GREAT AGRICULTURAL WRITERS 143 



annually. Hartlib recommends his countrymen to sow ' a 

 seed commonly called Saint Foine, which in England is as 

 much as to say Holy Hay,' as they do in France : especially 

 on barren lands, advice which some of them followed, and in 

 Wilts., soon after, sainfoin is said to have so improved poor 

 land that from a noble (6s. 8^.) per acre, the rent had increased 

 to 3os. 1 They were also to use ' another sort of fodder which 

 they call La Lucern at Paris for dry and barren grounds '. So 

 wasteful were they of labour in some parts that in Kent were 

 to be seen 12 horses and oxen drawing one plough. 2 



The use of the spade was long looked askance at by 

 English husbandmen; old men in Surrey had told Hartlib 

 that they knew the first gardeners that came into those parts 

 to plant cabbages and 'colleflowers', and to sow turnips, carrots, 

 and parsnips, and that they gave 8 an acre for their land. 

 The latter statement must be an exaggeration, as it is equivalent 

 to a rent of about 40 in our money ; but we may give some 

 credence to him when he says that the owner was anxious lest 

 the spade should spoil his ground, ' so ignorant were we of 

 gardening in those days.' Though it was not the case in 

 Elizabeth's time, by now the licorice, saffron, cherries, apples, 

 pears, hops, and cabbages of England were the best in the 

 world ; but many things were deficient, for instance, many 

 onions came from Flanders and Spain, madder from Zealand, 

 and roses from France. 3 'It is a great deficiency in England 

 that we have not more orchards planted. It is true that in 

 Kent, and about London, and in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, 

 and Worcestershire 4 there are many gallant orchards, but in 

 other country places they are very rare and thin. I know in 

 Kent some advance their ground from $s. per acre to $ by 

 this means ', and 30 acres of cherries near Sittingbourne had 

 realized 1,000 in one year. His recipe for making old fruit 



1 Worlidge, Systenta Agrtculturae, p. 28. 



2 Compleat Husbandman (1659), p. 5. s Ibid. p. 9. 

 4 Cf. supra, p. 136. 



