I could give many more Instances of the same Kind, where hoed Crops and sown Crops have succeeded better after hoed Crops than after sown Crops, and never yet have seen the contrary; and therefore am convinced, that the Hoeing[243] (if it be duly performed) enriches the Soil more than Dung and Fallows, and leaves the Land in a much better Condition for a succeeding Crop. The Reason I take to be very obvious: The artificial Pasture of Plants is made and increased by Pulveration only; and nothing else there is in our Power to enrich our Ground, but to pulverize it[244], and keep it from being exhausted by Vegetables[245]. Superinductions of Earth are an Addition of more Ground, or changing it, and are more properly purchasing than cultivating.
[243]This is more especially meant of Fallows in the common Husbandry, and a moderate Quantity of common Dung, or the Fold: And there may be such a poor Sand, or other barrenish Soil, so subject to Constipation in the Winter, as to require Dung when planted with Wheat, there being no general Rule without Exceptions; and ’tis impossible for me to know the Number of these Exceptions. Well it is for the Hoer, whose Land is of such a kind, that he can keep it in Heart without Dung by Hoeing; for when he has no Fold, he plows his Ground with Oxen, and plants it mostly with Wheat, the Straw whereof being for other Uses, he can make but very little Dung.
[244]These Two are all we have in our Power; for pulverizing includes an Exposure to the Atmosphere; without which, I think, it cannot be reduced to Particles minute enough, or have their Superficies so impregnated as to become a fertile Pasture for Plants. The Experiment related by Mr. Evelyn of artificial Pulveration, seems to prove such an Exposure necessary; as also the frequent turning (or incessantly agitating) that fine Dust for a Year, before the barren exhausted Earth was made rich and prolific; For, besides the Benefit of Pulveration and Impregnation, Land is more enriched in proportion to the Time of Exposure, during which it is free from Exhaustion, and continually receiving from the Atmosphere: Therefore frequent Turning and Exposure are both contained in the Words pulverize, and not exhaust; and to comply with the latter, we should endeavour, that our Land may be never exhausted by any other Plants than by those we would propagate, and by no more of them neither, than what are necessary for producing a reasonable Crop; which, upon full Trial, will be found a very small Number in companion to those that are commonly sown; and then, if the Supply from the Atmosphere by Help of the Pulveration exceeds the Exhaustion, the Land will become richer, tho’ constant Crops are produced of the same Species; as in the Vineyards; and the Soil of these is so much improved by a bare competent Exhaustion, and the usual Pulveration, that after producing good annual Crops without Dung, until Age has killed the Vines, they leave the Soil better than they found it; and better than contiguous Land of the same Sort kept in arable Field-culture.
By Pulveration are meant all the Benefits of it that accrue to the Pasture of Plants; and by Exhaustion, all the Injuries that can be done to that Pasture, except Burning. And as the Benefits of Pulveration visibly continue for several Years, so do the Injuries of Exhaustion; which appear by the Ends of some of my Rows that have been cleansed of Weeds in their Partitions by the Hand-hoe, and the other Ends of the same Rows not cleansed; the Difference is visible in the Colour of the Wheat in the Third and Fourth following Crops, equally managed; and this is no more to be wondered at, than that Two unequal Sums, being equally increased or diminished, should remain unequal, until an Addition to the lesser, or a Subtraction from the greater, be made; which, in case of the Soil, must be either by a greater Pulveration, or a lesser Exhaustion. ’Tis by this that both Ends of these Rows in time become equal: For tho’ Ten Plants that produce an Ounce of Wheat, insume more Pabulum than one Plant that produces the same Quantity (the Reason for which is given in the [Note] on [p. 121.]); yet a Plant that produces Six or Seven Drams, insumes less than one that produces an Ounce; for a Plant which produces Six Drams of Wheat cannot be a poor one, and therefore insumes no more Pabulum than in proportion to its Augment and Product. Thus the Soil of those Ends, which, by being doubly exhausted by Weeds and Wheat plants, was made poorer, gradually recovers an Equality with the other Ends, by being for several Years less exhausted than the other Ends are by larger Plants, whilst the Number of Plants, and the Pulveration of each, are equal.
To the Reasons already given there is another to be added, why Horse hoed Wheat exhausts the Soil less than sown Crops, where the Product of Wheat produced by each is equal: Which Reason is, that the former has much less Straw than the latter; as appears by the different Quantities of Grain that a Sheaf of each of equal Diameter yields; one of the former yielding generally double to one of the latter; for a Sheaf of the sown has not only more small Under-ears, but also its best Ears bear a less Proportion to their Straw than the other; for a Straw of sown Wheat Six Feet high, I have found to have an Ear but of half the Size of an Ear of drilled Wheat on a Stalk Five Feet high, having measured both of them standing in the Field, and rubbed out the Grain of them. This Difference I impute to the different Supply of Nourishment at the time when the Ears are forming.
Thus the sown Crop exhausts a Soil much more by its greater Quantity of Straw.
And this is one Reason why annual Crops of sown Wheat cannot succeed as Crops of Horse hoed Wheat do. There must be Dung and Fallow to repair the Exhaustion of the sown; neither of which are necessary for Crops of the Horse-hoed.
[245]It may be asked, How ’tis possible that Eight Hoeings, which are but equal, in Labour, to Two plain Plowings, should so much exceed Three plain Plowings, as to procure as good or a better Crop without Manure, than the common Three Plowings can do with Manure, and enrich the Land also.
The Answer is, That each Hoeing of the Five or Six being done to the Wheat-plants, though it does not clean plow the whole Interval underneath, yet it changeth the whole external Superficies (or Surface) thereof, whereby it becomes impregnate by the nitrous Air, as much as if it were all clean plowed at the time of every Hoeing, and the Weeds are as much stifled, or suffocated.
Their One Year’s Tillage, which is but Two Plowings before Seed-time, commonly makes but little Dust; and that which it does make, has but a short time to lie exposed for Impregnation; and after the Wheat is sown, the Land lies unmoved for near Twelve Months, all the while gradually losing its Pasture, by subsiding, and by being continually exhausted in feeding a treble Stock of Wheat-plants, and a Stock of Weeds, which are sometimes a greater Stock. This puts the Advocates for the old Method upon a Necessity of using of Dung, which is, at best, but a Succedaneum of the Hoe; for it depends chiefly on the Weather, and other Accidents, whether it may prove sufficient by Fermentation to pulverize in the Spring, or no: And it is a Question whether it will equal Two additional[246] Hoeings, or but one; tho’, as I have computed it, one Dunging costs the Price of One hundred Hoeings.