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
In a large Ground of Wheat it was prov’d, that the widest ho’d
Intervals brought the greatest Crop of all: Dung without Hoeing did not
equal Hoeing without Dung. And what was most remarkable, amongst Twelve
Differences of wider and narrower Spaces, more and less ho’d, dung’d
and undung’d, the Hand-sow’d was considerably the worst of all; tho’
all the Winter and Beginning of the Spring, that made infinitely the
most promising Appearance; but at Harvest yielded but about One-fifth
Part of Wheat of that which was most hoed; there was some of the most
hoed, which yielded Eighteen Ounces of clean Wheat in a Yard in Length
of a double Row, the Intervals being thirty Inches, and the Partition
Six Inches[54].
[54] The same Harvest, a Yard in Length of a double Row of Barley,
having Six Inches Partition, produc’d Eight hundred and Eighty Ears
in a Garden; but the Grains happened to be eaten by Poultry before
’twas ripe, so that their Produce of Grains could not be known: One
like Yard of a ho’d Row of Wheat, in an undung’d Field, produc’d Four
hundred Ears of Lammas-Wheat.
A Third Objection like the two former is, that so small a Part of the
Ground, as that whereon the Row stands, cannot contain Plants or Stalks
sufficient for a full Crop.
This some Authors endeavour to support by Arguments taken from the
perpendicular Growth of Vegetables, and the Room they require to stand
on; both which having answer’d elsewhere, I need not say much of them
here; only I may add, that if Plants could be brought to as great
Perfection, and so to stand as thick all over the Land, as they do in
the ho’d Rows, there might be produced, at once, many of the greatest
Crops of Corn that ever grew.
But since Plants thrive, and make their Produce, in Proportion to the
Nourishment they have within the Ground, not to the Room they have
to stand upon it, one very narrow Row may contain more Plants than a
wide Interval can nourish, and bring to their full Perfection, by all
the Art that can be used; and ’tis impossible a Crop should be lost
for want of room to stand above the Ground, tho’ it were less than a
Tenth-part of the Surface[55].
[55] Mr. _Houghton_ calculates, that a Crop of Wheat of Thirty
Quarters to an Acre, each Ear has two Inches and a Half of Surface;
by which ’tis evident, that there would be Room for many such
prodigious Crops to stand on.
And a Quick-hedge, standing between two Arable Grounds, one Foot
broad at Bottom, and Eighteen Feet in Length, will, at fourteen Years
Growth, produce more of the same Sort of Wood, than eighteen Feet
square of a Coppice will produce in the same Time, the Soil of both
being of equal Goodness.
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