[246]Additional, because there must first be several Hoeings to make our treble Row equal to an undunged Six-feet Ridge of sown Wheat.
When they have done all they can, the Pasture they raise is generally too little for the Stock that is to be maintained upon it, and much the greatest Part of the Wheat-plants are starved; for from Twenty Gallons of Seed they sow on an Acre, they receive commonly no more than Twenty Bushels[247] of Wheat in their Crop, which is but an Increase of Eight Grains for one: Now, considering how many Grains there are in one good Ear, and how many Ears on one Plant, we find, that there is not One Plant in Ten that lives till Harvest, even when there has not been Frost in the Winter sufficient to kill any of them; or if we count the Number of Plants that come up on a certain Measure of Ground, and count them again in the Spring, and likewise at Harvest, we shall be satisfied, that most or all of the Plants that are missing, could die by no other Accident than want of Nourishment.
[247]And they have oftener less than Sixteen Bushels; and in the Harvest 1735, a substantial experienced Farmer had no more than Four Bushels of Wheat to an Acre throughout a Field of Forty Acres, being robbed by Poppies; and I have known a Crop that has amounted to do more than Two Bushels to an Acre, and some Crops less, tho’ dunged and fallowed; so that, taking the common sown Crops of Wheat one with another, they are thought not to amount to Sixteen Bushels to an Acre, communibus annis.
They are obliged to sow this great Quantity of Seed, to the end that the Wheat, by the great Number of Plants, may be the better able to contend with the Weeds; and yet, too often, at Harvest, we see a great Crop of Weeds, and very little Wheat among them. Therefore this Pasture, being insufficient to maintain the present Crop, without starving the greatest Part of its Plants, is likely to be less able to maintain a subsequent Crop, than that Pasture which is not so much exhausted.
When their Crop of Wheat is much less than ours, their Vacancies, if computed all together, may be greater than those of our Partitions and Intervals; theirs, by being irregular, serve chiefly for the Protection of Weeds; for they cannot be plow’d out, without destroying the Corn, any more than Cannons firing at a Breach, whereon both Sides are contending, can kill Enemies, and not Friends.
Their Plants stand on the Ground in a confused manner, like a Rabble; ours like a disciplin’d Army: We make the most of our Ground; for we can, if we please, cleanse the Partitions with a Hand-hoe[248]; and for the rest, if the Soil be deep enough to be drill’d on the Level[249], in treble Rows, the Partitions at Six Inches[250], the Intervals Five Feet; Five Parts in Six of the whole Field may be pulveriz’d every Year, and at proper times all round the Year.
[248]Of all annual Weeds.
[249]This is only put as a Supposition; for I have for these several Years left off drilling on the Level, and do advise against it; because altho’ Mould should not be wanting for the Partitions in deep rich Land, yet it is much more difficult to hoe on the Level than on Ridges.
[250]But when it is drilled upon Ridges, the Proportion is less, by how much the Partitions, being thicker in Mould, contain more than a Sixth-part of the whole Six Feet of Earth, and the Proportion of unexhausted Earth will be alter’d likewise; and I only mention these Distances to avoid Fractions.
The Partitions being one Sixth-part for the Crop to stand on, and to be nourished in the Winter, one other Sixth-part being well pulveriz’d, may be sufficient to nourish it from thence till Harvest[251]; the Remainder, being Two-thirds of the Whole, may be kept unexhausted, the One-third for one Year, and the other Third of it Two Years; all kept open for the Reception of the Benefits descending from above, during so long a time; whilst the sowed Land is shut against them every Summer, except the little time in which it is fallow’d, once in Three Years, and a little, perhaps, whilst they plow it for Barley in the Winter, which is a Season seldom proper for pulverizing the Ground.