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
The well hoed Earth, being open, receives and retains the Dews; the
benign solar Influence is sufficient to put them in Motion, but not
to exhale them from thence. The Hoe prevents the Turf, which would
otherwise by its Blades or Roots intercept, and return back the Dews
into the Atmosphere, with the Assistance of a moderate Heat. So that
this Husbandry secures Luserne from the Injury of a wet Summer, and
also causes the Rain-water to sink down more speedily, and disperse
its Riches all the Way of its Passage; otherwise the Water would be
more apt to stand on the Surface, chill the Earth, and keep off the Sun
and Air from drying it: For, when the Surface is dry and open, Luserne
will bear a very great Degree of Heat, or grow with a mean one. I have
seen this hoed Luserne, in a sheltry Place of my Garden, so much grown
in a mild Winter, as to be measured Fourteen Inches and an half high
at _Christmas_; and a very large single Plant of it, which had not
been hoed for Two Years before, was laid bare by digging out the Earth
all around it a Foot deep, to observe the Manner of its Tap-root; and
then the Earth was thrown in again, and the Hole filled up. This was
on the Twenty-seventh of _September_. Upon this mellowing of the Soil
about it, it sent out more Stalks in _October_, than it had done in
the whole Summer before; they grew very vigorously, until a great Snow
fell in _December_, which also preserved the Verdure of them, till that
was melted away, and a black Frost came after it, and killed those
Stalks. It is probable this Plant sent out immediately new fibrous
horizontal Roots, which did grow apace to extract the Nourishment from
this new-made Pasture, in proportion to the quick Growth of the Stalks,
which in Summer have been measured, and found to grow in Height Three
Inches and an half in a Night and a Day; this being almost One Inch in
Six Hours.
And it has been my Observation, that this Plant, in hot and cold
Countries, thrives both with a much greater, or less Degree of Heat and
Moisture, when it is hoed; for if it has Plenty of Nourishment, which
Hoeing always gives it, a very little Heat above, and the Moisture
alone (which is never wanting to the deep Tap-root) suffice, and that
Plenty of Food enables it the better to endure the Extremes of either
Heat or Cold.
We need not much apprehend the Danger of _English_ Winters; for Luserne
will endure those which are more rigorous. In the Principality of
_Neufchâtel_ the Winters are so severe, as to kill all the Rosemary
left abroad; yet Luserne survives them there: This proves it more hardy
than Rosemary, which is planted for Hedges in _England_; and here is
scarce twice in an Age a Frost able to kill it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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