ARRANGEMENT OF MATTERS CHAP* 



the book recommended him to do ; for, a part omitted, 

 may, and frequently does, render all that is done of no 

 use. MR. TULL very justly complained that those who con- 

 demned his scheme (and it is curious that VOLTAIRE was 

 one of these), and asserted that they had tried it and found 

 it to fail j always omitted some one thing, which omission 

 rendered the other operations abortive. MR. TULL said, 

 " Their great error is in the mis-use of the word IT : 

 " they say they have tried IT : they have tried something, 

 " to be sure j but they have not tried my scheme." 

 VOLTAIRE, in one of his letters (I forget to whom), says, 

 as nearly as I can recollect the words, " J' ai essaytfle 

 " fameux systeme de Monsieur Tull de 1' Angleterre, et, 

 " je voiis avoue que je le trouve abominable"* He goes 

 on, however, to show most satisfactorily, that it was not 

 the system of Mr. Tull that he had tried - } for he says, 

 " Les intervalles, ou les espaces entre les sillons, furent, 

 " des le mois de Mai, remplis de mauvaises herbes, qui 

 " ont bientot etoufif^ le ble." f So that, he had tried it 

 after the manner of those whom MR. TULL had com- 

 plained of in England j that is to say, he had made the 

 ridges, sowed the rows of wheat, all in very exact pro- 

 portions as to distance and every thing else j but he had 

 not ploughed or horse-hoed the intervals j whereas that 

 operation was the very soul of the system. 



12. Thus it is with but too^many persons, who com- 

 plain of having failed, though, as they allege, they have 



* I have tried the famous system of MR. TULL of England, and 1 

 confess to you that I find it to be abominable. 



t The intervals, or the spaces, between the ridges, were, from the 

 month of May, full of weeds, which quickly smothered the wheat. 





