GREAT AGRICULTURAL WRITERS 141 



squire '. ' The yeomanry ', wrote Fuller, ' is an estate of people 

 almost peculiar to England ; ' he ' wears russet clothes but 

 makes golden payment, having tin in his buttons and silver in 

 his pocket. He seldom goes abroad, and his credit stretches 

 farther than his travel.' The tenant farmers were nearly as 

 numerous, King estimating them at 150,000 families; economi- 

 cally they were about on a level with the yeoman, their social 

 standing, however, was considerably inferior. 



The greatest improvement of the seventeenth century, the 

 introduction from Holland of turnips and clover, was over- 

 estimated by its author, Sir Richard Weston ; for he tells his 

 sons that by sowing flax, turnips, and clover they might in five 

 years improve 500 acres of poor land so as to bring in .7,000 

 a year. 1 To bring about this desirable consummation, he 

 provides his sons with accounts as to the cost, one of which 

 shows the cost of growing an acre of flax and the profit thereon, 

 though this gentleman's estimates are clearly optimistic : 



DR. s. d. 



Devonshiring, i.e. paring and burning . . . I o o 



Lime : . o 12 o 



Ploughing and harrowing . . . . . .060 



3 bushels of seed ... . ... . .200 



Weeding . . ' . o I o 



Pulling and binding . . . . . . .0100 



Grassing the seed from the flax 060 



Watering, drying, swinging, and beating . . . 4 10 o 



^950 



CR. s. d. 



900 Ib. of flax . 40 o o 



95 

 Balance profit . ^30 1 5 o 



Turnips were to come after flax, and were to be given to 

 the cows as they did in Flanders ; that is, wash them clean, put 

 them in a trough where they were to be stamped together 

 1 The Husbandrie of Brabant and Flanders (ed. 1652), p. 1 8. 



