Part 8
[62] If we consider the Crops they utterly destroy, and those they extremely diminish; and that very few Crops escape without receiving Injury from them; it may be a Question, whether the Mischief Weeds do to our Corn, is not as great as the Value of the Rent of all the Arable Lands in _England_.
But alas! they find it impossible to be done, or even to be hoped for, by the common Husbandry; and the Reasons I take to be these.
The Seeds of most Sorts of Weeds are so hardy, as to lie sound and uncorrupt for many Years[63], or perhaps Ages in the Earth; and are not kill’d until they begin to grow or sprout, which very few of them do, unless the Land be plow’d; and then enough of them will ripen amongst the sown Crop, to propagate and continue their Species, by shedding their Off-spring in the Ground (for ’tis observ’d they are generally ripe before the Corn); and the Seeds of these do the same in the next sown Crop; and thus perpetuate their savage, wicked[64] Brood, from Generation to Generation.
[63] The Seeds of _Lethean Poppy_ (call’d _Red-weed_) have lain dormant 24 Years (the Land being, during that time, in _St. Foin_) and then at first Plowing they came up very thick; this I have seen, and so will many other Sorts of Weeds, when the Ground has lain untill’d for an Age.
[64] The _French_ call them, _les Herbes Sauvages, & les mechantes Herbes_.
Besides, their Seeds never all come up in one Year, unless the Land be very often plow’d; for they must have their exact Depth, and Degrees of Moisture and Heat, to make them grow; and such as have not these, will lie in the Ground, and retain their vegetative Virtue for Ages; and the common usual Plowings, not being sufficient to make them all, or the greatest Part, grow, almost every Crop that ripens increases the Stock of Seed, until it make a considerable Part of the Staple of such Land as is sown without good Tillage and Fallowing.
The best Defence against these Enemies, which the Farmer has hitherto found, is to endeavour their Destruction by a good Summer-fallow: This indeed, if the Weather be propitious, does make Havock of them; but still some will escape one Year’s Prosecution. Either by being sometimes situate so high, that the Sun’s Heat dries them, or sometimes lying so deep, that it cannot reach them; either way their Germination, which would have proved their Death, is prevented.
Another Faculty secures abundance of them, and that is, their being able to endure the Heat and Moisture of one Year without growing; as[65] wild Oats, and innumerable other Sorts of Weeds, will do; for gather these when ripe, sow them in the richest Bed, water them, and do all that is possible to make them grow the First Year, it will be vain Labour; they will resist all Enticements till the Second; that is, if you gather them in Autumn, you cannot force them to grow until the next Spring come Twelve-month; and many of them will remain dormant even to the next Year alter that, and some of them longer.
[65] I have not try’d wild Oats by sowing them in a Bed myself, but have been so informed by others; and my own Experience hath frequently shewn me, that they will come up, after lying many Years in the Ground; and that very few Sorts of Weeds will come all up the first Year, as Corn doth: If they did, the Tillage of one Year’s Summer-fallow might extirpate them.
By this Means, One Year’s Summer-Fallow can have no Effect upon them, but to prepare the Soil for their more vigorous Growth and plentiful Increase the next Year after; and very rarely will the Farmer fallow his Land Two Years successively; and often the Dung, which is made of the Straw of sown Corn, being full of the Seeds of Weeds, when spread on the Fallows, incumbers the Soil with another Stock of Weeds, as ample as that the Fallowing has destroy’d; and tho’ perhaps many of these may not grow the next Year, they will be sure to come up afterwards.
The other old Remedy is what often proves worse than the Disease; that is, what they call Weeding among sown Corn; for if by the Hook or Hand they cut some Sorts (as Thistles) while they are young, they will sprout up again, like _Hydras_, with more Heads than before; and if they are cut when full-grown, after they have done almost their utmost in robbing the Crop, ’tis like shutting the Stable-Door after the Steed is stolen.
Hand-weeders often do more Harm to the Corn with their Feet, than they do Good by cutting or pulling out the Weeds with their Hands; and yet I have known this Operation sometimes cost the Farmer Twelve Shillings an Acre; besides the Damage done by treading down his Wheat; and, after all, a sufficient Quantity of them have escaped, to make a too plentiful Increase in the next Crop of Corn.
The new Hoeing-Husbandry in Time will probably make such an utter Riddance[66] of all Sorts of Weeds[67], except such as come in the Air, that[68] as long as this Management is properly continued, there is no Danger to be apprehended from them; which is enough to confute the old Error of equivocal Generation, had it not been already sufficiently exploded, ever since that Demonstration of _Malpighius’s_ Experiment. For if Weeds were brought forth without their proper Seeds, the Hoeing could not hinder their Production, where the Soil was inclined naturally to produce them. The Belief of that blind Doctrine might probably be one of the Causes that made the Antients despair of finding so great Success in Hoeing, as now appears; or else, if they had had true Principles, they might perhaps have invented and improved that Husbandry, and the Instruments necessary to put it in Practice.
[66] A very pernicious, large, perennial Weed, like _Burrage_, with a blue Flower, infested a Piece of Land, for Time out of Mind: Hoeing has destroyed it utterly; not one of the Species has been seen in the Field these Seven Years, tho’ constantly till’d and ho’d.
[67] I have now a Piece of Wheat drill’d early the last Autumn upon an Hill, fallowed and well pulveriz’d: Part of it was drill’d with Wheat in double Rows upon the Level Nine Years ago, Horse-ho’d, and the Partitions thoroughly Hand-ho’d to cleanse out the Poppies, of which the Land was very full; the other Part of this Piece was never drilled till this Year: The whole Piece hath not been before this Winter Horse-ho’d. Now the Partitions of the Part that was never any Way Ho’d, are so stock’d with Poppies matted together, that unless they are taken out early in the Spring, they will totally devour the Rows of Wheat; but in the other Part that was ho’d so long since, there are now very few Poppies to be seen. Both these Parts have had several sown Crops of Barley together since, and have lain with _St. Foin_ these last Five or Six Years.
[68] And except also such Weeds, whose Seed is carried by Birds, which is the most common Manner of transporting the Seeds of Vegetables from Field to Field, against the Content of the Owner: For Birds, whether great or small, do not care to eat their Prey where they take it, but generally chuse some open Place for that Purpose. ’Tis, I am persuaded, by this Means chiefly, that a Vineyard or Field, made ever so clean from Grass, will, in lying untilled a few Years, be replenished with a Turf of that neighbouring Species of Grass, which best suits the Heat and Moisture of the Soil: Yet there are some Species of Seeds that Birds (at least such as frequent this Place) do not affect; else the Burrage-weed (mentioned in _p._ 77.) would have appeared again in my Field in some of the many Years since the Hoeing has extirpated it there; for it grows plentifully in the unplowed Way adjoining thereto.
The Seeds of some Weeds may be suspected to come in the Air; as the Seed of the Grass that grew in the _Cheapside_, in the Time of the Plague; but it might come from Seeds in the Dirt, brought thither by the Feet of People and Cattle, and by the Wheels of Coaches, Carts carrying Hay: Or otherwise continual Treading might keep it from Growing; and when the Treading ceased, ’tis no Wonder the Seeds should furnish the Streets with Grass.
And I have observ’d on the Floors, two Stories high, of a lone, ruinous, uninhabited House, being long uncover’d, a sort of Herb growing very thick; I think it was _Pimpernel_, and believe that its Seeds did not come thither in the Air; but in the Sand which was mix’d with the Mortar that had fallen from the Cielings; and ’tis like there were few Seeds at first: Yet, these, ripening for several Years, shed their Seeds annually, until the Floors became all over very thick planted: Besides, Hay-seeds and Pimpernel are too heavy to be carry’d far by the Air.
CHAP. VIII.
_Of_ TURNEPS.
As far as I can be inform’d, ’tis but of late Years that Turneps have been introduc’d as an Improvement in the Field.
All Sorts of Land, when made fine by Tillage, or by Manure and Tillage, will serve to produce Turneps, but not equally; for chalky Land is generally too dry (a Turnep being a thirsty Plant); and they are so long in such dry poor Land before they get into rough Leaf, that the Fly is very apt to destroy them there; yet I have known them succeed on such Land, tho’ rarely.
Sand and Gravel are the most proper Soil for Turneps, because that is most easily pulveriz’d, and its Warmth causeth the Turneps to grow faster, and so they get the sooner out of the Danger of the Fly; and such a Soil, when well-till’d, and Horse-ho’d, never wants a sufficient Moisture, even in the driest Weather; and the Turneps being drill’d will come up without Rain, and prosper very well with the sole Moisture of the Dews, which are admitted as deep as the Pulveration reacheth; and if that be to Five or six Inches, the hottest Sun cannot exhale the Dews thence in the Climate of _England_: I have known Turneps thrive well in a very dry Summer by repeated Horse-hoeings, both in Sand and in Land which is neither sandy nor gravelly.
When I sow’d Turneps by Hand, and ho’d them with a Hand-hoe, the Expence was great, and the Operation not half perform’d, by the Deceitfulness of the Hoers, who left half the Land unho’d, and cover’d it with the Earth from the Part they did hoe, and then the Grass and Weeds grew the faster: Besides, in this Manner a great Quantity of Land could not be managed in the proper Season.
When I drill’d upon the Level[69], at Three Feet Intervals, a Trial was made between those Turneps and a Field of the next Neighbour’s, sown at the same Time, whereof the Hand-hoeing cost Ten Shillings _per_ Acre, and had not quite half the Crop of the drill’d, both being measur’d by the Bushel, on Purpose to find the Difference[70].
[69] ’Tis impossible to hoe-plow them so well when planted upon the Level, as when they are planted upon Ridges; for if we plow deep near the Row, the Earth will come over on the Left-Side of the Plough, and bury the younger Turneps; but when they stand on Ridges, the Earth will almost all fall down on the Right Side into the Furrow in the Middle of the Interval.
[70] And I have since found, that Turneps on the same Land, planted on Ridges, with Six-feet Intervals, make a Crop double to those that are planted on the Level, or even on Ridges with Three-feet Intervals.
In the new Method they are more certain to come up quickly; because in every Row, half the Seed is planted about Four Inches deep[71]; and the other Half is planted exactly over that, at the Depth of half an Inch, falling in after the Earth has cover’d the first Half: Thus planted, let the Weather be never so dry, the deepest Seed will come up; but if it raineth (immediately after planting), the Shallow will come up first: We also make it come up at Four[72] Times, by mixing our Seed, half new and half old (the new coming up a Day quicker than the old): These four Comings up give it so many Chances for escaping the Fly, it being often seen, that the Seed sown over Night will be destroy’d by the Fly, when that sown the next Morning will escape, and _vice versa_[73]; or you may hoe-plow them, when you see the Fly is like to devour them; this will bury the greatest Part of those Enemies; or else you may drill in another Row, without new-plowing the Land.
[71] Turnep seed will come up from a greater Depth than most other Sorts of Seeds.
[72] I have seen drill’d Turnep-seed come up daily for a Fortnight together, when it has not been mixt thus, the old with the new.
[73] I have had the first Turneps that came up all destroy’d by the Fly; and about a Fortnight afterwards more have come up, and been ho’d time enough, and made a good Crop.
This Method has also another Advantage of escaping the Fly, the most certain of any other, and infallible, if the Land be made fine, as it ought to be: This is to roll it with a heavy Roller across the Ridges, after ’tis drill’d, which closing up the Cavities of the Earth, prevents the Fly’s Entrance and Exit, to lay the Eggs, hatch, or bring forth the young ones to prey upon the Turneps; which they might intirely devour, if the Fly came before they had more than the first two Leaves, which, being form’d of the very Seed itself, are very sweet; but the next Leaves are rough and bitter, which the Fly does not love: I have always found the Rolling disappoint the Fly; but very often it disappoints the Owner also, who sows at Random; for it makes the Ground so hard, that the Turneps cannot thrive, but look yellow, dwindle, and grow to no Perfection, unless they have a good Hoeing soon after the rough Leaves appear; for when they stand long without it, they will be so poor and stinted, that the Hand-hoe does not go deep enough to recover them; and ’tis seldom that these rolled Turneps can be Hand-ho’d at the critical Time, because the Earth is then become so hard, that the Hoe cannot enter it without great Difficulty, unless it be very moist; and very often the Rain does not come to soak it, until it be too late; but the drill’d Turneps being in single Rows with Six-feet Intervals, may be roll’d without Danger: For be the Ground ever so hard, the Hand-hoe will easily single them out, at the Price of Six-pence per Acre, or less (if not in Harvest); and the Horse-hoe will, in those wide Intervals, plow at any Time, wet or dry; and, tho’ the Turneps should have been neglected till stinted, will go deep enough to recover them to a flourishing Condition.
Drill’d Turneps, by being no-where but in the Rows[74], may be more easily seen than those which come up at Random; and may therefore be sooner[75] singled out by the Hand-hoe; which is another Advantage; because the sooner they are so set out, the better they will thrive[76].
[74] Drill’d Turneps coming all up nearly in a _Mathematical Line_, ’tis very nearly that a Charlock, or other like Weed, comes up in the same Line amongst them, unless it be drill’d in with the Turnep-seed, of which Weeds our Horse-ho’d Seed never has any; there being no Charlock in the Rows, nor any Turnep in the Intervals: We know, that whatever comes up in the Interval is not a Turnep, though so like to it, that, at first coming up, if promiscuously, it cannot easily be distinguished by the Eye, until after the Turneps, _&c._ attain the rough Leaf; and even then, before they are of a considerable Bigness, they are so hard to be distinguished by those People, who are not well experienced, that a Company of _Hand-hoers_ cut out the Turneps by Mistake, and left the Charlock for a Crop of a large Field of sown Turneps. Such a Misfortune can never happen to drill’d Turneps, unless wilfully done, be they set out ever so young.
[75] The sooner they are made single, the better; but yet, when they are not very thick, they may stand till we have the best Convenience of singling them without much Damage; but, when they come up extraordinary thick, ’twill be much more difficult to make them single, if they are neglected at their very first coming into rough Leaf.
[76] Because such young Turneps will enjoy the more of the Pasture made by the Plowing, and by that little Pulveration of the Hand-hoe, without being robb’d of any Pasture by their own supernumerary Plants.
Three or Four Ounces of Seed is the usual Quantity to drill; but, at random, Three or Four Pounds are commonly sown, which, coming thick all over the Ground, must exhaust the Land more than the other, especially since the sown must stand longer, before the Hoers can see to set them out.
The Six-feet Ridges, whereon Turneps are drill’d in single Rows, may be left higher than for double-row’d Crops; because there will be more Earth in the Intervals, as the single Row takes up less.
There is no prefix’d Time for planting Turneps, because that must be according to the Richness of the Land; for some Land will bring them as forward, and make them as good, when planted the beginning of _August_, as other Land will, when planted in _May_; but the most general Time is, a little before, and a little after _Midsummer_.
Between these Rows of Turneps[77], I have planted Wheat in this Manner; _viz._ About _Michaelmas_, the Turneps being full grown, I plow’d a Ridge in the Middle of each of their Intervals, taking most of the Earth from the Turneps, leaving only just enough to keep them alive; and on this Ridge drill’d my Crop of Wheat[78], and towards the Spring pull’d up my Turneps, and carried them off for Cattle.
[77] As I have formerly drilled Wheat between Rows of Turneps, so I have since had the Experience of drilling Turneps between Rows of Barley and Rows of Oats: I have had them in the Intervals between Six-feet Ridges, and between Four-feet Ridges, and between those of several intermediate Distances; but which of them all is the best, I leave at present undetermined. I shall only add, that the poorer the Land is, the wider the Intervals ought to be; and that, in the narrow, ’tis convenient at the Hoeing, to leave more Earth on that Side of each Interval whereon the Turneps are to be drill’d; and this is done by going round several Intervals with the Hoe-Plough, without going forwards and backwards in each immediately: But in the wide Intervals the Earth may be equal on both Sides of them.
I will propose another Method of Drilling, which may be very advantageous to those who sow their Barley upon the Level, and sow Turnep-seed amongst it, at Random, as they do Clover; which is, of late, a common Practice in some Places. The Barley keeps the Turneps under it, and stints them so much, that they are useful in the Winter or Spring, chiefly by the Food their _Leaves_ afford to Sheep, their Roots being exceeding small; and for this small Profit they lose the Time of tilling the Ground, until after the Turneps are eaten off; which is a Damage we think greater than the Profit of such Turneps; To prevent which Damage, they may drill them in Rows at competent Distances, and Horse-hoe them, and set them out as soon as the Barley is off: This will both keep the Ground in Tilth, fit for another Crop of Spring Corn, and cause the Turneps to grow great enough (especially if Harvest be early, and the Winter prove favourable) for feeding of Sheep in a moveable Fold to dung the Ground into the Bargain.
What induces me to propose this Improvement is, that a Gentleman plows up his Barley-Stubble, and transplants Turneps therein, and Hand-hoes them with Success. By the proposed Way all the Expence of transplanting (which must be considerable) will be saved; and the setting out cannot be more than an Eighth of the Labour of _Hand-hoeings_; and I conjecture the Horse-hoed Turneps may be as good; for they (though stinted) having their Tap-roots remaining unmoved below the Staple of the Land, their horizontal Roots, being supply’d with Moisture from the Tap-roots, immediately take hold of the fresh-plowed Earth, as soon as ’tis turned back to them; whereas the transplanted, having their Tap-roots broken off, and their Horizontal Roots crumpled in the Holes wherein they are set, must lose Time, and be in Danger of dying with Thirst, if the Weather proves dry.
Also this Way seems better than the common Practice of sowing Turneps upon once plowing after Wheat; because the Wheat-land commonly lies longer unplow’d by Six or Eight Months than Barley-land; and therefore cannot be in so good Tilth for Turneps as Barley-land may, unless the former be of a more friable Nature, or much more dunged, than the latter. Besides, these Wheat-Turneps are uncertain, in Respect of the Fly that often destroys them at their first coming up; which Misfortune happened the Autumn 1734 to almost all that were sown in that Manner.
I have observ’d, that Barley sown on the Level, and not hoed, overcomes the Turneps that come up amongst it; but that Turneps, which come up in the Partitions of Treble Rows of my Ridges of Horse-hoed Barley, grew so vigorously as to overcome the Barley. And this was demonstrated at Harvest in a long Field, one Side of which had borne Turnep-seed, and the drilled Ridges of Barley crossing the Middle of it; and both Ends of the Field having Barley sown on the Level, one End of every Ridge cross’d the Turnep-seed Part of the Field for about Ten Perches of their Length.
I observed also, that the Turneps near the Edges of the Lands of sown Barley, adjoining to the hoed Intervals, grew large, but not so large as those in the Partitions on the Ridges, their Intervals being hoed on each Side of them.
But different from this have I seen shattered Turnep-seed coming up in the like Partitions of drilled Wheat, on the very same Sort of Land, so miserably poor and stinted, that they scarce grew a Hand’s Breadth high, when those Turneps which the Hoe left in the Sides of the Intervals, and at the narrow Edges of the unhoed Earth of the Interval Sides of the Rows of Wheat, grew large; and the Wheat was good also: But I do not remember how the middle Row of it succeeded.
This last Experience of the Turneps among the Wheat was got by this Accident: The Wheat was drilled after drilled Turneps on Ridges of a different Size. The Turneps were all pulled up before the Ground was plowed for the Wheat; but as Turnep-seed never comes _all_ up the first Year, enough remained of this to come up (though thinly) in the Wheat, to shew exactly where every Row had been drilled; whereupon the Observation was made.
[78] This Wheat, being thus drill’d on the new Ridges made in the Intervals, betwixt the Rows of Turneps, being well Horse-ho’d in the Spring, prov’d a very good Crop; it was drill’d in treble Rows, the Partitions Seven Inches each.
When Turneps are planted too late, to have Time and Sun for attaining to their full Bulk, some drill a double Row on each Six-feet Ridge, with a Partition of Fourteen Inches; but I am told, that in this double Row the Turneps do not, even at that late Season, grow so large, as those planted at the same time in single Rows, tho’ the double Row requires double the Expence in setting out; and there will be less Earth ho’d by the Breadth of fourteen Inches of the deepest Part of the Ridge, and consequently the Land will be the less improv’d for the next Crop. We need not to be very exact, in the Number[79] or Distance[80] we set them out at; we contrive to leave the Master-turneps (when there is much Difference in them), and spare such when near one another, and leave the more Space before and behind them; but if they be Three Master-turneps too near together, we take out the middlemost.
[79] The least Number will be the largest Turneps; yet we should have a competent Stock, which I think is not less than Thirty on a square Perch.