The horse-hoing husbandry: or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation ... Wherein is shewn a method of introducing a sort of vineyard-culture into the corn-fields, in order to increase their product, and diminish the common expence; by the use of instruments described in cuts / By I.T. [J. Tull].

  • Jethro Tull
Date:
1733
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The horse-hoing husbandry: or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation ... Wherein is shewn a method of introducing a sort of vineyard-culture into the corn-fields, in order to increase their product, and diminish the common expence; by the use of instruments described in cuts / By I.T. [J. Tull]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ty full) grow; but not often enough to kill them when fprouted. If the Lands of England were all in fuck Vulgar Hands, thofe three Syllables Sat erit would be, I fuppofe, a Lois of three Millions Sterling yearly to the Publick. It feems abfurd to be fo follicitous for laying Dung upon Land to which Pulveration is thought to be Poifon: When the Effect of all Sorts of Dung is to pulverize more or lefs in Proportion to the Quantity of Salts therein contained. That this is an Effett of thofe Salts is fo evident from the Demonftration of every Experiment, that, X believe, no body ever did deny it; but whether they have any other conjiderable Effefts upon a Soil is uncertain, for the Warmth occafioned by their Ferment cannot be much, and the Addition made to the Staple by the Subftance of the ufual Quantity of Dung of any Sort is very little when reduced to Earth. The Truth on’t is, fuch poor light Land requires a conliderable Quantity both of Dung and of Tillage to pulverize it, in Proportion to the Degree of its Poverty. The Virgilians judging otherwife, leave out the Tillage, and add more Dung than is ufual in any other Species of Husbandry: The Coniequence of which Praftice .is, that much the greateft Part of this Land mull lie ftill, at the Value of about z s. pet Acre, for keeping of a vail Number moftly of dry Sheep for doubly dunging of the fmall Remainder, which, alfo mult not be often fowed, and produces commonly very light Crops : But, as I am informed, when Far¬ mers of a Religion (or rather Education) different from thofe bigotted Virgilians, come amongft them, they leave out Part of the Dung, and add more Tillage, fow lefs Seed, and by a competent Ufe of each, raife better and more Crops, making a great Improvement on thofe Lands, which by the Virgilian Husband- dry are of little Value. None of the Improvements made on any Sort of arable Land by Foreign GrafTes, or Turneps, could have been introduced into Britain without renouncing the Sat-erit Dodlrine of Virgil; for they will notr fucceed on any Sort of Land without Pulveration by Tillage ; and they are mod generally made on light Land; and therefore may be properly called Antivirgilian, and fo may mod Sorts of Hoing Culture lor Corn, which are always found very beneficial to the Husbandman, who ufes them with Difcretion. Clover doth not improve the Soil by killing of Weeds, as the Vulgar imagine ; for in Truth Weeds, ef- pecially natural Grafs, will kill or fpoil the Clover * the Improvement is therefore from other Caufes, the Chief of which is, the preparing the Land for it by Tillage, that kills natural Grafs, and molt other Weeds ; and thole that are left are hindered from propagating by Seed, if the Clover be mowed before they are ripe, and by the Rotting of its large Roots, and by fuch other Benefits as are (hewn that a Soil receives from St. Foin, and other long tap-rooted Plants. The Benefit that the Clover and Turnep Husbandry brings to a Soil, coaflfts in the Pulveration it occafions by Tillage as well as by Fermentation. P. 40. L. 35. Plowed as deep as the Staple will allow.] Equivocus infmuates to his Readers, that I have advifed to plow below the Staple of fuch thin Land, and bring up the Spelt; But every Reader will fee the contrary is true. P. 40. L. 38. But that they [the Dews] are again exhaled in the Day.] But this ill Effect of the Shallownefs may be helped by doubling the Thicknefs of the Staple by raifing it into little Ridges. P. 41. L. 14. Dejlroys thofe thin poor Fields.] Againlt burning fuch Land Equivocus agrees with me; But fays, that is not the Land that Virgil means. To which I anfwer, that the Meaning of Virgil in this Point is bell known by the Followers of his Husbandry, and if his late Commentator be in the Right as to the Southern Parts of England being the chief Seat of it, “ where Latin Words are in Ufe at this “ Time among the Rullicks,” which I believe is true, then there can be no doubt of Virgil's Meaning, or that I have perverted it: For ’tis and always hath been the Practice of thofe Virgilians to burn the Surface of their poor, thin, hollow Downs, and this is the only Burning I have treated of, nor did I hear that any o- iher Sort was burnt till of late, and believe the Burning the other Sorts, which Equivocus mentions, is a new Pradice, and no where common. Equivocus pretends, that Virgil doth not mean the Burning of this Light Sort of Soil, becaufe he hag juft difpatched it before by his Sat erit, &c. but this Pretence is without Reafon, it being the Pradice to fow fuch fometimes without burning, and indeed oftner than with it, and Virgil feems here to treat of Burning the fame fort of poor Land, the Plowing of which he had juft before treated of in the Sat erit; for his Words are Jape etiam, oftentimes alfo. He pretends, that Virgil meant thofe Kinds of Soils, that owe their “ Sterility to the too clofe Contex- “ ture of Parts, which will not fufFer the Superfluous Water to pafs off, or the Roots of Corn or Trees to 4‘ penetrate or find their Way into, or pafs thro’ them, till they are fubdued by Fire.” But how Burning fhould prevent the too great Plenty of Water from caufng Barrennefs by fan ding too near the Surface, I can’t imagine : For barren Clays, and that tenacious Kind of Land are generally more tenacious below the Staple than at the Surface, which is, I fuppofe, the only Part to be burnt : And the Fire diminilhing that, the next Surface that remains after the Burning will be lower than the former, and there¬ by retain more Water in and upon the remaining Staple. There may be, and I’m informed there is, a Sort of deep Land covered with corufe Grafs, Sedge, and Trompery, which Burning may make a quick Difpatch of, and by reafon of its Thicknefs, enough may be left for many Burnings : But as the upper Part is always the richeft, fome of which the Fire carries a- way, and the reft it converts into a Manure, the Staple mult be diminifhed, and by many Repetitions at laft be much impoverifhed, as every Burning makes it thinner, though it may be a long time before fuch a Soil becomes too thin by frequent Burnings. Equivocus's Experiment of burnt Earth put into a Pot, and fet abroad for a Year, encreafing its Weight a fixth Part, proves nothing, but that wet Earth is heavier than dry Earth. ’Tis fuch another Experi¬ ment as he gives elfewhere of old Pieces of Bricks being thrown out by Accident, and in fome Time encreafing in their Weight. How knows he their Weight was augmented, if they were thrown out by Accident with¬ out weighing, whilft dry ? Such precarious Experiments are convincing to no Philofopher but Equi-vocus. P. 41. L. 19. Contrary to one another, and jarring among themfelves, are all of them falje.] The moft material Anfwer which Equi-vocus feems ‘to make to this Charge is, in p. xyii. of his Preface to Auguf, by allowing the Incoherence of the three laft Lines, vix.