Jethro Tull

[Michael S. Habiby]

b. 1674, Basildon, Berkshire, Eng.
d. Feb. 21, 1741, Prosperous Farm, near Hungerford, Berkshire
English agronomist, agriculturist, writer, and inventor whose ideas helped
form the basis of modern British agriculture.

Tull trained for the bar, to which he was called in 1699. But for the next
10 years he chose to operate his father's farm in Oxfordshire, on which
about 1701 he perfected a horse-drawn seed drill that economically sowed the
seeds in neat rows. This was a notable advance over the usual practice of
scattering the seeds by hand.

In 1709 Tull bought a farm of his own in Berkshire. While later traveling in
France and Italy, he was impressed by the cultivation methods in use in the
vineyards, wherein the rows of earth between the vines had been pulverized.
This reduced the need for manure and increased aeration and the access of
water to and from plant roots, though Tull mistakenly believed that earth
was the food of plants and that pulverization made it easier for plants to
absorb it. He developed a horse-drawn hoe and successfully adopted the
vineyard method to his farm.

His success led to the publication of his The New Horse Houghing Husbandry:
Or an Essay on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation (1731). Tull's
methods were initially subjected to violent attack, but they were eventually
adopted by the large landowners and laid the basis for more modern and
efficient British farming.

Pic attatched is not Ian Anderson


Michael S. Habiby
VP Sales and Marketing
the CableShoppe, inc.
One Prospect Ave.
Albany, NY 12206
(800) 386-2300
(518) 489-0269 - fax
cableshoppe at global2000.net <mailto:cableshoppe at global2000.net>
or mhabiby1 at nycap.rr.com <mailto:mhabiby1 at nycap.rr.com>
________________________

        - Robert C. Mayo
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