Jethro Tull

“ In wide Intervals, we can raise a good Crop with less Labour, less Seed, no Dung, no Fallow, but not without a competent Quantity of Earth, which is the least expensive of any thing given to Corn; the Earth of a whole good Acre being but about the Tenth Part of the common Expence; and of indifferent Land, a Twentieth; and such I count that of Five Shillings and Six-pence per Acre.
The Crop enjoys all the Earth; for betwixt the last Hoeing, and the Harvest, there remains nothing but Space empty of Mould in the Middle of the Intervals. ”

“ There is a vulgar Opinion, that St. Foin will not succeed on any Land, where there is not an under Stratum of Stone or Chalk, to stop the Roots from running deep; else, they say, the Plants spend themselves in the Roots only, and cannot thrive in those Parts of them which are above the Ground. I am almost ashamed to give an Answer to this.
’Tis certain that every Plant is nourished from its Roots (as an Animal is by its Guts) ; and the more and larger Roots it has, the more Nourishment it receives, and prospers in proportion to it. ”

“ The Goodness of a Crop consists in the Quality of it, as well as the Quantity; and Wheat being the most useful Grain, a Crop of this is better than a Crop of any other Corn, and the ho’d Wheat has larger Ears (and a fuller Body) than sow’d Wheat. We can have more of it, because the same Land will produce it every Year, and even Land, which, by the Old Husbandry, would not be made to bear Wheat at all: So that, in many Places, the New Husbandry can raise Ten Acres of Wheat for One that the Old can do: because where Land is poor, they sow but a Tenth Part of it with Wheat. ”

“ Could we as easily compute the true Quantity of Earth in Rain-water, as the Quantity of Water is computed, we might perhaps find it to answer the Quantity of Earth taken off from our hoed Soil annually by the Wheat. ”

“ Plants have no Stomach, nor Oesophagus, which are necessary to convey the Mass of Food to an Animal: Which Mass, being exhausted by the Lacteals, is eliminated by way of Excrements, but the Earth itself being that Mass to the Guts (or Roots) of Plants, they have only fine Recrements, which are thrown off by the Leaves.
In this, Animal and Vegetable Bodies agree, that Guts and Roots are both injured by the open Air; and Nature has taken an equal Care, that both may be supply’d with Nourishment, without being expos’d to it. Guts are supply’d from their Insides, and Roots from their Outsides. ”

“ This feeding of Wheat much retards the Time of its blossoming; and that it may blossom early, is one chief End of sowing it early, to prevent the Blight. But when it is fed, what the Plants send up next is but a Sort of second or latter Crop, which has longer to stand than the first would have required, and is always weaker than the first Crop would have been; and the longer time it has to continue on the Ground, the more Nourishment is required to maintain it; and yet, as has been shewn, the longer it has been sown, the more the Earth has lost of its Nourishment ”

“ Imagination often deceives us by Arguments false or precarious; but Reason leads us to Demonstration, by Weights and Measures: Yet this Prejudice will vanish at Harvest before weighing; for then all those wide Intervals that were bare, will be covered with large Ears interfering to hide them quite, and make a finer Appearance than a sown Crop. But ’tis observed, that the Cone-wheat makes the finest Shew, when you look on it length ways of the Rows, both at Harvest, and a considerable time before Harvest. ”

“ The greatest Difference of having an equal Crop from a small Number of strong Plants, and from a great Number of weak ones, is, that the Soil is vastly less exhausted by the former than by the latter, not only from the latter’s exhausting more in proportion to their Number when young, and whilst each of them consumes as much Nourishment as each of the small Number ”

“ For the Eye to make a Companion betwixt a sown Crop and such a ho’d Crop, it ought, when ’tis half grown, to look on the ho’d Crop across the Rows; because in the other it does so, in Effect, which way soever it looks; but whatever Appearance the ho’d Crop of Vegetables (of as large a Species as Wheat) makes when young, it surely, if well managed, appears more beautiful at Harvest than a sown Crop. ”

“ We have no Use of the Fold; because our Ground has annually a Crop growing on it, and it must lie still a Year, if we would fold it, and that Crop would be lost; and all the Good the Fold could do to the Land, would be only to help to pulverize it for one single Crop; its Benefit not lasting to the Second Year. And so we should be certain of losing one Crop for the very uncertain Hopes of procuring one the ensuing Year by the Fold; when ’tis manifest by the adjoining Crops, that we can have a much better Crop every Year, without a Fold, or any other Manure. ”

“ If Water does separate, and take any of the mere Pabulum of Plants from the Soil, it gives much more to it.
Yet it seems, that much of the Earth, contain’d in the clearest Water, is there in too large Parts to enter a Root; since we see, that in a short time the Root’s Superficies will, in the purest Water, be cover’d with Earth, which is then form’d into a terrene Pasture, which may nourish Roots; but very few Plants will live long in so thin a Pasture, as any Water affords them. ”

“ And it must be likewise observ’d, that the Crop will be produc’d in Proportion to the Nourishment it receives; for if the most gigantic Luserne plant, which, when pamper’d by the Hoe, has made a Produce more like a Tree than an Herb, remains a few Years without that or some equivalent Culture, it will by little and little cease to produce more than a few poor sickly Stalks, just to shew its Species; and then, if this Culture be repeated, will recover its pristine Strength, and yield as great a Crop as ever ”

“ For this very Reason is that extraordinary Pains of fallowing and dunging the Soil, necessary to Wheat; tho’, notwithstanding all that Labour and Expence, the Ground is generally grown so stale by the Spring, and so little of the Benefit of that chargeable Culture remains, that, if Part of the same Field be sown in the Beginning of April, upon fresh Plowing, without the Dung, or Year’s Fallow, it will be as great or a greater Crop, in all Respects, except the Flour, which fails only for want of Time to fill the Grain. ”

“ But the artificial Pasture of Plants may be inlarg’d, without any Addition of more Land, or inlarging of Bounds, and this by Division only of the same Earth.
And this artificial Pasture may be increas’d in proportion to the Division of the Parts of Earth, whereof it is the Superficies, which Division may be mathematically infinite; for an Atom is nothing; neither is there a more plain Impossibility in Nature, than to reduce Matter to nothing, by Division or Separation of its Parts.
A Cube of Earth of One Foot has but Six Feet of Superficies. ”

“ I believe Plants are more altered as to their Growth, by being cultivated or not, than by Change of Climates differing in very many Degrees of Latitude. I say, in their Growth, not always in their Fruit; for tho’ a Peach-tree, well cultivated in a Standard, will grow here vigorously, and be very beautiful; yet its Fruit will be of little Value, unless it be planted against a good Wall: So Luserne, unless cultivated upon a well exposed Gravel, will yield little Seed in England. ”

“ The Land will be the fitter for a succeeding Crop of Wheat with less Harrowing. But this must be observed, that, in regard to hard Frosts in Winter, and very dry Weather in Summer, the alternate Hoeing described in the Chapter of Turneps may be proper; lest the little Earth that may be left for the Row to stand on, when the Furrows are turned from both Sides of it, should not be sufficient to secure the Roots from the Injuries that may happen to them by being exposed either to Frost or Drought on both Sides of the Row at the same time. ”

“ However, since they saw the Medica was as impatient of Grass as the Vineyards were, ’tis a Wonder they did not give it the same Culture with the Bidens, which would have been much better and cheaper, than to cleanse the Medica with Fingers. Indeed Fingers were made before the Bidens; but sure the Effect of its Use in raising Juices to the Vine, had inspired the Romans with more judicious Speculations, than to give that for a Reason why they ho’d the Medica with their Fingers, rather than with the Bidens. ”

“ I have one single Luserne-plant in a poor Arable Field, that has stood the Test of Two-and-twenty Winters, besides the Feeding of Sheep at all Seasons, and yet remains as strong as ever. What Quantity of Hay this Plant yearly produces, cannot be known, because at those times that Cattle are kept from it, the Hares constantly crop it, being sweeter than any other Grass. ”

“ How easy and natural it is to contrive a Plough that may equal the Spade, if not exceed it, in going deeper, and cutting the Soil into smaller Pieces, than the Spade commonly does, I leave to the Judgment of those who have seen the Four-coulter’d Plough. ”

“ Tho’ all Sorts of Vegetables may have great Benefit from the Hoe, because it supplies them with Plenty of Food, at the Time of their greatest Need, yet they do not all equally require Hoeing; but the Plant that is to live the longest, should have the largest Stock of Sustenance provided for it: Generally [93] Wheat lives, or ought to live, longer than other Sorts of Corn; for if it be not sown before Spring, its Grain will be thin, and have but little Flour in it, which is the only useful Part for making Bread. ”

“ Any Weather, except the Ground be so dry and hard that the Plough cannot enter it; but it is very proper to be done, when the Earth is so wet, that by no means it ought to be plowed with any other Plough; for it never can be too moist for this, unless the Cattle which draw it be mired; because, tho’ all the Cattle should not go in the Furrow, yet their Treadings are cut so small by the Coulters, that the Earth is not kept from dissolving, as when turned off whole in common Tillage. ”

“ I have observed, that those Places of such an Hill, that, when plowed with the Descent, were the wettest, and never produced any thing that was sown on them, became the very richest, when made dry by plowing cross the Descent. This shews that Water does not impoverish Land, but the contrary; tho’, whilst it stands thereon, it prevents the Heat which is necessary to the Production of most Sorts of Vegetables: And where it runs swiftly, it carries much Earth away with it; where it runs slowly, it deposits and leaves much behind it. ”

“ For since the Life of Animals depends upon that of Plants, ’tis not unreasonable to imagine, that Nature may have provided a considerable Overplus for maintaining the Life of individual Plants, when she has provided such an innumerable Overplus for continuing every Species of Animals.
But suppose these cast-off Particles were, when taken in, unfit for the Nourishment of any manner of Vegetables: Then the Doctor must fansy the Wheat to be of a very scrupulous Conscience, to feed on these Particles, which were neither fit for its own Nourishment, nor of any other Plant ”

“ For, besides the Benefit of Pulveration and Impregnation, Land is more enriched in proportion to the Time of Exposure, during which it is free from Exhaustion, and continually receiving from the Atmosphere: Therefore frequent Turning and Exposure are both contained in the Words pulverize, and not exhaust; and to comply with the latter, we should endeavour, that our Land may be never exhausted by any other Plants than by those we would propagate, and by no more of them neither, than what are necessary for producing a reasonable Crop ”