Book I. AGRICULTURE IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 125 



distress among all that immediately depend upon them, to which there is probably no par- 

 allel." [See Cleghom on the Depressed State of Agriculture, 1822.) After seven or eight 

 years of severe suffering, both by landlords and tenants, things have now assumed a 

 more stationary condition. Rents have been greatly lowered every where, in proportion 

 to the fall of prices and the rise of parochial burdens, and both farmers and landlords are 

 beginning gradually to recover themselves. 



SuBSECT. 1. Professional History of Agriculture, from the Revolution to the 



jyresent Time. 



755. From the restoration down to the middle of the eighteenth century, very little improve- 

 ment had taken 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 agri- 

 culture,) were confined to a few districts, and at the latter period were scarcely cultivated at 

 all by common farmers in the northern parts of the island. From the Whole Art of Hus- 

 bandry, 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 cultivated, 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 were used in Houghton's time, and are still in most 

 districts of England. 



756. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, a considerable improvement in the 

 process of culture was introduced by Jethro Tull, a gentleman of Berkshire, who 

 began to drill wheat and other crops, about the year 1701, and whose Horse-hoeing 

 Husbandry was published in 1731. " In giving a short account of the innovations of 

 this eccentric writer, it is not meant to enter into any discussion of their merits. It will 

 not detract much from his reputation to admit, that, like most other men who leave the 

 beaten path, he was sometimes misled by inexperience, and sometimes deceived by a 

 too sanguine imagination. Had Tull confined his recommendation of the drill hus- 

 bandry to leguminous and bulbous-rooted plants generally, and to the cereal gramina 

 only in particular circumstances ; and had he, without puzzling himself about the food 

 of plants, been contented with pointing out the great advantage of pulverizing the soil 

 in most cases, and extirpating weeds in every case, he would certainly have deserved a 

 high rank among the benefactors of his country. A knowledge of his doctrines and 

 practice, however, will serve as a necessary introduction to the present approved modes 

 of culture." 



757. TuU's theory is promulgated with great confidence ; and in the controversy which he thought 

 proper to maintain in support of it, he scrupled not to employ ridicule as well as reasoning. Besides the 

 Roman writers de Re Rustica, Virgil in particular, whom he treats with high disdain j he is almost equally 

 severe on Dr. Woodward, Bradley, and other writers of his own time. 



758. Tull begins by showing that the roots of plants extended much farther than is commonly believed ; 

 and then proceeds to inquire into the nature of their food. After examining several hypotheses, he de- 

 cides this 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 pulverize 

 the soil by repeated ploughings before it be seeded ; but as it becomes gradually more and more compressed 

 afterwards, recourse must be had to tillage while the plants are growing, or horse-hoeing ; which also 

 destroys the weeds that would deprive the plants of their nourishment. 



759. The leading features of TuWs husbandry, are his practice of laying the land into narrow 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 partition : the former was stirred repeatedly by the horse-hoe, and the latter by the 

 hand-hoe. 



' 760. The extraordinary attention Tull gave to his mode of culture is, perhaps, without a parallel. " I for- 

 merly was at much pains," he says, " and at some charge, in improving my drills, for planting the rows at 

 very near distances ; and had brought them to such perfection, that one horse would draw a drill with 

 eleven shares, making the rows at three inches and a half distance from one another ; and, at the same 

 time, sow in them three very different sorts of seeds, which did not mix ; and these two at different depths. 

 As the barley-rows were seven inches asunder, the barley lay four inches deep. A little more than three 

 inches above" that, in the same channels, was clover ; betwixt every two of these rows, was a row of saint- 

 foin, covered half an inch deep. I had a good crop of barley the first year ; the next year two crops of 

 broad clover, where that was sown ; and where hop clover was sown, a mixed crop of that and saintfoin ; 

 but I am since, by experience, so fully convinced of the folly of these, or any other mixed crops, and more 

 especially of narrow spaces, that I have demolished these instruments (in their full perfection) as a vain 

 curiosity, the drift and use of them being contrary to the true principles and practice of horse-hoeing." 

 (Horse-hoeing Husbandry, p. 62. London, 1762.) 



761. In the culture of wheat he 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. " My field," he observes, "whereon is now the thirteenth 

 crop of wheat, has shown that the rows may successfully stand upon any part of the ground. The ridges 

 of this field were, for the twelfth crop, changed from six feet to four feet six inches. In order for this al- 

 teration, the ridges were ploughed down, and then the next ridges were laid out the same way as the for- 

 mer, but one foot six inches narrower, and the double rows drilled on their tops ; whereby, of consequence, 

 there must be some rows standing on every part of the ground, both on the former partitions, and on 



