A Field, that is a sort of an Heath-ground, used to bring such poor Crops of Corn, that heretofore the Parson carried away a whole Crop of Oats from it, believing it had been only his Tythe. The best Management that ever they did or could bestow upon it, was to let it rest Two or Three Years, and then fallow and dung it, and sow it with Wheat, next to that with Barley and Clover, and then let it rest again; but I cannot hear of any good Crop that it ever produced by this or any other of their Methods; ’twas still reckoned so poor, that nobody cared to rent it. They said Dung and Labour were thrown away upon it, then immediately after Two sown Crops of black Oats had been taken off it, the last of which was scarce worth the mowing, it was put into the Hoeing Management; and when Three hoed Crops[241] had been taken from it, it was sown with Barley, and brought a very good Crop, much better than ever it was known to yield before; and then a good Crop of hoed Wheat succeeded the Barley, and then it was again sown with Barley, upon the Wheat-stubble; and that also was better than the Barley it used to produce. [241] These Three hoed Crops were of Turneps and Potatoes. Now all the Farmers of the Neighbourhood affirm, that it is impossible but that this must be very rich Ground, because they have seen it produce Six Crops in Six Years, without Dung or Fallow, and never one of them fail. But, alas! this different Reputation they give to the Land, does not at all belong to it, but to the different Sorts of Husbandry; for the Nature of it cannot be altered but by that, the Crops being all carried off it, and nothing added to supply the Substance those Crops take from it, except (what Mr. _Evelyn_ calls) the celestial Influences; and that these are received by the Earth, in proportion to the Degrees of its Pulveration. A Field was drilled with Barley after an hoed Crop; and another adjoining to it on the same Side of the same poor Hill, and exactly the same Sort of Land, was drilled with Barley also, Part of it after the sown Crop, the same Day with the other; there was only this Difference in the Soil, that the former of these had no manner of Compost on it for many Years before, and the latter was dunged the Year before: Yet its Crop was not near so good as that which followed the hoed Crop[242]; tho’ the latter had twice the Plowing that the former had before drilling, and the same Hoeings afterwards; _viz._ Each was hoed Three times. [242] This was a Wheat Crop, and often well hoed.