1922.] Wisdom and Folly of Ancient Book-Farmers. 



209 



with the exhaustion of the " rye-lands " by " long tillage," 

 he suggested clover as the remedy. His Improvement by Clover 

 (1668) was " so fitted to the countrey-man's capacity that he 

 fell on Pell-mell " and the new crop " doubled the value of 

 the Land." Elsewhere, it was long before clover emerged 

 " from the fields of gentlemen " into common use. Jethro 

 Tull, writing in the reign of George IT, savs that, if advised 

 to sow clover, " farmers would certainly reply ' Gentlemen 

 might sow it if they pleased, but they (the farmers) must take 

 care to pay their rents.' " In 1768 it was still unknown in 

 many counties. 



Equally strenuous was the opposition to turnips. It must, 

 however, be remembered that at first they were sown broad- 

 cast, The name of the first man, Michael Houghton, who 

 grew them at Hawsted in Suffolk in 1700, is preserved. " I 

 introduced turnips into the field," wrote Jethro Tull of Berk- 

 shire, " in King William's reign; but the practice did not 

 travel beyond the hedges of my estate till after the Peace of 

 Utrecht " (1713). In 1716 they were still a source of wonder 

 to the neighbours when they were grown in Scotland by the 

 Earl of Rothes. On the other hand, thev made their way more 

 rapidly in Norfolk and Essex where they were established 

 before 1684. Daniel Defoe, who began his tour of Great 

 Britain m 1722, says that Norfolk was the county " where the 

 Feeding and Fattening of Cattle, both Sheep as" well as black 

 Cattle, with Turnips, was first practis'd." Hertfordshire may 

 perhaps dispute the claim. ^Defoe's Tour was published in 

 1738, the year in which died Lord Townshend, whose zealous 

 advocacy of the use of turnips as the pivot of Norfolk farming 

 gained him the nickname of " Turnip " Townshend. 



The Corn Drill.— None of the three Tudor agricultural 

 writers who have been so far mentioned, were men of any 

 scientific pretensions, even in the restricted sense in which 

 the words can be used of our Elizabethan ancestors. Fitz- 

 herbert wrote his practical experiences. Tusser recorded facts 

 Googe reported foreign practices. Sir Hugh Plat was, in the 

 alertness of his mental attitude, more akin to the scientific 

 leaders of the 19th century. A man of an ingenious and in- 

 ventive turn, he farmed near St. Albans. Among his suggested 

 improvements was that of drilling, or, as it was then called 

 * setting" corn (1600). His attention was drawn to the 

 advantages of the practice by accident. " A silly wench " 



p 



