Its Agriciiltitre. 347 



pamplilet. The consequence was that implements and usages 

 varied in almost every parish/ and that improvements, when 

 they did happen to obtain a footing, made no further progress 

 for long periods. We have seen how Blith first pointed out 

 the advantage of growing clover for cattle, and how Weston ^ 

 did the same for the turnip. Gradually it dawned upon the 

 English farmer that he possessed the means of fattening 

 cattle and sheep during the winter, but it is very doubtful if 

 either of these plants would have ever received a fair trial, had 

 not the Flemish immigrants afforded ocular proofs of their 

 importance. So it was with all other agricultural innovations. 

 Reginald Scot was writing on hop culture in 1574 ; Rowland 

 Vaughan on irrigation in 1610 ; Blith on drainage in 1649, and 

 John Forster on potato culture in 1664 ; but it took centuries 

 before many of these new practices were widel}^ adopted ; thus 

 in the last mentioned case it was not until the Board of Agri- 

 culture at the end of the eighteenth century had once more 

 attracted public attention to the potato that its value as a 

 field crop was generally recognised. 



' Craig and Macfarlane, Hist, of Eng.^ bk. vii., cli. iv. 



^ Discourse of Husband rie used in Flanders and Brahant, 1650. 



