DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS IN ENGLAND 307 



Tull should be associated the word tilth; and the fact that his 

 contemporary was called " Turnip Townshend " suggests at once 

 the phase of agricultural improvement in which he was interested. 



Tull, in his "Horse-Hoeing Husbandry," emphasizes the 

 importance of pulverizing the soil. " The chief art of hus- 

 bandry is to feed plants to the best advantage," says Tull, 

 and he believed that, in the feeding of plants, tillage is much 

 more important than the application of fertilizers. He devotes 

 one chapter of the book to the " Pasture of Plants." In this 

 chapter he emphasizes the importance of dividing the soil into 

 fine particles in order that the plants may find " pasture " 

 for their roots. The important field crops of the time were 

 all sown broadcast, so that it was difficult, if not impossible, to 

 cultivate the crops while growing, and the only chance of giving 

 tilth to the soil other than in preparing the seed bed was during 

 the fallow year. To surmount this difficulty, Tull invented a 

 drill, for the sowing of all kinds of grain and roots, in order 

 that these crops could be cultivated between the rows while 

 growing. He also invented a horse hoe with which to cultivate 

 the drilled crops. 



The name of Townshend is most closely associated with the 

 introduction of turnips and clover into England, and with the 

 reorganization of the English field system. The introduction 

 of turnips, which could be cultivated while growing much more 

 satisfactorily than could the small grains, enabled the farmers 

 to dispense with the fallow wherever this crop would thrive. 

 As the production of a crop of roots did not require a great 

 deal more labor than caring for a bare fallow, it was only neces- 

 sary that an increased demand for beef and muttons should 

 increase the value of fodder crops sufficiently, in order that 

 turnips should be very generally introduced. Upon the intro- 

 duction of roots and clover, the old three-field system of crop 

 rotation was replaced by the " Norfolk four-course system," 

 which consisted of a root crop, followed by spring grain with 

 which clover and grass seeds were sown ; and the third year the 

 hay crop was removed in time to plow the land for sowing wheat 

 or rye. 



