SKETCH OF MODERN AGRICULTURE 



55 



impiovements combined to accelerate the industrial revolution 

 which was taking place. 



Agricultural improvement ; Jethro lull. Somewhat earlier 

 than this, however, began a series of rapid agricultural improve- 

 ments which were even more important for the economic devel- 

 opment and prosperity of the kingdom. About 1701 Jethro Tull 

 began to drill wheat and other crops, having invented a drill for 

 that purpose ; and a little later to cultivate growing crops by horse 

 power, the process being called horse hoeing. In 1731 appeared 

 his work entitled " Horse-Hoeing Husbandry," which is regarded 

 as one of the most important agricultural works ever published. 

 Some of his theories are now regarded as imperfect, but the prac- 

 tices which he based upon those theories have not yet been mate- 

 rially improved upon. Thorough and deep pulverization of the soil 

 was the central idea of his system. For this purpose he not only 

 drilled the wheat, but actually cultivated between the rows, either 

 by hand or horse power. While this particular practice of cultivat- 

 ing between the rows of wheat and other small grain has not been 

 generally followed since, it has been continued with respect to 

 turnips and other root crops, and is the usual method of growing 

 Indian corn and cotton in the United States. This was a further 

 step in the direction of the utilization of the fallow land, or 

 rather of doing away with the necessity of fallowing. He even 

 argued that the rotation of crops was less necessary under this 

 system than under any other, and actually grew thirteen succes- 

 sive crops of wheat on the same land, without manure, getting 

 betxr crops than his neighbors who followed the old methods. 



"Turnip Townshend." About 1730 Lord Townshend began 

 what came to be known as the Norfolk system. His two special 

 interests were turnips and the rotation of crops, though he also 

 introduced the practice of marling the light sandy land. He grew 

 turnips and talked turnips so incessantly that he won for himself 

 th( nickname of " Turnip Townshend." In growing turnips he 



