Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 47 



agriculture, about 1655, and probably turnips also. In less than ten years after its in- 

 troduction, that is, before 1 645, the culture of clover, exactly according to the present 

 method, seems to have been well know^n in England ; and it had then made its way even 

 to Ireland. 



250. A great many works on agrictdture appeared during the time of the common- 

 wealth, of which Blythe's Improver Improved, and Hartlib's Legacy, are the most 

 valuable. The first edition of the former was published in 1 649, and of the latter in 

 1 650 ; and both of them were enlarged in subsequent editions. In the first edition of 

 the Improver Improved, no mention is made of clover, nor in the second of turnips ; but, 

 in the third, published in 1662, clover is treated of at some length ,- and turnips are re- 

 commended as an excellent cattle crop, the culture of which should be extended from 

 the kitchen garden to the field. Sir Richard Weston must have cultivated turnips before 

 this ; for Blythe says, that " Sir Richard affirmed to himself, he did feed his swine with 

 them ; they were first given boiled, but afterwards the swine came to eat them raw," 

 and, " would run after the carts and pull them forth as they gathered them;" an ex- 

 pression which conveys an idea of their being cultivated in the fields. 



251. Blythe's book is the first systematic work in which there are some traces of the convertible husbandry, 

 80 beneficially established since, by interposing clover and turnip between culmiferous crops. He is a 

 great enemy to commons and common fields; and to retaining land in old pasture, unless it be of the 

 best quality. His description of different kinds of ploughs is interesting ; and he justly recommends such 

 as were drawn by two horses (some even by one horse), in preference to the weighty clumsy machines 

 which required four horses or oxen, or more. Almost all the manures now used seem to have been then 

 well known ; and he brought lime himself from a distance of twenty miles. He speaks of an instrument 

 which ploughed, sowed, and harrowed at the same time ; and the setting of corn was then a subject of 

 much discussion. " It was not many years," says Blythe, " since the famous city of London petitioned 

 the parliament of England against two anusancies or offensive commodoties, which were likely to come 

 into great use and esteem ; and that was Newcastle coal, in regard of their stench, &c. ; and hops, in 

 regard they would spoyle the taste of drinck, and endanger the people !" 



252. Hartlib's Legacy is a very heterogeneous performance, containing among some very judicious 

 directions, a great deal of rash speculation. Several of the deficiencies which the writer (R. Child) 

 complains of in English agriculture, must be placed to the account of our climate, and never have been 

 Bor can be supplied. 



253. Houghton's valuable collections of husbandry have been already mentioned. (237. ) 



254. Worlidge's Systema Agricultura was published in 1668; it treats of improve- 

 ments in general, of inclosing of meadows and pastures, and of watering and draining 

 them. Of clovers, vetches, spurry Wiltshire long-grass, (probably that of the meadows 

 of Salisbury-iorin), hemp, flax, rape, turnips, &c. A Persian wheel was made by his 

 direction in Wiltshire, in 1 665, that carried water in good quantity above twenty feet 

 high, for watering meadows, and another near Godalming in Surrey. Sowing clover and 

 other seeds, preserved the cattle in the fatal winter of 1 673, in the southern parts of 

 England ; whereas in the western and northern, through defect of hay and pasture, 

 the greater part of their cattle perished. Hops enough were not planted, but we im- 

 ported them from the Netherlands of a quality not so good as our own. The authors he 

 chiefly quotes are Weston, Hartlib, and Blythe. 



255. Among other writers of this century may be mentioned Bacon, who, in his natural 

 history, has some curious observations on agriculture; Ray, the botanist, whose works 

 are rich in facts ; and Evelyn, a great encourager of all manner of improvements, as 

 well as a useful writer on planting. 



256. Some of the works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are now very scarce, 

 and most of them little known to agriculturists of the present day. In almost all of 

 them there is much that is now useless, and not a little trifling and foolish ; yet the 

 labor of perusal is not altogether fruitless. He who wishes to view the condition of 

 the great body of the people during this period, as well as the cultivator who still ob- 

 stinately resists every new practice, may, each of them, be gratified and instructed, in 

 tracing the gradual progress of improvement, both in enjoyment and useful industry. 

 {Encyc. Brit. art. Agr.) 



Sect. V. History of Agriculture in ultra European Countries during the Middle Ages. 



251. The general history of the old ultra European countries during this period, is not 

 known with sufficient precision and detail to enable us to give a progressive account of 

 their agriculture. There is no evidence of any improvement having been made in the 

 agriculture of the Indian and Chinese nations from the earliest period of their known 

 history to the present time. The agriculture of Persia, of the African shores of the 

 Mediterranean sea, and of all the countries imder the Turks, seems, if any change has 

 taken place, rather to have declined than advanced during the latter centuries of the 

 middle ages. 



258. The history of the new ultra European countries of America and Australasia only 

 dates its commencement (with the exception of part of America) from the latter end of the 

 period under notice ; and therefore cannot furnish sufficient materials for any useful 

 account of their agriculture. Under these circumstances we think it better to defer an 



