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
But Hoeing is an Action very different from that of Sarrition, and is
every Way beneficial, no-way injurious to Corn, tho’ destructive to
Weeds. Therefore some modern Authors shew a profound Ignorance, in
translating _Sarritio_, Hoeing: They give an Idea very different from
the true one: For the Antients truly hoed their Vineyards, but not
their Corn; neither did they plant their Corn in Rows, without which
they could not give it the Vineyard-hoeing; Their Sarculation was
used but amongst small Quantities of sown Corn, and is yet in Use for
Flax; for I have seen the _Sarculum_ (which is a Sort of a very narrow
Hoe) used amongst the Plants of Flax standing irregularly: But this
Operation is too tedious and too chargeable, to be apply’d to great
Quantities of irregular Corn.
If they ho’d their Crops sown at Random, one would think they should
have made mad Work of it; since they were not at the Pains to plant in
Rows, and hoe betwixt them with their Bidens; being the Instrument with
which they tilled many of their Vineyards, and enters as deep as the
Plough, and is much better than the _English_ Hoe, which indeed seems,
at the first Invention of it, to be designed rather to scrape Chimneys,
than to till the Ground.
The highest and lowest Vineyards are ho’d by the Plough; first the high
Vineyards, where the Vines grow (almost like Ivy) upon great Trees,
such as Elms, Maples, Cherry-trees, _&c._ These are constantly kept
in Tillage, and produce good Crops of Corn, besides what the Trees do
yield; and also these great and constant Products of the Vines are
owing to this Sort of Hoe-tillage; because neither in Meadow or Pasture
Grounds can Vines be made to prosper; tho’ the Land be much richer, and
yet have a less Quantity of Grass taken off it, than the Arable has
Corn carried from that.
The Vines of low Vineyards[44], ho’d by the Plough, have their Heads
just above the Ground, standing all in a most regular Order, and are
constantly plowed in the proper Season: These have no other Assistance,
but by Hoeing; because their Head and Roots are so near together, that
Dung would spoil the Taste of the Wine they produce, in hot Countries.
[44] From these I took my Vineyard Scheme, observing that indifferent
Land produces an annual Crop of Grapes and Wood without Dung; and
though there is annually carried off from an Acre of Vineyard, as
much in Substance as is carried off in the Crop of an Acre of Corn
produced on Land of equal Goodness; and yet the Vineyard Soil is
never impoverished, unless the hoeing Culture be denied it: But a few
annual Crops of Wheat, without Dung in the common Management, will
impoverish and emaciate the Soil.
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