14 Jethro Tull : Ids Life, Times, and Teaching. 
This farm was Howberry, in the paris^h of Crowmarsh — 
being separated from Wallingford only by the Thames. Of the 
extent and exact position of this farm occupied by Tull nothing 
is certainly known. Generally speaking it is said the land in 
the parish is very fertile : the soil belongs to the Upper Green- 
sand formation, rich in phosphate of lime in the form of cop- 
rolites, and bears heavy cereal crops, the wheat and barley being 
of the highest quality. It is particularly adapted to the growth 
of peas and beans, and bears heavy crops of sainfoin and other 
fodder plants, and potatoes, and altogether this land would 
appear well adapted for the purposes of experimental farming. 
The family circumstances that caused Tull to diverge from the 
course in life he had proposed to himself — namely, politics — and 
to take to agriculture are unknown. It was, he says, " accident 
not choice, made me a farmer, or rather many unforeseen acci- 
dents." The further reasons he himself has made plain. He 
says : — 
As to agriculture, it was not by choice, but by a sort of necessity, that I 
practised it ; and I never kept au acre in my hands that I could reasonably 
dispose of to a tenant. I knew too much of the inconveniency and slavery 
attending the exorbitant power of husbandry servants and labourers over 
their masters, to propose to myself any other gain by occupying land but to 
repair the injuries done to it by bad tenants, and to keep it till I could let 
it at a reasonable rent to such as I thought good ones. I have occupied 
only two farms ; the first was in Oxfordshire. I so much improved that 
farm in nine years as to let it for above a third more rent than it was ever 
let before ; and that being almost thirty years ago, the rent is not sunk yet, 
but likely always to continue, or increase. 
The drill was invented about the year 1701. And this, in 
substance, is Tull's account of his discovery : — " My diversion 
in youth was music; I mastered the mechanism of my organ. 
Plough-servants began to exalt their dominion over their masters, 
and a gentleman-farmer could make little profit of arable land ; 
mine being that sort, so I resolved to plant my whole farm wilh 
sainfoin. Seed was scarce, dear, and bad, and enough could scarce 
be got to sow, as was usual, seven bushels to an acre. I examined 
and thought the matter out, and found the greater part of the 
seed miscarried, being bad, or too much covered, or too little 
covered. I observed and counted, and found when much seed had 
miscarried the crop was the best. Then I learned to distinguish 
good seed from bad, and by many trials found in my strong land 
that the best seed would not succeed unless covered at a certain 
exact depth, and I discovered the reason of this nicety. So I 
caused channels to be made, and sowed a very small proportion 
of seed, covered exactly. This was a great success." 
Next year the labourers in a body struck against this innova- 
