will not neither sometimes can the Improvement be made upon any unless upon all joyntly or else upon an unsuppotable Charge or Burthen As also the not cutting straight such watercourses of such brookes and gutters that are exceeding crooked which some that would cannot because of others interests that will not abundance of the best land in this Nation is hereby lost and wonderfull Improvements hindered the waters raised the lands flouded sheep rotted and cattell spoyled all by this neglect The remedies to all the three aforesaid Prejudices to resolve the greatest advantage to the Common-wealth and then command them either unto a loving Conjunction in the Exchange and Improvement or else disabling any one to hinder another that is desirous of it giving such recompence for any dammage he shall make as shall be adjudged reasonable by indifferent men or competent Judges A Fourth is Unlimited Commons or Commoning without stint upon any Heath Moor Forrest or other Common This is a great Prejudice to many poor men both Cottiers and Land-Holders who have not of their own to stock their Commons and so lose all that have least need and for whom those Commons were chiefly intended And also a great hindrance to all for being without that every man laies on at random and as many as they can get and so Overstock the same that ordinarily they pine and starve their Goods therein and once in four or five yeares you shall observe such a Rot of Sheep that all that the Oppressor hath gained by eating out his poor Neighbours all the other years is swept away in one and so little advantage redoundeth to any So that many thousand Acres of Land are as it were useless which were all men limited according to their Proportion of Land or Dwellings to which the Common is due the poor that could not stock theirs might set them and reap some benefit by them And were they easily stinted their Commons might be as good as their own Severals to every man that hath an interest A Fifth Prejudice is A Law wanting to compell all men to kill their Wonts or Moales the good Husband doth and the slothfull man neglects it and thereby raiseth such a Magazine or Nursery that they cannot be destroyed but as fast as one destroies them the other nurseth a fresh spply to fill the Country the Prejudice is greater than can be reported The sixt Prejudice is the not compelling men to plant Wood where they do cut down then to set again a treble proportion or more to what they do destroy especially now so much of the gallant Wood of the Nation is exposed to sale We forget that it is a mighty pillar in the upholding this poor Island and how honorable a custom it is in other Nations that look what Timber they cut down they must plant five or ten times as much in stead thereof And that all men might be compelled to plow their coarser old mossy rushy bankie pasture Lands being now fittest for it and will be bettered by it and suffers for want of it and the Country needs it and none prejudiced and for the best land every man left to his own liberty A Seventh Prejudice is the want of a through searching of the Bowels of the Earth a business more fit to be undertaken by the Honourable Representation of the whole Common-wealth than by any particular man Whence are all our Mines of Lead Tinne Iron Coales and Silver Mines in Wales were they not once hid and as uncertain as we are now certain of them and what should hinder but that in many places else the like may be discovered as suppose Coal in Northampton Buckingham and Oxf. Sh. what a great benefit to those Countries would it be Nay if some sorts of Stone could bee but found out in some other parts what might it arise unto Nay say that either Marl Chalk or Lime or some other fat Earth could be found in some other parts where they are wanting how much would it inrich those parts And who can say but Silver may as well be found in other places as in Wales or other parts I am sure that no man knowes but he that hath searched it and the hundred thousand part of this Nation hath never yet been tryed The Eighth Prejudice may be the many Watermills which destroy abundance of gallant Land by pounding up the water to that height even to the very top of the ground and above the naturall height that it lyeth swelling and soaking and spewing that it runneth very much land to a Bogg or to mire or else to Flagg and Rush or Mareblab which otherwise was as gallant land naturally as could be I am confident many a thousand a year are thus destroyed some mills worth above 10 or 12. pound per an destroy lands worth 20. 30. or 40. per. an I know it of my own knowledge I had some few yeares since a Mill Dam in my land which destroyed one half of a gallant meaddow meanes was used that it was removed and that very land is returned to his perfect pureness again I prescribe not the utter destruction of all of some I do and others to have their water brought to a lower gage and where they are wanting Wind-mills erected as in all the Fen Country are no other or else incouragement given to some that I am confident are able to discover a compleat way for grinding all sorts of Corn by the strength of horse and man as feasible as malt is I am able to give some assistance my self to this work but shall far prefer others thereto A Gentleman that hath waded so deeply therein as hath discovered publiquely his modell at Lambeth deserveth great incouragement And the last though not the least is the raign of many abominable Lusts as Sloth and Idleness with their Daughters Drunkenness Gaming Licentious Liberty Were not the greatest and best and all men made to be usefull to the body why continue many men as members cut off from it as if they were made to consume it are neither usefull in their bodies minds or purses to the common good how comes City and Country to be filled with Drones and Rogues our highwaies with hackers and all places with sloth and wickedness I say no more but pray some quickning Act to the execution of our Lawes against these worse than heathenish Abhominations All which with many more great annnoyances and Annusances though some may think every man will be ready to remove but we being under such a drowsie Age that though each particular shall be advantaged as well as the whole body yet it will not be indeavored as far as I am able to see into mens minds or practices are no way possibly removeable but by Your Honours either compelling them by acting Ingenuity themselves or else so incouraging others that are desirons thereof that None may Prejudice Improvements by denying any liberty for carrying on the Work receiving reasonable satisfaction
Earth for Tillage and the other the Sheep in Pasturing and Grazing and so down to Noah he began to be an Husbandman and to Abrabhm and to Iacob and Esan and so along still till they came to the Goverment by Kings where Vzziah his commendation was beloved husbandry and many excellent things as if Husbandry were the most excellent as indeed it is here on Earth else ask Solomon the wisest the second Husbandman or Improver of the world and you shall find how out of the depth of his experience he cryes up diligence and activity in good Husbandry therefore sendeth us to the Pismire cryeth down the Sluggard and Sloathfull on whom commeth poverty as an armed man and extolls the diligent as fittest to converse with Kings whose very thoughts bring aboundance even of the diligent whose hand and heart are best to bear rule when the idle shall be under Tribute But to multiply more Scripture where all experience holds it so clear is but to prove a principle ungain-said I 'll say no more But for the usefulnesse of it it 's no lesse than the maintenance of our Lives Estates this Common-wealth and world and the Improvement or Advancement of the fruits and profits of the Earth by Ingenuity is little less than an addition of a new world for what is gained hereby either above the naturall fruitfulnesse of the Earth or else by reducement of that which is destroyed or impoverished from his naturall fruitfulness to greater fertillity is a clear augmentation or Addition to the Common-wealth All other callings proceeding hence the Earth being the very womb that beares all and the Mother that must nourish and maintain all The Merchant is a gallant servant to the State he fetches it from farre and t is a gallant Inrichment to this Nation but he purchaseth it from others who could make good profit of it if he buy it not raiseth it not out of nothing but parts with good Silver or Gold or some good commodity for it and is a great Common-Wealths advantage But this Merchant of Husbandry he raiseth it out of the Earth which otherwise would yeeld little unless this ingenuity fetch it out possibly never discovered to be there And what parts he with or at what rates purchaseth he it at Even onely with the wages of the labouring man whom he is bound both by the Law of God Nature and the Land to maintain who may be were he not maintained in work would cost as much to be maintained idly Oh! the Excellency Antiquity and Usefulness of it Improve the first and chiefest of thy Spirits on God in omnifying him above all and in all and the rest of thy wits and strength to serve thy station herein accompting it the second thing necessary a blessing being upon the head of him that tilleth Corn and the thoughts of the diligent bring abundance And so I proceed to the occasions of the Earths Barrennesse being the first Generall of my discourse First Generall Head CHAP. II. Sheweth forth the causes of Barrennesse upon all Lands THey are usually two 1 In Man himself 2 In the Land it self 1 In Man himself it was occasionally who by his sin procured a curse upon the Land even Barrennesse it self which by the sweat of his browes must be reduced if he will eat bread and so now is 2 In man naturally which is the main and capitall cause of all and is in him as I conceive the Cause of Causes which is Ignorance occasioning the prejudice men bear against Improvement especially that which is not of their own devising as all men naturally hate the true light of God because it discovers their darkness and is contrary to their light which is that of Nature and Reason onely the great enemies of Gospell Light So that parallel hereunto in some measure is the hatred that many bear to any new Ingenuous discovery of that which is not under their ken or common practise unlesse they can make it their own contrivement which ariseth from old Adams proud nature so rooted in ours that wherein we cannot ascribe unto our selves the praise we had rather lose the profit and so presently decry the same Saying This is no other but a principle of some young Brainsick or of one that would Monopolize more to his ten twenty or thirty yeares study and experience than our fathers and fore-fathers attained in all their practices or else some giddy head that will say more in half an hours discourse than he will make good proof of in an Age or else it is an experiment that will cost more than the profits thereof will countervail or else the Improvement is so great that they cannot possibly credit such Impossibilities with innumerable more such passages never putting forth their Mindes Hands or Purses to never so great and profitable an advantage like the Sluggard who will not plow but saith A Lion is in the way And so by feeding upon these or such like Prejudices they suffocate their own unspeakable advantage which they might accomplish with setting on the work and exercising a little patience in waiting for a through triall Although I le say it should be our rejoycing when any discovery is made chiefly of God then of that which shall concern the publique good be the instrument what he will and not ingaged therein for meer advantage only as too many have done holding forth specious Pretences of great wonders and the condition hath ever been great gain to the discoverer and more than the worth of the discovery many times hath been yet if the naked end be the Publick good be the discovery what it will or the Discoverer conceived neither of so deep a head nor of so long experience as others have been yea though thou conceive it a Project so chargeable that will not answer the cost bestowed or an advance so great as is not credible yet consider if he utter Reason Art or honestly and especially where he offereth experience for the proof thereof have thou patience to consider thereof if thou wilt not make triall of it his is the paines and if to any it is thy Gaines he hath but his labour for his travell The second Hindrance as in respect of the owner or occupier thereof is Idleness Improvidence and a slavish Custome of some old form or way of Husbandry exercised therein ever since they were born which begets so much the ill Husbandry of these dayes never affecting Ingenuity in any particulars of their Husbandry which is contrary to the mind and will of God in making us and the end wherefore we were made Good husbandry commanded and so experimented by God himself and charged on us therein and so commended by Solomon the wisest of men with Ingenuity and Activity to the putting out the utmost of our spirits in subordination to our spirituall calling in our particular callings to serve our
Lands which are from under such a Capacity of floating with Water And are onely such as are covered with constant Water and Lakes or else the Boggy Miry Lands it self and have no River or Land-flood to be brought over them and the remedies being equally applicatory to both for the most part I will propose generall remedies I say that Drayning is an excellent and chiefest meanes for their Reducement and for the depth of such Draynes I cannot possibly bound because I have not time and opportunity to take in all circumstances therefore in generall thus Be sure thy Draines be such and so deep and so deep as thou hast a descent in the end thereof to take away all thy water from thy Drayn to the very bottom or else it is to no use at all for suppose thou make thy Drain as high as an house and canst not take thy water from it thy work is lost for look how low soever is thy lowest levell in thy Drain thou mayst drain thy water so low and not one haires breadth lower will it drain thy ground than theu hast a fall or desent to take it cleanly from thy Drain therefore be especially carefull herein and then if thou canst get a low descent from thence carry thy Drain upon thy Levell untill thou art assuredly got under that moysture mirinesse or water that either offends thy Bog or covers thy Land and goe one Spades graft deeper by all meanes or thereabouts and then thou needest not tye thy self precisely to a dead Levell but as thy ground riseth or as the moysture lyeth higher so mayst thou rise also so that thou keep one Spades graft as aforesaid under it and that thou mayst not fall herein observe that in Cold Rushy Land this moysture or cold hungry water is found beneath the first and second swarth of thy Land and then oft-times thou commest immediately unto a little Gravill or Stoniness in which this water is and sometimes below this in a hungry gravell and many times this Gravell or Stoniness lyeth lower as aforesaid but in Boggy Land it usually lyeth deeper than in Rushy but to the bottom where the spewing Spring lyeth thou must goe and one spades depth or graft beneath how deep soever it be if thou wilt drain thy Land to purpose I am forced to use Repetions of some things because of the suitableness of the things to which they are applyed as also because of the slowness of peoples Apprehensions of them as appeares by the non-practise of them the which were ever you see drayning and trenching you shal rarely find few or none of them wrought to the bottom And for the matter or Bogg-maker that is most easily discovered for sometimes it lyeth within two foot of the top of the ground and sometimes and very usually within three or four foot yet also some lye far deeper six eight or nine foot and all these are feazable to be wrought and the Bog to be discovered but not untill thou come past the black Earth or Turf which usually is two or three foot thick unto another sort of Earth and sometimes to old Wood and Trees I mean the proportion and form thereof but the nature is turned as soft and tender as the earth it self which have layen there no man knowes how long and then to a white Earth many times like Lime as the Tanner and white-Tawer takes out their Lime-pits and then to a Gravell or Sand where the water lyeth and then one Spades depth clearly under this which is indeed nothing else but a spring that would fain burst forth at some certain place which if it did clearly break out and run quick and lively as other Springs do thy Bog would dy but being held down by the power and weight of the Earth that opposeth the Spring which boyles and workes up into the Earth and as it were blowes it up and filleth the Earth with Wind as I may call it and makes it swell and rise like a Puf-ball as seldom or never you shall find any Bogg but it lyeth higher and rising from the adjacent Land to it so that I beleeve could you possibly light of the very place where the Spring naturally lyeth you need but open that very place to your Quick-spring and give it a clear vent and certainly your Bog would decay by reason whereof it hath so corrupted and swoln the Earth as a Dropsie doth the Body for if you observe the Mould it is very light and hollow and three foot square thereof is not above the weight of one sollid foot of naturall Earth Clay or Land whereby I conceive that how much soever this Mould is forced from the naturall weight or hardness of solid Earth or Clay so much it is corrupted swoln or increased and blown up and so much it must be taken down or let forth before ever it be reduced I therefore prescribe this direction viz. Go to the bottom of the Bog and there make a Trench in the sound ground or else in some old Ditch so low as thou verily conceivest thy self assuredly under the Levell of the Spring or spewing water and then carry up thy Trench into thy Bog straight through the middle of it one foot under that Spring or spewing water upon thy Levell unless it rise higher as many times the water or Spring riseth as the Land riseth and sometimes lyeth very levell unto the very head of thy Bog unto which thou must carry thy Drain or within two or three yards of the very head of it and then strike another Trench overthwart the very head both wayes from that middle Trench as far as thy Bog goeth all along to the very end of it still continuing one foot at least under the same and possibly this may work a strange change in the ground of it self without any more Trenching But for these common and many Trenches oft times crooked too that men usually make in their Boggy grounds some one foot some Two never having respect to the cause or matter that maketh the Bog to take that way I say away with them as a great piece of Folly lost labour and spoyl which I desire as well to preserve the Reader from as to put him upon any profitable Experiment for truly they do far more hurt than good destroy with their Trench and Earth cast out half their Land danger their Cattell and when the Trench is old it stoppeth more than it taketh away when it is new as to the destroying the Bog it doth just nothing onely take away a little water which falles from the heavens and weakens the Bog nothing at all and to the end it pretends is of no use for the cause thereof lyeth beneath and under the bottom of all their workes and so remaines as fruitfull to the Bog as before and more secure from reducement than if nothing was done at all upon it Or thus thou mayst work
one weed than to another some grain wil do best with two summers and others with one In all which consider and advise thy self as much as thou canst of the nature of them all and make out what experiences thou canst thy self and somewhat incline to the most ingenuous usage and custome of thy Country In some cases a good custome is instructive but I 'll be brief here that I may be a little larger elsewhere following The fourth and last abuse is a calumniating and depraving every new Invention of this most culpable are your mouldy old leavened husbandmen who themselves and their forefathers have been accustomed to such a course of husbandry as they will practise and no other their resolution is so fixed no issues or events whatsoever shall change them if their neighbour hath as much corn of one Acre as they of two upon the same land or if another plow the same land for strength and nature with two horses and one man as well as he and have as good corn as he hath been used with four horse and two men yet so he will continue Or if an Improvement be discovered to him and all his neighbours hee 'l oppose it and degrade it What forsooth saith he who taught you more wit than your forefathers would they have neglected so great advantage if there had been any they kept good hospitality and made shift to breed up many children c. and I know not what simple chaff to blind themselves this proud unteachable spirit an ingenious man abhorrs which banes and poysons the very plenty of our Nation These prejudices both upon your minds and practises which boult you out from wealth and glory my dear friends and fellow husbandmen I pray you lay aside and doe but in charity walk with me a little through this discourse and I shall hope to satisfy that there is no other end but common good proposed The poor thy posterity and all Interest advantage here intended by him that is as studious of thine the Common wealths Improvement as his own W. B. The severall waies of Improvement or Advancement of the Lands of this Nation many whereof are undiscovered and most of them little practised which being experienced would be the Common-wealths glory and a pattern to other Nations FOr the dscovery whereof by Gods leave some particulars shall bee laid down as generalls to be discovered And that I may speak to the understanding of all men especially those who have little or nothing at all considered of such things nor so much as ever suffered the practique part of Husbandry to come into their minds or those who in respect of their more noble and high imployment have lived and conversed in another Region about the weighty affaires of the Nation onely receiving living upon the present profits of their Lands not minding their Lands advance And some few others who have lived more above the creature and conversed much in heaven and so are more unacquainted with the language tearmes of Husbandry therfore I will deliver my self in our own naturall Country Language and in our ordinary usuall homâ—-spun tearmes especially because I can speak no other in as few words as I can possibly conceive it clear to each apprehension and therfore before I begin to enter the discourse at large give me leave to premise the Excellency Necessity and Usefulness of improvement or good husbandry And then the discourse shall follow under these two generall heads 1. First I will discover the causes of Barrenness upon all Land and what corruptions both in the Land it self and in mens opinions practices and customes must be removed 2. The second generall being the Remedies and Preventions of the said Barrennesse and the meanes of reducing some to its utmost former Fruitfulness and Improving others to the greatest advantage it is capable of wherein that great Improvement promised is held forth at large All which will be discoursed under Six Severall Heads or Peeces of Improvement which are made good 1 BY floting or watering all sorts of Lands which lie under that capacity 2. By drayning or reducing of Boggy Fenny Sea or drowned Lnds to firmness and fruitsuiness 3 Shall be by such a way of Enclosure of common Fields Heaths Moors or Forrests as shall admit of no depopulation nor prejudice to any particular Interest whatsoever 4. Shall be by such way of Plowing or comeing some old Pasture Land already spoyled for want thereof as shall much better it and by so pasturing others already destroyed by plowing as to recover it and divers other waies to improve your lands to a great advantage 5 Shall be a discovery of such simples or Materialls as Soyl compounded with the Earth with the nature and use of both so as thereby you shall raise so much more Corn unto this Nation as shall make good the Improvement promised 6 By a new Election or Plantation of divers sorts of Woods and Timber as in few yeares a man may make sufficient buildings thereof yea upon divers sorts of Land in this Nation at twenty yeares growth it wil arise unto an incredible height and bigness yea as fast again as it naturally groweth CHAP. I. Treateth of the Excellency Necessity and Vsefulness of Improvement and good Husbandry WHich appeareth partly by the Antiquity of it for every thing is the more excellent the more ancient and nearer it comes to God the first being of all things which as all things nearest the Center move more strongly so all Excellency appeares most evidently the nearer if I may speak with reverence to that great Majesty the great Husbandman God himself First in his making the world hee made all Creatures and all Plants Fruits Trees Herbs and all bearing Seed for the food of Man and Beast He also made those more excellent and glorious Creatures as the Light the Day and Night the Firmament the Earth and Seas the Sun Moon and Starrs all to be serviceable and ministers unto the Creatures relief and all the Creatures subservient to Man and Man to Husbandize the fruits of the Earth and dress and keep them for the use of the whole Creation So God was the Originall and first Husbandman the patern of all Husbandry and first projector of that great design to bring that old Masse and Chaos of confusion unto so vast an Improvement as all the world admires and subsists from And having given man such a Patern both for precept and president for his incouragement he makes him Lord of all untill the fall And after that God intending the preservation of what he made notwithstanding the great curse upon Adam Eve and Serpent the Earth not going free but a curse of Barrennesse cast upon it also yet Adam is sent forth to till the Earth and improve it In the sweat of his face he must eat bread until be return to the Earth again And so down to Cain and Abel the one Husbanding the
generations and improve our Principles for the common good which two aforesaid causes if they be not removed will never admit of the removall of the subsequent causes A third particular cause in man of the Earths unfruitfulness is want of severe punishment of Idleness the Mother and Drunkenness the Daughter or the putting in execution of such good and wholsome Lawes as both God and man have provided therein As also not raising stocks in all Countries as a Magazine or treasury of work and labour for those that want it And those other Lawes for punishing of Rogues and Vagrants that wander the Country and compelling and constraining youth and idle people to some callings All which would both put them on to more Ingenuity and the Gentry and Yeomanry of the Nation would be much induced to Invention and expatiating themselves in charge and treasure to maintain them wherby these horrid sinnes of Idleness Lust and Laciviousness would be checked and those Drones and Caterpillars the bane of a Christian State and shame of a Christian Nation would not so swarm amongst us It is a crying sin of our Nation I pray God charge it not upon us lest as we have already smarted for it we smart not now at last to purpose So that were but these Improvements put into Experiments their great plea would be silenced viz VVill you set us on work we will work if you 'll provide it c. and out of all question the capacities of the Nation herein are farr more than here be labouring men to act them and so as they conceive they justifie their Abomination both by necessity and authority As for Drunkenness the Daughter which so aboundeth every where that I verily believe and fear not to make it forth by reason and experience that were it the Daughter with Idleness the Mother suppressed in this Nation wee need never to fear want or penury I know divers Towns in this land where you shall have two or three poor Ale-houses wickedly and wastfully devour more Mault than all the Freeholders Labourers and Inhabitants besides And judge you Labouring Countrie people for the most part brew their own Beer also neither is there any passage or Road-way through the Townes where these private houses of resort are and yet these to vent so much Beer or Ale is wonderfull How much then is consumed in great Passages common Roads great Towns Markets or Cities wastfully and wickedly if so much be in Corners remote and not thought of so that were there a suppression hereof how would Idleness be abashed men would scarce stand idle in open wayes or passages for shame wife and children enjoy their Fathers and Husbands at home if doing little yet not consuming that they have got already and the Markets more full and plentifull of corn so miserably wasted And therefore as I highly commend these Lawes we have already and praise God for them so I humbly pray a quickning of their execution wherein our Worthies had they not so heavy pressures upon their shoulders as are ready to break their backs I am sure they have broke the spirits already of divers whose loss we have cause to lament with watery eyes they might humbly be implored for some Inlivening Quickning Lawes with such strict penalties annexed to the execution of them as the Discoverer or Projector might not onely be rewarded but commended and protected from disgrace and calumny The second generall cause of Barrenness is in the Earth itself and the principall causes of her Barrenness are very many some are obvious to the Judgement and understanding of all as tilling Land till it bear no corn And mowing Ground till it Graze no more or yeeld no grass all which are easily to be remedied if men would learn moderation But my design lyes not so much in Reproving as Improving and discovering that there are many causes which lie more obscure and are either not discerned at all or else not adjudged any cause of Barrenness or hinderance of the Earth her fertility and so not at all endeavoured to be removed and they are in some Lands extreme Coldness of nature having a moist springing water lying near or just under the surface or superficies of the Earth which doth either eat away or devour the Sap Fruit and Strength of the said Lands or else breed and increase the Rush and Flagg which groweth in the room of Grass and eateth away the same Another cause is Rockiness Stoniness and Gravelliness all which many times lie so near the surface of the Land that they devour much of the Earth and so make that little left so weak that it can scarce bring forth any fruit Another cause is lying Mountainous sometimes so near the Sea that the Vapors and Fogs that come from thence anoy the same Also lying far from the Sun and in shady parts occasioneth Barrenness Another cause of Barrenness is the unsuitable unnaturall laying down of Land to Graze a cause scarce imagined so to be or the present ill lying of Land that hath layen long and was ancient Inclosure al which are infinitely more prejudiciall to the fertility thereof than can be imagined till contrary experience hath discovered it viz For that Land that is sandy warm or gravelly that to be laid on high Ridge or Furrow is directly contrary to the naturall fruitfulness of that Land And that which is of a cold moist spewing or weeping nature for that to be laid down flat or levell is to the ruin and destruction of that also and is an extreme on the other hand The latter sort requireth high ridged Lands and clear open Furrowes and the first sort the contrary and especially all lands whatsoever to be laid down in good heart and strength Also another cause is the standing of the winter water upon the land or the rain of Heaven I say not the running over lands so that it may be laid dry at pleasure but the standing soaking water breeds the Rush and fowleness and likewise gnawes out the heart and strength of it like the worm at the stomack and devoureth the strength of it as experience will shew in mady parts of the Land where great Balkes betwixt Lands Hades Meares or Divisions betwixt Land and Land are left and one Furlong butting or Hadlanding upon other Furlogns makes such a stoppage of the free passage of the water that a great part of that land lyeth as it were drowned a great part of the year that it overcomes not that backing many times till near Midsummer when other sound Lands have yeelded a full half yeares profit and so for half a year yeelds little or no profit at all Another great prejudice is the Mole-hills and the Ant-hills although I shall not directly argue hence Barrenness naturally yet accidentally they much barrennize it therefore I shall demonstrate the evil of both for the Mole-hills that destroyes some
Sluces c. and the maintenance of the same for preservation of this charge and for the moee easy working the Improvement Take a most exact Survey of thy Water not by thy Eye onely but by and with a true exact Water Levell which is an instrument though plain and easy yet rarely made nor used among us which shall be largely described among other Tools in the tenth Chapter then either begin at the over end or neather end of thy Land which thou pleasest if at the over end where the water first entreth into thy Land And by thy Levell discover and plot out where thy water will go along thy Land as thou goest downeward that so thou maiest lose no Land that will easily be brought under thy water Then cut out thy Master Trench or Water-course if thou pleasest to such a bigness as may contain all thy Land-floud especially to bring it within thy Land and so bring down thy whole Water-course together But the most certainest way is as soon as thou hast brought thy Water within thy Land upon the superficies of it then carry it along in a foot broad Trench or lesser all along thy Levell which Water will be a great help and a second and truer Levell than the other and in thy working of it thou shalt find all little enough too prevent too dead a Levell yet lose no Ground neither If thy Levell be too dead the lesser stream will follow thee so that a convenient descent must be minded also to give the water a fair and plausible passage or current all along And if thou discover in his lesser Trench any mistake or failing then thou mayest with more ease and less charge amend the same easily by going higher upon thy Land or lower towards the water stop up the same again for thy Trench need be no deeper than the thickness of thy over Turff and cut out a new and so thou mayst most certainly demonstrate where thy main work shall go without hazard which will be a great certainty and little loss This done thou mayest cut out thy water-course and be sure it be large enough to contain the whole Water thou needest or intendest and so thou have longitude or length of ground the Trench must be the broader not the deeper for a shallow Trench is best for this work And when thou hast brought it so far into thy land as thou hast any land to work upon thou mayst a little narrow thy Course as thou seest the quantity of thy land or water requires so far as thou wouldest have thy course float over all at once thou must cut thy trench narrower narrower all along to the neather end that so without stops and staies it may flow all along at once the Trench being narrower and narrower that Water that comes within the Trench when it is wider must needs be thrust out when the narrower cannot contain it for here is the true excellency of this sort of Trenches and thus should all thy floating Trenches bee made in every work As soon as thou hast brought thy water upon thy Land and turned it over or upon it then as aforesaid be sure thou take it off as speedy as possibly and so fail not to cut out thy work so as unless thy Land bee very sound and thy Land-floud very Rich thou must take it off the sooner by a deep drayning Trench therefore I prescribe thee no certain breadth betwixt floating and drayning Trenches but if thy Land is sounder and Dryer or lieth more Descending thou mayest let it run the broader and as the Land is Moyst Sad Rushey and Levell let it run the lesser breadth or compass And for thy drayning Trench it must bee made so deep that it goe to the bottom of the cold spewing moyst water that feeds the Flagg and Rush for the wideness of it use thine own liberty but bee sure to make it so wide as thou mayest goe to the bottom of it which must bee so low as any moysture lyeth which moysture usually lyeth under the over and second swarth of the Earth in some Gravell or Sand or else where some greater Stones are mixt with clay under which thou must go half one Spades graft deep at lest Yea suppose this corruption that feeds and nourisheth the Rush or Flagg should lie a yard or four foot deep to the bottom of it thou must go if ever thou wilt drain it to purpose or make the utmost advantage of either floating or draining without which thy water cannot have its kindly Operation for though the water fatten naturally yet still this Coldness and Moisture lies gnawing within and not being taken clean away it eats out what the Water fattens And this also I must desire thee seriously to observe that as soon as thy Water hath spent it self and the Earth or Grass hath exhausted and drawn out of the Water her strength and richness then how long soever it runs longer and further it prejudiceth and corrupts it by breeding the Rushes in abundance The water running trickling among the Grass and upon the Earth leaving her Thickness Soyl or Filth which I call Richness among the Grass and upon the Earth and it self runneth away into the drayning Trench and troubles thee no more and so the Goodness of the Water is as it were Ridled Screened and Strained out into the Land and the Leaness slideth away from thee which can never be done neither so speedily nor so purely by standing on Lakes or Pooles besides the loss of the Grazing which may be near as good in Winter as in Summer upon a good Land-flood or rich Waters CHAP. V. Shewes the cause of water its fruitfulness and the proper season of watering Lands A Rich Land-flood is ever the washing down of great Road wayes Common Fields under Tillage or else from great Towns Houses or Dunghills The riches whereof is unvaluable Consider the goodness of thy Water if thy Water be a rich Land-flood or a lusty gallant Stream it will run further and wider upon thy Land with life and fruitfulness If lean thin and onely from Springs and Herbs or green soard t is more barren and so will operate upon less Lands so that as I said before thou must well observe both Land and Waters suitableness and so increase the latitude or breadth of thy Land thou intendest to improve with that stream before it fall into his Drain Which Drain thou must dig or make straight down as it were by a Perpendicular plum-Line which will drain the best of all Or else thou mayest make thy Drain or Trench somewhat Taper viz Narrower and Narrower downwards which will keep open the best and continue longest and for the Widness of it that must be resolved both from the nature of the ground which if Sound and Dry will require the less but if Moist and Boggy the Greater and Deeper or else from the quantity of Water it is
would for a thousand Trenches made above the Corruption that feeds the Bogginess or Rushes never Draynes or takes away the cause that the effect cannot possibly cease As for heaping the Earth and moyling the ground that I also conceive may be prevented by maintaining one Horse and Cart and sometimes a couple of Wheel-Barrowes or a double Wheel-Barrow with two Wheeles made big enough for two men to wield or a little Cart made with two little Wheeles and another lesser than them by half to bear it at a constant pitch to fill which may be so made that either with two men or a horse you may carry away a great weight with much speed and shift it horse and man at pleasure which shall be described at large in the shaddow of it in the Tenth Chapter of Trenching tooles and into them I cast my Mould as I digg or cut out my Trench and so carry it away when I first digg it either into some old Trench or hollow place and there lay it and then take my Turf which I took up in all my other Trenches and cover over that Earth and there will be as good Soard that year if it be laid before February enter as in many parts of the Field beside And so shall save both the labour of removing my heaps afterward and the spoyling of so much Land as they would cover And for the better carrying on this Improvement by Water if thy Lands be either Hilly or Banky or lye high Ridge or Furrowes upon which thy water will never work kindly take a Direction on or two for the more easie Levelling of the same how to levell or plain Lands for watering most easily and Artificially which thou mayst doe either of these two wayes Either of which I cannot more especially commend unto thee thine own Experience will demonstrate that The first is levâ—lling by the Plough which thou mayst do by two or three dlowings and gain o crop also if thou rather affect it herein thou wert best to begin about the latter end of September first to plough thy land which I advise to cast as most men do a Fallow and then in the beginning of December be sure to give it a second plowing just overthwart all the Lands and so cut the Turf that the Soard may have all the Winters frost to wrox and moulder it which towards March thou mayst plow again and so cast it or raise it as thy Land requireth to bring it most even and levell and if one more plowing will not do it then thou must do more and Harrow it also to draw down high places and fill up Valleys and if it yet bee too irregular and some places so high that the Plough and Harrow will not bring them down thou must get some Labourers with their Spades and take down those places and cast them into Regularity A Labourer with a Spade upon this wrought Land will do aboundance in a day but be most Exact and curious in Levelling thy Land it brings more Advantages than thou art aware of or I have time to shew And then about the middest of April sow thy Lands with such seeds as are more suitable to the nature and richness of it but sow it not too thick by any meant nor too thin neither but the thinner is thy Corn the stronger it will be and the more grass will grow among which will help thee more in the Soarding of it than hinder thee in the Crop of it which Crop may pay a considerable summe towards this Charges But it thou desire a more speedy Soarding of it and hast no respect to the present profit nor charge in respect of a suddain dispatch of it then as before so soon as Grass begins to stand at a stay and growes but a little plow thy Land a thin broad furrow exceeding exact and true or rather flay it or take off thy Skin or Turf with a very broad whinged or rushed share as broad a Furrow as thy Plough will carry and as soon as thou hast plowed it cut it all at such length as thy Turf may hold taking up and heap thy Turf speedily upon the next Land and then plow thy Land again and cast it down and if it lye exceeding high cast it twice and then two men with their Spades will levell any uneven Hill or Ridge most easily and thou mayst either with the Plough or Spade or both immediately bring it flat and pursue the work with all violence the Turf being taken up speed thy levelling with Plough and Spade that so thou maiest be suddenly ready to lay down thy Turf again and then take this Turf by all meanes before the Grass be killed or lose the colour or deaded and lay it down as thou plowedst it up every Joynt meeting and closing as even as thou canst possibly and expect how much soever thou canst make plain and Levell before February thou mayest reap great fruit or a good Crop of Grass that Summer especially if thou hast Water to float it withall and when thou hast done One Land then thou maiest remove thy Furrowes or Turf to that thou hast levelled and work that Land accordingly as the other and then Turf it also and so goe forward throughout thy Field one after another And having brought your Land thus levell then your water will work most gallantly and even Floating every place Proportionably which you must take special care of not suffer it to run a whole Stream over some and scarce discernable over other parts but be sure every where alike and when you have your water over your Land that it run over it with a constant thin Stream it will Improve fast enough for soaking water breeds the filth which you must avoid as the most Pestilent Enemy to this Husbandry The second Piece of Improvement containing the Drayning or Reducing of Boggy Lands to sound Pasture is further discoursed in the Chapters following CHAP. VII WHerein is to be handled Drayning or taking away Superfluous and Venomous Water which lyeth in the Earth and much occasioneth Bogginess Miriness Rushes Flags and other filth and is indeed the chief cause of Barrenness in any Land of this nature Something I have already spoken as to Bogginess that lyeth under a Capacity to be floated with Water either River or Land-floods in the Reducement whereof you must precisely apply your self to al Parts of the former Chapter for bringing your Water upon your Land and working it also and taking it off again Especially that your Drayning-Trench or Trenches for possibly in this sort of Land more may be required according to the nature of the lying of your Land if Uneven and full of Dales and Vallies be made one Spades graft or pitch below the matter of the Bog I mean the Spring for so it is which must be clearly Drayned which I cannot too oft remind you of But now I onely speak to those
it some what a more certain way but more chargable viz. After thou hast brought a Trench to the bottom of the Bog then cut a good Substantiall Trench about thy Bog I mean according to the form of thy Bog whether round square or long or three or four yards within thy Boggy ground for so far I do verily beleeve it will Drayn that which thou leavest without thy Trench at the depth aforesaid that is underneath the spring water round And when thou hast so done make one work or two just overthwart it upwards and downwards all under the matter of the Bog as is aforesaid and in one yeares patience through Gods blessing expect thy desired Issue and if it be in such a place as will occasion great danger to thy Cattell then having wrought thy Works and Draines as aforesaid all upon straight lines by all meanes prevent as many Angls Crookes and Turnings as is possible for those will but occasion stoppages of the water and filling up of Trenches and loss of ground and much more trouble than otherwise Then thou must take good green Faggots Willow Alder Elm or Thorn and lay in the bottom of thy works and then take thy Turf thou tookest up in the top of thy Trench and Plant upon them with the green Soard downwards and then fill up thy works levell again untill thou come to the bottom or neather end of thy work where thy Trench is so shallow that it will not indanger thy Cattell or rather take great Pibble stones or Flint stones and so fill up the bottom of thy Trench about fifteen Inches high and take thy Turf and plant it as aforesaid being cut very fit for the Trench as it may joyn close as it is laid down and then having covered it all over with Earrh and made it even as the other ground wait and expect a wonderfull effect through the blessing of God but if thou mayst without eminent danger leave thy workes open that is most certain of all I might make more particular Application of the premises to the drowned and covered parts of the Fens and Marshes in the next Chapter upon which they wil have such an Operation as to reduce them to perfect Pasture and to great profit and to all sorts of such natured Lands thou mayst apply them and save me much labour being the main meanes of Fen Drayning As for Sluces Flood-gates Waires and Dams are but secundary meanes and being the proper work of an Engineer or good Carpenter I shall say no more for brevity sake But if thou canst by any meanes make thy self capable of bringing any constant Stream or powerfull Land-flood and Water and constantly Flow over the same as in the former Chapter that will reduce it to a greater Advance and work the most certainest destruction to the Bog of all as I have before declared by Experience As I conceive the Bogs in many parts of the Nation were occasioned thus wherever is a Bog I am confident was formerly a Spring which Spring running and venting it self kept the Land round about it sound and dry as where most clear Springs are at this day but the said Spring stopping up either with leaves or Cattels treading or wood falling upon the same or other filth for I beleeve many or most parts of this Land was very woody in former Ages the Spring was stopped that it could not clearly vent and so being a Living water would not be suppressed or buried but swels and boyles up into Bogginess and so vents it self by little and little in a greater Compass of Land because it cannot break forth clear together in a lesser because of the pressure and weight of the Earth upon it and this is the most naturall cause thereof that I can gather And my Reason is this In many Bogs I will not say in all I have found great Pieces or Boughes or Bodies of Trees lying in the bottom of the Bog Four or Five foot deep in the full proportion of a Tree or Bough as it fell in but when you come to take it up you may cut it with your Spade just as as you do your Earth and it goes to Earth but how this should come so low and lye so deep and so familiarly in Lands of this nature and not as frequently upon sound Lands I cannot conceive otherwise than as aforesaid CHAP. VIII Answereth severall Objections made against the Probalities of so great Advance by Floating IT may be some will still object and say that these Affirmations are but Pretences no such Advantage or ease as is promised can possibly be perforwed But I say again many Gentlemen can witness the truth hereof Many Lands can shew it and if thou wilt not beleeve Relation beleeve thy eyes go and see he who prints my Book shall be inabled to direct thee where thou mayst see more than here is affirmed Again in many of the Wood-Land parts in this Nation as in Worcestershire VVarwickshire Staffordshire Shropshire and Wales-ward and Northward there are many more Improvements made upon coarse lands than is in other parts upon better Lands and the Improvements made in the Wood-land-parts speak out the truth hereof much whereof being most Barren of all lands is improved so high as that it is at present as rich as many parts of the Fieldon and fuller of wealthier Inhabitants I am confident more rich Farmers of lateyeares than when their lands were naturally more Rich and Fertile I give not all nor all sorts of Presidents of Improvements I could by far but onely a few here and there to quicken thy desires after them the Experimenting wherof will bring more to thee if not bring thee to them These things I know of my own knowledge Another he objects that it will breed the Rush the Flag and Mareblab and so this floating land shall be more prejudiciall than advantagious I answer its true possibly and easily it may at I have shewed before but be thou carefull of my directions consider thy Land if it be dry and sound and thy water if it be Fat and Rank and make the drayning Trench as afore directed and never fear it all the Difficulty is in the cold Land and Barren Water on which also observe punctually my Directions and I 'll warrant it Make thy Drain deep enough and not too far off thy Floating Course and water it with a good force of water and observe the seasons which are all the cold Winter when the Rush groweth not It must have warmth to exhale and draw it out and be sure to lay thy Land sound and dry by the Drayning Trench that it may drain under that Moysture Filth and Venom as aforesaid that maintaines them and then beleeve me or deny Scripture which I hope thou darest not as Bildad unto Iob. Can the Rush grow without Mire or the Flag without Water c. That Interrogation
which they are to be erected there to be discoursed and described and the common Engineers are very customarily used therto As to some good ingenious painfull Artist little can be added so that there remaines only that I advise to these two or three general directions First That you be very carefully observant of the power and way of the Seas working for although it is possible much Lands may be gained from the Sea yet it is not possible at all times to keep the same when it is gained therefore where-ever you see the Sea get or recover upon any Land be wary there rather study to stop the Sea there on the borders and to divert the force of it another way which will sometime more easily receive a check than at other times and places but if that be not stayable I should advise not to be too busy there but where the Sea loseth and Land increaseth there is a more probable opportunity and there I should rather pitch down my staff There is store of these Lands to be recovered so that I would not perswade any to streighten themselves with hazards and inconveniences when there is such a wide opportunity for the ingenious to improve both parts and purses on the borders of these Nations Secondly Be very carefull of placing your out-fals and water-gates in so convenient parts as may both be best for the firm draining of your Lands and for the firm founding of your Sluces and Water-gates both in relation to the Earth you plant them on and the force or strength of the water that lieth against them or accidentally through some fierce storm that may come upon them this hath been the overthrow of some gallant works and particular rules here cannot be discoursed but through so much tediousness as will tire thy patience which I must forbear Thirdly Be above measure studious about thy Imbankments that a foundation be so firmly laid to the bottom with such materialls as will hold out the triall therefore in every new work some triall would be made of all materials and therein thou must be steered by those the very place affords whether Stone Chalk Wood or Earth or all and the present experience upon the place will be a better Tutor than I can possibly for I much question whether the carriage of any of these far will answer the cost or hazards run therein Be sure your foundation be broad well ramm'd together and so raised with solid matter and workmanship a good height above the highest Tides and curiously turved or sodded on the Sea-side the better is your Turf the firmer is your work for if that it once begin to hole or break look to the main it is in danger and ever be sure your new works be made the highest because an overflowing upon an old work is not so dangerous as upon the new that it quickly and easily overthrows Lastly Be sure of ingenious and laborious workmen an idle slubberer will both deceive the work and Master study not so much cheap wages as to have your work well done for good wages carefull ingenious Overseers of the Labourers is an unvalued furtherance to the work some men have an excellent Genius that way will awe men more with their wise industrious oversight and skill in mens frame of Spirits and wise designing each man to his place and work that al of them shal be as members of the body co-adjutors to the whole one take it from another so as no work be done twice over nor one mans labour bear out another mans sloth but each be helpfull to another so as to advance the main I tell you this is a mystery and a man rightly qualified for this work is worth gold and very rarely to be found I have seen some Bayliffs intrusted herein stand telling a story while all his workmen have stood looking him in the face admiring him for his Rhetorick and this hath pleased him as well as their working many have an easie way of hindering work but few of furthering it and he is a rare man that can sort all his works so into each workmans hand as that it goes on to purpose confusion is through ignorance and sloth a good method or plat-form to advance each mans labour to the best furtherance of a work is difficult requires great ingenuity and laborious study I find it most difficult though I have had as large experience of it as most Englishmen yet cannot accomplish it but many times ran into confusion through mens rudeness and my want of each particular experience in each work the which I instance as a Rock for others to beware and prize and value a good Overseer whose countenance and conversation is such with workmen as will not onely awe and force them but his wise and loving demeanor will compel them to their utmost faithfulness a work in its geares will thrive exceedingly And so I have done at present with this particular till I have gained some more and new experiences and with this Chapter CHAP. X. The Tenth Chapter giveth directions to make and use certain Tooles or Instruments which shall much facilitate the Work ANd for thy further incouragement because Drayning and Trenching is found very chargable therfore in the third place I will discover certain Tooles or Instruments which shall make the work more facile and delightfull with which two workmen and indeed any Ingenious man many quickly attain a handiness and dexterousness therein that can well handle them And shall doe more than many common Labourers doe in one day with their ordinary Tooles and shall work more true and more suitable and commendable to the nature of this way of Improvement which Tooles are all very plain and simple without severall motions or divisions made onely for ease lightness and quickness not for Admiration or Confusion The first is a good Line about thirty two yards long made of the best Water-wrought Hemp and as big again as Whipcord upon a good Reel to wind it upon I prescribe this length because of drawing all Workes as near unto a strait Line as possible may be which length is of use in measuring your Work by the Pearch or Rod as you desire also and no more of this The second is a Water Levell about five foot long the longer the better but that it will be the far more unportatable but four foot an half wil do reasonable well which Instrument many have assayed and made some open with a Channel for the water to run all along upon a three inched Piece of Oak with sights placed at each end true to the water that is each sight of a just proportion from the waterâ— to direct the Levell but this lyeth so open to the Wind and is troublesome removing that it is not worth prescribing Others have used them of seven or eight foot long to be placed on two or three legs as the Surveyor placeth the plain Table
the Levell made with an hollow Concave for the water to lye hid from the Wind and to come up in two Cups above the wood planted in the Levell and sights planted very Artificially thereto the water in each Cup holding his just proportion to both sights and this is a very good one but very troublesome to remove up and down and to make dispatch when one hath need And in this second form were Sir Edward Peto his Levells made very costly and the Sights of good value whose Ingenuity was very great and the Instrument very good and rich but a little troublesome to carry up and down but I rather chuse a plainer Piece which is very Portable and it is made to fold into another square Staff and so to carry like an Hunting-Pole my Staff is but five foot and an half long made of the best young seasoned Oak that can be got my Levell or the Barrell of it is but four foot and an half or five foot long which Barrell in the midst of it is planted into the top of my Staff thus Just upon the midst of my Barrell is a pair of Iron joynts curiously wrought into the very middest of my Barrell on the neather side of it and at the very over-end of my Staff and so much of the one part of my Staff and just half the length of my Barrell taken away with a moulding or rabating plain untill both joyned together with these joynts make one compleat Staff straight and formable onely about a quarter of an Inch taper upward from the bottom to the top that it may not be too top-heavy and the Sights are to be fixed unto both ends of the Levell Barrell that they stand firm and hold water and yet are very little or no annoyance either to Sight or Practise And in the portage of it it is a â—air straight Staff with a strong Pike in the bottom of the Staff and a step to set the foot or force it into the ground where there is no occasion to use it And in the Exercise of it being unfolded it is an headless Cross not much unlike the Surveyers cross Staff which when thou hast done thy work thou mayst fold it up again and walk as with an Hunting-Pole Any good Gun-smith will make the Iron-work and some Gun-smiths will make the Wooden-work also with direction but properly it belongeth to the Joyner The next is the Trenching-Plough or Coulter whose speciall use is to cut out the Trench on both sides with great expedition which is thus made Take a Piece of the best tough Willow about the bigness of a Spade-stayl somewhat strait onely at the neather end it must look upward with a neck like a foot which must run upon the ground and just above the neck must be an Iron or little Coulter about the strength of a Butchers Knife planted in the Stayl where the Stayl must be plated with Iron curiously let into the Wood on both sides through which as also the Wood the tange of the Coulter must come with a Cotter-hole in it above to cotter it close to the over-side of the Staff or rather have two Coulters one about an Inch and half longer and stronger than the other that so in soft deep ground thou mayst use the longest and in dry ground the shortest Whose use is when that thou hast cast out thy Trench and set thy Line thou mayst with this run along thy Line and cut out one side of thy Trench almost as fast as a man can fallow it and then set out thy other side and cut it out also but if thou studiest more exactness then in the foot of thy Staff and in the middle of thy foot plant a little Brazâ—n Wheel about four Inches high that so the foot may bear it self a little upon the Wheel which will occasion it to run more pleasantly but the Wheel must also be curiously planted into the foot with Plates and upon an Iron Axeltree wherwith thou mayst cut out a Pearch whilst some will be cutting out two yards and more true and certain and so also mayst thou use it speedily to cut out thy Turâ— overthwart thy Trench about eighteen inches or twenty inches abroad a fit proportion to be taken up or sometimes two foot broad for if thou wouldest take up all thy Turf as curiously cut square and pared up about three or four Inches thick all of one thickness just at the root of the grass as aforesaid of which thou maiest make exceeding great use which thou must preserve most choicely for therewith thou mayest cover thy bare places of Earth or any low places that thou wouldest raise up to a Levell and mayst have as good Grass upon it within half a year better than upon the other Lands For the taking up of which Turf thou must make a Spade on purpose with a bit looking up twice so much as our ordinary Spades do with a curious thin shoo looking up also whose bit must be exceeding well steeled and more broader at the point or neather end of the bit than at the over end of about half an inch and not above by no meanes which will take up the Turf all at one thickness just at the naturall height a man useth it as he stands to shovell Earth before him This Spade is admirable usefull to cleanse the bottom of Trenches for which use it were very necessary to have another an inch and half narrower than the former for lesser and narrower Trenches which Spades the broadest sort of them are more speedy and more easie for Banking and Levelling high places and great Ant-hills by far than other Common Spades are There is another Tool or two as usefull in these works and no less necessary and this is the Paring Spade or dividing Iron whose bit may be made all of Iron being a strong Iron Plate with a good strong Socket to put a straight tough Stale or Helve into it must be made just straight every way the Bit must be made twenty Inches long the two sides and neather end all well steeled the neather part of the bit a little bellied or square and the sides a little hollow or compassâ—d and the end and sides as sharp as they can be made for the especiall use of this is now and then to cut out a Trench in vallies and low places where thy Plough cannot come at it but principally to pare old Trenches after the first year whose Edges will grow so thick with Grass that thou canst not get thy water to pass currently and to dig it will break thy Trench cut it too thick but with this thou mayst cut it as with a Cutting Knife all along thy Trench or Line very fast and most compleat Thy Stail need not be so long as a naturall Spade-stail it must be kept clean and bright and it will work exceeding easie And thy ordinarâ— Spades also the better
in the manner or way of Husbandry and Plowing or else in the Method I propose in the laying of it down to Graze or else the Stubble you lay it down upon in all which if you pursue me not expect it not all being faciable and any man may more certainly and as I conceive more delightfully work by Rule than Random I say then in the ordinary course of nature Gods blessing accompanying it it shall increase and improve for many yeares and continue untill some of the former and aforesaid Corruptions predominate again Of which my self have had large Experiences and can produce many Presidents and do but you look into and upon much of your new laid-down-Land to Graze which being continually Grazed doth put more proof into all sorts of Goods breed better feed faster milketh fruitfuller than old Pasture that is Richer for ten fifteen or twenty yeares together I have bought the purest Mutton out of Land the third the fourth or fifth year after Plowing being about eighteen or twenty shillings per Acre than any Land in those parts of near thirty shillings an Acre hath afforded and in reason it must needs be so because what Grass comes fresh is pure without Mixture and sweet being Young and tender and having no currupt Weeds of Filth to annoy it and fruitfull having heat and strength left in the Land to feed it and for continuance fear it not if Grazed for the very Grazing will Inrich it every year and Improve it untill it grow so old again and over-run with Moss Ant-hills Rushes or other corruptions that it requires Plowing and then let it have it for the Lands and thy Advantage sake I know other Pastures which indeed were Plowed nine or ten Crops and did much prejudice the Lands thereby which I exceedingly condemn yet this President answers this Objection it lying now upon the fourteenth or fifteenth year after Plowing is better than ever was since Plowing and mends every year and is rich and healthfull if not more than it ever was and would far more have abounded in fruit if Moderation had been used Another Objection may be raised which is this your new Plowed Lands are more subject to Rotting Sheep than your old Pasture I answer usually it is so and Experience hath proved the same yet if you ever found any parcell of Land Husbandred according to these directions nicely observed as aforesayd that it was layd so high and round his over-Furlongs Drained by the lower and a good Master Ditch or Trench the lowest and Plowed but three or four Crops and laid down upon the Winter Corn Stubble c. you either found little danger in it for Rotting or else no more than other Grazed Lands thereabouts was subject to for in great Rot years indeed many of your Cold Sowr Rushy Pastures Rot themselves though never plowed especially such as have either great Road-wayes Drifts or Passages through them yet observe these two directioâ—s following put case it should Rot first or second yeares then Stock it with Beasts and that prevents it or else secondly with part Sheep those barren Sheep to feed and not with a breeding Stock and part Beasts and very easie that you may have Grass at pleasure to satisfie them to the full which will probably prevent them from eating Dirt or Gravell and this wil turn thee out as much profit and secure that danger in great measure out of question As for Rushes Moss and Coldness which doth not much offend the best sort of Land I refer thee backward to its more proper place and have little more to say in the Advance of this richer sort of Land but onely that in your Separations and divisions of your greatest Pastures you be very curious in erecting Quick-set Hedges after the manner prescribed in the â—ixt Piece and the three twentieth Chaptâ—â— and be most carefull of preserving them from biting and treading and well fenced from any Annoyance maintained with constant Weeding for two or three years together all which exactly observed you shall raise upon each Lordship or Pasture Fuell and Fire-wood sufficient to maintain many Families besides the Timber which may be raised in the Hedg-rows if here and there in every Pearch be but planted an Ash Oak Elm or Witchazell all which will not onely be most profitable but most delightfull and honourable unto men of Ingenuous spirits And if to this thou wouldest but add the sowing of Kernels or planting Crab-tree Stocks here there in all your Hedg-rowes and grasting of them and preserving them precisely til they come to Trees how gallantly would this good Land nourish them what a benefit might the fruit of these Trees yeeld either in Perry or Sider to be transpored into other parts or else to relieve our poor at home of which were there plenty this dear year one third part of the Mault of this Nation might be saved and so that Barley be for Bread But more of this in his proper place which I shall present thee with as an admirable Piece of Improvement of it self upon any Lands it is capable to be made as a new Addition in Orcharding Improvements Here two or three words more to shew the great Prejudice men suffer for want of these Plantations when they make divisions or separations in their Lands by new Quick-setting it When men have planted the Quick they conceive then they have don nor observing perhaps neither to planâ— it in the Over-most and Fattest Earth nor for to Root all their Sets in the best Mould nor when they have done to preserve it from Sheep and Cattell nor Mould it Weed it Hedg it and secure it as it shall stand in need for three four or five of the first yeares All which were it done upon all Opportunities No man almost in the Nation would be either at want of Firing or Timber especially were all such Fields Marshes Heaths and Commons thus separated and divided all which are fecible and might be done with great profit to all and prejudice to none I am ashamed to speak so much in these so easie and wel-known wayes of Husbandry but that there is so much neglect thereof as if men minded more their own and Publique Confusion and Ruin than Profit and Advancement Some will cast Banks and Ditches for separation and plant no Quick at all in them and so destroy as much ground as if they Quick-set it and spoyl the ground to no advantage and others will Quick-set and never Fence it Weed nor Mould it and so it either perisheth at first or else groweth dwindled lean and barren not worth any thing or else suffer it to be bitten or eaten with Cattell or else stifled with cutting or plashing before it is ripe or ready that it comes to no thickness growth or fruitfulness In all which were there but a little Patience and Addition of a little more cost and paines
at first chop it may at next by the Root I had the last year a Field of an hundred Acres so thick over-runne that some Acres were as thick that one man could not do above half an Acre in a day I caused them to be spudded up by the Root which was done at two chops with my Spade I was not only freed of them the last Summer wholly but my whole ground is cleansed of them for this year and so I hope for ever I believe the charge thereof was near twenty shillings or thereabout A more certain way I know not For Goose Tansey or Hoar Tansey like Weed I must needs make Proclamation That he that can tell the destruction of it shall do a very acceptable service and for my self I should be very thankfull for the Communication thereof for I can say no more but this Never Plow your Land too long nor out of heart or strength by no means for this occasioneth it to grow more thick and fruitfully and also load your Land hard with Cattell in the Spring and when it doth grow high and strong Mow it down about the end of Midsummer Moon or in the dryest and hottest time of the Summer but the earlier the better and other means I can prescribe none other but in all your Plowings soyl it well with good Dung and lay it down rich and full of spirit I hope some man of Experience herein will help me For the destruction of Fearn I shall prescribe such poor means that thou wilt take offence thereat yet however Experience having proved the truth hereof I will prâ—scribe it viz. In the Spring so soon as it begins to grow up a little above the Grass while it is young and tender take a crooked Pole or piece of Wood about six foot long and let it câ—ook at one end like a Bow or come like a Sithe with which thon mayst strike off all the heads of the Fearn as low as thou canst to the very ground if thou please to make it with a little Edge thou mayst but it will do without And this course thou must take the second time also as soon as it begins to sprout and grow up again which may be within three Weeks after the first And thus having bruised and broken and cut off the head the second time thou shalt see such a destruction wrought as thou wilt admire the Reason I cannot possibly conceive other than this This breaking cutting or bruising of the Stalk doth give a kind of Check or Comptroul unto the Sap which is ascending that it causeth it again to recoyl into the Root and so suffocates and choaketh the life and spirit of it that it descends dowuward and dyeth in the Earth This I am from a very Ingenuous knowing Husband informed which not onely destroyes it the present year but for the time to come also who hath made a more large and full experience of the same than my self hath done But I believe if it prove a very wet Summer thou must not wholly expect the destruction of it But in some parts of the Nation where Fuell is very scarce it wil be thought to be Prejudice by many to destroy it especially upon Commons where they reserve it for Fuell on purpose and is a very great help to poor for Firing yet whether in those very places it be so good as an Acre of Grass I question but there are other parts where it is little worth some places not worth getting yet it is the ruin and destruction of all the Grass it groweth over for whose sakes I have spoke thus much and anâ—sure in most parts it a most pestilent weed CHAP. XIX Treates of the destruction of Goss Broom Brakes c. and how to Improve ordinary Lands by Planting Fruit and shews how to preserve Corn from Blasting and from Crows and Vermine and gives a Description of the Water Persian Wheel AS for your Goss Broom Braking c which in some places wehre Fuell is very scarce and the ground very bad to prescribe a Cure is little Advantage but where either Land is good natured Land or Broom and Goss of little value or else where men desire to Improve their Land to the utmost worth it can be raised to it would be worth entertainment But to give a perfect Cure thereof without considerable Cost bestowed upon it I know none The best means for that is to cut it in the hottest and dryest time of Summer when the Sap is drawn clean forth of the Root and many times this will destroy it But if thou wilt be a good Improver thou mayst destroy it utterly and treble the value of thy land in the doing of the same which is this When thou hast cut thy Broom thy Goss Ling or Braking it matters not at what season Then Plow thy Land and make a Fallow of it if thou please or otherwise take as many Crops as thou pleasest more or fewer all is one to this purpose so as thou be sure to Plow thy Roots up clean and then Manure thy Land with what Compost thou canst get for I believe if thy Land be made Rich and fruitfull with any sort of Soyl whatsoever it will in a great measure mend it But without doubt if thou either Marl it well or chalk it very well and afterward Muck it very well to mollifie and loosen and open the Earth or Lime it well or Mud it well and afterward Muck it over with good Cow or Horse Dung or any other good Soyl as House or street Muck it will not onely Improve it but destroy any of these offences or any other whatsoever that naturally ariseth from Barrenness or Coldness possibly once Manuring may not do it nor indeed canst thou expect so great an Improvement with so little cost because I reckon not that any charge or cost thou expendest whilst thou hast it under Tillage for that brings in thy charge again in thy Crop so not to be put upon this Accompt but that which thou bestowest upon thy last Crop for the last Crop I would advise thee to Manure to purpose and so soon as thy Crop is got Manure it again for it will also bring in thy charge in the Crop of Grass also and again whilst thy Land is young and tender for at this season will one load of Soyl do as much as two when thy Soard begins to grow Tough yea as much as three when it grows Mossy Rushy Filthy This is a most certain Conclusion which I have ever maintained and proved by Practice Ever to lay on Soyl that first Winte after Corning and at one good Soyling have raised an excellent sweet Soard the very first year full as good again as it was before upon the old Soard And this gallant Advancing-way shall certainly destroy both Bryars â—raking Fearn Gooâ—-Tansie also if an thing will do it Goss-Ling-Heath or any thing else
for Improvement by Liming and by all the Subsequent Compositions All old Resty Land that hath not been Tilled of late although it be coarse of it own nature and yeeld little Fruit yet by Plowing according to former directions all Advantages observed for three or four Crops which I fear not but the heart and strength thereof will bear it out without Prejudice I have known Six or Seven Crops taken of Land not worth above five shillings or six shillings an Acre and it very little the worse as generally all the Wood-Lands are apt to run to Moss and Fearn Goss and Broom and to be so extremely over-run therwith that it bears nothing else and if they be not tilled according to that ancient Principle all Husban-men retain every ten or fifteen years they will runn into these Extremes so far as that they will be of little use so all other Lands of a better nature subject to these Extremes no better way can possibly be than Moderate Tillage according to the former rules prescribed And in thy Tillage are these special Opportunities to Improve it either by Liming Marling Sanding Earthing Mudding Snayl-codding Mucking Chalking Pidgeons-Dung Hens-Dung Hogs-Dung or by any other means as some by Rags some by coarse Wool by Pitch Markes and Tarry Stuff any Oyly Stuff Salt and many things more yea indeed any thing almost that hath any Liquidness Foulness Saltness or good Moysture in it is very naturall Inrichment to almost any sort of Land all which as to all sorts of Land they are of an exceeding Mellorating nature and of these more particularly And first for Liming it is of most excellent use yea so great that whole Countries and many Countles that were naturally as Barren as any in this Nation had formerly within less than half an Age supply with Corn out of the Fieldon Corn-Country and now is and long hath been ready to supply them and doth and hath brought their Land into such a Posture for bearing all sorts of Corn that upon Land not worth above one or two shillings an Acre they will raise well Husbanded with Lime as good Wheat Barley and White and Gray Pease as England yeelds yea they wil take a parcell of Land from off a Lingy Heath or Common not worth the having nay many will not have it to Husbandry it and will raise most gallant Corn that naturally is so Barren worth five or six pound an Acre And though some object it is good for the Father but bad for the Son I answer so are all Extremes whatsoever that is to Plow it after Liming so long as is either any spirit left in the Lime or heart in the Land or it will bear any sort of Corn or Grain it will ruin it for Posterity But if that after Liming men would but study Moderation in their Tillage anid not because the Land yeelds such abundance of Corn Plow or Till it so long as it will carry Corn no nor so long as it will carry good Corn But if men would after good Liming take three four or five Crops and then lay down their Lands to Graze it would not be the least prejudice or if upon the laying of it down men would but indifferently Manure it or else upon the last Crop you intend to Sow Dung it well before Sowing and lay it down upon the Rye or Wheat Stubble it would produce a sweet Turf and I am confident prove excellent Pasture as good again as it was before but if after it is layd down you would Manure it once again a little Manure now will produce more fruit than as much more upon the old Soard it would be warrished for ever Many men have had ten Crops of gallant Corn after one substantiall Liming some more upon very reasonable Land of about six shillings eight pence an Acre some Land worth a little more but more Land less worth and some upon Land not worth above one or two shillings an Acre have got many gallant Crops upon a Liming as aforesaid some men have had and received so much profit upon their Lands upon once Liming as hath payd the purchase of their Lands I my self had great Advance thereby yet I lived twenty miles from Lime and fetched it so far by Wagon to lay upon my Lands and so not capable to make like Advantage as other Borderers The Land naturall and suitable for Lime is your light and sandy Land and mixed sound Earth so also is your Gravell but not so good and your wet and cold Gravell is the worst except your cold hungry Clay which is worst of all but all mixed Lands whatever are very good As for your Lime it is not of a hot burning nature as most men conceive and do strongly believe and many have wrote 't is true it is of a wasting burning and consuming nature before or in the slacking or melting of it and may be possibly in the meal or spirit of it but in the use of it and working it into and with the Land and Earth and in the production of the fruit it seems appeares to be Coldest and most sadning of Land of any Soyl whatsoever and that for these Reasons 1. Because of it self it is a heavy and weighty substance and sinkes deep and loseth it self sooner than any Soyl whatsoever if you be not very carefull in the keeping of it up and rasing of it you will lose it before you are aware of it or can suspect it 2. Because it so alters your lightest Ry Land that though it be naturally Sandy and Gravelly that it never before would bear any thing but Ry or Oates yet by one good Liming it will be reduced to bear as good Lammas or Red straw Wheat with Barley and Pease as your strong clay Land 3. Were it of so hot a nature then it would have the best operation upon your coldest wettest spewing Land upon which it hath none and all Experience shews the contrary As I remember about twelve or fourteen quarters of Lime will very wel Lime an Acre you may also over-Lime it as well as under-Lime it Also a mixture of Lime Manure and Soyl together is very excellent especially for a few Crops and so lay down to Graze I conceive is best but by any means Till not long for I say it is possible the Land may yeeld Corn being so exceedingly in Tillage and so well wrought as long almost as any Earth is left in it I have seen many parts Tilled so long as there hath been little lest but small Stones Flints and Pebles A mad Cmstome fly from it your Lime will sink downwards exceedingly use all means possible to keep it as much aloft as you can else you lose it and the benefit of it and remember it whatever you forget and then you may plow and work your Land as you do with any other Soyl. CHAP. XXI Sheweth the nature
and then put them all to work for Wagers with those that are in plight and strength Try wha◠service one of them will do you not a third part of that service they did before Nor twice or thrice to Marl together I hold not proper but when your resolve to lay down your Land to Graze be sure at the last Crop you intend to take which may be the fourth fifth or sixth after Marling then Manure thy band wel with Dung which wil so open lighten and loosen thy Land for the less binding and the more light loose and open the more fruitful that it will produce a gallant Glovery and white Hunny-suckle Grass and Graze fruitfully and then if as aforesaid the first year after thou hast laid it down upon the Wheat or mixt Corn-stubble thou wouldest run it over again with Dung it would pay thee treble I cannot forbear inculcating these two because I see it is so little practised in any part of the Nation and I know it to be so wonderfull Advantagious untill thou pursue the practice of them if possibly never lay down thy Land to Graze but thus Let-not-thy Gain or Profit of a good Crop or two hinder thee of ten fold more and dishonour thy Land Prejudic◠thy Posterity defame thy Husbandry Oh that this gallant Principle of Improvement of all Lands to their utmost worth was naturally planted in all mens Breasts t is true to get Wealth and Riches is naturall enough and both in our thirsting and eager pursuit hereof by many lawfull common wayes and by more indirect baser meanes Eateth out the very hearts and bowels of many but thus to indeavour to raise Wealth out of the Earth by ingenuity to raise soyl out of one part of the Earth to inrich another or out of the Seas or any way else by a mean Low charge or poor workinens labour depending upon the Almighty for that blessing is that I so highly magnify not having forgot the old Proverb of making honey of a Dogs so I believe any Land by cost charge may be made rich and as rich as Land can be but not counterpoise one quarter of the charge or labour which I neither affect nor indeavour to hold forth but my resolutions are to perswade all mens Estates or parts to drive on all Designs for the Cōmon good so to Plow all thy Lands as to make thy Lands Fittest and Richest to Graze and then to Plow again when thy Land decayes in Grazing thy Plowing shall far out profit thy Grazing I am confident a man might so Husband the matter as neither of these should hinder each others Fruitfulness but both help on each others Advancement Now the Lands upon which Marl yeelds great increase is upon your higher Sandy Land mixed or Gravelly any found Land whatsoever though never so barren to whom it is as naturall and nourishing as Bread to mans nature and will do well upon any of these though somewhat mixed with Clay but strong Clay in my opinion is most unsutable But an exact tryall I never made thereof therefore am not Peremptory and although many men are of opinion that it can have little Operation upon Wet Cold Moyst Land I say so if there be not a possibility to lay it sound and Wholsome but that I believe thou mayst do most Land by Plowing of it up and Raising of it as high as thy Land will bear it then a good Drain or master Furrow if it will serve if not a deeper Drayning Trench will for Wet and too much Cold and Moysture offends all Corn and Grass also wheresoever as well as Marl but thus done Marl wil yeeld great store of Corn upon this Land also out of question my own president was upon a very wet Land upon a most sharp gravell CHAP. XXII Sheweth the usefulness of Sand and other Soyles out of the Seas and Rivers Sands also are great Inrichments AS for Sands manure I conceive it warm of nature and yet that is not the cause of its Fruitfulness for then would all Sands have the like Operation vertue in them but of ou◠inland Sands especially these which are naturally the Surface of the Earth or else lyeth by Mines in Hils many other parts of the Nation I conceive little Fruitfulness at all however I challenge not Immunity herein from being deceived I may be for I have made no tryall at all therein and therefore what it may do upon a contrary natured Land I know not if any have found benefit I desire to learn it for Reason hath sometime deceived me and so may others but Experience never shall But as for your Sands brought forth by the Violence of strong Land-floods and cast up on Hils Shelves in many Meadows and other places in them is Fruit and Vertue and I question not but the Application of them either to Corn or Graze will produce much Fertility especially being seasonably applied to such Lands as are most different from the nature of it self for whatever causeth Barrenness be sure to provide a Soyl that wil stand in constant opposition to it and so though one wast another and both are weakened yet the Earth is thereby bettered as here the Sand is dry and warm and something inclining to Saltishness the Land I conceive best for this Soyl is moyst and cold and while Heat and Cold Dry and Moyst contest together the Earth steales from both and is much Advanced thereby For in all Soyles and sorts of Earth there is a Combustible and Incombustible Nature each Wrestling with other and the more you can occasion Quarrels and Contention by these that is the more you ad to that which is predominant and so allay the distemper in the end the more gaineth the Earth thereby For I suppose there is a kind of contrarietie in Nature it was ever so from the Fall ever will till all be swallowed up again in one But there is another sort of Sand and this is the richest of all and that is your Sand upon the Sea Costs and in the Creeks thereof which is very rich yet in some parts it may be somwhat richer than others as I conceive for this Reason because al Lands that be bordering upon the Sea Coasts might then be Improved by them but in many and most parts of the Nation the use of it is neglected I dare not have so uncharitable an opinion of my Nation that they would neglect so great and facile an Advantage In Devonshire upon those Coasts it is very rich and upon the Coasts of Cornwall also and upon all the Southern and Western Coasts as this is if there were that fruitfulness as there is in most Sea Sands and is as likely also to be in this unless or untill men have made experience and through experienc◠thereof I for my part shall be loath to have other opinion of it but that
it is of excellent fruitfulness and so all Wales-ward borders so rich as that they carry it many miles on Horse-back unto their Lands and make such vast Improvements as to raising Corn and Grass also as is incredulous Now were it on the Northern Eastern or Western Coasts as rich as it is upon the Southern Coast as it may be for any contrary experience I have had I could not believe the people to be so Dronish as they are in some parts thereof but that they would Drain out that Sweetness to their Lands as would cost but little or nothing but their Labour However I must absolutely say there must needs be great heart and fruitfulness in these Sands also because the Richness of the Sands is from the fat or filth the Sea doth gather in by all Land-floods and Streames that bring it from the Lands and also what the Tide fetches in dayly from the Shores and from that fat and brackish nature in it self and from the Fish and other creatures and thousands of other matters that putrifie in the Sea all which the waters Casts to Shore and purgeth forth of it self and leaves in the Sands thereof while it self is clear and pure And now being discoursing thereof give me leave to let you know the vertue and excellency the Sea may yeeld as from Sea-Weeds also which Cornwell and Devonshire and many other parts make great Improvement of for the Soyling and Manuring of their Land and that to very great advantage also and further toward the Inriching of the Land as from Fish of any sort which is so fruitfull for the Land that in many parts of the world they Dung their Lands therewith but here with us it yeelding more Advantage for Food to the relief of mans nature than unto the Earth I 'll say no more unless any Capacity fall in the dead of putrified Fish which is no other use than to this purpose A good Advantage might be made unto the Land thereof as I said before any Liquid Brackish-fat Greasie-matter and any thing that comes from or is the fleshy matter of the creature whether it be by Sea or Land hath a secret operation in it to the Earths fruitfulness Yea the very Urine of man is very excellent and of all beasts very fruitfull and very rich would be of more Accompt if men knew the worth of it I have read of some that have done too strange things therewith to report but most certainly 't is worth labour to preserve it with most exactness There is yet another Opportunity out of many of your great Rivers and is from a Mud or Sludg that lyeth frequently in deep Rivers which is very soft full of Eyes and Wrinckles and little Shels which is very rich yea so rich that in some parts many men get gallant Livings onely by taking it up out of the Rivers and selling it again by the Load One sort whereof they sell for one shilling two pence per Load and another sort they sell for two shillings four pence a Load at the Rivers side which men fetch twenty Miles an end for the Inriching of their Land for Corn and Grass One Load going as far as three Load of the best Horse or Cow-dung that can be made They call it Snayl-Cod and it hath in it many Snayles and Sheâ—s which is conceived occasioneth the Fatness of it The great Experience of this Piece is made upon that part of the River Thames which runs from Oxford and Reading down to Brainford and if my information fail not which I conceive I have from as good a hand a Gentleman full of great Experiences in Husbandry Improvements as hath not many Fellowes The Lord Cottington drawing part of the River through his Park at Hanworth hath cut in the same River many Out-lets or Ponds somewhat deeper than the River on purpose to receive the same from out of which is usually taken up great store of Mud for the Advance of the Upper Lands but whether this be that richest Snayl-Cod I cannot say but beleive it is very good but upwards as high as Cole-Brook in that River it lyeth plentifully all which not failing under mine own Experience I can say little more unto for present neither for the seasons of applying it unto the Land nor the manner of working the Land to it I dare not prescribe Only hence I conclude there may as well be the same opportunity in most Rivers of the Nation which is a most unutterable Advantage But I can say there is in most if not in all Rivers a very good Rich Mud of great Fruitfulness which were it more sought after would work on more Experiments and produce Advantage unexpected it costing nothing but labour getting nor prejudiceth any but profit to all by clearing the Rivers and great worth and vertue it must needs have in it being the Soyl of the Pastures and Fields common Streets Wayes Yards and Dung-hils all collected by the Flood and drawn thither where it concenters into Shelves and Mines as I may so call it and remanines for ever as an undiscovered Advantage where no use is made of it but hereof more if God give opportunity to the Author of Experimenting both this and others of the same nature to the utmost Advancement of it otherwise and in the mean while inquire it out they self CHAP. XXIII Treateth of the use and nature of Chalk Mud of Pooles Pidgeons and Swines Dung and other Soyles and Manures therein contained AS for Chalk Sir Francis Bacon affirms it to be of an over-heating nature to the Land and is best for Cold Moyst Land but as it appears to me in Hartfordshire and other parts thereabout there are great Improvements to be made upon Barren Gravelly Flinty Lands it hath great Fruitfulness in it but not having faln under my own Experience I dare affirm little therein onely advise any that have opportunity therein to be well resolved of the Fruitfulness of the said Chalk or of the nature of the said Lands for there is some Chalk though not very much thereof that is of so churlish a binding nature that it will so sodder and bind and hold the Water upon the top of the Earth so long till it destroy the Corn nor work a sterility in the Earth that neither Corn or Ground shall yeeld but little fruit but there is a Chalk in thousand places of great fruitfulness for Improvement And I also conceive that Chalk Earth and Manure mixed together makes an admirable sure and naturall fruitfull composition for almost any sort of Lands and is a very Excellent Unfallible Remedy against Barrenness and raiseth Corn in abundance inricheth it also for Grazing when you lay it down many great Countries in this Nation are under this capacity Also the Mud of old standing Pooles and Ditches the shovelling of Streets and Yards and Highwaies the Overâ—warths of Common Lanes
of the aforsaid Woods witness the Dutch Precedent I brought before speaking of the excellent and great advantage Wood might yeeld in my discourse about the Oak which I here forebear The use of the Ash is most manifold good for Building and for any work where it may lie dry most prime for Coopers Hoops Rimms for Sives and Wheels as Oak is also and excellent for the Wheelwright Ploughwright and the Husbanman far tougher than any of the woods aforesaid and very rich and profitable and the best Fire-wood fittest for Ladies Chambers will burn exceeding well and sweet though green but all this excellency unless for firing is quirkly spoyled If you fall it forth of season it will be worst of any Wood bare the mistaking of the season the Worm will take it speedily make it the most unserviceable of any wood whatever The onely season is from November untill the end of Ianuary for if the sap begin never so little to arise forbear falling Ash. It spreads his root very large and so is most offensive to your Corn land because it both draws away the hert from the land and offends the plough by his roots You may sow the Ash Keyes which are the onely seed in beds by themselves and they will grow amain two or three good beds will store a Country draw then as they biggon and at last draw all away or else they will destroy your Nurcery plant them in Ianuary or December mould them very well and carefully preserve them cut not off the the top if you would have it to grow in length it being a pithy wood it wil somwhat endanger it but it may prosper well though cut a little off the top spread better and be very usefull both for Timber Lop and firing I have heard of a poor woman that had two or three ash-trees in her Garden hedge and a strong wind came and blew the Ash Keyes all over the Garden that at the Spring her Garden was turned from that to a hopefull plantation of Ashes as green as a leek above the ground the woman was at a great debat to loose her Garden she was loth and to destroy so hopefull a crop she was unwilling at last she resolved to let them grow and now her garden is turned into a nurcery and she is turned a planter and hath ever since maintained it to that use and made many times more profit than she did before The slips from the roots are not so good sets as the sciens or sprout from the Key that is far the best Set beeing straight and smooth barked and free from canker Their removing must be in the depth of winter that it may have a whole winter to fasten the roots the roots may be cut in the removing a little but the strings no whit at all It is a Tree of marvellous great advantage to the Common wealth and very profitable to the Planter Pliny writes that the Serpent so abhors the Ash that it will rather choose to run into the fire than through the Ash boughs but no more of this The Birch tree will grow in the barrennest land it will not prosper in good land it is good for some common meaner uses as to make Oxe yoakes and somewhat usefull for the Turner but most especially for the fire where wood is scarce and deere it may be worth your planting or where the land is so barren that it will beare nothing else Theophrastrus writes of it that it will grow in frosty snowy cold Countries and on the hardest gravelly land and therefore on the barrennest land they plant Birch Pine wood Firre Pitch tree and Larsh The Walnut of another use that beareth a very gallant delightful fruit taketh his pleasure in dry sound wholsom land the usuall way of raising them is from the Nut set or sowed and preserved a year or two in the Nurcery and then drawn forth and planted it will not indure cold nor moysture and seldome any grow in your strong clay land at all if they be well planted and preserved they will make a good shady walk or set in row at a good distance will prosper very well but they require great room and good land it groweth to a great bignes and is very usefull for any houshold use excellent for the joyner and curious for the Gunsmith and the fruit thereof is most delightfull and no less profitable The willow though Homer calls it an unfruitfull Tree yet I shall ingage much in the praise of it it is the quickest of all wood for growing and riseth more in one year than many doe in three And for profit I must question whether any can or may come neer it it comes off with less charge than any and hath a prehemency in lightness and toughness and is very serviceable for spades and Gun stocks and manifold uses more to be kept dry it will scarce ever decry It delights in low ground wet and shady yea the most watery the more suitable and yet will grow upon a dry bank and in the Champion also It is very good for firing also It is to be planted of young sets cut off of any bough about two foot and a half long or somewhat shorter set or thrust into the soft earth or soft ground almost any bog being cast up in great lands and on each side thereof a Trench so deep as to go a little below the bottom of the bog and these set a foot and a half a sunder in strait lines or else two foot asunder the sets being thrust into the earth within eight or nine inches of the top and this to be done in February and beginning of March and in three or four years it will come if it prosper as it should to make windings or hurdle wood in a year or two more to make hop-poles and great sets to bee planted at seven or eight foot length to be set for Trees about eight or nine foot distance by river sides or little brooks or more if you would not have your ground shaded which must bee secured by stakes or thorn or some other means for two years from rubbing or shaking with wind or cattell it is conceived that those planted moyst thrive fastest but those upon a dry land indureth the longest bee sure to cut your sets a little aslope at the heather end and set the biggest end downwards and close the earth pretty close to it when it is set and cut off all twiggs that come out of any part of the set They may be cut as you have occasion to use them at three five or seven yeares The Osier must be planted after the same manner from short sets as abovesaid must be planted upon very good land and then it will yeeld a crop every year may possibly be worth three pound an acre or more is of especiall use for Basket-makers and fishermen
some almost at any time or with any Ploughs are not workable or when Land is over-wet or over-dry now all Ploughs are not to go upon all Lands nor at all times but men must be so knowing as to have their severall Ploughs for each sort of Land and seasons otherwise they will moyle horse mâ—n and Ploughs unspeakably Now as to the discovering some remedies or cures against these abuses and first as to the Smith his Truth of Workmanship lieth chief in these three materials of the Plough I the Share 2 the Coulter 3 the Shield or Breast-plate as some call them Shivers All which they being made true and according to the naturall cast of the surrow that so the earth stick not upon the Plough but the Irons wear bright and clean it is a good sign of the truth of Workmanship on his part I shall onely prescribe these particulars for the advantage of the Share if it be a Share made with a pan to put upon a wooden head then I do advise the pan be made pretty deep and somewhat deeper than our ordinary Shares are made but not too large or wide a pan in bredth and the phin made broad descending or whelmiug to the right hand it hath these two advantages first the deeper the pan is the thicker and stronger may the head be put on and the longer it will last 2 The Tush or Phin of the Share will whelm the more being set down to the work which is the Levell or bottom of the head or rather a little lower which will give great advantage to it of clearing the earth at the throat or first entrance upon the nose of the Shield-board with more ease for if it stick there it will be gone all along the Plough at once A Share made most hanging from the very nose of the Breast-board and not flat as most are the figure whereof could I describe it like the side of a hill into a level meddow would give a perfect demonstration of it which I shall endeavour as near as I can it should be pitched or set upon the Plough-head somewhat hanging also on the right hand and the Plough-head pitched hanging also As for the breadth of it I leave that to each mans experience as his land requires if upon a stony land or twichy woody Land it must be narrower and the more flinty the narrower but if it be upon a gravelly it may increase in bredth and so it may upon a clay and more upon a mixed earth and more upon a pure earth of sand and most of all upon the Lay-turf however upon all I would have it cut up very cleanly the full bredth of the Furrow thou carriest with thee and not rend and tear it up with the breadth of the Plough which increaseth the weight and strength and most Ploughs are guilty of this inconvenience especially where they goe with their narrow long pointed shares But now if you demaund whether it be best to have the Coumb or Wing fixed to the Share or put into the Share with a hole through and Riveted below or whether to have none at all but onely a shiver or plate upon the Breast or Shield-board placed curiously upon the Share exceeding tite and as closely filled and wrought to the Sharepan as may be I answer first that could you have the Coumb or Wing so fixed welded or wrought solidly to the Share with its true whelming hollow cross winding compass just answring the cast or turn of the Furrow which cannot be described by a Figure this being wrought fair and smooth and as broad as possible you can get it wil be the best And this is reasonable well done in many parts of Hartfordshire in some parts of Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire and in many other parts onely the Wing or Coumb is not broad enongh but the best pattern for this is upon the Bastard-Dutch Ploughs who work them so broad as they cover all the nose of the Breast-board eight or nine inches broad and twelve or thirteen inches high and give the truest compass of any I have seen of this fashion in Holland in Lincolnshire and many there are of them upon the Marshes and Sea-coast of Lincolnshire Norfolk Suffolk and Essex where the Dutch plough is much used but the true Dutch share is otherwise so costly and made especially for boggy soft land very troublesome and curious to be wrought and more curious to be kept and by our Countrey men the nicety of it will not be endured nor indeed will it work in most part of our Country Lands and therefore I forbear further incoragement thereto than to this small branch thereof The weelding compass of the Coumb But as to the fixing or weelding on the Coumb I stand indifferent because I think there is another way as good and easie however let the Share without the Coumb be made as aforesaid and then with a Shiner or Breast-plate curiously wrought a little hollowish at the nose and so continuing along being placed so close to the Share that grass straw roots or weeds get not betwixt it and the Share to choak it in the Breast for then it is utterly spoyled of its case the Shiner will do best to be continued all along the Breast-board one solid plate compassed and cross winding from the middle the over end forward looking one way towards the Land and the over end backward towards the furrow and so must all your shield or breast boards be hewen or sawen and compassed with fire and wrought fair or smooth afterward This shiner if wrought fair as high as the earth works upon the plough and have his true compass with the Breast board may also be of excellent ease to the plough for after it hath gone and is scoured bright the earth will slip off and pass away with much ease and will carry no earth at all which is to the great ease of the plough and both these are better than a Coumb put through the Share-pan and so come up along the nose of the Shield-board and there nayled to strengthen the neck of the plough or else put up into the plough-beam to strengthen it either yet this I also prefer before those that have neither this nor the aforesaid helps And as for other fashioned Shares whether made to the single wheeled plough or to the double wheeled plough whether with a pan or without a pan it matters not so that at the first entrance of the earth it be rightly compassed and cast for the cleanly running over the furrow and the Share point made very small sharp and well steeled be it long or short 2 As to the Coulter his truth of Workmanship lyeth in this whether it be Dutch or English Coulter that it be well steeled and wrought sharp and thin on the edge the point also looking forward if English and the edge alway placed just forward neither carving or turning towards the Land for
well be too precise and better ploughs cannot be made than their Country affords and could better have been devised they would long since With hundreds more so childish as are not worth an Answer but these exceedingly stifle and choak Invention and will do my Readers Imitation of these rude Discoveries CHAP. XXIX The second Generall whereby I shall descend to the description of the severall Ploughes in use and shew you the defects in some and the Advantages others have and what Addition I can give both from my own Observations or otherwise to make up as compleat an easie Plough as my Experience will make out I Shall therefore confine my discourse to three or four sorts of ploughs First the Wheel-plough I mean the double wheeled plough 2. The single wheeled plough and the foot plough 3. The simple plain plough without wheel or foot 4. The Dutch Bastard or plain Dutch plough Many other sorts there are as some alter in their heads some in their Beams some in their Stilts c. and most in their Shares and all almost according to the Country of which they are of al which it were too endless to discourse but I onely name these because I conceive all these usefull in some sort of Land or other and a good husband had need be stored with two or three sorts of them at all times especially he that hath severall sorts of Lands of all which I shall say but little yet a word of each but I shall reserve the main of my discourse for those very particular branches of the plough that shall make out that I shall give ease therto And first as for the double wheeled plough commonly called the Wheel-ploug and is of most constant use in Hartfordshire and many up-Countries and is very usefull upon all flinty stony or hard gravell or any other hard Land whatsoever after it comes to be beyond its natural temper is an excellent good form a very usefull plow and very necessary that al great Corn-masters have one of these for strength that so he may not force his other plows which are made on purpose for lands in a Tillable cōdition so are made more light portable than these will bear to be but these will go and work well with a great strength when other ploughs will not to any purpose and because much addition of ease cannot be given to this plough which I shall not advise to but in the cases aforesaid when and where other ploughs cannot work these Lands being under an extreme And as to such extremes nor none else will any ordinary Rule hold that I may not work against the stream lest I swim alone I will only give you a short description with the draught or figure therof and as any addition may be given to the plough in any of its members it shall not be restrained from an application to this as wel as to any other This is usualy drawn with Horses or Oxen geered double two a breast and indeed so they draw the strongest but tread the Land the more but why they may not be put single in wet seasons or in dangerous times I know not This Wheel-plough is made of a strong clest Ash-beam about six foot long and is contrary to all other beams in the Compass of it the crook or compass wherof looketh upwards and the Land-handle thereof is placed at the great or neather end of the beam as other ploughs are for it is usually made with one handle and the plow-staff is instead of the Furrow-handle and is very long answerable to the length of the handle the length wherof I much approve and could wish it were observed in every plough whatsoever it tending much to the easie and certain holding of the plough The Sheath is made of the toughest youngest Ash and perfect dry that can be got and set with a very good mortess very much forward joynted exceeding true and close into the beam and driven up so exceeding hard with a bragget behind it to hold it from declining that it stands and will to its work in the strongest land whatsoever The Head is pitched as strongly at the neather end of the Sheath and Stilt as can be and pinned through both and the Share is pitched upon the Head at a very deep pitch and somewhat hanging that so the plough may goe much a shore because the holder usually goes two furrows off the plough wider on the near side the plough And as it is pitched deep near a full yard pitch so it is also very broad being near half a yard and that I conceive arises from the former Reason because of the mans going so far wide of his plough Their Shares are made exceeding narrow and very strong and runing out to a very exceeding long small point very well steeled and sometimes they add a Tush or Phin but they make it very narrow also and so it must needs be the hardness and stoniness of the land not admitting of it And the Coulter stands a little above the Share-point and not before it but rather behind it This Wheel-plough requires a great strength and the greater because of the great length they are made of which carrieth such a long and heavy weight of earth upon it that it adds exceedinly to the burthen of it which may be easily removed in some measure by contracting the plough into a shorter and somewhat narrower compass and taking off as much of the weight and load both of Wood and Iron as the strength of the work will bear upon which it is to be employed yet it being a very useful plough upon some lands at some seasons The Figure expect with the other ploughs There is another double Wheeled-plough it is called the Turn wrest plough which of all ploughs that ever I saw surpasseth for weight and clumsiness it is the most of use in Keut Picardy and Normandy and is called the Kentish plough with us The beam may be made of any wood for the bigness of it but Ash is best but the two handles are made of one forked peece of any wood and the beam tenanted into the Stlit below the Fork and so it runs down into the plough-head and is there tenanted and pinned into the head and as for the Sheath that is a good strong peece of dry Ash tenanted into the beam directly down right but looking forward at the neather end and fixed into the Head somewhat as other ploughs are but the Sheath far bigger downwards the plough-head is pitched at a very great depth or else at random for depth being carried with two Wheeles as the former but nothing like so neat nor easie and for bredth it is pitched just under the Beam upon a straight line and so it ought to be as you shall see anon As for any Shield or breast-board it hath none at all on either side the plough as all other have
land laid dry and warm will bare the most weightiest Hops A barren morish wet soyl is not natural to the Hops delight but if this be laid very dry and made very rich with dung and soyl it may do reasonable well It will be best to stand warm if may be preserved from North East wind rather by hils than trees as near your house as may be that Land you determine for your Hop-garden lay as levell as square as ye can possible and if it be rough and stiff it will do well to be sowed with Hemp Beans or Turnips before but in what state soever it be till it in the beginning of Winter with plough or spade this not onely the year before but every year so long as you use it the more pains and cost you bestow the more profit and the nearer you resemble the Flemming in his hopping And for your Sets those are your Roots taken from your old hils roots go to a garden ordarly kept where the Hops are of a good kind all yearly cut and where the hils are raised very high for there the roots will be greatest buy choice Sets they may cost six pence a hundred and sometimes have them for taking up leaving things orderly and their hill well dressed You must chuse the biggest roots you can find such as are three or four inches about and the Set nine or ten inches long and have three joynts in a root Take heed of Wild-hops they are onely discerned by the fruit and stalks The unkindly Hop that likes not his ground soyl or keeper comes up green and small in stalk thick and rough in leaves like nettles much bitten with a black fly but it destroyes not the Hop but hurteth it somewhat and so you have the first particular 2 The manner of planting as soon as your roots are got either set them speedily or lay them in some puddle or bury them in earth but leave them not in water above four and twenty hours Then begin to direct your hils with a line tyed with knots or threads thereto the due distance had need to be 8 foot betwixt because then you make the fewer and bigget hils the sun comes about them the poles reach not one another and so it may be plowed yearly otherwise it must be digged some say seven foot and others say six foot as our late accustomed manner is and I am confident there is most advantage by thin planting but that I leave to each experience Your hole under the knot of your line had need be a foot square and deep then if you can have the wind South or West it is best if not go on having made many holes matter not the wind be sure to take the moneth of April for the work and take two or three of your roots as a great old Gardiner affirms which by this will yeeld green Sciences or whit buds and will have small beards growing out and joyn your sets together even in the tops and set them altogether bolt upright and there hold them in their place till you have filled the hole with good mould set low but just as the tops may be level with the ground and then after they must be covered two inches thick with fine mould be carefull you set not that end downward which before grew upward which you know by the bud growing upward and let no part of the dead stalk remaine upon the uppermost joynt thereof then press down the earth hard to the roots some will set them every one at a corner of the hole under the line which I rather encline to because they have room and stand round but if you plant late have green Springs upon them then be careful of not covering the Spring but to set more plants lest some should fail and in a bigger hole and round about the same set 8 some say ten or more which is thought tedious but I will make a tryal thereof it being the latest experimented in our dayes now at this time you need make no hills at all there as aforesaid Poultery must be preserved from scratting the Goose especially Now for poling if your distance be 3 yards or 8 foot then 4 poles are repuired else three wil serve but I encline to 6 or 7 foot distance and 4 poles and as many this year as any Alder poles are very good taper and rough and sutable to the Hops desire but you must take such as the Country will afford The time of cutting your poles is in December or November and then dress them and pile them up dry if you leave some twigs it will not do amiss For length 15 foot is a good length except your ground be very rich or your hills exceeding heightned or if they grow too thick your poles need to be the longer The Hop never stocketh kindly untill it reach higher than the pole and returneth a yard or two for whilst it is climbing the branches that grow out of the principal stalk grow little or nothing Your poles be strong 9 inches about the bottom they stand faster 150 poles make a load which may be worth a little more than ordinary wood a few wil supply the standing stock in setting your poles lay all to each hill you intend to set which speeds the work When your Hops appear as you discern where your principal root stands then set to poling having a orow of Iron to make entrance for the pole but if you stay longer then you will be more subject either by ramming or making holes to bruise the root or else they will not so easily catch the pole without flying Your foot of the pole must be set a foot and half deep and within 2 or three inches of the principal root but if your land be rocky then you must help your self by making your hill higher to strengthen your poles for which you must stay the longer too lest you bury your Sciences Your poles of each hill lean them rather outward one from another and then with a rammer ram them outward and not inward If a pole should break you take away the broken pole ty the top of those hops to the top of a new pole then winding it with the sun a turn or two set it in the hole but if you can take a stake and ty it too without wresting the wiers of it may do well to peece but if broken at the neather end shove the pole in again and if your poles break in the pulling up or will not be drawn by reason of drought or hardness you may make a pair of pinsors of 4 foot long with an iron runing hook upon them with a block laid under upon the top of the hil so coleweigh up your pole the mouth whereof made hollow And for laying up your poles the usual way is to ty two two
as well as ours I shall make bold to discover them to my intendment for as to his I shall never attain and that is to incourage their Plantations because Lands may be highly advanced by them and when thou hast the Art of planting dismysteried to thee at large as will be very shortly fall upon them And because Land of great quantities cannot be advanced to that height as lesser parcels which are within the power and purse of the Gardner which with his constant paines watching toilings hazards and adventures he runs he may make one hundred pound possibly out of some one Acre of Land if his commodity prosper well as some have done but in the case of non prosperity some are half undone again as if it thrive not exceedingly in the growth prosper not as well in the ripening escape frost and thieves and meet not with a good market what it will come to then I determine not neither doth Mr. Speed consider of these things and how then it would do when thousand of Acres should come to be planted therewith I know not I shal leave it to him to resolve and onely take out Turneps mainly intending my design which will be sowed at small cost and charge and grow upon indifferent Land and bring forth great increase and are of more generall use and in case much Land be sown therewith and they come to so great plenty that the Markets will not carry them away at such a proportionable rate as the Gardner can afford them then may they be disposed of to the feeding of sheep and Cattel which they will doe and to good advantage too and in a dear year to make bread thereof half meal half boyled Turnep mixed and wrought together into dough and kneaded and made into bread will make a good and delightfull food as hath been by many experimented already yea as Sir Richard Weston affirmed to my selfe he did feed his swine with them though all men hold the contrary that Swine will not eat a Turnep so I say too no more than a Scot will Swines-flesh yet the boyling them at first and giving them to his Hogs in good wash and afterward all boyled that at the end they came to eat them raw would run after the Carts and pull them forth as they gathered them So that upon these accounts and because I know it will bring Land to a good advance as unto 8. pound 10. pound or possibly 12. pound per acre I propose this especially but for the fuller discovery hereof in the mysterie I leave that to be more fully discussed in the Art of planting and should that fail of seasonable comming forth or of a full discovery it is but about eight or ten quarts of seed sowed upon an acre of dry sound land indifferent rich land well plowed digged and harrowed as for corn and then after sowed thin and even with some composition with it then slightly covered with a bush some sowed early where the land will do some late when other crops are off selling them or spending them at a Market-priâ— they will bring forth the advantage promised and so I have indeavoured to supply this deficiency in husbandry also in some poor measure the want of improving our garden-fruits our Lands being as capable of improvement this way and as high as is by their Brabant husbandry and so am come to my desired end at last all which I commend to thy patience and thy self and it to the word of our Lord Christ his blessing FINIS A Table of the most principall Heads and branches of this Discourse as they are laid down under the severall main Peeces of the Book and illustrated in that Chapter discoursing each particular Peece Chap. I. SHeweth the antiquity and necessity of Husbandry pag. 3 4 5. Chap. II. The causes of barrenness as they are in men 6 7 8. The causes of barrenness as in the land it selfe 9. to 14. The first Peece contains the 3 4 5 and 6 Chap. Treating of the Remedies against Barrenness and particularly of Floating and Watering Land Chap. III. Sheweth what Land lyeth best for advancement by water 17. Of impounding water upon land in what case 18. Of what nature the best land for watering is pag. 19. 20. Chap. IV. V. How and where to begin your first watering and how to proceed 21. How to make the floating and drayning Trench 22. What makes the watering land so fruitfull 23. The best flowing season upon all lands 24 25. The advantages of watering land 25. Presidents of watered land ibid. 26. As well too much trenching as too little ibid. Chap. VI. A larger explanation both of the floating and draining Trench 27. How to prevent heaping of the earth in trenching 28. The manner of levelling land by the plough to water 29. The speediest way for soarding Land after levelling 30 31. To level by spade and what a man may do a day 30. The second Peece hath the 7 8 9 10 Chap. Containing draining Fen reducing Bog and recovering Sea-land Chap. VII To drain a bog and where the water lieth 33. What makes a bog and how to carry a drain 34. 35 36. Best and certainest way to dâ—stroy the bog totally 36. The great prejudice by crooks and angles in water-courses ibid. How to make deep drains without any danger to cattel ibid. Floating a bog best destroyes it pag. 37. Chap. VIII Answereth severall objections made against the probabilities of so great advance by floating 38 Cutting Water-courses streight no small advantage 42. Some Mils destroy more than they are worth 43. Chap. IX Sheweth a brief and plain discovery of the most feacible way of Fen-draining or regaining drowned lands or in bounding of the Sea from it 45. Hindrances of Fen-draining 51 52. The cure or best and speediest way of reducing drowned lands unto perfect soundnes 53. The best way to improve drowned lands 58. Chap. X. Directions to make and use severall Tooles or Instruments which shall much facilitate the work 65 The manner and form of a true and speediest Levell that I can devise 66. The Trencheng Plough 67. The Turving Spade 68. The Trenching Spade ibid. The Paring Spade 70. The use of the Paring Spad 71. The Third Peece hath the 11 12 13 14. Chap. Sheweth to inclose without offence prevent depopulation that is most common attendant and appurtenant to enclosure how to make severable Errable coÌ„mon field Lands common Heaths Mores Forrests Wasts to every particular Interests the Common-wealths great advantage Chap. XI Treateth of Improving Land by Pasture Reproves Depopulation proves excellent Advantages by Inclosure and taketh away the usuall Scandalls laid upon it pag. 72. Chap. XII Sheweth the Land capable of Enclosure and the Method of it how it advanceth the Publick-Weal and all particulars interests 77. Chap. XIII Sheweth the tillage and the great profit thereof and the great Advance is made
Peece of improvement hath respect unto the Plantations of hops and Liquorish both in relation to the Mystery thereof and profits thereby Chap. XXXVII Treates of Hops plantation and how Land is Improved thereby ibid. How a hop-yard should stand 139. One of the main things in the Hop-yard is raising the hils 140. The profits may be made of them 145. Chap. XXXVIII Treats of the mystery of Saffron and the way of Planting it 148. How to set Saffron ibid. How to pick it pag 149. How to dry it ibid. Chaap XXXIX Treates of the plantation of Liquorish at large 150. The best land for it ibid. How to set your plants 151. The time of planting it 152. The advantage thereof ibid. The fifth Peece contains the 40. 41 42. Chap. And treateth of the Art of Planting of Rape Cole-seed Hemp and Flax with the severall advantages that may be made of each Chap. XL. Containeth onely the discovery of Rape and Cole-seeds Husbandry 253. The best seed ibid. The time of sowing it ibid. VVhen to cut it ibid. How to use it ibid. Chap. XLI Shewes how good a publique commodity hemp is with the manner of planting 255. How to know the best hemp-seed 259. The time of sowing it ibid. The time of getting it ibid. The best land for hemp 260. Chap. XLIII Treateth onely of the husbandring Flax so as to make it come up to as much of the Improvement as wee can 261. How to raise the best Flax. pag. 263. The best Flaxseed ibid. The season for sowing it ibid. The manner of watering it 264. The sixt and last Peece containeth 2 Chapters And discovereth what great advantage may be made upon our lands by a plantation of some Orchard Fruits and some Garden commodities Chap. XLII Treats how our Lands may be advanced by planting them with Orchard fruits 265. Chap. XLIV Doth contain a brief discourse of some choice and more generall Garden fruits intended to have been spoen to more largely 271. FINIS Excellency Necessity Antiquity Gen. 4. 2. Gen 9. 16. â— Chr. 26. 11. Prov. 6. 6. Prov. 15. 19. Prov. 20. 30. Prov. 22. 21. Prov. 12. 20. Prov. 11. 26 Prov. 21. 5 Causes of Barrennesse 1 Cause of Barrenness is ignorance occasioning Prejudice Prov. 4. 15. Prov. 36. 13. 2. Cause is Improvidence and a slavish custome 3. Cause is want of punishment of Idleness and want of Stock to set the poor on work A Crying sin Drunkenness A generall cause of Barrenness Tilling Rockiness Mountainous Improvidence laying down all Lands How to lay down warm Land How cold Land Standing water in winter Mole hils Ob. Ans. Bogginess Constant resting of the water on that Land 1 Head 2 Head Only improve upon great advantage Under great Rivers will be the best Land And under lesser the greater quantities and greatest Improvement Setting water on Pooles or Lakes not so excellent In what Cases to cover land by Water Land sad and moist worst to Improve by watering Land found dry and warm the best Boggy Lands good for watering How to begin the first piece of watering How to make the drayning Trench Shewes how the water is fruitfull How to make the Drayning Trench The best floating season Upoâ— moist Land Upâ—n warm Land A double Advantage of having a water course cut out President of one year cuâ—ting but five or six and the next twenty four President of sandy Land Mr. Plats President President of Boggy Lands To much Trenching is madness There are two sorts of Trenching Manner of making the floating Trench A shallow Trench doth certain hurt and uncertain good How to prevent heaping Earth and in evening the ground How to Level Land Plowing to Levell Spade to help Levelling The speediest Soarding of Land How to make thy Drayn to drain a Bog to purpose Where water lyeth in Rushy Land The matter that feeds the Bog where that lyeth Every Bog hath most certainly a living Spring within it Shewing how every Drayn must â—e carried up from the lowest levell Shallow Trench reprehended The most sure way to destroy a Bog The prejudice by crooks and angles in water courses How to make Draynes without any prejudice to any sheep or bâ—ast The best way of preventing danger to Cattell in Drayning Fens and Marshes recoâ—ery Floring best destroyes a Beg. The probable occasion or first cause of Bogginess Ob. These are but pretences Ans. 1. Watering breeds the Rush. Ans. Especiall season for watering Land Iob 8. 12. Ans. 2. A sign when Land begins to fatten Obj. Many have done great things herein and alway to no purpose Mountebanck Engineers projections Mysterious Engines repâ—â—â—ved Object Answ. Object Answ. Marsh Lands The first Fendrayne's or Levellers highly to be honoured Invention far harder than an Addition to it Cutting water-courses strait no small aâ—vantage Many thousands of acres recoverable wiâ—h little charge to manifold advantage Some Mils destroy more than they are worth To prevent corrupting land by a Mildam as much as may be What Fen-Drayning is not What perfect Drayning is indeed How to know when Land is firmly Drayned The just Form or Modell of the Fen-lands How the Commoner is a hindrance to Fen-drayning How Undertakers may be a prejudice to the work Queries in Fen-drayning Reasons why the land floods would be best taken oâ—â— on the outside the Fen. Some particular â—ands may be drayned of themselves though the generall be not All such-Lands are most feciblâ— to be drayned Water Engins helpfull in 〈◊〉 These more difficult and yet fecible A new World may best admit of new Husbandry Denshiâ—ing Fen lands very usefull Denshiring lands reproved in the West Burning Land extolled in the North. Lands drowned by the Sea A Good Overseer worth Gold Tooles belonging to floating and Trenching to make the work more easie and less châ—rgable A good Line A Water-Levell Sir Edward Peto his Level The manner and form of a true and the speediest Level that I can devise Who are the makers of it The Trenching Plough Turving Spade The paring Spade The use of the Paring Spade 1 Extreme 2 Extreme Enclosure held forth without Depopulation The grandest evill of a just and equall Inclosure prevents Idleness and Oppression onely Enclosure prevents the Rot of sheep exceedingly Inclosure may occasion more work done at an easier charge Lands capable of enclosure Cottier provided for Labourer provided for Minister provided for Tithes not Gospell wayes maintenance 1. Tit. 8. Depopulation reproved Impropiations to be thought of Free-holder Lord of the Soyl or Landlord How Inclosure shall not prejudice the increase of Corn or food Four arguments to prove the advantage by Enclosure and that more Corn may be raised being Inclosed than Common One Acre brings forth as much Corn as three Tillage great profit Onely Right in Commons not Vsurpers I speak to At the first Enclosing of any Common how to cast out Land to the greatest Advance Tow Advantages of this Enclosure Cavils against Improvement in Common A
President of great store of lost Land under puddle hill capable of Improvement An offer made once to have made good the same 2 Advantage of this Enclosure III husbandry discovered along the River Thames both wayes much barren Land near London 109. p. 160. See Mr. Hartlip his legacy page 56. A second sort of Coarser Land the only Land for Plowing The middle sort of Clay strong Land advanceth it self by Tillage The warm lighter Land advanceth most in Corn to the Commonnwealth How to bank Ant-hills most speedily The best way to destroy Rush or coldness in any Pasture Moderate Tillage must needs advance â—and Advance for Plowing and the old Rent the first year after An offer made of making good a Lease after Plowing of old Rent and a great advance in Plowing Stratford upon Avon President Thâ— manner how to Plow such Lâ—nds Mow the Rushes Especiall directions for plowing Experiment of Plowing the second sort of Land and the fruits of it A President of the fruit that came of poor Lands worth but nine shillings an Acre To lay open Furrows clear is very good What Hardness and Harrowing is most advantagious Overâ—plow cryed down and reproved Reasons why but three or four yeares are prescribed for Plowing old Pasture Land neither more nor less Last Crop may yeeld most Corn but worst for the Land To lay down Land upon the Wheat or Rie Stubble is best and the reasons of it The way of Sowing Land to be left after to Grass Dung laid upon the new fresh Turf works wonders When one Load of Manure will go as far as two or three Prov. 12. 11. Prov. 28. 10. Prov. 13. 23. Prov. 11. 16. Prov. 13. 23. Richst â—or â— of Land Destruction of the best Land is by over-plowing Mowing Land a great Impoverishing Moderate Plowing better than unlimited Mowing Plowing left indifferent upon the Richest Lands Divisions of Land advanceth Small Divisions reproved Plowing the onely Cure of VVeeds Plowing the only Cure against Mossiness Rush Coldness Object Against timely Soarding Ans. 2. Plowing some Land must be used as a Medicine â—oâ— as a Calling VVhat Land it is that may Soard as well the first year to as much profit as before A President of Wheat stubble its speed so Soarding Object Ans. A president of fattest Mutton on the newest 〈◊〉 Object Ans. Rotting Sheep in new Pastures well ordered may be rate To prevent Rotting in new Tilled Pastures Separations and raising of Quick-set Hedges a greâ—t advancement Hedg rowes a thing of delight and credit Reasons why Quick-setting thrives no 〈◊〉 Hedg rows a great help for Firing and Timber Not preserving Quick-sets when planted is ruin to good Husbandry Usuall wayes to kill the Rush Flag or Mare'-blab Drayning the most naturall way Much Trenching reproved How to find the matter that â—eed the Rush Flag How to drain Land well where there is no end of Trenching The causes of Moals increasing VVant of a Law for killiâ—g of Moales a great mischief Pot-Tâ—â—p chief Engine in Moal Destruction Destroying the nests destroyes multitudes of them VVater best to destroy Moals Ant-hills Destruction Object Ans. Ant-Hills good to destroy Sheep or Beasts How to bank Ant Hills most speedily Why to lay them lower than the Surface of the Earth Sow-thistle a great annoyance Easiest way to destroy the Sow-thistle Goose Tansey Feâ—rn howâ—o destroy The reason of Fearns dying Easiest way to destroy Broom Excellentest way to destroy Broom Goss Ling and Braking When one load of Soyl doth as much good as two or three An unsailing way of destroying any filth Planting Fruit-trees in hedges is good husbandry Chief piece in Planting all fruits Best Earth discovered How to reap two Harvests An unfailing way to preserve Corn from Blasting The most usuall naturall help A good help to preserve Corn pure To preserve Corn from Fowls and Vermine An unfailing Prevention of Crows Rooks or Daws from Corn. The Reason of the Crows offence taken The fuller Description of the Persian VVheel Improvement of Up-Land several waies President of Plowing Wood-Land Land A Husband-mans old principle Wood-Land Lands Tilled every ten yeares yea some every eight Means or Materials to in-rich Land Liming of Land Object Ans. Presidents for Liming The Land most naturall for Lime The nature of Lime quite contrary to the common opinion How much wil Lime an Acre Marl. Nature of Marl. Signs of good Marl described Slipperâ—ress no infallible sâ—gn A Marling Experiment Some Mucked some Folded some Mâ—râ—ed One no cost at all A double Experiment Marl saddens Land exceedingly Extremes is Marling reproved How to lay down Land to graze after Marling The Prime Principle in Husbandry Land most naturall for Marl. Sand. Of no worth or use at all Sand from the Land-flood are good What Lands are naturall for Sands Pest Sand of all What causeth so much richness in the Sea Sands The Seas fruitfulness by Fish Sea Weeds very good soyl for Land Urine frâ—itful The richness of Snayl Cod. Where the right Snayl is to be got The chief River whereâ—n this Mud lyeth comes from-ward Vxbridge by Cole-brook and is not the Thames as I can yet discover having made a Journy thither since I wrote the aforesaid discourse Mud in Rivers of great use Bacons Naturall History pag. 123. Chalk Chalk mixed most certain Mud. Ingenuity not of such esteem as a base Outlandish fashion Earth covered with any house or baâ—n is rich Pidgeons and Poultry dung little less inferiour Horses well corned make best dung Swines dung most excellent soyl The great account of swines dung The usage of their Swine and the making of the Hogyard How to feed Swin without any cornish meat Raggâ— VVoo's Marrowbone Beef Broaâ—h Sheeps-Dung How with great ease to raise rich dung Horse Dungs Excellency A great mistake in letting soyl be uncovered How to lose none of the least benefit in mucking any Land notwithstanding Land-floods Some lose no Laâ—d flood at all Vrine of mankind usefull for Lands Ashes Soot Best Manure for Gardens Stubbâ—e or Straw Salts effect How much Liming Corn or watering Corn advanceth it Oyl the fruit thereof Leaves of Tâ—eâ—â— Fearn or Rushes will make soyl The most naturall Land to plant with Wood. How to cast our thy Wood-plots for pleasure Method and conâ—usion to thee bring of an equal price and probably be the cheaper How to cast out thy plot into most delightfull divisions Planting Strawberyes is excellent How to get thy seâ—s for planting The quickest growing wood What Sets are best How to plant thy Sets How to make thy Dike to Plant thy Sets in How to plant thy Quick and mould them also Object Ans. 1. Ans. 2. 2. A President of Wood planted that one Acre was worth 60. at 11 years growth What an Acre costs plenting Object Ans. 1. Ans. 2. No Observation of the Moon Eccl. 11. 4 5 6. Weeding most necessary Boggy-Land will bring forth a Plantation of Wood. What one Acre of