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 grass called
sperewort, another called peny grass, while marshy ground, mildewed
grass, and grass 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 butter, 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,