A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

AG R 24 AGR
mans, unlike many conqnerors, instead ]
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times. The various operations of hnsof
desolating, improved the countries bandry, such as manuring, ploughing,
which they subdued. They seldom or sowing, harrowing, reaping, threshing,
never burned or laid waste conquered winnowing, &c., are incidentally mencountries,
but laboured to civilize the tioned by the writers of those days, but
inhabitants, and introduce the arts ne- it is impossible to collect from thein a
cessary for promoting their comfort and definite account of the manner in which
happiness. To facilitate communica- those operations were performed.
tions from one district or town to an- The first English treatise on husbandry
other, seems to have been a primary was published in the reign of Henry
object with them, and their works of VIII., by Sir A. Fitzherbert, Judge of
this kind are still discernible in nume- the Common Pleas. It is entitled the
Book of Husbandry, and contains direc-
rous places. By employing their troops !
in this way, when not engaged in active
service, their commanders seem to have
had greatly the' advantage over our
modern generals. The Roman soldiers,
instead of loitering in camps, or rioting
in towns, enervating their strength, and
corrupting their morals, were kept regularly
at work, on objects highly bene-
—
tions for draining, clearing and enclosing
a farm, for enriching the soil, and
rendering it fit for tillage. Lime, marl
and fallowing are strongly recommend-
ed. ' The author of the Book of Hus-
' writes
bandry,' says Mr. Loudon,
from his own experience of more than
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forty years, and, if we except his biblical
ficial to the interests of those whom the_v
subjugated.—In the ages of anarchy
allusions, and some vestiges of the superstition
of the Roman writers about
and barbarism which succeeded the fall the influence of the moon, there is very
of the Roman empire, agriculture was little of his work which should be omit-
almost wholly abandoned. Pasturage ted, and not a great deal that need be
was preferred to tillage, because of the added, in so far as respects the culture
facility with which sheep, o.xen, &c.,
fan be driven away or concealed on
the approach of an enemy.—The con-
of corn, in a manual of husbandrv adapted
to the present time.'—Agriculture
attained some eminence during the
quest of England by the Normans con- reign of Elizabeth. The principal writtributed
to the improvement of agriers of that period were Tusser, Googe
culture in Great Britain. Owing to that and Sir Hugh Piatt. Tusser's Five
event, many thousands of husbandmen, Hundred Points of Husbandry was pub-
from the fertile and well-cultivated lished in 1562, and conveys much use-
plains of Flanders and Normandy, setful instruction in metre. The treatise
tled in Great Britain, obtained farms, of Barnaby Googe, entitled Whole Art
and employed the same methods in cultivating
them, wliich the^had been ac-
of Husbandry, was printed in 1558. Sir
Hugh Piatt's work was entitled Jewel
customed to use in their native coun- Houses of Art and Nature, and was
tries. Some of the Norman barons printed in 1594. In the former work,
were great improvers of their lands, and says Loudon, are many valuable hints
were celebrated in history for their skill on the progress of husbandry in the early
in agriculture. The Norman clergy, part of the reign of Elizabeth. Among
.ind especially the monks, did still more other curious things, he asserts that the
in this way than the nobility. The Spanish or Merino sheep was originally
monks of every monastery retained such derived from England.—Several writers
of their lands as they could most con- on agriculture appeared in England dur-
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veniently take charge of, and these they ing the commonwealth, whose names,
cultivated with great i care under their with notices of their works, may be seen
in Loudon's Encyclopidia of Agricul-
own inspection, and frequently with |
[
their own hands. The famous Thomas ture. From the Restoration down to
a Becket, after he was Archbishop of the middle of the eighteenth century,
agriculture remained almost stationary.
Canterbury, used to go out into the field |
^ith the monks of the monastery where
he happened to reside, and join with
them in reaping their corn and making
Immediately after that period , considerable
improvement in the process of culture
was introduced by Jethro Tull, a
of Berkshire, who began to
gentleman !
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their hay. The implements of agricul-
^ire, at this period, were similar to drill wheat and other crops about the
ihose in most cornmon use in modern year I 1701, and whose Horse-hoeing