A Multitude of such hoed Plants have I known, and are now to be seen in both poor and rich Lands: Therefore it seems possible, that Thousands of English Acres may be capable, by the Hoeing Culture, to produce Crops of Luserne every Year for an Age. For as the greater Moisture, and less intense Heat of this Climate, are, upon the Accounts mentioned, injurious to Luserne, yet this is only to such as is sown and cultivated in the common Manner, because our Climate, upon the very same Accounts, is very advantageous to hoed Luserne.
In hot Countries, when the Summer is drier than ordinary, the Sun so scorches it, that they have fewer and much poorer Crops, than in moister Summers; viz. only Four or Five, instead of Six or Seven; but, in the driest Summer I ever knew in England, hoed Luserne yielded the most Crops.
Our Summer Days are longer, have more of the Sun’s Warmth, and less of his fiery Heat; he cherishes, but never burns Luserne, or any other hoed long Tap-rooted Plant in England.
The well hoed Earth, being open, receives and retains the Dews; the benign solar Influence is sufficient to put them in Motion, but not to exhale them from thence. The Hoe prevents the Turf, which would otherwise by its Blades or Roots intercept, and return back the Dews into the Atmosphere, with the Assistance of a moderate Heat. So that this Husbandry secures Luserne from the Injury of a wet Summer, and also causes the Rain-water to sink down more speedily, and disperse its Riches all the Way of its Passage; otherwise the Water would be more apt to stand on the Surface, chill the Earth, and keep off the Sun and Air from drying it: For, when the Surface is dry and open, Luserne will bear a very great Degree of Heat, or grow with a mean one. I have seen this hoed Luserne, in a sheltry Place of my Garden, so much grown in a mild Winter, as to be measured Fourteen Inches and an half high at Christmas; and a very large single Plant of it, which had not been hoed for Two Years before, was laid bare by digging out the Earth all around it a Foot deep, to observe the Manner of its Tap-root; and then the Earth was thrown in again, and the Hole filled up. This was on the Twenty-seventh of September. Upon this mellowing of the Soil about it, it sent out more Stalks in October, than it had done in the whole Summer before; they grew very vigorously, until a great Snow fell in December, which also preserved the Verdure of them, till that was melted away, and a black Frost came after it, and killed those Stalks. It is probable this Plant sent out immediately new fibrous horizontal Roots, which did grow apace to extract the Nourishment from this new-made Pasture, in proportion to the quick Growth of the Stalks, which in Summer have been measured, and found to grow in Height Three Inches and an half in a Night and a Day; this being almost One Inch in Six Hours.
And it has been my Observation, that this Plant, in hot and cold Countries, thrives both with a much greater, or less Degree of Heat and Moisture, when it is hoed; for if it has Plenty of Nourishment, which Hoeing always gives it, a very little Heat above, and the Moisture alone (which is never wanting to the deep Tap-root) suffice, and that Plenty of Food enables it the better to endure the Extremes of either Heat or Cold.
We need not much apprehend the Danger of English Winters; for Luserne will endure those which are more rigorous. In the Principality of Neufchâtel the Winters are so severe, as to kill all the Rosemary left abroad; yet Luserne survives them there: This proves it more hardy than Rosemary, which is planted for Hedges in England; and here is scarce twice in an Age a Frost able to kill it.
I have one single Luserne-plant in a poor Arable Field, that has stood the Test of Two-and-twenty Winters, besides the Feeding of Sheep at all Seasons, and yet remains as strong as ever. What Quantity of Hay this Plant yearly produces, cannot be known, because at those times that Cattle are kept from it, the Hares constantly crop it, being sweeter than any other Grass.
But this happens to be fortunately situate, where ’tis not altogether destitute of the Benefit of Hoeing. ’Tis in an Angle, where, every time the Field is till’d, the Plough goes over it in turning from the Furrows of one Land and one Head-land; but it is after the Plough is lifted out of the Ground, and turned up on one side, so that the Share only breaks the Turf very small all around it, without plowing up the Plant: Yet it has escaped it so narrowly, that the Fin of the Plough-share has split it into Four Parts; Three of which remain, and grow never the worse, but the Fourth is torn off, and the Wound healed up.
By the extreme hard Winter that happened about the Year 1708, or 1709, some of the Luserne in Languedoc was killed: Yet this was no Argument of its Tenderness, but rather the contrary; because then all the Olive-trees and Walnut-trees were there killed, tho’ the greatest Part of the Luserne escaped unhurt: And I did not hear one Walnut-tree was killed that Winter in England. Perhaps those in France, having being accustomed to much hotter Summers, were unable to endure the Rigour of the same Winter, that could do no Harm to the same Species in England, where our Winters do not seem to exceed some of theirs in Cold, so much as their Summers do ours in Heat. And since the Extremes are not so far asunder here, the same Degree of Cold may to our Plants seem tepid, which to those in Languedoc must seem rigorous, differing a more remote Degree from the opposite Extremity of Heat in Summer.
And, besides the Difference of Heat and Cold in different Climates, there is another more necessary to be observed; and that is, the Difference of the Hardiness in different Individuals of the same Species: The same Frost that kills a faint languishing Plant of Luserne, will be despised by a robust one, which, being well fed by the Hoe, becomes a Giant cloath’d and fenced with a thick Bark, that renders it impregnable against all Weather; its Rind is to it a Coat of Mail or Buff, impenetrable by Frost: But the unhoed is generally small and weak; its thin tender Bark exposes it almost naked to the Frost; it being, for want of a sufficient Pasture, starv’d and half-dead already, ’tis the more easily killed by the Cold.