238 History of the English Landed Interest, 



The details of his wheat cultivation are as follows ^ : — The 

 land was ploughed twice and hoed six times. This, as regards 

 expense, was not more than the cost of two ploughings under 

 the old system. For in the latter, butts six feet wide were 

 split up into eight furrows ; but in Tull's a six-feet ridge 

 contained only four furrows, the two middle ones being 

 covered, and the outer furrow on each side lying open. A 

 single hoeing consisted of two furrows in each ridge, and was 

 therefore equal to a fourth part of one ordinary ploughing. 

 All the tillage necessary, however, for wheat when it succeeded 

 a hoed crop, was eight hoeings, each of which, taking one with 

 another, required three oxen. During the hours of labour 

 sanctioned by law (i.e., five a.m. to half-past seven p.m., with 

 a two and a half hours' interval for the midday's rest)^ he calcu- 

 lated that by changing oxen at the time of the second yoking, 

 no less than half a dozen acres could be hoed daily. The cost 

 of this process was one shilling for the ploughman, one 

 shilling for a day's keep of six oxen, sixpence for a boy acting 

 as teamer, and another sixpence for wear and tear of tackle ; 

 altogether a total of three shillings for the six acres hoed. 

 With a drill, planting two ridges at once, twenty-four acres 

 could be sown daily ; even with that preferred by Tull, which 

 only vented a single row, the expense per acre was not more 

 than sixpence. Weeding, which became a diminishing factor 

 with each successive crop cultivated by the horse hoe, cost on 

 an average sixpence per acre ; and one half of this sum was 

 sufficient to cover such minor expenses as those of a boy or 

 woman following the hoe to free the 3'oung wheat from clods, 

 and applying brine and lime as a pickle to the seed. 



As in sowing, so in reaping, much labour and material were 

 economised. The wheat sown by the old process presented, 

 according to Tull, all the appearance of a " rabble, that 

 thrown out from his machine came up like a disciplined 



^ Horse-hoeing Husbandry, ch. xvii. J. Tull. 



^ 22 Hen. VIII. c. 12 was only to remain in force one year, but was 

 renewed by repeated Acts until partly repealed by 21 Jac. I. c. 28. Then 

 20 Geo. II. c. 19 and 31 Geo. III. c. 37, besides the precedents of the 

 Courts, seem to have regulated the hours of labour. 



