But ’tis to be noted, that the Land must be well till’d at the breaking up of old St. Foin, or else the First Crops of Corn may be expected to fail: For I knew a Tenant, who, the last Year of his Term, plow’d up a Field of St. Foin, that would have yielded him Three Pounds per Acre; but, thinking to make more Profit of it by Corn, he sow’d it with White Oats upon once Plowing; and it proving a dry Summer, he lost his Plowing and Seed; for he had no Crop of Oats, and was forc’d to leave the Land as a Fallow to his Successor.
Many more Instances there are of this Failure of the Crop of Corn after St. Foin has been broken up, and not well till’d.
When St. Foin is grown old, and worn out, as ’tis said to be when the artificial Pasture is gone, and the natural Pasture is become insufficient for the Number of Plants that are on it, to be maintained; and is so poor, that it produces no profitable Crop, so that the Ground is thought proper to be plow’d up, and sown with Corn, in order to be replanted[192]; the most effectual Way to bring it into Tilth speedily, is, to plow it up in the Winter, with a Four-coulterd Plough, and make it fit for Turneps by the following Season; and if the Turneps be well ho’d, and especially if spent by Sheep on the Ground, ’twill be in excellent Order to be sown with Barley the following Spring; and then it may be drill’d with St. Foin amongst the Barley.
[192]Or if you perceive, that there is a competent Number of Plants alive, and tolerably single; be they never so poor, you may recover them to a flourishing Condition in the following manner, without replanting: Pulverize the whole Field in Intervals of about Three Feet each, leaving betwixt every Two of them Four Feet Breadth of Ground unplow’d. When the Turf of these Intervals, being cut by the Four coulter’d Plough, is perfectly rotten, one Furrow made by any sort of Plough will hoe one of these Intervals, by changing the whole Surface of it. The poorer the Land is, the more Hoeings will be required; and the oftener ’tis ho’d, with proper Intermissions the first Year, the stronger the St. Foin will become, and the more Years it will continue good, without a Repetition of Hoeing.
The Expence of this cannot be great; because the Plough, in hoeing an Acre in this manner Nine Times, travels no farther than it must to plow an Acre once in the common Manner.
I need not tell the Owner, that the Earth of these Intervals must be made level, before the St. Foin can be mowed.
To return to the Benefit Land receives by having been planted some Years with St. Foin: All the Experienc’d know, that Land is enriched by it; but they do not agree upon the Reason why.
They agree as to the Οτι, but not the Διοτι.
Some are of Opinion, ’tis because the St. Foin takes a different Sort of Nourishment to that of Corn: But that I think is disprov’d in the Chapter of [Change of Species], where ’tis shewn, that all Plants in the same Soil must take the same Food.
Mr. Kirkham thinks St. Foin has no collateral or horizontal Roots in the upper Part of the Ground where the Plough tills for Corn; and therefore has no Nourishment from that Part of the Soil which feeds the Corn. This would be a very good Account for it, were it not utterly contrary to Matter of Fact, as every one may see.