148 A GRIC UL TURA L WRITERS. 



LEONARD MEAGER. 



1670-1720 {about). 



" The Mystery of Husbandry,'' of which a photographic reproduction of 

 the title page is given opposite, was first published in 1697 by Henry 

 Nelme at the Leg and Star in Cornhill, and was considered at the time a 

 work of first-class merit. He was for some time a gardener in employ 

 at VVarkworth, in Northamptonshire. In the preface to the reader 

 the author states : 



Having well weighed and considered with mature Deliberation that a work of this 

 nature cannot but be grateful to my Country, I have the more laboured to bring it to 

 the highest pitch of improvement, supplying what has been omitted by others, who 

 liave with some diligence and industry attempted lo compile a compieat Body of 

 Agriculture . . . well meant, because most of them had not practised what they 

 writ, but were obliged to borrow them from others and take them on trust, and many 

 of them from Foreign Authors, not well considering that different climates produce 

 different effects. 



This was sound logic, and Meager seems to have carried these 

 advanced ideas right through his book in a manner which commands 

 respect for the man and his methods. In the Introduction he calls the 

 merchant 



A gallant servant to the Commonwealth, who fetches his riches from afar, and is a 

 worthy contributor to the wealth and prosperitv of the Kingdom ; but he produccth it 

 from others who could themselves make great profit of it, and though he gaineth a 

 great Estate, yet he raiseth it not out of nothing, but parts with silver and gold and 

 with Commodities for it. But the Merchant of Husbandry raiseth it out of the earth, 

 which otherwise would yield but little, unless his ingenuity digged and fetched it out. 

 What rates purchased be it at'.' Even only by his own industrv and with the wages 

 of the labouring men, whom he is bound by the laws to allow a competent 

 maintenance. 



In the chapter on the fertility of the land, he says " It is a sign of 

 goodness when the crows and pies in great numbers follow^ the plough, 

 or if the land yields a pleasant odour after a shower of rain following a 

 drought." For enriching ground he recommends the lupin " before he 

 bears his cods, being turned up with the plow and laid in bundles about 

 the roots of trees." Nowadays the farmer ploughs in lupins and other 

 leguminous plants to feed the soil with nitrogen, so that this old 

 writer evidently had some idea of its value as a stimulator to a crop-worn 

 soil. 



Chapter III. is devoted to the value of marl, " upon which the Germans 

 set so great a value for enriching land." He mentions German, Frenchj 

 and Syrian ploughs, and gives names to the parts very similar to those 

 of to-day. The tail, the shelf, the beam, the foot, the coulter, the share, 



