5 12 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Although the first great step in the advancement of English agricul- 

 ture was not taken till near the end of the third decade of the eighteenth 

 century, the incidents which led up to it took place in the middle of the 

 seventeenth. These were the introduction from Flanders of two new crops, 

 turnips 1 and red clover, by Sir Eichard Weston, in 1644 or 1645. 2 Their 

 cultivation did not spread, however, till a century later. Sainfoin and 

 lucerne were introduced from France 3 about the same time ; but they also 

 made small progress. Eye-grass, which was introduced probably a few years 

 later, made somewhat better progress. In Plot's Oxfordshire., published in 

 1677, we are told : " They have lately sown ray-grass, or the Gramen lolia- 

 ceum, by which they improve any cold, sour, clay-weeping ground, for which 

 it is best, but good also for dry upland grounds, especially light, stony, or 

 sandy land, which is unfit for sainfoin. It was first sown in the Chiltern 

 parts of Oxfordshire, and since brought nearer Oxford by one Eustace, an 

 ingenious husbandman of Islip, who, though at first laughed at, has since 

 been followed even by those very persons who scorned his experiments." 4 

 Eye-grass eventually found its place in being sown down with the last grain- 

 crop taken by " inclosed " farmers before the land was left to nature. 



The great step, however, was taken by Tull and Lord Townshend. Tull 

 showed that the yield of a crop could be increased greatly by thorough and 

 persistent cultivation : that is by cultivation not only before the crop was sown 

 but also while it was growing. But, in Tull's clay, field crops could not be 

 cultivated while growing, because they were sown broadcast ; and cultivation 

 would kill many plants. Tull then invented two machines : one to sow the 

 seed in drills or rows, and another to cultivate between them — the drill- 

 sowing machine and the horse-hoe. 5 



Since its introduction by Weston the turnip had been no great success, 

 chiefly because it had to be sown broadcast ; but now the way to grow it 

 was seen to be in drills, like Jethro Tull's wheat ; and the first to 

 demonstrate this on a large scale, about 1730, 6 was Lord Townshend who had 

 been Prime Minister to King George the First. The turnip and the other 

 crop introduced eighty years before by Weston were now readily adopted as 

 field crops by the farmers of Norfolk, who in those days were the most 

 advanced in England. 



The two new crops had far-reaching consequences, first upon the " inclosed " 



1 That is aa a field crop. Turnips had been previously grown in gardens. 



2 Weston's Discourse of the Husbandrie used in Brabant and Flanders, edited by Hartlib, 1645. 



3 Blith's English Improver Improved, 1653. 

 ' See Wilson's Farm Crops, vol. ii., p. 203. 



6 See Tull's Works, especially The Horse-Hoeinfr Husbandry, 1730. 

 6 Wilson's Farm Crop, vol. i., p. 268. 



