TILLAGE. 



whose roots are matted together and 

 send out fibres in every direetion. 

 The crowding of several plants does 

 not prevent their growth, provided 

 the fibres can spread around in a 

 rich, mellow soil, well pulverized, 

 and admitting the air and moisture 

 readily. 



" As a perfect tillage rcfjuires much 

 labour and minute attention, and m 

 many situations where the farm.s are 

 large labourers cannot be procured 

 at moderate wages, nor can they al- 

 ways be depended upon to perform 

 the work with sufficient care, me- 

 chanical ingenuity has been taxed to 

 invent implements of tillage by which 

 it may be more perfectly accomplish- 

 ed, and at a smaller expense, by 

 using the power of horses instead of 

 that of men, and making implements 

 which will till a considerable breadth 

 at once, and thus save time. 



" The old plough, and which, how- 

 ever it may be improved, still acts on 

 the same principle of turning up a 

 fresh portion of the soil, burymg that 

 which has for some time been at the 

 surface, will probably always contin- 

 ue to be the chief implement of tillage ; 

 but the minuter operations, which are 

 taken from garden culture, require 

 particular contrivances to effect them 

 by instruments. The harrows are but 

 an imperfect substitute for the gar- 

 den rake, and do not stir the soil to a 

 sufficient depth. Other implements 

 have therefore been invented, which 

 by means of wheels can be regulated 

 so as to act at a greater or less depth. 

 These have received the different 

 names of scarifiers, grubbers, or cul- 

 tivators, according to the fancy of the 

 inventors. Many of these answer 

 the purpose well, and save labour. 

 They can be used in all directions, so 

 as to pulverize the soil to any degree. 

 Heavy rollers, with and without 

 spikes around them, are used when 

 many clods require breaking ; and, 

 although not yet adopted in this coun- 

 try, the Belgian tranicau, a strong 

 frame of wood, hoarded over and 

 loaded with weights if required, is a 

 most effectual instrument in levelling 

 the -urface and crushing clods, wilh- 



Xx x2 



out pressing them into the soil, as the 

 roller frequently does. 



" It would be endless to enumerate 

 all the implements of tillage which 

 arc daily invented. As the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil approaches more to 

 that of the garden, more perfect in- 

 struments will be used, such as can 

 be directed with great accuracy be- 

 tween parallel rows of growing plants 

 without danger of injuring them. 

 When the width of the stitches or 

 beds accurately corresponds with the 

 width of the instrument, so that the 

 wheels will run in the intervals and 

 the horses step in the same, the soil 

 may be tilled perfectly, although the 

 rows of plants have but a small in-- 

 terval between them ; anil the lar- 

 gest field will thus present to the 

 eye extended seed-beds or equal 

 rows of growing plants, as we are ac- 

 customed to see in a kitchen-garden. 

 The result will be the same as when, 

 for the sake of experiment, we sow 

 the common grains and leguminous 

 plants of the fields in a plot of garden 

 ground ; in such case the produce is 

 so far greater, that it quite baffles 

 our calculation when extended to a 

 large surface, and hence the incredi- 

 ble results which we continually 

 meet with in the reports of experi- 

 ments on some new produce lately 

 introduced : everything is on a mag- 

 nified scale, owing to superior tillage. 

 No doubt many fields possessed of 

 fertile soils might, by attentive tillage, 

 he made as productive as the best 

 garden ground. The Chinese have, 

 as we are told, already accomplished 

 this by their incredible numbers and 

 indefatigable labour ; but science and 

 mechanical contrivance are a substi- 

 tute for millions of labourers when 

 judiciously applied. The same in- 

 genuity applied to tillage might in- 

 crease the produce of the earth, if 

 not indefinitely, at least far beyond 

 what we may now suspect. 



" In the early ages of agriculture, 

 tillage was almost confined to the 

 ploughing of fallows to clean the 

 laud, which was very imperfectly 

 executed, and in ploughing the stubble 

 of one crop to prepare lor the seed 



797 



