Agricultural Division. 



WHEAT CULTURE BY THE JETHRO TULL OR LOIS- 



WEEDON SYSTEM. 



Since to the investigations and practices of Jethro Tull is due more ' 

 than to any other cause the superior culture given to roots and grain 

 crops in England, it may not be out of place to state briefly the chief 

 points of his system. 



Jethro Tull, an English landlord educated for the bar, visited Italy 

 and the South of France at the close of the sixteenth century in order 

 to regain his health. In these countries he learned that many succes- 

 sive crops were taken from the land without any apparent diminution 

 of yield. He says, " Vines kept in the condition of low shrubs are 

 constantly plowed (cultivated) in the proper season ; these have no 

 other assistants, but by hoeing, because their heads and roots are so 

 near together that dung would spoil the taste of wine they produced, 

 in hot countries." 



From what he had seen and learned during his visits he conceived 

 the following propositions: 



1. " That interculture among the growing crops is a necessary prepar- 

 ation in well conducted farming." 



2. " That adequate tillage is not only an economic substitute for 

 manure, but " 



3. " Thorough tillage is also competent, with or without the aid of 

 manure, to secure the profitable growth of any given species of culti- 

 vated plants, year after year, in succession." He began to raise wheat 

 much as we raise corn, in drills, with intervals wide enough for the 

 passage of the horse hoe. The rows of each succeeding crop of wheat 

 were planted in what had been intervals the year before. 



Up to the time of his death, in 1741, he had grown thirteen unman- 

 ured wheat crops without intermission, and without decrease, in the 

 same ground. In the latter years of his practice he frequently grew a 

 hundred acres of wheat in one season by his improved method of horse 

 hoeing. 



Rev. Samuel Smith adopted Tull's plan with some improvements and 

 modifications at Lois-Weedon, Northamptonshire. He was extremely 



