I never myself try’d this way of pounding or grinding, because impracticable in the Fields.
But I have had the Experience of a Multitude of Instances, which confirm it so far, that I am in no Doubt, that any Soil[33] (be it rich or poor) can ever be made too fine by Tillage[34].
[33]Land that is too hollow and light, having no Cement to join its Parts together, tho’ in Nature they are capable of infinite Division, yet in Practice the Plough cannot divide them to any Purpose, unless they were first join’d, but glides through without breaking them; being more like to the primary Particles of Water against the Plough, which are broken by no Force, than to Earth; it may be moved, but not broken by Tillage, and therefore ought not to be reputed arable; nor does it indeed deserve the Name of Land, but as the desart Sands of Lybia, to distinguish it from Sea.
[34]According to some, this Rule is only general, and not universal; for, say they, there’s a Sort of binding Gravel, that, when it is made fine, will, by a sudden Dash of Rain, run together like a Metal; and I have seen the same Accident in a particular Sort of white Land; but this very rarely happens to the latter: I never knew it above once, and that was after Barley was sown on it; the Hardness was only like a very thin Ice upon the Surface, which was some Hindrance to the coming up of the Barley, until the Harrow’s going over it once or twice broke that Ice or Crust, and then it came up very well.
I never had any other Sort of Land liable to this Misfortune: therefore can say nothing to the Gravel in that Case, nor how deep the Constipation may reach in it, nor what Remedy is most proper to prevent the ill Consequence of it: But if there should be two or three Exceptions out of One thousand Seventy-nine Millions One thousand and Sixty different Sorts of Earth (see Mr. Evelyn’s Terra, p. 2), ’twill be no great Matter.
But I think these are no real Exceptions against any Degree of Pulverizing; for it only shews, that some Sorts of Land, tho’ very few, are subject by Accident to lose too soon their Pulveration: And if the Fineness were no Benefit to that Land, such Loss of it would be no Injury to it.
For ’tis without Dispute, that one cubical Foot of this minute Powder may have more internal Superficies, than a thousand cubical Feet of the same, or any other Earth till’d in the common Manner; and, I believe no two arable Earths in the World do exceed one another in their natural Richness Twenty Times; that is, one cubical Foot of the richest is not able to produce an equal Quantity of Vegetables, cæteris paribus, to Twenty cubical Feet of the poorest; therefore ’tis not strange, that the poorest, when by pulverizing it has obtain’d One hundred Times the internal Superficies of the rich untill’d Land, it should exceed it in Fertility; or, if a Foot of the poorest was made to have Twenty Times the Superficies of a Foot of such rich Land, the poorest might produce an equal Quantity of Vegetables with the rich[35]. Besides, there is another extraordinary Advantage, when a Soil has a larger internal Superficies in a very little Compass; for then the Roots of Plants in it are better supply’d with Nourishment, being nearer to them on all Sides within Reach, than it can be when the Soil is less fine, as in common Tillage; and the Roots in the one must extend much further than in the other, to reach an equal Quantity of Nourishment: They must range and fill perhaps above twenty Times more Space to collect the same Quantity of Food.
[35]And very poor Land, well pulveriz’d, will produce better Corn than very rich will do, without Manure or Tillage. The Experiment may be made by paring off the Turf, and setting Corn in the whole Ground that is very rich; and that will shew how much the natural Pasture of the rich is inferior to the artificial Pasture of the poor Land; but then the poor must have this Proportion of Excess of internal Superficies continued to it, during the whole Time of their Growth, which cannot be done without frequently repeated Divisions of the Soil by Hoeing or Manure; else it might require forty Times the internal Superficies at the Time of Sowing, to keep twenty Times the internal Superficies of the rich till Harvest: For although the rich is continually losing some of its artificial Pasture, as well as the poor, yet by losing this equally, they still draw nearer and nearer to the first Inequality of their natural Pasture.
But poor Land, being lighter, has this Advantage, that it being more friable than the strong, requires less Labour to pulverize it; and therefore the Expence of it is much less, than in proportion to the Excess of Poorness of its internal Superficies.
But in this fine Soil, the most weak and tender Roots have free Passage to the utmost of their Extent, and have also an easy, due, and equal Pressure every-where, as in Water.