44 



HISTORY OK AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



This, I have been informed, was brought 



tor they will not only eat the greens, but feed on the routs in the ground, and scoop them 



hollow even to the \cr\ skin Ten aires," lie adds, " KOTO with clover, turnips, &c, 



will feed as many Bheep as one hundred BCrea thereof WOllld before have done." (Hough- 

 ton's CoUectunu, vol. it. p 142—144.) 



238. Potatoes) firsl introduced in 1S6S (330.), were at this time beginning to attract 

 notice. " The potato, " says Houghton, "is a bac ctf er ou t herb, with etcttlent roots, 



bearing winged leaves, and a bell flower. .. 

 first out of Virginia by Sir Walter Raleigh; 

 and he Stopping at Ireland some was 

 planted there, where it thrived very well, 



and to good purpose; for in their succeed- 

 ing wars, when all tin 1 corn above ground 



w.is destroyed, this supported them; fori 



the soldiers, unless they had dug up all the 



ground where they grew, and almost sifted 



it, could not extirpate them. From thence 



they were brought to Lancashire, where 



they are very numerous, and now they be- 



gan to spread all the kingdom over. They 



are a pleasant food, boiled or roasted, and 



eaten with butter and sugar. There is a 



sort brought from Spain that are of a longer 



form (Convolvulus Batatas) (Jig. 30.), and 



are more luscious than ours ; they are much 



set by, and sold for sixpence or eightpence the pound." (lb., vol. ii. p. 468.) 



239. Embankments were made on the eastward of England, in various places, by the 

 Romans, when in possession of the country, and afterwards by some wealthy religious 

 houses, and by the government. Considerable exertions were made at Boston during the 

 reign of Ileiiry VII., under the direction of Mayhave Hake, a Flemish engineer, and 

 fourteen masons ; but the principal effort, as far as respects gaining land for agricultural 

 purposes, was made during the protectorate, by Col. Vermuyden, a Fleming, who 

 served in Cromwell's army. Speaking of this engineer's exertions, Harte observes, " if my 

 account stands right (and it comes from the best authority extant), our kingdom in the 

 space of a few years, till the year 1651 only, had recovered, or was on the point of 

 recovering, in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and Kent, 425,000 acres 

 of fens and morasses, which were advanced in general, from half a crown an acre to 

 twenty and thirty shillings. So that, perhaps, few statesmen and generals have better 

 deserved a statue or monument from this country than Vermuyden, the principal un- 

 dertaker." 



240. The exportation of corn was regulated by various laws, during the sixteenth cen- 

 tury ; and importation was not restrained even in plenty and cheapness. In 1663 was 

 passed the first statute for levying tolls at turnpikes. Enclosures by consent and by act 

 of parliament began also to be made during this century. 



241. The agriculture of Scotland during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries continued 

 to languish, especially upon the estates of the barons, where the profession of a soldier 

 was regarded as of greater importance than that of a cultivator of the ground; but the 

 ecclesiastical lands were considerably improved, and the tenants of them were generally 

 much more comfortably circumstanced than those upon the estates of laymen. The 

 reformation of religion, beneficial as it was in other respects, rather checked than pro- 

 moted agricultural improvement ; because the change of property, which then occurred, 

 occasioned a similar change of tenantry, and almost took husbandry out of the hands of the 

 monks, the only class of people by whom it was practised upon correct principles. The 

 dissolution of the monasteries and other religious houses was also attended with injurious 

 consequences in the first instance; though latterly the greatest benefit has been derived 

 from tithes and church lands having come into the hands of laymen. It is probable, had 

 not these circumstances occurred, that the tithe system would have still remained in force, 

 and Scottish husbandry have continued under a burthen, which sinks and oppresses the 

 cultivator of England and Ireland. Rut tithes having got into the hands of lay titulars, 

 or impropriators, were in general collected or fanned with such severity as to occasion the 

 most grievous complaints, not only from the tenantry, but also from the numerous class 

 of proprietors, who had not been so fortunate as to procure a share of the general spoil. 

 This, added to the desire shown by the crown to resume the grants made when its power 

 was comparatively feeble, occasioned the celebrated submission to Charles I., which ended 

 in a settlement, that in modern limes has proved highly beneficial, not only to die interest 

 of proprietors, but likewise to general improvement. Tithes, in fact, are a burthen, 

 which operate as a tax upon industry, though it was a long time before the beneficial 

 consequences of withdrawing them were fully understood. (Edin. Encyc, art. slgr.) 



