Part 26

The last and Fourth Way of augmenting the Produce of Wheat-plants, is by causing them to have large and plump Grains in the Ears; and this can no way be so effectually done as by late Hoeing, especially just after the Wheat is gone out of the Blossom; and when such hoed Grains weigh double the Weight of the same Number of unhoed (which they frequently will) tho’ the Number of Grains in the hoed are only equal, yet the hoed Crop must be double.

Thus, by increasing the Number of Stalks, bringing more of them up into Ear, making the Ears larger, and the Grain plumper, and fuller of Flour, the Hoeing Method makes a greater Crop from a Tenth Part of the Plants than the sowing Method can.

The same Plant that, when poor, sends out but Two or Three Tillers, would, if well nourished by the Hoe, or otherwise, send up a Multitude of Tillers, as is seen in hoed Wheat, and sown Wheat.

Mr. Houghton relates Eighty Ears on one single Plant of Wheat, and a greater Number has been counted lately in a Garden: Those Eighty, reckoned to have Fifty Grains apiece, make an Increase of Four thousand Grains for one; but I have never found above Forty Ears from a single Plant in my Fields; yet there is no doubt, but that every Plant would produce as many as Mr. Houghton’s, of the same Sort, with the same Nourishment; But I should not desire any to be so prolific in Stalks, lest they should fail of bringing such a Multitude of Ears to Perfection. The Four hundred Ears, that I numbered in a Yard, were not weighed, because they were told before ripe; and the greatest Weight of Wheat that ever I had from a Yard, was the Product of about Two hundred and Fifty Ears, and some of them were small.

I have numbered One hundred and Nine Grains in One Ear of my hoed Cone-wheat of the grey Sort; and One Ear of my hoed Lammas-wheat has been measured to be Eight Inches long, which is double to those of sown Wheat. I have some of these Ears now by me almost as long, the longest being given away as a Rarity; and indeed ’tis not every Year that they grow to that Length, and ’tis always where the Plants are pretty single. But there is no Year wherein One Ear of my hoed does not more than weigh Two of the sown Ears, taking a whole Sheaf of each together without choosing. The Sheaves of the hoed are of a different Shape from the other; almost all the Ears of the hoed are at the Top of the Sheaf; but most of the other are situate at the lower Part, or near the Middle of the Sheaf.

Seed Cone wheat coming all out at the same Heap, planted all at the same Time, and on Land of the same Sort adjoining near together, the Wheat that was sown produced Grains so small, and that which was drilled so very large, that no Farmer or Wheat-buyer would believe them to be of the same Sort of Wheat, except those who knew it, which were many. One Grain of the drilled weighed Two of the sown, and there was twice the Chaff in an equal Weight of the sown, being both weighed before and after the Wheat was separated from the Chaff.

The Fact of this nobody can doubt, who has observed the different Products of strong and of weak Plants, how the one exceeds the other.

The greatest Difference of having an equal Crop from a small Number of strong Plants, and from a great Number of weak ones, is, that the Soil is vastly less exhausted by the former than by the latter, not only from the latter’s exhausting more in proportion to their Number when young, and whilst each of them consumes as much Nourishment as each of the small Number; but also from the different Increase that a strong Plant makes by receiving the same Proportion of Food with a weak one: For it appears from Dr. Woodward’s Experiments, that the Plant which receives the least Increase carries off the greatest Quantity of Nourishment in proportion to that Increase; and that ’tis the same with an Animal, all who are acquainted with fatting of Swine know; for they eat much more Food daily for the first Two Weeks of their being put into the Sty, than they do afterwards, when they thrive faster; the fatter they grow, the less they eat.

Hence, I think, it may be inferred, that a Plant, which, by never having been robbed or stinted by other Plants, is strong, receives a much greater Increase from an equal Quantity of Food, than a Number of weak Plants (as thick ones are), equalling the Bulk of the single strong Plant, do.

And this of the Doctor’s have I seen by my own Observations confirmed in the Field in Potatoes, Turneps, Wheat, and Barley; a following Crop succeeds better after an equal Crop, consisting of a bare competent Number of strong Plants, than after a Crop of thick weak ones, cæteris paribus.

Thus the hoed Crops, if well managed, consisting of fewer and stronger Plants than the sown Crops of equal Produce, exhaust the Ground less; whereby, and by the much (I had almost said infinitely) greater Pulveration of the Soil, indifferent good Land may, for any thing I have yet seen to the contrary, produce profitable Crops always without Manure, or Change of Species, if the Soil be proper for it in respect of Heat and Moisture; and also as Crops of some Species, by their living longer, by their greater Bulk, or different Constitution, exhaust more than others, respect ought to be had to the Degree of Richness of the Soil, that is to produce each Species: The Sowing and the Hoeing Husbandry differ so much both in Pulveration and Exhaustion, that no good Argument can be drawn from the former against the latter: But tho’ a too great Number of Plants be, upon many Accounts, very injurious to the Crop, yet ’tis best to have a competent Number; which yet needs not be so exact, but that we may expect a great Crop from Twenty, Forty, or Fifty Plants in a Yard of the treble Row, if well managed.

All these Advantages will be lost by those Drillers, who do not overcome the unreasonable Prejudices of the unexperienced, concerning the Width of Intervals.

In wide Intervals, we can raise a good Crop with less Labour, less Seed, no Dung, no Fallow, but not without a competent Quantity of Earth, which is the least expensive of any thing given to Corn; the Earth of a whole good Acre being but about the Tenth Part of the common Expence; and of indifferent Land, a Twentieth; and such I count that of Five Shillings and Six-pence per Acre.

The Crop enjoys all the Earth; for betwixt the last Hoeing, and the Harvest, there remains nothing but Space empty of Mould in the Middle of the Intervals.

’Tis an Objection, that great Part of those wide Intervals must be lost, because the Wheat-roots do not reach it; but as we generally turn the Mould towards the Row at the last Hoeings, there is no Part of it above Two Feet distant from even the middle Row, and Seventeen Inches from either of the outside Rows.

They do reach through all the Mould (as shall be proved by-and-by); and yet may leave sufficient Pasture behind; because it is impossible for them to come into Contact with all the Mould in One Year; no more than when Ten Horses are put into an Hundred Acres of good Pasture, their Mouths come into Contact with all the Grass to eat it in one Summer, though they will go all over it, as the Vine-roots go all over the Soil of a Vineyard without exhausting it all; because those Roots feed only such a bare competent Quantity of Plants, which do not overstock their Pasture.

The Superficies of the fibrous Roots of a proper Number of Wheat-plants bear a very small Proportion to the Superficies of the fine Parts of the pulverized Earth they feed on in these Intervals; for one cubical Foot of this Earth may, as is shewn in p. 29. have many thousand Feet of internal Superficies: But this is in proportion to the Degree of its Pulveration: and that Degree may be such as is sufficient to maintain a competent Number of Wheat-plants, without over-exhausting the vegetable Pasture, but not sufficient to maintain those, and a great Stock of Weeds besides, without over-exhausting it. And this was plainly seen in a Field of Wheat drilled on Six-feet Ridges, when the South Ends of some of the Ridges, and the North Ends of others, had their Partitions Hand hoed, and cleansed of Weeds, early in the Spring, the opposite Ends remaining full of a small Species of Weeds, called Crow-needles, which so exhausted the whole Intervals of the weedy Part of the Ridges, that the next Year the whole Field being drilled again with Wheat exactly in the Middle of the last Intervals, the following Crop very plainly distinguished how far each Ridge had its Partitions made clean of those small Weeds in the Spring, from the other End where the Weeds remained till full-grown; the Crop of the former was twice as good as that of the latter, even where both were cleansed of Weeds the next Spring. This Crop standing only upon that Part of the Mould, which was farthest from the Rows of the precedent Crop, proves that the Roots, both of the Wheat and Weeds, did enter all the Earth of the former Intervals.

It was also observable, that where the Partitions of Two of the Six-feet Ridges had been in the precedent Year cleansed of Weeds, and those of the adjoining Ridges on each Side of them not cleansed, the Row that was the next Year planted exactly in the Middle of the Interval between those two Ridges, was perceivably better than either of the Two Rows planted in the Intervals on the other Side of each of them: The Reason of which Difference must be, that the Middle of the Interval, that was between the Two cleansed Ridges, was fed on by the Wheat only, and by no Weeds; but the other Two Intervals were fed on by the Wheat on one Side, and by both the Wheat and Weeds on the other Side of each.

There were, in the same Field, several Ridges together, that had the Ends of their Rows of Wheat plowed out by the Hoe-plough, and their other Ends cleansed of Weeds: This was done on purpose, to see what Effect a Fallow would have on the next Crop, which was indeed extraordinary; for these fallowed Ends of the Ridges, being Horse-hoed in the Summer, as the other Ends were, and the Intervals of them made into Ridges, the following Year produced the largest Crop of all; this Crop was received in 1734.

These several different Managements performed in this Field, shewed by the different Success of the Crops in each Sort, what ought to be done, and which is the best Sort of Management.

This Field indeed is some of my best Land; and by all the Experiments I have seen on it, I do not find but that, by the best Management, never omitted in any Year, it might produce good annual Crops of Wheat always, without Assistance of Dung or Fallow; but it would be very difficult for me to get Hands to do this to the greatest Perfection, unless I were able constantly to attend them.

The whole pulverized Earth of the Interval being pretty equally fed on by the former Crop, ’tis no great Matter in what Part of it the following Crop is drill’d: I never drill it but on the Middle of the last Year’s Interval, because there is the Trench whereon the next Year’s Ridge is made with the greatest Conveniency: But there may be some Reason to suspect, that the Plants of the Rows exhaust more Nourishment from that Earth of the Intervals which is farthest from their Bodies, than from that which is nearest to them: Since their fibrous Roots, at the greatest Distance from the Rows, are most numerous, &c. by these the Plants, when they are at their greatest Bulk, are chiefly maintained.

It must be noted, that the above Experiments would not have been a full Proof, if Weeds had been suffered to grow in the Partitions of the Ends of those Ridges, in the Year wherein the Difference appeared. It may also be noted, that a Mixture and Variety of bad Husbandry are useful for a Discovery of the Theory and Practice of good Husbandry.

And I have plainly proved, that the Roots of Cone-wheat have reached Mould at Two Feet Distance, after passing through another Row at a Foot Distance from it, the Plants being then but Eighteen Inches high, and but half-grown.

Farmers do not grudge to bestow Three or Four Pounds in the Buying and Carriage of Dung for an Acre; but think themselves undone, if they afford an extraordinary Eighteen-penyworth of Earth to the wide Intervals of an Acre; not considering that Earth is not only the best, but also the cheapest Entertainment that can be given to Plants; for at Five Shillings and Six-pence Rent, the whole Earth belonging to each of our Rows costs only Six-pence, i. e. a Peny for a Foot broad, and Six hundred and Sixty Feet long; that being the Sixty-sixth Part of an Acre.

But the Vulgar compute this Expence of a Foot Breadth of Ground, not only as of the Rent, as they ought, but as an Eleventh Part of their own usual Charges added to the Rent.

And there is Land enough in England to be had, at the Rent of Five Shillings and Six-pence the Acre, that is very proper for Wheat in the Hoeing-Husbandry.

And if for constant annual Wheat-crops you make fewer than Eleven Rows on Four Perches Breadth, you will always increase the Expence of Hoeing; because then Two Furrows will not Hoe One of those Intervals, and you will also thereby lessen the Crops, but improve the Land more: And if you increase that Number of Rows, you will thereby increase every Expence; for there must be Two Furrows to hoe a narrow Interval, and an Increase of the Quantity of Seed, and the Labour in uncovering, weeding, and reaping; and also you will less improve the Land, and lessen the Crops after the First Year.