Note 240 — CHAP. XVII. Of Differences between the Old and the New Husbandry.

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.