TULL, JETHRO. 



\)r. Macoride and Mr. La Conte, after much j 

 Attentive examination in its native state, are j 

 lecidedly of the contrary opinion, the roots of 

 the Convolvulus being unlike those of the tucka- 

 .oe. Most of the southern botanists regard it 

 is a fungus. (See Medical Repository, vol. vi.) 

 See TIIUFFLK. 



TULIP (Tuli)m'). A genus of celebrated 

 and much-prized florists' flowers. They suc- 

 ceed \vell in rich loam and sand, and are in- 

 creased by offsets ; new varieties are obtained 

 from sed. The choicer kinds require to be 

 taken up and dried after they have ceased flow- 

 ering, and planted again in the autumn. They 

 should be slightly protected in very rainy or 

 frosty weather, as they are very liable to rot. 

 One species, the wild tulip (T. sylcestris), is in- 

 digenous to England, growing about old chalk- 

 pits. It bears sweet-scented, bright-yellow, 

 somewhat drooping flowers in April. Although 

 the Ti'lifioinania, which rose to such an absurd 

 height in Holland in the 17th century, is long 

 since extinct, yet the rage for producing fine 

 tulips still exists. The finest tulips are reared 

 at Haarlem. The principal florists have their 

 favourite breeders. A breeder is a seeding 

 tulip, 8 or 9 years from the seed, but still vigor- 

 ous. If the stem be tall; the petals of the 

 flower blunt at the apex; if the flower be self- 

 coloured, or of an equal, uniform colour on 

 both surfaces of the petals ; if the base be pure 

 white or bright yellow; and the anthers and 

 stigmas dark >r black, it is highly esteemed as 

 a breeder. The bulb is planted deep in a shel- 

 tered, MI nny place, and care is taken to prevent 

 the leaves being injured by wind or hail ; the 

 stem is propped, and the flower carefully se- 

 cured from the hot rays of the sun, as well as 

 from wind and violent rain. The seed is care- 

 fully collected, and from it many fine tulips are 

 anticipated. The varieties at Haarlem are 

 very numerous; they are chiefly varieties of 

 the Titlijtii (Jc.int'ruiHu and T. Suaveolens. 



TULIP POPLAR (Liriodendron tulipifera). 

 This tree, the only one of its genus, is found 

 in great abundance in the Middle United States, 

 where, on the rich woodlands in the alluvials 

 bordering the Delaware and other bays, it at- 

 tains a growth which makes it the most majes- 

 tic tree of the American forest. Trees are 

 frequently found from 100 to 140 or 150 feet in 

 height, and 6 or 8 feet in diameter, the trunk 

 being sometimes 60 or 80 feet perfectly straight 

 and without a knot or branch. This stately 

 tree, when its wide-spreading branches extend 

 from the ground to the summit, loaded in May 

 with its tulip flowers, has been referred to in 

 the article on the BKE, as the most magni- 

 ficent of floral productions. The wood, which 

 is very soft, is highly valued for building, and 

 also for many purposes to which it is applied 

 by the cabinet-maker and other mechanic ar- 

 tisls. The variety called yellow poplar is gene- 

 rally preferred. It is known by its thicker 

 and more deeply furrowed bark. The bark, 

 which is very thick and spongy, is also a valu- 

 able aromatic bitter; and has been success- 

 fully used in intermittents. 



TULL, JETHRO. The science of agricul- 

 ture, although the first in Importance to man- 

 kind, is yet remarkable for the few great names 

 133 



TULL, JETHRO. 



whose discoveries or general abilities adorn its 

 history. For an explanation of this fact, we must 

 in some measure I* contented with the com- 

 mon observation that its advances, its improve- 

 ments, are so slow, as to be almost impercep- 

 tible ; are dependent upon much more tedious 

 experiments than any other science : for in- 

 stance, it is true that many, very many of the 

 processes, daily witnessed and carried on by 

 the cultivator, are based upon chemical princi- 

 ples, and may be illustrated, and very materi- 

 ally assisted, by chemical experiments : but 

 those who have studied the science the most 

 carefully are fully aware that no experiments 

 upon the laws of dead matter even nearly 

 equal in difficulty those upon living substances, 

 for these last, in many instances, seem endow 

 ed with powers which completely neutralize 

 and overcome the very principle of chemical 

 attraction and repulsion. Such experiments, 

 too, are not, like those made in the philoso- 

 pher's laboratory, secure from interruption, and 

 carefully and readily guarded from every source 

 of error; on the contrary, those of even the 

 most scientific, the most careful cultivators, 

 are of necessity liable to many accidents, are 

 ever the sport of the winds and the weather, 

 require months to complete, and often the dura- 

 tion of a life to repeat and firmly establish. 

 Then, again, to add to the difficulty of such in- 

 vestigations, there are hardly two soils to be 

 found, in England or elsewhere, whose compo- 

 sition and conditions are even nearly the same. 

 All differ either in the proportion of some ingre- 

 dient, in climate, in declination, or in the nature 

 of their substrata; the variations in their treat- 

 ment, therefore, must often be as different as their 

 numerous varieties. Thus, encircled Avith diffi- 

 culties, requiring for the attainment of consider- 

 able eminence the union of both practical ex- 

 perience, patient and long-continued research, 

 and scientific knowledge, we need hardly feel 

 surprised that those who have made important 

 improvements in agriculture have been but 

 few in number, and that these illustrious ex- 

 ceptions to the general rule have appeared at 

 very distant intervals. The farmer, too, how- 

 ever skilful and successful in his business, 

 however industrious and talented, is but rarely 

 induced to describe the improvements he has 

 caused, or the implements he has improved or 

 invented; he is too often content with the profit 

 derived from his own ingenuity, and too fre- 

 quently lets others reap all the honours of dis 

 coveries to which he is more justly entitled. 



In the list, however, of distinguished English 

 farmers, Jethro Tull presents us with a highly 

 honourable exception to the general rule; for, 

 utterly regardless of all selfish considerations, 

 he not only made great and successful efforts 

 for the promotion of agriculture, but he made 

 those valuable researches, publicly known in 

 a work entitled the Horse-hoeing Husbandry, 

 which will hand him down to all after-ages as 

 one of the chief of English farmers; as a pa 

 triot who, undaunted by the natural difficulties 

 of the attempt, attained great and important 

 advances in the cultivating and increasing the 

 fertility of the land, and in enlarging the re- 

 sources of the followers of a business to which 

 he was not originally bred; for, as we shall 

 4U 1057 



