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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    ances be made, as every candid Reader makes to the Inadvertencies that fometimes happen to the Pen of a .Perfon in Pain ; becaufe he cannot write but in a Hurry. The following are all the Articles of my Propofals relating to the Account of the Work, viz. I. In treating o/'Roots 'tisproved, that they extend horizontally to a much greater Difiance from the Stem, than it is comtnonly thought; and that they are in this, and in all other refpcds, by nature adapted to receive the Benefits of the Horfe-hoing Husbandry. II. The Hatural and Artificial Pafiure of Plants arc deferibed. III. 'Tsfhewn how this Artificial Pafiure is raifed by Dung, and by Tillage, and what Deference there is between the one and the other means of raifing it. IV. That deep and proper Hoing is a Sort of Tillage that can fupply the Ufe of Dung; and that ’tis for veant of this Tillage, that few Plants are brought to their full P erfedion. V. The Rules for putting this Husbandry into Pradice are Jhewn, as far as the Author's Experience reacheth. VI. All the particular Instruments, necejfary for that Purpfie, arc deferibed in Cuts by the Inventor, with Diredions hew to make and ufe them. Had I failed of Performance in any of thefe Articles, though no Body elfe had taken Notice of it, Equi¬ pment would have been fure to upbraid me With it; and for what I have done more than my Propofals re¬ quired on the Subjed, I hope my Readers will not accufe me of Breach of Promife, for having exceeded it. But as far as the Sincerity of Perfons of Honour and Learning will go, and I hope that cannot be doubted, abating for fome Compliments of the Polite, my Effay has their Approbation ; at leak the Contrary hath not come to my Knowledge. Of many Letters I have received of the fame Purport, I will here infert one, tl>at I would not have mentioned upon any other Account than to lhew that Equivocus impofes a Falfhood upon thePublick. The Letter is from a Noble Peer, fince deceafed, who having had much Experience of Drilling, and pradifed it, as I have heard, upon Hundreds or rather Thoulands of Acres, beginning it for Wheat, againft my Advice, almofl as early as myfelf, had feen ('by liftning too much to his Agents and Servants) molt of the Errors in the Pradice ; which (as I have been informed) were more than I could have imagined poffible to be com¬ mitted, tho’ fometimes they did well ; the different Experience of Right and V/rong had enabled his Lord- lhip to form a jufter Judgment of the Scheme in general, than any other could. The Letter here follows: September 19, 1733- S I R, “ T Have the P leafiure to he fludying your Book I have three of them, which Mr. *** (hall account “ X ™ith you for: But I think there is a great Deal due (beftdes the Price) for fo great a Treafure. My “ own Thanks, as well as thofe of all England, will yet be too little, for what much better Judges than “ myfelf efieem as the finefi Piece of Natural Philofophy that ever was wrote, befides the Addition of Tour “ own Experience and mofi admirable Invesition. “ The more I read, the more 1 am convinced, that there is no other Way of raifing Wheat to any Advantage ** {or without Lofs) but by the Drill and the Hoe-Plow.-- I am now fi tangly refolved to do what I have 4 ‘ been too carelefs */• • ’ ■ • v Dear Sir^ Your, {Ac. * * I am informed, that the Dublin Society, mentioned in the inferted Letter from Ireland, confining of Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Gentlemen of the firit Rank, are fuch a Body, that for Learning and other Qualifications was never equalled by any Society formed for the Improvement of Agriculture in any Part of the World. My Effay has the Approbation of that Honourable Society, as appears on the Title Page of the Copies re¬ printed by their Order and publifhed in Dublin. From the beft Judges, I beg Leave to defeend to the Worfi, in order to confront my Enemies the Equivocal ^Society, with their own Approbation of the Effay they are hired to vilify and defame. See the Pradical Husbandman and Planter, p. iv. of Preface to Aug. “ We are very far from animadvert- “ ing upon (much lefs cenfuringj every thing which that voluble Author of Horfe - Hoing has advanced on “ the Subject of Husbandry and Planting ; having on the contrary made Ufe of his Arguments and Autho- “ rity, wherever we have found them agreeable to Reafon and Experience ; and in particular ('as is to be “ found in the Preface to the lail Monthly Effay) have quoted a good deal from him on the Vegetable Pa- “ lates or Tafies of Plants, which the late Mr. Bradley and feveral other Virtuofo's have for feveral Years ** lafl paft entertained the World with, it% being, {Ac. Here they fpend feveral Pages in tranferibing from my xvith Chapter. In p. 10. of their Preface to July, they intimate, that a late voluble Author Jethro Tull, Efq; confuted an Error of Mr. Bradley and Dr. Woodward, both of them F. R. S. and of the French Author of Spedacle de la Nature: Inp. xii. of the fame Preface, my Antagonifis own they are obliged to conclude with the Author of the Horfe-Hoing Husbandry, {Ac. quoting my Effay. Inp. 25. of their Effay Eos July they have thefe Words: “ And here indeed the voluble Author of the Horfe-Hoing Husbandry has in all Pro- “ bability got the Advantage of thefe two Gentlemen [Mr. Bradley and Dr. Woodward] fince as he argues “ with great Probability or Truth, {Ac. They here proceed to quote my Authority in another material Point in Theory. In many Places of their Treatife, they commend the Practice of Drilling and Hoing, particularly in Effay for April, p. 32. and in p. 77. they fay, “ The New Invention of Drilling is of great Ufe, {Ac. And the Reafon they give for it is, “ That Weeds may be better hoed out, and the Land kept cleaner from Weeds “ between Rows, than among that which is fown on a Broad Cafi. In p. 80. of Effay {ox April, they talk of Turneps being generally drilled in by the Drill-plow ; and ask, why.the Roots of Luferne may not be hoed and fet at equal Diftances as well as Turneps? In Effay for May, \p. 145. “ And this [Drilling] is ** indeed the belt Practice that hath been ufed, provided you can get the Infiruments proper lor Drilling and R r r “ Horfe-