EXAGGERATED PROMISES OF " RUSTICK AUTHORS " 111 



and depraving every new Invention ; of this most culpable are your 

 mouldy old leavened husbandmen, who themselves and their fore- 

 fathers have been accustomed to such a course of husbandry as 

 they will practise, and no other ; their resolution is so fixed, no 

 issues or events whatsoever shall change them. If their neighbour 

 hath as much corn of one Acre as they of two upon the same land, or 

 if another plow the same land for strength and nature with two 

 horses and one man as well as he, and have as good corn, as he hath 

 been used with four horses and two men yet so he will continue. Or 

 if an Improvement be discovered to him and all his neighbours, hee'l 

 oppose it and degrade it. What forsooth saith he, who taught you 

 more wit than your forefathers ? " Seventeenth century farmers 

 did not lack descendants in later generations. It took a heavy 

 hammer and many blows to drive a nail through heart of oak. 



It would be unjust to lay on agriculturists the whole blame for 

 neglect of improvements. Much deserves to rest on the agri- 

 cultural writers themselves. Their promises were often exaggerated 

 beyond the bounds of belief ; mixed with some useful suggestions 

 were others which were either ridiculous or of doubtful value. Men 

 actually and practically engaged in cultivating the soil were, there- 

 fore, justified in some distrust of book-fanners. Turnips were 

 undoubtedly an invaluable addition to agricultural resources. But 

 it was an exaggeration to say with Adolphus Speed * that they were 

 the only food for cattle, swine, and poultry, sovereign for con- 

 ditioning " Hunting dogs," an admirable ingredient for bread, 

 affording " two very good crops " each year, supplying " very good 

 Syder " and " exceeding good Oyl." Nor was confidence in Speed's 

 advice on other topics likely to be inspired by his promise that land, 

 rented at 200 a year, might be made to realise a net annual profit 

 of 2000 by keeping rabbits. Similarly the remedy which is sug- 

 gested in Hartlib's Legacie (3rd edition, 1655) " against the Rot, 

 and other diseases in Sheep and Horses " is enough to cast suspicion 

 on the whole book : " Take Serpents or (which is better) Vipers," 

 advises the writer, " cut their heads and tayls off and dry the rest 

 to powder. Mingle this powder with salt, and give a few grams 

 of it so mingled now and then to your Horses and Sheep." Other 

 suggested remedies are, at least, more easy of application. " The 

 colicke or pain in the belly (in oxen) is put away in the beholding 

 of geese in the water, specially duckes." If a horse sickens from 

 1 Adam out of Eden (1659). 



