thick; I think it was _Pimpernel_, and believe that its Seeds did not come thither in the Air; but in the Sand which was mix’d with the Mortar that had fallen from the Cielings; and ’tis like there were few Seeds at first: Yet, these, ripening for several Years, shed their Seeds annually, until the Floors became all over very thick planted: Besides, Hay-seeds and Pimpernel are too heavy to be carry’d far by the Air.

CHAP. VIII.

_Of_ TURNEPS.

As far as I can be inform’d, ’tis but of late Years that Turneps have been introduc’d as an Improvement in the Field.

All Sorts of Land, when made fine by Tillage, or by Manure and Tillage, will serve to produce Turneps, but not equally; for chalky Land is generally too dry (a Turnep being a thirsty Plant); and they are so long in such dry poor Land before they get into rough Leaf, that the Fly is very apt to destroy them there; yet I have known them succeed on such Land, tho’ rarely.

Sand and Gravel are the most proper Soil for Turneps, because that is most easily pulveriz’d, and its Warmth causeth the Turneps to grow faster, and so they get the sooner out of the Danger of the Fly; and such a Soil, when well-till’d, and Horse-ho’d, never wants a sufficient Moisture, even in the driest Weather; and the Turneps being drill’d will come up without Rain, and prosper very well with the sole Moisture of the Dews, which are admitted as deep as the Pulveration reacheth; and if that be to Five or six Inches, the hottest Sun cannot exhale the Dews thence in the Climate of _England_: I have known Turneps thrive well in a very dry Summer by repeated Horse-hoeings, both in Sand and in Land which is neither sandy nor gravelly.

When I sow’d Turneps by Hand, and ho’d them with a Hand-hoe, the Expence was great, and the Operation not half perform’d, by the Deceitfulness of the Hoers, who left half the Land unho’d, and cover’d it with the Earth from the Part they did hoe, and then the Grass and Weeds grew the faster: Besides, in this Manner a great Quantity of Land could not be managed in the proper Season.

When I drill’d upon the Level[69], at Three Feet Intervals, a Trial was made between those Turneps and a Field of the next Neighbour’s, sown at the same Time, whereof the Hand-hoeing cost Ten Shillings _per_ Acre, and had not quite half the Crop of the drill’d, both being measur’d by the Bushel, on Purpose to find the Difference[70].

[69] ’Tis impossible to hoe-plow them so well when planted upon the Level, as when they are planted upon Ridges; for if we plow deep near the Row, the Earth will come over on the Left-Side of the Plough, and bury the younger Turneps; but when they stand on Ridges, the Earth will almost all fall down on the Right Side into the Furrow in the Middle of the Interval.

[70] And I have since found, that Turneps on the same Land, planted on Ridges, with Six-feet Intervals, make a Crop double to those that are planted on the Level, or even on Ridges with Three-feet Intervals.