Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such additions as are requisite, vnto euery seuerall booke: taken foorth of the most approued authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie. 1582.

Of Ager, a field. cap. 49.

THere is another fielde that is called Ager, and hath that name, for some what is wrought therein, as Isid. sayth. lib. 15. And Varro saith, euery such fielde eyther lyeth, and is a standing place, or beareth trées, or is able to pasture, or lieth

to leese for beasts, or beareth flowers, & is necessarie for Bees. Therefore as men of olde time meaned, that lande that is tilled is called Ager, and that land that is vntilled is called Rus, as woode and layes, wherein is both milke and beasts. And of this name Rus the vplandish mē haue their name and be called Rustici. For that was the first and idle felicitye of vplandish men. And also such a fielde is called Pascuus: for men that diuide and departe fieldes leaue such a field to their neighbours to pasture and to leeses. And Aluuius is a fielde, that is made a field little and little by drawing & ouer∣turning of riuers. And so Artihmus is a field that is not conteined in certaine measures of lines, but the endes thereof stretcheth to mountains, and Towres, & riuers. And so a field that is first eared is called Noualis, or a fielde that lyeth voyde euerye other yeare to renewe his vertue. For a field that is called Noualis beareth fruit once and resteth once with∣out fruit. Also sometime a field is called Squalidus, as it were Excolidus, & hath that name, for he passeth out of tilth, as Exconsul is he that leaueth the office of consull. Sometime the fielde is called V∣liginosus, y^t is vnderstood alway moist: for that is sayd to be moist, that is some∣time drie. But Vligo is kinde humoure of land, that neuer passeth nor neuer fai∣leth. Huc vsque Isid. lib. 15. cap. 14. Then the field is a place of businesse, of trauell, and of sweate. For the fielde is ••ylled with trauaile, beaten and digged with ••••••tockes, dolue and turned with spades, opened & cared with cultures and shares, and sowen with seeds, raked and couered with rakes and harrowes, and moysted and watered with dew and with raine, closed about with hedges of thornes, strained in Winter with frost and with cold, and withered in summer with bur∣ning and with heate, and is filled in Springing time, and in Haruest time fruite is gathered, and the fieldes be ea∣red againe. And so the fielde is always trauailed with one trauaile or with o∣ther.