IV. CULTIVATION IN GENERAL. 



This assists them in their growth : it feeds them : it 

 raises food for their roots to live upon. A merejlat- 

 hoeing does nothing but keep down the weeds. The 

 hoeing when the plants are become stout, should be 

 deep j and, in general, with a hoe that has spanes, instead 

 of a mere flat plate. In short, a sort of prong in the 

 posture of a hoe. And the spane of this prong-hoe may 

 be longer, or shorter, according to the nature of the 

 crop to be hoed. Deep-hoeing is enough in some cases j 

 but, in others, digging is necessary to produce a fine and 

 full crop. If any body will have a piece of cabbages, 

 and will dig between the rows of one half of them twice 

 during their growth, and let the other half of the piece 

 have nothing but a flat-hoeing, that person will find that 

 the hadf which has been digged between, will, when the 

 crop is ripe, weigh nearly, if not quite, twice as much as 

 the other half. 



108. It may appear, that, to dig thus amongst growing 

 plants is to cut off, or tear off, their roots, of which the 

 ground is full. This is really the case, and this does 

 great good j for the roots, thus cut asunder, shoot -again 

 from the plant's side, find new food, and send, instantly, 

 fresh vigour to the plant. The effect of this tillage is 

 quite surprising. We are hardly aware of its power in 

 producing vegetation j and we are still less aware of the 

 distance, to which the roots of plants extend in every 

 direction. 



109. Mr. Tull, the father of the drill-husbandry, 

 gives the following account of the manner in which he 

 discovered the distance to which certain roots extend. 



