The White-cone Wheat must not be reaped so green as the Lammas Wheat may; for if it is not full-ripe, it will be difficult to thresh it clean out of the Straw.
It happened once that my White-cone being planted early, and being very high, the Blade and Stalk were kill’d in the Winter; and yet it grew high again in the Spring, and had then the same Fortune a Second time; it lay on the Ridges like Straw, but sprung out anew from the Root, and made a very good Crop at Harvest: Therefore, if the like Accident should happen, the Owner needs not be frighted at it.
One thing that made Six-feet Ridges seem at first necessary, was the great Breadth of the Two Partitions (which were Eight Inches apiece), which, together with the Earth left on each Side of the treble Row not well cleansed by Hand-work, made Two large whole Furrows, at the first Plowing for the next Crop, that could not be broken by Harrows: These Two strong Furrows, being turned to the Two Furrows that are in the middle of a narrow Interval, for making a new Ridge, would cover almost all the pulveriz’d Earth, not leaving room betwixt the Two whole Furrows for the Drill to go in. But now the single Partition, and the Earth left by the Hoe-Plough, on the Outsides of the double Row, making Two narrow Furrows, and the one Partition being cleansed, and deeper Hand-ho’d than those of the treble Row were, or could be, are easily broken by the Harrows; for, besides their Narrowness, they have no Roots to hold their Mould together, except the Wheat-roots, which, being small and dead, have not Strength enough to hold it; and therefore that Necessity of such broad Ridges now ceases along with the treble Row.
When the Two narrow fragile Furrows are harrowed, and mixed with the pulveriz’d Earth of the Intervals, the Roots of the Wheat will reach it; and it is no Matter whether the Crop be drill’d after Two Plowings, in which Case the Row will stand on the very same Place whereon the Row stood the precedent Year, or whether it be drill’d after One or Three Plowings; and then the Rows will stand on the Middle of the last Year’s Intervals.
I cannot prescribe precisely the most proper Width of all Intervals; because they should be different in different Circumstances. In deep rich Land they may be a little narrower than in shallow Land.
There must be (as has been said) a competent Quantity of Earth in them to be pulveriz’d; and, when the Soil is rich, the less will suffice.
Never let the Intervals be too wide to be Horse-hoed at Two Furrows, without leaving any Part unplowed in the Middle of them, when the Furrows are turned towards the Rows.
Some Ploughmen can plow a wider Furrow than others, that do not understand the letting of the Hoe-Plough so well, can.
By making the Plank of the Hoe-plough shorter, and the Limbers more crooked, we can now hoe in narrower Intervals than formerly, without doing any Damage to the Wheat.
I now choose to have Fourteen Ridges on an Acre, and one only Partition of Ten Inches on each of them. This I find answers all the Ends I purpose. If the Partitions are narrower, there is not sufficient room in them for the Hand-hoe to do its work effectually; if wider, too much Earth will lose the Benefit of the Horse-hoe.