[119]Frost, if it does not kill the Wheat, is of great Benefit to it; Water or Moisture, when it is frozen in the Earth, takes up more Room than in its natural State; this Swelling of the Ice (which is Water congealed) must move and break the Earth wherewith it is mixt; and when it thaws, the Earth is left hollow and open, which is a kind of Hoeing to it. This Benefit is done chiefly to and near the Surface; consequently the more Surface there is, by the Unevenness of the Land, the more Advantage the Soil has from the Frost.
This is another very great Use of the Ridge left in the Middle of the Interval during the Winter; because that Ridge, and its Two Furrows, contain Four Times as much Surface as when level. This thus pulverized Surface, turned in in the Spring hoeing, enriches the Earth, in proportion to its Increase of internal Superficies, and likewise proportionably nourishes the Plants, whose Roots enter it; and that Part of it wherein they do not enter, must remain more enriched for the next Crop, than if the Soil had remained level all the Winter.
[120]It is a vulgar Error that the Winter Rains do not enrich the Earth; and is only thought so, because we do not see the Effect of them upon Vegetables, for lack of Heat in that Season. But some Farmers have frequently observed, that one half of a Ground plowed up just before Winter has produced a Crop of Barley as much better than the other Part plowed up at the End of Winter, as is the Difference of a Dunging, even when there has been very little Frost.
The outside Rows of Wheat, from which the Earth is hoed off before or in the Beginning of Winter, and left almost bare till the Spring, one would think should suffer by the Frost coming so near them[121], or for want of Pasture: But it appears to be quite contrary; for where the Hoe has gone nearest to a Row, its Plants thrive best: The Earth, which the Frost hath pulverized, being within the Reach of the young short Roots, on that Side of the Row, from the Top to the Bottom of the Trench, nourishes them at first; and before the Plants have much exhausted this, as they grow larger in the Spring, the Ridge from the Middle of the Interval is thrown to them, having a perfectly unexhausted Pasture, to supply their increasing Bulk with more Nourishment.
[121]In very light Land, perhaps, we must not hoe quite so near to the Rows of Wheat, as in strong Land, for fear the Winter should lay the Roots bare, and expose them too much to the Cold; but then we may be sure, that, in this Case, the Roots will reach the Interval at a greater Distance than in strong Land; yet such very light Land is not proper for Wheat.
The Row standing as it were on the Brink of this almost perpendicular Ditch, the Water runs off quickly, or doth not enter but a very little Way into this deep Side; so that, the Earth at the Plants being dry, the Frost doth not reach quite to all their Roots to hurt them, tho’ the Distance from the Air to the Roots be very short; and dry Earth doth not freeze as wet doth, neither is this Ditch much exposed to the cold Winds.
The Spring-hoeing is performed after the great Frosts are past, and when the Weather will allow it; and then turn[122] the Ridge from[123] the Middle of the Interval, to the Rows on each Side by Two Furrows as near as can be, without covering the Wheat; in doing which have regard to the Row only, without looking at the Middle of the Interval; for ’tis no matter if a little Earth be left there; the next Hoeing, or the next save one[124], will move it.
[122]’Tis an errant Mistake of the Vulgar, when they imagine that the immediate Benefit of fresh Earth to Plants is from that Part which remains uppermost; for ’tis from turning the impregnated pulverized Side downwards, to be fed on by the Roots, that gives the Pabulum or Nourishment of the fresh Earth to Plants: The other Side, being turned upwards, becomes impregnate also in a little time.
[123]But note, that when we see Weeds coming up near the Row in the Spring, we plow again from the Rows (and sometimes can plow within one Inch of the Row) before we turn down the Mould from the Middle of the Interval.
[124]If at the next Hoeing we turn another Furrow towards the Row (which is seldom done), then ’tis the next that moves the remaining Earth, left in the Middle of the Interval: But if the next Hoeing be from the Row (as it generally is), then that covers the Middle of the Interval; and then ’tis the next Hoeing after that, that turns all the Earth clean out of the Middle of the Interval toward the Rows.