[55]Mr. Houghton calculates, that a Crop of Wheat of Thirty Quarters to an Acre, each Ear has two Inches and a Half of Surface; by which ’tis evident, that there would be Room for many such prodigious Crops to stand on.
And a Quick-hedge, standing between two Arable Grounds, one Foot broad at Bottom, and Eighteen Feet in Length, will, at fourteen Years Growth, produce more of the same Sort of Wood, than eighteen Feet square of a Coppice will produce in the same Time, the Soil of both being of equal Goodness.
This seems to be the same Case with our ho’d Rows; the Coppice, if it were to be cut in the first Years, would yield perhaps ten Times as much Wood, as the Hedge; but many of the Shoots of the Coppice constantly die every Year, for Want of sufficient Nourishment, until the Coppice is fit to be cut; and then its Product is much less than that of the Hedge, whose Pasture has not been over-stock’d to such a Degree as the Coppice-Pasture has been; and therefore brings its Crop of Wood to greater Perfection than the Coppice-Wood, which has Eighteen Times the Surface of Ground to stand on; The Hedge has the Benefit of Hoeing, as oft as the Land on either Side of it is till’d; but the Coppice, like the sown Corn, wants that Benefit.
In wide Intervals there is another Advantage of Hoeing, I mean Horse-hoeing (the other being more like Scratching and Scraping than Hoeing): There is room for many Hoeings[56], which must not come very near the Bodies of some annual Plants, except whilst they are young; but in narrow Intervals, this cannot be avoided at every Hoeing: ’Tis true, that in the last Hoeings, even in the middle of a large Interval, many of the Roots may be broken off by the Hoe-plough, at some considerable Distance from the Bodies; but yet this is no Damage, for they send out a greater Number of Roots than before; as in [Chap. I.] appears.
[56]Many Hoeings; but if it should be asked how many, we may take Columella’s Rule in hoeing the Vines, viz. Numerus autem vertendi Soli (bidentibus) definiendus non est, cum quanto crebrior fit, plus prodesse fossionem conveniat. Sed impersarum Ratio modum postulat. Lib. 4. Cap. 5.
Neither is it altogether the Number of Hoeings that determines the Degrees of Pulveration: For, Once well done, is Twice done; and the oftener the better, if the Expence be not excessive.
Poor Land, be it never so light, should have the most Hoeings; because Plants, receiving but very little Nourishment from the natural Pasture of such Land, require the more artificial Pasture to subsist on.
In wide Intervals, those Roots are broken off only where they are small; for tho’ they are capable of running out to more than the Length of the external Parts of a Plant; yet ’tis not necessary they should always do so; if they can have sufficient Food nearer to the Bodies[57] of the Plants.
[57]All the Mould is never so near to the Bodies of Plants, as ’tis when the Row stands on a high Six-feet Ridge, when the middle of the Interval is left bare of Earth, at the last Hoeing; for then all the Mould may be but about a Foot, or a Foot and half, distant from the Body of each Plant of a Treble Row.
And these new, young, multiply’d Roots are fuller of Lacteal Mouths than the older ones; which makes it no Wonder, that Plants should thrive faster by having some of their Roots broken off by the Hoe; for as Roots do not enter every Pore of the Earth, but miss great Part of the Pasture, which is left unexhausted, so when new Roots strike out from the broken Parts of the old, they meet with that Pasture, which their Predecessors miss’d, besides that new Pasture which the Hoe raises for them; and those Roots which the Hoe pulls out without breaking, and covers again, are turn’d into a fresh Pasture; some broken, and some unbroken: All together invigorate the Plants.