376 Agriculture 



i?' 



became desirous of receiving instruction in their 

 method of husbandry, was under the necessity of 

 visiting their country, and observing for himself. 

 We are told that the French, at this period, were 

 in the habit of using nine diiferent sorts of ma- 

 nures; but oF the nature of each we are not in- 

 formed. It is also said tliat they were the first 

 people, among the moderns, who ploughed in 

 green crops, for the sake of fertilizing the soil; and 

 who confined sheep in sheds at night, for the pur- 

 pose of increasing the amount of their compost 

 manure." 



Agriculture next revived in Great-Britain. To 

 this, there is reason to believe, the writings of Sir 

 Hugh Platt very much contributed. He dis- 

 covered, or brought into use, many new kinds of 

 manures, and, perhaps, contributed more to the im- 

 provement of the art of cultivating the earth, than 

 any other individual of the age in which he lived. 

 He was succeeded by Hartlib, a writer much 

 esteemed in his day, but by no means equal to his 

 predecessor. The exertions of these men, and 

 others of less note, together with the peculiar cir- 

 cumstances of the nation, prompted gentlemen of 

 the greatest influence to encourage agriculture, to 

 regard it as the most certain and productive source 

 of wealth to their country, impoverished by pre- 

 ceding wars, and to promote its improvements 

 with zeal. But this flourishing era of husbandry 

 was of short continuance. At the Restoration, 

 the country gentlemen relapsed into negligence 

 and dissipation; surrendered the rural honours 

 w^hich thevhad before sought with so much eao^er- 

 ness, and left them to be pursued by the least 

 enlightened part of the community. 



Happily, however, this decline, like the pre- 

 ceding revival, was also of short duration. Mr, 



u See Encyclopaedia, art. Agr'icuUurt, 



