

SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 55 



Among the fertile counties Markham names Hunts, Beds, 

 and Cambridge, as well as others, in all which he speaks of stiff 

 clay as general. Of mixed soils he names Northants, Herts, most 

 of Kent, Essex, and Berks ; while the sandy counties are Nor- 

 folk, Suffolk, most of Lincoln, Hants, and Surrey. The most 

 barren, and those for the improvement of which his book 

 is written, are Devon, Cornwall, much of Wales, Derby, 

 Lancashire, Cheshire, and York. He concludes his book with 

 a short account of the work to be done in each month of the 

 year. 



I have made these extracts from Markham's principal 

 works on husbandry, and there are numerous minor writings 

 of his, partly because of the popularity which this writer 

 enjoyed, and of the evident confidence with which he gives his 

 advice on his subject, partly because the works really repre- 

 sent what was known of agriculture at the time. But there 

 is a special value in what this author says about the character 

 of the working day, and about the amount of agricultural 

 labour which the farm-hand can get through in his day. 

 When we have to deal with the price of labour, it will be found 

 that many of the records are of piece-work, and Markham's 

 interpretation of these will be of service when I am translating 



icm into day-work. 



Before I proceed to the next great authority on English 

 igriculture, Hartlib, I must say a few words on Vaughan, 



Mattes, and Blith. The former was a Herefordshire gentleman, 



/ho in 1610 published a project for establishing waterworks, 

 md giving employment to men and women in the so-called 



lolden Vale of the Wye. He gives a melancholy picture of 

 the population there, of their poverty, their ignorance, and of 



ic neglect with which they were treated. 

 Plattes wrote an essay on English husbandry in 1638. 



ie appears to have been of Dutch descent, and he tells 

 that during his experience rents had risen, and agriculture 



id improved. But he recognises also what was, as it has 

 been and is still, the bane of English agriculture. 'I 



