Horse-hoeing husbandry : $b or, an essay on the principles of vegetation and tillage. Designed to introduce a new method of culture; whereby the produce of land will be increased, and the usual expence lessened. Together with accurate descriptions and cuts of the instruments employed in it.Tull, Jethro
Science
Horse-hoeing husbandry : $b or, an essay on the principles of vegetation and tillage. Designed to introduce a new method of culture; whereby the produce of land will be increased, and the usual expence lessened. Together with accurate descriptions and cuts of the instruments employed in it.
Tull, Jethro
Agriculture -- Early works to 1800; Plows; Tillage
As a Yard in Length of my treble Row of the Third successive Crop
of Wheat, without Dung or Fallow, produced Twenty Ounces of Wheat;
which, allowing Six Feet to the Ridge, is about Six Quarters[147] to
an Acre; and, allowing Seven Inches to each Partition, and Two Inches
on each Outside, is in all Eighteen Inches of Ground to each treble
Row, and but just One-fourth Part of the Ridge. Now, if, in the old
Husbandry, the Crop was as good all over the Ground, as it was in
these Eighteen Inches of the treble Row, they must have Twenty-four
Quarters to an Acre; but let them dung whilst they can, they will
scarce raise Twenty-four Gallons of Wheat the Third Year, on an Acre of
Land of equal Goodness; and let them leave out their Dung, and add no
more Tillage in lieu of it, and I believe they will not expect Three
Quarters to an Acre, in all the Three Years put together.
[147] Eight Bushels make a Quarter.
The mean Price of Wheat, betwixt Dear and Cheap, is reckoned Five
Shillings a Bushel[148]; and therefore an Acre that would produce
every Year, without any Expence, Eight Bushels, would be thought an
extraordinary profitable Acre; but yet a drilled Acre, that produces
Sixteen Bushels of Wheat, with the Expence of Ten or Fifteen
Shillings, is above a Third Part more profitable.
[148] ’Tis commonly said, that a Farmer cannot thrive, who for want
of Money is obliged to sell his Wheat under Five Shillings a Bushel;
but if he will sell it dear, he must keep it when ’tis cheap; And his
Way of keeping it is in the Straw, using his best Contrivances to
preserve it from the Mice.
The most secure Way of keeping a great Quantity of Wheat, that ever
I heard of, is by drying it. When I lived in _Oxfordshire_, one of
my nearest Neighbours was very expert in this, having practised it
for great Part of his Life: When Wheat was under Three Shillings a
Bushel, he bought in the Markets as much of the middle Sort of Wheat
as his Money would reach to purchase: He has often told me, that
his Method was to dry it upon an Hair-cloth, in a Malt-kiln, with
no other Fuel than clean Wheat-Straw; never suffering it to have
any stronger Heat than that of the Sun. The longest time he ever
let it remain in this Heat was Twelve Hours, and the shortest time
about Four Hours; the damper the Wheat was, and the longer intended
to be kept, the more Drying it requires: But how to distinguish
nicely the Degrees of Dampness, and the Number of Hours proper for
its Continuance upon the Kiln, he said was an Art impossible to be
learned by any other Means than by Practice. About Three or Four and
Twenty Years ago, Wheat being at Twelve Shillings a Bushel, he had
in his Granaries, as I was informed, Five thousand Quarters of dried
Wheat; none of which cost him above Three Shillings a Bushel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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