ENGLAND. (AGRICULTURE.) 



29 



was not restrained even in plenty and cheapness. In 

 1663 was passed the first statute for levying tolls at 

 turnpikes. Enclosures by consent and by act of par- 

 liament began also to be made during this century. 



In England, from the restoration to the 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 system of 

 agriculture) were confined to a few districts, and at 

 the close of this period were scarcely cultivated at all 

 by common farmers in the northern parts of the island. 

 From the fVhole Art of Husbandry, published by 

 Mortimer in 1706, a work of considerable merit, it 

 does not appear that any improvement was made on 

 his practices till near the end of last century. In 

 those districts where clover and rye-grass were culti- 

 vated, 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 are 

 still in most districts of England. 



In the beginning of the eighteenth century, a con- 

 siderable improvement in the process 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-hoeing Husbandry was 

 published in 1731. 



Tull's theory is that the roots of plants extend much 

 farther than is commonly believed ; and he inquires 

 into the nature of their food. After examining 

 several hypotheses, he decides the food of plants 

 to be fine particles of earth. The chief, and almost 

 the only use of dung, he thinks, is to divide the 

 earth ; to dissolve the " terrestrial matter which 

 affords nutriment to the mouths of vegetable roots ;" 

 and this can be done more completely by tillage. It 

 is therefore necessary, not only to pulverise the soil 

 by repeated ploughings before it is seeded ; but, as 

 it becomes gradually more and more compressed 

 afterwards, recourse must be had to tillage or horse- 

 hoeing, while the plants are growing ; which also 

 destroys the weeds that would deprive the plants of 

 their nourishment. The leading feature of Tull's 

 husbandry, is his practice of laying the land into nar- 

 row ridges of five or six feet, and upon the middle 

 of these drilling one, two, or three rows ; distant- 

 from one another about seven inches, when there 

 were three ; and ten inches, when only two. The 

 distance of the plants on one ridge from those on the 

 contiguous one, he called an interval ; the distance 

 between the rows on the same ridge a space, or par- 

 tition ; the former was stirred repeatedly by the 

 horse-hoe, and the latter by the hand-hoe. 



In the culture of wheat Tull began with ridges 

 six feet broad, or eleven on a breadth of sixty-six 

 feet ; but on this he afterwards had fourteen ridges. 

 After trying different numbers of rows on a ridge, he 

 at last preferred two, with an intervening space 

 of about ten inches. He allowed only three pecks 

 of seed for an acre. The first hoeing was performed 

 by turning a furrow from the row, as soon as the 

 plant had put forth four or five leaves ; so that it was 

 done before, or at the beginning of, winter. The 

 next hoeing was in spring, by which the earth was 

 returned to the plants. The subsequent operations 

 depended upon the circumstances and condition of 

 the land, and the state of the weather. The next 

 year's crop of wheat was sown upon the intervals 

 which had been unoccupied the former year; but 

 this he does not seem to think was a matter of much 

 consequence. 



According to Tull, a rotation of crops of different 

 species was altogether unnecessary; and he labours 

 hard to prove, against Dr Woodward, that the ad- 

 vantages of such a change, under his plan of tillage, 



were quite chimerical; though he seems to admit 

 the benefit of a change of the seed itself. But the best 

 method of determining the question would have been 

 to have stated the amount of his crops per acre, and 

 the quality of the grain, instead of resting the supe- 

 riority of his management on the alleged saving of 

 expense, when compared with the common broad- 

 cast husbandry. 



On the culture of the turnip, both his principles 

 and his practice are much more correct. The 

 ridges were of the same breadth as for wheat ; but 

 only one row was drilled on each. His management, 

 while the crop was growing, differs very little from 

 the present practice. When drilled on the level, it 

 is impossible, he observes, to hoe-plough them so 

 well as when they are planted upon ridges. But the 

 seed was deposited at diilerent depths, the half about 

 four inches deep, and the other half exactly over 

 that, at the depth of half an inch. 



Drilling, and horse and hand-hoeing, seem to 

 have been in use before the publication of Tull's 

 book. " Hoeing," he says, " may be divided into 

 deep, which is our horse-hoeing ; and shallow, which 

 is the English hand-hoeing ; and also the shallow 

 horse-hoeing used in some places betwixt rows, 

 where the intervals are very narrow, as sixteen or 

 eighteen inches. This is but an imitation of the 

 hand-hoe, or a succedaneum to it, and can neither 

 supply the use of dung, nor of fallow, and may 

 be properly called scratch-hoeing." But in his 

 mode of forming ridges, his practice seems to have 

 been original ; his implements display much ingen- 

 uity ; and his claim to the title of father of the pre- 

 sent horse-hoeing husbandry of Great Britain seems 

 indisputable. Three several translations of Tull's 

 book were published in France. 



In the live stock of British agriculture, very little 

 improvement had been made previously to the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, or later. About this time 

 the best breed of cattle and sheep were about Don- 

 caster, in Yorkshire, and in Leicestershire, and the 

 first grand and successful effort to improve them was 

 made by Robert Bakewell, of Dishley hi the latter 

 county. 



As the leading features of practical agricultural 

 improvement in England during the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, and to the present time, we may enumerate the 

 following : The gradual introduction of a better 

 system of rotation since the publication of Tull's 

 Horse-hoeing Husbandry, and other agricultural 

 works, from 1700 to 1750 ; the improvement of live 

 stock by Bakewell, about 1760 ; the raised drill sys- 

 tem of growing 1 turnips, the use of lime in agriculture, 

 and the convertible husbandry, by Pringle, and more 

 especially by Dawson, about 1765 ; the improved 

 swing plough, by Small, about 1790; and the improved 

 thrashing machine, by Meikle, about 1795. As im- 

 provements of comparatively limited application 

 might be mentioned, the art of tapping springs, or 

 what has been called Elkington's mode of draining, 

 which seems to have been discovered by Dr Ander- 

 son, from principle, and Mr Elkington, by accident, 

 about 1760, or later ; and the revival of the art of 

 irrigation, by Boswell, about 1780. The field culture 

 of the potato, shortly after 1750 ; the introduction of 

 the Swedish turnip, about 1790; of spring wheat, 

 about 1795 ; of summer wheat, about 1800 ; and of 

 mangold wurtzel more recently, have, with the intro- 

 duction of other improved field plants, and improved 

 breeds of animals, contributed to increase the pro- 

 ducts of agriculture ; as the enclosing of common 

 field lands and wastes, and the improvements of 

 mosses and marshes, have contributed to increase the 

 produce and salubrity of the general surface of the 

 country. 



