CONDITION OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 243 



men attendant on tlie great carl, except during the short 

 interval between midsummer and Michaelmas. But in the 

 course of two centuries an improvement had taken place, 

 and under Charles the Second it was not till the beginning 

 of November that families laid in their stock of salt provisions, 

 then called ' Martinmas beef.' " 



" The sheep and the ox of that time were diminutive when 

 compared with the sheep and oxen which are now driven to our 

 markets. Our native horses, though serviceable, were held in 

 small esteem and fetched low prices. Tliey were valued, one 

 with another, by the ablest of those who computed national 

 wealth, at not more than fifty shillings each." 



It was in this condition of English agriculture that Bacon 

 burnt his books, because they laid down no principles and were 

 wholly inadequate to any work of substantial improvement. 

 And in the years that immediately followed, the change began. 

 After this sacrifice a new spirit was roused into action, and 

 " the great work of interpreting nature was performed by the 

 English of that age, as it had never before been performed in 

 any age by any nation. The spirit of Francis Bacon was abroad, 

 a spirit admirably compounded of audacity and sobriety. There 

 was a strong persuasion that the whole world was full of secrets 

 of high moment to the happiness of man, and that man had by 

 his Maker been intrusted with the key which, rightly used, 

 would give access to them. There was, at the same time, a 

 conviction that in physics it was impossible to arrive at the 

 knowledge of general laws except by the careful observation 

 of particular facts. Deeply impressed with these great truths, 

 the professors of a new philosophy applied themselves to their 

 task, and before a quarter of a century had expired they had 

 given ample earnest of what has since been achieved. Already 

 a reform in agriculture had been commenced. New vegetables 

 were cultivated ; new implements of husbandry were employed; 

 new manures were applied to the soil. Evelyn had, under the 

 formal sanction of the Royal Society, given instruction to his 

 countrymen in planting. Temple, in his intervals of leisure, 

 had tried many experiments in horticulture, and had proved 

 that many delicate fruits, the natives of more favored climates, 

 might, with the help of art, be grown on English soil." 



