i66 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



beginning of June to the middle of August, on fallow which 



had been brought to a good tilth, the seed harrowed in with 



a bush harrow, and if necessary rolled. When the plants had 



two or three leaves each they were to be hoed out, leaving 



them five or six inches apart, though some slovenly farmers 



did not trouble to do this ; but there is no mention of hoeing 



between the rows. The fly was already recognized as a pest, 



and soot and common salt were used to fight it. Folding 



sheep in winter on turnips was then little practised, though 



Lawrence strongly recommends it. According to Defoe,* 



Suffolk was remarkable for being the first county where the 



feeding and fattening of sheep and other cattle with turnips 



was first practised in England, to the great improvement of 



the land, ' whence ', he says, ' the practice is spread over most 



of the east and south, to the great enriching of farmers and 



increase of fat cattle.' There were great disputes as to 



collecting the tithe, always a sore subject, on turnips ; and 



the custom seems to have been that if they were eaten off by 



store sheep they went tithe free, if sheep were fattened on 



them the tithe was paid.^ 



Clover, the other great novelty of the seventeenth century, 



was now generally sown with barley, oats, or rye grass, about 



15 lb. per acre. This amount, sown on 2 acres of barley, 



would next year produce 2 loads worth about £^, The next 



crop stood for seed, which was cut in August, the hay being 



worth £g, and the seed out of it, 300 lb., was sold much of it 



for i6d. a lb., the sum realized in that year from the a acres 



being ;^3o, without counting the aftermath. At this time 



most of the seed was still imported from Flanders.^ Much 



of the common and waste land of England, not previously 



worth 6d. an acre, had been by 1732 vastly improved through 



sowing artificial grasses on it, so that various people had 



gained considerable estates.** 



^ Tour (ed. 1724), i. 87. ^ Ellis, Chiltern and Vale Farming, p. 353. 



' Bradley, General Treatise, i. 175. 



* Ellis, Chiltern and Vale Farming.^ p. 260. 



