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Our fatal dotneftic wars, during the reign of Cliarlcs I. 

 changed the inllruments of luifbaiidrv into martiiil weapons ; 

 but after the death of tliat unfortunate monarch, artful and 

 avaricious men crept into the confifcatedellatcsof the nobihty, 

 gentry, and clergy ; and as many of thefe new encroaclicrs had 

 rifcn from the plough, fo tliey returned with i)lcafure to their 

 oldprofelTion, being chiefly animated byaloveof gain. Plattes, 

 Hartlib, BIythe, and others, fei/.cd this favourable dif[)o- 

 fuion of the common people, and encouraged it by writings, 

 which have fmco had few to equal them ; nor was Cromwell 

 wanting in lending his affillance in this important bufinefs. 

 Sir Hugh Piatt was one of the moil ingenious hufhandmen 

 ot the age in which he lived ; and fo great was his modi'lly, 

 that all his works, except his Paradife of Flora, feem to be 

 pollhumous. He held a correfpoudence with all the lovers 

 and promoters of agriculture and gardening in England ; 

 and fuch was the jullice and honetly of his tejnper, that he 

 always named the autlior of every difcoveiy that was com- 

 municated to him. Perhaps no man, in any period in the 

 hiilory of the art, difcovcred, or at leaft brought into ufe, 

 fo many new forts of manure, as his account of the compoft 

 and covered dunghill, and his obfervations on the fertilifing 

 qualities, contained in fait, ftreet dirt, and the fuUage of 

 ftreets in great cities, clav, fuUer's-earth, moorifli earth, 

 dunghills made in layers, fern, hair, burned vegetables, 

 malt-duit, willow-trec earth, foap boiler's alhes, marie, and 

 broken pilchards, fufficiently demonftrate. 



Gabriel Plattes may likewile be elteemed an original ge- 

 nius in promoting the improvement of agriculture. He 

 began his valuable obfervations in the time of queen Eliza- 

 beth, and continued them through the reigns of James I. 

 Charles I. and during the tird three or four years of the 

 commonwealth. But notwlthftanding the great merit dif- 

 played in his writings, the public iliamefully fuffered him to 

 ftarve and perifh in the ftreets of London, not having a ftiirt 

 xr^ion his back when he died. 



Samuel Hartlib, a celebrated writer on hufbandry, was 

 highly beloved and eileemcd by Milton, and otlier ingenious 

 men of that tinae. In his preface to a work commonly 

 called his Legacy, firft pubHdied in the year 1 650, he 

 laments that no public director of hufbandry was eftabliflied 

 in England by authority ; and that we had not adopted the 

 Flemiih method of letting farms upon improvement. Thefe 

 obfervations of Hartlib procured him a penfion of one hun- 

 dred pounds a year from Cromwell, who was a great favourer 

 of agricultural improvements, and the writer afterwards, the 

 better to fulfil tlie intentions of his benefaftor, procured 

 Dr. Beati's excellent annotations on the Legacy, with feveral 

 other valuable pieces trom his numerous correfpondents. The 

 period in which this author flouriftied appears to have been 

 an xra when Englilh hufbandiy rofe to great perfeftion ; 

 for the preceding wars had made the country gentry poor, 

 and, in confequence, more induftrious. They found the 

 cultivation of their own lauds to be the moft. profitable poll 

 they could occupy. But a few years afterwards, when the 

 Reltorationtookplace, all this induiliyandknowledge became 

 ufelefs, from the new fyftem that was afted upon, and were 

 exchanged for heedleffncfs and dilfipation ; from which huf- 

 bandiy paifedalmoll entirely into the handsof common farmers. 

 But the famous work ufually attributed to Hartlib, and called 

 the Legaey, was only drawn up at his requell ; and, after 

 pafiing through his correftion and revifion, publiflied by him. 

 The real author of the treatifc, which confifts of one ge- 

 neral anfwer to the following queilion : " AVhat are the 

 aftual defefts and omiftions, as alfo the pofTible improve- 

 ments, in EngHih hufbandiy I" was a pcrfon of the name of 

 R. Child, who feems to have been acquainted with many 



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ingenious improvers of agriculture at that period. Several 

 other pieces fucceeded the publication of the Legacy, 

 which greatly improved and augmented the means of culti- 

 vation. 



Grew, by the publication of the Anatomy of Plants, and 

 fhewing, in ionie meal'ure, the economy of the vegetable 

 fyftem, contributed to enlarge the viev.s and extend the en- 

 quiries concerning the nature of vegetation and the food of 

 plants. But a principal writer who infpired his countrymen, 

 with a delire of reviving the iludy of agriculture after the 

 Reftoration, was Evelyn ; who being followed by Ducket, 

 Ray, Dugdale, and feveral other authors, the art of culti- 

 vation was greatly recovered, and foine new improvements 

 introduced ; and the cftablifliment of the Royal Society 

 which took place a few years afterwards, contributed ftill 

 more fully to the advancement of it, by ferving as a focus 

 for colkftlng and recording valuable materials on the nature 

 of vegetation and the principles of agriculture, as well as 

 other lubjects. About the year i 706, many additions and 

 improvements were made in this ufeful art. — Mortimer, by 

 his explanations of various praftical modes of management ; 

 Bradley, by reducing the facfls on vegetation into a more 

 fyftematic ordr.- ; Hales, by his valuable ftatical experiments 

 and invelUgations ; and Miller, by the publication of hia 

 dic'tionary, and other works, contributed vciy materially. 

 But agriculture is probably ftill more indebted to the ex- 

 ertions of TuU, notwlthllanding the evident futility of many 

 of his politlons, as by ftiewing the utility and importance of 

 drilling, and freqv^nt hoeing or tlirring the ground about 

 the roots of plants, and thereby keeping them clean and free 

 from weeds, farmers have been induced to adopt more clean 

 and fure methods of cultivating their arable lands. The 

 introduction of this fyftem of management, therefore, in 

 fome degree, forms an a»ra in the hiilory of Englifh huf- 

 bandry. 



In Ireland about the middle of the laft centur)', the 

 art of huftiandry began to make confiderable progrefs ; that 

 country having had very llrong prejudices in behalf of a very 

 wretched method of agriculture, until about that period, 

 when BIythe opened the eyes of the people by his incom- 

 parable writings ; fince which a fpirit of improvement has, 

 more or lefs, been promoted and carried on with zeal and 

 conftancy by the nobility, clergv, and gentry of the king- 

 dom. In proof of which it may be fuflielent to obfene, 

 that a fociety for the encouragement of agriculture has been 

 eftabliftied, the tranfaftions of which arc higldy refpectable 

 and important. In many refpefts, however, Iiilh huf» 

 bandry is ftill much behind that of Britain. 



At the conclufion of the peace of Aix-la-ChapclIe, almofl 

 all the nations of Europe, by a fort of tacit confent, applied 

 themfelves to the Rudy of agriculture ; and continued to do 

 fo, more or lefs, amldft the univerfal confulion that fooir 

 fucceeded. The French found, by repeated experience, 

 that they could never maintain a long war, or procure a 

 tolerable peace, unlefs tiiey raifed corn enough to fuppoil 

 themfelves in fuch a manner as that they fhould not be ob- 

 liged to fubmit to harfh terms on one hand, or perifli bv 

 famine on the other. Their king, therefore, thought proper 

 to give public encouragement to agriculture, and was even 

 prefent at the making of feveral experiments. The rich and 

 great, of various ranks and ilations, followed this noble 

 example, and the ladies even put in for their ftiare of fame 

 in the laudable undertaking. Even during the hurrv and 

 dillrelTes of the laft war, fome attention was paid to agri- 

 culture. Prize queftlons were then propofed anmiallv in 

 rural academies, particularly at the two academies of Lyons 

 and BourdeauXi and many alterations were made by the 



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