28 



ENGLAND. (AGRICULTURE.) 



p. 220. ; Potydorc f'irgil, p. 13. ; henry, xii. 

 268.) At this period the first English treatise on 

 husbandry appeared, written by Sir A. Fitaherbert, 

 judge of the common pleas, and entitled The Book 

 nt Husbandry. 



Agriculture had attained a considerable degree of 

 respectability during the reign of Elizabeth. Ac- 

 cording to Tusser, who wrote in that age, agriculture 

 was best understood in Essex and Suffolk ; at least 

 fiicloMirt's were more common in these counties than 

 in any other, which is always a proof of advancement. 

 A former, according to Harrison the geographer, 

 " will think his gaines very small towardes the end 

 of his terme if he liave not six or seven years rent 

 lieing by him, therewith to purchase a new lease ; 

 beside a fair garnish of pewter on his cupboard, with 

 as much more in odd vessels going about the house ; 

 three or four feather-beds; so many coverlets, and 

 carpets of tapestrie ; a silver salt ; a bowle for wine, 

 if not a whole neast; and a dozen of spoones to fur- 

 nish owte the sute." Harrison's Description of Eng- 

 land, p. 188. 



The condition of a yeoman, before or about Eliza- 

 beth's time, is exemplified in the case of bishop 

 Latimer's father. " My father," says Hugh Latimer, 

 " was a yeoman, and had no land of his own ; only 

 he had a farm of tliree or four pounds by the year at 

 the utmost ; and hereupon he tilled so much as kept 

 half a dozen men. He had a walk for a hundred 

 sheep ; and my mother milked thirty kine, &c. He 

 kept his son at school till he went to the university, 

 and maintained him there ; he married his daughters 

 with five pounds, or twenty nobles apiece ; he kept 

 hospitality with his neighbours, and some alms he 

 gave to the poor ; and all tliis he did out of the said 

 farm." Gilpiri's Life of Latimer. 



Cattle were not plentiful in England at the begin- 

 ning of Elizabeth's reign. In 1563 it was enacted 

 that no one should eat flesh on Wednesdays or Fridays, 

 on forfeiture of three pounds, unless in case of sick- 

 ness, or of a special license, neither of which was to 

 extend to beef or veal. (Stat. 5 Eliz. cap. 4.) Great 

 pains were taken in the act to prove that it was a 

 political, not a religious measure. 



The vast number of parks in the kingdom are 

 complained of by Harrison. " There are not less," he 

 says, " than an hundred in Essex alone, where almost 

 nothing is kept but a sorte of wilde and savage beasts, 

 cherished for pleasure and delight." And pursuing 

 the same subject, he says, "that if the world last a 

 while after this rate, wheate and rie will be no graine 

 for poore men to feed on." Description of Britaine, 

 p. 168. 



Great attention was still paid to the breed of horses 

 in England ; but, during the reign of Elizabeth, it 

 was found necessary to lower the standard appointed 

 by Henry Vfll. for stallions, from fourteen hands to 

 thirteen. This modification, however, was only to 

 take place in the counties of Cambridge, Hunting- 

 don, Northampton, Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk. 

 (18 Eliz. cap. 8.) No stallion of less height could 

 be turned out on commons, forests, &c., for fear of 

 deteriorating the breed. Harrison extols the height 

 and strength of the English draught-horses ; five or 

 six of them, he says, will with ease draw three 

 thousand weight of the greatest tale for a long 

 journey. 



The vine was early cultivated for wine in England ; 

 but it is probable this branch of culture declined 

 with the suppression of the monasteries, and the 

 more general culture of barley; as farmers and others 

 would soon find that good beer was a cheaper and 

 better drink, than any wine that could be made in this 

 country. Though in 1565, in this reign, the potato 

 was introduced from Santa Fe" by Capt. Hawkins, 



yet it did not come into general use, even in gardens, 

 tor nearly two centuries afterwards. 



The seventeenth century is distinguished by some 

 important improvements in agriculture, among which 

 are the introduction of clovers and turnips in England; 

 of hedges in Scotland and Ireland ; and the execution 

 of extensive embankments and drainages. 



For the adoption of the clover, as an agricultural 

 plant, we are indebted to Sir Richard Weston, who, 

 in 1645, gives an account of its culture in Flanders, 

 where he says, " he saw it cutting near Antwerp, on 

 the 1st of June, 1644, being then two feet long, and 

 very thick; that he saw it cut again on the 29th of 

 the same month, being twenty inches long ; and a 

 third time in August, being eighteen inches long. 



Turnips were probably introduced as a field crop in 

 the beginning of the 18th century, though they may 

 probably have been grown in the gardens of the 

 church establishments long before. 



The first notices of sheep being fed on the ground 

 with turnips, is given in Houghton's Collections on 

 Husbandry and Trade, a periodical work begun in 

 1681. In 1684, Worlidge, one of Houghton's cor- 

 respondents, observes, " sheep fatten very well on 

 turnips, which prove an excellent nourishment for 

 them in hard winters, when fodder is scarce; for they 

 will not only eat the greens, but feed on the roots in 

 the ground, and scoop them hollow even to the very 

 skin Ten acres," he adds, "sown with clover, 

 turnips, &c., will feed as many sheep as one hundred 

 acres thereof would before have done." HougMmi's 

 Collections, vol. iv. p. 142 144. 



Potatoes, first introduced in 1565, were at this time 

 beginning to attract notice. " The potato," says 

 Houghton, " is a bacciferous herb, with esculent roots, 



bearing winged leaves, and a bell flower. This, 1 



have been informed, was brought first out of Virginia 

 by Sir /Falter Raleigh; and he stopping at Ireland, 

 some was planted there, where it thrived very well, 

 and to good purpose ; for in their succeeding wars, 

 when all the corn above ground was destroyed, this 

 supported them; for the soldiers, unless they had dug 

 up all the ground where they grew, and almost sifted 

 it, could not extirpate them. From thence they were 

 brought to Lancashire, where they are very numerous, 

 and now they began to spread all the kingdom over. 

 They are a pleasant food boiled or roasted, and eaten 

 with butter and sugar. There is a sort brought from 

 Spain that are of a longer form, and are more luscious 

 than ours; they are much set by, and sold for six- 

 pence or eightpence the pound." 



Embankments were made on the eastward of Eng- 

 land, in various places, by the Romans, when in pos- 

 session of the country, and afterwards by some wealthy 

 religious houses, and by the government. Considerable 

 exertions were made at Boston during the reign of 

 Henry VII., under the direction of Mayhave Hake, 

 a Flemish engineer, and fourteen masons; but the 

 principal effort, as far as respects gaining land for 

 agricultural purposes, was made during the protec- 

 torate, by Colonel Vermuyden, a Fleming, who served 

 in Cromwell's army. Speaking of this engineer's 

 exertions, Harte observes, " if my account stan ds 

 right (and it comes from the best authority extant), 

 our kingdom in the space of a few years, till the year 

 1651 only, had recovered, or was on the point of re- 

 covering, in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Hunting- 

 donshire, and Kent, 425,000 acres of fens and moras ses, 

 which were advanced in general, from half a crown 

 an acre to twenty and thirty shillings. So that, per- 

 haps, few statesmen and generals have better deserved 

 a statue or monument from this country than Vermuy- 

 den, the principal undertaker." 



The exportation of corn was regulated by various 

 laws, during the sixteenth century; and iniDortatiou 



