SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 53 



The fact that the English nation. was now beginning to 

 emulate the long voyages of the Dutch, leads Markham to 

 discuss the kinds of grain which are most useful on shipboard. 

 Of these he says the best is rice, the next well-dried wheat, the 

 next oatmeal, then foreign barley, and the last is beans and peas. 

 He comments on the trade in corn with foreign countries, and 

 points out how it can be best stowed, so as to prevent damage 

 by the motion of the ship, and the natural heating of the 

 grain. 



Perhaps however the most instructive parts of this author's 

 statements are the estimates he makes of labour. He reckons 

 that a man may plough an acre to an acre and a-half of stiff soil 

 daily, in light sands two to three acres ; that he can mow 

 grass which is laid, or pasture which is uneven, an acre daily ; 

 if the grass stands upright, and the meadow is even, an acre 

 and a-half; and of thin, short or upland grass two acres in the 

 same time. If barley and oats be laid, he can mow an acre 

 and a-half; if it be still standing, two to two and a-half acres ; 

 and when the crop is short and thin, even three or four. He 

 can be as expeditious with peas and beans. Provided with 

 another to bind, good standing wheat and rye may be reaped 

 at an acre a day; but if it be laid, he will hardly do more than 

 three roods. If oats and barley are bound into sheaves, a 

 binder will tie up as much as a man can mow ; but if they 

 be very expert, two binders will suffice for three mowers. 



In ditching, one man may clear and quick -set a ditch four 

 feet broad and three deep at the rate of a rod or pole of 

 sixteen feet daily, and may hedge a good and substantial fence 

 of five feet high at the rate of two rods daily. A good work- 

 man will not be able to plash more than a rod daily of hedge, 

 and this requires great skill to do properly. He may dig 

 ordinarily with spade a rood a day, but if he is to do so deep, 

 to trench and manure the land, he can do only half a rood. 

 Lastly, if corn be good and clean, he can thresh four bushels 

 heat rye, six of barley and oats, and five of beans or peas, 

 if the crop of the last two is very good. 



