next
previous
index
section introduction
home
search

64
Sir Hugh Plat
The Jewel House of Art and Nature
London, 1653
4º: A–2G4
165×90mm
Vet. A3 e. 1456

Woodcut of a 45-inch sheaf of barley, demonstrating the amazing powers of soap-ash as a fertilizer. Improvement in the yield of crops was a typical concern of Hartlib’s circle of correspondents. Catalogue no. 54, title-page verso.


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.



next
previous
index
section introduction
home
search
jump to
site introduction full index highlights credits