Chapter XII: Preface (12)

[240] If indifferent Land be well pulverized by the Plough for one
whole Year, it will produce a good Crop: But then, if, instead of
being sown, it be kept pulverized on for another Year without being
exhausted by any Vegetables, it will acquire from the Atmosphere
an extraordinary great Degree of Fertility more than it had before
such Second Year’s Pulveration and Unexhaustion. This being granted,
which no Man of Experience can deny, what Reason can there be why
such a Number of Plants, competent for a profitable Crop, may not
be maintained on it the Second Year, that may keep the Degree of
their Exhaustion in _Æquilibrio_ with that Degree of Fertility,
which the same Land had acquired at the End of the First Year of
its Pulveration, the same Degree of Pulveration being continued to
it by Hoeing in the Second Year? Or why may it not produce annual
Crops always, if the same _Equilibrium_ be continually kept? Two
unanswerable Reasons may be given why this _Equilibrium_ cannot be
kept in the random Sowing, as it may in the Hoeing Method; _viz._
First, In the former, the Land is by the Number of sown Plants and
Weeds much more (we may suppose at least Five times more) exhausted:
And, Secondly, No Pulveration is continued to the Soil, whilst the
Crop is on it; which is that Part of the Year wherein is the most
proper (if not the only proper) Season for pulverizing. Therefore,
allowing, that, in the random way, a Soil cannot, for want of
Quantity of vegetable Food, continue to produce annual Crops without
Manure, or perhaps with it; yet that is no Reason why it may not
produce them in the Hoeing Culture duly performed.

A Piece of Eleven Acres of a poor, thin, chalky Hill was sown with Barley in the common Manner, after a hoed Crop of Wheat; and produced full Five Quarters and an half to each Acre (reckoning the Tythe); which was much more than any Land in all the Neighbourhood yielded the same Year; tho’ some of it be so rich, as that One Acre is worth Three Acres of this Land: And no Man living can remember, that ever this produced above half such a Crop before, even when the best of the common Management has been bestowed upon it.

A Field, that is a sort of an Heath-ground, used to bring such poor Crops of Corn, that heretofore the Parson carried away a whole Crop of Oats from it, believing it had been only his Tythe. The best Management that ever they did or could bestow upon it, was to let it rest Two or Three Years, and then fallow and dung it, and sow it with Wheat, next to that with Barley and Clover, and then let it rest again; but I cannot hear of any good Crop that it ever produced by this or any other of their Methods; ’twas still reckoned so poor, that nobody cared to rent it. They said Dung and Labour were thrown away upon it, then immediately after Two sown Crops of black Oats had been taken off it, the last of which was scarce worth the mowing, it was put into the Hoeing Management; and when Three hoed Crops[241] had been taken from it, it was sown with Barley, and brought a very good Crop, much better than ever it was known to yield before; and then a good Crop of hoed Wheat succeeded the Barley, and then it was again sown with Barley, upon the Wheat-stubble; and that also was better than the Barley it used to produce.

[241] These Three hoed Crops were of Turneps and Potatoes.

Now all the Farmers of the Neighbourhood affirm, that it is impossible but that this must be very rich Ground, because they have seen it produce Six Crops in Six Years, without Dung or Fallow, and never one of them fail. But, alas! this different Reputation they give to the Land, does not at all belong to it, but to the different Sorts of Husbandry; for the Nature of it cannot be altered but by that, the Crops being all carried off it, and nothing added to supply the Substance those Crops take from it, except (what Mr. _Evelyn_ calls) the celestial Influences; and that these are received by the Earth, in proportion to the Degrees of its Pulveration.

A Field was drilled with Barley after an hoed Crop; and another adjoining to it on the same Side of the same poor Hill, and exactly the same Sort of Land, was drilled with Barley also, Part of it after the sown Crop, the same Day with the other; there was only this Difference in the Soil, that the former of these had no manner of Compost on it for many Years before, and the latter was dunged the Year before: Yet its Crop was not near so good as that which followed the hoed Crop[242]; tho’ the latter had twice the Plowing that the former had before drilling, and the same Hoeings afterwards; _viz._ Each was hoed Three times.

[242] This was a Wheat Crop, and often well hoed.

A Field of about Seventeen Acres was Summer-fallowed, and drilled with Wheat; and with the Hoeing brought a very good Crop (except Part of it, which being eaten by trespassing Sheep in the Winter, was somewhat blighted); the _Michaelmas_ after that was taken off, the same Field was drilled again with Wheat, upon the Stubble of the former, and hoed: This Second Crop was a good one, scarce any in the Neighbourhood better. A Piece of Wheat adjoining to it, on the very same Sort of Land (except that this latter was always reckoned better, being thicker in Mould above the Chalk), sown at the same time on dunged Fallows, and the Ground always dunged once in Three Years; yet this Crop failed so much, as to be judged, by some Farmers, not to exceed the Tythe of the other: That the hoed Field has received no Dung or Manure for many Years past, is because it lies out of the Reach for carrying of Cart-Dung, and no Fold being kept on my Farm: But I cannot say, I think there was quite so much Odds betwixt this Second undunged hoed Crop and the sown; yet this is certain, that the former is a good, and the latter a very bad Crop.

I could give many more Instances of the same Kind, where hoed Crops and sown Crops have succeeded better after hoed Crops than after sown Crops, and never yet have seen the contrary; and therefore am convinced, that the Hoeing[243] (if it be duly performed) enriches the Soil more than Dung and Fallows, and leaves the Land in a much better Condition for a succeeding Crop. The Reason I take to be very obvious: The artificial Pasture of Plants is made and increased by Pulveration only; and nothing else there is in our Power to enrich our Ground, but to pulverize it[244], and keep it from being exhausted by Vegetables[245]. Superinductions of Earth are an Addition of more Ground, or changing it, and are more properly purchasing than cultivating.

[243] This is more especially meant of Fallows in the common
Husbandry, and a moderate Quantity of common Dung, or the Fold: And
there may be such a poor Sand, or other barrenish Soil, so subject
to Constipation in the Winter, as to require Dung when planted with
Wheat, there being no general Rule without Exceptions; and ’tis
impossible for me to know the Number of these Exceptions. Well it is
for the Hoer, whose Land is of such a kind, that he can keep it in
Heart without Dung by Hoeing; for when he has no Fold, he plows his
Ground with Oxen, and plants it mostly with Wheat, the Straw whereof
being for other Uses, he can make but very little Dung.

[244] These Two are all we have in our Power; for pulverizing
includes an Exposure to the Atmosphere; without which, I think,
it cannot be reduced to Particles minute enough, or have their
Superficies so impregnated as to become a fertile Pasture for Plants.
The Experiment related by Mr. _Evelyn_ of artificial Pulveration,
seems to prove such an Exposure necessary; as also the frequent
turning (or incessantly agitating) that fine Dust for a Year, before
the barren exhausted Earth was made rich and prolific; For, besides
the Benefit of Pulveration and Impregnation, Land is more enriched
in proportion to the Time of Exposure, during which it is free
from Exhaustion, and continually receiving from the Atmosphere:
Therefore frequent Turning and Exposure are both contained in the
Words _pulverize_, _and not exhaust_; and to comply with the latter,
we should endeavour, that our Land may be never exhausted by any
other Plants than by those we would propagate, and by no more of
them neither, than what are necessary for producing a reasonable
Crop; which, upon full Trial, will be found a very small Number
in companion to those that are commonly sown; and then, if the
Supply from the Atmosphere by Help of the Pulveration exceeds the
Exhaustion, the Land will become richer, tho’ constant Crops are
produced of the same Species; as in the Vineyards; and the Soil of
these is so much improved by a bare competent Exhaustion, and the
usual Pulveration, that after producing good annual Crops without
Dung, until Age has killed the Vines, they leave the Soil better than
they found it; and better than contiguous Land of the same Sort kept
in arable Field-culture.

By Pulveration are meant all the Benefits of it that accrue to the
Pasture of Plants; and by Exhaustion, all the Injuries that can
be done to that Pasture, except Burning. And as the Benefits of
Pulveration visibly continue for several Years, so do the Injuries
of Exhaustion; which appear by the Ends of some of my Rows that have
been cleansed of Weeds in their Partitions by the Hand-hoe, and the
other Ends of the same Rows not cleansed; the Difference is visible
in the Colour of the Wheat in the Third and Fourth following Crops,
equally managed; and this is no more to be wondered at, than that Two
unequal Sums, being equally increased or diminished, should remain
unequal, until an Addition to the lesser, or a Subtraction from the
greater, be made; which, in case of the Soil, must be either by a
greater Pulveration, or a lesser Exhaustion. ’Tis by this that both
Ends of these Rows in time become equal: For tho’ Ten Plants that
produce an Ounce of Wheat, insume more _Pabulum_ than one Plant that
produces the same Quantity (the Reason for which is given in the Note
on _p._ 121.); yet a Plant that produces Six or Seven Drams, insumes
less than one that produces an Ounce; for a Plant which produces Six
Drams of Wheat cannot be a poor one, and therefore insumes no more
_Pabulum_ than in proportion to its Augment and Product. Thus the
Soil of those Ends, which, by being doubly exhausted by Weeds and
Wheat plants, was made poorer, gradually recovers an Equality with
the other Ends, by being for several Years less exhausted than the
other Ends are by larger Plants, whilst the Number of Plants, and the
Pulveration of each, are equal.

To the Reasons already given there is another to be added, why Horse
hoed Wheat exhausts the Soil less than sown Crops, where the Product
of Wheat produced by each is equal: Which Reason is, that the former
has much less Straw than the latter; as appears by the different
Quantities of Grain that a Sheaf of each of equal Diameter yields;
one of the former yielding generally double to one of the latter; for
a Sheaf of the sown has not only more small Under-ears, but also its
best Ears bear a less Proportion to their Straw than the other; for a
Straw of sown Wheat Six Feet high, I have found to have an Ear but of
half the Size of an Ear of drilled Wheat on a Stalk Five Feet high,
having measured both of them standing in the Field, and rubbed out
the Grain of them. This Difference I impute to the different Supply
of Nourishment at the time when the Ears are forming.

Thus the sown Crop exhausts a Soil much more by its greater Quantity
of Straw.

And this is one Reason why annual Crops of sown Wheat cannot succeed
as Crops of Horse hoed Wheat do. There must be Dung and Fallow to
repair the Exhaustion of the sown; neither of which are necessary for
Crops of the Horse-hoed.

[245] It may be asked, How ’tis possible that Eight Hoeings, which
are but equal, in Labour, to Two plain Plowings, should so much
exceed Three plain Plowings, as to procure as good or a better Crop
without Manure, than the common Three Plowings can do with Manure,
and enrich the Land also.

The Answer is, That each Hoeing of the Five or Six being done to
the Wheat-plants, though it does not clean plow the whole Interval
underneath, yet it changeth the whole external Superficies (or
Surface) thereof, whereby it becomes impregnate by the nitrous Air,
as much as if it were all clean plowed at the time of every Hoeing,
and the Weeds are as much stifled, or suffocated.

_Their One Year’s Tillage, which is but Two Plowings before Seed-time, commonly makes but little Dust; and that which it does make, has but a short time to lie exposed for Impregnation; and after the Wheat is sown, the Land lies unmoved for near Twelve Months, all the while gradually losing its Pasture, by subsiding, and by being continually exhausted in feeding a treble Stock of Wheat-plants, and a Stock of Weeds, which are sometimes a greater Stock. This puts the Advocates for the old Method upon a Necessity of using of Dung, which is, at best, but a_ Succedaneum _of the Hoe; for it depends chiefly on the Weather, and other Accidents, whether it may prove sufficient by Fermentation to pulverize in the Spring, or no: And it is a Question whether it will equal Two additional_[246] _Hoeings, or but one; tho’, as I have computed it, one Dunging costs the Price of One hundred Hoeings._

[246] Additional, because there must first be several Hoeings to make
our treble Row equal to an undunged Six-feet Ridge of sown Wheat.

When they have done all they can, the Pasture they raise is generally too little for the Stock that is to be maintained upon it, and much the greatest Part of the Wheat-plants are starved; for from Twenty Gallons of Seed they sow on an Acre, they receive commonly no more than Twenty Bushels[247] of Wheat in their Crop, which is but an Increase of Eight Grains for one: Now, considering how many Grains there are in one good Ear, and how many Ears on one Plant, we find, that there is not One Plant in Ten that lives till Harvest, even when there has not been Frost in the Winter sufficient to kill any of them; or if we count the Number of Plants that come up on a certain Measure of Ground, and count them again in the Spring, and likewise at Harvest, we shall be satisfied, that most or all of the Plants that are missing, could die by no other Accident than want of Nourishment.

[247] And they have oftener less than Sixteen Bushels; and in the
Harvest 1735, a substantial experienced Farmer had no more than Four
Bushels of Wheat to an Acre throughout a Field of Forty Acres, being
robbed by Poppies; and I have known a Crop that has amounted to do
more than Two Bushels to an Acre, and some Crops less, tho’ dunged
and fallowed; so that, taking the common sown Crops of Wheat one with
another, they are thought not to amount to Sixteen Bushels to an
Acre, _communibus annis_.

They are obliged to sow this great Quantity of Seed, to the end that the Wheat, by the great Number of Plants, may be the better able to contend with the Weeds; and yet, too often, at Harvest, we see a great Crop of Weeds, and very little Wheat among them. Therefore this Pasture, being insufficient to maintain the present Crop, without starving the greatest Part of its Plants, is likely to be less able to maintain a subsequent Crop, than that Pasture which is not so much exhausted.

When their Crop of Wheat is much less than ours, their Vacancies, if computed all together, may be greater than those of our Partitions and Intervals; theirs, by being irregular, serve chiefly for the Protection of Weeds; for they cannot be plow’d out, without destroying the Corn, any more than Cannons firing at a Breach, whereon both Sides are contending, can kill Enemies, and not Friends.

Their Plants stand on the Ground in a confused manner, like a Rabble; ours like a disciplin’d Army: We make the most of our Ground; for we can, if we please, cleanse the Partitions with a Hand-hoe[248]; and for the rest, if the Soil be deep enough to be drill’d on the Level[249], in treble Rows, the Partitions at Six Inches[250], the Intervals Five Feet; Five Parts in Six of the whole Field may be pulveriz’d every Year, and at proper times all round the Year.

[248] Of all annual Weeds.

[249] This is only put as a Supposition; for I have for these several
Years left off drilling on the Level, and do advise against it;
because altho’ Mould should not be wanting for the Partitions in deep
rich Land, yet it is much more difficult to hoe on the Level than on
Ridges.

[250] But when it is drilled upon Ridges, the Proportion is less, by
how much the Partitions, being thicker in Mould, contain more than
a Sixth-part of the whole Six Feet of Earth, and the Proportion of
unexhausted Earth will be alter’d likewise; and I only mention these
Distances to avoid Fractions.

The Partitions being one Sixth-part for the Crop to stand on, and to be nourished in the Winter, one other Sixth-part being well pulveriz’d, may be sufficient to nourish it from thence till Harvest[251]; the Remainder, being Two-thirds of the Whole, may be kept unexhausted, the One-third for one Year, and the other Third of it Two Years; all kept open for the Reception of the Benefits descending from above, during so long a time; whilst the sowed Land is shut against them every Summer, except the little time in which it is fallow’d, once in Three Years, and a little, perhaps, whilst they plow it for Barley in the Winter, which is a Season seldom proper for pulverizing the Ground.

[251] This may be done, tho’ the Roots of a competent Number of
Plants run through the Whole, in the manner herein before explained.

Their Land must have been exhausted as well by those supernumerary Plants of Wheat, while they lived, as by those that remain for the Crop, and by the Weeds. Our Land must be much less exhausted, when it has never above one Third-part of the Wheat-plants to nourish that they have, and generally no Weeds; so that our ho’d Land having much more vegetable Pasture made, and continually renewed, to so much a less Stock of Plants[252], must needs be left, by every Crop, in a much better Condition than theirs is left in by any one of their sown Crops, altho’ our Crops of Corn at Harvest be better than theirs[253].

[252] Therefore, whenever a Soil receives more Supplies of fine Earth
from the Atmosphere, than is exhausted by all the Plants that grow
in the Soil, it becomes richer; but if the contrary, then it becomes
poorer.

[253] On an undung’d low Six feet Ridge, we have Three Rows, Eight
Inches asunder, all which being equal, during the Winter, but each
of the Two outside Rows at Harvest producing Ten times as much Wheat
as the middle Row doth, all Three together produce a Quantity equal
to One-and-twenty of this middle Row. Now, supposing the Roots of
this Row not to reach through the outside Rows, so as to receive any
Benefit from the ho’d Intervals, then this Row might only be equal to
one of Nine Rows, which should have been drilled Eight Inches asunder
on this Ridge, and then our Three would only be equal to Twenty-one
of such Nine Rows. But since it can be demonstrated, that the Roots
of our middle Row do pass through both the outside Rows far into
the ho’d Intervals, we may well suppose it to be at least double to
what it would have been, if it had no Benefit from the Hoeing, and
then our Three will be equal to Forty-two of such Nine unho’d Rows.
Thus our Crop is Thirty-three in Forty-two (or almost Four Parts in
Five) increased by the Hoeing; for though many Fields of Wheat have
been drilled all over in Rows Eight Inches asunder, it never has
been judged, in Twenty Years Experience, that a Crop so planted,
though not ho’d, was, by its Evenness and Regularity, less, _cæteris
paribus_, than a Crop sown at random.

They object against us, saying, That sometimes the Hoeing makes Wheat too strong and gross, whereby it becomes the more liable to the Blacks (or Blight of Insects): But this is the Fault of the Hoer; for he may choose whether he will make it too strong, because he may apply his Hoeings at proper times only, and apportion the Nourishment to the Number and Bulk of his Plants. However, by this Objection they allow, that the Hoe can give Nourishment enough, and therefore they cannot maintain, that there is a Necessity of Dung[254] in the Hoeing-Husbandry; and that, if our Crops of Wheat should happen to suffer, by being too strong, our Loss will be less than theirs, when that is too strong, since it will cost them Nine times our Expence to make it so.

[254] As for the Quantity of vegetable Matter of Dung, when reduced
to Earth by Putrefaction, it is very inconsiderable, and, of many
sorts of Manure, next to nothing.

The almost only Use of all Manure is the same as of Tillage; _viz._
the Pulveration it makes by Fermentation, as Tillage doth by
Attrition or Contusion; and with these Differences, that Dung, which
is the most common Manure, is apt to increase Weeds, a Tillage (of
which Hoeing is chief) destroys them, and Manure is scanty in most
Places, but Tillage may be had every-where. Another Difference is,
the vast Disproportion of the Price of Manure and that of Tillage.

_Note_, As we have no way to enrich the Soil, but by Pulveration of
Manure, or of Instruments, or of both; so Nature has ordain’d, that
the Soil shall be exhausted by nothing, but by the Roots of Plants.

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[255], that helps to produce them, can restore.

[255] 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[256]. 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.

[256] _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.

Another way to conquer a strong Turf is, to plow it first with a Breast-plough, very thin; and, when the Swerd is rotten, then plow it at the proper Depth: But this Method is (besides the extraordinary Charge of it) liable to other great Misfortunes. If the Turf be pared up in Winter, or early in the Spring, it is a Chance but the Rains cause it to grow stronger than before, instead of its Rotting.

And if it be pared later, tho’ dry Weather do follow, and continue long enough to kill the Turf, yet this loses time; the Season of plowing is retarded; for all the Staple still remains untilled; and, before that can be well done, the Year is too far spent for sowing it with Wheat, which is the most proper Grain for such strong Land[257]; and few will have Patience to wait, and plow on till another Wheat-seed time. The dry Weather also, which in Summer kills the Swerd, renders the Plowing obnoxious to most or all the Evils afore-mentioned.

[257] Besides, most strong Land has Stones in it, which will not
admit the Use of the Breast-plough.

* * * * *

A Farmer inquires concerning the Four-coulter Plough, as in the following DIALOGUE.

Farm. _What must we do then? Must we have recourse to the Spade for breaking up our rich, strong, swerdy Land?_

_Resp._ If you can procure Men to dig it faithfully in Pieces, not above Two Inches and an half thick, at the Price of about Eight Shillings _per_ Acre, it would do very well, and answer all the Ends of Tillage; but, tho’ you bargain with them to dig it at that Size for Three Pounds _per_ Acre, you will find, upon Examination, most of the Pieces or Spits, which are dug out of your Sight, to be of twice that Thickness. And no great Quantities can be this way managed, altho’ the Price of Corn should answer such an extravagant Expence.

Farm. _Since it is so difficult to bring our strong Land into Tilth, after it has rested, that it cannot be speedily done by a Plough without a Coulter, or by one with a Coulter, in wet Weather or dry, nor with a Breast-plough, without a certain Expence, and an uncertain Success, the Spade is too chargeable a Tillage for the Field: It seems to me, upon the Whole, that we are Losers by this_ inaratæ gratia terræ, _unless we could contrive some other Method of reducing it sooner, and with less Charge, into Tilth; for I observe, that, when we sow it upon the Back, the Corn and Grass (or Couch), coming both together, exhaust the Ground so much, that by that time we can (which is about Three Years) reduce the great Lumps to a tolerable Fineness, it grows full of Grass and Weeds (which we call Foul), and loses that Fertility we expected it should acquire by Rest, becoming, in our Terms, both out of Tilth, and out of Heart._

_Resp._ If you know all this to be true, and that without a Coulter you cannot break it up at all; and that with one Coulter you cannot any way cut the Furrow small enough, or less than Ten Inches broad; why do not you cut it with Four Coulters, which will reduce the same Furrow into Four equal Parts, of Two Inches and an half each in Breadth, and of the Depth of the Staple, tho’ that should be Two Spit, or Sixteen Inches deep?

Farm. _How can that be done?_

_Resp._ Every jot as easily as with one Coulter: For, before the Furrow is raised by the Share, it lies fast, and makes a sufficient Resistance equally against the Edges of all the Coulters; tho’, after it be raised and loose, it yields and recedes every way, except downwards; so that it cannot be cut by any Edge, but such as attacks it perpendicularly from above, as that of the Spade does.

Farm. _This seems to me reasonable; and, having very lately heard talk of this Plough, I would gladly know more of it._

_Resp._ The Furrow, being cut into Four Parts, has not only Four times the Superficies on the Eight Sides which it would have had on Two Sides; but it is also more divided cross-ways; _viz._ The Ground-wrest presses and breaks the lower (or Right-hand) Quarter; the other Three Quarters, in rising and coming over the Earth-board, must make a crooked Line about a Fourth longer than the strait one they made before moved; therefore their Thinness not being able to hold them together, they are broken into many more Pieces, for want of Tenacity to extend to a longer Line, contrary to a whole Furrow, whose great Breadth enables it to stretch and extend from a shorter to a longer Line, without breaking; and, as it is turned off, the Parts are drawn together again by the Spring of the Turf or Swerd[258], and so remain whole after Plowing. Thus the Four-coultered Plow can divide the Soil into above Twenty times more Parts than the common Plough; and sometimes, when the Earth is of a right Temper betwixt wet and dry, the Earth-board, in turning the Furrows off, will break them into Dust, having more Superficies than is made by Four common Plowings; and it is impossible there should be any large Pieces amongst it.

[258] A swerdy Furrow cut off by only one Coulter, being whole, is
apt to stand up on its Edge, or lie hollow; and then, being open to
the Air, it does not rot; but when it is cut by several Coulters,
it has not Strength to support itself, it falls down, lies close to
the Earth under it, and, excluding the free Air from the Turf, it
soon becomes rotten. And for killing the Turf of swerdy Land is the
chief Use of the Four-coultered Plough: For doing of which there is
this Advantage, that as in a whole Furrow there are often Strings of
Couch-grass, Three or Four Feet long; but, when cut by this Plough,
there is scarce a String left of one Foot long: And these Strings
being apt to send out Roots from every Knot or Joint, the shorter
they are cut, the more they will be exposed to the Air and Sun, which
will kill them the sooner.

Now, what a prodigious Advantage must the Influences of the Atmosphere have upon these small Parts, for making a further Division of them! Frost, Water, Drought, and nitrous Air, easily penetrate to their very Centers, which cannot in the largest of them be more than one Inch and a Quarter distant from their Superficies. This Advantage, with a few subsequent common Plowings, performed in proper Seasons, resolves the Earth almost all to a Powder. The Swerd, some being immersed or buried and mixed among so great a Proportion of Mould, is soon rotten and lost; some of the Swerd lying loose a-top, the Earth presently drops out of it; and then the Roots are dried up, and die. Thus is the whole Staple of the Ground brought into perfect Tilth in a very short time beyond what the Spade ever does in such swerdy Land.

Farm. _What sort of Weather is best for using this Plough?_

_Resp._ Any Weather, except the Ground be so dry and hard that the Plough cannot enter it; but it is very proper to be done, when the Earth is so wet, that by no means it ought to be plowed with any other Plough; for it never can be too moist for this, unless the Cattle which draw it be mired; because, tho’ all the Cattle should not go in the Furrow, yet their Treadings are cut so small by the Coulters, that the Earth is not kept from dissolving, as when turned off whole in common Tillage. ’Tis observed, that the Incisions made by the Coulters on swerdy Land, will not heal, or so close up, but that they will open again by the next Plowing, though it be a great while after. A Farmer who uses this Plough, may till in all Weathers and all Seasons of the Year, either in fallowing with this, which is best in wet, or in stirring with the common ones, which must be done in dry Weather; and when the Ground is broken up with this, it may be stirred in the driest Weather that can be, without the Danger of tearing (or spaulting) up of the under _Stratum_ along with the Staple, because this is all broken before, and then no more can rise with it; as it does to the Ruin of the Soil, when in common Tillage they go deeper the Second time than the First: Also, if there be a Necessity of stirring some sort of Land when it is wet, it ought either to be done with this Plough, or else with a common one drawn by a single Row of Cattle treading all in the Furrow; for tho’ some Land be very fine, yet, when plowed by a double Row of Cattle in wet Weather, it will be made into large Pieces by the Treading, and perhaps not dissolve again in a long time: Therefore it is better to be prevented.

Farm. _I perceive this Plough lays the Foundation for all good Husbandry; and there can be no other way to bring Land into perfect Tilth in so short a Time, or with so little Expence. And I am convinc’d, that no Farmer ought to be without it, who desires to be free from the Danger of his Land being ever out of Tilth: But I have heard it objected, that it is harder to draw than the common Ploughs; and that its Beam being longer, upon account of the Four Coulters, it lies farther behind, and comes harder after the Horses._

_Resp._ I must confess, there is something in that Objection; for this Plough, being something longer, may be a little the harder Draught; and also its Weight and Strength must bear a Proportion to the Length of it. But this small Increase of the Draught would have been a much stronger (if not a fatal) Objection, had that Custom been general, of Horses drawing by their Tails, as ’tis said to have been formerly in some Places; for then, perhaps, a sufficient Strength of Horses could not be applied to the Plough. But in Countries where Traces are in Use, every Horse of the Team may draw the Plough equally, and then there will be no other Inconvenience, besides the adding one Horse, or keeping a stronger Team: And he cannot be wise, who would lose the Profit of his Land, for the Odds of sometimes adding a Horse to his Plough. And I am very certain, that this Plough requires a much less Strength of Cattle to draw it in moist Weather, which is the most proper to use it in, than to draw a common Plough in the same Ground, and at the same Depth, in dry Weather; and can seldom be used safely in any other. And the Vulgar, who have always a wrong Cause ready at hand to apply to every thing, impute that Draught to the Fashion of the Plough, which ought to be imputed to its going deeper; and this great Depth at which ’tis capable of plowing, _viz._ Two Spit deep, is one extraordinary Benefit of it, tho’ it may, on Occasion, go as shallow as any.

The Draught is not so much increased by adding Three Coulters, as may be imagined; for when the Ground is moist, the Incisions are easily made by the Edges; and when they are cut small, the Furrows rise much more easily upon the Share and Earth-Board, than if whole.

Farm. _If this Plough be so beneficial, having so many Advantages, and only the Two Inconveniencies, one of requiring a little more Strength to draw it, and the other its being unfit for dry hard Ground, I wonder why it is not become more common?_

_Resp._ It has been used with very great Success for these several Years last past, but never like to be common, unless it be described in a more geometrical Manner, than any Plough has hitherto been; for the Plough-wrights find it difficult enough to make a common Plough with one Coulter to perform as it ought, for want of the necessary Rules of their Art. It is upon this Account that the Two-coulter’d Ploughs are used in few Places, though they have been found of excellent Use, and have been formerly common: But, alas! when the Makers, who by their diligent Study and much Practice had attained the Perfection of their Art, died for want of learning to write their Rules mathematically, and shew how the mechanical Powers were applicable to them, the Art was in a Manner lost, at the Death of those Artists; and then the unskilful Plough-wrights, destitute of the true Rules, were not able to make a Two-coulter’d Plough to perform well, and then it was left off. Very lately ’tis revived, since the Three and Four-coulter’d ones have been used; from whence some have made a Shift to take the Rules of placing Two Coulters into a Plough, and they begin to be common again; and, no doubt, will cease again as soon as the Rules are forgot.

_Plate. I._

_B.Cole. Delin. et Sculp._]

’Tis strange that no Author should have written fully of the Fabric of Ploughs! Men of the greatest Learning have spent their Time in contriving Instruments to measure the immense Distance of the Stars, and in finding out the Dimensions, and even Weight, of the Planets: They think it more eligible to study the Art of plowing the Sea with Ships, than of tilling the Land with Ploughs; they bestow the utmost of their Skill, learnedly, to pervert the natural Use of all the Elements for Destruction of their own Species, by the bloody Art of War. Some waste their whole Lives in studying how to arm Death with new Engines of Horror, and inventing an infinite Variety of Slaughter; but think it beneath Men of Learning (who only are capable of doing it) to employ their learned Labours in the Invention of new (or even improving the old) Instruments for increasing of Bread.