Ralph Austen (c. 1612–1676) was an English writer on

gardening Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits ...

and

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, starti ...

, who urged the use of concise, plain language. He also worked to popularize

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...

as a beverage.

Life

Austen was a native of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. He spent the second part of his life in Oxford, devoting most of his time to gardening and the raising of fruit trees. In 1647 he became deputy-registrary to the

Parliamentary visitation of Oxford University The parliamentary visitation of the University of Oxford was a political and religious purge taking place from 1647, for a number of years. Many Masters and Fellows of Colleges lost their positions. Background A comparable but less prominent parli ...

, and subsequently registrary in his own right. He also ran a successful nursery business, selling grafts and seedlings. One of the

Hartlib Circle The Hartlib Circle was the correspondence network set up in Western and Central Europe by Samuel Hartlib, an intelligencer based in London, and his associates, in the period 1630 to 1660. Hartlib worked closely with John Dury, an itinerant figure ...

, Austen was associated with

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

in a petition to

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

for improving orchards and forestry. He was interested in expanding onto confiscated lands at Shotover Forest. He worked to spread

, then known only in the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

, exchanging apple-tree grafts with John Beale. According to Anthony Wood, Austen died at home in the parish of St Peter-le-Bailey, Oxford, and was buried in its church, in the aisle adjoining the south side of the chancel, on 26 October 1676. He had been a gardener and planting trees for half a century.

Works

In 1653 Austen published ''A Treatise on Fruit-trees, showing the manner of grafting, setting, pruning, and ordering of them in all respects'', and along with it a long pamphlet on the ''Spiritual Use of an Orchard''. Austen made researches in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

, and wrote fuller accounts of

pruning Pruning is a horticultural, arboricultural, and silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. The practice entails the ''targeted'' removal of diseased, damaged, dead, ...

and

grafting Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion () while the lower part is called the rootstock. The succ ...

than had been in print. One encouragement to publish was the success of

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 ...

's ''The English Improver, or, A New Survey of Husbandry'', which first appeared in 1649. Blith was another of the Calvinistic Hartlib Circle, whose members could see spiritual as well as practical significant in agriculture and horticulture. Austen took the meaning of grafting to be the possibility of return to before the

Fall of Man The fall of man, the fall of Adam, or simply the Fall, is a term used in Christianity to describe the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God in Christianity, God to a state of guilty disobedience. * * * * ...

, with the metaphor of wild grafts being returned to the stocks of the Garden. A second edition of the ''Treatise'' with additions and improvements, appeared in 1657. Its dedication was to

Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...

, where the first edition was dedicated to Hartlib; and in it Austen argued for husbandry books that were concise and in plain language, a point taken up by

John Worlidge John Worlidge or John Woolridge (1640–1700) was a noted English agriculturalist, who lived in Petersfield, Hampshire, England. He was considered a great expert on rural affairs, and one of the first British agriculturalists to discuss the import ...

. He also argued that fruit trees were books in which the

attributes of God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

could be read. Wood stated that sales were hindered by the association of gardening with a purely theological treatise, but there were further editions in 1662 and 1667. ''The Spiritual Use of an Orchard'' was reprinted separately in 1847. In 1658 Austen published ''Observations on some parts of

Sir Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both n ...

's Naturall History as it concerns Fruit-trees, Fruits, and Flowers''. Possibly through some misreading of the title-page, this work has been attributed by some to a Francis Austen, and there is apparently no foundation for the statement that it was published originally in 1631 and again in 1657. According to Wood, Austen was the author of ''A Dialogue or Familiar Discourse and Conference between the Husbandman and Fruiterer in his Nurseries, Orchards, and Gardens'', published in 1676 and 1679, and containing much of the substance of his earlier treatise.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Austen, Ralph 1676 deaths English garden writers Year of birth uncertain