iia HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



the field universally, and this use with that of * great', as it was 

 called^ or broad clover, Weston pressed on the English farmer. 

 But their progress was wofully slow. At Hawsted in Suffolk 

 clover and turnips were first sown about 1700, and the eastern 

 portion of England was far ahead of the north and west ; 

 as late as 1772 Arthur Young wrote that 'sainfoin, cabbages, 

 potatoes, and carrots are not common crops in England ; 

 I do not imagine above half or at most two-thirds of the 

 nation cultivate clover.'^ Yet their introduction must have 

 been of the greatest benefit to the farmer and the public ; his 

 stock of hay was increased, he could utilize his fallows, and 

 keep a much larger head of stock through the winter, who 

 would give him a greater quantity of manure. Every one 

 where turnips were grown could now have fresh meat during 

 the winter. The slow progress of these great blessings is 

 perhaps the strongest testimony in our history of the innate 

 conservatism of the farmer. The green crop was for long 

 considered to be suited only to the garden, and as our fore- 

 fathers were prejudiced against the spade it was difficult to get 

 such crops cultivated even there ; but it should also be remem- 

 bered that no crop was possible in the common fields which 

 did not come to maturity before Lammas, unless some special 

 agreement was made as to it.^ Clover, Sir Richard Weston 

 said, thrives best when sown on the worst and barrenest 

 ground, which was to be pared and burnt, and unslaked lime 

 added to the ashes. Then it was to be well ploughed and 

 harrowed, and about 10 lb. of seed sown per acre in the end 

 of March or in April. ' It will stand five years, and then when 

 ploughed up will yield three or four years running rich crops 



* About 1684, John Worlidge wrote to Houghton that sheep fatted on 

 clover were not such deHcate meat as the heath croppers, and that sheep 

 fatten very well on turnips. Houghton, Collection for Improvement of 

 Husbandry, iv. 142. This is said to be the first notice of turnips being 

 given to sheep. 



^ R.A.S. E.fournal, 1896, p. yj. One of the proofs of the rarity of 

 vegetables among the poorer classes of England, especially in the Middle 

 Ages, is the fact that rents paid in kind never included them. 



