186 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



yeares also we haue found and taken vp a great 

 trade in planting of hops, whereof our moorie 

 hitherto and vnprofitable grounds doo yeeld such 

 plentie and increase that there are few farmers or 

 occupiers in the countrie, which haue not gardens 

 and hops growing of their owne, and those farre 

 better than doo come from Flanders vnto vs. 

 Certes the corruptions vsed by the Flemings, and 

 forgerie dailie practised in this kind of ware, gaue 

 vs occasion to plant them here at home ; so that 

 now we may spare and send manie ouer vnto them. 

 And this I know by experience that some one man 

 by conuersion of his moorie grounds into hopyards, 

 wherof before he had no commoditie, dooth raise 

 yearelie by so little as twelue acres in compasse two 

 hundred markes ; all charges borne toward the 

 maintenance of his familie. Which industrie God 

 continue ! Though some secret freends of Flemings 

 let not to exclaime against this commoditie, as a 

 spoile of wood, by reason of the poles, which neuer- 

 theless after three yeares doo also come to the fire, 

 and spare their other fewell." 



Hartlib, in his "Complete Husbandman " (1569), 

 demolishes anew the trade-born myth that "it is 

 one of the great deficiencies of England thathopps 

 will not grow," and sums up triumphantly 

 "whereas it is now known that they are the best in 

 the world " ; a complete rehabilitation of our home- 

 grown produce. 



