Title page of English agriculturist Jethro Tull's (1674-1741) book The horse-hoing husbandry (1733) covering the principles of tillage and vegetation. Tull is best known for inventing a seed drill which used a rotary mechanism to plant seeds in rows. This meant that less weeding needed to be done. Tull also stressed the need to allow water and air to reach the plants' roots and improved the design of the horse-drawn plough to accomplish this.