CABBAGES AND TURNIPS 189 



step, but the mere multiplication of useful vegetables 

 by wholesale culture had great effects upon the health 

 and prosperity of the people, and this part of the story 

 admits of being set down in some detail. 



As late as the time of the Civil War the cattle and 

 sheep of England had to endure something like 

 starvation every winter. Between harvest and 

 ploughing the unenclosed arable lands were used in 

 common for grazing, and formed together with the 

 pasturage of wastes and moors, the chief subsistence 

 of the flocks and herds. Hay was made in small 

 quantity, for the ground, was unfenced, and no 

 diligence of the haywards could keep the animals 

 from devouring or treading down the long grass. At 

 the approach of winter all the livestock was killed 

 and salted, except such as were kept for breeding. 

 No grasses were raised from selected seeds till the 

 eighteenth century, though clover and other " artificial 

 grasses " had been introduced from the Low Countries 

 a century earlier. Turnips are said to have been 

 brought over by Sir Richard Weston. He had been 

 ambassador at Brussels (1620-2), and when he came 

 back he cultivated turnips and artificial grasses in 

 fields at Sutton in Surrey. 1 At this time the 

 Flemings and the Dutch were the most advanced 

 of European nations in horticulture and agriculture, 

 and their vegetables and seeds were largely imported 

 by England. The English engineer, ship-builder 

 and merchant of that age looked to the Dutch for 



1 A Discourse of Husbandrie used in Brabant and Flanders. 

 London, 1650. 4to. 



