RUfA BAG A CULTURE 



might have saved myself some hundreds of pounds a year. I 

 ought to have followed TULL in this as in all other parts of his 

 manner of cultivating land. But, in our country, it is difficult 

 to get a ploughman to look at an ox. In this Island the thing is 

 done so completely and so easily, that it was, to me, quite wonder 

 ful to behold. To see one of these Long-Islanders going into the 

 field, or orchard, at sun-rise, with his yoke in his hand, call his 

 oxen by name to come and put their necks under the yoke, drive 

 them before him to the plough, just hitch a hook on to the ring 

 of the yoke, and then, without any thing except a single chain and 

 the yoke, with no reins, no halter, no traces, no bridle, no driver, 

 set to plough, and plough a good acre and a half in the day. To 

 see this would make an English farmer stare ; and well it might, 

 when he looked back to the ceremonious and expensive business 

 of keeping and managing a plough-team in England. 



125. These are the means, which I would, and which I shall 

 use, to protect my crops against the effects of a dry season. So 

 that, as every one has the same means at his command, no one 

 need be afraid of drought. It is a bright plough-share that is 

 always wanted much more than the showers. With this culture 

 there is no fear of a crop ; and though it amount to only five 

 hundred bushels on an acre, what crop is half so valuable. 



126. The bulk of crop, however, in the broadcast, or random 

 method, may be materially affected by drought : for in that case, 

 the plough cannot come to supply the place of showers. The 

 ground there will be dry, and keep dry in a dry time ; as in the 

 case of the supposed half rod of undug ground in the garden. 

 The weeds, too, will come and help by their roots, to suck the 

 moisture out of the ground. As to the hcmd-hoeings , they may 

 keep down weeds to be sure, and they raise a trifling portion of 

 exhalation ; but, it is trilling indeed. Dry weather, if of long 

 continuation, makes the leaves become of a bluish colour ; and, 

 when this is once the case, all the rain and all the fine weather in 



draft will clearly show what I have meant to describe in 



words : 



When the corn (Indian) and turnips get to a size, sufficient to 

 attract the appetite of the ox, you have only to put on a muzzle. 

 This is what Mr. TULL did; for, though we tmgnt not to muzzle 

 the ox &quot; as he treadeth out the corn,&quot; we may do it, even for his 

 own sake, amongst other considerations, when he is assisting us 

 to bring the crop to perfection. 



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