108 FROM JAMES I. TO THE RESTORATION 



of ten pounds of seed to the acre ; that, once so^v^l, the crop should 

 be left for five years. The results of his observations, embodied in 

 his Discours of the Husbandrie used in Brabant and Flanders, were 

 WTitten in 1645 and left to his sons as a " Legacie." The subse- 

 quent history of the " Legacie " is curious. Circulated in manu- 

 script, an imperfect copy fell into the hands of Samuel Hartlib, 

 who piratically published it in 1650, with an unctuous dedication 

 " to the Right Honorable the Council of State." In the following 

 year Hartlib seems to have learned the name of the author and to 

 have obtained possession of a more perfect copy. He therefore 

 wrote two letters to Weston, asking him to correct and enlarge his 

 " Discourse." Receiving no answer, he republished the treatise in 

 1651. Eighteen years later, the Discours was again appropriated — 

 this time by Gabriel Reeve, who, in 1670, reprinted it under the 

 title of Directions left by a Gentleman to his Sons for the Improve- 

 ment of Barren and Heathy Land in England and Wales. 



Roots, clover, and artificial grasses subsequently revolutionised 

 EngHsh farming ; but it was more than a century before their use 

 became at all general. Other crops were pressed by agricultural 

 WTiters upon the attention of farmers — such as flax, hemp, hops, 

 woad and madder for dyes, saffron, Hquorice, raj)e, and coleseed. 

 A more important suggestion was the field cultivation of potatoes, 

 which hitherto had been treated as exotics, rarely found except in 

 the gardens of the rich. In 1664 John Forster ^ urged farmers to 

 grow them in their fields. He distinguishes " Irish Potatoes " from 

 Spanish, Canadian, or Virginian varieties, points to their success in 

 Ireland, notices their introduction into Wales and the North of 

 England, and recommends their trial in other parts of the country. 

 It was not till the Napoleonic wars that the advice was taken to 

 any general extent. None of these crops, it may be observed, 

 could be introduced on an open-field farm, unless the whole body 

 of agrarian partners agreed to alter their field customs. 



Another noteworthy book is the Legacie (1651), which passes 

 under the name of Samuel Hartlib, who has gained undeserved credit 

 by his piracy of Weston's work. By birth a Pole, Harthb had come 

 to England in 1628. By his Reformation of Schooles (1642), trans- 

 lated from Comenius, he forced himself on the notice of Milton, who 

 in 1644 curtly addressed to him his Tract Of Education. From 

 Weston's Discours, HartHb stole the title of the Legacie (1651), com- 

 ^ England's Happiness Increased, etc., by John Forster Oent. 1664. 



