62 AGRICULTURE IN THE 



naturally have been flooded, had made considerable progress, 

 and might with advantage make more. The addition in short 

 of such supplies for the winter feeding of stock, as would be 

 obtained from natural or artificial pasture, was at this time of 

 great importance, for it must not be forgotten that root 

 cultivation had not yet passed from the garden to the field 

 with the enormous results which this change induced, although 

 it was well known that root cultivation in fields was the un- 

 questionable cause of the success with which agriculture was 

 practised in Flanders and Holland. 



Next, it is clear that since Hartlib's time considerable 

 progress had been made in the cultivation of the great clover, 

 saintfoin, lucerne, and trefoil, with some of the other artificial 

 grasses. What Worlidge says about these three or four 

 ' grasses ' is true at the present time, as is also his argument 

 that the use of these grasses is an obvious means by which to 

 get rid of the unprofitable system of fallows. It is also plain 

 that the system of densharing or devonshiring old and poor 

 pasture had made considerable progress, and had now become 

 a familiar agricultural experiment. 



It appears that by this time three ploughings were custom- 

 ary in the case of wheat, four times for barley, if the land has 

 long been left without ploughing. He recommends a first 

 crop of peas on land newly ploughed, as the cheapest crop, 

 and the best means for clearing the land of weeds. He 

 discusses too, as Hartlib did, the comparative merits of plough 

 and spade husbandry, Plattes' recommendations of the latter \ 

 and his assertions as to the extraordinary produce which it 

 yields, having greatly exercised the writers of the time. 

 Worlidge is however strongly in favour of small farms, and is 

 constantly quoting Virgil's commendation of small holdings. 



Like most of the writers on husbandry in this century, 



Worlidge strongly advises the cultivation of hemp and flax, 



large quantities of which, to his great dissatisfaction, are 



annually brought into England from foreign parts. He is 



1 'Adam's Toil Remitted,' by Gabriel Plattes. 1600. 



