12 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



culture, our systems of farming, our implements for 

 tilling the soil, many of the plants we cultivate, and 

 nearly all our flocks and herds ; and as we are still 

 continually making accessions to our domestic ani- 

 mals from her improved breeds, and availing our- 

 selves of the benefits she has derived from a long 

 series of experiments, to which science has largely 

 contributed, a more full account of the progress of 

 agriculture in that country may not be amiss. 



The first English writer of note was Fitzherbert 

 who published his " Book of Husbandrie'' in 1523. 

 This work throws much light on rural affairs at that 

 time. 'I'he man who had land of his own was veiy 

 independent. His living was simple, and he had no 

 luxuries. Money was seldom seen in his posses- 

 sion. Wool was the principal article sold. Sheep 

 were kept on extensive commons, and folding them 

 on ploughed land was the principal mode of recruit- 

 ing it when exhausted. As the artificial grasses 

 and roots were unknown, there was no fodder for 

 winter but the coarse, natural grasses, and in severe 

 seasons both cattle and sheep perished by thousands 

 Little fresh meat was seen after Christmas, as there 

 was no means of winter-fattening animals, and in 

 autumn the farmer killed and salted enough beef and 

 mutton to last him until the next summer. 



During the next century after the publication of 

 Fitzherbert's treatise, although there were some 

 writers on husbandry, such as Tusser, Googe, and 

 Piatt (the former of whom asserted that the Span- 

 ish sheep, which now began to be celebrated for 

 their wool, were derived from England), yet no con- 

 siderable change took place in the breeding of sheep 

 or cattle, or in the former methods of cultivating the 

 soil. Still the condition of the farmer appears to 

 have been gradually improving. The farmhouses 

 were more commodious and better built ; and while 

 all increased in domestic comforts, s;ome had accu- 

 mulated considerable wealth. 



