76 AGRICULTCRAL WRITERS. 



and sent to sulH as were most capable of using them ; also the best experiments in 

 husbandry. 



The result of this petition is not known, neither is the place or date 

 of his death. 



" The Reformed Husbandman " (see page 73) was also issued in 

 1 65 1, and is often found bound up with the " Legacie." It is a little work 

 of some fourteen pages, and, as Hartlib announces, its contents were 

 imparted to him by some of his correspondents.* In it is recommended 

 industry as the grand prize of inventions, and the source of all rewards. 

 The author urges the fallowing of lands for any crop, and the use of 

 much less seed. In the " Essay on the Advancement of Husbandry 

 Learning," Hartlib ascribes all misery to the narrowness of our spirits, 

 and that our hearts are not enlarged beyond ourselves, and in order to 

 rouse the upright in heart from laziness and drowsiness he states 



that the mother of ail other trades and scientifical industries, which is the science and 

 trade of husbandry, would be very beneficiallv treated in the collegiate way of 

 teaching the art thereof, for it the least part of the industry is highly improved by 

 collegiate institutions, the chief parts must be advanced to perfection by that means. 



He proposes, then, ''that there be bought or rented a large and con- 

 venient house with some good quantity of land adjoining and belonging 

 to it," and that it be done " by those uhose great wealth is joined with 

 as great virtue and love to their country." He next suggests the fees, 

 and how they should be paid, the ages of the apprentices in agriculture. 

 This suggestion for an agricultural college must surely be the first ever 

 introduced, but the idea does not seem to have been carried into 

 practice until some centuries later ; now we find them in full evidence all 

 over the country. That Hartlib thought very deeplv is shown bv the 

 projects which he formed and the recommendations he imparted, and 

 this notice of him must not be closed without a parting expression of 

 profound regret that the loftv minds which are excited by the prospect 

 of future good, and rise above the general allurement of immediate 

 advantage, should ever be subjected to the painful necessity of making 

 petition for relief. Such occurrences have not been unfrequent in the 

 history of the world, and afford ample evidence that there is something 

 wanting in the moral condition of society that permits benefactors of the 

 human race to be degraded in such a manner. 



In 1865, "A Biographical Memoir of Samuel Hartlib," written by 

 Mr. Henry Dircks, of Blackheath, was published in London by John 



* One of his correspondents was Cressy Dymock, a member of a family of noted 

 consequence in the pageantry of a Coronation, having by ancient right the privilege of serving 

 as the King's Champion. He was a writer on agricultural topics, and author of the tracts, 

 " A Discovery for Division or Setting out Land." •' An Essay for Advancement of 

 Husbandry Learning,'' " Invention of Engines of Motion." This latter tract is reprinted 

 in Dirck's Life of Hartlib. London, 1865. 



