Chap. VI. Of Hoeing. Jt 



Till a Field in Lands ; make one Land very fin 

 by frequent deep PJowings 5 and let another be rough 

 by infufficient Tillage, alternately •, then plow the 

 whole Field crofs-ways in the dried Weather, which 

 has continued long •, and you will perceive, by the 

 Colour of the Earth, that every fine Land will be 

 turn'd up moid ; but every rough Land will be dry- 

 as Powder, from Top to Bottom. 



Altho' hard Ground, when thoroughly foak'd with 

 Rain, will continue wet longer than fine till'd Land 

 adjoining to it •, yet this Water ferves rather to chill, 

 than nouriih the Plants Handing therein, and to keep 

 out the other Benefits of the Atmofphere, leaving 

 the Ground dill harder when 'tis thence exhaled ; 

 and being at lad once become dry, it can admit no 

 more Moidure, unlefs from a long-continued Deluge 

 of Rain, which ieldom falls till Winter, which is not 

 the Seafon for Vegetation. 



As fine hoed Ground is not fo long foaked by 

 Rain, fo the Dews never differ it to become perfectly 

 dry : This appears by the Plants, which flourifh and 

 grow fat in this, whiid thofe in the hard Ground are 

 darved, except fuchof them, which dand near enough 

 to the hoed (a) Earth, for the Roots to borrow 

 Moidure and Nourifhment from it. 



And 



(a) As when Wheat is drilTd late in very poor Land, fo that 

 in the Spring the young Plants look all very yellow ; let your 

 Hoe-plough, making a crooked Line, like an Indenture, on one 

 Side of a flrait Row of this poor Wheat in the Spring, turn a 

 Furrow from it ; and in a fhort time you will fee all thole yellow 

 Plants, that are contiguous to this Furrow, change their yellow 

 Colour to a deep Green ; whilft thofe Plants of the fame Row, 

 which ftand fartheft off from this indented Furrow, change not 

 their Colour till afterwards; and all the Plants change or retain their 

 Colour fooner or later gradually, as they ftand nearer to, or far- 

 ther from it ; and the other Rows, which have no Furrow near 

 them, continue their yellow, after all this Row is become green 

 and foariming: But this Experiment is belt to be made in poor 

 fandy Ground, when the Mould is friable ; elfe perhaps the differ- 



E 2 ent 



