26 AGRICULTURAL WRUUERS. 



it is evident he possessed a correct knowledge, as his books testify, and 

 as an author he was far above mediocrity. 



Tusser dedicated this first book, which was the germ of his future and 

 more elaborate work, to his master, the Hon. Lord William Paget, Lord 

 Privie Seale, and his subsequent book, entitled " Five Hundred Pointes of 

 Good Husbandrie," to "the Right Honourable and very specially good 

 lord and master the Lord Thomas Paget, of Beaudesert, sonne and heire 

 to his late father." Newly corrected and amplified editions appeared 

 during the next century, and a reprint of the first book is found in Hazel- 

 wood's "British Biographer." It was also reproduced in 1710 in 

 monthly parts, entitled " Tusser Redivivus." In a pamphlet published 

 in Dublin in 1723, entitled " Some Considerations for the Promoting of 

 Agriculture," the then Lord Molesworth suggests : 



As to agricullure I should humbly propose that a school of husbandry were erected 

 in every county, wherein an expert master of the methods of agriculture should teach 

 at a fixed yearly salary, and that Tusser's "Old Book of Husbandry" should be 

 taught to the boys, to read, to copy, and to get it by heart, to which end it might be 

 reprinted and distributed. 



In 18 12 the celebrated Dr. Mavor, an educational authority, repro- 

 duced a copy with many notes and additions. Then in 1846 there were 

 issued from Mr. Clarke's private printing press at Great Totham, Essex, 

 a very limited number of copies containing the last will and testament of 

 Thomas Tusser, to which is added his metrical autobiography. The 

 latest reproduction I have been able to trace was that published by the 

 English Dialect Society in 1878. 



Such are the works of Tusser, writings which were long the handbook 

 of the English country gentlemen. That they were popular is evidenced 

 by the rapid succession of copious editions, and that they were read and 

 studied is proved by the difficulty it is to hnd a perfect copy. He was, 

 therefore, deserving of the gratitude of the farmer of his day, for his 

 labours tended to improve, to refine, and to elevate the profession he cele- 

 brated in his verses. 



The price when first published was a groat, now booksellers ask as 

 much as twelve guineas for sound copies of the early editions. 



The style in which Tusser writes his books is plain, but sometimes 

 halting, at the same time it is a metric easily understood and remem- 

 bered, as verse is well adapted to impress upon the memory the mass of 

 useful truths and rural directions their pages contain. He begins his monthly 

 husbandry with the month of September, for that was then as now in 

 England, when farming lands in most counties are commonly entered 

 upon by the purchaser or tenants. His instructions include the 

 Sowing of Rye, the Mending of Marsh Walls, and the Gelding of 

 Rams. 



In furtherance of his object, that of giving some very minute direc- 

 tions to the incoming tenant, he even gives a catalogue of farming 



