Vol. III. No. 27. 



MAY 1908. 



DEINIINQ 



A Monthly Educational Journal devoted to 

 the Advancement of Horticulture in Ireland 



Importance of Tillage. 



By PROFISSOR JAMES WILSON, M.A, 



IN this journal frequent relerence has been 

 made to the need for thoroug-h and persis- 

 tent tillage. So frequent have the refer- 

 ences been that a contributor who has written 

 upon the subject several times already is ashamed 

 to do so again. Having some consideration for 

 this contributor's frame of mind, and having no 

 one else within reach who might deal with the 

 subject, we proceed to do so ourselves, and we 

 claim warrant for our procedure in two good 

 reasons — namely, in the impor- 

 tance oi the svibject at this par- 

 ticular season of the year and 

 in the knowledge that it can- 

 not be driven home too well. 

 If two men are sawing a great 

 standing tree there comes a 

 time when its weight closes 

 up the track and chokes the 

 saw. The men then drive a 

 wedge into the track and set 

 the saw free. But before they 

 bring the monster to the ground 

 they must repeat the process 

 ag-ain and again. The wedge 

 must not only be pointed, it 

 must be driven to the very 

 neck by many and many a blow. 

 We look upon a knowledge of 

 tillage as being the horticul- 

 turist's most effective tool, and 

 so we return to it once more. 

 No man believed in tillage 

 more clearly than the man who 

 expounded it first. It is so in all things. The first 

 discoverer is usually gifted with or attains to the 

 clearest sight. Otherwise he would not be the 

 first discoverer. What about Jenner inoculating' 

 his own child against small-pox ? What about 

 George Stephenson's confidence in his engine 

 overcoming the coo? It was Jethro Tull who 

 first discovered the nature of tillage. Tull was 

 a barrister who^ through weak health, took to 

 farming. But, being an educated man and a 

 thinking man as well, he saw farther into a clod 



Jethro Tull 



From a Pdinlim; . 

 Mr. McDtii 



of earth than any other man had done before him. 

 He was an observant man. He had also travelled 

 abroad. Near his farm was a labourer who grew 

 cabbages : who grew better cabbages than any- 

 body else. Tull discovered how it was done. The 

 labourer did what other cabbage growers did not 

 do. Not only did he dig the ground before plant- 

 ing the cabbages, but he dug" it after they were 

 all well grown. This also reminded Tull of what 

 he had seen done by the best vine growers in the 

 south of France. They kept 

 on digg"ing the ground around 

 their trees right into the summer. 

 But Tull was not satisfied with 

 seeing how the thing was done. 

 He wanted to know also why it 

 was done, and to know this he 

 put on his thinking cap. He 

 argued in this way : What does 

 the digging do? What does 

 the plant do? The plant sends 

 its roots dowMi into the ground, 

 where they go boring and 

 sprawling and crawling about 

 in search of sustenance. Where 

 do they get their sustenance ? 

 They get it from the surfaces 

 with which they come in contact. 

 Therefore the more of these the 

 better ; the greater the area of 

 these surfaces the greater the 

 chances of acquiring susten- 

 ;ince. 



Can the area of these under- 

 ground surfaces be increased ? Does the spade 

 do it ? Will tillage do it ? What does the spade 

 do ? It goes down into the ground and brings up 

 a chunk of earth which it turns over and knocks 

 to pieces. The chunk of earth had six sides 

 or surfaces when brought out of the ground ; 

 now it has many. In merely going into the 

 ground the spade splits up many a clod, big 

 ones and small ones, and even some so small 

 that we must call them particles. It even splits 

 up gravel and small stones, and chips off" small 



II the /iiissossioii oj 

 I J ■ Sutton. 



