42 THE LAND WE LIVE ON 



Saxon races much neglected agriculture, which indeed 

 oould not flourish under the feudal system. In the middle 

 ages the best land belonged to the church, and the monks 

 not only carefully cultivated their lands themselves, but 

 supervised the cultivation of such lands which were leased 

 to farmers. 



The development of agriculture in England may be 

 traced from some of the old writings on agricultural sub- 

 jects. One of the earliest works is the " Books of Hus- 

 bandry J^ written in 1539, by Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, 

 followed by Tusser's " Five Hundred Points of Good Hus- 

 bandry,''^ and Googe's " Whole Art of Husbandry.''^ Of 

 particular note was the work of Sir Richard Weston, pub- 

 lished in 1645, " Discourse on the Husbandry of Brabant 

 and Flanders,^^ which largely induced the introduction of 

 some of the methods of the Justly celebrated Flemisli 

 agriculture into England. A very marked influence was 

 also affected by Jethro Tull's " Horse-Hoeing Husbandry,'" 

 which appeared in 1731, 



The value of the application of Chemistry to agri- 

 culture was very soon recognised, and already in 1795 the 

 Earl of Dundonald, an ancestor of our late Governor Lord 

 Lamington, published a treatise showing the intimate 

 connection which existed between agriculture and chemistry. 

 Unfortunately, the work did not receive the attention from 

 the farmers of Great Britain and Ireland which it actually 

 deserved. A much greater practical effect followed a 

 series of lectures delivered b}'- Sir Humphry Davy in 1812 

 before the Board of Agriculture. The greatest advance 

 in agricultural Chemistry was, however, due to the efforts 

 of Dr. Justus von Liebig, whose first complete work was 

 published in 1840. By the help of his teachings many 

 operation.^ and methodic of cultivation carried out instinct- 

 ively by farmers, methods transmitted from father to son, 

 or accidentally discovered, were explained by scientific 

 reasoning, and thus rendered more eminently and con- 

 sistently useful. The work of Liebig was eagerly taken 

 up, and used as a foundation for the scientific building up 

 of agriculture by men like Anderson, Berzelius, Bousingault^ 

 Johnston, \'oelker, Wolff, and carried on at the present 

 day by Hall, Mitcherlich, Schloesing, Wiley, and many 

 others. 



