And strong Land, plow’d wet in November, will be harder in the Spring, than if plow’d dry in August; tho’ it would then have Three Months longer to lie.
After Rain, when the Top of the Ground is of a fit Moisture for Drilling, harrow it with Two light Harrows, drawn by a Horse going in the Furrow betwixt Two Ridges[106]; once will be enough, the Furrow being just broken to level, or rather smooth it for the Drill.
[106]Once Harrowing is generally enough, but not always.
If the Veerings[107] whereon the next Crop is to stand, be plow’d dry, we may drill at any Time during the common and usual Wheat-seed time, that is proper for the sort of Wheat to be drill’d, and the sort of Land, whether that be early or late, we may drill earlier, but not later than the sowing Farmers. But I have had good Crops of Wheat drill’d at all Times betwixt Harvest and the Beginning of November.
[107]The Word veering is, I believe, taken from the Seamen, and signifies to turn: It is the Ploughman’s Term for turning Two Furrows toward each other, as they must do to begin a Ridge: and therefore they call the Top of a Ridge a Veering; they call the Two Furrows that are turn’d from each other at the Bottom, between Two Ridges, a Henting, i. e. an Ending: because it makes an End of plowing Ridges.
Our Intervals wholly consist of Veerings or Hentings; when Two Furrows are turn’d from the Rows, they make a Veering; when turn’d towards the Rows, they are a Henting, which is the deep wide Trench in the Middle of an Interval.
For the Benefit of the middle Rows, ’tis better not to drill Wheat on strong Land before the usual Season; because the later ’tis planted, the more open the Partitions will be for the Roots of those Rows to run through them in the Spring: and yet, if the Earth of the Partitions be plow’d very wet, tho’ late, they may be harder at the Spring, than those which are plow’d early and dry.
There is a Sort of Wheat call’d by some[108] Smyrna Wheat: It has a prodigious large Ear, with many less (or collateral) Ears, coming all round the Bottom of this Ear; as it is the largest of all Sorts of Wheat, so it will dispense with the Nourishment of a Garden, without being over-fed, and requires more Nourishment than the common Husbandry will afford it; for there its Ears grow not much bigger than those of common Wheat: This I believe to be, for that Reason, the very best Sort for the Hoeing Husbandry; next to this I esteem the White-cone Wheat, then the Grey-cone. I have had very good Crops from other Sorts; but look upon these to be the best.
[108]’Tis said to grow mostly in some Islands of the Archipelago, and some Author describes it Triticum spica multiplici: There is another Sort of Wheat that has many little Ears coming out of Two Sides of the main Ear, but this is very late ripe, and doth not succeed well here, nor is it liked by them who have sown it; yet I have had some Ears of it by chance among my drill’d Wheat, which have been larger than those of any common Sort. I have not as yet been able to procure any of the Smyrna Wheat, which I look on as a great Misfortune; but I had some of it above Forty Years ago.
When Wheat is planted early, less Seed is required than when late; because less of it will die in the Winter than of that planted late, and it has more Time to tiller[109].