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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    other doth, at what Time foever it is fotoil. ’Tis now, as lam informed, gone out of Fafhion, andrerf tew Fanners have fotVn it of late Years. I know a little Parifh that I believe formerly loll about 200 /. per Ann. by lowing Rath-ripe Barley : Bat long and dear Experience hath now convinced tiitm of their Error, and obliged them totally to difufe it. P. 116. L. 7. Other Plants being Exoticks, many of them as to their Individuals, require Culture and Change of Soil, $5c.] Equivocus, like his lower Ciafsof Readers, which he deferibes, is unable or unwilling to dif-. tinguifh the Difference of Change of a Species of Plants from the Change of its Individuals ; when he pre¬ tends to bring as an Argument the degenerating of the Individuals of Beans, &c. to prove the Necellity of changing the Species of them. P. 116. L. 10. Eh at the Soil can caufe Wheat to degenerate into Rye, &c. ] Equivocus fond of everything that has no Foundation of Truth, afferts, “That Barley will degenerate into Bigg, which is a vrey diffe¬ rent Species ; and yet he doth not own from whence he Hole this wonderful Difcovery. P. 117, L, 4. Treaches crofs the Hill horizontally.] For if they are made with the Defcent, and not croft it, then they will be parallel to the Rills of Water that run upon the Surface of the Clay under the Staple (or upper Stratum of Mould) and would be no more effectual for draining the Hill, than the Digging of one River parallel to another, without joining it in any Part, would be effectual for draining the other River of its Water. P. 117. L. 23. The Water's Courfe erofs the Lands will be longer.] The natural Courfe of Water being downwards it would always run by the neareft Way to the Bottom of the Hill, if nothing ftopt it; but the Water runs from a Hill in two Manners, viz. Upon the Surface of the Staple, and upon the Surface of the Clay that is under the Staple; that which runs under keeps its ftreight Courfe from the Top to the Bottom of a Hill under a Ridge that is made exactly with the Defcent of the Hill, except that Part of the Water that rifes up into the Mould, and a very little that foaks into the Furrows * for when the Furrows are not made exaftly with the Defcent, the more oblique they are to the Defcent, the longer will be the Water’s Courfe under the Ridges; and the fhorter, as they are nearer being at Right Angles to the Defcent. ’Tis alfo the fame with the Water that falls upon the Surface of the Ridges, For the more horizontal they are, the fhorter its Courfe will be from them to the Furrows, which carry it off; and the lefs of the Water will fink into the Ridges, the lels oblique and thenearer to Right Angles to the Defcent they are made, P. 118. L. 19. Very few Farmers will alter their old Method', no, not even to try the Eperiment.'] Of fuch Force is that Precept of Virgils, Cultufque, habitufque locorum (pradifeere,) that feldom is the Prejudice of it removed by Reafon : But fome of late are convinced, by obferving that a Hill of mine has been made dry by this Means for fourteen Years paft, which before was always more wet and fpewy than any Field in the Neighbourhood, and from the Time of inclofing it out of a Heath (or Common) and the converting it to arable, which was about feventy Years ago, it had been reputed as little better than barren, on Account of its Wetnefs; and that it has been the moft profitable Field of my. Farm ever fince it has been under this new Management. I have alfo another Field that lies about a Mile and a half from me, it doth not belong to the Farm where I live, but was thrown upon my Hands, noTenant caring to rent it, becaufe great Part of it was full of Springs and barren ; this alfo having been kept in Lands plowed crofs the Defcent, (which is but a fmall Declivity) is become dry; and now the moft prejudiced Farmers agree, that keeping the Lands or Ridges of wet Ground always crofs the Defcent doth cure its Spewynefs. Hereupon fome have , ■attempted to put this Method in Practice on their wet Land, and after it had been will tilled up Hill and down, have plowed it the laft Time for lowing of Wheat, in flat Lands crofs the Defcent; but by Mif- management their Furrows are higher at each End than their Middle, fo that none of the Water can run off either downwards or Sideways, or any other Way. Had the Furrows carried off the Water at both or either of their Ends, it might have been effectual, not- withftanding the broad Lands, becaufe their Ground hath a much lefs Declivity, and is much lefs fpewy than my Hill was: They will doubtlefs find their Miftake and amend it, having a Precedent before their Eyes 5 but if they had none within their own Infpeftion, I queftion whether this Mifmanagement might not difeourage them from profecuting their ProjeCt any further. P. 121. L. 18. There are other Reafons why, («fc.] To the three we may add a fourth Reafon, viz. the raifing the Thicknefs of the Staple in the Ridges, keeping the Surface drier in wet Weather, and moifter at the Bottem of the Staple in dry Weather. And I have feen Barley that was drilled on my raifed little Ridges flourifti in a dry Summer on the Brow of my Chalky Hill, and on my loweft Land in wet Weather, when the Barley hand-fawn contiguous to it on each Side thofe Ridges, fown on the Level the fame Day that the Ridges were drilled, have looked yellow and fickly, and yet it is not wet Land. P. 1 21. L. 39. Any larger or higher Ridges than what may contain fix Feet in Breadth.] Since the Printing of my Effay, I find upon Trial that thefe narrow Ridges are as effectual as any for carrying the Water off from my clayey Hill; and that they may be made much lefs horizontal than broad Ridges > whereby their Furrows are the more eafily turned upwards againft the Declivity. I have not tried any narrower Ridges than of fix Foot upon this Hill: But I have had full Experience of Five Foot and of Four Foot Ridges upon other Land, and find that all Sizes of thefe narrow Ridges are very advantageous even where the Crop is to be fown upon the Level: for fewer Furrows are neceffary for the tilling of an Acre, when ’tis kept in fuch Ridges, than in broad Lands, and after wet Weather the Ridges will be fit to be plowed much fooner than level Ground. P.122. L. l. The Old and New Husbandry.] I do not fay that every Species of old Husbandry is Virgilian 5 for when Land of all Sorts is plow’d five or fix Times with due Intermifiions, inftead of once or twice, in that refpeCt it is rather Antivirgilian though it is not the Horfe-Hoing Method, which I call the new Husban¬ dry, becaufe not praClifed but for about thefe fourteen laft Years, that I know of. P. 122. L. 31. Dung and Carriage at 2/. lor.j The Price of Dung is different in different Places, and the Price of Carriage varies according to the Diftance: It would coft me much more than fifty Shillings t# buy Dung and hire the Carriage of it for an Acre 5 and in many Places the Expence of it is greater yet, though Equivocus is pleafed to fet it from 40 s. to 44 s. for an Acre : Yet in his EJfay for June, p. 61. he fets Dung at 2 /. a Load, and then 30 Load to an Acre, which are commonly laid, and 3os. for Carriage -and Spreading makes the Expence of Dunging an Acre amount to 4 /. 10 s. and yet he fays, that in a dry Rummer Dung may burn up and fpoil the Crop. Wert