THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



9 



May, 1 53S, and lies buried in his own parish church 

 of Norbury, where, on his gravestone of blue 

 marble, was long to be seen the following short 

 and modest inscription : 



" Of your charitie, pray for the Soule of Sir 

 Anthony Fitzherbert, Knyght, one of the King's 

 Justices of his Common Bench, and sometime Lo. 

 and patron of this Towne, and Dorothy his Wife, 

 daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, Knyght, &c., 

 which Sir Anthony deceased 2/ May, 1538." 

 ' Of his great law works, by which he is so well 

 and so honourably known to the law-student, this 

 is hardly the place to describe. His " Natura 

 Brevium," and his grand " Abridgment of the 

 Laws," the great Sir Edward Coke has well de- 

 scribed, when' he is speaking, in his preface to his 

 Eighth Report, of the first-named, and of the last 

 says, " it is an exact work, and exquisitely penned'' 

 (Preface to Tenth Report). 



In the Library of the British Museum will be 

 found a small duodecimo volume entitled " The 

 Boke of Husbandry," by Sir Anlhony Fitzherbert, 

 published in 1534 ; and this is certainly the ear- 

 liest extant work on husbandry, that professes to 

 be written by an Englishman. 



It commences by saying, " Here begynneth the 

 Boke of Husbandry, and fyrste whereby hus- 

 bandemen do lyve." 



An early section is of " dyvers maner of 

 plowes." 



It is evident from this that, even in those days, 

 there were different kinds of ploughs used in va- 

 rious parts of England ; for, as our author remarks, 

 " One plowe will not serve in all places ; 

 wherefore it is necessary to have dyvers sortes. 

 In Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Gloucester- 

 shire, the share beam, that in many places is 

 called the plow head, is four or fyve foote longe, 

 made very broad and thinne ; and that is because 

 the lande is very toughe, and would sucke the 

 plowe into the earth, if the share beams were not 

 very longe, broade, and thynne. In Kent they 

 alter muche in fashyon ; for there theye goe upon 

 wheeles, as they do in some parts of Hartford- 

 shire, Sussexe, and Cornewalle. But," adds 

 Fitzherbert, very wisely, " neyther wyil I stand 

 too stryctly on theyr fashyon, sythe theyr is no 

 countye but custome or experyence hath instructed 

 them to make choyce of what is avaylable ; and he 

 that wyll lyve in any countrye may by free charter 

 learne of hys neighbours, and howsoever any 

 plowe be made or fashyoned, so it be well tem- 

 pered, it may the better be suffered." 



Sir Anthony, hke Bishop Greathead, was a de- 

 cided advocate for the use on heavy soils of oxen 

 in husbandry. He had evidently thought much 

 on the subject. It is curious to see how closely 

 the arguments on the subject by a farmer 340 

 years since, resembled those of modern agricul- 

 turists. _ At the conclusion of a section devoted to 

 the subject, he remarked : " If any sorance betyde 

 a horse, as old age,bruysyings,blyndness or lame- 

 ness, then is he worth nothynge except for a 

 kennell of noyse-begettyng hounds (we might sus- 

 pect from this remark, that the learned j udge was 

 no friend to the delights of the chase). But if 

 .myschief befall an ox, for ten shyllyngs at any 



tyme he may be fed, and then he is man's meate, 

 and in that degree better than ever he was. These 

 reasons and circumstances considered, I am of the 

 poet's opynyon, that the plowe of oxen is much 

 more profytable than the plowe of horses, to whych 

 the Holy Scryptures themselves condescend; for 

 wheresoever it speaketh of husbandrye, it only 

 sayth the oxe to hys yoke for labour." 



After telling the farmers of his time how they 

 should plough different kinds of land " all tymes 

 of the yeeare," he then proceeds in a natural order 

 of arranging his work, to seed sowing. He com- 

 mences with a seed, which should be mingled, in 

 fact, with all other kinds, and which he thus de- 

 scrihes: "There is a seed called dyscretyon, if a 

 husbandman have of that seede, and myngle it 

 amonge hys other come, they wyll grow doubtless 

 much the better." And he adds : " Thys seede of 

 dyscretyon has a wondrous vyrtue, for the more it 

 is eyther taken of or lent, the more it is." 



To Sowe Barley is the title of a section at p. 10. 

 It seems that in those days there were " thre man- 

 ner of barleys, that is to say : spot barleye ; longe 

 eare ; and here barley, that some raenne call 

 bigge. " 



" To Sowe Otes" is the next title of a section. 

 Our author says of this crop, " It is to be knowen 

 that there be III. manner of otes, that is to saye : 

 redde otes, black otes, and roughe oats. Redde 

 otes are the best otes, and verye good to make 

 otemele of." Black oats he deemed inferior to the 

 red, and he adds, "the roughe otes be the worst : 

 they be very lyghte, and have long layles, vv'hereby 

 they wyll hange eche one to other.'^ 



He goes on to say, " all these manner of otes 

 weare the grounde very sore, and maketh it to bear 

 quyche." 



He leaves the quantity of seed oats to the 

 farmer; "his wysedome and discretion muste dis- 

 cerne it." 



He proceeds to treat of how " to harowe all man- 

 ner of corne." The ploughing of those days was 

 evidently ill done, and the harrows heavy and rudely 

 constructed. Fitzherbert remarks, "it is a great 

 labour and payne to the oxen to goo to harrowe, 

 for they were better to goo to the plowe two dayes 

 than to harrowe one daye. It is an old sayinge 

 The ox is never woo, 

 Tyll he to the harrowe goo. 

 It is because it goeth by twytches and not alway 

 after one draughte." 



It seems from what he says in his chapter " howe 

 forkes and rakes should be made (p. 19), that the 

 husbandmen of that time made their own." 



When he speaks of haymaking, p. 20, he truly 

 enough remarks, " good teddynge is the chiefe 

 poynte to make good hey." 



Of artificial manures, they were evidently in those 

 times not altogether unacquainted, for Fitzherbert 

 in his chapter of " how to make harrayne grounde 

 bryngeforti? good corne," recommends the mingling 

 of saltpetre, dregs of oil, and pigeons' dung with 

 the seed. 



Then he has a chapter on " howe to carrye out 

 manure or dunge, and howe to spreade the same." 

 He advised his brother-farmers that it should be 

 " layed up in email heaps neere together ;" " to 



