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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    it ; but if the Ridges are very unequal, the Beaft(a little Horfe is bed) that draws the Drill mull goon the Top of a Ridge, planting one Row thereon, and the Drill for this Purpofe is the fame as the Turnep-Drill, except that the Beam Share, Seed-Box and Spindle are the fame as tho e of the Wheat Drill j and ’tis but to take off from the Wheat-Drill one ol its Beams, and place it in the room of the Beam of the Turnep Drill, and placing the Crofs-Piece of the Turnep Beam (fee Plate 5.) on this Beam, and alfo a Ihort Wheat- Hopper to be drawn by the Turnep Standards, fettmg the Wheels near enough together, i. e. as near as the Wheels of the Wheat-Drill are, I mean thofe which plant two Rows. Two Gallons of Smyrna Wheat I judge will be Seed lufficient for an Acre, efpecially if planted early. Planting one Row upon a Ridge, I think, is the moll advantageous Method of all ; but not being able to get any Smyrna Wheat (tho’ I have been often promifed it) I have made no Trial of it; and I do not be- iieve the Plants of any other fort of Wheat are large enough for fuch fmgle Rows. i am not quite a Stranger to this Wheat; for 1 have ieen the Product of it, both in the Garden, and in the Field above forty years ago. I am now making Trials in order to know how much a fmgle Row of White Cone Wheat will exceed half a Double one: for this Purpofe, I caufe one Row of the Double, with the Partition to be dug out with a Spade, in part of every Field, two or three Yards in a Place ; thefe I intend fhall be ho’d as the Double Rows are, and where the Ho Plow doth not reach, the Spade lhall fupply its ufe. I do not expect this Single Row will equal the Double Row ; but l am in no Doubt but that it will pro¬ duce more Grain than half a Double Row. I can’t tell whether the fort of Cone Wheat that lends out little Branches on each fide of the Ea*-, might not fuccecd tolerably well in Tingle Rows ; for its Ear is, when weli nourifhed, larger than the Ear of the White Cone ; tho’not near lo large as that of the Smyrna. Another Experiment I propofe to be made as a Trial or the Satisfaction ot mch fceptical Gentlemen who may doubt the Truth of what 1 have related in p. 17, & 21 1. concerning the wonderful EfieCt of deepHo- ing. In a Field of very poor old decay’d St. Foin, let two or three Perch be hedg’d in, in a fquare Piece, and two, three or more Intervals ot three or four Foot wide each, be well pulveriz’d by the Spade, leaving beiween every two o them, two or three Foot of the St. Foin unmoved. Begin this Work in Summer and repeat the Hoing pretty often, oblcrving the Rules I have laid down for hoing the Intervals of Wheat. Let not the Back of the Spade be turned towards the unmov’d St. Foin, from which it throws the Earth, at the firft Time of Hoing ; which is contrary to the firft hoing of Wheat with a Spade ; becaufe there would otherwiie be Danger of moving the Wheat Roots; but there is no Danger of moving the St. Foin Roots, unlefs you wholly dig them out; therefore the beft Way for this Hoing is to dig with the Back of the Spade towards one or the other End of the interval: This cuts off the feweil Roots, and covers the moft of them and may perhaps be fometimes bell for Wheat alfo. When the Earth is turn’d towards the St. foin Rows the Spade s Face will be towards them of Courfe. Be lure to leave four or more Foot untouch’d next to the Hedge that bounds the Piece, to the End that the Increafe of the ho’d St. Foin may the more plainly appear by comparing its Plants with thofe that are not hoed. If the Plants are very thick, make them thinner on one Side of an Interval, and on the other Side let them remain thick. You will certainly find the thin Plants moft wonderfully encreafed in a Year or two, and the thick ones in proportion ; and alfo the natural Grafs, and all other Vegetables that grow near to the Intervals when they are well pulveriz’d. I am confident mine thus manag’d by Plow's, increas’d fome to an Hundred, fome to a Thoufand Times the Size they were of before that Pulveration. All the Methods I have here and elfewhere defcrib’d for the Field, I advife to be tried in thefe few Per¬ ches for Experiments. I think fome of thofe Ridges whereon one End is to be managed differently from the other End, fhould be longer than fix Foot; elle the Roots of the Wheat and Weeds may fo mix and draw Nourifhment from one another in the Middle of the Ridge, that the Difference of the Managements may not fo plainly be feen as when the Ridge is longer. The few Perches of Land wheieon any of the propos’d Experiments are to be made, fhould be bounded in with dead Hedges and fhould not be fituate within three or four Pole of a live Fledge or Tree. The three Inftruments to be ufed in thefe unexpenfive Trials, are the Spade to fupply the Ufe of the Plow and Ho-Plow ; the Hand Hoe, and a Rake inftead of Harrows. Anfwersto Objections. P. 252. With Answers to Objections which, &fc.] I am very lately apprifed of a particular Objection which I will anfwer, although it be, except in the Particularity of it, much the fame with one already an- fwered. ’Twas reported the laft Seafon at the Bath, that a certain deceas’d Lord not far from thence, was a Lofer by my Husbandry ; which the Spreaders of that Report feem to think may be fatal to the Reputation of Horfe hoing. But if it can appear either that my Scheme was not duly executed, or that there was upon the Whole, no Lofs by it, or if that Part wherein my Scheme was duly executed did fucceed, and that Part which was done contrary to it did not fucceed, this Report muft be groundleis and falfe. As tor the Errors there committed in the Execution of the Scheme, being more than I thought poffible (as I raid in p. 245) the Reader or the Preface to my afore-mentioned Specimen, beginning at p. xxi. thereof, may fee fome of them s they were all committed in fome Part of his Lordfhip’s Agriculture, betides fome other Errors not-therein fpecify’d. And after that Preface was publifhed, I receiv’d a Letter from thence, defiring my Advice what to do with a Field, wherein a Crop of Wheat drill’d in Treble Rows being reap’d, had the Rows fo full of Popies, that they with the Stubble look’d like cut Hedges. This Field, as I was inform d (for I was never there) was pirt of three or four Hundred Acres drill d the lame Year, which could not be all well ho’d for want of Cattle, between twenty and thirty fine Horles of too great a Price for the Plow being dead, or fpoil’d, by the Contrivance of an old Steward, Enemy to the New Hu?bajidry. The Rows could not have made fuch an Appearance, if the Weeds and the Middle Row had bean chop¬ ped out together, as I havefaid in a Note at the bottom of p. 5S» ^ Weeds had been cleans d out D the