86 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



This statute was a useful one, so also was 31 Hen. VIII, 

 c. 8, which forbade for three years the killing of calves between 

 January i and May i, under a penalty of 6s. Sd., because so 

 many had been killed by ' covetous persons ' that the cattle of 

 the country were dwindling in number. Others, however, were 

 merely meddlesome, and directed against that unpopular man 

 the dealer. For instance, owners refusing to sell cattle at 

 assessed prices were to answer first in the Star Chamber (25 

 Hen. VIII, c. i) ; and by 3 and 4 Edw. VI, c. 19, no cattle were 

 to be bought but in open fair or market, and not to be resold 

 then alive, though a man might buy cattle anywhere for his 

 own use. No person, again, was to resell cattle within five 

 weeks after he bought them (5 Edw. VI, c. 14) ; and a com- 

 mon drover had by the same Act to have a licence from three 

 justices before he could buy and sell cattle. We may be sure 

 that these laws were more honoured in the breach than in the 

 observance, as they deserved to be. 



Hops were said to have been introduced from the Low 

 Countries about the middle of Henry VIII's reign; but there 

 can be no doubt that this is a mistake. It has been mentioned 

 that they flourished in the gardens of Edward I, and a dis- 

 tinguished authority ^ says the hop may with probability be 

 reckoned a native of Britain ; but it was first used as a salad or 

 vegetable for the table, the young sprouts having the flavour 

 of asparagus and coming earlier. Hasted, the historian of 

 Kent, states ^ that a petition was presented to Parliament 

 against the hop plant in 1428 wherein it was called a 'wicked 

 weed '. Harrison says, ' Hops in time past were plentiful in 

 this land, afterwards their maintenance did cease, and now 

 (cir. 1580) being revived where are anie better to be found ? ' ^ 

 Even then growers had to face foreign competition, as the 

 customs accounts prove that considerable quantities were 



^ Sir Jas. E. Smith, English Flora, iv. 241. 



2 History of Kent (ed. 1778), i. 123. 



^ Description of Britain (P'urnivall ed.), p. 325. 



