Part 46

The whole Field was managed alike, when plowed up; but the Three Acres produced visibly worse Crops of Corn than the rest all round it, which had produced St. Foin.

The other Example or Instance was, Where an Acre, Part of a Field, was, by a Fancy, drilled with St. Foin in single Rows, about Thirty-three Inches asunder, but was never hoed: After Seven Years it was plowed up with the rest of the Field cross the Rows, and sown with Oats upon the Back Three Months after plowing. These Rows were as visible in the Oats, as if the St. Foin had been still remaining there: The Oats in the Rows where the St. Foin had been, looked of a deep green flourishing Colour, at first coming up, and until they were about half a Foot high, and the Spaces between them looked yellowish; but afterwards the Difference of their Colour disappeared, all the Crop being very good. Upon this I imputed it to the Rotting of the Roots, which by their Singleness were very large; and when the different Colours disappeared, I suppose the Roots of all the Oats had reached to the Benefit of the rotted Roots, which might also be then spread farther into the Spaces; and I doubt not but that the Rotting of Broad Clover-roots has the same Effect as of St. Foin, for manuring of Land, especially when the Roots are large.

Some have objected against this Opinion, and say the Effect was rather to be imputed to the Rows of St. Foin shadowing the Earth under them, or else from their keeping the Earth under them free from Couch-grass, of which the Intervals were full: But I think it more probable, that the Couch-grass, having very long horizontal Roots, might draw Nourishment from the Earth under the Rows, and from the Intervals equally.

And as to the Shadow of the Rows, tho’, for the First and Second Years, the St. Foin Plants were very large; yet, being afterwards, for Five or Six Years, until plowed up, constantly fed by Cattle, and being more sweet, was eaten very low, whilst the Couch-grass remained intire in the Intervals, and shadowed them more than the Earth of the Rows was shadowed by the St. Foin: Besides, the rotten Turneps, which were freed from both these Objections, had the same Effect on the Barley, as the St. Foin had on the Oats.

The under Earth, in some time, is replenished by what the Rains leave, when they sink through it; and then Tap-rooted Plants may be there nourished again, tho’ the upper Earth be drained by the Corn; so that no Change is so beneficial, as that betwixt Tap-rooted Plants, and those which have only horizontal ones. The former are provided for by Rains, though not so speedily as the latter are by Tillage and Hoeing.

Pastures require no Change of Herbs; because they have annually the same Supply of Food from the Dunging of Cattle that feed on them, and from the Benefit of the Atmosphere.

Meadows hold out without Change of Species of Grass, tho’ a Crop be carried off every Year; the Richness of that Soil, with the Help of the Atmosphere, Dung of Cattle in feeding the After-Crop, or else Flooding, from the overflowing of some River, some, or all of which, supply the Place of the Plough to a Meadow.

Woods also hold out beyond Memory or Tradition, without changing Sorts of Trees; and this by the Leaves, and perhaps old Wood, rotting on the Soil annually, which operate as a Manure; because, as has been said, Earth which has once passed any Vessels, is so changed, that, for a long time after, it does not retain its Homogeneity so much as to mix with pure Earth, without fermenting; and by the Descent of the Atmosphere, the Trees shadowing the Soil, to prevent the Re-ascent of what that brings down; all this, resembling Tillage, continually divides the Soil, and renews the Food equal to the Consumption of it made by the Wood.

Not that the Particles of Earth are strictly homogeneous, but that they are much less heterogeneous, before they are altered by Vessels, than afterwards.

And the last Argument I shall attempt to bring for Confirmation of all I have advanced, is that which proves both the Truth and Use of the rest; viz. That when any Sort of Vegetable, by the due Degrees of Heat and Moisture it requires, is agreeable to a Soil, it may, by the new Horse-hoeing Husbandry, be continued without ever changing the Species.

CHAP. XV.

Of Change of INDIVIDUALS.

Seeds, in their natural Climate, do not degenerate, unless Culture has improved them; and then, upon Omission of that Culture, they return to their first natural State.

As the Benefit of changing of Species of Seeds is from Difference of Tillage, so the Benefit of changing Individuals of the same Species appears to be from those Causes which are, generally, themselves, the Effects of different Climates, such as Heat and Moisture, which may also vary very much in the same Latitude and Neighbourhood; as the same Mountain in the Country of the Mogul (related by Mr. Evelyn, from Monsieur Bernier), on the South Side produces Indian Plants, and on the North Side European Plants, from different Exposures; and some Land, retaining Water longer, is colder; some, suffering it to pass down quicker, and by the Nature and Figure of its Parts, causes such a Refraction and Reflexion of the Sun’s Rays, which give a great Warmth, as in Sand, and gravelly Grounds, that are well situate, and have an under Stratum of some Sort of hollow Matter, next under the Staple, or upper Stratum, wherein the Plough is exercised.

This hollow Matter lets the Water pass down the sooner from the Surface, whereby the Staple or the Ground becomes the drier, and consequently warmer.

This beneficial Change of Individuals seems rather to be from the forementioned Causes, than from Change of Food; and these Causes shew their Efficacy, chiefly in the Generation or Fœtation of those Seeds; as Flax-seed brought from Holland, and sown here, will bring as fine Flax as there; but the very next Generation of it coarser, and so degenerating gradually, after Two or Three Descents, becomes no better than the common ordinary Sort; yet its Food is the same, when the Flax is fine, as when ’tis coarse.

And so it is, when Individuals of Wheat are changed: So Silk-worms, hatched and bred in France, of Eggs or Seed brought from Italy, will make as fine Silk as the Italian; but the Eggs of these laid in France and their Issue, will make no better Silk than the French; though their Food be from Leaves of the same Mulberry-trees, when they make fine Silk and coarse: Therefore ’tis from the Climate, where the Eggs are impregnated, not where they have their Incubation or Food, when hatched, and fed to their Lives End, that this Difference happens.

Common Barley, sown once in the burning Sand at Patney in Wiltshire, will, for many Years after, if sown on indifferent warm Ground, be ripe Two or Three Weeks sooner than any other, which has never been impregnate at Patney: But if sown a Degree farther North, on cold clayey Land, will, in Two or Three Years, lose this Quality, and become as late ripe as any other.

Barley is far from being improved by becoming rath-ripe; for it loses more good Qualities than it gets by being sown at Patney: ’Tis so tender, that if it be sown early, the Frost is apt to kill it; or if it be sown late in May, on the same Day, and in the same Soil, with the same Sort of Barley that is not rath-ripe, it will be much thinner bodied than the late-ripe; and besides, if it happens to have any Check by Cold or Drought, it never recovers it as the other doth, at what time soever it is sown. It is now, I am informed, gone out of Fashion, and very few Farmers have sown it of late Years. I know a little Parish, that, I believe, formerly lost about Two hundred Pounds per Ann. by sowing rath-ripe Barley: But long and dear Experience hath now convinced them of their Error, and obliged them totally to disuse it.

Indeed Patney is far from improving the Species of Barley, except we think it improved by becoming more weak and tender, and shorter-lived; which last-mentioned Quality fits it for such Countries, where the Summers are too short for other Barley to ripen.

The Grains or Seeds of Vegetables are their Eggs; and the individual Plants, immediately proceeding from them, have not only the Virtues they received in Embryo (or rather in plantulis), but the Diseases also; for when smutty Wheat is sown, unless the Year prove very favourable, the Crop will be smutty; which is an evident Token of mala stamina.

The smutty Grains will not grow; for they turn to a black Powder: But when some of these are in a Crop, then, to be sure, many of the rest are infected; and the Disease will shew itself in the next Generation, or Descent of it, if the Year wherein ’tis planted prove a wet one.

Weeds, and their Seed, in the Fields where they grow naturally, for Time immemorial, come to as great Perfection as ever, without Change of Soil.

These Weeds, with Acorns, and other Masts, Crabs, Sloes, Hips, and Haws, are thought to have been, originally, the only natural Product of our Climate: Therefore other Plants being Exotics, many of them, as to their Individuals, require Culture and Change of Soil, without which they are liable more or less to degenerate.

But to say, that the Soil can cause Wheat to degenerate into Rye, or convert, Rye into Wheat, is what reflects upon the Credit of Laurembergius: ’Tis as easy to believe, that an Horse, by feeding in a certain Pasture, will degenerate into a Bull, and in other Pasture revert to an Horse again; these are scarce of more different Species than Wheat and Rye are: If the different Soil of Wittemberg and Thuringia change one Species, they may the other.

CHAP. XVI.

Of RIDGES.

The Method of plowing Land up into Ridges is a particular Sort of Tillage; the chief Use of which is, the Alteration it makes in the Degrees of Heat and Moisture, being two of the grand Requisites of Vegetation; for very different Degrees of these are necessary to different Species of Vegetables.