John Worlidge or John Woolridge (1640–1700) was a noted English

agriculturalist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...

, who lived in

Petersfield, Hampshire Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was considered a great expert on rural affairs, and one of the first

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

agriculturalists to discuss the importance of

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

as an

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

Life

John Worlidge was the eldest son (of ten children) born to John Worlidge, a Petersfield lawyer, and Anne Yalden. Anne, in turn, was the youngest daughter of William and Rose Yalden. William Yalden (d. 1644) was an estate manager at Petersfield, while Rose (d. 1652) was the older sister of the botanist John Goodyer (1592–1664).

Works

''Systima Agriculture'' (1668)

Worlidge's ''Systema Agriculturæ, or the Mystery of Husbandry discovered ... by J. W., Gent.,'' was first published in 1668. Worlidge appears to have carefully studied the writings of his predecessors, Anthony Fitzherbert, Sir Richard Weston, Robert Child,

Walter Blith Walter Blith (1605–1654) was an English writer on agriculture, husbandry and an official under the Commonwealth of England, Commonwealth. His books promoted improvements in techniques, but were suppressed after the Restoration (1660), 1660 Resto ...

Gabriel Plattes Gabriel Plattes (c.1600–1644) was an English writer on agriculture and science, and also now recognised as the author of the utopian work '' Description of the Famous Kingdome of Macaria'', often attributed to Samuel Hartlib under whose name it ...

Sir Hugh Plat Sir Hugh Plat (1552–1608) was an English writer on agriculture and inventor, known from his works ''The Jewell House of Art and Nature'' (1594) and his major work on gardening ''Floraes Paradise'' (1608). Biography Hugh Plat was born in the ...

, and the anonymous writers whose works were published by

Samuel Hartlib Samuel Hartlib or Hartlieb (c. 1600 – 10 March 1662)
M. Greengrass, "Hartlib, Samuel (c. 1600–1662)", ''Oxford D ...

." Worlidge, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. This work treats of improvements in general, of enclosing meadows and pastures, and of watering and draining them, of clovers, vetches, spurry, Wiltshire long-grass (probably that of the meadows of Salisbury), hemp, flax, rape, turnips, &c A Persian wheel was made by his direction in Wiltshire, in 1665, that carried water in good quantity above twenty feet high, for watering meadows, and another near Godalming in Surrey. Sowing clover and other seeds preserved the cattle in the fatal winter of 1673, in the southern parts of England; whereas in the western and northern, through defect of hay and pasture, the greater part of their cattle perished. Hops enough were not planted, but we imported them from the Netherlands of a quality not so good as our own. The authors he chiefly quotes are Weston, Hartlib, and Blith.

John Claudius Loudon John Claudius Loudon (8 April 1783 – 14 December 1843) was a Scottish botanist, garden designer and author. He was the first to use the term arboretum in writing to refer to a garden of plants, especially trees, collected for the purpose of ...

(1825)
An Encyclopædia of Agriculture
'' Part 1, p. 46 Worlidge's system of husbandry collected information published during the period of the Commonwealth. The work went through a number of editions (1675, 1681, 1687, 1716) before it was supplanted by the agricultural reference books of the eighteenth century.

Other works

In his notable 1676 book, ''Vinetum britannicum'', Worlidge advocated the production of cider over that of

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

because it was better suited to the

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

and

resources Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon their av ...

. Beside ''Systema Agriculturae'' (1669) on

husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, startin ...

, and ''Vinetum Brittannicum'' on wine, Worlidge wrote ''Systema Horticulturae'' (1677) on gardening.

Selected publications

Worlidge wrote mostly under the initials of ''J. W., Gent.'' the following books: * John Worlidge (1668). ''Systema Agriculturæ, or the Mystery of Husbandry discovered ... by J. W., Gent.'' Other editions in 1675, 1681, 1687, 1716. * John Worlidge (1676). ''Vinetum Britannicum, or a Treatise of Cider,’ 1676; 2nd edit. 1678; 3rd edit. 1691, dedicated to Elias Ashmole * John Worlidge (1676). ''Apiarium, or a Discourse of Bees,'' * John Worlidge (1677).
Systema Horticulture, or the Art of Gardening
'' 1677. * John Worlidge (1687). ''The most easie Method of Making the best Cyder,'' * John Worlidge (1698). ''The Complete Bee Master,'' a revised edition of the 1776. ''Apiarium, or a Discourse of Bees,'' * Nathan Bailey, John Worlidge (1704).
Dictionarium Rusticum & Urbanicum: or, A Dictionary of all Sorts of Country Affairs, Handicraft, Trading, and Merchandizing
'. 1st edition. London: J. Nicholson. * Nathan Bailey, John Worlidge (1717).
Dictionarium Rusticum, Urbanicum & Botanicum: or, A Dictionary of Husbandry, Gardening, Trade, Commerce, and all Sorts of Country-Affairs
'. 2nd edition. London: J. Nicholson; W. Taylor; and W. Churchill. * Nathan Bailey, John Worlidge (1726).
Dictionarium Rusticum, Urbanicum & Botanicum: or, A Dictionary of Husbandry, Gardening, Trade, Commerce, and all Sorts of Country-Affairs
'. 3rd edition. London: J. and J. Knapton; A. Bettesworth; and others. Two volumes. * John Worlidge (1716).
A Compleat System of Husbandry and Gardening: Or, the Gentleman's Companion, in the Business and Pleasures of a Country Life. ... The Whole Collected From, and Containing what is Most Valuable in All the Books Hitherto Written Upon this Subject
'' J. Pickard, A. Bettesworth, and E. Curll, 1716

References

Bibliography

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Worlidge, John English agriculturalists 1640 births 1700 deaths People from Petersfield 17th-century agronomists