Part 10

Very few Fields can have the Conveniency of a sufficient Supply of Dung, to enable them to produce half the Wheat those will do near Cities, where they have Plenty of it.

The Crop of 20 Acres will scarce make Dung sufficient for one Acre, in the common Way of laying it on.

The Action of the Dung’s Ferment affords a Warmth to the Infant-plants, in their most tender State, and the most rigorous Season.

But though Dung in fermenting may have a little Warmth, yet it may sometimes, by letting more Water enter its Hollowness, be in a Frost much colder than undung’d pulverized Earth; for I have seen Wheat-plants in the Winter die in the very Spits of Dung, when undung’d drill’d Wheat, adjoining to it, planted at the same Time, has flourish’d all the same Winter; and I could, not find any other Reason for this, but the Hollowness of the Dung; and yet it seemed to be well rotted.

But ’tis hard to know how long the Warmth of this Ferment lasteth, by reason of the great Difficulty to distinguish the very least Degree of Heat from the very least Degree of Cold.

Under the Name of Dung we may also understand whatever ferments with the Earth (except Fire); such as green Vegetables cover’d in the Ground, &c.

As to the Difference of the Quantity of artificial Pasture made by Dung without Tillage, and that made by Tillage without Dung; the latter is many Times greater, of which I had the following Proof. An unplow’d Land, wherein a Dunghil had lain for two or three Years, and being taken away, was planted with Turneps; at the same time a till’d Land, contiguous thereto, was drill’d with Turneps, and Horse-ho’d; the other, being Hand-ho’d, prospered best at the first; but at last did not amount to the Fifth Part of the Till’d and Horse-ho’d, in Bigness, nor in Crop. The Benefit of the Dung and Hand-hoe was so inconsiderable, in comparison of the Plough and Hoe-plough; the little Quantity of artificial Pasture raised to the other, was only near the Surface, and did not reach deep enough to maintain the Turneps, till they arrived at the Fifth Part of the Growth of those, whose artificial Pasture reach’d to the Bottom of the Staple of the Land.

A like Proof is; that several Lands of Turneps, drill’d on the Level, at three Foot Rows, plow’d, and doubly dung’d, and also Horse-ho’d, did not produce near so good a Crop of Turneps, as Six Foot Ridges adjoining, Horse-ho’d, tho’ no Dung had been laid thereon for many Years: There was no other Difference, than that the three Foot Rows did not admit the Hoe-plough to raise half the artificial Pasture, as the Six Foot Rows did. The Dung plow’d into the narrow Intervals, before drilling, could operate no further, with any great Effect, than the Hoe-plough could turn it up, and help in its Pulveration.

Dung, without Tillage, can do very little; with some Tillage doth something; with much Tillage pulverizes the Soil in less Time, than Tillage alone can do; but the Tillage alone, with more Time, can pulverize as well: This the Experiments of artificially pulverizing of the poorest Land, as they are related by Mr. Evelyn, fully prove.

And these Experiments are the more to be depended on, as they are made both in England and Holland by Persons of known Integrity.

This Truth is also further confirmed by those Authors who have found, that High-way Dust alone is a Manure preferable to Dung: And all these Pulverations being made by Attrition or Contusion, why should not our Instruments of Pulveration, in Time, reduce a sufficient Part of the Staple of a dry friable Soil, to a Dust equal to that of a Highway?

The common Proportion of Dung used in the Field pulverizes only a small Part of the Staple: but how long a time may be required for our Instruments to pulverize an equal Part, it depending much upon the Weather, and the Degree of Friability of the Soil, is uncertain.

I have seen surprising Effects from Ground, after being kept unexhausted, by plowing with common Ploughs for Two whole Years running: And I am confident, that the Expence of this extraordinary Tillage and Fallow will not, in many Places, amount to above half the Expence of a dressing with Dung; and if the Land be all the Time kept in our Sort of little Ridges of the Size most proper for that Purpose, the Expence of plowing will be diminished one half; besides the Advantage the Earth of such Ridges hath, of being friable in Weather which is too moist for plowing the same Land on the Level.

I have made many Trials of fine Dung on the Rows; and, notwithstanding the Benefit of it, I have, for these several Years last past, left it off, finding that a little more Hoeing will supply it at a much less Expence, than that of so small a Quantity of Manure, and of the Hands necessary to lay it on, and of the Carriage.

CHAP. V.

Of TILLAGE.

Tillage is breaking and dividing the Ground by Spade, Plough, Hoe, or other Instruments, which divide by a Sort of Attrition (or Contusion) as Dung does by Fermentation.

Neque enim aliud est Colere quam Resolvere, & Fermentare Terram. Columella.

And since the artificial Pasture of Plants is made and increas’d by Pulveration, ’tis no Matter whether it be by the Ferment of Dung, the Attrition of the Plough, the Contusion of the Roller, or by any other Instrument or Means whatsoever, except by Fire, which carries away all the Cement of that which is burnt.

By Dung we are limited to the Quantity of it we can procure, which in most Places is too scanty: But by Tillage, we can inlarge our Field of subterranean Pasture without Limitation, tho’ the external Surface of it be confin’d within narrow Bounds: Tillage may extend the Earth’s internal Superficies, in proportion to the Division of its Parts; and as Division is infinite, so may that Superficies be.

Every Time the Earth is broken by any Sort of Tillage, or Division, there must arise some new Superficies of the broken Parts, which never has been open before. For when the Parts of Earth are once united and incorporated together, ’tis morally impossible, that they, or any of them, should be broken again, only in the same Places; for to do that, such Parts must have again the same numerical Figures and Dimensions they had before such Breaking, which even by an infinite Division could never be likely to happen: As the Letters of a Distichon, cut out and mixt, if they should be thrown up never so often, would never be likely to fall into the same Order and Position with one another, so as to recompose the same Distich.

Although the internal Superficies may have been drain’d by a preceding Crop, and the next Plowing may move many of the before divided Parts, without new-breaking them; yet such as are new-broken, have, at such Places where they are so broken, a new Superficies, which never was, or did exist before; because we cannot reasonably suppose, that any of those Parts can have in all places (if in any Places) the same Figure and Dimensions twice.

For as Matter is divisible ad infinitum, the Places or Lines whereat ’tis so divisible, must be, in relation to Number, infinite, that is to say, without Number; and must have at every Division Superficies of Parts of infinite Variety in Figure and Dimensions.

Their Variety is such, that ’tis next to impossible, any two Pieces, or Clods, in a Thousand Acres of till’d Ground, should have the same Figure, and equal Dimensions, or that any Piece should exactly tally with any other, except with that from whence it was broken off.

And because ’tis morally impossible, the same Figure and Dimensions should happen twice to any one Part, we need not wonder, how the Earth, every time of Tilling, should afford a new internal Superficies (or artificial Pasture); and that the till’d Soil has in it an inexhaustible Fund, which by a sufficient Division (being capable of an infinite one) may be produc’d.

Tillage (as well as Dung) is beneficial to all Sorts of Land. Light Land, being naturally hollow, has larger Pores, which are the Cause of its Lightness: This, when it is by any Means sufficiently divided, the Parts being brought nearer together, becomes, for a time, Bulk for Bulk, heavier; i. e. The same Quantity will be contain’d in less Room, and so is made to partake of the Nature and Benefits of strong Land, viz. to keep out too much Heat and Cold, and the like.

’Tis of late fully prov’d, by the Experience of many Farmers, that two or three additional Plowings will supply the Place of Dung, even in the old Husbandry, if they be perform’d at proper Seasons: and the hiring Price of three Plowings, after Land has been thrice plow’d before, is but Twelve Shillings, whereas a Dunging will cost three Pounds: This was accidentally discovered in my Neighbourhood, by the Practice of a poor Farmer, who, when he had prepared his Land for Barley, and could not procure Seed to sow it, plow’d it on till Wheat Seed-Time, and (by means of such additional Plowing) without Dung, had so good a Crop of Wheat, that it was judg’d to be more than the Inheritance of the Land it grew on.

The same Effect follows when they prepare Land for Turneps, since they are come in Fashion, and sow them several Times upon several Plowings, the Fly as often taking them off; they have from such extraordinary Tillage a good Crop of Wheat, instead of the lost Turneps, without the Help of Dung; hence double-plowing is now become frequent in this Country.