454 



TIL 



TI L 



Mr. Elihu Hotchkiss. of Brattle- 

 borough, Vermont, has invetited, 

 and taken a patent for a threshing; 

 machine, which obtained a pre 

 mium from the Massachusetts Ag- 

 ricultural Society, in 1B18. The 

 Society likewise purchased the pa- 

 tent right for Massachusetts, and it 

 maybe found annong'the imple- 

 ments belonging to that Society. 



TIKE, a most disagreeable in- 

 sect, bred in the woods, and found 

 on sheep, dogs, cattle, &c. B) 

 drawing nourishment from animals, 

 they swell themselves up to a large 

 size. See Insect, 



TILLAGE, the work or business 

 of tilling, or working the ground, 

 including ploughing, hoeing and 

 harrowing. See those articles. 



The same field should not be 

 kept in tillage perpetually. It an- 

 swers a better purpose to lay a 

 field sometimes to grass. No rota- 

 tion of tillage crops can be so good, 

 as to have some years of grass taken 

 into the course. It makes thevari- 

 ty greater, and it checks the in- 

 crease of certain insects, as well as 

 destroys some kinds of weeds. 



High lands are usually selected 

 for tillage. But low and moisi 

 lands, well drained, ridged, and 

 water furrowed, are often more 

 productive ; and there is less dan- 

 ger of exhausting them, and reduc 

 ing them to a barren state. 



A correspondent of the editors 

 of the Museum Rusticum, says. 

 " The inhabitants of Mi rket Weigh- 

 ton have five fields, two of a sand} 

 soil, and three of a strong clayey 

 soil : The two former destined to 

 rye, and the others to wheat. Their 

 sandy lands are disposed in ridges, 



lands, or beds to four swaths 

 breadth : And finding by experi- 

 ence, that considerable parts of 

 each land, towards each furrow, 

 are starved by the coldness of the 

 water dripping from the higher 

 parts of the lands, they have for 

 many years altered their former 

 method : And only ploughed the 

 half of each land. viz. the two mid- 

 dle swaths : So that they have now 

 excellent r}e growing on the high- 

 er and drier half of every land, and 

 excellent meadow on the lower and 

 wetter half, which being just two 

 swaths, IS mowed with great ease 

 and exactness. 



"It will perhaps be thought by 

 some, that by making narrower 

 lands, they might have more dry 

 land, and consequently more corn. 

 But I apprehend that these indus- 

 trious husbandmen find by experi- 

 ence, that when they make their 

 lands narrower, and consequently 

 with less descent, the water stag- 

 nates in the higher parts, and con- 

 sequjtMitly spoils their whole crop. 

 Nor could they, I suppose, sow 

 more corn on their lands, in their 

 present disposition, with conveni- 

 ence, as their present method allows 

 them just one swath on each side. 



" They have rye and meadow in 

 one of their two sandy fields every 

 other year, and a fallow the next 

 year. The saving half of the field 

 III grass affords good grass for their 

 slieep, &;c. in that year; and allows 

 them to keep a good stock there- 

 on ; and this stock, in return, ma- 

 nures the ground considerably, 

 both the fallow and the swath. 

 One of their fields aflfords them 

 plenty of spring corn ; and thus 



