FARMERS' REGISTER— FITZHERBERT'S BOKE OF HUSBANDRY. 369 



FITZIIEKBERt's BOKE OF HUSBANDRY. 



From the Edinburgh Farmers' Magazine. 



I was much amused by the review of Blyth's Im- 

 prover Improved, in your last number ; and hap- 

 pening to have in my possession an old work or 

 two on the stibject of agriculture, it may perhaps 

 be interesting to some of your readers to know the 

 state of the art nearly a century before tlie appear- 

 ance of Blyth's book. The first publication to 

 which I allude is from the pen of Fitzherbert,* or 

 Fitzherbard, as the title-page specifieth. I am 

 rather surprized, that Blyth, in his enumeration of 

 ' former gallant instruments,' makes no mention of 

 Fitzherbert, particularly as ' the Boke of Husban- 

 dry ,' of which we are now treating, made its ap- 

 pearance so early as 1555, whilst that of Blytli 

 was not published till 1652, 97 years after. It was 

 a celebrated work in its day, and is quoted by 

 Googe in his English Husbandry, and by other 

 writers of his standing. In analyzing this book, I 

 shall make such extracts from it, as I may deem 

 most interesting to readers of the present day ; 

 and if these meet your approbation, shall in a fu- 

 ture number present you with a similar account of 

 Googe's book. 



After a short preliminary address, our author 

 proceeds to point out and describe ' divers maners 

 of ploioes,' with the ' names of all partes of the 

 plovghe,' then 'the temporing of ploives.' And 

 here let mc observe, that Blyth, in his rules to 

 make a plough go easily, without wheels to regu- 

 late the depth, only mentions the letting up or 

 down the backhand, an imperfect method, which 

 the writer of that article justly adds is superseded 

 in Scotland by the present improved muzzle. — 

 Now, it is somewhat remarkable, that Fitzher- 

 bert, nearly 100 years before Blyth, has very par- 

 ticularly described this 'present improved muz- 

 zle,' used in his day to regulate both breadth and 

 depth of furrow. Take his own words : — ' S?7 

 ' plowes have a band of yro, tridgle wise set, 

 ' there as the ploughe eare should be, y' hath III. 

 ' nickes on ye furder side. And if ye wyl haue 

 ' his ploughe to go a narow forow, as a syde forow 

 ' shuld be, then he setteth his fote team in thenicke 

 ' next to the ploughe beam ; and if he wil go a 

 * mean brede, he setteth it in the midle nicke, y' is 

 'best for sturng; and if he wold go a brode fo- 

 ' row, he setteth it in ye utmost nick, y^ is best for 

 ' iblowing. The whiche is a good way to kepe the 

 ' brede and some tempered, but it serueth not the 

 ' depnes : and some men haue in stede of the 

 ' ploughe fote a pece of yron sette uprighte in the 

 ' further end of the ploughe beam, and they call it 

 ' a cocke, made with two or three nickes, and that 

 ' serueth for depenes.' 



The next section is a curious discussion, ' whi- 

 ' ther is better, a plough of horses or a plough of 

 'oxen,' which, after enumerating the advantages 

 and disadvantages of each, he sums up in the fol- 

 lowing words : ' And if anye sorance come, or the 



* Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, the supposed author of the 

 work before us, was an eminent lawyer and judge of 

 the time of Heniy Vlli, and died in 1538. If this is 

 correct, the dale of my copy (I55S)>,imphes it to be a 

 later edition. If he was 7iol the author, I should be 

 obliged to any of your correspondents, who have the 

 means of ascertaining, to inform me ichoicas. S T. 



An earlier edition of ' The Boke of Husbandry" is 

 dated 1534. Con. 

 Vol. 1—47 



' horse ware old, brused, or blinde, thd he is lytle 

 ' worth. And yf any sorance com to an oxe, or he 

 ' waxe olde, brused, orblynde, for II s, he may be 

 ' fed, and then he is man's meate, and as good or 

 ' better than ever he was. And the horse whe he 

 ' dieth is but caryon. A nd therefore me semeth al 

 ' thinges considered, the plough of oxen is much 

 ' more profytable than the plough of horses.' 



The next chapter is thus entitled, ' The dili- 

 ' gence and the attendance that a husbdde shuld 

 ' giue to his workes, in maner of another prologuej 

 ' and the special grounde of al this treatis.' Next, 

 ' How a man shuld plow al maner of tymes in the 

 ' yere.' Then, ' How to sow both pees and beanes.' 



The following is an article which it may not be 

 amiss to prescribe to the agriculturists of the pre- 

 sent day, namely, ' Sede of discrecyon.' 



' There is,' says our author, ' a sede that is call- 

 ' ed discrecyon, and yf a husbande haue of that 

 ' sede and myngle it among hys other comes, they 

 ' wyl groAV much the better, for that sede wyle tell 

 ' hym how many castes of corne every lande ought 

 ' to haue. And a young husbande, and may for- 

 ' tune some old husbande haue not sufficients of that 

 ' sede, and he that lacke let him borow of his 

 ' neighboures that haue. And his neighbours be 

 'unkynd if they wil not lende this yonge hus- 

 ' bande parte of this sede : for thys sede of discre- 

 ' cion hath a w-onders propertie, for the more that 

 ' it is taken of or lent of, the more it is. And ther- 

 ' fore me seemeth it should be more spiritual than 

 ' tcporal, wherein is a great diversitie,' &c. &c. 



Having stated ' howe all maner of corne shoulde 

 ' be sowen/ he tells us, ' the best property that^ 

 ' logeth to a good husbande is to sow all maner of 

 'corne thyck enough ;' — a good old fashioned rule^ 

 which it would be well if some of our modern 

 theorists would pay attention to. 



In describing the process of harrowing, he no- 

 tices an an ox harrow very heavy, ' goode to breake 

 ' the great clottes, and to make much molde ;' and 

 observes, justly enough, ' yt were better for the 

 ' oxen to go to the ploughe two daies, the to har- 

 ' rowe one day.' We are too apt to fancy that any 

 horse, however old, will do to go to harrows. The 

 horse-harrow (a lighter kind) is then described,: 

 and also one used in the neighbourhood of Rippon, 

 having ' tindes' of wood. Then follow instructions 

 to ' mowe grasse,' to make ' rakes and forkes,' to 

 ' tedde and make haye,' ' sheare wheate, rye,' &c. 

 in all which I observe but little difference from 

 the modes in use at the present day. Speaking of 

 sowing wheat, &c. he says, ' In Essex they use to 

 ' haue a childeto goe in the forowe before the horses 

 ' or oxen, with a bagge, or a hopper full of corne, 

 ' and he taketh his handful of corne, and by lytell 

 ' and lytell casteth it in the said forowe. Me seem- 

 ' eth that childe ought to have much discrecyon.' 



How little does this differ from the well known 

 practice of dibbling, so general in Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, in this improved age ! 



A variety of pages arc occupied with instruc- 

 tions on the management of sheep, cattle, &c. 

 some fanciful enough, others bordering on super- 

 stition, but for the most part, practically useful. — 

 The reader Avill smile at the following precaution 

 in the case of murrain. ' And it is comely used 

 ' and Cometh of a great charitie, to take the bear 

 ' head of the samebeaste,' (one that died of the mur- 

 rain,) ' and put it upon a longe pole, and set it in 

 ' a hedge faste bound to a stake by the hie way 



