Like The Garden of Eden (catalogue no.13), Plat’s Jewel House, a book of secrets which included a variety of experiments in husbandry, was highly regarded by members of the Hartlib circle. It was originally published in 1594. In 1653, a new edition was produced by Arnold Boate, with a dedication to Bulstrode Whitelocke and an additional discourse on stones (pp.217–32), probably written by Boate himself. Among the agricultural achievements reported by Plat was the use of soap-ash as a fertilizer. Plat claimed that this had promoted the growth of massive sheaves of barley, some 45 inches long, at a farm in Middlesex in 1594. He illustrated this claim with a woodcut of a huge ear of barley, printed on the verso of the title-page. Plat was particularly concerned with the correct method for planting and growing corn, and, in his New and Admirable Arte of Setting of Corne of 1600, he described a spade designed for this purpose as ‘Adams toole revived’. |
Bent Juel-Jensen, ‘Some Uncollected Authors XIX: Sir Hugh Plat ?1552–?1611’, The Book Collector, vol.8(1959),pp.60–8; Blanche Henrey, British Botanical and Horticultural Literature Before 1800 (3 vols, London, 1975), vol. 1, p.155.
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