Its AgricidtiLre, 341 



son attributes the malady of rot, destroyed 40,000 sheep in 

 that single year, while in 1750 on Lindsey fen, Prothero thus 

 quotes an historian of the period : " Cows foraged midrib deep 

 in water, swimming to their pasture from their hovels and re- 

 turning in the same way, and sheep were conveyed to pasture 

 and clipped in flat-bottomed boats." ^ 



Blith was the next writer to deal with the encroachments 

 of the sea, and his method of embankment is described to- 

 gether with illustrations of the various tools used for trench- 

 ing, paring, turving, and ploughing,^ Thus did these Flemish 

 experts dispute the sovereignty of every such aqueous waste 

 with the fen eagle and the crane. The introduction of sain- 

 foin, clover, and other artificial grasses was not only strongly 

 urged by the famous agriculturalist Hartlib, but Blith was 

 writing out the most careful instructions anent the husbandry of 

 weld, woad, and madder for dyes, hops for drink, saffron as " a 

 very sovereign and wholsom thing," liquorice for fattening 

 cattle and medicinal purposes, rape and coleseed for oil, hemp 

 for linen and cordage, and flax for thread and cloth. All to 

 no purpose ; for, as Professor Rogers ^ has pointed out, Arthur 

 Young complained of their absence a century later when he 

 traversed the provinces in search of agricultural information. 



The now hackneyed theme of enclosures received reiterated 

 advocacy by the seventeenth-century writers. Successful 

 precedents were by this time available to second their efforts. 

 Blith takes occasion to point out to his readers a case where 

 the pasturage enclosures of one lordship bring in a profit of 

 one thousand pounds as contrasted with the common ground 

 of an adjoining lordship which barely realises one-third of the 

 sum. He would put the shepherd of the common lands to the 

 spade, the herd boys and girls to school, and make short work 

 of the great and oppressive flock or herd masters. He would 

 increase the national livestock by thus minimising the mortality 

 from rot. The cottier should have his allotment, the minister 

 his compensation for loss of tithe, the farmer the enclosed 



* Protliero, Pioneers of English Farming, 



^ Blith, Engl. Improver Improved. 



3 Eogers, Prices and Agriculture, vol. v., ch. ii. 



