CORN CROPS ON TUDOR FARMS 93 



order that he might get or keep them in good heart for his autumn 

 sowing. As the Julian Calendar was still in force, the dates are 

 twelve days earlier than they would be under the present Gregorian 

 Calendar. Even with this difference, few farmers of to-day would 

 accept Tusser's advice to sow oats and barley in January ; they 

 would be more likely to agree with Fitzherbert that the beginning 

 of March is soon enough. All wheat and rye were sown in the 

 autumn, from August onwards, and the heaviest grain was 

 selected for seed by means of the casting shovel. Neither of the 

 writers speak of spring wheat, possibly because the preparation for 

 it would not fit in with the rigid rules of open-field farming ; but 

 both mention other varieties in the three corn crops. Fitzherbert 

 thinks that red wheat, sprot barley, and red oats are the best, and 

 peck wheat, bere barley, and rough oats the worst varieties. Mixed 

 crops were popular, such as dredge, or barley and oats ; bolymong, 

 or oats, pease, and vetches ; and wheat and rye. As to the mixed 

 sowing of wheat and rye, the authors differ. Probably their 

 respective experiences in Derbyshire and Suffolk diverged. Fitz- 

 herbert advises that wheat and rye should be sown together, as the 

 blend makes the safest crop and the best for the husbandman's 

 household ; but he recommends that white wheat be chosen because 

 it is the quickest to arrive at maturity. 1 He was therefore no 

 believer in the slowness of rye to ripen. Tusser, on the other hand, 

 condemns the practice of sowing the two corns together because of 

 the slow maturity of rye as compared with the relative rapidity 

 of wheat. If they are to be blended, he says, let it be done by the 

 miller. The seed was to be covered in as soon as possible. On 

 the time-honoured question whether rooks are greater malefactors 

 than benefactors, whether they prefer grubs and worms to grain, 

 neither writer has any doubt. Both give their verdict against the 

 bird, in the spirit of the legislation of their day. 2 As soon as the 

 corn is in, says Fitzherbert, it should be harrowed, or " croues, 

 doues, and other Byrdes wyll eate and beare away the cornes." 

 Tusser advises that girls should be armed with slings, and boys 

 with bows, " to scare away pigeon, the rook, and the crow." Both 

 writers urge the preparation of a fine tilth for barley, in rural 



1 Henry Best, writing a century later (1641), preferred "Kentish wheate 

 ... or that which (hereabouts) is called Dodde-reade " (Farming Book, 

 p. 45). 



* E.g. 24 Hen. VIII. c. 10; 8 Eliz. c. 16. 



