work from those that have been already one year in the country, as they
must teach those that come to them the next from the town. By this means
such as dwell in those country farms are never ignorant of agriculture,
and so commit no errors which might otherwise be fatal and bring them
under a scarcity of corn. But though there is every year such a shifting
of the husbandmen to prevent any man being forced against his will to
follow that hard course of life too long, yet many among them take such
pleasure in it that they desire leave to continue in it many years. These
husbandmen till the ground, breed cattle, hew wood, and convey it to the
towns either by land or water, as is most convenient. They breed an
infinite multitude of chickens in a very curious manner; for the hens do
not sit and hatch them, but a vast number of eggs are laid in a gentle
and equal heat in order to be hatched, and they are no sooner out of the
shell, and able to stir about, but they seem to consider those that feed
them as their mothers, and follow them as other chickens do the hen that
hatched them. They breed very few horses, but those they have are full
of mettle, and are kept only for exercising their youth in the art of
sitting and riding them; for they do not put them to any work, either of
ploughing or carriage, in which they employ oxen. For though their
horses are stronger, yet they find oxen can hold out longer; and as they
are not subject to so many diseases, so they are kept upon a less charge
and with less trouble. And even when they are so worn out that they are
no more fit for labour, they are good meat at last. They sow no corn but
that which is to be their bread; for they drink either wine, cider or
perry, and often water, sometimes boiled with honey or liquorice, with
which they abound; and though they know exactly how much corn will serve
every town and all that tract of country which belongs to it, yet they
sow much more and breed more cattle than are necessary for their
consumption, and they give that overplus of which they make no use to
their neighbours. When they want anything in the country which it does