l8 THE PRACTICE OF THE 



wood, difcoloured leaves, and fmall bunches 

 of poor {tinted grapes : but foon after the tillage 

 was renewed, the vines recovered, and yielded 

 large clufters of grapes, and good crops, as 

 they had done before. Thefe vines arc low, 

 their heads juft above ground, and their heads 

 and roots being fo near together, they found 

 that dunging the vineyards in that hot cli- 

 mate, in order to obtain larger crops, gave 

 the wine a bad tafte ; and therefore the only 

 culture they beftowed was tilling the land be- 

 tween them with the plough, a practice that had 

 been continued there for ages j and which the 

 natives faw without making any reflections 

 upon it: but Mr. Tull faw it in a different 

 liglv, and as a law of nature, leading to a 

 general fyftem of vegetation, that was appli- 

 cable in other countries, and upon other 

 plants. He was a lover of agriculture, had 

 before practiced it upon a farm he had in Ox- 

 fordlhire; particularly upon fainfoin, which 

 he had much improved : for the cuftom before 

 that was to fow feven or eight bumelsof feed 

 upon an acre of land ; but he there in- 

 vented a drill-plough, which fowed his land 

 with one or two pecks of fainfoin feed; and 

 produced better crops than were commonly 

 raifed from eight bufhels ; and with this drill- 

 plough he likewife fowed wheat in equidiflant 

 rows, a foot afunder, and hand- hoed it ; and 

 by this method, obtained better crops than 

 common, and at a lefs expence. Some who 

 appear delirous of depreciating Mr. Tull, 



have 



