202 THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE 



nature proved invaluable in lifting the standard of a stationary 

 agriculture, and raising farming to a higher level. 



Other formidable obstacles to progress lay in the mass of local 

 prejudices and the obstinate adherence to antiquated methods. 

 All over the country there were men like the " round-f rocked " 

 farmers of Surrey, who prided themselves on preserving the prac- 

 tices and dress of their forefathers, men of " inflexible honesty," 

 enemies equally to " improvements in agriculture " and to the 

 commercial morality of a new generation. Reforming agriculturists 

 no doubt were too ready to ignore the solid basis of sound sense 

 and experience which often underlay practices that in theory were 

 objectionable. In their excuse it may be urged that their patience 

 was sorely tried. Traditional methods were treasured with jealous 

 care as agricultural heirlooms ; even ocular proof of the superiority 

 of other systems failed to wean farmers from the routine of their 

 ancestors. In 1768 turnips and clover were still unknown in many 

 parts of the country ; and their full use only appreciated in the 

 eastern counties. In some districts, as in Essex (1808), clover had 

 been adopted with such zeal that the land was already turning 

 sick ; in others it was scarcely tried. In Westmoreland, for 

 instance, in 1794, " the prejudice that exists almost universally 

 against clover and rye-grass " was said to be " a great obstacle to 

 the improvement of the husbandry of the county." In Cumber- 

 land, where clover had been introduced in 1752, it was still rare in 

 1797. Turnips remained, at the close of the eighteenth century, 

 an " alien crop " in many counties, such as Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, 

 Hampshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Glamorgan- 

 shire, and Worcestershire. Even where they were grown, they 

 were generally sown broadcast, and seldom hoed. In 1780 a 

 Norfolk farmer settled in Devonshire, where he drilled and hoed his 

 roots. His crops were far superior to those of other farmers in the 

 district ; yet, at the close of the century, no neighbour had followed 

 his example. In 1794 many Northumberland sheep-masters still 

 milked their ewes, though the more intelligent had discontinued 

 the practice. Another illustration of the tyranny of custom may 

 be taken from ploughing. In many districts the Norfolk, Rother- 

 ham, or Small's ploughs had been introduced at a great economy 

 of cost. But elsewhere farmers still clung to some ancestral imple- 

 ment. In Kent, at the time of Cromwell, it was not unusual to see 

 six, eight, or twelve oxen attached to a single plough. On the 



