AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



not measure fifteen hands from the sole of the 

 hoof to the highest part of the wither ; each 

 hand to be four standard inches. We find, 

 however, that at this period draught horses 

 were fine and powerful animals, for Harrison, 

 who lived at this era, and whose appendix to 

 Holinshed we have before quoted, after ex- 

 pressing his admiration of them, says, that five 

 or six of them would draw with ease three thou- 

 sand weight of the greatest tale for a long 

 journey. We must remember, loo, that in 

 t'nosp days the roads were totally different from 

 what they are at present. It is within the me- 

 mory of persons still living in the hundreds of 

 Essex, that no more than a load of wheat was 

 ever sent out in a wagon, the roads there 

 being, until within less than a half a century, 

 exceedingly bad. 



We have already noticed that in the tapestry 

 of Bayeux a man is represented harrowing 

 with a horse. This tapestry was woven in 

 the year 1066, and this representation is the 

 first notice, of which we are aware, of the 

 horse being employed in agriculture. The 

 first attempt that historians notice, to improve 

 the breed of .our husbandry horses, was in the 

 reign of King John. Tyrant and despot as he 

 was, yet his evil qualifications gave two bene- 

 fits to England. His tyranny gave birth to 

 Magna Charta; and his pride, rendering it 

 hateful to him to see foreigners surpass him 

 in the excellence of their horses, induced him 

 to import 100 stallions from Flanders ; and 

 from that era may be dated the improvement of 

 our draught horses. His object did not entirely 

 succeed ; for a century subsequently, in the 

 reign of Edward II., we find that horses were 

 still imported from Lombardy and Flanders. 

 We have already noticed some of the enact- 

 ments to improve the breed of horses, but 

 these shared the fate of most other compulsory 

 measures ; for when Elizabeth summoned her 

 forces to defend her realm, in the prospect of 

 a Spanish invasion, she could obtain no more 

 than 3000 cavalry. 



Sir A. Fitzherbert, who wrote in the reign 

 of Henry VIII., says, in his Boktof Husbandry, 

 " A husbande may not be without horses and 

 mares, and specially if he goe with a horse- 

 plough, he must have both ; his horses to 

 droive, and his mares to brynge colts to up- 

 holde his stocke, and yet at many times these 

 may droive well if they be well handled.'" 

 The roguery of horsedealers was an early sin ; 

 for one of the old Cambrian laws provides 

 that the purchaser of a horse shall have three 

 nights to ascertain whether he is infected with 

 the staggers , three months to prove his lungs ,- 

 and twelve months to discover whether he is 

 infected with the glanders. For every blemish 

 not discovered before purchasing, if it was no 

 in the ears or tail, one third of the price was 

 to be returned. (Laws of Howtll Dhu.} The 

 deceptions practised by the dealers in horses 

 is still proverbial ; and there does not appear 

 with their fraternity to have been any interme- 

 diate age of innoce'nce ; for Sir A. Fitzherber 

 says, "Thou grayser, that mayest fortune to 

 be of myne opinion or condytion to love 

 horses, and young coltes and foles to go among 



;hy cattle, take hede that thou be not beguiled 

 as I have been a hundred times and more. Ani 

 irst, thou shalt knowe that a good horse has 

 fifty-four properties ; that is to say two of a 

 man, two of a badger, four of a lion, nine of 

 an oxe, nine of a hare, nine of a fox, nine of 

 an asse, and ten of a woman." 



Since the days of Elizabeth, every variety 

 of horses has been gradually improving, in 

 England, and four kinds, the Suffolk Punch, 

 the Cleveland bays, the Clydesdale, and the 

 Lincolnshire or dray, are surpassed by no 

 country in the world. The numerous cart 

 stallions attending every market town during 

 the covering season, is an attestation that this 

 care is not on the decrease. It is stated, as a 

 further proof, that a few years since a Suffolk 

 cart-mare and her offspring sold at Woodbridge 

 Lady-day fair for 1000/. 



Pigs have been among the usual animal.-; 

 fostered by the farmer in times at least as 

 early as the Anglo-Saxons. In those days 

 they were evidently the most numerous of their 

 live stock ; scarcely an estate is mentioned 

 without its being stated that it afforded pan- 

 nage, or mast in its wood, for such a number 

 of swine. They were a very prominent por- 

 tion of their wealth ; and, indeed, a chief ne- 

 cessary, for they were in winter obliged to use 

 almost exclusively salted meat, and the great 

 preponderance of woodland supported best 

 this kind of stock. {Turner's Anglo-Saxons, 

 iii. 22.) Heresbach is particularly earnest in 

 commending the pig ; and after mentioning it 

 as abominable to the Jews, says, with a boast- 

 ful feeling that made him forget its impiety, 

 "I believe, verily, they never tasted the flitches 

 of Westphaly." 



Enactments occur in our statute book, in 

 1225 and 1534, regulating the pannage of 

 swine. There are now a great many varieties 

 of pigs, every district of England varying in 

 the size and qualities of those it prefers. Some 

 attention has of late years been paid to im- 

 prove the stock, but in general they have been 

 too much neglected. We have not particu- 

 larized the progress of husbandry in Scotland, 

 because previously to the time of its union 

 with this country, Lord Kames and Mr. Fletcher 

 agree that its agriculture was deplorable ; and 

 since then the improvement of the art in that 

 most generally enlightened part of the island 

 has, in many districts, outstripped, and, in 

 most, at least kept pace with that of England ; 

 and its future advance will probably surpass 

 that of England, because good education is 

 more completely diffused among its inhabi- 

 tants. 



Ireland is in general deplorably behind in 

 all the arts of life ; nor will this be obviated 

 until the effect of education and wealth is more 

 generally felt and appreciated by its generous 

 and hospitable, but far from wealthy inhabi- 

 tants. 



Wales, for the most part, has an agriculture 

 as bad as that of Ireland ; and we cannot have 

 much hope of its Improvement, when Mr. 

 Adam Murray, in his evidence before the Com- 

 mittee of Agriculture in 1833, stated that the 

 Welsh have a great antipathy against us 



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