Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/317

Rh SUMMARY.] AGRICULTURE 295 kingdom, and these the tenants on the king s demesne lands were obliged to furnish gratis, a practice that came to be adopted by the barons and great men in every tour which they thought proper to make in the country. These exactions were so grievous, and levied in so high-handed a manner, that the farmers, when they heard of the court s approach, often deserted their houses, as if the country had been invaded by an enemy. &quot;Purveyance,&quot; says Dirom, 1 &quot;was perhaps for many centuries the chief obstruc tion to the agriculture and improvement of Great Britain. A [any laws were made for the reformation and regulation of purveyance, but without effect ; and the practice continued down to so late a period as the reign of James the First.&quot; By statute 1449, the tenant was for the first time secured in possession, during the term of his lease, against a purchaser of the land; and in 1469 he was protected from having his property carried off for the landlord s debts, beyond the amount of rent actually due ; an enact ment which proves his miserable condition before that time. Soon after the beginning of the 16th century agriculture partook of the general improvement which followed the invention of printing, the revival of learning, and the more settled authority of government ; and instead of the occa sional notices of historians, we can now refer to regular treatises, written by men who engaged eagerly in this neglected and hitherto degraded occupation. We shall therefore give a short account of the principal works, as well as of the laws and general policy of Britain, in regard to agricultiire, from the early part of the 1 6th century to the Revolution in 1688, when a new era commenced in the legislation of corn, and soon after in the practice of the cultivator. 2 EARLY WORKS ON AGRICULTURE. )ok of The first and by far the best of our early works is the usbandry. Book of Husbandry, printed in 1534, commonly ascribed to Fitzherbert, a judge of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry VIII. This was followed, in 1539, by the Boole of Surveying and Improvements, by the same author. In the former treatise we have a clear and minute description of the rural practices of that period, and from the latter may be learned a good deal of the economy of the feudal system in its decline. The Book of Husbandry has scarcely been excelled by any later production, in as far as concerns the subjects of which it treats; for at that time cultivated herbage and edible roots were still unknown in England. The author writes from his own experience of more than forty years ; and, with the exception of passages denoting his belief in the superstition of the Roman writers, there is very little of this valuable work, in so far as regards the culture of corn, that should be omitted, and not a great deal that need be added, even in a manual of husbandry adapted to the present time. Fitzherbert touches on almost every department of the art, and in about a hundred octavo pages has contrived to condense more practical information than will be found scattered through as many volumes of later times ; and yet he is minute even to the extreme on points of real utility. There is no reason to say, with Mr Harte, that he had revived the husbandry of the Romans ; he merely describes the practices of the age in which he lived ; and from his commentary on the old statute extenta manerii, in his Book of Surveying, in which he does not allude to any recent improvements, it is probable that the manage ment which he details had been long established. But it may surprise some of the agriculturists of the present day to be told, that, after the lapse of almost three centuries, Fitzherbert s practice, in some material particulars, has not 1 Inquiry into the Corn Laws, &c., i&amp;gt;. 9. 2 The account of the Writers on Agriculture taken from Mr Cleg- horn s Treatise in the former edition of the Encylopccdia Britannica. been improved upon ; and that in several districts abuses until recently existed, which were as clearly pointed out by him at that early period as by any writer of the present age. The Book of Husbandry begins with the plough and other instruments, which are concisely and yet minutely described; and then about a third part of it is occupied with the several operations as they succeed one another throughout the year. Among other things in this part of the work, the following deserve notice : &quot; Somme (ploughs) wyll tournthe sheld breditli at every landsende, and plowe all one way ;&quot; the same kind of plough that is now found so useful on hilly grounds. Of wheel-ploughs he observes, that &quot;they be good on even grounde that lyetl lyghte;&quot; and on such lands they are still most commonly employed. Cart-wheels were sometimes bound with iron, of which he greatly approves. On the much agitated question about the employment of horses or oxen in labour, the most important arguments are distinctly stated. &quot;In some places,&quot; he says, &quot;a horse plough is better,&quot; and in others an oxen plough, to which, upon the whole, he gives the pre ference, and to this, considering the practices of that period, they were probably entitled. Beans and peas seem to have been common crops. He mentions the different kinds of wheat, barley, and oats ; and after describing the method of harrowing &quot;all maner of cornnes,&quot; we find the roller employed. &quot;They used to role their barley grounde after a showr of rayne, to make the grounde even to rnowe. Under the article &quot;To falowe,&quot; he observes, &quot;the greater clottes (clods) the better wheate, for the clottes kepe the wheat warme all wyntcr ; and at March they will melte and breake and fal in nianye small peces, the whiche is a new dongynge and refreshynge of the corne.&quot; This is agreeable to the present practice, founded on the very same reasons. &quot; In May, the shepe folde is to be set out ;&quot; but Fitzherbert does not much approve of folding, and points out its disadvantages in a very judicious manner. &quot; In the latter end of May and the begynnynge of June, is tymo to wede the come ;&quot; and then wo have an accurate description of the different weeds, and the instruments and mode of weeding. Next comes a second ploughing of the fallow ; and afterwards, in the latter end of June, tie mowing of the meadows begins. Of this operation, and of the forks and rakes, and the haymaking, there is a very good account. The corn harvest naturally follows : rye and wheat were usually shorn, and barley and oats cut with the scythe. This intelligent writer does not approve of the practice, which still prevails in some places, of cutting wheat high, and then mowing the stubbles. &quot; In Somersetshire, &quot; he says, &quot;they do shere theyr wheat veiy lowe ; and the wheato strawe that they purpose to make thacke of, they do not threshe it, but cut off the ears, and byiid it in shoves, and call it rede, and therewith they thacke theyr houses.&quot; He recommends the practice of setting up corn in shocks, with two sheaves to cover eight, instead of ten sheaves as at present; probably owing to the straw being then shorter. The corn was commonly housed ; but if there be a want of room, he advises that the ricks be built on a scaffold, and not upon the ground. Corn- stacks are now beginning to be built on pillars and frames. The fallow received a third ploughing in September, and was sown about Michaelmas. &quot; Wheat is moost commonlye sownc under the forowe, that is to say, cast it uppon the falowe, and then plowe it under ;&quot; and this branch of his subject is concluded with directions about threshing, winnowing, and other kinds of barn- work. Fitzherbert next proceeds to live stock. &quot;An housbande,&quot; ho says, &quot;can not well thryue by his corno without he have other cattell, nor by his cattell without corne. And bycause that shepe, in myne opynyon, is the mooste profytablest cattell that any man can haue, therefore I pourpose to speake fyrst of shepe.&quot; His remarks on this subject are so accurate, that one might imagina they came from a storcmaster of the present day ; and the minutiaa which he details are exactly what the writer of this article has seen practised in the hilly parts of this countiy. In some places at present, &quot;they neuer scuer their lambes from their dammes;&quot; &quot;and the poore of the peeke (high) countreye, and such other places, where, as they vse to mylko theyr ewes, they vse to wayne theyr lambes at 12 weekes olde, and to my Ike their ewes fiuo or syxe weekes ;&quot; but that, he observes, &quot;is greate hurte to the ewes, and wyll cause them that they wyll not take the ramme at the- tyme of the yere for pouertye, but goo barreyne.&quot; &quot;In June is tyme to shere shepe ; and ere they bo shorne, they must be vcrye well washen, the which shall be to the owner grcato profyto in the sale of his wool, and also to the clothe-maker. &quot; It appears that hand washing was then a common practice ; and yet in the west and north of Scotland its introduction is of comparatively recent date. His remarks on horses, cattle, &c., are not less interesting; and there is a very good account of the diseases of each species, and some just observations on the advantage of mixing different kinds on the same pasture. Swine and bees conclude this branch of th work.