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The seventeenth century was one of considerable progress in English agriculture. The decay of common-field farming was enabling individual enterprise to have its way. The population was rapidly growing; by 1688 the returns of the hearth tax prove that the northern counties were nearly as thickly populated as the southern, and prices during the first half were continually rising, though after that they remained almost stationary, since the effect of the influx of precious metals from the New World was exhausted. In the first half of the century John Smyth ascribes the advance of rents to the Castilian voyages. | CLOVER AND TURNIPS The seventeenth century was one of considerable progress in English agriculture. The decay of common-field farming was enabling individual enterprise to have its way. The population was rapidly growing by 1688 the returns of the hearth tax prove that the northern counties were nearly as thickly populated as the southern and prices during the first half were continually rising though after that they remained almost stationary since the effect of the influx of precious metals from the New World was exhausted. In the first half of the century John Smyth ascribes the advance of rents to the Castilian voyages opening the New World whereby such floods of treasure have flowed into Europe that the rates of Christendom are raised near twentyfold . But the greatest agricultural event of the century was the introduction of clover and the encouragement of turnips as grown in Holland by Sir Richard Weston about 1645. No doubt the turnip was already well known in England. Tusser and Fitzherbert both mention it apparently as a garden root only but Gerard in his Herbal 1597 says it grew in fields and divers vineyards or hoppe gardens in most places of England which certainly points to an effort having been made generally to use it as a field crop whenever an enclosed space gave it some protection from the depredations of the common herds. However its cultivation must have declined as long after this it was regarded as a novelty as a field crop in most parts of England. 252 In Holland it had been used in the field universally and this use with that of great as it was called or broad clover Weston pressed on the English farmer. But their progress was wofully slow. At Hawsted in Suffolk clover and turnips were first sown about 1700 and the eastern portion of England was far ahead of the north and west as late as 1772 Arthur Young wrote that sainfoin cabbages potatoes and carrots are not common crops in England I do not imagine above half or at most two-thirds of .
