The complete farmer: or, a general dictionary of husbandry ... in which everything valuable from the best writers on this subject will be extracted ... / By a society of gentlemen, members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

Date:
1766
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The complete farmer: or, a general dictionary of husbandry ... in which everything valuable from the best writers on this subject will be extracted ... / By a society of gentlemen, members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A G R A G R Fitz-Herbert’s books of agriculture foon raifed a fpirit of emulation in his countrymen, and many treatifes of the fame kind fucceffively appeared ; but time has deprived us of many of thofe writings, or at leaft they are become fo very fcarce, as only to be found in the libraries of the curious. About the year 1600, France made fome confiderable efforts to revive hufbandry, as appears from feveral large works, particularly Les Moyens de devenir Riche, and the Cofmoplite, by Barnard de Paliffy, a poor potter ; Le Theatre dAgriculture, by de Serres; UAgriculture, iA Maijon RtAlique, by Meflrs. Etienne andLiebault, &c. The Flpmings, about the fame period, dealt more in the pracflife of hufbandry, than in publifhing books on the fubjedl; fo that their intention doubtlefs was to carry on a private lucrative trade, without inftrudting their neighbours : and hence it happened, that whoever was defirous of copying their method of agriculture, was obliged to travel into their country, and make his own remarks. Their principal, and indeed juft, idea of hufbandry confifted in this, namely, to make a farm refemble a garden as near as poffible. Such an ex¬ cellent principle at firft fetting out led them of courfe to undertake the culture of fmall eftates only, which they kept free from weeds, continually turning the ground, and manuring it plentifully and judicioufly. When they had by this method brought the foil to a proper degree of cleanlinefs, health, and fweetnefs, they ventured chiefly upon the culture of the more deli¬ cate gralTes, as the fureft means of acquiring wealth in hufbandry upon a fmall eftate, without the expence of keeping many draught horfes or fervants. A few years experience was abundantly fufficient to convince them, that ten acres of the beft vegetables for feeding cattle, properly cultivated,would maintain a larger jftock of grazing animals, than forty acres of common farm grals. They alfo found that the beft vegetables for this purpofe, were lucerne, faintfoin, trefoil of moft denominations, fweet fenugreek, buck and cow-wheat, held turnips, and fpurrey. The political fecret of their hufbandry therefore con¬ fifted in letting farms on improvement. They alfo dif- covered eight or ten new forts of manure. They were the firft among the moderns who ploughed in living crops for the fake of fertilifing the earth, and confined their fliecp, at night, in large fheds built on purpofe, whofe floors were covered with fand or virgin earth, &c. which the fhepherd carted away every morning to the compoft dunghill. Our fatal domeftic wars, during the reign of Charles I. changed the inftruments of hufbandry into martial weapons; but after the death of that unfortunate mo¬ narch, artful and avaricious men crept into the confif- cated eftates of the nobility, gentry, and clergy ; and as many of thefe new encroachers had rifen from the plough, fo they returned with pleafure to their old profeliion, being chiefly animated by the love of gain. Plattes, Hartlib, Blythe, and others, feized this favour¬ able difpofition of the common people, and encouraged it by writings which have fince had few equals ; nor was Cromwell wanting to lend his aflTiftance. Sir Hugh Platt was one of the moft ingenious huf- bandmen'of the age in which he lived ; yet fo great was his modefty, that all his works, except his Paradife of Flora, feem to be pofthumous. He held a corref- pondence with all the lovers of agriculture and garden¬ ing in England; and fuch was the juftice and modefty of his temper, that he always named the author of every difeovery communicated to him. Perhaps no man, in any age, difeovered, or, at leaft, brought into ufe fo many new forts of manure. Witnefs his ac¬ count of the compoft and covered dunghill, and his ob- lervations on the fertilifing qualities lodged in fait, ftreet- dirt, and the fullage of ftreets in great cities, clay, fuller’s earth, moorifli earth, dunghills made in layers, fern, hair, calcination of all vegetables, malt-duft, willow-tree earth, foap-boilers afhes, marie, and broken pilchards. Gabriel Plattes may be efteemed an original genius in hufbandry. He began his obfervations in the time of queen Elizabeth, and continued them through the reigns of James I. Charles I. and during the firft three or fou,' years of the common-wealth. But notwithftanding the great merit of this writer, the public fuffered him to ftarve and perifli in the ftreets of London; nor had he a fhirt upon his back when he died. Samuel Hartlib, a celebrated writer on hufbandry in the laft century, was highly beloved and efteemed by Milton and other great men of that time. In his pre¬ face to a work commonly called his Legacy, he laments that no public director of hufbandry was eftablifhed in England by authority ; and that we had not adopted the Flemifh method of letting farms upon improvement. This remark of Hartlib procured him a penlion of one hundred pounds a year from Cromwell ; and the writer afterwards, the better to fulfil the intention of his be- nefaeftor, procured Dr. Bcati’s excellent annotations on the Legacy, with other valuable pieces from his numer¬ ous correfpondents. About the time when this author flourifhed feems to have been an sera when the Englifti hulbandry rofe to great perfe£iion ; for the preceding wars had made the country gentry poor, and, in confequence thereof, induf- trious. They found the cultivation of their own lands to be the moft profitable poft they could occupy. But a few years after, when the reftoration took place, all this induftry and knowledge were exchanged for diflipation and heedlelTnefs ; and then hufbandry palled almoft en¬ tirely into the hands of farmers. The famous work attributed to Hartlib, and called the Legacy, was only drawn up at Hartlib’s requeft; and, after palTing through his correeftion and revifal, was publifhed by him. The real author of this treatife was R. Child. It confifts of one general anfwer to the fol¬ lowing queftion, namely, “ What are the aftual de- fedls and omiflions, as alfo the poffible improvements in Englifti hufbandry ?” Several other pieees on hufbandry followed the publi¬ cation of the Legacy, and greatly improved that necef- fary and ufeful art. The firft writer that infpired his countrymen with a defire of reviving the ftudy of agriculture after the refto¬ ration was Evelyn; who, being followed by the famous Tull, opened a new fphere for the minds of mankind to range in; and finee this period feveral valuable im¬ provements have been made in the Englifh hufbandry, bv a great variety of authors. Ireland, about the middle of the laft century, began to make no ineonfiderable figure in the art of hulbandry. It muft, indeed, be confelTed that Ireland had very ftrong prejudices in behalf of a very wretehed method of agri¬ culture, till about the middle of the laft century, when Blythe opened the eyes of that people by his incompa¬ rable writings. Since which a certain fpirit of improve¬ ment has, more or lefs, been promoted and carried on with great zeal and conftancy by the nobility, dergv, and gentry of that kingdom. In proof of which it will be fufficient to obferve, that the tranfadfions of the Dublin fociety for encouraging hufbandry, are now cited by all foreigners in their memoirs relating to that fub- jed. After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, almoft all the na¬ tions of Europe, by a fort of tacit confent, applied themfelves to the ftudy of agriculture ; and continued to do fo, more or lefs, amidit the univerfal confufion that foon fucceeded. The French found by repeated ex¬ perience, that they could never maintain a long war, or procure a tolerable peace, without they raifed corn enough to fupport themfelves in fuch a manner as they fhould not be obliged to fubmit to harfh terms on the one hand, or perifh by famine on the other. Their king therefore thought proper to give public encouragement to agriculture, and has ever been prefent at the making of feveral experiments. The great and rich of various ranks and ftations followed this example, and the very ladies put in for their fhare of fame in this commendable undertaking. Even during the hurry and diftreffes of the laft war, lome attention was paid to agriculture. Prize queftions were then propofed annually in rural academies ; particularly at the two academies of Lyons and Bourdeaux. And many alterations were made by the lociety for improving agriculture in Brit-oy. C Since