44 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pajit I. 



and there is a very good *' comparison between champion (open fields) country, and 

 severall." There is nothing to be found in Tusser about serfs, or bondmen, as in Fitz- 

 herbert's works. {Encyc. Brit. art. Jgricul.) 



232. The next writer is Barnaby Googe, a Lincolnshire gentleman, whose Whole Art of Husbandry was 

 printed in 1758. It is, for the most part, made up of gleanings from all the ancient writers of Greece and 

 Rome, whose absurdities are faithfully retained ; with here and there some description of the practices of 

 the age, in which there is little novelty or importance. Googe mentions a number of English writers 

 who lived about the time of Fitzherbert, whose works have not been preserved. 



233. Sir Hugh Piatt's Jewel Houses of art and nature was printed in 1594. It is chiefly a compilation 

 from other writers. The author appears to have been a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn, but he had a seat in 

 Essex, and another in Middlesex, where he spent great part of his time. The Rev. William Harrison, 

 a cotemporary of Piatt, and chaplain to baron Cobham, wrote a description of Britain, and translated 

 Bcethius's History of Scotland. In the former work are many valuable hints on the progress of hus- 

 bandry in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth. Among other curious things he asserts that the 

 Spanish, or Merino sheep, was originally derived from England. 



234. The seventeenth century is distinguished by some important improvements in agricul- 

 ture, 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. 

 Some useful writers also appeared, especially Norden, Gabriel Plattes, Sir Richard 

 Weston, Hartlib, and Blythe, to which may be added Evelyn. 



235. For the adoption of the clover and turnip as agricultural plants, we are indebted to 

 Sir Richard Weston, who, in 1 645, gives an account of their 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." Blythe, 

 in 1653, is copious in his directions for its cultivation; and Lisle (Obs. on Husbandry), 

 in the beginning of the eighteenth century, speaks of it as commonly cultivated in Hamp- 

 shire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and other counties. 



236. Turnips, the same patriotic author observes, '* are cultivated for feeding kine 

 in many parts of England ; but there is as much difference between what groweth in 

 Flanders and here, as is between the same thing which groweth in a garden and that 

 which groweth wild in the fields." It is probable the English turnips he alludes to, were 

 rape, which is mentioned by. Googe, in 1586 : but though Gerarde, in 1597, and Par- 

 kinson, in 1629, mention the turnip as a garden vegetable, yet neither of these authors 

 give the least hint of their field culture ; be that as it may, Ray, in 1686, informs us, 

 that they are sown every where in fields and gardens both in England and abroad for the 

 sake of their roots. Lisle also, in 1707, mentions their being common in Norfolk, 

 Hampshire, Berkshire, and various counties. The common story, therefore, that their 

 culture was first introduced by Charles Lord Viscount Townsend, cannot be true; but 

 their culture was probably greatly improved by him, when he retired from public busi- 

 ness to Rainham in Norfolk, in 1730. 



237. The first notices of sheep beingfed on the ground with turnips, is given in Houghton's 

 Collections on Husbandry and Trade, a periodical work begun in 1681. In 1684, Wor- 

 lidge, one of Houghton's correspondents, 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." [Hough- 

 ton s Collections, vol. iv. p. 142 144,_) , 



238. Potatoes, first introduced in 1565, (230.) were at this time beginning to attract no- 

 tice. *' The potatoe," says Houghton, " is a bacciferous herb with esculent roots, bearing 

 winged leaves, and a bell flower." " This, I have been informed, was brought first out of 

 Virginia by Sir Walter Raleigh ; and he stop- 

 ping at Ireland, some was planted there, 

 where it thrived very well, and to good pur- 

 pose ; for in their succeeding wai-s, 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 almostsifted it, could not extirpate them. 

 From thence they were brought to Lanca- 

 shire, 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, {Convolvulus batatas), (fig. 

 30.), and are more luscious than ours 

 they are much set by, and sold for sixpence' 

 or eightpence the pound." (lb. vol. ii. p. 468.) 



