FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. 45 



farm, had it been known to him. The common pasture too 

 was undoubtedly bare and poor, for he speaks, as I have quoted 

 him, of the impossibility of keeping working oxen for the 

 plough, unless the farmer possesses meadow in severalty. And 

 it should be further observed, that Fitzherbert has a very exten- 

 sive acquaintance with England, for he mentions the customs 

 and practice of a very large number of the English counties. 



After ploughing and sowing comes harrowing. I had occa- 

 sion to state in my first volume, p. 1-6, that I found no trace of 

 harrowing, except by bushes. Some of my foreign critics, 

 especially Nasse, have objected to this negative statement of 

 mine. But as I said before, the fact that harrows are not 

 included in the very numerous catalogues of dead stock which 

 are given at or indeed after the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century, till such time as such inventories do not appear, seems 

 to me to be conclusive. But on the other hand Fitzherbert 

 describes the process of harrowing, its uses, and the implement 

 which was generally employed. The harrow is drawn by oxen 

 or horses, and is very severe labour to the former, for, says our 

 author, the ox goeth by twitches, and not always after one 

 draught.' The ox harrow consists of five pieces of timber made 

 of ash or oak, about two yards in length, fastened together by 

 cross pieces, each piece carrying six sharp iron points, which 

 slope a little forward. The horse harrow is smaller. In the 

 neighbourhood of Ripon, the points of the harrow called 

 tindes by our author are made of oak, for the ground is full 

 of boulders, and wears out iron too soon. When the clods are 

 too large or too stiff, they must be beaten in the older manner 

 by mauls, i. e. by hoes or mattocks. The first entry of a harrow 

 which I have noted is in the year 1500. The manuring of land 

 is entirely by animal droppings, of which the most valuable was 

 pigeon's dung. This is occasionally sold from the dovecots, 

 and must be used very sparingly. 



The pest of the husbandman is weeds. Fitzherbert reckons 

 the following : thistles, kedlocks, i. e. charlock ; docks, cockle- 

 drake, i.e. corn cockle; darnel, goldes, i. e. the corn mangold; 



