40 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Parr I.

any where else, and that'from the grapes was produced a wine very little inferior to that of France. Orchards and cyder were also abundant, and the apple trees, it is said, lined the roads in some parts of the country, as they still do in Normandy, whence in all probability the plants or at least the grafts would be imported.

Sussect. 3. History of Agriculture in Britain from the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Century.

210. Agriculture in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it appears, was still carried on with vigor. Sir John Fortescue, in a work in praise of the English laws, mentions the pro- gress that had been made in planting hedges andhedge-row trees before the end of the four- teenth century. Judge Fortescue wrote his Legum Angliz in the fifteenth century, but it was not published till the reign of Henry VIII. In the law book called Fleta(supposed to have been written by some lawyers, prisoners in the Fleet in 1340), very particular direc- tions are given as to the most proper times and best manner of ploughing and dressing fallows.(Eveta, lib. ii, chap. 73. p. 163.) The farmer is there directed to plough no deeper in summer than is necessary for destroying the weeds; nor to lay on his manure till a little before the last ploughing, which is to be with a deep and narrow furrow. Rules are also given for the changing and choosing seed;— for proportioning the quantity of different kinds of seed to be sown on an acre, according to the nature of the soil, and the degree of richness;— for collecting and compounding manures, and accom- modating them to the grounds on which they are to be laid;— for the best seasons for sowing seeds of different kinds on all the variety of soils;— and ina word, for performing every operation in husbandry, at the best time, and in the best manner.(Feta, lib. ii. chap. 72, 73. 76.) In the same work, the duties and business of the steward, bailiff, and overseer, of a manor, and of all the other persons concerned in the cultivation of it, are explained at full length, and with so much good sense, that if they were well performed the manor could not be ill cultivated.(Jbid. ch. 72. 88. Henry, viii. 267.) This work as well as others of the kind is written in Latin, and even the farming accounts were those days kept in that language, as they still are in the greater part of Hungary.

211. During the greater part of the fifteenth century England was engaged in civil wars, and agriculture as well as other arts declined. The laborers, called from the plough by royal proclamation or the mandates of their lords, perished in battle or by accident and fatigue, in immense numbers. Labor rose in price notwithstanding various laws for its limitation, and this at last produced a memorable revolution in the state of agriculture, which made a mighty noise for many years. The prelates, barons, and other great proprietors of land, kept extensive tracts around their castles, which were called their demesne lands, in their own immediate possession, and cultivated them by their villains, and by hired servants, under the direction of their bailiffs. But these great landholders having often led their followers into the fields of war, their numbers were gradually diminished, and hired servants could not be procured on reasonable terms. This obliged the prelates, lords, and gentlemen to enclose the lands around their castles, and to con- vert them into pasture grounds. This practice of enclosing became very general in England about the middle of this period, and occasioned prodigious clamors from those who mistook the effect of depopulation for its cause.

212. The habit of enclosing lands and converting them to pasture continued after the cause had ceased, and an act was passed to stop its progress in the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. The dearths of this period are another proof of the low state of agriculture. Wheat in 1437 and 1438, rose from 4s. or 4s. 6d., the ordinary price per quarter, to Il. 6s. 8d., equivalent to 13/, 6s. 8d. of our money. Stow observes that in these extremities the common people endeavored to preserve their wretched lives by drying the roots of herbs and converting them into a kind of bread. Land in those days were sold for ten years’ purchase, so great was the insecurity of possession.

213. Agriculture in Scotland was at a low ebb during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, on account of the long and ruinous wars in which the country was engaged. A law passed in 1424 enacts, that every laborer of‘simple estaste” dig a piece of ground daily, of seven feet square. Another in 1457, that farmers who had eight oxen should sow every year one firlot(bushel) of wheat, half a firlot of pease, and forty of beans, under the pain of ten shillings to be paid to the baron; and if the baron did not do the same thing to the lands in his possession, he should pay the same penalty to the king,

214. From the accession of Henry VII. in 1485, to nearly the middle of the seventeenth century, England enjoyed peace. The effects of former wars, however, required a considerable time to remove. The high price of labor, and the conversion of so much land to tillage, gave rise to different impolitic statutes, prohibiting the exportation of corn; while a great demand was created for wool by the manufacturers of the Nether- lands, which tended to enhance the value of pasture lands, and depopulate the country. The flocks of individuals, in these times, sometimes exceeded twenty thousand; and an act was passed by Henry VIII., restricting them to a tenth of that number, ap-

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