The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1868-12-31
AGRICILruRE.So. 2. ~
AtThIOI 1t O IRE-lSU. 3,
ITS EARLY HISTORY IN ENGLAND, &,
hy1s1oN OLE ESTATES.

Z
or boundaries were strictly regulated
ly law, and if tenant omitted to keep
his farm so inclosed in summer and in
winter, and to keep his gate closed, If
any damage arose from the hedge be-
ing broken down, OF his gate being
open, he was declared to be legally
punishable. r.
The manufacture of wooden goods
became matter of so much impor-
tance, that during the reign of Henry
III acts were said to be constantly
passed for the encouragement of the
keeping and tending of flocks. The de-
mand for English broad-cloths became
so great that rapidity Of manufacture
became the chief consideration. s Yet,
as i'll as they be made" said King Ed
ward VI, in his private journal, q tho
Flemings do at this time desire them
wonderfully" The land went into the
control of the moneyed aristocracy,
and the rents became enormously high,
and the corn or grain farmers were
ruined. They every where" said
Roger Ascham, 'Iabour, economist,
and consume themselves to satisfy
their owners, the money lords."-
Hence homes were forsakeh, families
dispersed, houses ruined, the tables of
hospitality destitute and broken, and
the prosperity of the country checked.
Bishops Story, Lattimer, and others,
raised their voices in behalf Of the
oppressed people, and hurled their in
vectives upon those who oppressed
them. There was, doubtless, great
distress among the common people of
England at this time; but as the own
ers of the property, the princes of for
tune, can employ their capital as they
please, no immediate relief could be
afforded the poor laborer, over-taxed
and oppressed, had to await change
of power-a change. of monarchs-to
obtain relief from the hand of oppres-
sion. Faxes were changed to the
property of estates; labor was unfet-
tered, industry was. encouraged, the
evil Of using good arabic land for pas
ture cured itself, and prosperity again
crowned the board. More than three
thousand enclosure bills were passed
during the reign of George III. The
land SO enclosed was mostly used for
the cultivation of corn (wheat oats
and barley. The earliest English rec
ords speak of the plow as the most
important implement Of the husband
man. It was of very rude construc-
tion; yet in general form it resembled
the modern plow. The plowman was
also plow wright. It was law of
the early Britons that no one should
guide a ploW until he could make one.
The driver was to make the traces by
which it was drawn; they were made
ofwithes OF twisted willows. Whether
the early Saxon. plows had wheels is
uncertain; but those of the Normans
certainly had. Pliny says that wheels
wese first applied to plows by the
Gauls. The Britons were forbidden
to plow with any other animal than
the OK. The universal impulse that
seemed to affect the human mind in
the sixteenth century, tended to the
improvement of sciences. Metallurgy
and its subservient arts, and the appli-
cation of mathematics, were assistants
in improving the plow. 1t received
the first improvement among the
Dutch and Flemings, in the sixteenth
century, The first author or inventor
of the improved plow has been differ
! emily stated. A man by the name OF
Lumis has it, by one writer, assigned
to him, but it was said he learned his
improvement in Holland. He OBJ
tanned patent, and his son established
a plow factory at Rotterdam, in Y York-
shire, whence it is to this day called
the Rotterdam, Dutch OF. Patent Plow.
About the year 1900 to 1910, this plow
was generally made of cast iron. In
England, scarifers, cultivators or horse
hoes were unknown until about cen
tury ago. Hand hoeing had, in early
ages been partially practised; but to
Jethro Tull is due the honor of having
first demonstrated the importance OF
frequent hoeing-not merely. to de-
stroy the weeds, but for the purpose Of
pulverizing the soil, by which process
the gases and moisture of the atmos-
phere are enabled more fully to pen
citrate to the roots of the crop, IT,.
1t is probable that the corn crop
spoken of by the early Britons was
not wheat, but was barley. In the
eighth century,, the Anglo Saxons
sowed their wheat in the spring. One
reason we have to believe that barley
was the corn of the early Britons, is
because the figure on their coinis the
representation of that crop. Oats was
early known and cultivated among the
Germans, and from thence carried to,
and cultivated in, England. Peas
were cultivated in England from a
very early period, but more recently
they have given place to the beam
Indian corn was made known in Eng
land about 154S. In 1925, at the rec
ommendation of q Mr.. Cobbit, the
cultivation of corn was tRiedoin Eng
land, but, 1 believe. without success.
Potatoes were introduced from S.
America, BY Walter Raleigh, about
1856. Robert Southwel1 said before
the Society of Fellows that his father
got them of Walter Raleigh, and in
troduced them into Ireland. l cannot
therefore see why or how they caii be
called Irish potatoes. They became
extensively cultivated as field crop
about 1850. Cattle and sheep were
the chief riches of the Britons when
49,. .c,.l a :. 4. II