[209] And _cæteris paribus_; for when the Land has been more exhausted, more Tillage (or Dung) or Rest will be required to produce the same Quantity of Food, than when the Land hath been less exhausted. By Tillage is here meant, not only the Number of Plowings, but the Degree of Division or Pulveration of the Soil; or, if perchance the Soil is extraordinary much exhausted by many Crops, without proper Tillage between them, the greater Degree of Pulveration, by Plowing or Dung (which is only a _Succedaneum_ of Tillage), and also a longer Time of Exposure, may be necessary to counterpoise that extraordinary Exhaustion. ’Tis seen, that the same Sort of Weeds, which once come naturally in a Soil, if suffer’d to grow, will always prosper in proportion to the Tillage and Manure bestow’d upon it, without any Change. And so are all manner of Plants, that have been yet try’d by the new Husbandry, seen to do. A Vineyard, if not tilled, will soon decay, even in rich Ground, as may be seen in those in _France_, lying intermingled as our Lands do in common Fields. Those Lands of Vines, which by reason of some Law-suit depending about the Property of them, or otherwise, lie a Year or two untilled, produce no Grapes, send out no Shoots hardly: the Leaves look yellow, and seem dead, in Comparison of those on each Side of them; which, being tilled, are full of Fruit, send out an hundred times more Wood, and their Leaves are large and flourishing; and continue to do the same annually for Ages, if the Plough or Hoe do not neglect them. No Change of Sorts is needful in them, if the same annual Quantity of Tillage (which appears to provide the same annual Quantity of Food) be continued to the Vines. But what in the Vineyards proves this Thesis most fully is, That where they constantly till the low Vines with the Plough, which is almost the same with the Hoe-plough, the Stems are planted about Four Feet asunder, chequerwise; so that they plow them Four ways. When any of these Plants happen to die, new ones are immediately planted in their room, and exactly in the Points or Angles where the other have rotted; else, if planted out of those Angles, they would stand in the Way of the Plough: These young Vines, I say, so planted in the very Graves, as it were, of their Predecessors, grow, thrive, and prosper well, the Soil being thus constantly tilled: And if a Plum-tree, or any other Plant, had such Tillage, it might as well succeed one of its own Species, as those Vines do. ’Tis observed, that White-thorns will not prosper, set in the Gaps of a White thorn Hedge: But I have seen the Banks of such Gaps dug and thrown down one Summer, and made up again, and White-thorns there replanted the following Winter, with good Success. But note, That the annual plowing the Vines is more beneficial than the one Summer Tillage of the Banks, the Vines having it repeated to them yearly.