Aniatetir Fanning. 329 



side was found to be, in 1795, a hovel in whicli any contem- 

 porary of Young's possessing £200 a year would probably have 

 refused to live a single twelvemonth. The glazed tiles of its 

 humble kitchen were relics of their former owner's handiwork. 

 Its lofty situation commanded a view of some ten or twelve 

 miles of surrounding country, and had been bleak and exposed 

 ever since the great storm of 1709 had blown down its shelter 

 of trees. The entire farm, save a field to the north-west, which, 

 before Tull drained it, had been a " wet, spewy soil," was 

 dry, flinty chalkland. Until he had taken it in hand it was 

 merely a sheep down, and though reputed under his manage- 

 ment to have become one-third better for a tenant, it would, 

 he himself confessed, not have let at half its original rent.^ 



Tull kept no flock at all, arguing that he possessed no 

 common, down, pasture or meadow, to keep it upon ; that, were 

 he to have sown sainfoin, it would have been unfit for store 

 sheep ; and that if had he folded them he would have had 

 to use less economical horse labour instead of that of oxen. 

 Besides, added poor Tull, "'Tis a trade that I'm not master 

 of, nor can I have it well done by a deputy. I find it very 

 difficult to preserve my corn from being spoiled by neighbour- 

 ing sheep ; but if I had a flock of my own 'twould be more 

 difficult." "We cannot help attributing (though Arthur Young 

 omits to do so) to this management the low state of Tull's 

 purse. In his mania for the drill he neglected the flock, and 

 converted the virgin down, the finest sheep pasturage in the 

 world, into indifferent wheat soil, which his prejudice against 

 manure prevented his improving. The Mr. Blandy, however, 

 who bought the farm from Tull's executors, and was cultiva- 

 ting it at the time of Young's visit, kept nine horses and 180 

 sheep. His course of husbandry was turnips, barley, seeds, 

 wheat, and oats, and by maintaining his land under sainfoin 

 or clover four years, he was able to secure three prolific white 

 crops in each eight-course shift. ^ 



' This was not the Oxfordshu'e holding alluded to on p. 89 of this 

 work, and which, after he had done cultivating it himself, he let at an 

 enhanced rent. 



•^ Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxiii, p. 172. 



