Michel Lullin de Chateauvieux
Michel Lullin de Châteauvieux (Genève, 15 September 1695 - Genève, 19 March 1781) was a Genevan nobleman, agronomist and experimenter on agriculture, known for the design of many agricultural instruments. Biography. Michel Lullin de Chateauvieux was born in Geneva, Republic of Geneva where his father Charles Lullin de Chateauvieux (1669-1761), descendant of a patrician family, was working as counselor and trustee. He took his studies in philosophy at the University of Geneva. In 1714 M. de Chateauvieux started working as lawyer and became counsellor in 1738. During the riots of 1734, he, Pierre Mussard and Jean -Louis Du Pan commissioned Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui to report on the notices of appeal of the old citizens (citoyens) and of the new citizens (bourgeois). He became trustee of the city council of Geneva three times in the period between 1740 and 1748. Between 1752 and 1777 he was premier of the syndic of the canton of Geneva seven times. M. de Chateauvieux devoted much of his spare time to agricultural experiments, corresponded internationally with Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau from France on agricultural matters, and co-founded the "Société pour l'encouragement des Arts et de l'Agriculture" (Society for the  Encouragement of Arts and Agriculture) in 1763/1776. Among the many agricultural instruments he designed and improved was a seed drill invented in 1754. He corresponded about his work with Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau, who published some of these letters in his "Traité de la culture des terres suivant les principes de M. Tull, Anglois." (Treaty of land cultivation following the principles of the English Mr. Tull) in 6 volumes, 1750-56. M. de Chateauvieux also corresponded with other scientists of his time, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and George Washington. M. de Chateauvieux married Susanne Saladin (1699-1774 ) on 22 September 1720, and they had four children. Among his grandsons was the Swiss author Charles Jean Marc Lullin de Châteauvieux (1752-1833), and his brother, the agronom Michel Lullin de Chateauvieux (1754 - 1802). Part of the family were residents of "Le château de Choully", or Choully Castle. Work. M. de Chateauvieux successfully conducted several experiments to increase crops, particularly cabbage, lucerne, and developed several agricultural implements. He corresponded about the outcomes of his work with Duhamel, who published his letters as articles in his "Traité de la culture des terres suivant les principes de M. Tull, Anglois." One  of his discoveries, according to Walter Harte (1764), was "the method of transplanting lucerne; and restoring old pasturage without laying them down in corn." On cabbages. In the 18th century cabbages had been cultivated as food for cattle. M. de Chateauvieux successfully conducted several experiments to increase the crops. He reported the following findings in a letter to M. Duhamel, which was translated and published in the article on cabbages in "The Complete Farmer" (1777): "The Complete Farmer" article comments that "the circumstance of the cabbages continuing firm and crisp in the hottest weather, is remarkable." Yet, the work reported  that a similar experiment in England upon cabbages had made the same observations, and it was explained as an effect of good and deep hoeing as predicted by Jethro Tull. On lucerne. Lucerne is the name of the alfalfa, which arose in France, Germany and Britain in the 16th century from the Provençal luzerno ("glow worm"), due to its shiny seeds. In the 1750s M. de Chateauvieux had experimented extensively on producing lucerne in beds, cultivated according to new husbandry, over several years. Most of the 25-page article on lucerne in "The Complete Farmer" (1777) was devoted to the  outcomes of these experiments. Although M. de Chateauvieux agreed with M. Duhamel and other participants of the new husbandry, that lucerne and sainfoin thrive best when cultivated in beds, his practice differed in many respects from theirs. In his experiments he had some explicit expectations: The lucerne he had planted pushed out numbers of large lateral roots, and these branched out again into others, which according to him "may be multiplied without end by frequent culture of the alleys: for the horse-hoe has the fame effect on these horizontal roots as cutting has upon the.tap-root." About the method  of transplanting the lucerne, M. de Chateauvieux explained: This led to the design of a series of rules to be observed in transplanting lucerne into beds: Drill plough. J. Balfour's "Select Essays on Husbandry" (1767), with extracts from the "Museum Rusticum" and other foreign essays on agriculture, mentioned the drill-ploughs invented by M. Duhamel and M. de Chateauvieux. Balfour concluded that "from the practice of the gentlemen abroad, and other instances that might be given at home, it is evident, that they have not seen the additions that Mr Tull made to his Essay, in which, besides his  different method of drilling, there are several very material improvements in the manner of hoeing and cultivating wheat, and other crops; and from these last parts of his work may be also seen, that the reports of his bad success, in repeated wheat-crops, are without any just foundation." Beside the drill-plough, M. de Chateauvieux also developed a single cultivator, both described in John Mills's "A New System of Practical Husbandry" (1767). These works was later reviewed by Tobias George Smollett (1775). In his "Letters concerning the present state of the French nation" (1769) Arthur Young was far  less positive. He criticised the design for his complex design and lack of maintainability, stating: Two years later Young (1771) explained that among his many experiments he did make a single cultivator based on M. de Chateauvieux's instructions with some additional improvements. Legacy. In his days M. de Châteauvieux's work on husbandry was often cited in du Monceau's "A Practical Treatise of Husbandry", and in "" 3rd ed. (1777). "The Complete Farmer" even listed M. de Châteauvieux in the subtitle of this work among the foremost authorities. Other people mentioned in this context were Carl Linnaeus, Louis François  Henri de Menon, Hugh Plat, John Evelyn, John Worlidge, John Mortimer, Jethro Tull, William Ellis, Philip Miller, Thomas Hale, Edward Lisle, Roque, John Mills, and Arthur Young. Over half a century later, "The Penny Cyclopædia" (1833) gave a summary of the so-called "horse-hoeing husbandry" or "new husbandry": Selected publications. Books: M. de Chateauvieux's letters were published in: