Part 24

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.

The poorer the Soil is, the more Pulveration will be necessary to it.

When a great Season of Wheat is drill’d, it cannot be expected that much of it can be plowed dry, tho’ it is advantageous when there happens an Opportunity for doing it; but by long Experience I find, that in most of my Lands it does very well, when plowed in a moderate Temper of Moisture.

It may not be amiss to harrow it once after it is drill’d, which will, in some Measure, disappoint the Rooks; besides covering the Wheat, if, perchance, any should miss being covered by the Drill-harrow.

But these, and all Harrows that go on a Ridge, both before and after it is drill’d, should be very light, and fastened together in the common Manner; except that the Pole must be fastened to each Harrow in two Places; which keeps them both as level as if they were One single Harrow: Otherwise the Ridges would be too sharp at the Top, and the Partitions would lie higher than the Rows, and some of their Earth would be apt to fall on the Rows when it is Hand-hoed.

By Means of this level Harrowing, there is left an open Furrow in the Middle of the Interval, which much facilitates the First Horse-hoeing.

But when, after a Crop is taken off, the Ridges are plowed twice, as they may be where the one Partition hath been well Hand-ho’d; ’tis better to harrow the first-made Ridges in the common Manner; because then some of the fine Earth, that is harrow’d down, will reach to the middle of the Intervals whereon the Ridges are to be made for Drilling: Or if there should be time for plowing thrice, the Ridges of the First and Second Plowings are to be harrow’d in the common Manner also.

The Harrowing of Ridges must never be cross-ways, unless they are to be made level for Cross-plowing, in order to lay out the Ridges of a Breadth different to what they were of before.

When you perceive the Ridges are too high, harrow them lower by the described manner of Harrowing; first with the heavy Harrows for harrowing out the Stubble, and then with light ones, which may be often, for making the Earth on the Ridges the finer for Drilling, without throwing much of it down; frequent Harrowings in this manner, not being injurious like too much Harrowing on level Ground, which is sometimes trodden as hard as the Highway by the Cattle that draw the Harrows; for in harrowing these Ridges, the Beast draws the Two Harrows, and always treads in the Furrow between them where there is none or very little Mould to tread on.

The Price of Hand-hoeing of these double Rows is a Peny for thirty Perches in Length of Row, which amounts to between Eighteen and Nineteen Pence for an Acre.

I should say, that in Hand-hoeing the Earth must never be turned towards the Wheat; for, if it were, it might crush it when young; neither could the Partition be clean hoed.

The Hand-hoes for hoeing the Ten-inch Partition have their Edges Seven Inches long; they are about Four Inches deep from the Handle; if they were deeper, they would be too weak; for they must be thin, and well steeled. The Labourers pay for them, and keep them in Order, for their own Use.

These Hoes must not cut out any Part of the Two Rows, nor be drawn through them, as the Four-inch Hoes sometimes may through the treble Rows.

If I am taxed with Levity in changing my treble Rows for double ones, it will not appear to be done of a sudden. In p. 132. I advised the Trial of both Sorts: And now, upon fuller Experience, I find the double Rows much preferable to the treble, especially for Wheat.

When Gentlemen saw the middle Row on low Ridges so much inferior to the outside Rows, they were convinced of the Effect of deep Hoeing; for they said, there was no other Reason for this so visible a Difference, except the outside Rows standing nearer to the pulveriz’d Intervals than the middle Row did.

And when on high Ridges the middle Row was nearly or quite as good as one of the outside Rows, I was not convinced, that they were not diminished by the middle Row, as much as the Produce of it amounted to: And this I now find to be the Case; for Four Rows of Oats, without a middle Row, produced somewhat more than the same Number that had a middle Row; Two of which treble Rows were taken on one Side, and Two on the other Side of the double Rows, purposely to make an unexceptionable Trial. And it is, as far as I can judge, the same in Wheat.

’Tis true, I began my Horse-hoeing Scheme first with double Rows; but then they were different to what they are now; for the first had their Partition uneven, being the parting Space, whereby it was less proper for Hand-hoeing, which I then seldom used, except for absolute Necessity, as to cleanse our Poppies, and the like. The Intervals also were too narrow for constant annual Crops.

By all these Three Methods I have had very good Crops; but as this I now describe is the latest, and is (as it ought to be) the best; I publish it as such, without Partiality to my own Opinions; for I think it less dishonourable to expose my Errors, when I chance to detect them, than to conceal them: And as I aim at nothing but Truth, I cannot, with any Satisfaction to myself, suffer any thing of my own knowingly to escape, that is in the lead contrary to it.

I have a Piece of Five or Six Acres of Land which I annually plant with boiling Pease, in the very same manner as Wheat; except that the Second Horse-hoeing (which is the last) throws the Earth so far upon the Pease as to make the Two Rows become One. These Pease cannot be planted until after the 25th of March; else Two Horse-hoeings might not be sufficient. The same Drill that plants Wheat plants Pease; only sometimes we change the Spindle for one that has its Notches a little bigger.

I drill no more Barley, because ’tis not proper to be followed by a Crop of Wheat without a Fallow; for some of the shattered Barley will live over the Winter, and mix with the Wheat in the Rows, and can scarce possibly be thence timely taken out, its first Stalk and Blade being difficult to distinguish from the Wheat; and this is a great Damage to the Sale in the Market; and for the same Reason I plant no more Oats.

The First Hoeing is performed by turning a Furrow from the Row.

We are not so exact as to the Weather in the First Hoeing; for if the Earth be wet, the Hoe-plough may go nearer to the Row, without burying the Wheat; and the Frost of the Winter will pulverize that Part of the Furrow, which is to be thrown to the Wheat in the Spring, altho’ it was hoed wet.

The Word Furrow signifies the Earth that is thrown out, as well as the Trench from whence it is thrown by the Plough.

Neither is it necessary to be very exact as to Time; but it must never be till the Wheat has more than One Blade; and it may be soon enough, when it has Four or Five Leaves, so that it is done before, or in the Beginning of Winter.

But if the Wheat is planted very late, it may not be hoeable before the Winter is past; nor is there such a Necessity of hoeing the late planted before the great Frosts are over, as there is of the early-planted; for the later ’tis planted, the less time the Earth has to subside, and grow hard.