Rural Reading in Old Time England

The only opinion in this world that appeals to anyone is his own. Jethro Tull, who is perhaps one of the best known personalities in the history of English farming, did not scruple to express his contempt for books, especially books about agriculture. When his seed‐drill and horse‐hoes had become famous he was pressed to write a book about them so that other people might benefit from his ingenuity. He opposed the suggestion with all the force at his command; eventually the pressure of his social obligations proved too much for him. He was not only unwilling to write, but he stated what may have been the habit of the small squire of his own class and the general run of yeoman and tenant farmers of his time. “I was,” he wrote, “so far from being inclined to the scribbling disease, that I had disused writing for above twenty years.” This admission may be taken as an indication that most farmers of Tull's day would avoid writing if they could, and indeed the smaller farmer of today often gets his wife to write his letters for him.