Part 40

Luserne makes a great Improvement in the South of France: There, when their low sandy Land is well prepar’d, and very clean, they sow it alone, in March, and at Michaelmas, as we do Clover: Their sowing it at those Seasons is of a double Advantage: First, it saves the Labour of watering it, which would be impracticable for so many thousand Acres, as there are planted. Secondly, Those Seasons being much moister than that wherein the Romans sow’d it, the Grub has Opportunity of eating more of it at its first coming up; and often the Frost kills some of it. By these Advantages the Ground is less over-stock’d.

The Summers there are much drier than in Italy, so that the Sun scorches up the natural Grass, and suffers it not to come to a Turf till after some Years; and therefore has less need of Weeding.

But as that natural Grass increases, the Crops of Luserne are proportionably diminish’d: And tho’ Luserne is said to last Ten or Twelve Years; yet it is in Perfection only for a very few Years. Whilst it is at best on their richest Land, and in a kind Summer, they have at Seven Crops Ten Tuns to an Acre, as I have computed them from the Relation of some of the Inhabitants of Pezenas. This was extraordinary: for I observ’d, that most of their common Crops made a very thin Swarth.

When the Ground begins to be turffy and hard, many of the Luserne-plants die, and the rest send up very few Stalks: The People know this is the Destruction of it, and therefore I have seen some of them, in that Case, half-plow it, thinking thereby to destroy the Turf: This does for a time much strengthen the Luserne-plants; but it so much strengthens the Grass also, that the Turf grows the stronger; and then there is no Remedy but to plow it up, make the Ground clean, and replant it.

In more Northern Climates, where it rains oftener, the Ground sooner becomes hard; and in the Land otherwise most proper for Luserne, the Grass grows infinitely faster, and will be as strong a Turf in Two Years, as in the hot Countries in Ten. Upon this Account, about Paris, even near the Walls, they plow up Luserne, and sow St. Foin in its room, because that endures Grass and hard Ground better, tho’ it brings but One Crop a Year, or Two at most.

And in many Places in Franche Comtè and Switzerland, I have seen Luserne in the Corners of Vineyards, not above Two or Three Perches together, which they will at any Expence have to cure their Horses when sick; since they cannot obtain, by their Culture, Quantities sufficient to maintain them as their ordinary Food, there being too much Rain, and too little of the Sun’s violent Heat, to prevent the speedy Increase of Grass amongst it.

How then can we expect Success in sowing it in England, where Rains are yet more frequent, and the Sun is weaker? ’Tis not One Year in Ten, that the natural Grass is here scorch’d up. In our rich Land the Grass comes to a Turf very soon, and poor Land will not by the common Sowing bring Luserne to any Perfection, tho’ no Grass should annoy it.

I have here seen Part of a Meadow Breast-plow’d, and, when the Turf was dead, dug up and planted as a Garden: After it had been drill’d with Carrots, ho’d, and made, in all Appearance, perfectly clean, it was sown with Luserne, which came up and flourish’d very well the First Year, and indifferently the Second; but, after that, the Grass came, and the Luserne grew faint; and in Three or Four Years time there was no more left, but just to shew by here-and-there a single poor Stalk, that there had been Luserne sown, except one Plant of it, which was cleansed of Grass the Third Year; and this recover’d, and sent up Abundance of Stalks for Two Years after it; and then the Grass returning, that Plant dwindled again.

I have often try’d it in the richest Part of my Garden, and constantly find, that, however vigorously it grows at the first, yet it soon declines, when the Grass appears amongst it, which is always the sooner, by how much the Soil (in England) is richer, unless the Spade or Hoe prevent it.

Here have been also many Fields of a poorer whiteish Soil sown with it, which are not very subject to be over-run with Grass, as the rich Land is; and tho’ these were so well till’d as scarce any Grass appear’d, during the many Years the Luserne liv’d therein, yet it never grew to any Perfection here neither; nor was there any one Crop worth much more than the Cutting, it was always so poor, thin, and short. And, by what Intelligence I can get, all Experience proves, that every Soil in this Island is too rich, too poor, or too cold, for the Luserne Improvement by the common Husbandry.

I believe every one will be confirmed in this, who shall upon full Inquiry find, that, amongst the great Quantities which have been sown in this Kingdom in that manner, never any of it was known to continue good and flourishing Three Years; and that, on the contrary, never any one Plant of it in any warm Soil, cultivated by the Hoeing manner, was known to fail here, or in any other Country, as long as the Hoeing (or Digging about it, which is equivalent) was continued to it with proper Repetitions.

A Multitude of such hoed Plants have I known, and are now to be seen in both poor and rich Lands: Therefore it seems possible, that Thousands of English Acres may be capable, by the Hoeing Culture, to produce Crops of Luserne every Year for an Age. For as the greater Moisture, and less intense Heat of this Climate, are, upon the Accounts mentioned, injurious to Luserne, yet this is only to such as is sown and cultivated in the common Manner, because our Climate, upon the very same Accounts, is very advantageous to hoed Luserne.

In hot Countries, when the Summer is drier than ordinary, the Sun so scorches it, that they have fewer and much poorer Crops, than in moister Summers; viz. only Four or Five, instead of Six or Seven; but, in the driest Summer I ever knew in England, hoed Luserne yielded the most Crops.

Our Summer Days are longer, have more of the Sun’s Warmth, and less of his fiery Heat; he cherishes, but never burns Luserne, or any other hoed long Tap-rooted Plant in England.

The well hoed Earth, being open, receives and retains the Dews; the benign solar Influence is sufficient to put them in Motion, but not to exhale them from thence. The Hoe prevents the Turf, which would otherwise by its Blades or Roots intercept, and return back the Dews into the Atmosphere, with the Assistance of a moderate Heat. So that this Husbandry secures Luserne from the Injury of a wet Summer, and also causes the Rain-water to sink down more speedily, and disperse its Riches all the Way of its Passage; otherwise the Water would be more apt to stand on the Surface, chill the Earth, and keep off the Sun and Air from drying it: For, when the Surface is dry and open, Luserne will bear a very great Degree of Heat, or grow with a mean one. I have seen this hoed Luserne, in a sheltry Place of my Garden, so much grown in a mild Winter, as to be measured Fourteen Inches and an half high at Christmas; and a very large single Plant of it, which had not been hoed for Two Years before, was laid bare by digging out the Earth all around it a Foot deep, to observe the Manner of its Tap-root; and then the Earth was thrown in again, and the Hole filled up. This was on the Twenty-seventh of September. Upon this mellowing of the Soil about it, it sent out more Stalks in October, than it had done in the whole Summer before; they grew very vigorously, until a great Snow fell in December, which also preserved the Verdure of them, till that was melted away, and a black Frost came after it, and killed those Stalks. It is probable this Plant sent out immediately new fibrous horizontal Roots, which did grow apace to extract the Nourishment from this new-made Pasture, in proportion to the quick Growth of the Stalks, which in Summer have been measured, and found to grow in Height Three Inches and an half in a Night and a Day; this being almost One Inch in Six Hours.

And it has been my Observation, that this Plant, in hot and cold Countries, thrives both with a much greater, or less Degree of Heat and Moisture, when it is hoed; for if it has Plenty of Nourishment, which Hoeing always gives it, a very little Heat above, and the Moisture alone (which is never wanting to the deep Tap-root) suffice, and that Plenty of Food enables it the better to endure the Extremes of either Heat or Cold.

We need not much apprehend the Danger of English Winters; for Luserne will endure those which are more rigorous. In the Principality of Neufchâtel the Winters are so severe, as to kill all the Rosemary left abroad; yet Luserne survives them there: This proves it more hardy than Rosemary, which is planted for Hedges in England; and here is scarce twice in an Age a Frost able to kill it.

I have one single Luserne-plant in a poor Arable Field, that has stood the Test of Two-and-twenty Winters, besides the Feeding of Sheep at all Seasons, and yet remains as strong as ever. What Quantity of Hay this Plant yearly produces, cannot be known, because at those times that Cattle are kept from it, the Hares constantly crop it, being sweeter than any other Grass.

But this happens to be fortunately situate, where ’tis not altogether destitute of the Benefit of Hoeing. ’Tis in an Angle, where, every time the Field is till’d, the Plough goes over it in turning from the Furrows of one Land and one Head-land; but it is after the Plough is lifted out of the Ground, and turned up on one side, so that the Share only breaks the Turf very small all around it, without plowing up the Plant: Yet it has escaped it so narrowly, that the Fin of the Plough-share has split it into Four Parts; Three of which remain, and grow never the worse, but the Fourth is torn off, and the Wound healed up.

By the extreme hard Winter that happened about the Year 1708, or 1709, some of the Luserne in Languedoc was killed: Yet this was no Argument of its Tenderness, but rather the contrary; because then all the Olive-trees and Walnut-trees were there killed, tho’ the greatest Part of the Luserne escaped unhurt: And I did not hear one Walnut-tree was killed that Winter in England. Perhaps those in France, having being accustomed to much hotter Summers, were unable to endure the Rigour of the same Winter, that could do no Harm to the same Species in England, where our Winters do not seem to exceed some of theirs in Cold, so much as their Summers do ours in Heat. And since the Extremes are not so far asunder here, the same Degree of Cold may to our Plants seem tepid, which to those in Languedoc must seem rigorous, differing a more remote Degree from the opposite Extremity of Heat in Summer.

And, besides the Difference of Heat and Cold in different Climates, there is another more necessary to be observed; and that is, the Difference of the Hardiness in different Individuals of the same Species: The same Frost that kills a faint languishing Plant of Luserne, will be despised by a robust one, which, being well fed by the Hoe, becomes a Giant cloath’d and fenced with a thick Bark, that renders it impregnable against all Weather; its Rind is to it a Coat of Mail or Buff, impenetrable by Frost: But the unhoed is generally small and weak; its thin tender Bark exposes it almost naked to the Frost; it being, for want of a sufficient Pasture, starv’d and half-dead already, ’tis the more easily killed by the Cold.

I formerly lived some Years in Languedoc, where are many Hundred Acres of Luserne; and I never could find a very large Plant amongst it, unless in such Pieces as had been plowed up, tilled, and sown with Corn: Here indeed those Plants that remained (as always some would do) grew to an extraordinary Bulk; and One of those single tilled Plants did seem to produce a greater Quantity of Stalks, than Twenty of such as had not been plowed up; and as there were no large Plants amongst the unplowed, so there were no small amongst the plowed ones. The same thing has been observed in all other Places where Luserne has been plowed.

This Plowing is a Hoeing to the Luserne.

And in Wiltshire several Grounds of it stood some Years without ever coming to a Substance to be of any Value, tho’ the Land was whitish, and scarce any Grass appeared amongst the Luserne; and therefore its Poorness was thought to proceed from the Soil’s being improper; but when it had been broken up, and sown several Years with Corn, and afterwards lain down with St. Foin, all the Luserne-plants which remained (and they were many) grew large and strong, shooting up a Yard in Height soon after the St. Foin was cut; and if there had been a competent Number of them undestroyed by the Plough, they would have yielded Crops of an extraordinary Value, where before Plowing it grew but few Inches above the Ground.

It seems that in this sort of Land the Earth grows stale, ere the Luserne arrives at a Tenth Part of its Stature: But this is most remarkable, that Tillage transforms those Luserne-plants from Dwarfs to Giants; and then they are able to contend with, if not conquer, so strong Plants as St. Foin is, tho’ before Plowing they were unable to resist the Depredations of a few hairy Spires of Grass.

Since Tillage can thus recover Luserne, after it has long languished in the lowest Ebb of Life, and restore it to Health, Youth, and Vigour, and augment its Stature even after it has passed the Age of its full Growth; to what Bulk would it arrive, regularly planted, and hoed from its Infancy to Maturity without any Check to stint it!

We can never know how poor a Soil will bear this Plant, unless it be tried by the Hoeing Culture.

For ’tis wondrous how so great a Man as Dr. Woodward should imagine, that Difference of Soil should be the Reason why Apples in Herefordshire, and Cherries in Kent, succeed better than in other Places, when in truth they are seen to prosper as well almost all over England, where planted, cultivated, and preserved.