The Hartlib Papers

Sir,

I received yours of Ian.6. and wrote an answear to it <by the Post,> dated about Ian.10. which I hope you haue received, I shold be loth it shold miscarry. And now it is my mind to write to you of many things. I will begin with Husbandry, about which you haue been Theoricall, & I have been Practicall; but you will finde that Practice doth, and <will> giue the law to Theoreticks. I haue tryed divers of your experiments about Bees, and they signify nothing; like a chip in pottage, doth neither good nor hurt; but contenting myself with the countrey-mans rules, & observacions about them I find less trouble, & more profitt.

I experimented Clouer-grass, & will now giue you a Narrative therof. I sowed 14 acres of land (worth at less ten shillings an acre yearly rent) with Clover-grass-seed: & in the sowing & preparing the ground, it was done ingeniously, & carefully; I sowed with it Barly, but very thin (least it wold else wrong the clover-grass seed) and answearably had a slight crop of barly that yeare. The next yeare was the best crop of clover-grass which I had, and then I mowed it once, and it was pretty thick; and afterwards about 6 weeks after I mowed it the 2^d time, but then it was so short and so thin, that it did little more than pay for the mowing; but after this 2^d mowing, the gr it grew so little that summer, that ther was nothing for a 3^d mowing. The next year after I mowed it aga in Iune, but the clover-grass was very thin, and the naturall grass had half overcome it, so that it ther was but a small burden of grass upon it; and that summer ther was nothing upon it for a 2^d mowing. I finding the clover-grass so to decay, this last spring I ploughed it up, and bestowed much cost in about it to break it, and then sowed it with barley; but the clover-grass had so poisoned the ground that I had not half a crop this last harvest. And as for the nature of that grass, the commendations given it, do far exceed the truth, for my cowes wold eate it well for a month, scilicet the last half of May, and first half of June; but after that, they wold scarce eate any; so that my cowes were almost dry. So that all put together, I clearly lost aboue twenty pounds in experimenting Clover-grass.

Now I will tell you what Husbandry I like. First the enclosing of Commons, allotting a share to all that can iustly claime a right; and also to the Poor of every Parish that want house and land: wheras now our Commons are overlaid with Cattle by the rich; and it is a Nurse of Laziness, & Theft, to the poor. Next, make it felony to carry unwrought wooll beyond-sea; for now our wooll being carried by forainers, the Dutch make Cloth, spoile our marketts, & our poore want work; it much grieues me that the great staple of England is so greatly neglected. Then wholly take away Tythes, which are Iewish & popish in the originall, which maintaine an Antichristian & nationall ministry; and the paying of which, doth greatly discourage the husbandman (which ought not to be, since our land hath spent these many years past, a million and an half of treasure in upon beyond-sea Corn, which wold not need, if the husbandman were encouraged by being discharged of Tythes. Then (and a speciall point it is) to d take out of the nation the scars of the Norman Conquest, scilicet the base tenure of lands by Coppy-hold, and holding for life: for this was induced by the conquerour & ought to be discharged now that Monarchy is (or ought to be) gone, and the nation set at liberty; now these <kinds of> tenures of land make people who hold, not care to improue the land throughly, or to haue any house but what will keep them dry, because they know not how soon they or theirs may be turned out. Nextly, to improue the fishery of our seas, which wold be of main concernment.

     I wold add a word about Learning. I wholly dislike the way of our Vniversityes; instead of 2, I wold haue 5, or 6 in the Nation, and those after the mode of Leyden in Holland, to haue no fellowships, or stipends to any students, for that invites poor men to send their children, who by those allowances ther, liue highly, & proudly for a time, and will moue every stone to liue so afterwards, though to the disservice, & against the interest of the common wealth; I account London, which is no formall Vniversity, & hath no stipends for students, worth both our Vniversities ten times over, for the benefitting of mankind by an industrious searching out of truths in all kinds, and by printing many profitable books; the wo truth is, god is comming forth in an unwonted way; he is discovering himself (which is all that is of worth among us) to poor, & dispised ones, and passeth by the great

                            Your friend, & servant

                                   M.Wall

Causham,

Ianuar.22. 1658/9

               For my honoured friend

                   Mr Hartlib, the elder,

               at his house in Axe-yard,

                 in Kinges-street

                                 Westminster

[another hand:] pd 2^d