Tiller

“ With reasonable labor and painstaking, the tiller of the soil could be sure of a living for himself and his family, and before historic records illumine the life of several nations, farming was well understood. ”

“ In the agricultural period it must have been specially useful and even inevitable,600 because the tiller of the soil is always in need of knowledge as to the best times and seasons for his operations, and his out-of-door life gives him constant opportunity of observing natural phenomena, diosemeia, signs from heaven, and the utterances and movements of birds and other animals. ”

“ If there should be a dispute about bad tillage between two co-tillers, let the erw of the ploughman be examined as to the depth, length, and breadth of the furrow, and let every one's be completed alike. ”

“ The actual tiller alone has any right to the results of his labour, and should he cease to cultivate his allotment and remove elsewhere, ho is compelled to restore it to the tribal chief, by whom it is assigned in the name of the commune to another holder. ”

“ The silence of night lay heavy upon the breast of the placid deep, and seemed to be emphasised rather than broken by the faint sigh of the breeze through the maze of spars and rigging that towered aloft, the soft seething and plash of water along the bends, the light creak or cheep of some parral or sheave up in the velvet darkness, and the occasional clank of the tiller chains as the watchful helmsman, with his eye upon some star peering past the weather leach of the main-royal, found it necessary to give the ship a spoke of the wheel one way or the other. ”

“ And it's haze may be seen through a glass of beer.
Query for Romancers.
Used the Knights of the Round Table ever to get a "Square meal"?
SARSFIELD YOUNG ATTENDS A COUNTY FAIR.
DEAR PUNCHINELLO: From early ages, man has been a tiller of the soil. My ancestors were pretty much all in this line of business. My venerable great-grandfather-in-law came over in the Mayflower, and though not exactly a tiller himself, he is supposed to have had a good deal to do with the tiller department of that historic ship. Several of our folks have, from time to time, studied agriculture on New England town farms ”

“ If any one take over a waste-lying field to make it arable, but is lazy, and does not make it arable, he shall plow the fallow field in the fourth year, harrow it and till it, and give it back to its owner and for each ten gan [a measure of area] ten gur [dry measure] of grain shall be paid.
45. If a man rent his field for tillage for a fixed rental, and receive the rent of his field, but bad weather come and destroy the harvest, the injury falls upon the tiller of the soil. ”

“ To put forth new shoots from the root, or round the bottom of the original stalk; as, wheat or rye tillers; some spread plants by tillering. [Sometimes written tillow.]
Till"er, n. [From OE. tillen, tullen, to draw, pull; probably fr. AS. tyllan in fortyllan to lead astray; or cf. D. tillen to lift up. Cf. Till a drawer.] 1. (Naut.) A lever of wood or metal fitted to the rudder head and used for turning side to side in steering. In small boats hand power is used; in large vessels, the tiller is moved by means of mechanical appliances. See Illust. ”

“ While prophets have lamented, and artists have painted, and poets sorrowed over the drudgeries of the tillers of the soil, the tillers have steadily and quietly and with infinite patience and toil worked out their own salvation. ”

“ On such occasions most of the tillers of the soil quit work and come in from the surrounding country and the neighboring hills—even from further outlying villages and adjacent counties. Some come on business, some on pleasure bent, but whether for recreation or profit, a goodly crowd convenes, the day in itself an all-sufficient excuse for the act. ”

“ Consult disinterested old-time residents whose places show that they are actual, successful tillers of the soil in the locality where you are to buy. They will give you the farm value, and not the promotion value. ”

“ Among the genuine tillers the whole life of the family is taken up in agriculture, and hence the months are by preference called after the operations which they demand. Constant clearings change forests to fields, and the ground is manured with the ashes of the burnt thicket. In the middle of the fields rise the light watch-towers, from which a watchman scares grain-eating birds and other thieves. ”

“ I have often known this Sort of Land despis’d by its Owners, who fear’d to give it due Tillage, which they thought would make it so light, that the Wind would blow it away; but whenever such has been thoroughly till’d, it never fail’d to become much stronger than before; and considering that ’tis till’d with less Expence than very strong Land, it is, for several Sorts of Corn, found to be more profitable than Land of greater Strength and Richness, that is more difficult to be till’d. ”

“ And because ’tis morally impossible, the same Figure and Dimensions should happen twice to any one Part, we need not wonder, how the Earth, every time of Tilling, should afford a new internal Superficies (or artificial Pasture) ; and that the till’d Soil has in it an inexhaustible Fund, which by a sufficient Division (being capable of an infinite one) may be produc’d.
Tillage (as well as Dung) is beneficial to all Sorts of Land [24] . ”

“ Since it is so difficult to bring our strong Land into Tilth, after it has rested, that it cannot be speedily done by a Plough without a Coulter, or by one with a Coulter, in wet Weather or dry, nor with a Breast-plough, without a certain Expence, and an uncertain Success, the Spade is too chargeable a Tillage for the Field: It seems to me, upon the Whole, that we are Losers by this inaratæ gratia terræ, unless we could contrive some other Method of reducing it sooner, and with less Charge, into Tilth ”

“ By Dung we are limited to the Quantity of it we can procure, which in most Places is too scanty: But by Tillage, we can inlarge our Field of subterranean Pasture without Limitation, tho’ the external Surface of it be confin’d within narrow Bounds: Tillage may extend the Earth’s internal Superficies, in proportion to the Division of its Parts; and as Division is infinite, so may that Superficies be.
Every Time the Earth is broken by any Sort of Tillage, or Division, there must arise some new Superficies of the broken Parts, which never has been open before. ”

“ Hoeing is the breaking or dividing the Soil by Tillage, whilst the Corn or other Plants are growing thereon.
It differs from common Tillage (which is always perform’d before the Corn or Plants are sown or planted) in the Times of performing it; ’tis much more beneficial; and ’tis perform’d by different Instruments.
Land that is before Sowing tilled never so much (tho’ the more ’tis till’d the more it will produce) will have some Weeds, and they will come in along with the Crop for a Share of the Benefit of the Tillage, greater or less, according to their Number, and what Species they are of. ”

“ Tillage is the fundamental operation in agricultural practice. Most farmers till for three reasons: to get the seed into the land; to keep the weeds down; and to get the crop out of the land. The real reason for Tillage, however, is to ameliorate the land; that is, Tillage makes the soil mellow and fine, and an agreeable place in which plants may grow. It enables the [222] soil to hold moisture, to present the greatest feeding surface to roots, to allow the circulation of air, and intensifies many chemical activities. Tilling the soil is the first means of making it productive. ”

“ And yet it has been through the action of the storekeepers that a considerable portion of the settled country has been cleared and cultivated, and without them much of the land which is now under tillage would be still wild bush.
A poor but hard-working man has, perhaps, managed to save money to the amount of one hundred pounds. He is anxious to establish himself in a home of his own and to purchase a few head of cattle, or a small flock of sheep, and also to clear and cultivate a few acres of land. ”

“ A tract most suitable for tillage is then selected in a block which is enclosed, and within which each head of a family cultivates his allotment. A hay meandow, held also in severalty, is chosen and the remainder of the consolidated homesteads is used as a range for cattle and other animals, which are attended by a herdsman, who is paid by the dorf. ”

“ We have seen lots of cattle and goats and hogs—though Tilly says she hasn't seen any of the latter under any gate yet. I have seen a mesquite tree (so I have done one of my things) , and it does have thorns. We are on another prairie now, and oh, how big it is, and such a lot of grass as there is on it—just as far as you can see, grass, grass, grass! I guess there won't be any danger of my not having plenty of that to take home. I have seen lots of men on horseback, but I don't know whether they were cowboys or not. ”

“ When the farmer encounters a stone which is the great impediment of his operations, he drives the blade under it, and bringing the knee or angle to the ground, has in the long handle a very forcible lever.
According to the different mode of tillage, farms are distinguished into long land and short land. Long land is that which affords room for a plow, and short land is turned up by the spade. ”

“ Last year, by force and violence, the landholders of this division were made to agree to an assessment upon the lands in tillage of ten thousand and five hundred rupees, of which not six thousand can be collected. The other three divisions are in the same state. Not one-tenth of the land is in tillage, nor are one-tenth of the villages peopled. The soil is really the finest that I have seen in India; and I have seen no part of India in which so small a portion of the surface is unfit for tillage. The moisture rises to the surface just as it is required ”

“ The repetition of tillage here reprobated, refers, I presume, to the numerous ploughing given by many English farmers, at that period, preparatory to the putting in of their crops; which the single, deep and "efficacious" ploughing of Arbuthnot rendered unnecessary.—Were our ploughing for Indian Corn and Root Crops alike deep and efficacious, before planting, shallow tillage (called horse hoeing) with light ploughs, during their growth, would suffice.
[13] In Scotland their peat-lands are called peat-mosses. ”

“ Moreouer a man may behold a great extension of ground apt for tillage, straite and handsome, and somewhat enclining toward the South, as easie to be brought to tillage as I would desire, and very well replenished with faire Okes and other trees of great beauty, no thicker then the Forrests of France. Here we set twenty men to worke, which in one day had laboured about an acre and an halfe of the said ground, and sowed it part with Naueaus or small Turneps, which at the ende of eight dayes, as I said before, sprang out of the earth. ”

“ Without Tillage properly follow'd and encourag'd, 'tis impossible our Numbers will ever encrease sufficiently; nay they must necessarily decline every Day; nor shall we be able to feed tolerably, those Remnants of our Countrymen, whom our Flocks of Sheep, and Herds of Bullocks, don't drive to France and America, those great Drains of wretched Ireland. But what is fully as bad is, that without Tillage, we shall be perpetually drawing off what little Money we have, and Bread will be so dear, that 'tis impossible but other Nations who feed cheaper, must undersell us in our Manufactures. ”

“ Beyond the arable land lay a ring of meadow land; beyond that the stinted pasture; and beyond that again the forest or waste.
By the term "common" is generally understood common of pasture; it is not unusual to meet with the phrase "cow commons," as though cows were the principal, if not the sole, objects which rendered commons of service. This may well have been the case in later times. In early days however, there went along with it common tillage, examples of which are still to be found on the Continent. ”

“ That the introduction of sheep farming was a pure gain, not tending to diminish the area of tillage where tillage is desirable, and turning to use for the first time a large part of the whole area of the country, which was formerly absolute waste. ”

“ Industries.—The land is generally better adapted for pasturage than for tillage, although there are considerable tracts of rich soil in the south-eastern districts. The proportion of tillage to pasture is, however, roughly as 1 to 31⁄2, though the acreage under the principal crops of oats, potatoes and turnips is on the whole fairly maintained. ”

“ Land must be well tilled for Turneps, which also are commonly hoed; they stand scarce ever above Three-quarters of a Year, and are then fed on the Ground; and then the succeeding Crop of Corn has, by that means, the Benefit of twice as much Tillage from the Hoe, as otherwise would be given to it; and the Broad Clover, or St. Foin, sown with the Corn (if the Corn be not so big as to kill it) , will enjoy, in its Turn, a Proportion of the extraordinary Tillage, and of the Dung of Cattle, which feed the Turneps, and thrive accordingly: But Broad Clover and St. ”

“ But when houses are pulled down for the erection of a cinema, or when a field is diverted from tillage to pasture, something has happened which affects for good or ill the interests of the whole community. Conversion from tillage to pasture represents, indeed, a tendency which has been very marked in Great Britain during the last generation, and has aroused misgivings in many public-spirited observers. ”

“ Tillage.—Man's ability to assist nature in the work of production finds a notable illustration in the matter of tillage. Its purpose is to provide right physical condition of the soil for the particular class of plants that should be produced, while destroying the competition of other plants that are for the time only weeds. Most soils become too compact when left unstirred. The air cannot enter freely, plant-roots cannot extend in every direction for food, the water from rains cannot enter easily, there is escape of the moisture in the ground, and weathering of the soil proceeds too slowly. ”