IV.] CULTIVATION IN GENERAL. 55 



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

 And the spane of this prong-hoe may be longer, or shorter, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the crop to be hoed. Deep-hoeing is enough 

 in some cases ; but, in others, digging is necessary to produce a fine 

 and full crop. If anybody 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 half which has been digged between 

 will, when the crop is ripe, weigh nearly, if not quite, twice as 

 much as the other half. 



109. It may appear that to dig thus amongst growing plants 

 is to cut off, or tear ofl", their roots, of which the ground is full. 

 This is really the case, and this does great good ; 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 ; and we are still less aware of the distance 

 to which the roots of plants extend in every direction. 



110. Mr. Tull, the father of the drill-husbandry, gives the fol- 

 lowing account of the manner in which he discovered the distance 

 to which certain roots extend. I should observe, here, that he 

 was led to think of the drilling crops in the fields of England from 

 having, when in France, observed the eff'ects of inter-tillage on the 

 vines, in the vineyards. If he had visited America instead of France, 

 he would have seen the effects of that tillage in a still more striking 

 light, on plants in the Indian corn-fields ; for, he would have seen 

 those plants splindling, yellow, actually perishing, to-day, for want 

 of ploughing ; and, in four days after a good, deep, clean,"" and 

 careful ploughing, especially in hot weather, he would have seen 

 them wholly change their colour, become of a bright and beautiful 



^ green, bending their leaves over the intervals, and growing at the 

 rate of four inches in the twenty-four hours. 



111. The passage to which I have alluded is of so interesting a 

 nature, and relates to a matter of so much importance, that I shall 

 insert it entire, and also t\ve plate made use of by Mr. Tull to illus- 

 trate his meaning. I shall not, as so many others have, take the 

 thoughts, and send them forth as my own ; nor, like Mr. John 

 Christian Curwen, a member of Parliament, steal them from 

 Tull, and give them, with all the honour belonging to them, to 

 a Bishop. 



