5 4 A GRIC UL TURA L WRITER S. 



should have been known on a subject that remains to-day on very much 

 the same lines : 



The old writers do most of all prefer pastures, as the ground that requireth least to 

 do about it, and they were called Parata because they were always in readiness and 

 needed neither great charge nor labour, nor are in danger of storms or tempests ; 

 even those which are overflowed with water are sufficiently recompensed with the 

 fatness that the water leaves behind. Where the ground is rich and dry they serve for 

 meadows because with the dunging by cattle it wears all the better, whereas with the 

 continual bearing of hay it grows to be mossy and naught. 



Ashes are recommended as the best application to destroy 

 moss. 



But the best method of all is to plough it ; for the ground after his long rest will 

 bear goodly corne. It will scarcely recover his old estate again for pasture within three 

 or four years. When you mean to let 30ur ground lie again in meadow or pasture 



your best plan is to sow it with oats, for they are a great breeder of grasse 



Some do cast hayseed gathered from the hayloft over the ground before thev harrow it. 



Is not this just the method of laying down land to grass that some 

 farmers follow to-day ? 



It is recommended to be mowed the first \ear, fed to sheep the second, and the 

 greater sort of catUe the third. The molehills and dunging of horse and bullocks must 

 with a spade be cast about. The best herb for pastures or meadows is trefoile or 

 clover, and the worst is rushes, fern, and horsetail. 



In the letting of ground it is generally covenanted that the tenant 

 shall not break any grass land without the leave of the lord. 



An equally interesting chapter on the live stock of the farm follows, 

 every detail of management being touched upon, chief place being given 

 to the ox. Four degrees were made in the ages of beasts — calves, 

 yearlings, steers, oxen. Dividing them further, they were called bull 

 calf and cow calf, heifer and steer, bull and cow. The making of cheese 

 and butter seems to have been as well understood as now. In referring 

 to the names given to dogs he says, " the Greeks and the Latins 

 selected words of two syllables ; the Germans but one syllable, as ball, 

 slut, patch, and grim." 



Whoever takes the trouble of examining the works of these old 

 writers will be surprised to find how much several of the more modern 

 compilers of many voluminous works are indebted to them, but have not 

 had the generosity to acknowledge the source of a great deal of their 

 information. When we come to consider that there are no traces of 

 what the moderns call systejii in the writings of these ancients, they 

 merely cultivating the few popular things that were needed in the arts 

 and conveniences of life, the more is credit due to them for the terse and 

 simple manner in which their methods have been expounded. A crop 

 of grain and a fallow appears to have been the extent of their 

 agricultural course. 



