AETHUK YOUNG AND THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE 59 



lives ; but the landlord was often obliged, as the third life 

 drew to its close, to put himself in as sub-tenant to save 

 his farm buildings from irreparable ruin. 



Still greater obstacles to agricultural progress were 

 presented by an inert mass of local prejudice and an ob- 

 stinate adherence to antiquated methods. The open field 

 system provided sufficient for the occupiers who required 

 nothing more. Where land was enclosed, the ignorance of 

 the farmers made the dissemination of new ideas difficult. 

 Not only could few read or write, but they entertained a 

 not unjustifiable contempt for book-farmers. Few agri- 

 cultural writers had had the practical experience of Fitz- 

 herbert ; most wrote as if they had never travelled beyond 

 the sound of Bow bells. Sometimes their books were too 

 systematic or too general ; sometimes their promises were 

 so extravagant as to give literary agriculturists the reputa- 

 tion of quack medicine vendors. Ridiculous and valuable 

 suggestions are intermixed. Here is the remedy, suggested 

 by Hartlib or his editor Beati, for flukes in sheep : ' Take 

 serpents or (which is best) vipers ; cut their heads and tayles 

 off and dry the rest to powder ; mingle this powder with 

 salt, and give a few grains of it so mingled to sheep.' Bewil- 

 dered agriculturists fared ill between the bad scholarship, 

 the inexperience, and the incorrect chemistry which was 

 ofiered them in the name of science. In practice experi- 

 mental farmers had often failed. Like ancient alchemists, 

 they starved in the midst of their golden dreams. Tusser, 

 teaching thrift, never throve. Gabriel Plattes, the corn- 

 seller who boasted that he could raise thirty bushels of 

 wheat to the acre, died in the streets for want of bread. 

 Jethro Tull, instead of gaining an estate, lost two by his 

 horse-hoeing husbandry. Arthur Young failed twice in 

 farm management before he beo^an his invaluable tours. 



