54 AGRICULTURE IN THE 



person as common-places make him in ours. A horse-master, 

 he tells us, is one who buys wild horses or colts, and herds 

 them, and sells them, or breaks them. A ' corser ' is one who 

 buys and sells broken horses. A horse-leech is one who under- 

 takes to cure all the diseases to which horses are liable. ' And 

 wfeen,' he says, ' these three be met, if you had an apothecary 

 to make the fourth, ye might have such four, that it were hard 

 to trust the best of them.' 



The next topic is swine. He who has sheep, swine, and 

 bees, as the old saying goes, sleep he, wake he, he may thrive. 

 He advises to keep no hogs, but only swine and boars. A 

 boar, he says, costs as little to keep as a hog, makes more meat, 

 and is always ready in winter to be killed and laid in souse. 

 And a sow will breed more pigs than she is worth at little cost, 

 and make quite as good bacon as a hog, costing little, except 

 when she is rearing her farrow. Pigs which are dropped in 

 Lent are the best to keep, for if they come late they are costly 

 to keep in winter. 



Bees are to be kept by the prudent husbandman, directions 

 being given for hiving and protecting them. Hedges should 

 be planted of quickset, even if the husbandman be but a farmer 

 on a twenty years' lease. It will pay him in the end, espe- 

 cially in winter time, when cattle are foddered. And an 

 instructive calculation is here made. If a husbandman is with- 

 out enclosures, properly fenced and ditched, he must pay the 

 herdman at least twopence a quarter for each beast, and the 

 swineherd at least a penny for each swine. But he must also 

 have a shepherd of his own. Now,' says he, ' reckon meat, 

 drink, and wages for his shepherd, the herdsman's hire, and the 

 swineherd's hire, these charges will double his rent or near it, 

 except his farm be above forty shillings a year. He may thus 

 have every field in severalty, and by the assent of the lord and 

 the tenants, every neighbour may exchange his lands with 

 others. And thus the farm will be twice as good, as much land 

 will be kept in tillage, and the rich man will not over-eat the 

 poor man with his cattle. A fourth of the hay and straw will 



