THE PLOW IN GREAT BRITAIN 135 



of cultivation during the preparation of the seed bed. He 

 saw that the more finely divided the soil, the more readily plants 

 grew, and "the stronger the soil is, the more benefit will it 

 receive from this method of culture, if the land be thereby 

 more pulverized." While devising many interesting horse- 

 drawn tools, the more easily to carry out the methods he pro- 

 posed, he gave much attention to the improvement of plows. 



"'Tis strange," Tull says, "that no author should have 

 written fully of the Fabric of Ploughs! Men of the greatest 

 Learning have spent their Time in contriving Instruments to 

 measure the immense Distance of the Stars, and in finding out 

 Dimensions, and even Weight of the Planets; they think it 

 more eligible to study the Art of plowing the Sea with Ships 

 than of tilling the Land with Ploughs; they bestow the utmost 

 of their Skill, learnedly, to prevent the natural Use of all the 

 Elements of Destruction of their own Species by the Bloody Art 

 of War. Some waste their whole Lives in studying how to 

 arm Death with new Engines of Horror and inventing an 

 infinite Variety of Slaughter; but think it beneath Men of 

 Learning (who only are capable of doing it) to employ their 

 learned Labors in the Invention of new (or even improving the 

 old) Instruments for increasing of Bread." 



Tull was the first to proclaim aloud the necessity for inten- 

 sive cultivation. In his time the present countless variations 

 in tillage implements were not available for purposes of "The 



The old Berkshire four-coultered plow v 



New Husbandry," hence it is not surprising to find him giving 

 preference, not to the Rotherham plow, which approached 



