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Wisdom and Folly of Ancient Book-Farmers. [June, 



vocation." He " spread his bread with all sorts of butter but 

 none would ever stick thereon," and he is said to have died 

 in the debtors' prison of the Poultry Counter. Probably his 

 best remembered lines are : — 



" At Christmas play and make good cheer 

 " For Christmas comes but once a year." 



On one question, which from time to time is still disputed, 

 both these old authors had made up their minds. Neither had 

 any doubt that rooks were greater malefactors than benefactors. 

 They charge them with preferring* grain to grubs. Against 

 pigeons, rooks and crows Fitzherbert proclaims a crusade. 

 Tusser proposes to arm mothers with slings, and boys with 

 bows and arrows, to drive away the marauders. Tudor 

 Fmgland knew nothing of Board Schools. 



Green Manuring. — One of the few suggestions made in these 

 early books is that of green-manuring. Buck-wheat or 



Brank " is suggested for the purpose. In Tudor times the 

 expedient had a special value. It smothered the weeds, 

 restored the humus, improved the texture of the soil, and 

 provided manure when dung was scarce. Its use was the 

 greater because the " seeds " crop, which serves similar pur- 

 poses more effectively, was still unknown, but the danger of 

 drying up the water supply limits its application fo the more 

 rainy districts. Buck-wheat is a quick grower and a good 

 weed smotherer. It is for these reasons also recommended by 

 Child (1651). It was sown in May and ploughed in in July. 

 But Mortimer (1712) considered it a better practice to feed 

 it to dairy cattle when it was coming into blossom. If 

 allowed to seed and ripen, the grain was largely used for pigs 

 and poultry. Milled for human food, it made a very white 

 flour, which, in Stewart times, was highly esteemed for 

 pancakes. 



Child mentions other crops for green manure. Tares were, 

 he says, so employed in Kent. He also recommends lupins, 

 probably from his knowledge of Latin writers. The Romans 

 were fully aware of their value before a corn crop, though the 

 scientific reason for the richness of their fertilising qualities 

 was a discovery of the last century. In this connexion may be 

 mentioned another form of catch-cropping. William Ellis of 

 Gaddesden, whose writings were famous in the first half of 

 the 18th century, attributes the success of Hertfordshire 

 farmers, among other causes, to growing tares on turnip fallows 



