240 History of the English Landed Interest, 



summed up as follows : ^ " About fifty years ago, a celebrated 

 Englishman, Mr. Tull, made many experiments in a new 

 method of culture, the great design of which was to set aside 

 the use of manures. To this day he has had many followers. 

 With the gentlemen that pursue his system, tillage alone is 

 necessary — the plough is all in all, and nothing is to be 

 dunged or otherwise dressed but meadows or pastures. Were 

 such ideas to become general, it is inconceivable how much 

 mischief they would occasion ; for there cannot be more false 

 principles than those whereon they are built." 



Thus, so to speak, we have in one breath a just tribute paid 

 to this great agriculturist, and an unflinching exposure of the 

 errors of his practice. " The ingenuity and judgment with 

 which Tull introduced his drill and horse-hoeing husbandry," 

 says another writer of the same period,^ " was such, that he 

 soon acquired a fame which will be of a duration equal with 

 our language. He indeed laid the foundation of every improve- 

 ment made in the art since his time. He carried ploughing to 

 so great perfection, that he has in some degree rendered 

 Cato's third direction (stercorare) almost unnecessary. I 

 believe he did not live to have the satisfaction of seeing with 

 what success and spirit his practice was adopted in France by 

 those zealous patriots, Messrs. Duhamel and his associates, 

 one of whom, Mr. Lullier de Chatteau Vieux, was distin- 

 guished by his success, and still more so by the judicious 

 inferences he often drew from what he had seen and prac- 

 tised." 



But, as the same writer goes on to prove, Tull's system 

 was happily never in danger of becoming universal. Many 

 farmers grudged leaving so large intervals between the ridges 

 of corn as Tull proposed. The ingenuity of a Mr. Duckett, 

 formerly employed in the gardens of Clermont, afterwards 

 appointed by the Duchess of Newcastle to supervise a small 

 farm on the Thames at Richmond, removed this objection. 

 Early in the management of this property it occurred to him 



^ Farmer's Kalendar^ Preface. By an experienced Farmer (A. Young). 

 1771. 



^ Gentleman's Mag., 1790, March 23. 



