NEW HUSBANDRY EXEMPLIFIED. 25 



furrow , and leaves a clear, open trench be- 

 tween the ridges. Thus the wheat has in all 

 at leaft fix hoeings, and one of them mould 

 be when the wheat begins to bloffom, and 

 another fhould be done juft after it has 

 done bloflbming : for by thefe hoeings, the 

 wheat is made to blow ftrong, and to fill the 

 grain with flour. All the hoeings fhould be 

 performed when the earth is dry. Mr. Tull 

 d i reel s fo many hoeings, in his Book of Huf- 

 bandry publifhed in 1733, being then his 

 practice; but afterwards he altered his ridges, 

 making them narrower, and then found four 

 horfe-hoeings were fufficient. 



He drilled his wheat for fome years upon 

 fix-feet ridges, and three rows upon each 

 ridge : but the hoe-plough coming near the 

 two outfide rows, they were improved fo 

 much more thereby, than the middle row 

 was by hand - hoeing, that they were al- 

 ways remarkably more vigorous, taller, and 

 fuller of corn, than the middle row. In or- 

 der to make the middle row equal to each of 

 the outfide ones, he raifed his ridges higher 

 in the middle, whereby the middle row had a 

 greater depth of mould to fpread its roots in ; 

 and then it was equal to the others. But he 

 fufpecled this was no advantage, and that the 

 outfide rows, being deprived of the earth that 

 was added to the middle, the produce of them 

 was leflened more than was gained by the 

 middle rows, and upon trial he found it was 



fo; 



