58 AGRICULTURE IN THE 



At that time he says even hops came from the Low Countries, 

 and he quotes a French author, whom he does not name, 

 as saying that ' it is one of the great deficiencies of England 

 that hops will not grow there/ Still, he says, we import 

 onions from Flanders, and even plants which grow wild in 

 our own hedgerows, but we are not at the pains to cultivate. 

 Speaking generally of English agriculture, Hartlib mentions 

 incidentally that, ordinarily, six or eight to one is considered 

 a good crop of wheat, i. e. twelve to sixteen bushels the acre. 



What is true about gardening is true also about the 

 planting of orchards, in which the England of Hartlib's day 

 was long behind other countries, orchards being comparatively 

 few, and the fruit-trees in them being ill-selected. He even 

 argues that, in orchard planting, the English have gone back- 

 ward in comparison with other times. He advocates the cul- 

 tivation of the hardier kinds of the grape, and states that Sir 

 Peter Ricaud at Great Chart in Kent yearly made six or eight 

 hogsheads of wine from vines of his own growth. He says 

 that the cultivation of hemp and flax is neglected, and 

 that, generally speaking, pains are not taken to improve 

 land, to select breeds of cattle and sheep, to replace woods 

 which have been cut down, and to generally enlarge the area 

 of agricultural operations. In connection with the waste 

 of wood, Hartlib says that it is occasioned by the consumption 

 of charcoal in iron-works, and mentions that latterly a patent 

 had been obtained for the manufacture of iron from sea-coal. 

 He is here referring probably to the reputed inventor of pig- 

 iron, Dud Dudley. 



Hartlib however has most set himself to encourage the 

 sowing of saintfoin, lucerne and the large clover, artificial 

 grasses which, as he tells his readers, have been cultivated 

 with marked success in France, Flanders, and Holland. He 

 expatiates on the excellent crops which can be procured of 

 the first of these on light lands, how it will give a crop for seven 

 years, and afterwards, owing to the length and size of its 

 roots, how it becomes, when the land is ploughed, an excellent 



