Note 58 — CHAP. VI. Of Hoeing.

But this must be intended of the deep Horse-hoeing; for Turneps that stand for Seed, are such Devourers, and feed so long on the Soil, that tho’ they are Hand-ho’d, such a shallow Operation doth not supply the usual Thickness of those Plants with Pasture sufficient to raise their Stems to half their natural Bulk; and they leave so little of that Pasture behind them, that the Soil is observ’d to be extremely impoverished for a Year or two, and sometimes three Years after them; but ’tis otherwise with my Horse-ho’d Turnep-Seed; for I never fail’d of a good Crop of Barley after it, sown on the Level in the following Spring, tho’ no Dung hath been used on the Land where the Turnep-Seed grew for many Years. And also my Barley Crops thus sown after two successive Crops of Turnep-Seed without a Fallow between them, are as good as those sown after a single Crop of it. For I have several Times made these Turnep-Seed Crops annual, that is, to have Two Crops of it in Two Years, which would in the old Way require three Years, because this Crop stands about a Year on the Ground, and is not ripe till Midsummer, which is too late to get that Land into a Tilth proper to plant another Seed Crop on it the same Summer; neither can the Soil be able to bear such another Crop immediately after being so much exhausted, and unplowed for a whole Year, except it be extraordinary rich, or much dunged: However, Two Crops of Turnep-Seed immediately succeeding one another, is what I never knew, or heard of, except my own that were Horse-ho’d; and of these the second Crop was as good as the first; their Stalks grew much higher than they usually do in the common Way; and tho’ the Number of Plants was much less, their Produce was so valuable, that the Vicar’s Agent declared, he made Twenty Shillings per Acre of his Tythe of a whole Field which he tythed in Kind. The Expence of these Crops was judg’d to be answered by the Fuel of the thresh’d Stalks. It must be noted, that the extraordinary Value of these Crops arose, not from a greater Quantity of Seed than some common Crops; but from their Quality, Experience having brought this Seed into great Esteem, on account of its being perfectly clean, and produced by large Turneps of a good Sort, and of a proper Shape; for those that are not well cultivated are very apt to degenerate, and then their Seed will produce Turneps of a small Size, and of a long rapy ill Shape.

[59]Turneps run to Seed, not till the second Summer.