CROPS AND THEIR COST 201 



upon an extent of ground far beyond that of any person 

 preceding him : the spirit of drilling died with Mr. Tull and 

 was not revived till within a few years.' ^ It was doubtful if 

 50 acres of corn were then annually drilled in England. 

 Lately drilling had been revived and there were keen disputes 

 as to the old and new methods of husbandry, the efficacy of 

 the new being far from decided. The cause of the slow adop- 

 tion of drill husbandry was the inferiority of the drills hitherto 

 invented. They were complex in construction, expensive, and 

 hard to procure. It seemed impossible to make a drill or 

 drill plough as it was called, for such it then was — a combina- 

 tion of drill, plough, and harrow — capable of sowing at various 

 depths and widths, and at the same time light enough for 

 ordinary use. All the drills hitherto made were too light to 

 stand the rough use of farm labourers : ' common ploughs and 

 harrows the fellows tumble about in so violent a manner that 

 if they were not strength itself they would drop to pieces. In 

 drawing such instruments into the field the men generally 

 mount the horses, and drag them after them ; in passing gate- 

 ways twenty to one they draw them against the gate post. ' 

 Some of ' these fellows ' are still to be seen ! 



Another defect in drilling was that the drill plough filled up 

 all the water furrows, which, at a time when drainage was often 

 neglected, were deemed of especial importance, and they all 

 had to be opened again. 



Further, said the advocates of the old husbandry, it was a 

 question whether all the horse- hoeings, hand-hoeings, and 

 weedings of the new husbandry, though undoubtedly benefi- 

 cial, really paid. It was very hard to get enough labourers 

 for these operations. With more reason they objected to the 

 principles of discarding manure and sowing a large number of 

 white straw crops in succession, but admitted the new system 

 was admirably adapted for beans, turnips, cabbages, and lucerne. 



However, there were many followers of Tull. The author of 

 Dissertations on Rural Subjects ^ thought the drill plough an 

 * Rural Economy^ p. 314. ' I775> PP- x-xiii. 



