Part 13

Next to Hoeing, and something like it, is Transplanting, but much inferior; both because it requires a so much greater Number of Hands, that by no Contrivance can it ever become general, nor does it succeed, if often repeated; but Hoeing will maintain any Plant in the greatest Vigour ’tis capable of, even unto the utmost Period of Age. Besides, there is Danger in removing a whole Plant, and Loss of Time before the Plant can take Root again, all the former Roots being broken off at the Ends in taking up (for ’tis impossible to do it without), and so must wait until by the Strength and Virtue of its own Sap (which by a continual Perspiration is daily enfeebled) new Roots are form’d, which, unless the Earth continue moist, are so long in forming, that they not only find a more difficult Reception into the closing Pores; but many Times the Plant languishes and dies of an Atrophy, being starv’d in the midst of Plenty; but whilst this is thus decaying, the hoed Plant obtains a more flourishing State than ever, without removing from the same Soil that produc’d it.

But when the Earth doth continue moist, many transplanted Vegetables thrive better than the same Species planted in Seeds, because the former, striking Root sooner, have a greater Advantage of the fresh-pulverized Mould, which loses some of its artificial Pasture before the Seeds have Roots to reach it. The same Advantage also have Seeds by soaking till ready to sprout before they are planted. To both these the Moisture of the Earth is necessary.

’Tis observ’d that some Plants are the worse for Transplanting. Fenochia removed is never so good and tender as that which is not, it receives such a Check in Transplanting in its Infancy; which, like the Rickets, leaves Knots that indurate the Parts of the Fennel, and spoil it from being a Dainty.

As most long Tap-rooted Plants are; for I have often try’d the Transplanting of Plants, of St. Foin and Luserne; and could never find, that any ever came near to the Perfection that those will do which are not removed, being equally single.

Tap-rooted Grasses and Turneps are always injured by Transplanting; their long Root once broken off never arrives at the Depth it would have arriv’d unbroken; as for this Reason they cut off the Tap-root of an Apple-tree, to prevent its running downward, by which it would have too much Moisture.

Hoeing has most of the Benefits without any Inconveniences of Transplanting; because it removes the Roots by little and little, and at different Times; some of the Roots remaining undisturb’d, always supply the moved Roots with Moisture, and the whole Plant with Nourishment sufficient to keep it from fainting, until the moved Roots can enjoy the Benefit of their new Pasture, which is very soon.

Another extraordinary Benefit of the new Hoeing Husbandry is, that it keeps Plants moist in dry Weather, and this upon a double Account.

Hoeing may be divided into Deep, which is our Horse-hoeing, and Shallow, which is the English Hand-hoeing; and also the Shallow Horse-hoeing, used in some Places betwixt Rows, where the Intervals are very narrow, as sixteen or eighteen Inches; this is but an Imitation of the Hand-hoe, or a Succadaneum to it; and can neither supply the Use of Dung, nor of Fallow, and may be properly called Scratch-hoeing.

First, as they are better nourished by Hoeing, they require less Moisture, as appears by Dr. Woodward’s Experiment, that those Plants which receive the greatest Increase, having most terrestrial Nourishment, carry off the least Water in Proportion to their Augment: So Barley or Oats, being sown on a Part of a Ground very well divided by Dung and Tillage, will come up and grow vigorously without Rain, when the same Grains, sown at the same Time, on the other Part, not thus enriched, will scarce come up; or, if they do, will not thrive till Rain comes.

Secondly, The Hoe, I mean the Horse-hoe (the other goes not deep enough), procures Moisture to the Roots from the Dews, which fall most in dry Weather; and those Dews (by what Mr. Thomas Henshaw has observ’d) seem to be the richest Present the Atmosphere gives to the Earth; having, when putrefy’d in a Vessel, a black Sediment like Mud at the Bottom. This seems to cause the darkish Colour to the upper Part of the Ground. And the Sulphur, which is found in the Sediment of the Dew, may be the chief Ingredient of the Cement of the Earth; Sulphur being very glutinous, as Nitre is dissolvent. Dew has both these.

These enter in proportion to the Fineness and Freshness of the Soil, and to the Quantity that is so made fine and fresh by the Hoe. How this comes to pass, and the Reason of it, are shewn in the Chapter of Tillage.

To demonstrate that Dews moisten the Land when fine, dig a Hole in the hard dry Ground, in the driest Weather, as deep as the Plough ought to reach: Beat the Earth very fine, and fill the Hole therewith; and, after a few Nights Dews, you’ll find this fine Earth become moist at the Bottom, and the hard Ground all round will continue dry.

Till a Field in Lands; make one Land very fine by frequent deep Plowings; and let another be rough by insufficient Tillage, alternately; then plow the whole Field cross-ways in the driest Weather, which has continued long; and you will perceive, by the Colour of the Earth, that every fine Land will be turn’d up moist; but every rough Land will be dry as Powder, from Top to Bottom.

Altho’ hard Ground, when thoroughly soak’d with Rain, will continue wet longer than fine till’d Land adjoining to it; yet this Water serves rather to chill, than nourish the Plants standing therein, and to keep out the other Benefits of the Atmosphere, leaving the Ground still harder when ’tis thence exhaled; and being at last once become dry, it can admit no more Moisture, unless from a long-continued Deluge of Rain, which seldom falls till Winter, which is not the Season for Vegetation.

As fine hoed Ground is not so long soaked by Rain, so the Dews never suffer it to become perfectly dry: This appears by the Plants, which flourish and grow fat in this, whilst those in the hard Ground are starved, except such of them, which stand near enough to the hoed Earth, for the Roots to borrow Moisture and Nourishment from it.

As when Wheat is drill’d late in very poor Land, so that in the Spring the young Plants look all very yellow; let your Hoe-plough, making a crooked Line, like an Indenture, on one Side of a strait Row of this poor Wheat in the Spring, turn a Furrow from it; and in a short time you will see all those yellow Plants, that are contiguous to this Furrow, change their yellow Colour to a deep Green; whilst those Plants of the same Row, which stand farthest off from this indented Furrow, change not their Colour till afterwards; and all the Plants change or retain their Colour sooner or later gradually, as they stand nearer to, or farther from it; and the other Rows, which have no Furrow near them, continue their yellow, after all this Row is become green and flourishing: But this Experiment is best to be made in poor sandy Ground, when the Mould is friable; else perhaps the different Colour may not appear until the Furrow be turn’d back to the Row, having lain some time to be somewhat pulveriz’d (or impregnated) by the Weather, &c.

This Experiment I often made on Wheat drill’d on the Level before I drill’d any on Ridges.

The plowing one Furrow in sandy or mellow Ground makes a Pulveration, which is enjoy’d first by these Plants that are the nearest to it; and also delivers them from the Weeds, which, though there may be very few, yet there is a vast difference between their robbing the Wheat of its Pasture in the Row, and the Wheat’s enjoying both that and the whole Pasture of the Furrow also.

I never remember to have seen a Plant poor, that was contiguous to a well-hoed Interval, unless overpower’d by a too great Multitude of other Plants; and the same Exception must be made, if it were a Plant that required more or less Heat or Moisture, than the Soil or Climate afforded.

And I have been informed by some Persons, that they have often made the like Observations; that, in the driest of Weather, good Hoeing procures Moisture to Roots; tho’ the Ignorant and Incurious fansy, it lets in the Drought; and therefore are afraid to hoe their Plants at such Times, when, unless they water them, they are spoil’d for Want of it.

When Land is become hard by lying too long unho’d, the Plough in turning a deep Furrow from each Side of a single Row of young Plants (suppose of Turneps) may crack the Earth quite through the Row, and expose the Roots to the open Air and Sun in very dry Weather; but if the Earth wherein the Plants stand be fine, there will be no Cracks in it: ’Tis therefore the delaying the Hoeing too long that occasions the Injury. But to hoe with Advantage against dry Weather, the Ground must have been well tilled or hoed before, that the Hoe may go deep, else the Dews, that fall in the Night, will be exhal’d back in the Heat of the Day.

There is yet one more Benefit Hoeing gives to Plants, which by no Art can possibly be given to Animals: For all that can be done in feeding an Animal is, what has been here already said of Hoeing; that is, to give it sufficient Food, Meat and Drink, at the times it has occasion for them; if you give an Animal any more, ’tis to no manner of Purpose, unless you could give it more Mouths, which is impossible; but in hoeing a Plant the additional Nourishment thereby given, enables it to send out innumerable additional Fibres and Roots, as in one of the Glasses with a Mint in it, is seen; which fully demonstrates, that a Plant increaseth its Mouths, in some Proportion to the Increase of Food given to it: So that Hoeing, by the new Pasture it raises, furnishes both Food and Mouths to Plants; and ’tis for Want of Hoeing, that so few are brought to their Growth and Perfection.

A Ground was drill’d with Ray-grass and Barley, in Rows at Five Inches Distance from each other; it produced a pretty good Crop of Ray-grass the second Year as is usual; there was adjoining to it a Ground of Turneps, that were in Rows, with wide Intervals Horse-ho’d; they stood for Seed; and amongst them there was, in Room of a Turnep, a single Plant of Ray-grass, which, being hoed as the Turneps were, had (in every one’s Opinion that saw it) acquired a Bulk at least equal to a Thousand Plants of the same Species in the other Ground; tho’ that vast Plant had no other Advantage above the other, except its Singleness, and the deep Hoeing.

I have seen a Chickweed, by the same means, as much increas’d beyond its common Size; and a Plant of Mustard-seed, whose collateral Branches were much bigger than ever I saw a whole Plant of that Sort; it was higher than I could reach its Top, and indeed more like a Tree than an Herb; many other sorts of Plants have I seen thus increased beyond what I had ever observ’d before, but none so much as those.

In what Manner the Sarrition of the Antients was performed in their Corn, is not very clear: This seems to have been their Method; viz. When the Plants were some time come up, they harrowed the Ground, and pull’d out the Weeds by Hand. The Process of this appears in Columella, where he directs the Planting of Medica to be but a Sort of Harrowing or Raking amongst the young Plants, that the Weeds might come out the more easily: Ligneis Rastris statim jacta Semina obruantur. Post Sationem Ligneis Rastris Jarriendus, & identidem runcandus est Ager, ne alterius generis Herba invalidam Medicam perimat.

They harrowed and hoed Rastris; so that their Occatio and Sarritio were performed with much the same Sort of Instrument, and differed chiefly in the Time: The first was at Seed-time, to cover the Seed, or level the Ground; the other was to move the Ground after the Plants were up.

One Sort of their Sarrition was, Segetes permota Terra debere adobrui, ut fruticare possint. Another Sort was thus: In Locis autem frigidis sarriri nec adobrui, sed Plana Sarritione Terram permoveri.

For the better Understanding of these two Sorts of Sarrition, we must consider, that the Antients sowed their Corn under Furrow; that is, when they had harrowed the Ground, to break the Clods, and make it level, they sowed the Seed, and then plowed it in: This left the Ground very uneven, and the Corn came up (as we see it does here in the same Case) mostly in the lowest Places betwixt the Furrows, which always lay higher: This appears by Virgil’s Cum Sulcos æquant Sata. Now, when they used Plana Sarritio, they harrowed Length-ways of the Furrows, which being somewhat harden’d, there could be little Earth thrown down thence upon the young Corn.