PROMISE OF PROGRESS 103 



CHAPTER V. 

 FROM JAMES I. TO THE RESTORATION (1603-1660). 



FARMING UNDER THE FIRST STEWARTS AND THE 

 COMMONWEALTH. 



Promise of agricultural progress checked by the Civil War : agricultural 

 writers and their suggestions : Sir Richard Weston on turnips and clover : 

 conservatism of English farmers ; their dislike to book-farming not un 

 reasonable : unexhausted improvements discussed ; Walter Blith on 

 drainage : attempts to drain the fens in the eastern counties ; the resist- 

 ance of the fenmen : new views on commons : Winstanley's claims : 

 enclosures advocated as a step towards agricultural improvement. 



THE beginning of the seventeenth century promised to usher in 

 a new era of agricultural prosperity. During the first four decades 

 of the period prospects steadily brightened. No general improve- 

 ment in farming practices had been possible until a considerable area 

 of land had been enclosed in one or other of the various forms which 

 enclosures might assume. Under the Tudor sovereigns in the 

 midst of much agrarian suffering and discontent this indispensable 

 work had been begun, and it continued throughout the seventeenth 

 century. Estates were consolidated ; small farms were thrown 

 together ; open village farms in considerable numbers gave place 

 to compact and separate freeholds or tenancies ; agrarian partner- 

 ships, in which it was no man's interest to be energetic, made way, 

 here and there, for that individual occupation which offered the 

 strongest incentive to enterprise. Thus opportunities were afforded 

 for the introduction of new crops, the application of land to its best 

 use, and the adoption of improved methods. Dairying was extended 

 in the vales of the West and South West ; corn and meat found 

 better and dearer markets ; under the spur of increased profits 

 arable farming again prospered, and the conversion of tillage to 

 pasture was arrested. New materials for agricultural wealth were 

 accumulating ; turnips, already grown in English gardens, were 



