A Short History of English Agriculture Part 9

[188] _Lives of the Berkeleys_, i. 141.

[189] Ibid. i. 141.

[190] _Lives of the Berkeleys_, i. 160.

[191] _Historical MSS. Commission, 6th Report_, p. 359.

[192] Cunningham, _Industry and Commerce_, i. 379.

[193] Ashley, _English Woollen Industry_, pp. 80-1. Broadly speaking, there are four stages in the development of industry--the family system, the guild system, the domestic system, and the factory system.

[194] _Hist. Reg. Angl._, p. 120.

[195] Gisborne, _Agricultural Essays_, pp. 186-9.

[196] _Antiquities of Warwickshire_ 2nd ed., p. 51.

[197] Denton, _England in the Fifteenth Century_, p. 135.

[198] See Cunningham, _Industry and Commerce_, i. 331; Denton, _England in the Fifteenth Century_, p. 127.

[199] 7 Hen. VIII, c. 1.

[200] Cunningham, _Industry and Commerce_, i. 489.

[201] Dissolution of small monasteries, 1536; of greater, 1539-40.

[202] Thorold Rogers, _History of Agriculture and Prices_, iv. 129.

[203] Dugdale, _Monasticon_, v, 291.

[204] 24 Hen. VIII, c. 10; 8 Eliz. c. 15; 14 Eliz. c. 11; 39 Eliz. c.

18.

CHAPTER VIII

FITZHERBERT.--THE REGULATION OF HOURS AND WAGES

The farming of this period is portrayed for us by Fitzherbert, the first agricultural writer of any merit since Walter of Henley in the thirteenth century. He was one of the Justices of Common Pleas, and had been a farmer for forty years before he wrote his books on husbandry, and on surveying in 1523, so that he knew what he was writing about; 'there is nothing touching husbandry contained in this book but I have had experience thereof and proved the same.' In spite of the increase of grazing in his time he says the 'plough is the most necessarie instrument that an husbandman can occupy', and describes those used in various counties; in Kent, for instance, 'they have some go with wheeles as they do in many other places'; but the plough of his time is apparently the same as that of Walter of Henley, and altered little till the seventeenth century. The rudeness of it may be judged from the fact that in some places it only cost 10d. or 1s.

though in other parts they were as much as 6s. or even 8s. He says[205] it was too costly for a farmer to buy all his implements, wherefore it is necessary for him to learn to make them, as he had done in the Middle Ages before the era of ready-made implements, when he always bought the materials and put them together at home. On the vexed question of whether to use horses or oxen for ploughing, he says it depends on the locality; for instance, oxen will plough in tough clay and upon hilly ground, whereas horses will stand still; but horses go faster than oxen on even ground and light ground, and are 'quicke for carriages, but they be far more costly to keep in winter.'

According to him, oxen had no shoes as horses had.[206] Here is his description of a harrow: it is 'made of six final peeces of timber called harow bulles, made either of ashe or oke; they be two yardes long, and as much as the small of a man's leg; in every bulle are five sharpe peeces of iron called harow tyndes, set somewhat a slope forward.' This harrow, drawn by oxen, was good to break the big clods, and then the horse harrow came after to break the smaller clods. It differed slightly from the former, some having wooden tines. For weeding corn the chief instrument 'is a pair of tongs made of wood, and in dry weather ye must have a weeding hoke with a socket set upon a staffe a yard long.'[207]

He recommends that gra.s.s be mown early, for the younger and greener the gra.s.s is the softer and sweeter it will be when it is hay, and the seeds will be in it instead of fallen out as when left late; advice which many slovenly farmers need to-day. He does not approve of the custom of reaping rye and wheat high up and mowing them after, but advises that they be cut clean; barley and oats, however, should be commonly mown. Both wheat and rye were to be sown at Michaelmas, and were cast upon the fallow and ploughed under, two London bushels of wheat and rye being the necessary amount of seed per acre. In spite of his praise of the plough he allows that the sheep 'is the most profitablest cattel that a man can have', and he gives a list of their diseases, among the things that rot them being a gra.s.s called sperewort, another called peny gra.s.s, while marshy ground, mildewed gra.s.s, and gra.s.s growing upon fallow and therefore full of weeds were all conducive to rot. The chief cause, however, is mildew, the sign of whose presence is the honeydew on the oak leaves. In buying cattle to feed the purchaser is to see that the hair stare not, and that the beast lacks no teeth, has a broad rib, a thick hide, and be loose skinned, for if it stick hard to his ribs he will not feed[208]; it should be handled to see if it be soft on the forecrop, behind the shoulder, on the hindermost rib upon the huck bone, and at the nache by the tail. Among other diseases of cattle he mentions the gout, 'commonly in the hinder feet'; but he never knew a man who could find a remedy. He was a great advocate of enclosures; for it was much better to have several closes and pastures to put his cattle in, which should be well quick-setted, ditched, and hedged, so as to divide those of different ages, as this was more profitable than to have his cattle go before the herdsman (in the common field).

It will be seen from the above that Fitzherbert made no idle boast in saying he wrote of what he knew, and much of his advice is applicable to-day, though the time is past for the farmer's wife to 'wynowe all manner of cornes, to make malte, to shere corne, and in time of nede to helpe her husbande to fyll the mucke wayne or dounge carte, dryve the plough, lode heye, corne, and such other'; though she may go or ride to the market 'to sel b.u.t.ter, cheese, milke, eggs, chekyns, hennes, and geese.'[209] It appears that the horses of England at this time had considerably deteriorated, for the statute 27 Hen. VIII, c.

6, mentions the great decay of the breed, the cause it is stated being that 'in most places of this Realme little horsis and naggis of small stature and valeu be suffered to depasture and also to covour marys and felys of very small stature'; therefore owners and farmers of deer parks shall keep in every such park two brood mares of 13 'hand fulles' (hands) at least. Another statute, 32 Hen. VIII, c. 13, strove to remedy this evil by enacting that no entire horse under 15 hands was to feed on any forest, chase, waste, or common land.

This statute was a useful one, so also was 21 Hen. VIII, c. 8, which forbade for three years the killing of calves between January 1 and May 1, under a penalty of 6s. 8d., because so many had been killed by 'covetous persons' that the cattle of the country were dwindling in number. Others, however, were merely meddlesome, and directed against that unpopular man the dealer. For instance, owners refusing to sell cattle at a.s.sessed prices were to answer first in the Star Chamber (25 Hen. VIII, c. 1); and by 3 and 4 Edw. VI, c. 19, no cattle were to be bought but in open fair or market, and not to be resold then alive, though a man might buy cattle anywhere for his own use. No person, again, was to resell cattle within five weeks after he bought them (5 Edw. VI, c. 14); and a common drover had by the same Act to have a licence from three justices before he could buy and sell cattle. We may be sure that these laws were more honoured in the breach than in the observance, as they deserved to be.

Hops were said to have been introduced from the Low Countries about the middle of Henry VIII's reign; but there can be no doubt that this is a mistake. It has been mentioned that they flourished in the gardens of Edward I, and a distinguished authority[210] says the hop may with probability be reckoned a native of Britain; but it was first used as a salad or vegetable for the table, the young sprouts having the flavour of asparagus and coming earlier. Hasted, the historian of Kent, states[211] that a pet.i.tion was presented to Parliament against the hop plant in 1428 wherein it was called a 'wicked weed'. Harrison says, 'Hops in time past were plentiful in this land, afterwards their maintenance did cease, and now (cir. 1580) being revived where are anie better to be found?'[212] Even then growers had to face foreign compet.i.tion, as the customs accounts prove that considerable quant.i.ties were imported into England. In 1482 a cwt. was sold for 8s.

and 1 cwt. 21 lb. for 19s. 6d., an early example of that fluctuation in price which has long characterized them.[213] Their average price about this time seems to have been 14s. 1/2d. a cwt.

During the Tudor period the number of day labourers increased, largely owing to the enclosures having deprived the small holder and commoner of their land and rights. But judging by the statutes those paid yearly and boarded in the farm house were still most numerous.

In 1495 the hours of labourers were first regulated by law. The statute II Hen. VII, c. 22, says that 23 Hen. VI, c. 12,[214] was insufficiently observed; and besides increasing wages slightly set forth the following hours for work on the farm: the labourer was to be at his work from the middle of March to the middle of September before 5 a.m., and have half an hour for breakfast and an hour and a half for dinner and sleep, when sleep was allowed, that is from the middle of May to the middle of August; when sleep was not allowed, an hour for dinner and half an hour for his nonemete or lunch; and he was to work till between 7 and 8 p.m. During the rest of the year he was to work from daylight to dark. The attempt to regulate hours, which seem fair and reasonable, no doubt met with better success than that to regulate wages, for 6 Hen. VIII, c. 3 (1514), says the previous statutes had been very much disregarded, and sets down the rates once more:--

A bailiff's yearly wages, with diet, were to be not more than 1 6s. 8d., and 5s. for clothes.

A chief hind, carter, or chief shepherd, with diet, not more than 1, and 5s. for clothes.

A common servant or labourer, with diet, not more than 16s. 8d., and 4s. for clothes.

A woman servant, with diet, not more than 10s., and 4s.

for clothes.

By the day, except in harvest, a common labourer from Easter to Michaelmas was to have 2d. with food and drink, 4d. without; and from Michaelmas to Easter 1-1/2d. with food and drink, and 3d. without. In harvest:--

A mower, with food, 4d. a day; without, 6d.

A reaper, with food, 3d. a day; without, 5d.

A carter, with food, 3d.; without, 5d.

Other labourers, with food, 2-1/2d.; without, 4-1/2d.

Women, with food, 2-1/2d.; without, 4-1/2d.

FOOTNOTES:

[205] _Booke of Husbandry_ (ed. 1568), fol. 5. The surveyor of Fitzherbert's day combined some of the duties of the modern bailiff and land agent: he bought and sold for his employer, valued his property, and supervised the rents.

[206] _Booke of Husbandry_ (ed. 1568), fol. vi.

[207] Ibid. fol. xv.

[208] _Booke of Husbandry_ (ed. 1568), fol. xxix.

[209] Fitzherbert adds pigs and all manner of cornes, so altogether the farmer's wife seems to have done as much as the farmer.

[210] Sir Jas. E. Smith, _English Flora_, iv. 241.

[211] _History of Kent_ (ed. 1778), i. 123.

[212] _Description of Britain_ (Furnivall ed.), p. 325.

[213] Thorold Rogers, _History of Agriculture and Prices_, iii. 254.