Jethro Tull
from The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, 1858
The experiments and writings of Jethro Tull, in the
early part of the 18th century, are among the first important attempts
at real progress in the agriculture of modern times. Tull was
undoubtedly a man of genius. Writers before his time had confined
themselves mainly to plain statements of the practical details of
farming, recommending such new practices as appeared to them worthy of
adoption, and condemning the errors of their contemporaries. Tull did
far more. He struck out new paths of practice, invented new modes of
culture, and his investigations into the principles of fertility,
fairly entitle him to the credit of being a "great original
discoverer," though the errors into which he fell in his zealous
enthusiasm, very naturally brought more or less discredit upon his
whole theory, which it has been the work of time to dissipate. But we
can excuse his failures and the errors of his system, when we consider
that he, like all his predecessors, were groping in the dark, before
chemistry and geology had made known the elements of soil and of
plants, and shown how the latter derive their support and nourishment.
Tull invented and introduced the horse hoe, which has now become an
exceedingly important and labor-saving implement, and the
drill-husbandry. The latter had, indeed, had been known previously, in
Spain, and, according to some, in Germany also, but it was not known to
any extent in England; and to Tull, more than to any other, belongs the
credit of having introduced it into modern English agriculture. He also
invented the threshing machine, though the flail was almost universally
used in England till the close of the last century. His doctrine, that
plants derived their nourishment from minute particles of soil, and
that repeated and thorough pulverization was therefore necessary, not
only as an initial preparation, but during the growth of the plant, led
directly to the practice of drilling grain crops, and the awkwardness
and prejudice of his workmen led to the introduction of the drilling
machine, and the horse hoe, as a substitute for hand labor. So far Tull
was right in his practice, however incorrect the reasons of his theory
may have been. The best practical farmers of the present day believe
in, and practise, frequent, deep, and thorough pulverization of the
soil, not because the plant is supposed to live on minute particles of
earth, but to admit the air, and moisture, freely to the roots. Tull's
theory of the nutrition of plants has not been without its followers,
however, Duhamel himself having adopted, and labored to spread it. Tull
believed, to some extent, in the use of manures, but chiefly as
dividers of the soil, as a means of improving its physical texture, and
not because he supposed them to furnish any nutriment to the plants
themselves. His ignorance of the constituents of manures, as brought to
light in the modern days of chemistry, led him into this error. Had
this science made such progress as to be able to teach the true nature
of plants, and manures in his time, he would have been the last to
adopt the mistaken views referred to. Tull's system of husbandry found
very few followers at first, and those who adopted it were, in many
cases, obliged to return to the old methods, for want of the necessary
mechanical instruments for following his directions; but it has been
more recently revived, mechanical skill making it practical and
comparatively easy of application, while thorough drainage, trenching,
and subsoil ploughing, have gained the assent of most intelligent
farmers. Even his drilling system, for wheat and other grain crops, has
been extensively adopted in Great Britain, and is fast gaining
favor.
From: The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, edited by George Ripley, Charles A. Dana, publ.
D. Appleton and Company (1858) pages 230-231
Links:
Biography from Agricultural Biography: Writings of the British Authors, 1854.
Biography from The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1843
Today in Science History web page for day of Jethro Tull's baptism, 30 Mar 1674.
A quotation by Jethro Tull.
