Cultivation after Planting. 



drill husbandry; it attracted wonderful attention in its au- 

 thor's day; the Encyclopedias of late years dwell largely upon 

 the Tullian system ; and yet, with the demonstrations, the 

 clear and indubitable proofs, of the ' erroneousness of this 

 notion before him, Mr. Pontey puts it forth as admitted 

 truth. A Mr. Bradley, who had, in the time of Mr.TuLL, 

 written a good deal upon husbandry and gardening, had 

 ascribed to vegetables the sense of taste, by which," says 

 Mr. TuLL, " lie thinks that they take such nourishment 

 " as is most agreeable to their respective natures, refusing 

 " the rest ; and that they will rather starve than eat that 

 " which is disagreeable to their palates.'' Mr. Bradley 

 had said, in few words, " they feed as differently as horses 

 do from dogs, or as dogs do from fish." But, Mr. Tull 

 discovers, that the same writer, in his work on gardening, 

 asserts, " that Thyme, and other aromatics, being planted 

 " near an Apricot tree, would in time destroy that tree." 

 WHY? What reason is there for supposing that these 

 little plants would destroy the tree ? It could not be their 

 shade: it could not be by depriving it of even the smallest 

 portion of sun or air. The rains, too, would go down to its 

 roots in spite of these little creeping plants; and, as they 

 are at the extreme point, with respect to difference in 

 nature to an Apricot tree ; as their food ought, according 

 to Mr. Bradley, to be as different from that of ^the Apricot 

 as the food of horses is from that of dogs ; or, as the food of 

 dogs is from that of fish : what in all the world could make 

 Mr. Bradley say, that these little diminutive plants, if 

 standing near an Apricot tree, would in time destroy that 

 tree ? Mr. Tull might have said so, and did say so, with 

 perfect consistency; for he contended, and he proved 

 beyond all doubt, that the nourishment was of the same 

 kind for roots of all sorts. 



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