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.

    265/318 (page 233)
    P. 106. L. 2£. I will by no Means tall inquefion the Veracity of fo learned and good a Man (as Dr. Wood¬ ward^ and therefore, fife.] I am reproached by Equivocus for infulting the Afhes of this Gentleman ; but in Truth he was living, when I wrote this 'Chapter; I am fure I believed fo : And I hope what I have writ can no way reflect upon the Doctor's Memory ; but as he was a Man, and liable to be deceived by a too great Zeal for a favourite Hypothecs, which fometimes makes one imagine one fees a Thing that has no real Exigence; this Obfervation of the Doctor's, as he expreffes it, feeming to have been made by In- fpe&ion upon a Glafs of Water with Earth in it, for the Difcovery of all the different Sorts of Particles in that Earth ; if X had contradidled the Refult of his Obfervation concerning the “ vegetable Matter, confifting ** of very different Particles; fome of which (the Doctor fays,) are proper for the Nourifhment of fome kinds of Plants, others for different Sorts, &c. as to Fad related from a clear ocular Infpe&ion, it might have re¬ flected more on the Doctor s Ingenuity, than to impute it, as I have, to the Effed of mere Imagination, fe- duced by a Zeal for his Hypothefs. However, at the worft, I prefume, the refuting and expofing an Error fo injurious to Mankind, may atone for an Expreffion or two in my Arguments thereupon, which are not injurious to the Probity or Veracity of him who advanced that Error ; but that are rather an Excufe for his Miilake: And, if Equivocus fpeaks true, when he faith, that Columella's firft Ejfay was written to ridicule an Error of his Contemporaries, why Ihould not an Error fo fundamental as this be ridiculed now, fince its being {hewn to be ridiculous is an Argument that weighs more with many Husbandmen, than Demonflration ? And I think that no Argument, confiftent with Truth Ihould be omitted, which can any Way conduce to the Ellablifhing a Principle that is e{fential towards treating of Agriculture as a Science. P. 108. L. 2 2. Alter'd fujfciently by their Veffels to poifon and kill the Tree. ] Some of the Anticircularians (but Mr. Bradley was not onej may believe, that the Chyle is altered and made into Sap in the Roots: But the Experiment of my Mint (G) inp. 5. will fhew that no luch Alteration is made in the Roots. P. 109. L. 49. As that muf mix with the Sap, fsfe.] The Nutriment or Chyle that a Root takes in, mull mix with the Sap in the Leaves, unlefs fome of it happens to pafs out at other Roots in the Manner de- feribed in my Note upon Circulation. P. 112. L. 16. The Jame Quantity of ’Ullage will produce the fame Quantity of Food in the fame Land.] Add cAteris paribus; for when the Land has been more exhaulled, more Tillage (or DungJ or Ref will be required to produce the fame Quantity of Food, than when the Land hath been lefs exhaulled. By Til¬ lage is here meant, not only the Number of Plowings, but the Degree of Divifion or Pulveration of the Soil ; or, if perchance the Soil is extraordinary much exhaulled by many Crops without proper Tillage be¬ tween them, the greater Degree of Pulveration, by Plowing or Dung (which is only a Succedaneum of Til- lageQ and alfo a longer Time of Expofure may be neceffary to counterpoife that extraordinary Ex- haultion. P. 113. L. 9. Turneps never thrive well immediately after Clover.] But when Clover hath been fed by Cattle, and the Ground b-ing good and well tilled, Turneps may thrive immediately after Clover j there¬ fore this is an Exception to the general Rule. • P. 11 3. L. 28. Conffing of a watry Subfance which cools the Veffels, &c.j A Turnep, ’tis like, has lar¬ ger Chyle-VelTels in Proportion to its Sap-Veffels, than many other Sorts of Plants have ; and the greateft Part of this Chile being Water, it may well be fuppofed colder than Sap. P. 114. L. 9 Towards which the Rotting of the Clover and St. Foin Roots do not a little contribute ] That the Rotting of vegetable Roots in the Ground doth ferment therein, and improve it for horizontal rooted Plants, I am convinced by an Accident, viz. my Man had plowed off the Earth clofe to the Rows in a Field of extraordinary large Turneps defign’d for Seed. This Earth was negleded to be thrown back to the Rows until a fevere Froft in the Winter came and killed the Turneps ; upon which in the Spring the Field was fown'with Barley upon the Level with only once Plowing, and that crols-ways of the Rows. The Turneps had Hood lo wide afunder, that the Spot whereon each had rotted appeared like the Spot whereon a Horle hath urined in tilled Ground, and was of a deeper Colour and much higher than the Barley that grew round thofe Spots, and yet none of it was poor. As the Roots of Clover and St, Foin are very much lefs, yet the greater Number rotting in plow’d Ground mull be of great Ufe to a following Crop of Corn. I will here relate two Examples of this in St. Foin; the one is. That a Field of twenty-five Acres drilled with St. Foin except three Acres in the Middle of it, which was at the lame time fown with Hop-Clover; af¬ ter eight Years the whole Field was plowed up by a Tenant, and fown with Corn : The St. Foin had been movjed yearly as the Hop-Clover was not mowed at all, but fed by Horfes tedder’d (or flaked) thereon the firft and fecond Years, and after that had nothing on it, but poor natural Grafs. The whole Field was managed alike when plowed up; but the three Acres produced vifibly worfe Crops of Corn than the reft all round it, which had produced St. Foin. The other Example, or Inftance, was, where an Acre, Part of a Field, was by a Fancy drilled with St. Foin in Angle Rows, about 33 Inches alunder, but was never hoed : After feven Years it was plowed up with the reft of the Field crofs the Rows, and fown with Oats upon the Bach three Months after Plowing. Thefe Rows were as yifible in the Oats, as if the St. Foin had been ftiil remaining there. The Oats in the Rows where the St. Foin had been, looked of a deep green flourilhing Colour at firft coming up, and un¬ til they were about half a Foot high, and the Spaces between them looked yellowilh ; but afterwards the Difference of their Colour difappeared, all the Crop being very good. Upon this I imputed it to the rotting of the Roots, which by their Singlenefs were .very large ; and when the different Colours difappeared, I fup - pofe the Roots of all the Oats had reached to the Benefit of the rotted Roots, which might alfo be then Ipread further into the Spaces, and I doubt not but that the Rotting of Broad Clover Roots has the fame Effed as of St. Foin, for Manuring of Land, efpecially. when the Roots are large. P. 115* 15 • Some Sort of hollow Matter next under the Staple, &c. ] This hollow Matter lets the Wa¬ ter pafs down the fooner from the Surface, whereby the Staple of the Ground becomes the drier, and confe- quently warmer. P. 11 5. L. 33. Be ripe two or three Weeks fooner than any other, &c-3 Barley is far from being im¬ proved by becoming Rath-ripe ; for it lofes more goo^ Qualities than it gets by being fown at Patney : ’Tis fo tender, that if it be fown early the Froft is apt to Kill it» or if it be lown late in May on the fame Day, and in the fame Soil with the fame Sort of Barley that is not Rath-ripe, it will be much thinner bodied than the late ripe; and befides, if it happens to have any Check by Cold or Drought it never recover* it as the Ooo other-