U'<5 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



not meant to enter into any discussion of their merit';. It will not detract much from (lis 

 reputation to admit, that, like most other men who leave the beaten path, he was some- 

 time-, misled l>\ inexperience, and sometimes deceived by a too sanguine imagination. 

 Had Toll confined hi ^ recommendation of drill husbandry 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 pulverising the soil in most cases, and extirpating weeds in every 

 case, he would certainly have deserved a lii.nh 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." 



778, Tull's theory la 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 ; he is almost equally 

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



779. 'lull begins by showing that the roots qf plants extended much farther than is commonly believed ; 

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

 cides this to be tine 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 aribrds nutriment to the mouths ot vegetable roots ;" 

 and this can he done more completely by tillage. It is therefore necessary, not only to pulverise the soil 

 by repeated ploughings before it be seeded ; hut, as it becomes gradually more and more compressed after- 

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

 the weed- that would deprive the plants of their nourishment. 



The leading feature qf 'lull's husbandry, is his practice of laying the land into narrow ridges of 

 five or .-ix 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 internal ; 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 band-hoe 



781. The extraordinary attention Tull gave to his mode of culture is, perhaps, without a parallel. " I 

 formerly 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 distant from one another ; and, at the same 

 time, sow in them three very different sorts of seeds, which did not mix ; and these too 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 sainttoin; 

 but 1 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.) 



782, 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 lirst hoeing was performed by turning a furrow from the row, as suon as the plant had put 

 forth four or rive 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 Held," 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 

 former, but one foot six inches narrower, and the double rows drilled on their tops ; whereby, of conse- 

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

 on every part of the intervals. Notwithstanding this, there was no manner of difference in the goodness 

 of the rows ; and the whole field was in every part of it equal, and the best, I believe, that ever grew 

 on it. It is now the thirteenth crop, likely to be good, though the land was not ploughed cross ways." 

 [Ibid., p. 424.) 



783. According lo Tull, a rotation of crops of different species was altogether unnecessary s 

 and he labours hard to prove, against Dr. Woodward, that the advantages of such a change, 

 under his plan of tillage, were quite chimerical ; though he seems to admit the benefit of 

 a change of the seed itself. But the best method of determining the question would have 

 been, to have stated the amount of his crops per acre, and the quality of the grain, instead 

 of resting the superiority of his management on the alleged saving of expense, when com- 

 pared with the common broadcast husbandry. 



Tsl On the culture of the turnip, both his principles and his practice are much more correct. The ridges 

 were of the same breadth as for wheat ; but only one row was drilled on each. His management, while 

 the crop was growing, differs very little from the present practice. When drilled on the level, it is impos- 

 sible, he observes, to hoe-plough them so well as when they are planted upon ridges. But the seed was 

 deposited at different depths, the half about four inches deep, and the other half exactly over that, at the 

 depth of half an inch. " Thus planted, let the weather be never so dry, the deepest seed will come up ; 

 but if it raineth immediately after planting, the shallow will eome up first. We also make it come up at 

 four times, by mixing our seed, half new and half old, the new coming up a day quicker than the old. 

 These four comings up give it so many chances for escaping the fly; it being often seen that the seed 

 sown over night will lie destroyed by the fly, when that sown the next morning will escape, and vice versa: 

 or you may hm-plough them when the fly is like to devour them ; this will bury the greatest part of those 

 enemies; or else you may drill in another row without new ploughing the land." 



785. Drilling, and horse and hand hoeing, seem to have been in use before the publi- 

 cation of Tull's book. " Hoeing," he says, " may be divided into deep, which is oui 

 horse-hoeing ; and shallow, which is the English hand-hoeing ; and also the shallow 

 horse-hoeing used in some places betwixt rows, where the intervals are very narrow, as 



