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



both of wood and " sea-cole "; soot; malt-dust; " raggs of all 

 sorts"; "coarse wooll, nippings and tarry pitch-markes " 

 (Blith); horn, or shavings of horn; seaweed " of all sorts, 

 rotted " (Child); salt dross, " much used on " meadows near 

 Nantwich (Child): marrow-bones (Blith); blood and urine 

 (Child); fish and fish-bones. 



Child mentions the New England practice of using on the 

 land a fresh-water fish, called the " Ale-wife, because of its 

 great belly," very full of bones. It was, he says, caught in 

 weirs, and sold in large quantities to farmers. Both writers 

 suggest mud from rivers, and Child adds " owse " from marshy 

 ditches and foreshores. Both especially recommend a soil full 

 of small shells, taken out of the beds of certain rivers. Child, 

 who calls it " snaggreet," says that it was much used in 

 Surrey. Blith, who calls it " snaylecod," says that one load 

 was worth three of horse or cow dung, that it was found in the 

 Thames Valley and near Uxbridge, and that men gained a 

 " gallant living " by bringing it to the surface and selling it 

 on the river bank at from one and twopence to two and four- 

 pence a load. 



Child also recommends, as has been already noted, the 

 practice of green manuring, and the use of lupins for the pur- 

 pose. Child's Large Letter on agricultural improvements is full 

 of useful suggestions. But, in the same breath, he suggests 

 that our live-stock and the agricultural wealth of the country 

 should be increased by the introduction of " Black Foxes, 

 Muske-cats, Sables, Martines," and, above all, the elephant 

 as a useful beast of draught and burden, " 15 men usually 

 riding on his backe together." His advice has not been 

 wholly neglected. In the Cheviots to-day there is a flourish- 

 ing skunk farm. 



Jethro Tull, it may be noted, objected to dung as a weed- 

 carrier. In the writings of William Ellis we find the manures 

 actually in use on a Hertfordshire farm in 1733-50, by an 

 advanced farmer. Chalk was largely employed, pits being sunk 

 to obtain the substance. Among the new ingredients are 

 rabbit's dung and rape-dust. London refuse was freely bought; 

 quantities of " cony-clippings, horn-shavings, rags, hoofs- 

 hair, ashes, etc.," were bought from " Mr. Atkins of Clerken- 

 wel." To the manures in use in the county were added, fifty 

 years later, boiled or burned bones, sheep-trotters and malt- 

 dust. 



