Part 21

These Ridges should be made strait and equal: And to make them strait all good Ploughmen know how; and they will, by setting up Marks to look at, plow in a Line like the Path of an Arrow: But to make the Ridges equal, ’tis necessary to mark out a Number of them, before you begin to plow, by short Sticks set up at each End of the Piece; and then if one Ridge happen to be a little too broad, the next may be made the narrower; for if the Plough comes not out exactly at the second Stick, the Two Ridges may be made equal by the next Plowing, or by the Drilling; but if many contiguous Ridges should be too wide, or too narrow, ’twill be difficult to bring them all to an Equality afterwards, without levelling the whole Piece, and laying out the Ridges all anew.

But if the Piece be of such a crooked or serpentine Form, that the Ridges cannot well be plow’d strait the first Time, ’tis best to drill it upon the Level; and then the marking Wheels may direct for making the Row all parallel and equidistant; which will guide the Plough to make all the Ridges for the next and all the subsequent Crops, as equal.

The exact Height of Ridges, which is best, I cannot determine: A different Soil may require a different Height, according to the Depth, Richness, and Pulveration of the Mould. As Wheat covets always to lie dry in the Winter, so there is no other way to keep it so dry as these Ridges; for when they are, after the first Hoeing, about Eighteen Inches broad, with a Ditch on each Side, of almost a Foot deep, the Rain-water runs off such narrow Ridges as fast it falls, and much sooner than ’tis possible for it to do from broad Ridges.

I find by measuring my Wheat Ridges in the Spring, that none of them are quite a Foot high; and some of them only Six Inches; but I know not how much they have subsided in the Winter; for they were certainly higher when first made.

This is the Breadth the Ridges are generally left at, when the Furrows are hoed from them, and thrown into the Intervals.

Water, when it runs off very soon, is beneficial, as is seen in water’d Meadows; but where it remains long on, or very near the Bodies of terrestrial Plants, it kills them, or at least is very injurious to them.

And the deeper the Soil, the more occasion there commonly is of this high Situation; because such Land is wetter for the most Part than shallow Land, where we cannot make the Furrows so deep, nor the Ridges so high, as in deep Land; for we must never plow below the Staple. I see the Wheat on these ho’d Ridges flourish, and grow vigorously, in wet Weather, when other Wheat looks yellow and sickly.

If we should make our Ridges as high on a shallow Soil, as we may on a deep Soil, there would be a Deficiency of Mould in the Intervals of equal Breadth with those of a deep Soil.

The same wide Interval, which is ho’d betwixt Ridges the First time, with Two Furrows, must have had Four Furrows, to hoe it on the Level; or else the Furrow, that is turn’d from the Row, would rise up, and a great Part of it fall over to the Left-hand, and bury the Row; but when turn’d from a Ridge, it will all fall down to the Right-hand.

You must not leave the Tops of the Ridges quite so narrow and sharp for Drilling of Wheat, as you may for drilling Turneps; Wheat being in treble Rows, but Turneps generally in single Rows. This is our Method of making Ridges for the First Crop of drill’d Wheat.

A single Row taking up less of the Breadth, may be afforded to have more of the Ridge’s Depth; because it leaves the Interval wider.

But the Method of making Ridges for a succeeding Crop, after the former is harvested, is best perform’d as follows: In making Ridges for Wheat after Wheat, you must raise them to their full Height, before you plow the old Partitions, with their Stubble, up to them; for if you go about to make the Ridges higher afterwards, the Stubble will so mix with the Mould of their Tops, that it may not only be an Hindrance to the Drill, but also to the First Hoeing; because if the Hoe-plough goes so near to the Rows as it ought, it would be apt to tear out the Wheat-plants along with the Stubble.

In Reaping, we cut as near as we can to the Ground; which is easily done, because the Stalks stand all close together at Bottom, contrary to those of sown Wheat.

When Wheat is reap’d very low, the Stubble is no great Impediment; and I do this when I am forc’d to inlarge the Breadth of my Ridges, or to change their Bearing, as I do when I find it convenient for them to point Cross-ways of the Field instead of Length ways; as if one End of it be wetter than the other: For ’tis inconvenient, that one End of a Ridge should be in the wet Part, and the other in the dry; because, in that Case, we cannot hoe the dry End without hoeing the wet at the same time; and whilst we attend for the wet Part to become dry, it may happen, that the Season for hoeing the whole (if the Quantity be great) may be lost.

I find this Stubble, when ’tis only mixt with the Intervals, very beneficial to the Hoeing of my Wheat; but I know not whether it may be so in rich miry Land.

As soon as conveniently you can, after the Crop of Wheat is carried off (if the Trench in the Middle of each wide Interval be left deep enough by the last Hoeing), go as near as you can to the Stubble with a common Plough, and turn Two large Furrows into the Middle of the Intervals, which will make a Ridge over the Place where the Trench was: But if the Trench be not deep enough, go first in the Middle of it with one Furrow; which with Two more taken from the Ridges, will be three Furrows in each Interval; continue this Plowing as long as the dry Weather lasteth; and then finish, by turning the Partitions (whereon the last Wheat grew) up to the new Ridges, which is usually done at Two great Furrows. You may plow these last Furrows, which complete the Ridges, in wet Weather.

’Tis the Depth and Fineness of this Ridge that the Success of our Crop depends on; the Plants having nothing else to maintain them during the First Six Months; and if, for want of Sustenance, they are weak in the Spring, ’twill be more difficult to make them recover their Strength afterwards so fully as to bring them to their due Perfection. But Ploughmen have found a Trick to disappoint us in this fundamental Part of our Husbandry, if they are not narrowly watched: They do it in the following Manner; viz. They contrive to leave the Trench very shallow; and then, in turning the Two First Furrows of the Ridge, they hold the Plough towards the Left, which raises up the Fin of the Share, and leaves so much of the Earth whereon the Rows are to stand whole and unplowed, that after once Harrowing there doth not remain above Two or Three Inches in Depth of fine Earth underneath the Rows when drilled, instead of Ten or Twelve Inches.

On a Time, when my Diseases permitted me to go into the Wheat-field, where my Ploughs were at Work, I discovered this Trick, and ventured to ask my chief Ploughman his Reason for doing this in my Absence, contrary to my Direction. He magisterially answer’d, according to his own Theory, which Servants judge ought to be follow’d before that of him they call Master, saying, That as the Roots of Wheat never reached more than Two or Three Inches deep, there was no need that the fine Mould should be any deeper. But those shallow Ridges, which were indeed too many, producing a Crop very much inferior to the contiguous deep Ridges, shewed, at my Cost, the Mistake of my cunning Ploughman.

’Tis true, that People who examine Wheat-roots when dead, are apt to fall into this mistake; for then they are shrivell’d up, and so rotten, that they break off very near to the Stalk in pulling up; but if they are examined in their Vigour at Summer with Care, in a friable Soil, they may be seen to descend as deep as the fine pulveriz’d Mould reacheth, though that should be a Foot in Thickness.

I took up a Wheat-ear in Harvest that had lain on the Grass in wet Weather, where the Wind could not come to dry it, which had sent out white Roots like the Teeth of a Comb, some of them Three Inches long: None having reached the Ground, they could not be nourished from any thing but the Grains, which remained fast to the Ear, and had not as yet sent out any Blade. ’Tis unreasonable to imagine, that such a single Root as one of these, when in the Earth, from whence it must maintain a pretty large Plant all or most Part of the Winter, should descend no farther than when it was itself maintained from the Flour of the Grain only.

To make a Six-feet Ridge very high, will sometimes require more Furrows; as when the Middle of the Intervals are open very wide and deep, then Six Furrows to the whole Ridge may be necessary, and they not little ones; and the Season makes a Difference, as well as the Size of the Furrows; for when the fine Mould is very dry (which is best), it will much of it run to the Left-hand before the Plough, and also more will run back again to the Left after the Plough is gone past it.

But when such Ridges have been made for Wheat, and the Season continues long too dry for planting it, and the Stubble not thrown up, we then plow one deep Furrow on the Middle of each Ridge, and then plow the whole Ridge at Four Furrows more, which will raise it very high. This Way of replowing the Ridges moves all the Earth of them, and yet is done at Five Furrows.

The Furrows, necessary for raising up the Ridges, must be more, or fewer, in regard to the Bigness of them; because Six small Furrows may be less than Four great ones. ’Tis not best to plow the Stubble up to the Ridges, until just before Planting (especially in the early Plowing); because that will hinder the Re-plowing of the First Furrows, which, if the Season continues dry, may be necessary: Sometimes we do this by opening One Furrow in the Middle of the Ridge, sometimes Two, and afterwards raise up the Ridges again; and when they are become moist enough at Top (the old Partitions being plow’d up to them), we harrow them once (and that only Lengthways); and then drill them.

But if once be not sufficient to level the Tops of the Ridges fit for the Drill to pass thereon, as it always will, unless the Two hard Furrows lie so high, that all the Three Shares of the Drill cannot reach to make their Channels, in this Case you must harrow again until they can all reach deep enough. Also in some Sort of Land, that when drilled late, and very moist, will stick to the Shares like Pitch or Bird-lime, whereby the Channels are in Part left open by the Drill-harrow, it must be harrowed after ’tis drilled, because ’tis necessary in such Land to take off the common Drill-harrow, in order for a Man to follow the Drill with a Paddle, or else a forked Stick, with which he frees the Sheats of the adhering Dirt; this Harrow being gone, much of the Seed will lie uncovered, and then must be covered with common Harrows; unless a Drill-harrow, which was not in Use when my Plates were made, be placed instead of that taken off: This, with its two Iron Tines, will cover the Seed in this Case much better than common Harrows, and will be no Hindrance to cleansing of the Sheats, the Legs by which this Harrow is drawn, being remote from them, placed at near the End of the Plank; and note, that the most proper Drill for this Purpose is one that has only Two Shares, standing a Foot or fourteen Inches asunder: This Harrow serves for taking up the Drill to turn it.

There is a Necessity of plowing the old Partitions up to the new Ridges to support their other Earth from falling down by the Harrowing and Drilling, which would else make them level.

Our Ridges, after the First Time of Plowing, excel common Ridges of the same Height; because these, tho’ as deep in Mould at the Tops, have little of it till’d at the last Plowing; but ours, being made upon the open Trenches, consist of new-till’d pulveriz’d Mould, from Top to Bottom.

’Tis a general Rule, that all Sorts of Grain and Seeds prosper best, sown when the Ground is so dry, as to be broken into the most Parts by the Plough. The Reason why Wheat is an Exception to that Rule is, because it must endure the Rigours of Winter, which ’tis the better able to do, by the Earth’s being press’d or trodden harder, and closer to it, as it is when moved wet.

’Tis for that Reason, that Farmers drive their Sheep over very light Land, as soon as ’tis sown with Wheat, to tread the (Top or) Surface of it hard: and then the Cold of the Winter cannot so easily penetrate, to kill the Roots of the tender Plants.