28 A GRIC UL TURA L WRITERS. 



implements in verse, in whicii he manages with much adroitness to 

 include several apparently impracticable names such as : 



A hand-barrow, wheelbarrow, shoveh and spade, 

 A curry comb, wave-comb, and whip for a jade. 



It was the approved practice in Tusser's time to " sow timely thy 

 white wheat, sow rye in the dust." They were accustomed also to put 

 rye meal into their wheat flour. 



Thick and thin sowing had even then their respective advocates. 



Though beans be in sowing but scattered in, 

 Yet wheat, rye and peasen I love not too thin, 

 Sow barley and dredge with a plentiful hand, 

 Lest weed 'stead of seed over groweth thy land. 



It is evident that in his days the farmers were not able to grow their 

 grain on a variety of soils such as we now find it. Thus he speaks of 

 the difficulty they found in producing barley in the parish of Brantham, 

 in Essex : and again he tells us what will surprise a present-day Suffolk 

 farmer ; 



In Suffolk again, whereas wheat never greu, 

 Good husbandry used — good wheat land I knew. 



The varieties of wheat he mentions are white and red rivet, white 

 and red pollard, Turkey and grey, but of the last he savs : 



Oats, rye, or else barley and wheat that is gi C}- 

 Brings land out of comfort, and soon to decay. 



He had the wisdom to perceive the advantages of shed-feeding live 

 stock : 



The housing of cattle, while winter doth hold. 

 It is good for all such as are feeble and old. 

 It saveth much compass and many a sleep, 

 And spareth the pasture for walk of thy sheep. 



For faint cattle he recommends the use of bay salt, and in his February 

 husbandry gives some directions for the management of their dung, 

 which betrays, however, a deplorable want of knowledge in its economy. 

 In another place, however, he recommends the farmers to use the mud 

 from the ditches and ponds as a dressing for their land. They harvested 

 their corn, it seems, much after the same manner as at the present day. 

 They reaped their wheat, carried the grain, and gleaned the stubbles as 

 we do now. They let out the harvest work either by the acre, or by the 

 day, and he seems to have preferred the latter. 



His directions to the farmer with regard to the treatment of his men, 

 and his warm hopes for the farmer's success, exhibit the excellent 

 benevolent spirit with which he was actuated. 



Tusser's book is also interesting from the information it gives us of 

 the habits of the farmers of more than three centuries ago. It is 



