112 FROM JAMES I. TO THE RESTORATION 



some mysterious ailment, " a piece of fern-root placed under his 

 tongue will make him immediately voyde, upward and do^viiward, 

 whatsoever is in his body, and presently amende." Again, 

 neither silkworms nor vineyards, though both are favourites with 

 the Stewart theorists, commend themselves strongly as a safe 

 hvelihood to practical men who farmed under an English climate. 

 Nor was it possible to take seriousty the proposed introduction of 

 " Black Foxes, Muske-cats, Sables, Marlines,'' etc., suggested by 

 Robert Child, the author of the principal tract in the Legacie, as an 

 addition to the agricultural wealth of the coimtry. He adds to his 

 hst " the Elephant, the greatest, wisest, and longest-hved of all 

 beasts . . . very serviceable for carriage (15 men usually riding on 

 his backe together)." It would have added variety to Enghsh rural 

 life to see the partners in a village farm conveyed to their holdings 

 on the back of a co-operative elephant, and dropping off as they 

 arrived at their respective strips. But it is doubtful whether they 

 would have found their four-footed omnibus " not chargeable to 

 keepe." Literary and experimental agriculturists naturally gained 

 a reputation similar to that of quack medicine vendors. In practice 

 they often failed. Like ancient alchemists, they starved in the 

 midst of their golden dreams. Tusser, teaching thrift, never throve. 

 Gabriel Plattes, the corn setter, died for want of bread. Donald- 

 son, the author of the first Scottish agricultural treatise, admits 

 that he took to ^vriting books because he could not succeed on the 

 land. Even Arthur Young failed twice in farm management before 

 he began his invaluable tours. 



In the " Large Letter " on the defects of English farming, and 

 their remedies, from which quotations have been akeady made, 

 Child also notices the amount of land that lay waste from want 

 of drainage. This was one of the crying needs of agriculture. 

 Without extensive drainage, the introduction of new crops and 

 improved practices was impossible. With the hour comes the man. 

 The necessity and methods of drainage were ably discussed by 

 Walter BHth. Writing as " a lover of Ingenuity," he pubhshed his 

 English Improver in 1649. His treatise, interlarded with biblical 

 quotations, was the first which dealt with draining. As the Puritans 

 of the day sought Scriptural authority for their political constitu- 

 tion, so the Puritan farmer justifies his advocacy of drainage by 

 references to the Bible. " Can the rush," he asks with Bildad, 

 " grow without mire or the flagg without water ? " In other ways 



