Systema agriculturæ, the mystery of husbandry discovered treating of the several new and most advantagious ways of tilling, planting, sowing, manuring, ordering, improving of all sorts of gardens, orchards, meadows, pastures, corn-lands, woods & coppices, as also of fruits, corn, grain, pulse, new-hays, cattle, fowl, beasts, bees, silk-worms, &c. : with an account of the several instruments and engines used in this profession : to which is added Kalendarium rusticum, or, The husbandmans monthly directions, also the prognosticks of dearth, scarcity, plenty, sickness, heat, cold, frost, snow, winds, rain, hail, thunder, &c. and Dictionarium rusticum, or, The interpretation of rustick terms, the whole work being of great use and advantage to all that delight in that most noble practice.

CHAP. II.

Of the great Benefits and Advantages of Enclo∣sing Lands.

ENclosing of Lands, and dividing the same into several Fields, Pastures, &c. is, and hath been ever esteemed a most principal way of Improvement, it ascertaineth every man his just and due Propriety and Interest, and preventeth such infinite of Trespas∣ses and injuries, that Lands in common are subject unto; occasio∣ning so much of Law, Strife, and Contention: It capacitates all sorts of Land whatsoever for some of the Improvements mention∣ed in the subsequent Discourse, so that a good husband may plant Timber, Fruit, or other Trees in his Hedge-rows, or any other part of his Lands, or may convert the same to Meadows, Pasture, Arable, or Gardens, &c. And sowe or plant the same with any sorts or spe∣cies, of Grain, Pulse, or other Tillage whatsoever, without the check or controul of his unthrifty or envious Neighbours.

It is also of its self a very considerable Improvement: And take it, as it is the most general, so it is one of the highest Improve∣ments in England, and it seems to have born an equal honor and preheminence, above Lands in Common in other Countreys; and to contend for its Antiquity with the Plough it self; else why should Virgil say?

Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva Coloni, Nec signare quidem, aut partire limite Campum, Fas erat,—

Enclosure with a good tall Hedge-row, preserves the Land warm, and defends and shelters it from the violent and nipping Winds, that generally nip and destroy much of the Corn, Pulse, or whatsoever grows on the open Field or Champion Grounds, and preserves it also from those drying and scorching Winds more frequent in hot and dry Springs, much damaging the Champion Lands: It much preserves that fertility and richness the Land is either naturally subject unto, or that is by the diligent care and cost of the Husbandman added. It furnisheth the Owners thereof with a greater burthen of Corn, Pulse, or what ever is sown there∣on: Also where it is laid down for Meadow or Pasture, it yields much more of Grass than the open Field-Land; and the Hedges being well planted with Trees, affords shelter and shadow for the Cattel both in Summer and Winter, which else would destroy more with their feet, than they eat with their mouths, and might lose more of their fat or flesh in one hot day, than they gain in three cool days; and affords the industrious Husbandman plen∣ty

of Provision for the maintenance of Fire-boot, Plough-boot, Cart-boot; and (if carefully planted and preserved) furnishes him with Timber, Mast for his Swine, and Fruits for Syder, as we have in several other parts of this Treatise casually hinted.

It is one of the greatest Encouragements to good Husbandry, and a good Remedy against Beggery; for it brings Employment to the poor, by the continual labour that is bestowed thereon, which is doubly repaid by the fruitful crop it annually yieldeth, and generally maintains treble the number of Inhabitants or more than the Champion, as you may easily perceive if you compare such Counties and Places in England, that are for the most part upon Enclosure, with the Champion and Chilterne Counties or Places: And compare also the difference of their manner and condition of Living, and their Food and Apparel, &c. it must needs convince you that Enclosure is much to be preferred above the Champion, as well for the publique as private advantage. Our Predecessors were very sensible of the difference, as appears by what ingenious old Tusser (who took upon him Husbandry in Edward the Sixth's days) saith in his Rythms in his Comparison between Champion Country, and Several.

T'one barefoot and ragged doth go, And ready in Winter to sterve; When t'other ye see do not so, But hath that is needful to serve. T'one pain in a Cottage doth take, When t'other trim Bowers do make.

T'one layeth for Turf and for Sedge, And hath it with wonderful suit, When t'other in every Hedge Hath plenty of Fuel and Fruit; Evils twenty times worser than these, Enclosure quickly would ease.

In Wood-land the poor men that have Scarce fully two Acres of Land, More merrily live, and do save, Than t'other with twenty in hand, Yet pay they as much for the two, As t'other for twenty must do.

The Differences also, and the Profits thereof, are plainly to be discerned and proved by the Severals, or enclosed Parcels of Land that have been formerly taken out of the Field-land or Com∣mons, and how much they excel the other in every respect, though of the same Soil, and only a Hedge between; and what a yearly value they bear above the other.

And also by the great quantities of Lands that have within our memories lain open, and in common, and of little value, yet when enclosed, tilled, and well ordered, have proved excellent good Land, and suddenly repayed the present and greatest expence in∣cident to Enclosure.

Of all which, and many other infinite Pleasures, Contentments, and Advantages that Enclosure yields above the Champion and Field-Land, were they but sensible who so much affect and con∣tend for the Champion, &c. they could never be so brutish as to persist in so injurious and unthrifty a method of Husbandry, both to themselves, to their neighbors, to the poor, and to the Com∣monwealth in general.

This great Improvement meeteth with the greatest difficulties and impediments; amongst which none appears with a bigger face, than the several Interests and diversity of Titles and Claims to almost every Common-field or waste Land in England. And al∣though (by many) the greater part of the Interested Persons are willing to divide and inclose it, yet if but one or more envious or ignorant person concerned oppose the Design, or that some or other of them be not by the Law under a capacity of assuring his Interest to his Neighbour, the whole must unavoidably cease; which hath proved a general Obstruction, and hath been frequent∣ly complained of: For the remedy whereof, a Statute to compel the Minor party to submit to the Judgment and Vote of the Ma∣jor, and equally to capacitate all persons concerned for such an Enterprise,, would be very welcome to the Country-man, where∣in all particular Interests might be sufficiently provided for; as well the Lord of the Soil, as the Tenant, and the poor.

It is a common thing to have very many great and large High-ways ways over most of the Common Fields and Waste Grounds in En∣gland, which prove a very great Check to the Designe of Enclo∣sure, and may most easily be reduced, if a Statute may be obtain∣ed for that purpose, which was not long since in agitation, though not compleated; than which, as well for the Compulsion and Enabling of opposite and uncapacitated persons, and providing for several Interests, as for the Regulating and right Disposition of common and necessary Ways, no Act or Statute can be of grea∣ter or more publique Advantage to the Kingdom, in the more vul∣gar way or method of Husbandry.

There are several Common-fields, Downs, Heaths, and Waste Lands, that should they be enclosed, it would be very difficult, and in some places seem impossible to advance or propagate any quick Fences, or considerable quantity of Trees, as before is hint∣ed at, by reason of the great drought such Land is subject unto in the Summer, and destructive cold Winds in the Winter and Spring. To which we reply, That after, or according to the usual man∣ner of Planting, such Trees or Hedge-rows come to little, because the young Cions they remove, are commonly brought from a fer∣tile, warm, or moist Soil, into a cold, barren, or dry; which must needs produce such an inconvenience.

Also they oftentimes plant Trees not naturally agreeing with the Soil they remove them into, or else plant them deep into the barrenest part of the Earth; or at least take little or no care to defend them (when planted) from the external Injuries of Drought, Cold, &c.

But if any are willing, or intend to raise a Quick-fence, or pro∣pagate Trees on such open Land subject to such Inconveniences, the only way is to raise a sufficient quantity before-hand in a Nur∣sery for that purpose, of such Trees or Plants that naturally de∣light in that Land where you intend to plant them, and then to place them in such order, (as you will finde hereafter described in the Chapter of Woods) that the Roots be not below the best Soil; and that they have a sufficient Bank to shelter them on the one side, and an artificial dry Hedge on the other, which may be con∣tinued till the quick Plants are advanced above common Inju∣ries: Or you may sowe the Seeds of such Trees you intend to propagate in Furrows, made and filled with a good Earth, and se∣cured from Cattle, either by a double Hedge, or by ploughing the Land for several years; and not feeding the same with Cattle, till such time as the Trees are grown up, which will soon repay the imaginary loss of the Herbage, or Grasing, especially if the young Cions be (the first and second years of their growth) a little shel∣tered from the sharp Winds, by shattering a little Straw, Brake, or Hawm lightly over them, which will also rot, and prove a good Manure, and qualifie the heat and drought of the Summer.

And when once you have advanced an indifferent Bank, Hedge, &c. about your new Enclosures, you may much more easily plant and multiply Rows and Walks of Timber, Fruit, and other ne∣cessary Trees, the destructive edge of the cold Winds being aba∣ted by the Hedges, &c. We frequently have observed on several high and supposed barren Hills and Plains, Woods and Trees flou∣rish; and in open Fields or Gardens within the shelter of those Woods, Trees and other Plants prove as well as in the lower Val∣leys; that it is enough to convince any rational person, that by Enclosure only, may most, if not all the Open, Champion, Plam, Waste, and supposed barren Lands in England, be highly impro∣ved and advanced to an equal degree of Fertility to the Enclo∣sures next adjacent, using the same good Husbandry to the one as to the other; which can never be whilest it is in Common.

It is observed that of most sorts of Land, by how much the smaller the Enclosure or Crofts are, the greater yearly value they bear, and the better burthen of Corn or Grass, and more flouri∣shing Trees they yield; and the larger the Fields or Enclosures are, the more they resemble the Common Fields or Plains, and are most subject to the like inconveniencies. We generally finde that a Farm divided into many Severals, or Enclosures, yields a greater Rent, than if the same were in but few.

Too many Hedges and Banks in rich or watered Meadows waste much Land, and injure the Grass by their shadow, & by dripping, for that needs no shelter: Grass abides any weather; and in case the cold Spring keeps it back, it fears not drought, but hath wa∣ter and heart sufficient to bring it forwards, unless you plant such proving Aquatick Trees, whose shrowds shall exceed in value the Grass they injure; which may well be done in Rows, and on the

edges of the Banks, &c. and will amount unto a considerable Im∣provement, if you select the right kinds.

That Wheat sown in Enclosures, or any Land under the Winds, is subject to Mildew, is a general opinion amongst Husbandmen: And the only great Inconveniencie Enclosure is subject unto, Mr. Hartlib saith, is Mildew. But this is only an injury to one sort of Grain; Neither is it yet certain that Enclosure is the cause, for we finde and observe that Wheat in the Fielden Country is sub∣ject to Mildews, though not so frequent as in the Enclosure, by reason that the Land is not so rich generally, nor so moist as En∣closures are, which in Summer-time emit a greater quantity of that Moist Spirit, or Ʋniversal Matter of Vegetables (whereof we discoursed before) than the dry, hungry, open Field-Land doth; which being coagulated in the Air, falls in form of a Dew, some∣times on the Oak, and is then food for Bees; sometimes on Hops and on Wheat, whether high or low, enclosed or open: Nay, sometimes on the one half of a Hop-garden, or a Wheat-field, and not on the other.

But Blasting hath commonly been mistaken for Mildew, Wheat being subject also to it in the best and richest Lands in moist years, (whereof more in another place) so that we cannot finde Enclo∣sure only to be the cause of either Blasting or Mildew, other than that it is the richest and best Land. Also we may observe, that in the Wood-lands, or Countries where most Enclosure is, there the Land yields the greatest burthen of Wheat, as well as other Grain, and more rarely fails than in the Champion Country; wet Sum∣mers being not so frequent as dry; the Vales and Enclosures also being by far the greater Support of our English Granary, than the Open, Champion, and the Hills; which yields us, 'tis true, the greater part of our Drink-corn, delighting in the more hun∣gry Soil, and proves a good Supply in a wet Summer for the other.

Notes

• Enclosure an Improvement.
• Several Inte∣rests an Impe∣ment.
• High-ways an Impediment.
• Trees not thri∣ving, an Im∣pediment.
• Dividing Land into small par∣cels an Im∣provement.
• Enclosing of watred Mea∣dows not an Improvement.
• Wheae in En∣closures subject to Mildew.
• Legacie.