Part 45

I can scarce think, that a large Plant takes in larger Particles than a small one, for its Nourishment: If it did, I can’t believe, that the Thyme could have starv’d the Apricot-tree; it must have left the larger Particles of Food for that Tree, which probably would have sufficed to keep it alive: I rather think, that great and small Plants are sustain’d by the same minute Particles; for, as the fine Particles of Oats will nourish an Ox, so they will nourish a Tom-tit, or a Mite.

Some Plants are of an hotter Constitution, and have a quicker Digestion, like Cormorants or Pigeons, devouring more greedily, and a greater Quantity of Food, than those of a colder Temperature, of equal Bulk, whose Sap, having a more languid Motion, in proportion to the less Degree of Heat in it, sends off fewer Recrements; and therefore a less Supply of Food is required in their room. This may make some Difference in the one’s succeeding the other; because the hot-constitution’d leaves not enough for its own Species to succeed again, but leaves enough for a Species of a colder Constitution to succeed it.

But the Third and chiefest Cause of the Benefit of changing Sorts is Quantity of Tillage, in proportion to which the Food will be produced.

The true Cause why Wheat is not (especially on any strong Soil) to be sown immediately after Wheat, is, That the first Wheat standing almost a Year on the Ground, by which it must grow harder; and Wheat Seed-time being soon after Harvest in England, there is not Space of Time to till the Land so much as a second Crop of Wheat requires.

Tho’ sometimes in poorer Land, that is lighter, Wheat has succeeded Wheat with tolerable Success; when I have seen, on very rich strong Land, the first Crop lost by being much too big, and one following it immediately, quite lost by the Poorness of it, and not worth cutting.

This was enough to satisfy, that the Tillage which was so much easier perform’d in less Time, sufficed for the light Land, but not for the strong: and, if the strong Land could have been brought into as good Tilth as the light (like as in the new Husbandry it may), it would have produced a much better second Crop than the light Land did.

From all that has been said, these may be laid down as Maxims; viz. That the same Quantity of Tillage will produce the same Quantity of Food in the same Land; and that the same Quantity of Food will maintain the same Quantity of Vegetables.

And cæteris paribus; for when the Land has been more exhausted, more Tillage (or Dung) or Rest will be required to produce the same Quantity of Food, than when the Land hath been less exhausted. By Tillage is here meant, not only the Number of Plowings, but the Degree of Division or Pulveration of the Soil; or, if perchance the Soil is extraordinary much exhausted by many Crops, without proper Tillage between them, the greater Degree of Pulveration, by Plowing or Dung (which is only a Succedaneum of Tillage), and also a longer Time of Exposure, may be necessary to counterpoise that extraordinary Exhaustion.

’Tis seen, that the same Sort of Weeds, which once come naturally in a Soil, if suffer’d to grow, will always prosper in proportion to the Tillage and Manure bestow’d upon it, without any Change. And so are all manner of Plants, that have been yet try’d by the new Husbandry, seen to do.

A Vineyard, if not tilled, will soon decay, even in rich Ground, as may be seen in those in France, lying intermingled as our Lands do in common Fields. Those Lands of Vines, which by reason of some Law-suit depending about the Property of them, or otherwise, lie a Year or two untilled, produce no Grapes, send out no Shoots hardly: the Leaves look yellow, and seem dead, in Comparison of those on each Side of them; which, being tilled, are full of Fruit, send out an hundred times more Wood, and their Leaves are large and flourishing; and continue to do the same annually for Ages, if the Plough or Hoe do not neglect them.

No Change of Sorts is needful in them, if the same annual Quantity of Tillage (which appears to provide the same annual Quantity of Food) be continued to the Vines.

But what in the Vineyards proves this Thesis most fully is, That where they constantly till the low Vines with the Plough, which is almost the same with the Hoe-plough, the Stems are planted about Four Feet asunder, chequerwise; so that they plow them Four ways. When any of these Plants happen to die, new ones are immediately planted in their room, and exactly in the Points or Angles where the other have rotted; else, if planted out of those Angles, they would stand in the Way of the Plough: These young Vines, I say, so planted in the very Graves, as it were, of their Predecessors, grow, thrive, and prosper well, the Soil being thus constantly tilled: And if a Plum-tree, or any other Plant, had such Tillage, it might as well succeed one of its own Species, as those Vines do.

’Tis observed, that White-thorns will not prosper, set in the Gaps of a White thorn Hedge: But I have seen the Banks of such Gaps dug and thrown down one Summer, and made up again, and White-thorns there replanted the following Winter, with good Success.

But note, That the annual plowing the Vines is more beneficial than the one Summer Tillage of the Banks, the Vines having it repeated to them yearly.

I have, by Experience and Observation, found it to be a Rule, That long Tap-rooted Plants, as Clover and St. Foin, will not succeed immediately after those of their own or any other Species of long Tap-roots, so well as after horizontal-rooted Plants; but, on the contrary, horizontal will succeed those Tap-roots as well or better than they will succeed horizontal.

I confess, this Observation did, for a great while, cheat me into the common Belief, That different Species of Plants feed on different Food; till I was delivered from that Error, by taking Notice, that those Tap-roots would thrive exceedingly well after Turneps, which have also pretty long Tap-roots, though Turneps never thrive well immediately after Clover, or St. Foin: I found the true Cause of this Exception to that Rule to be chiefly the different Tillage.

But when Clover has been fed by Cattle, the Ground being good, and well tilled, Turneps may thrive immediately after Clover: Therefore this is an Exception to the general Rule.

Very mellow rich Land is so full of vegetable Food, that ’tis an Exception to most Rules; and therefore I speak not of that.

Land must be well tilled for Turneps, which also are commonly hoed; they stand scarce ever above Three-quarters of a Year, and are then fed on the Ground; and then the succeeding Crop of Corn has, by that means, the Benefit of twice as much Tillage from the Hoe, as otherwise would be given to it; and the Broad Clover, or St. Foin, sown with the Corn (if the Corn be not so big as to kill it), will enjoy, in its Turn, a Proportion of the extraordinary Tillage, and of the Dung of Cattle, which feed the Turneps, and thrive accordingly: But Broad Clover and St. Foin, being perennial Plants, stand on the Ground so long, that it lies several Years untilled; so that Turneps, sown immediately after these, do fail, for want of their due Tillage, for which there is not sufficient time, by plowing often enough; because, by the common Ploughs, it requires Two or Three Years to make it fine enough for Turneps, or for a Repetition of Clover, or St. Foin, in strong or swerdy Land.

Another Reason why any Crop succeeds well after Turneps (and besides their being spent on the Ground where they grow) is their cold Constitution, by which they are maintained with less Food than another Plant of the same Bulk.

The Parenchyma, or fleshy Part of a Turnep, consisting of a watry Substance, which cools the Vessels, whereby the Sap’s Motion is very slow, in proportion to the very low Degree of Heat it has, and sends off its Recrements in the same Proportion likewise; and therefore requires the less of the terrene Nourishment to supply those Recrements.

This is seen, when a Bushel of Turneps, mixed with a Quantity of Wheaten Flour, is made into Bread, and well baked: This Bushel of Turneps gives but few Ounces Increase in Weight, more than the same Quantity of Wheaten Flour made into Bread, and baked without any Turneps. This shews there is in a Turnep very little Earth (which is the most permanent Substance of a Plant); the Oven discharges in Vapour near all but the largest Vessels: Its earthly Substance being so small, is a Proof ’tis maintained by a small Quantity of Earth: and, upon that Account also, of less Damage to the next Crop than another Plant would be, which required more of the solid Nourishment to constitute its firmer Body, as a Charlock does; for when a Charlock comes up, contiguous to, and at the same time with a Turnep, it does so rob the Turnep, that it attains not to be of the Weight of Five Ounces; when a single Turnep, having no more Scope of Ground, and, in all respects (but the Vicinity of the Charlock), equal, weighs Five Pounds, yet that Charlock does not weigh One Pound.

And where Three Turneps coming up, and growing thus contiguous, will weigh Four Pounds; a Charlock joined with Two or Three Turneps, all together, will be less than one Pound, upon no less Space of Ground.

This Observation cannot be made, except where Turneps are drilled in Rows; and there ’tis easy to demonstrate, that a Charlock, during the time of its short Life, draws much more Earth than a Turnep of equal Bulk, from an equal Quantity of Ground.

’Tis certain that Turneps, when they stand for Seed, suck and impoverish the Ground exceedingly: For though they are of a cold Constitution, and consequently consume less Food than Plants of an hotter Constitution, and of the same Bulk; yet these Seed-turneps being of so vast a Bulk, as sometimes Eighty Quarters of their Roots grow on an Acre, and their Stalks have been measured Seven Feet high, and their Roots having continued at near their full Bigness for about Ten Months together, and then carried off, they drain the Land more than a Crop of other Vegetables of a less Bulk, and an hotter Constitution, and which live a less time; or than Wheat, which, though it lives as long, is very small, except in the Four last Months.

The true Cause why Clover and St. Foin do not succeed so well after their own respective Species, or that of each other, as Corn, &c. can, is, that they take great Part of their Nourishment from below the Plough’s Reach, so as that under Earth cannot be tilled deep enough, but the upper Part may be tilled deep enough for the horizontal Roots of Corn, &c. towards which, the Rotting of the Clover and St. Foin Roots, when cut off by the Plough, do not a little contribute; And there’s no doubt but that, if the under Earth could be as well tilled for the Tap-roots, as the upper Earth is for the horizontal, the Tap-roots would succeed one another as well as the horizontal would succeed them, or those of their own Species, or as the Tap-roots do the horizontal.

That the Rotting of vegetable Roots in the Ground doth ferment therein, and improve it for horizontal-rooted Plants, I am convinced by an Accident; viz. My Man had plowed off the Earth close to the Rows in a Field of extraordinary large Turneps designed for Seed. This Earth was neglected to be thrown back to the Rows, until a severe Frost in the Winter came, and killed the Turneps; upon which, in the Spring, the Field was sown with Barley upon the Level, with only once plowing, and that cross-ways of the Rows. The Turneps had stood so wide asunder, that the Spot whereon each had rotted, appeared like the Spot whereon an Horse had urined in till’d Ground, and was of a deeper Colour, and much higher, than the Barley that grew round those Spots; and yet none of it was poor. As the Roots of Clover, and St. Foin, are very much less; yet the greater Number rotting in plowed Ground must be of great Use to a following Crop of Corn.

I will here relate Two Examples of this in St. Foin: The one is, That a Field of Twenty-five Acres drilled with St. Foin, except Three Acres in the Middle of it, which was, at the same time, sown with Hop-Clover; after Eight Years the whole Field was plowed up by a Tenant, and sown with Corn: The St. Foin had been mowed yearly, as the Hop-Clover was not mowed at all, but fed by Horses teddered (or staked) thereon the First and Second Years; and after that had nothing on it but poor natural Grass.