Thomas Tusser presents a comprehensive guide to English agriculture and domestic management, structured around the twelve months of the farming year. The work opens with foundational advice on thrift, followed by detailed instructions for each month, addressing tasks from ploughing and sowing to harvesting and animal husbandry. Tusser contrasts the open champion country with the enclosed woodland, discussing the specific agricultural challenges and advantages of each region.
The author seamlessly intersperses rural tasks with the Book of Huswifery, which outlines the domestic duties of the farmer's wife, including brewing, baking, dairying, and maintaining household order. Throughout the text, Tusser advocates for practical wisdom, economy, and traditional hospitality, emphasizing the importance of keeping old customs and feasting days.
Interspersed with moral reflections, maxims, and posies for the various rooms of a house, the work addresses the conduct of servants, the upbringing of children, and religious duties. Tusser also includes a metrical autobiography detailing the hardships of his early education and his various experiences in court and country life.
The narrative concludes with philosophical reflections on human age, a dialogue between two bachelors on wiving and thriving, and meditations on fortune and mortality. The enduring popularity of Tusser's work in its own time testifies to its utility for generations of English farmers and householders.
