470 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



considered as constituting an era in English agriculture. It is 

 curious to observe, that oftentimes, in human history, great mis 

 takes lead to great improvements and discoveries ; and in the 

 complicated course of human affairs, a divine Providence, in 

 comparison with which human sagacity can scarcely be con 

 sidered other than as arrant folly, converts the errors of man 

 into instruments of truth and knowledge. Experiment is the 

 highway to science, and it is as desirable, in many cases, to 

 know what will not, as to know what will succeed. Men are 

 always ready, through self-esteem and the love of approbation, 

 to detail and magnify any fortunate results ; but he is a brave 

 man, and more entitled to respect, who, by way of caution, will 

 expose his failures, and guard the sanguine and adventurous 

 against the errors in which he himself became involved. This 

 is a noble disinterestedness ; but many men, like the fox who 

 lost his brush in a steel trap, wish nothing so much as to see 

 their neighbors subjected to the same mortification. 



The Romans, in their husbandry, prescribed four distinct 

 processes of arable culture. The first was to break, the land 

 the second to turn it over ; the third was to break it again ; the 

 fourth was to turn it again.* They understood perfectly the 

 use and advantages of thorough and deep tillage. The English 

 farmers are fully aware of this, and follow repeated ploughings, 

 with various other processes. 



The first is that of harrowing. This is done lengthwise with 

 the furrow always in the first instance, and then crosswise, 

 until the surface is completely mellowed and pulverized. With 

 us, in general, harrows are made single, and the teeth set in 

 wooden frames, and, though they are usually made square, yet 

 the chain is generally attached to one of the corners, which 

 gives them a diamond shape, and is supposed to lessen the 

 draught. We seldom take a breadth, in such case, of more than 

 four and a half or five feet. Here the best harrows are made, 

 both frames and teeth, of iron. The teeth, or tines, work to a 

 depth of five to eight inches, and follow each other in lines 

 about four inches apart. Seed harrows, or harrows for covering 

 the seed, have tines about four inches in length, and are made 

 proportionately light. 



* 1. Fringere. 2. Vertere. 3. Refringere. 4. Revertere. 



