14 AGRICULTURAL WRFFERS. 



produced by Pynson, the Kinor's printer, on July 15th, 1523, as well as 

 the " Boke on Surveying " in the same year."^ 



The author of this curious and interesting volume who has by manv 

 been looked upon as the father of English husbandry, vsrote from his own 

 experience of more than forty years, and excepting his Biblical allusions 

 and some vestiges of the superstitions of the Roman writers about the 

 influence of the moon, there is verv little in his work that should be 

 omitted — and not a great deal that need be added in so far as regards 

 the culture of corn — in a manual of husbandrv adapted to the present time. 

 It is evident that he was cognisant of the existence of Walter of 

 Henley's precepts, but beyond these the work combines in a condensed 

 form all that was necessary to be practised at that age, and, with a 

 well-stored and well-regulated mind, he gives his experiences on all 

 rural matters, from the preparation of the land to the breeding of stock, 

 and even to the regulations of the domestic arrangements of the 

 farmer's family. It throws considerable light on the state of the farmers 

 in those days, who, with their wives and children, worked hard, and were 

 little raised above the common labourers, except that they were freemen. 

 A yeoman who had land of his own appears to have been a very 

 independent man, but his mode of living was quite plain. He existed 

 on the produce of his land, and generally fed his labourers at his own 

 board. His pastime was hunting. 



Fitzherbert's book, from which I am able to give facsimile folios, t 

 attracted great attention at the time, as it ran through eight editions 

 during the following half-century and served as copy for other writers 

 for another century, while its appearance formed a sort of crisis in 

 the history of British agriculture. It may be safely assumed that had 

 the author lived at the present day he would have been considered a 

 great agricultural authority, as many of the rules he has laid down 

 have never been altered. 



The Introduction shows us the first rudiments of husbandry, that a 

 farmer ought not only to be skilled in the improvement of his land, b\ 

 the sowing of corn and seeds, but also ought to understand the breeding 

 and management of cattle. 



His own words concerning divers kinds of ploughs in his time are 

 interesting. Following the facsimile page pictured on page i 7, he states: — 



About Zelcestre, the sharbeame, that in many places is called the ploughe bedde, 

 is foure or fyve foote longe, and it is brode and thynne. And that is because the 

 lande is very toughe, and wolde foke the ploughe into the erthe, yf the sharbeame 

 were not long, brode and thynne. In Kenta they have oth-r maner of plowes, somme 

 goo with wheles, as they do in many other places, and some w)l turne the shelbrede 

 at every lands end, and plowe all one way. In Buckinghamshire are plowes made 



* For full description see Dibdin's "Typographical Antiquities," published 1810, 

 Vol. II., pp. 503-5- 



t From the 1525 (?) edition printed by P. Treverys. The oldest in British Museum. 

 Others say this edition was printed in 153 1. 



