Thus much of Hoeing in general may suffice: And different Sorts of Plants requiring different Management; that may more properly be described in the Chapter, where particular Vegetables are treated of.
It may not be amiss to add, that all Sorts of Land are not equally proper for Hoeing: I take it, that a dry friable Soil is the best. Intractable wet Clays, and such Hills as are too steep for Cattle to draw a Plough up and down them, are the most improper[60].
[60]For by hoeing cross the Hill, the Furrow turn’d against the Declivity cannot be thrown up near enough to the Row above it; and the Furrow that is turn’d downwards will bury the Row below it.
That ’tis not so beneficial to hoe in Common-fields, is not in Respect of the Soil, but to the old Principles, which have bound the Owners to unreasonable Customs of changing the Species of Corn, and make it necessary to fallow every Second, Third, or Fourth Year at farthest.
CHAP. VII.
Of Weeds.
Plants, that come up in any Land, of a different Kind from the sown or planted Crop, are Weeds.
That there are in Nature any such things as inutiles Herbæ, the Botanists deny; and justly too, according to their Meaning.
But the Farmer, who expects to make Profit of his Land from what he sows or plants in it, finds not only Herbæ inutiles, but also noxiæ, unprofitable and hurtful Weeds; which come like Muscæ, or uninvited Guests, that always hurt, and often spoil his Crop, by devouring what he has, by his Labour in Dunging and Tilling, provided for its Sustenance.
All Weeds, as such, are pernicious; but some much more than others; some do more Injury, and are more easily destroy’d; some do less Injury, and are harder to kill; others there are, which have both these bad Qualities. The hardest to kill are such as will grow and propagate by their Seed, and also by every Piece of their Roots, as Couch-grass, Coltsfoot, Melilot, Fern, and such-like. Some are hurtful only by robbing legitimate (or sown) Plants of their Nourishment, as all Weeds do; others both lessen a legitimate Crop by robbing it, and also spoil that Crop, which escapes their Rapine, when they infect it with their nauseous Scent and Relish, as Melilot, wild Garlick, &c.
Weeds starve the sown Plants, by robbing them of their Provision of Food[61], not of their Room (as some Authors vainly imagine); which will appear by the following Experiment.