398 ' AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
in their weight and size, as well as the shapo of the hoes or cutting parts. These sorts 
of hoes, from their executing the work, when constructed for the purpose, on a number 
of rows at the same time, have much superiority in point of dispatch, as well as in 
performing the operation to a greater depth and in a more perfect manner, over those 
of the hand kind. As by means of these boes the mold can be more effectually stirred 
about the plants and the land kept more clear and free from weeds, they should be 
more constantly employed whenever the nature of the crop and the method in which 
it has been sown admit, as saving much labor and expense, as well as executing the 
business in a far more efficient manner. 
We learn from the same work that even expanding horse-hoes were 
then in use, and in construction were adapted to work in drills of dif- 
ferent widths, that is to say, the bearing wheels were adjustable upon 
the axle in such a manner as to accommodate the space between the 
rows of various crops, aS wheat, barley, beans, turnips, cabbage, &e. 
Drill-machines, which have been long in use, were converted into horse- 
hoes by removing the drill teeth and substituting cultivating shares, 
and so adjusting them as to fit the spaces between the rows of growing 
plants. It was also discovered that soils of different textures will re- 
quire to be hoed with shares of different form and size, and that noth- 
ing but experience in the field can point ont that which is best adapted 
to any particular soil. 
In Loudon’s Encyclopedia of Agriculture, sixth edition, page 125, we 
have the following statement : | 
In England, from the Restoration tothe middle of the eighteenth century, very little 
improvement took place, either in the cultivation of the soil or in the management of 
live stock. Even clover and turnips (the great support of the present improved sys- 
tem of agriculture) were confined to a few districts, and at the close of this period 
were scareely cultivated at all by common farmers in the northern parts of the island. 
From the Whole Art of Husbandry, published by Mortimer in 1706, a work of consid- 
erable merit, it does not appear that any improvement was made on his practices till 
near the end of the last century. In those districts where clover and rye-yrass were 
cultivated, they were cut_green and used for soiling as at present. ‘Turnips were sown 
broadcast, hand-hoed, and used for feeding sheep and cattle, as they were used in 
Hloughton’s time, and are still in most districts of England. 
tn the beginning of the eighteenth century a considerable improvement in the pro- 
cess of culture was introduced by Jethro Tull, a cultivator of Berkshire, who began to 
drill wheat and other crops about the year 1701, and whose Horse-Hocing Husbandry 
was published in 1731. In giving a short account of the views of this eccentric writer, 
itis not meant to enter into any discussion of their merits. It will not detract much 
from his reputation to admit that, like most other men who leave the beaten path, he 
was sometimes misled by inexperience and sometimes deceived by a too sanguine im- 
agination. Had Tull confined his recommendations of drill husbandry to leguminous 
and bulbons-rooted plants generally, and to the cereal gramina only in particular cir- 
cumstances; and had he, without puzzling himself about the food of plants, been con- 
tented with pointing out the great advantage in pulverizing the soil in most cases, and 
extirpating weeds in every case, he would certainly have deserved a bigh rank among 
the benefactors of his country. A knowledge of his doctrints and practice, however, 
will serve as a necessary introduction to the present approved modes of culture. 
z * as The extraordinary attention Tull gave to his mode of culture is, 
perhaps, without a parallel. ‘I was formerly at much pains,” he says, “and at some 
charge, in improving my drills for planting the rows at very near distances, and had 
brought them to such perfection that one horse would draw a drill with eleven shares, 
making the rows three inches and a half distant from one another, and at the same 
time sow in them three very different sorts of seeds, which did not mix, and these, too, 
at different depths.” 
Ht will be seen by these quotations that the broad idea of cultivating 
more than one row of plants at a time by horse-power did not originate 
in this country. What, then, are the improvements in this implement 
claimed by American inventors? Perhaps the first and most important 
is the provision of a driver’s seat upon the frame of the machine, and 
the adaptation of the cultivating devices by which they were brought 
within the perfect control and guidance of the operator. Invention 
does not often make gigantic strides; and hence we see that little by 
