Thomas Tusser—Agriculture in Rhyme [pp. 723-731]

THOMAS TUSSER-AGRICULTURE IN RHYME.
It was the approved practice in Tusser's days to "sow
timely thy white wheat, sow rye in the dust." They were used
also to put rye-meal into their wheat-flour:
"But sow it not mixed to grow so on land,
Lest ry e tarry wheat till it shed as it stand."
Thick and thin sowing had even then their respective advocates:
"Though beans be in sowing; but scattered in,
Yet wheat, rye, and peason, 1 love not too thin:
Sow barley and dredge with a plentiful hand,
Lest weed, stead of seed overgroweth thy land."
It is evident that in those days the farmers were not able to
grow their grain on many soils where the modern holders find
no obstacles. Thus he speaks of the difficulty they found in
producing barley in the Parish of Brantham, in Essex, where
he farmed some land; and, again, he tells us, what will surprise
the modern skilful Suffolk farmers In Suffolk, again, whereas wheat never grew,
Good husbandry, used, good wheat land I knew."
And he adds:
"As gravel and sand is for rye and not wheat
He mentions several varieties of wheat then grown by the
farmers of the reign of good Queen Bess, such as white and
red rivet, white and red pollard, Turkey and gray. But of
this last he says:
"Oats, rye, or else barley, and wheat that is grey,
Brings land out of comfort and soon to decay."
The land, however, was evidently farmed with little skill:
"Two crops of a fallow, enricheth the plough,
Though t' one be of pease, it is land good enough:
One crop and a fallow some soil will abide,
Where, if you go further, lay profit aside."
He warns the farmers to beware of cornstealers, and to keep
their soil in good heart; to manure their land with the earth
from headlands and old banks; he commends the use of night soil for gardens; and recommends the manure of the farm-yard
to be laid up "round on a hill." And he had the wisdom to
perceive the advantages of shed-feeding live-stock:
"The housing of cattle, while winter doth hold,
It is good for all such as are feeble and old;
It saveth much compass and many a sleep,
And spareth the pasture for walk of thy sheep,"
Grazing has, since Tusser's days, been more and more on the
decline, as soiling has been better appreciated. A distinguished
modern, witty divine, in a letter to a fiiend, thus zealously
denounces the grazing system: "Grazing is an absolute bar
727