Chap. VIIL] Agriculture. 0.5 



and Russia, improvements have been fc^w, and 

 slowly advancing. It is true that, even in the lust 

 mentioned countries, some efforts have been made, 

 by associations and otherwise, to promote the best 

 methods of cuUivating the earth; but various cir- 

 cumstances have hitherto conspired eitlier to weaken 

 these exertions, or render them in a great measure 

 ineffectual. 'Jlie ronnnercial spirit of Holland has 

 long driven fi-cnn her view every general plan of 

 agricultural enterprise, and several of the other na- 

 tions vi'hich W'QXQ mentioned, fixed in inactivit}^, 

 under the cangealing influence of ignorance and 

 .slavery, are equally unacquainted with, and indif- 

 ferent to, the most i.m}X)rtant and indispensable 

 foundations of public prosperity. 



Among the memorable events in the annals of 

 agriculture, pertaining to the 18th century, may 

 be mentioned tlie mode of tillage invented ^aid 

 proposed about the year 17^0, by Mr. Jethro 

 Tull, of Oxfordshire, and usually denominated 

 the IIorsC'Boehig and D7'ill Hushcmdri). llie ob- 

 jects of iiis plan are, to turn up, break and pulve- 

 rize the soil more deeply and thoroughly than by 

 the usual means before employed, and to deposit 

 the grain in the earth in such regular rows as to 

 admit of the Iwi'se-hoeing cultivation being applied 

 to it in the course of its growth. The introduction 

 of lull's system is considered as forming a grand 

 era in agriculture, not only on account of its owjt 

 intrinsic utility, but also because of the numerous 

 improvemerits to which it indirectly led. 



Essential service has been rendered to agricul- 

 ture by tiic inquiries of n}odern philosophers i;)to 



