THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



195 



that the farmers of England bad evidently ad- 

 vanced in skill and capital since Grotehead, Fitz- 

 herbert, and Tusser wrote their Books of Hus- 

 bandry. Quaint and lively old Harrison noted 

 these things in the year 1577, when he says, 

 " Certainly the soyle is even now, in these our 

 dayes, growne to bee much more fruitefull than it 

 hath been in times past. The cause is that our 

 countriemen are growne to be more paynefull, 

 skilfull, and carefull, thorowe recornpence of gayne, 

 insomuch that my synchroni, or time felowes, can 

 reap at thys present great commoditye in lyttle 

 •roume : whereas of late years a great compasse has 

 yeelded but small profite, and tJhys onelye thorowe 

 the idle and negligent occupation of such as ma- 

 nured, and had the same in occupying." 



In another place, Harrison thus exults at the 

 greatly-improved domestic comforts of his contem- 

 poraries in the rural districts : 



" So common were all sorts of treene (wooden) 

 vessels in old time, that a man should hardly find 

 four peices of pewter (of which one peradventure 

 was a sake) in a good farmers house ; and yet, for 

 all this frugality (if it may be so justly called), they 

 were scarce able to live, and pay their rents at 

 their days, without selhng of a horse, or a cow, or 

 more, although they paid but four pounds, at the 

 uttermost, by tlie year. Such also was their poverty, 

 that if some one od farmer or husbandman had 

 been at the alehouse, a thing greatly used in those 

 days, amongst si.\ or seven of his neighbours, and 

 there in a bravery, to show what store he had, did 

 cast down his purse unto them, and therein a noble 

 or six shillings in silver, it was very likely that all 

 the rest could not lay down so much against it. 

 Whereas in my time, although peradventure four 

 pound of old rent be improved to forty or fifty 

 pound, yet will the farmer think his gains very 

 small towards the midst of his term, if he have not 

 six or seven years rent lying by him, therewith to 

 purchase a new lease ; besides a fair garnish of 

 pewter on his cowbord, three or four feather beds, 

 so many coverlets, and carpets of tapestry, a silver 

 salte, a bowle for wine (if not a whole nest) and a 

 dozen of spoons, to furnish up the sute. This also 

 he taketh to be his own clear ; for what stock so- 

 ever of money he gathereth in all his years, it is 

 often seen that the landlord will take such order 

 with him for the same, when he reneweth the lease 

 (which is commonly eight or ten years before it be 

 expired, sith it is now grown almost into a custom, 

 that if he come not to his lord so long before, an- 

 other shall step in for a reversion, and so defeat 

 him outright), that it shall never trouble him more 

 than the hair of his beard when the barber hath 

 washed and shaven it from his chin." 



Tusser talks also of fines and high rents : 



" Great fines so neere did pare me, 

 Great rent so much did skare me. 

 Though country health long staid me. 

 Yet lease expiring fraid me." 



In 1682 the following wages of servants and 

 labourers in husbandry were appointed at the 

 Quarter Sessions held on the 24th of April at 

 Bury St. Edmunds— 



Wages by the Year. 



£ s. d. 



A bayliffe in husbandry. . . . . . 6 



A chief husbandman or carter . . • . . 5 

 A second husbandman above 18 years 



of age . . . . • . ..3100 



A fourth, under 18 2 10 



A dairy-maid or cook , . , . . . 2 10 



An ordinary harvest-man .. .. 18 



Wages by the Day. 



A man haymaker, with meat and drink 5 



A woman haymaker . . . . ..003 



A man reaper in harvest .. .. 10 



A woman reaper. . . . . . . . 



A common labourer at other times : 



In summer . . , . . . . . 6 



In winter . . . . . . ..005 



Women and such persons, weeders . . 3 



Without meat and drink, their wages were doubled. 



It was about a century after the time of the 

 earliest English writers on husbandry, that Walter 

 Blithe commenced his labours. He lived at New- 

 castle ; and in 1649 pubhshed his work, entitled, 

 " The English Improver, or a New Survey of Hus- 

 bandry." In his title-page, which, like most of 

 those of the books of his time, was a very copious 

 aflfair, he gives perhaps the earliest notice with re- 

 gard to " floating or watering such lands as are 

 capable thereof" ; and also, by " drayning," re- 

 ducing " boggy or drowned land to sound pas- 

 ture." 



Writing in the days of the Commonwealth, he 

 dedicated his work to the members " of the high 

 and honourable houses of Parliament" ; and it is 

 impossible to read his modest book without per- 

 ceiving how far before his time was honest Captain 

 Walter Blithe. He was the first who advocated 

 tenant-right. He says in his preface, what has 

 often enough been since contended, that " the first 

 prejudice is, that if a tenant be at never so great 

 pains or cost for the improvement of his land, he 

 doth thereby occasion but a greater rack upon him- 

 self ; or else invests his landlord into his cost and 

 labour gratis, or at best lies at his landlord's mercy 

 for requital, which occasions a neglect of all good 

 husbandry. Now this I humbly conceive may be 

 removed if there were a law enacted whereby every 

 landlord should be obliged either to give him rea- 

 sonable allowance for his clear improvement, or 

 else suffer him or his to enjoy it so much longer, 

 as till he hath had a proportionable requital." 



The irrigation improvements of Blithe of course 

 were opposed and thwarted in every way. He pro- 

 ceeds to tell us that " the second prejudice is against 

 thatgreat improvement by floating lands, which expo- 

 seth the improver to a suit of law for turning a water- 

 course, by millers or others which are minded to 

 molest the improvement. Myself am a precedent 

 herein. I made a good improvement upon a little 

 brook above half a mile above a water-mill. I 

 turned the water-course upon my land, and turned 

 it again into the course half a mile before it came 

 unto his mill. He sues me at common law, and 

 recovers against me. My improvement was from 

 six load of hay to twenty, his prejudice little or no- 



