380 
Did Book Farming* 
REVIEW OF BOOKS. 
Antique Systesa of Husbandry 
“ Foore Bookes of Husbandrie, collected by M. Con- 
radus Heresbachius, Counsellor to the hygh and 
mightie Prince, the Duke of Cleue; conteyning the 
whole arte and trade of Husbandrie, with the anti¬ 
quity and commendation thereof. Newly Englished 
and increased by Barnabe Googe, Esquire. Genesis 
3. 19,—In the sweate of thy face shall thou eate thy 
bread, tyll thou be turned agayne into the ground, for 
out of it wast thou taken : yea, dust thou art, and to 
dust shalt thou return. At London, printed for lohn 
Wight, 1578.” 
For the perusal of this relic of the olden black 
letter times, we are indebted to our friend, the Rev. 
J. O. Choules, whose zeal for the cause of agriculture, 
and taste for whatever is rare and recherche, has 
prompted him to collect and preserve one of the best 
selections of valuable literary antiques on this subject, 
possessed in this city. As indicated in our last, our 
object in referring to this work, is to afford our read¬ 
ers some choice specimens of the extremes of truth and 
error; sense and nonsense ; just observation, accu¬ 
rate judgment, and nice discrimination, combined with 
a wholesale admission of the merest figments of the 
brain, the confident belief of the most preposterous 
conceptions, and the indiscriminate acceptance of the 
most absurd legendary superstitions, which characterise 
the old writers. The style of our author is clear, con¬ 
cise and comprehensive, and of classical purity; and 
in brushing away for a moment some of the cobwebs 
that time hath allowed to cluster before the furrowed, 
yet benignant and placid visage of this choice old 
spirit, and shaking off some of the ancient dust that 
sanctifies, rather than defaces his venerable brow, we 
trust we shall afford both entertainment and instruc¬ 
tion to our readers. They will not fail to perceive the 
advantage they possess over their ancient fellows of 
this time honored craft. When they look for instruc¬ 
tion to the writings of the present day, they are not put 
off with a medley, where the good and bad are so 
mixed up, that the corn can hardly be winnowed from 
the chaff; for they know whatever will not bear the 
test of fair experiment, has been discarded from the 
principles of those who presume to act as guides. 
Without further comment, we will proceed to make 
sueh extracts as our brief limits afford. 
After a eulogium on the usefulness, dignity and hap¬ 
piness of rural life, fortified by such authority as Nes¬ 
tor, Socrates, Xenophon, Lucullus, Scipio, Cicero and 
others ; his first proposition is that “ the maisters foote 
is the best doung for the feelde;” or as the modern 
maxim is, the master’s eye (overlooking his men,) does 
the most work—a rule that has been orthodox since 
the first day Adam was driven from the Garden of 
Eden, and will be while the human race endure. His 
next, sustained by Cato, is that “ a good husband must 
rather be a seller than a byer ;” which is equally ap¬ 
plicable to all times and places. A third proposition 
is that “ an euil garden, betokeneth an il huswife;” 
which is as true now as 300 years ago, for a notable 
housewife will see to it if her husband does not, that the 
kitchen garden, herbarium, and flower stands, are well 
supplied from this store-house of goodly things. 
He quotes for the edification of the literary farmer, 
from the Ermite Sainct Antoine, who says, the whole 
world serued him for bookes, as a well furnished libra¬ 
ry, in which he always read the wonderful workman¬ 
ship of God.” 
The indications of good soil are clearly pointed out 
by the location and appearance, and the natural growth 
of vegetation. Luxuriant c< Bulrushes, Thistles, Three- 
leaned Grass, Danewort, Brambles, Blackthorne, and 
such like as neuer grow but in good ground,” shews 
where the good, but neglected land lies, in all ages 
and climes. But annexed we have a spice of gullibili¬ 
ty that Munchausen would envy in a reader. “ Under 
the North Pole it is reported the grounde is so fertill, 
that they sowe in the morning and reape at noone .” 
The custom of “ planting in Barbarie, under the Date the 
Olive, under the Olive the Figge, under the Figge the 
Pomegranate, and under it the Vine; under the Vine 
they sowe Wheate, and under Wheat, Pulse, all pros¬ 
pering under the other’s shadow, and yeeldyng their 
fruite the same yeere we know not whether taken in 
a limited sense, it be true or false. It is likely however 
when they find an oasis in that arid clime, fed by some 
spring or rippling stream, they cluster the whole varie¬ 
ty of their crops, and the piercing rays of the torrid 
sun, afford sufficient heat to mature them all. 
He specifies u Three sorts of Doung-, the first of 
Poultrie, the next Human, the third of Cattell. Man’s 
urine, being three moneths kept and poured upon the 
rootes of Apple trees and vines, bringeth greate fruit-' 
fulnesse to the trees, and yeeldethe a pleasante fruite. 
Old doung is best for corne and new for meddow. 
What time so ever it be applied to the ground, you 
must look that the winde be westerly , and the moone in 
the wane.” Lime and marl do not appear to have been 
used in our author’s time In England, except in parts 
of Sussex and Kent, but he refers to Its application 
elsewhere with great particularity. 
C{ The Germans, besides sundry other sorts of en¬ 
riching of their grounds, do instead of dung, cast upon 
it a kind of pith and fatness of the earth : (Pliny counts 
it to be first devised in England and France,) called 
Marga , as it were the fat of the earth: but I rather 
think it to be the invention of the Germans, with 
whom yet both the name and the use is retained : it is 
gotten in deep pits, but not alike in all soils. The 
part of France that lies upon the Maase doth show a 
sandy kind of marl, differing from the fat marl of Ger¬ 
many, but of the same quality : which carried upon the 
sea in vessels, is sold as a great merchandize. In 
some places the scouring of ponds and ditches is used, 
to the great enriching of the ground, in the mountainy 
and barren grounds. In some countries they make 
their land very fruitful with laying on of chalk, (one 
form of carbonate of lime,) as Pliny testifieth of the 
Burgundians, and the Gasgoines, and in Germany in 
our days, this manner of mending of ground is common. 
But long use of it, in the end brings the ground to be 
stark nought, whereby the common people have a 
speech, that ground enriched with chalk makes a rich 
father, and a beggarly son. A little lower, not far 
from the Maase, in the country of Lyege, they mend 
their land with a kind of slate stone, which cast upon 
the ground doth moulder away, and makes the ground 
fatter. In Lombardy they like so well the use of 
ashes, as they esteem it far above any dung, thinking 
dung not meet to be used for the unwholesomeness 
thereof. Columella writeth, that his uncle was wont 
to mend sandy and gravelly grounds with chalk, and 
chalky and hard grounds with gravel and sand, where¬ 
by he had always good income. So do I think that 
river land by overflowings, and fast ground with mud 
mingled with sand and gravel, will be made much 
better.” 
In tillage , he says, (t it is not needful to stir a gra¬ 
velly and light ground as often as the stiffe ground; 
yet we find that land, the oftener it is stirred the better 
it bears.” He speaks of the stupid mode adopted by 
some of the Germans of recent importation in our own 
