BABNABY GOOGE 99 



As the commons and wastes of England began to be extensively * 

 enclosed, the quality of the fleece deteriorated. Heavier animals 

 better suited to fat enclosed pastures, and producing coarser wool 

 were introduced. English wool lost its pre-eminence abroad ; and, 

 though still commanding high prices, was no longer indispensable for 

 foreign weavers. The loss was to a great extent counterbalanced 

 by increased consumption at home. But, at the time, the decrease 

 in value was at least as influential in checking the conversion of 

 arable land to pasture as were Acts of Parliament. 



Open-field farms were not as yet such obstacles to agricultural 

 progress as they became after the discovery of new resources and 

 new rotations of crops which could only be utilised to full advantage 

 on enclosed lands. But already these new sources of wealth were 

 in sight. The great difficulties in the way of mediaeval and Tudor 

 farmers were want of winter keep and lack of means to maintain or 

 restore the fertility of exhausted soils. In the agricultural literature 

 of Elizabeth the remedy for both is dimly suggested. 



In 1577 appeared Foure Bookes of Husbandry, 1 to which Barnaby 

 Googe, a better poet than Tusser, gave his name. The work was a 

 translation of Heresbach, with 16 additional pages by the translator. 

 Googe mentions Fitzherbert or Tusser as writers worthy to be 

 ranked with " Varro, Columella, and Palladius of Rome " ; advises 

 agriculturists to read " Maister Reynolde Scot's booke of Hoppe 

 Gardens " ; and quotes an imposing list of " Aucthors and Hus- 

 bandes whose authorities and observations are used in this book." 

 By this reference he does not necessarily mean that all the men 

 whose names he mentions had written books on farming, but rather 

 that he had consulted those who were reputed to be most skilful in 

 its practice. In other words, there were already agriculturists, 

 like "Capt. Byngham," "John Somer," "Richard Deeryng," 

 " Henry Denys," or " William Pratte," whose methods were an 

 object lesson to their less advanced neighbours. Googe's book has 

 been despised because it was " made in Germany." But in this 

 fact lies its chief value. The farming of the Low Countries was 

 better than the farming of England, and Googe gives English agri- 

 culturists the benefit of foreign experience. He is the first writer 

 to mention a reaping machine " a lowe kinde of carre with a 

 couple of wheeles and the frunt armed with sharpe syckles, whiche, 



1 Foure Bookea of Husbandry, collected by M. Conradus Heresbachius . . . 

 Newely Englished and increased by Barnabe Googe Esquire, London, 1577. 



