72 A GRICUL TURA L WRITERS. 



former work, adding the best performances of English practice on the 

 knowledge which the author either possessed or obtained. The work 

 was only drawn up at his request, and, passing through his correction 

 and revision, was published by him. The contents appear in the form of 

 letters addressed to Mr. Hartlib, notably a lengthy communication filling 

 some ninety-six pages, and signed Rob. Child, and Dr. Arnold Beati's 

 Annotations, occupying i8i pages. The value of saintfoine, "which in 

 English is as much to say as holy hay," is discussed, the author having 

 seen it sown at Cobham Park, near Gravesend, on chalky banks, where 

 nothing else would grow. He also recommends the growth of the great 

 trefoil or clover grass, and the Parisian fodder, which they call La 

 Lucerne, and he adds : 



Though I cannot but very much commend these plans to my countrymen, knowing 

 that they may be beneficial to this nation, yet I specially recommend them a famous 

 kind of grass growing in Wiltshire, at Maddington, near Salisbury, which may better 

 be called one of the wonders of the land. 



He gives the botanical name of this grass as Gramen canininn 

 sitpiniini lo)ioissiiniii!i, " and which is 24ft. long, a thing most incredible, 

 yet commonly known to that shire. Though some ingenious men have 

 found about ninety species of grasses in this island, yet there is none 

 like to this for height and sweetness." 



I have found out that it is at Orcheston St. George and St. Mary, in 

 Wilts, where these robust grasses are. A stream which flows down the 

 valley in winter forms a broad, shallow stretch of water, which seems 

 very favourable to the growth of this particular grass, no doubt on 

 account of the nutriment brought down from the higher lands, where 

 plenty of sheep arc located. From a careful examination I take the 

 grass to be a species of Agrostis, probably the variety stoloiiifera. which 

 throws out stolons which I have seen more than a yard in length. 



Here is a peculiar note from page g, which, although it refers to 

 market-gardening, is worth repeating : 



About fifty years ago this art of gardening began to creep into England, into 

 Sandwich, and Surrey, Fulham, and other places. Some old men in Surrey, where it 

 flourisheth very much at present, report that they knew the first gardeners that came 

 into those parts to plant cabbages, coUiflowers, and to sow turneps, carrots, and 

 parsnips, to sow raith (or early ripe) peas, all of which were at that time great rarities, 

 we having few or none m England but what came from Holland and Flanders. These 

 gardeners with much ado procured a plot of good ground, and gave no less than 

 8 pound per acre ; yet the gentleman was not content, fearing the\- would spoile his 

 ground because they used to dig it. 



So ignorant were we of gardening in those davs. On pa.ge 10 he 

 adds : 



Our husbandry is deficient in this, that we know not how to remedy the infirmities 

 of our growing corn, especially smut and mildew, the one in wet \ears, the other in 

 dry. A learned author saith that smuttiness in corn, which maketh it smell like a red 

 herring, was not known in France until 1530. 



