Part 53

A Second Objection is, That as Hoeing makes poor Land become rich enough to bear good Crops of Wheat for several Years successively, the same must needs make very good Land become too rich for Wheat. I answer, That if possibly it should so happen, there are Two Remedies to be used in such a Case; the one is to plant it with Beans, or some other Vegetables, which cannot be over-nourished, as Turneps, Carrots, Cabbages, and such-like, which are excellent Food for fatting of Cattle; or else they may make use of the other infallible Remedy, when that rich Land, by producing Crops every Year in the Hoeing-Husbandry, is grown too vigorous and resty, they may soon take down its Mettle, by sowing it a few Years in their old Husbandry, which will fill it again with a new Stock of Weeds, that will suck it out of Heart, and exhaust more of its Vigour, than the Dung, that helps to produce them, can restore.

Dung made of the Straw of sown Corn generally abounds with the Seed of Weeds.

There is a Third Objection, and that is, That the Benefit of some Ground is lost where the Hoe-plough turns at each End of the Lands: But this cannot be much, if any, Damage; because about Four Square Perch to a Statute Acre is sufficient for this Purpose; and that, at the Rate of Ten Shillings Rent, comes to but Three-pence, tho’ this varies, according as the Piece is longer or shorter; and supposing the most to be Eight Perch, that is but Six-pence per Acre; and that is not lost neither; for whether it be of natural or artificial Grass, the Hoe-plough, in turning on it, will scratch it, and leave some Earth on it, which will enrich it so much, that it may be worth its Rent for Baiting of Horses or Oxen upon it. And besides, these Ends are commonly near Quick-hedges or Trees, which do so exhaust it, that when no Cattle come there to manure it, ’tis not worth the Labour of plowing it.

CHAP. XVIII.

Of PLOUGHS.

By what means Ploughs and Tillage itself came at first to be invented is uncertain; therefore we are at Liberty to guess: And it seems most probable, that it was, like most other Inventions, found out by Accident, and that the first Tillers or Plowers of the Ground were Hogs: Men in those Days, having sufficient Leisure for Speculation, observ’d, that when any sort of Seed happen’d to fall on a Spot of Ground well routed up by the Swine (which Instinct had instructed to dig in Search of their Food), it grew and prospered much better than in the whole unbroken Turf. This Observation must naturally induce rational Creatures to the Contrivance of some Instrument, which might imitate, if not excel Brutes in this Operation of breaking and dividing the Surface of the Earth, in order to increase and better its Product.

That some such Accident gave Men the First Hints of original Agriculture, may be inferr’d from the very little (or no) Probability of its being invented originally upon Arguments which might convince the Understanding (by just Conclusions from Ideas of the Earth and Vegetation) of any reasonable Grounds to hope, that the Effect of increasing the Earth’s Produce should follow the Cause of Tillage; or, in other Words, why it should produce more when tilled than when untilled. Therefore it is very unlikely, that Men should begin to take Pains to till the Land without any Sort of Reason why they did it. And no such Reason could they have before the Invention, as they had afterwards: For when they accidentally saw that Effect follow that Cause, then they were well convinced it did so. But tho’ this Argument, viz. Tillage increases the Product of the Earth, because it does, has been sufficient to continue the Practice of Tillage ever since; yet it is impossible for the Inventors to have had this Argument before the Invention, in case it had been invented by Men, and not fortuitously discover’d.

Had there ever been extant any other or better Arguments, whereon this Practice, so useful to Mankind, was founded; sure, some of all the great and learned Authors, who have written on this Subject, would have mention’d them. Philosophers, Orators, and Poets, have treated of it in the same Theory by which it was first discover’d, and by no other; viz. Land produces more when tilled; and some seem to say, the more it is tilled, the more it produces. It does, because it does; not a Word of the Pasture of Plants, or any thing like it. So that all the antient Scriptores de re rusticâ have done, was only to keep that Theory in the same Degree of Perfection in which the first Discoverers received it.

The bristled Animals broke up the Ground, because they used to find their Food there by digging; Men till it, because they find Tillage procures them better Food than Acorns.

The Reasons are the same for one and the other.

These Writers, asham’d to acknowlege so noble a Discovery to be owing to so mean a Foundation, make no mention of the true Teachers, but attribute the Invention to Ceres, a Goddess of their own makeing; she, as they pretend, first taught the Art of Tillage. With this Fable they were so well pleased, that they never attempted to improve that Art, lest they should derogate from the Divinity of Ceres, in supposing her Invention imperfect.

With what Instrument Men first tilled the Ground we don’t know exactly; but there may be Reasons to believe it was with the Spade, and probably a wooden one, and very rough.

For whilst People liv’d on Acorns, there was no need of the Smith; such Food required no Knives for eating it, nor was it worth while to make Swords to fight for it; and without Iron the Spade could not be well hewn, or shap’d; but if it had been such as it is at present, there never was any thing comparable to it, for the true Use of Tillage. Yet the Spade could not make that Expedition, which was necessary when Tillage became general in the Fields; and therefore in time the Spade came wholly to be appropriate to the most perfect Sort of Tillage in the Garden. Then the Plough supply’d the Place of the Spade in the Field; and tho’ it could not (such as it was) till the Land near so well, yet it could till ten times more of it, and with less human Labour.

Why they did not improve the Plough, so that it might also till as well as the Spade, seems owing to their Primitive Theory, which gave no Mathematical Reason to shew wherein the true Method of Tillage did consist; viz. in dividing the Earth into many Parts, to increase its internal Superficies, which is the Pasture of Plants.

The Difference betwixt the Operation of the Spade, and that of the common Plough, is only this; that the former commonly divides the Soil into smaller Pieces, and goes deeper.

How easy and natural it is to contrive a Plough that may equal the Spade, if not exceed it, in going deeper, and cutting the Soil into smaller Pieces, than the Spade commonly does, I leave to the Judgment of those who have seen the Four-coulter’d Plough.

The Plough describ’d by Virgil had no Coulter; neither do I remember to have seen any Coulter in Italy, or the South of France; and, as I have been informed, the Ploughs in Greece, and all the East, are of much the same Fashion: Neither is it practicable to use a Coulter in such a Plough; because the Share does not cut the Bottom of the Furrow horizontally, but obliquely; in going one way, it turns off the Furrow to the right Hand; but in coming back, it turns it to the Left. Therefore, if it had a Coulter, it must have been on the wrong Side every other Furrow: And besides, as the Handle (for it has but one) always holds the Plough towards one Side, with the Bottom of the Share towards the unplow’d Land, it would cause the Coulter to go much too low when it went on the Furrow-side, and it would not touch the Ground, when it went on the Land-side.

Note, This Eastern Plough always goes forward, and returns back in the same Furrow, making only one Land of a whole Field: Though it turns its one Furrow towards the Right, and the other towards the Left of the Holder; yet every Furrow is turned towards the same Point of the Compass, as when we plow with a Turn-wrist Plough.

’Tis a great Mistake in those who say Virgil’s Plough had Two Earth-boards; for it had none at all; but the Share itself always going obliquely, served instead of an Earth-board; and the Two Ears, which were the Corners of a Piece of Wood lying under the Share, did the Office of Ground-wrests: This Fashion continues to this Day in those Countries, and in Languedoc.

This sort of Plough performs tolerably when Ground is fine, and makes a shift to break up light Land; and I could never find any other Land there; I am sure none comparable to ours for Strength: And it would be next to impossible, to break up such as we in England call strong Land with it.

I do not find, that the Arable Lands about Rome are ever suffered to lie still long enough to come to a Turf; but I have observed in the low rich Lands in the Calabria’s, subject to the Invasions of the Turks, that there is Turf, and that these Ploughs go over the Land Two or Three times before the Turf of it is all broken, tho’ the Soil be a very mellow Sort of Garden-mould. Having no Coulters to cut it, they break and tear Turf into little Pieces. This was done in the Month of November; and had I not seen Men and Oxen at the Work, or had there been Oaks in the Place, I should rather have thought that Tillage performed by a Race of the first Teachers of it, in muzzling Acorns, than by Ploughs. However, the Mould being naturally very mellow, when the Turf is broken with shallow Plowing, they can plow deeper afterwards.

The English Ploughs are very different from the Eastern, as in general the Soil is.

These, when well made, cut off the Furrow at the Bottom horizontally; and therefore, it being as thick on the Land-side as on the Furrow-side, the Plough cannot break it off from the whole Land, at such a Thickness (being Six times greater than the Eastern Ploughs have to break off), and must of Necessity have a Coulter to cut it off: By this means the Furrow is turned perfectly whole, and no Part of the Turf of it broken; and if it lie long without new turning, the Grass from the Edges will spread, and form a new Turf (or Swerd) on the other Side, which was the Bottom of the Furrow before turning, but is now become the Surface of the Earth, and may soon become greener with Grass than before Plowing; and often the very Roots send up new Heads to help to stock the reversed Furrow, the former Heads being converted into Roots, so that it is doubly cloathed and braced on both Sides, or, as it were, kay’d together, firm and solid, almost as a Plank; it may be drawn from one Side of a Field to the other without breaking, and might possibly be made use of, instead of Virgil’s Crates Viminea, for harrowing or smoothing of fine-tilled Ground; but not without much Time, Labour, and Difficulty, can it be made such itself.

If you plow whole strong turfy Furrows cross-ways, as Virgil directs, and as it is too commonly practised, the Coulter cannot easily cut them, because, being loose underneath, they do not make a sufficient Resistance or Pressure against its Edge, but move before it, and so are apt to be drawn and driven up into Heaps, with their Surfaces lying all manner of Ways, and situate in all manner of Postures: So the Turf, which is not turned, continuing in the open Air, grows on, and with its vigorous Roots holds the Earth fast together, and will not suffer the necessary Division to be made, which would be, if the Turf were rotten, and which is the End of all Tillage, viz. to increase the Pasture of Plants.

Next, some have vast heavy Drags, with great long Iron Tines in them; and tho’ these huge broken Pieces of Furrows, being looser than before, require keener Edges to cut them; yet these Drag-tines have no Edge at all, but are as blunt as the Furrows they should cut. These Drags draw them sometimes into larger Heaps, leaving the under Stratum bare betwixt them, only shaking off some of their Mould in tumbling them about, and scratching their Surfaces, without reducing them to a moderate Fineness, until this ill-broken Land has, for above a Year, and sometimes longer, entertained Ploughs, Cattle, and Men, with a frequent laborious Exercise, for which they are obliged to the one Coulter.

If the Soil be shallow, it may be broken up with a narrow Furrow, which will the sooner be brought in Tilth; but if it be a deep Soil, the Furrows must be proportionably large, or else a Part of the good Mould must be left under unmoved, and so lost; for a narrow Furrow cannot be plowed deep, because the Plough will continually slip out from the hard Land toward the Right-hand, unless the rising Furrow be of sufficient Weight to press the Plough towards the Left, and keep it in its Work: The deeper you plow, the greater Weight is required to press it; so that the deeper your Land is, the worse (or into the larger Furrows) must it be broken up with one Coulter, insomuch that, if the Land be strong (as most deep Ground in England is), it is a Work of some Years to conquer it, after it has been rested. And often it happens, that the excessive Charge of this Tillage reduces the Profit of rich Land below that of poor.

This gives an Opportunity to deceitful Servants, of imposing upon their ignorant Masters. They plow such deep Land with a small shallow Furrow, to the end the Turf and Furrows may be broken, and made fine the sooner; pretending they will plow it deeper the next time (which is called Stirring), which these Rogues know very well cannot be done, and intend no more than that the Plough coming the easier after the Horses, their Coats may shine the better; and tho’ there be no Crop at Harvest, they must have Four Meals a Day all the Year, and extravagant Wages at Michaelmas, or at any time of the Year, when they think fit to misbehave themselves.

This sort of Land must not be stirred, i. e. plowed the Second time in wet Weather; for that will cause the Grass and Weeds to multiply, besides the treading the Ground into hard Dabs, &c. And, in dry Weather, the Plough will never enter any deeper than it went the first time; the Resistance below being so much more than the Pressure above, the Plough will rise up continually; or, if it goes deep enough for the Weight of Earth to keep it down, another Inconvenience will follow, which is that mentioned by Columella, Page 47. Quod omnis humus, quamvis lætissima, tamen inferiorem partem jejuniorem habet, eamque attrahunt excitatæ majores glebæ; quo evenit, ut infœcundior materia mista pinguiori segetem minus uberem reddat. The vulgar English Phrase is, It spaults up from below the Staple. Hence the treacherous Plowman is secure of an easy Summer’s Work, if he can persuade his Master to suffer him to fallow the Ground with a shallow Furrow.