k 208 Wisdom and Folly of Ancient Book-Farmers. [June, 



Throughout the 17th century writers kept pegging away at 

 turnips and temporary grasses. Little attention was paid. 

 In the existing system of open-field farming there was no room 

 for either crop. All the partners in the village farm enjoyed 

 grazing rights over the fallows as well as over the other arable 

 fields from corn-harvest to seed-time. Any enterprising man 

 therefore who wished to grow turnips would grow them for 

 the benefit of his neighbours. Up to 1773, it was impossible, 

 without the assent of all the partners, to alter the rotation by 

 which all were bound, or to interpolate either of the new crops. 

 They were, therefore, out of the reach of open-field farmers. 

 But occupiers of enclosed farms were almost equally backward. 



Once again, seventy years after Barnaby Googe, attention 

 was called to the methods of foreigners by an eyewitness. In 

 a clear and concise treatise, Sir Eichard Weston described 

 (1645) the field cultivation of artificial grasses and turnips in 

 Brabant and Flanders. At first the book circulated in manu- 

 script, but -it was printed in 1649-50 and again in 1651. 

 Arthur Young, with characteristic enthusiasm, calls Weston 

 " a greater benefactor than Newton," because he offei^ed bread 

 and meat to millions. But the times were unfavourable to 

 progress. Traditionally, Oliver Cromwell interested himself 

 in the introduction of the field cultivation- of turnips. He is 

 said to have paid a farmer named Howe £100 a year for being 

 the first man to grow them successfully in Hertfordshire. 

 Their cause, however, was not helped by the mountebank 

 extravagance of writers like Adolphus Speed (1659), who 

 commends them to farmers as the only food for cattle, sheep, 

 swine and poultry, sovereign for conditioning " Hunting dogs," 

 admirable as an ingredient in bread, supplying " exceeding good 

 Oyl " and " excellent Syder," and yielding " two very good 

 crops each year." 



Other writers, on more moderate lines, urged the addition 

 of temporary grasses and turnips to the resources of farmers. 

 Andrew Yarranton, by his personal example and influence, 

 succeeded, between the years 1653 and 1677, in establishing 

 clover in Worcestershire and the adjoining counties. He was 

 one of the most interesting men of the time. Starting as a 

 linendraper'^ apprentice, he found the " Shop too narrow and 

 short " for his mind. He took leave of his master, lived a 

 country life for some years, served as a soldier in the Civil 

 W^ars, turned consulting engineer in 1652, and studied various 

 means of bettering the condition of the country. Impressed 



