d drop to pieces. In
drawing such instruments into the field the men generally mount the
horses, and drag them after them; in passing gateways twenty to one
they draw them against the gate post.' Some of 'these fellows' are
still to be seen!

Another defect in drilling was that the drill plough filled up all the
water furrows, which, at a time when drainage was often neglected,
were deemed of especial importance, and they all had to be opened
again.

Further, said the advocates of the old husbandry, it was a question
whether all the horse-hoeings, hand-hoeings, and weedings of the new
husbandry, though undoubtedly beneficial, really paid. It was very
hard to get enough labourers for these operations. With more reason
they objected to the principles of discarding manure and sowing a
large number of white straw crops in succession, but admitted the new
system was admirably adapted for beans, turnips, cabbages, and
lucerne.

However, there were many followers of Tull. The Author of
_Dissertations on Rural Subjects_[458] thought the drill plough an
excellent invention, as it saved seed and facilitated hoeing; but he
said Tull's drill was defective in that the distances between the rows
could not be altered, a defect which the writer claims to have
remedied. Young's desire for a stronger drill seems to have been soon
answered, as the same writer says the barrel drill invented by
Du-Hamel and improved by Craik was strong, cheap, and easily managed.

The tendency of the latter half of the century was decidedly in favour
of larger farms; it was a bad thing for the small holders, but it was
an economic tendency which could not be resisted. The larger farmers
had more capital, were more able and ready to execute improvements;
they drained their land, others often did not; having sufficient
capital they were able both to buy and sell to the best advantage and
not sacrifice their produce at a low price to meet the rent, as the
small farmer so often did and does. They could pay better wages and so
get better men, kept more stock and better, and more efficient
implements. They also had a great advantage in being able by their
good teams to haul home plenty of purchased manure, which the small
farmer often could not do. The small tenants, who had no by-industry,
then, as now, had to work and live harder than the ordinary labourer
to pay their way.

Young calculated as early as 1768 that the average size of farms over
the great