34 Lois Weedon Husbandry. 



hoeing to do the work ill, he could have horse-hoed six times 

 and done it well. 



Or, if I have misunderstood Mr. Lawes, and the two hand- 

 hoeings were only for the wheat rows and not for the intervals, 

 the case against him is stronger still ; for then there was not 

 even any hand-hoeing of the intervals at all ; and only an occa- 

 sional spudding is to be set against my deep horse-hoeing, " as 

 often as the surface incrustates and as long as the growing com 

 will permit." 



There are two ways, however, of defeating a rule. By coming 

 short of it, and by going beyond it. " It is certain," says Mr. 

 Lawes, " that the same amount of labour expended upon the 

 Rothamsted soil as upon the Lois Weedon one, was quite ineffi- 

 cient to get the same amount of staple, and of exposure of surface 

 to atmospheric influences." I have shown how Mr. Lawes broke 

 the rule by coming short of it, — by not tilling his land as I have 

 tilled mine, or expending upon it the same amount of labour. I 

 have only one thing more to do, and that is to show how fatally 

 he erred by going beyond the rule and defeating it thus. 



To explain in what way this error was committed I must go 

 back for a moment to the first proceedings in this career of 

 double-digging for the wheat-crop. In preparation for the plan, 

 the land, after a winter fallow, is to be ploughed and harrowed 

 and rolled ; and harrowed and rolled and stirred again, as for 

 harley. This thoroughly pulverizes the 5-inch staple. In the 

 second week in September the seed is in, and in a month is up. 

 Then, when the lines of wheat are well marked, comes the dig- 

 ging of the intervals. With regard to the depth, the principle 

 from the beginning was, — to bring up just so much of the subsoil 

 as could be pulverized and mellowed during the annual fallow ; 

 and the published rule in 1851 was " 4 inches" if the soil be 

 tenacious ; this warning being added in italics, that " To bi'ing 

 up more at the outset would be a ivasteful and injurious expense:'^ 



By the 4 inches fixed on for tenacious soil, such as that at 

 Rothamsted and Lois Weedon, the intelligent farmer, having 

 caught the principle, would understand that there was nothing 

 magical in this precise number 4 ; but that if a depth of 3 inches, 

 or even 2, in his unusually stiff soil, would better come down to 

 dust than 4, he would confine himself to that, and be satisfied ; 

 for he would recollect that if he brought up only 2 inches, he 

 would still, from the moiety of his acre, get 100 tons of fresh 

 virgin soil. 



In digging the intervals of clay land, then, at the outset, I cast 

 the 5 inches of well-pulverized staple to the bottom, and place 

 on the top the 4 inches of tenacious clay, making altogether 9 

 inches to dig, either at two very shallow spits, or at one ordinary 



