Note 1652 — Chapter IV · STUDIES OF THE FARMER.

Geop. i. 2–4. 11. Theophrast. De Signis Pluviarum et de Ventis, passim. Our own agriculturists, also, were formerly much addicted to these studies. Thus, “The oke apples, if broken in sunder about the time of their withering, do foreshewe the sequel of the yeare, as the expert Kentish husbandmen have observed, by the living things found in them: as, if they find an ant, they foretell plentie of graine to insue; if a whole worm, like a gentill or maggot, then they prognosticate murren of beasts and cattle; if a spider, then (saie they) we shall have a pestilence or some such like sickness to followe amongst men. These things the learned, also, have observed and noted: for Mathiolus, writing upon Dioscorides saith, that before they have an hole through them, they conteine in them either a flie, a spider, or a worme; if a flie, then warre insueth; if a creeping worme, then scarcitie of victuals; if a running spider, then followeth great sickness and mortalitie.” Gerrard, Herball, Third Book, c. 29. p. 1158. Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 561.