upon this Alphabet of Interrogatories and consider vvhat Ansvvers your Observations vvill afford unto them or vvhat you can learne from the Observations of others to clear them and as you have opportunity do as my Friend from Paris hath done furnish me vvith vvhat Gods providence shall send unto your hands that as I have begun I may put it out to use and requite you more plentifully as I hope I shall be able to do vvith the increase vvhich it shall yield by this vvay of Trading vvhich I have taken up freely to bestovv my paines and cost upon others that all may see the goodness of God in the vvorks of his hands and have cause to be thankfull unto him for the same and that so many eminent talents vvhich God hath put into your hands may not seeing he hath given you a heart to use them lye idle for vvant of Objects and sit Commodities vvherevvithall to be trading vvith him vvho subscribes himself alvvays SIR Your very much obliged and assured friend to serve you Samuel Hartlib A large Letter concerning the Defects and Remedies of English Husbandry written to Mr. Samuel Hartlib SIR ACcording to your desires I have sent you what I have observed in France about the sowing of a Seed called commonly Saint Foine which in English is as much to say as Holy-Hay by reason as I suppose of the excellency of it It 's called by Parkinson in his Herball where you may see a perfect description of it Cnobrychis Vulgaris or Cocks head because of its flower or Medick Fetchling By some it is called Polygala because it causeth cattel to give abundance of milk The plant most like unto it and commonly known being frequently sown in Gardens is that which is called French Honey-suckle and is a kind of it though not the same France although it be supposed to want the fewest things of any Province in Europe yet it hath no small want of Hay especially about Paris which hath necessitated them to sowe their dry and barren lands with this seed Their manner of sowing it is done most commonly thus When they intend to let their Corn-lands lye because they be out of heart and not scituate in a place convenient for manuring then they sowe that land with Oats and these Seeds together about equal parts the first year they onely mowe off their Oats leaving the Saint Foine to take root and strength that year Yet they may if they please when the year is seasonable mowe it the same year it is sown but it 's not the best way to do so the year following they mowe it and so do seven years together the ordinary burthen is about a load or a load and a half in good years upon an Arpent which is 100 square Poles or Rods every Pole or Rod being 20 foot wuich quantity of ground being nigh a 4th part less then an English Acre within a league of Paris is usually Rented at 6 or 7 s. After the land hath rested 7 years then they usually break it up and sowe it with corn till it be out of heart and then sowe it with Saint Foine as formerly for it doth not impoverish land as Annual Plants do but after seven years the roots of this plant being great and sweet as the roots of locorish do rot being turned up by the Plough and enrich the land I have seen it sown in divers places here in England especially in Cobham-Park in Kent about 4 miles from Gravesend where it hath thriven extraordinary well upon dry Chalky Banks where nothing else would grow and indeed such dry barren land is most proper for it as moist rich land for the great Trefoile or great Clover-Grass although it will grow indifferently well on all lands and when the other Grasses and Plants are destroyed by the parching heat of the Sun because their roots are small and shallow this flourisheth very much having a very great root and deep in the ground and therefore not easily to be exsiccated As we have observed Ononis or Rest-Harrow commonly to do on dry lands but if you sowe this on wet land the water soon corrupts the root of it This Plant without question would much improve many of our barren lands so that they might be mowen every year once at least seven years together and yield excellent fodder for cattel if so be that it be rightly managed otherwise it cometh to nothing as I have seen by experience I therefore councel those who sowe this or the great Trefoile or Clover-Grass or any other sort of grasses that they observe these Rules 1. That they do make their ground fine and kill all sorts of other grasses and plants otherwise they being Native English will by no means give way to the French ones especially in this moist climate and therefore they are to be blamed who with one ploughing sowe this or other seeds for the grass presently groweth up and choaketh them and so their negligence and ill Husbandry discourageth themselves and others 2. Let them not be too sparing of their seeds for the more they sowe the closer and thicker they will grow and presently fully stock the ground that nothing else can grow And further the seeds which come from beyond the Seas are oftentimes old and much decayed and therefore the more seed is required 3. Not to expect above 7 years profit by it for in that time it will decay and the naturall grass will prevail over it for every plant hath its period some in one year some in 2. As Would Cole Rape Wade c. Others in 3. as the common Thistle c. and therefore after 7 years let them either plough the Land up and sowe it with that same seed again or with other Grain as they do in France 4. Let not sheep or other cattel bite them the first year that they may be well rooted for these grasses are far sweeter then the ordinary grasses and cattel will eat them down leaving the other and consequently discourage their growth 5. The best way if men will be at the charge is to make their ground very fine as they do when they are to sowe Barley and harrow it even and then to howe these seeds in alone without any other grain as the Gardiners do Pease yet not at so great a distance but let them make the ranges about a foots breadth one from another and they shall see their grasses flourish as if they were green Pease especially if they draw the howe through them once or twice that summer to destroy all the weeds and grasses And if they do thus the great Clover and other seeds may be mowen even twice the first year as I have experimented in divers small plots of ground There is at Paris likewise another sort of fodder which they call La Lucern which is not inferior but rather preferred before this Saint Foine for dry barren grounds which hath bin lately brought thither and is managed as
for it maketh a fine Gentile wine with a curious colour In Germany when their Grapes are green they make fire in their Sellars in Stoves by the which means their wines work extraordinarily and do digest themselves the better This course we must also take here in England some years for it helpeth the rawnesse of all liquours very much There is an Ingenious Dutchman who hath a Secret which as yet he will not reveal how to help Maturation by a Compost applyed to the roots The Compost which I have spoken of before made of Brimstone Pigeons-dung is very excellent for that purpose as also Lâ—es of wine blood lime used with moderation He also knoweth how to make sour Grapes produce good wine I suppose his way to be this First all juice of Grapes newly expressed is sweet and which may by it selfe alone be made into a sweet syrup by boiling which the French call Racineè Further in the Evaporation of liquors which have not fermented or wrought the watery part goeth away first 3. Fermentation giveth a vinous taste and maketh a liquour full of spirits You may then easily guess at the way and perhaps he may adde also sugar and spices as the Vintuers do when they make Hippocras I know a Gentleman who hath made excellent wine of Raisins well boiled in water and afterward fermented by it self or with Barm it 's called usually Meade I likewise know that all sweet and fatty Juices will make sine vinous liquours as Damsins if they be wrought or fermented ingeniously but whosoever goeth about such experiments let him not think that any thing is good enough for these purposes but let him use the best he can get for of naughty corrupt things who can expect that which is excellent and delicate The Deficiency of us in this kind is so obvious that all the world takes notice of it and it is next the neglect of fishing the greatest shame to this Nation for all know that we have as good land for these seeds as any can be found in Europe and that the sowing of them requireth neither more labour cost or skill then other seeds And further that the Materials made from these are extreamly necessary for how miserable should we be without Linnen Canvases Cordage Nets How can we put our ships to Sea which are the bulwarks of this Isle And yet we are necessitated to have these Commodities from those who would destroy I will not say the Nation but I may boldly say our Shipping and Trade I hope that this will more seriously be considered by those at the Helme of our State I will freely and plainly relate how this Deficiency may easily be remedied according to my judgment 1. To compel by a Law that all Farmers who plough and sow 50 or 100 Acres of Land should sow half an Acre or an Acre of Hemp or Flax. or to pay 5 s. or 10 s. to the poor of the Parish where they live or some Law to this purpose for there is no man but hath land fit for one of these Hemp desiring a stiff deep rich land Flax that which is light For there is so much irrationality in some professions that they must be forced even like Bruits to understand their own good· In King Edward the sixth days something was enacted to this purpose as I am informed In Henry the eighth days there was a Law enacted that every man should sow his lands and that no man should enclose his lands lest he should turn it to Pasture for we have had great dearth in England through the neglect of Tillage which Laws even as yet stand in force yet there is not nor needeth there be any force to compel men to till and sow their lands for they have at length found the sweetnesse and willingly go about it for their own profits sake and now we suppose and not without cause that Enclosing is an Improvement and so concerning Hemp and Flax I say if they were once accustomed to sow them they would never leave it as I see Farmers do in East-Kent scarce a man but he will have a considerable plot of ground for Hemp and about London far greater quantities of Flax is sown then formerly 2. It were convenient that every Parish through the Nation should have a stock to set their poor to work that the young children and women might not run up and down idle and begging or stealing as they do in the Country of Apples Pease Wood Hedges and so by little and little are trained up for the Gallows 3. That a severe Law should be enacted against those who run up and down and will not work for if all know that they may have work at home and earn more within doors honestly then by running roguing up and down why should they not compel them to it And though some may think the Parishes will lose much by this way because that the stock wrought will not be put off but with losse as perhaps 10 l. will be brought to 8 l. yet let them consider how much they shal save at their doors how many inconveniences they are freed from their hedges in the Countrey shall not be pulled their fruits stoln nor their Corn purloined and further that the poor will be trained up to work and therefore fit for any service yea and in their youth learn a calling by the which they may get an honest livelyhood and I dare say their Assessements for the poor would not be so frequent nor the poor so numerous and the benefit which redounds to the Nation would be very great 4. The charitable deeds of our forefathers ought to be enquired after that they be not misplaced as usually they are but be really bestowed for the good of the poor that are laborious as in London is begun and if there be any that will not work take Saint Pauls rule who best knew what was best for them I dare not advise to take it in part of Commons Fens c. and to improve them for this use lest I should too much provoke the rude mercilesse multitude But to return to my discourse I say that sowing Hemp and Flax will be very beneficial 1. To the Owners of Land for men usually give in divers places 3 l. per Acre to sow Hemp and Flax as I have seen at Maidstone in Kent which is the only place I know in England where thread is made and though nigh an hundred bands are imployed about it yet they make not enough for this Nation and yet get good profit How advantageous will this be to those who have drained the Fens where questionlesse Hemp will flourish and exsiccate the ground for Hemp desireth stiff moist land as Flax light and dry and likewise to those in the North of England where land is very cheap I hope in a little time Ireland will furnish us with these commodities if we be idle for there land is very cheap and those
venture to give some hints that some more able Pen may engage in this difficult Question which strikes at the Root of Nature and may unlock some of her choycest treasures The Lord Bacon hath gathered stubble as he ingeniously and truly affirms for the bricks of this foundation but as yet I have not seen so much as a solid foundation plainly laid by any on which an ingenious man might venture to raise a noble Fabrick I acknowledge the burthen too heavy for my shoulders I will not deny but that we have good Husbands who dung and Marle their Meadows and Pasture-land and throw down all Mole and Ant-hills and with their Spud-staffe cut up all thistles and weeds and that they likewise straw ashes on their Grounds to kill the Mosse and salt for the Wormes and they doe very well but yet there are many who are negligent in these particulars for the which they are blame-worthy but the Deficiencies of which I intend to speak of are these following Cato one of the wisest of the Romans saith that Pratum est quasi paratum alwayes ready and prepared and preferreth Meadows before the Olive-Gardens although the Spaniards bequeath Olive-trees to their children as we do cottages or Vines or Corn because Meadows bring in a certain profit without labour and pains But the other requireth much cost and paines and are subject to Frosts Mildew Haile Locusts to the which for the honour of Meadows I may adde that the stock of Meadows is of greater value and the Commodities which arise from them are divers and of greater value then Corn as Butter Cheese Tollow Hides Beef Wool and therefore I may conclude that England abounding in Pastures more then other Countreys is therefore richer and I know what others think I care not that France Acre for Acre is not comparable to it Fortescue Chancelour of England saith that we get more in England by standing still then the French by working but to speak of the Deficiencies amongst us 1. We are to blame that we have neglected the great Clover-grass Saint Foine Lucerne 2. That we do not float our lands as they do in Lumbard where they mowe their Lands three or four times yearly which consist of the great Clover-grass Here are the excellent Parmisane Cheeses made and indeed these Pastures far exceed any other places in Italy yea in Europe We here in England have great opportunities by Brooks and Rivers in all places to do so but we are negligent yet we might hereby double if not treble our profits kill all rushes c. But he that desireth to know the manner how to do this and that profit that will arise thereby let him read Mr. Blithes Book of Husbandry lately printed 3. That when we lay downe Land for Meadow or Pasture we doe not sowe them with the Seeds of fine sweet grasse Trefoils and other excellent herbs Concerning this you may read a large Treatise of the Countrey-Farmer for if the Land be rich it will put forth weeds and trumpery and perhaps a kind of soure grasse little worth if it be poor ye shall have thistles May-weed and little or no grasse for a year or two I know a Gentleman who at my entreaty sowed with his Oats the bottome of his Hay-mow and though his Land were worne out of heart and naturally poor yet he had that year not onely a Crop of Oats but he might if it had pleased him have mowen his grasse also but he spared it which was well done till the next year that it might make a Turffe and grow stronger By this Husbandry Lands might be well improved especially if men did consider the diversity of grasses which are ninety sorts and three and twenty of Trefoil I know a place in Kent which is a white Chalky Down which ground is sometimes sown with Corn a year or two and then it resteth as long or longer when it is laid down it maintaineth many great Sheep and very lusty so that they are even fit for the Butcher and yet there doth scarce appear any thing that they can eat which hath caused divers to wonder as if they had lived on Chalk-stones but I more seriously considering the matter throughly viewed the ground and perceived that the ground naturally produceth a small Trefoil which it seemeth is very sweet and pleasant it 's commonly called Trifolium luteum or Lupilinum that is yellow or Hop-Trefoil and I am perswaded if that the Seed of this Trefoil were preserved and sowne with Oates when they intend to lay it down it would very much advance the Pasture of that place therefore I desire all Ingenious men seriously to consider the nature of the Trefoils which are the sweetest of grasses and to observe on what grounds they naturally grow and also the nature of other grasses which as I have said before are no less then ninety sorts naturally growing in this Isle some on watry places some on dry some on clay others on sand chalk c. Some on fruitful places others in barren by the which means I suppose a solid foundation might be laid for the advancing of Pasture-lands of all sorts through this Island for I know some plants as the Orchis call'd Bee-flower c. which will thrive better on the Chalky barren banks then in any Garden though the Mould be never so rich and delicate and the Gardiner very diligent in cherishing of it and why may not the same propriety be in grasses for we see diverse beuty grasses to thrive espcially on barren places where scarce any thing else will grow I must again and again desire all men to take notice of the wonderfull grass which groweth near Salisbury and desire them to try it on their rich Meadows It 's a common saying that there are more waste lands in England in many particulars then in all Europe besides considering the quantity of land I dare not say this is true but hope if it be so that it will be mended For of late much hath been done for the advancement of these kinds of land yet there are as yer great Deficiencies In the times of Papistry all in this Island were either Souldiers or Scholars Scholars by reason of the great honours priviledges and profits the third part of the Kingdom belonging to them and Souldiers because of the many and great Wars with France Scotland Ireland Wales And in those times Gentlemen thought it an honour to be carelesse and to have Houses Furniture Diet Exercises Apparel c. yea all things at home and abroad Souldier-like Musick Pictures Perfumes Sawces unlesse good stomacks were counted perhaps unjustly too effeminate In Queen Elizabeth's dayes Ingenuities Curiosities and Good Husbandry began to take place and then Salt-Marshes began to be fenced from the Seas and yet many were neglected even to our dayes as Holhaven in Essex Axtel-holme Isle nigh York-shire many 1000 of Acres have lately been gained from the Sea in Lincolne-shire and as
somewhat dangerous therefore Gardiners do use very much Nux vomica which may be had every where with a little butter but take heed of the Dogs Moals likewise do much hurt both to Corn and Pasture and are too much neglected though they may easily be destroyed either with a Moal-spade or by finding their Nests in March which usually are in some extraordinary hills or else by putting a deep pot 〈◊〉 the earth where they run a clicketting in the Spring or by a Moal-trap which the Gardiners frequently use about London c. Also it were good to destroy the Birds called Tom-tits which are great enemies to Bees and fruit Sparrows Finches Snayl Warms c. 7. I cannot but adde to this place the failings in divers particulars in respect of some particular places viz. the planting of Saffron which is very well performed in some parts of Essex Cambridge c. yet altogether unknown in Kent though there are Lands both white and red as they call them with plenty of dung very proper for that purpose and yet this commodity is excellent and further I can adde as a Deficiency that I have never seen nor heard of any thing written on this Subject to any purpose 2. The planting of Hops concerning which Scot in Queen Elizabeths days wrote an excellent Treatise to the which little or nothing hath been added though the best part of an hundred years are since past and much experienced in this kind amongst us for though many fine Gardens have been planted in the Southern parts yet the Northern are deficient so that often-times we are necessitated to have great quantities from Flaunders 3. Liquorice is much planted about Pomfract in York-shire and about London but little that I hear of else-where so that we are sometimes beholding to Spain for it 4. Would is sown in divers parts of Kent not much in other places therefore we are oft beholding to the Western Isles for it 5. Wade which is abundantly sown about Coventry and yet in Kent thought to be a forraign Commodity this is of excellent use and deserveth to be sown every where I might here also adde Madder which is very necessary and scarcely sown any where as also Canary-seeds Carnways which are abundantly sown about Sandwich and Deal in Kent also Rape Cole-seeds c. whose oyl is of great use also of Fruit-trees Gardening Hemp Flax but of these I have largely discoursed before 21. Deficiency is by reason of our sins we have not the blessing of the Lord upon our labours And this the reason that although the Husbandman hath been laborious and diligent in his calling these last years yet our Crops have been thin his Cattel swept away and scarcity and famine hath siezed on all parts of this Land and if we had not been supplyed from abroad we had quite devoured all the creatures of this Island for our sustenance and yet we could not be satisfied but must have devoured one another And therefore to conclude though I desire the Husbandman to be diligent and laborious in his calling yet I counsel him to break off his sins by Repentance to have his eye towards him who is the Giver of every good thing and to pray daily to him for his blessings who giveth freely to them that ask and upbraideth not And although all callings ought to look up to him that is on high yet the Countrey-man especially for he hath a more immediate dependance on him then any other for if the Lord with-hold his fat dew from Heaven or the former or latter Rain it is in vain that the Husbandman rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefulness for we know that it is the Lord that maketh barren places fruitful and he likewise that turneth fruitful Lands into barrenness as the Land of Canaan which was very fruâ—tful even in the time of the Canaanites but now a barren desart and therefore I again desire the Countrey-man to walk as it becometh a Christian in all Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness not to trust or put his confidence in his own labours and good Husbandry but on the Lord that hath made all things for though even Paul himself doth plant and Apollo doth water yet it is only the Lord that giveth increase and plenty which he will not deny to those that fear him for they shall want nothing that is good Lastly for a Corollary I will adde though it doth not so much concern the Husbandman as those of greater Power and Authority That it is a great Deficiency in England that we do not magazine or store up Corn when the Lord sendeth us plenty and therefore at cheap rates as Joseph did in Egypt against dear years for then the Grain is purest the perfectest without Smut Mildew Shrankness or other imperfections and is the best for long preservation this is much used in Poland Dantrigk Italy Holland c. and is found of wonderful importance By this means Holland which soweth little or no Corn seldome or never feeleth a famine though it be incredibly populous and for want of this good policy England which many years aboundeth with Corn is sore bitten therewith as is manifest in these last years in which had not our Neighbours wisely and politickly provided for us we should have famished and devoured one another Further This storing of Corn will save vast Sums of money which in dear years are exported for bread and also well ballance the price of Corn so that the honest Husbandman needs not murmure and be discouraged because that the price is low and Markets scant in plentiful years because then the Magazins are to be restored nor the Artizans be famished by the excessive rate of bread in dear years for then the Magazines are to be exhausted The best way for the wise carrying on of this businesse the Politicians must lay forth but that belongs not to our calling Yet I shall here as I have done in former things gâ— some general hints and leave the rest to those who are wiser And first The City of London which is the mouth of the Island and as I am credibly informed by Meal-men spendeth about 5000 Quarters of Wheat weekly and I suppose it cannot do lesse considering there cannot be lesse then 600000 people therein and about viz. at least an hundred thousand in the 97 Parishes within the Walls and four times as many without the Walls as appeareth by the Bills of Mortality and at least an hundred thousand strangers of all sorts which proportion is lesse then four l. of bread the week for one this place ought I say to have a considerable Magazine for three or six months something hath been done in this kind by our fore-fathers as appeareth by the particular store-houses of the private Companies which store-houses ought to be augmented in number as the Companies yearly are and also the Quantity of Grain because the City daily grows more populous 2. I
profit a great deal than by beasts And if there be any doubt whether people may be had to improve the land and to produce greater profit than beasts can doe let but things be so ordered that the Plebeans may have such good employments whereby they may maintain a married estate plentifully and it will be found by a short experience there will be no want of servants By this means the Parsons may double their tyths the Landlord may double his rents and the common people though doubled in number may live twice as well as they did before and Princes and Statesmen shall not have half the trouble which they had before for want and necessity is found to produce grudgings and discontentments These have produced Rebellions and Insurrections all which have caused Princes for to lose their kingdoms many times and turned the state of Countries topsey turvey Besides that the lives of men would be lengthened as in former Ages by their good and wholsom diet for there can be no other cause in nature why men should be now of lesser stature and enjoy worse health and dye sooner than in former Ages but these few viz. First men are much imployed with worldly cares and difficulty for living in populous Countries which might easily be remedied by the means aforesaid Secondly the Corn which should be the preserver of other meats from too sudden corruption in the bodies of men before the chilus hath performed all his several offices is now adulteraâ—ed and contaminated much by mixing the dung with the corn before the corruptible part thereof be consumed and so the corn helped to contaminate the blood which should preserve it and would do it powerfully if my new Invention were generally put into practise Thirdly in populous Countries where there is difficulty of living the pure law of nature is not observed in Marriages and married estates but other respects doth sway overmuch which causeth defects in many generations But to return to my main subject I am now about a way to experiment to meliorate any Corn Pulse Seed Kernel Fruit c. and doubt not but to bring it to passe in such sort that the pleasantness of the tast the wholsomness of the smel and the ability to keep other meats from sudden corruption in mans body will invite great men in general to make use of the same and to give good prices so that a Farmer may maintain his family well and grow rich too by the planting of 1 Acre of land yearly For upon my certain knowledge there are fondly cast away in every family in England as well in great Cities as Country-towns so many things as being used according to my direction would produce such an increase of corn yearly as would serve for the maintenance of the said family and would be more wholsom for the body of man than the greater part of corn which now usually groweth in England yea though this Compost should be used in the more barren sort of land So that now the question is not whether this Land and so consequently other Kingdoms may live in worldly happiness and prosperity for ever hereafter but whether they will do so or not for if they be willing they wil shew the same by their actions and then I am sure there is no doubt to be made of the possibility thereof Whereby an Vtopia may be had really without any fiction at all If order were given that every Over-seer of the poor in their Parishes only one day in the year in the practise of some of these new Inventions as setting of Wheat of compounding of Composts in great Cities fit to be carried many miles then they would be expert against a year of dearth and famine so that they might be employed in that work whereby a wonderfull quantity of corn might be saved for the present relief of the Land which else must needs be imported from other Kingdomes for which the wealth of this Land must needs be exhausted The thirteenth Experiment wherein is shewed how timber for buildings and wood for houshold-stuffe may be provided in short space It is found by experience that a Chesnut will grow in ten or twelve yeares into a fair tree able to be the Master-post of a fair building and then there is no question but that it may be provided into lesser parts for studds and spars It is also found that a Walnut will grow in the like time into a tree able to make little tables boxes stools and chests very beautiful and sit for use to adorn the house Whereby any younger brother that will shew so much frugality and providence as to obtain leave of his father to plant a certain number of such trees in some convenient place in his fathers lands in his minority while he is a School-boy he may not onely have wood to build him an house and to furnish it against his occasion but also he may win so much credit by his industry and diligence that as for my part if I had a daughter to marry I would sooner match her with him though I purchase him land to set his house upon than with his elder brother if he wanted those gifts and qualities though he were able to make a good Joynture For I have seen by experience that a present estate either real or personal is not to be compared to the quality of thriving which any man else may likewise see by experience that sometimes yea many times a Farmer being industrious intelligent and provident though he pay a good round rent liveth better than a Freeholder which is owner of much free-land The fourteenth Experiment wherein is shewed divers waies concerning Fruit-trees It is found by experience that if the kernel of a Pear or Apple be set and not grafted but be let grow to a great tree then it will not bear fruit till forty or fifty yeares as a great number of other trees of the same kind It is likewise found by experience that a Siens taken from a tree that is fruitfull and also from the most fruitful bough of that tree and being grafted into a young stock of the same kind as that before mentioned will bear fruit in a quarter of the time which the other did the cause can be no other but that nature hath ordained a certain time for propagation in all things but yet the said time was accelerated in the grassed tree by Art helping Nature but in the other tree time was left to natures free determination So that every one may make choice of these two wayes at pleasure and if he aim at his present profit then graffing is his present way and best but if he aim at the profit of his posterity then it is best not to graft at all And by this means he may change the tasts of fruits at pleasure which by graffing he cannot doe for it is found by experience that if three kernels of several sorts be put into the cave
gained that is about fourteen shillings in the pound gained yearly And for two years after the same ground will bear most excellent Wheat Rye or Barley all charges payed to the value of four Quarters of Barley on an Acre worth one time with another twenty shillings a Quarter al a hundred and twenty thousand Quarters and so also a hundred and twenty thousand pound yearly Thus shall forty thousand Poor be kept constantly at work all the year and the Commonwealth eased of that burthen and advantaged besides a hundred and fifty thousand Quarters of Hemp-seed a hundred and fity thousand tun of Cloth and Cordage and above a hundred and twenty thousand Quarters of good Corn and the Undertakers amongst them shall gain clearly three hundred and sixty thousand pound sterling yearly This is set down purposely the Charge with the most and the Return with the least And if the number of so many Rich men cannot be found to engage for any of these sums more persons and lesse engagements may begin the work An Answer to five Queres or Objections against the Proposition for setting the Poor to work upon Hemp growing or to be growing in England Qu. 1. WHether those in France c. practising this way do make the Gaines here supposed all Casualties considered Answ Whether they in France c. doe make so great or greater profit I cannot tell as having never been there to see but 't is probable they doe equal this if their ground be equal as some will have it superiour to ours in fertility and fitnesse for this weed Qu. 2. Whether we can spare the land here in England or whether it is not already imployed to more benefit Answ To this I can better answer as the thing I pretty well know that the Land may not onely be spared but will otherwise very much enrich us and advance our plenty of Corn and this is declared in the Proposition and the Question therefore not so pertinent Yet for a farther Answer I affiâ—m that there is demonstratively in England and Wales above 4000000 of Acres for Tillage and you finde but forty thousand Acres to be used yearly for the sowing of Hemp which is but the hundereth part and it is there promised that in the two or three succeeding years wherein the same land shall be sowed with Corn amends shall be fully made for the missing of that yeares crop and more by the goodnesse of those that follow The last part of this Quere is soon answered for it is generally known that an Acre of Corn taking one time place grain with another throughout is hardly worth forty shillings whereas a reasonable Acre of Hemp is worth standing four pound some five pound some six pound and very many more And then the Acre of Corn is worth no more than it shews for whereas the Hemp to the Commonwealth as well as the particular owner is of far greater value if we consider that one Acre of Hemp well wrought up may be worth above a hundred pound but then the charge may amount to the better half indeed Qu. 3. Whether by the inexperience of the people of this Land other Nations will not very much under-sell us Answ I could as well have propounded Flax as Hemp since in many cases and places it is more usefull and profitable but â— onely name it in the Proposition and if you observe the reason there given for so doing you will find much of this Question answered or prevented But how far other Nations may under-sell us or we them I leave to the judgment of those that are more Merchant-like to which I lay no claim but at most to be one that would fain be a good Inland Husband a Lover of my Country and a faithful seeker of her Peace Prosperity by all just and lawful means Yet thus much I can say to the point that to my knowledge many hundreds I think I may say thousands of Acres are with great advantage to the possessors imployed in this way namely in the Isle of Axholm and other the parts of Lincolush c. which place is more populous than any part of England that I know and yet few or no Beggars And I have a little lookt into the prizes yet I find not English hemp differ much in price from that which is imported it seems to me that necessity rather as not having enough at home causes such importing I have seen a Hull Merchant stand upon three pence a pound for raw Hemp when the same day English Hemp that was adjudged every whit as good was sold for two pence half penny I have also known Hemp fetched by Waggon from Bourn in Lincolnshire to Glocester upon the River of Severn And our Experience certainly we may blush to say we have not sufficient skill to make Cordage or such kinds of coarse cloath as the Proposition intends namely such as is commonly used to make Sheets Table-cloathes Towels Napkins and the coarser sorts of Shirting or the like As for the finer sorts we may work our selves into the kill and practice of making such by degrees and at more leasure Qu. 4. Whether when we make so much Linnen Cordage as here we shall have so good vent for our Native commodities for which Cordage Hemp c. is returned Answ As I said I pretend not to judge of Merchants affairs yet I have not heard of any of our native commodities which are vented for Hemp or Cordage or the like which will not be acceptable to the same or other Countries for the return of as good commodities Once I am sure that those commodities are onely or at least most fit to import which we cannot so well make native to us as Spices Wines Drugs Medicinal Silkes c. And I suppose it cannot be unhappy or unfit for us to make as many our own as by good meanes we can especially Hemp Cordare c. since we cannot be without them and are not sure alwaies to hold fair correspondence with those Nations from whom we have them the chief strength of England principally consisting in Shipping 't is but a coarse policy to have our Cordage c. to keep Qu. 5. Who will advance so great a summe in unsetled times upon a New Trade having in it the afore-mentioned and perhaps more difficulties Answ If you please to observe my Proposition you will find I say onely if such men may be found I promise not to find them but if they will finde themselves I hold forth to them the sweet invitation of a greater advantage than I beleeve they can otherwise obtain by direct and good means And then adde to that the double and treble service or good they shall all under one do tax for their Christian Brethren and native Country And if this will not this will not invite cannot perswade them yet me-thinks we should rather take occasion to bewaile our own theirs and the Commonwealths misery and aversnesse
Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth for the purpose aforesaid which may also be converted into Saltpeter p. 192 193 194. The fifth Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how the difference of the nature of land may be found out thereby to fit it with an apt Compost p. 194 195 196. The sixth Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how Farm-houses Mannors or Towns may be builded upon high grounds and plentifully furnished with water p. 196 197. The seventh Experiment wherein is shewed how Sellars that are annoyed with Water-springs may be remedied p. 197 198. The eighth Experiment wherein is shewed how the rot in Sheep may be cured p. 198 199 200. The ninth Experiment wherein is shewed how Corn may be preserved in cheap years without corruption so that it may supply the dearth when it cometh p. 200 201 202. The tenth Experiment wherein is shewed the natural cause why the changing of Seed-corn produceth an improvement also certain waies for the melioration of Seeds and Fruits p. 202 203 204. The eleventh Experiment wherein is shewed how rich Compost may be made in great Cities of things formerly cast away p. 204 205. The twelfth Experiment wherein is shewed how any Kingdom may live in great prosperity with half the trouble and charge which now they sustain and yet live in adversity p. 205 206 207 208. The thirteenth Experiment wherein is shewed how Timber for Buildings and Wood for Houshold-stuffe may be provided in short space p. 208 209. The fourteenth Experiment wherein is shewed divers waies concerning Fruit-trees p. 209 210. The fifteenth Observation and Experiment shewing how it may be ordered that Corn shall never be exceeding cheap to the great prejudice of the Farmer nor exceeding dear to the grievance of the buyer p. 210 211 212 213. The sixteenth Experiment shewing how all sublunary substances may be changed one into another 213 214. The first Experiment shewing how Minerals may be turned into Vegetables p. 214. The second Experiment shewing how this Corn may be turned into Animals p. 214 215. The third Experiment shewing how thie Animal may be turned into Vegetable again p. 215. The fourth Experiment shewing how this Vegetable may be turned back into Minerals p. 215 216. The last Experiment shewing how weeping land may be drained where there is no level p. 216. Thus far Mr. Plat's new Treatise A Philosophical Letter concerning Vegetation or the causes of Fruitfulness p. 217 218 219. An extract out of another Philosophical Letter p. 220. Another Letter on the same subject p. 220 221. How the Controversie about Helmont's Assertions mentioned in the fourth Deficiency of the Legacy of Husbandry may be reconciled p. 221 222 223. An observation touching planting of Trees in the Fens p. 223. More observations concerning Fruit-trees and the great benefit of Furzes for keeping Rats and Mice out of Barn-floors or other roomes as likewise Reeks of Corn and Cheese-racks 224 225. An Estimate of the great quantity of Corn that Pidgeons do eat spoyl and destroy in the County of Cambridge and pro rata for every shire of England the one with the other as by due enquiry may be made appear p. 225 226 227. Another Estimate by way of confirmation of destructive Pidgeon-houses p. 227 228. A kind of universal Medicine or the virtues of chewed bread p. 228 229 230 231. The Scotchway of brewing their strongest and best Ale p. 231. How to make Wine out of Corn p. 232. Another process to make Wine of Corn p. 232 233. Some Animadversions upon the fore-going process of making Wine of Corn p. 233. Glauberus's promise or undertaking for making Wine out of Corn p. 234 235. An Advertisement concerning the Mystery of making Wine according to Glaubers undertaking p. 235. How a Meadow about the end of May or beginning of June before the seeds of Grass are ripe may be used p. 235. How much ground in England may be cured that through the predomination of some quality in excess will not sward again or gather a good head of grass for the first 3 4 5 6 or 7 years when laid down after ploughing p. 236. A Letter of a very ingenuous Gentleman Mr. R.H. concerning the Husbandry of Clover-grass p. 236 237. Another Letter shewing the great benefit arising by Clover-grass to the Common-wealth in general p. 238 239. Mr. Crutendens Letter and Certificate p. 239 240. A Letter from Upton 11. Aprilis 1653. Concerning the Husbandry of Clover-seed 240 241. Sir Rich. Westons more special directions for the best ordering of Clover-grass p. 242 243. Some doubts and queres concerning the aforesaid directions propounded in a Letter from Dublin p. 244. The Doubts and Queres in the Letter from Dublin resolved p. 245 246. An Answer to more Queres concerning the Husbandry of Clover-grass p. 246 247. Concerning the Threshing of Clover-seed p. 247. An exact Letter written from Dublin concerning the Husbandry of Clover in Ireland p. 248. An Answer to the foregoing Extract concerning the miscarriage of the Husbandry of Clover in Ireland p. 248 249. An Extract of another Letter in reference to the foregoing Answer p. 250. More Extracts of Letters concerning French Seeds of St. Foin and Lucern p. 250 251. More Queres about Lucern and the seed called Esparcet with the Answers of them p. 252 253. The difference between Esparcet and the other French seeds p. 253 254 The last advertisement concerning Esparcet and the other French seeds p. 254 255. A Letter of Dr. J. S. relating the husbandry of the French Tares or Fetches p. 255 256 257. An observation upon the Husbandry of the French Tares or Fetches p. 257. Another Letter relating the Braband Husbandry of Spurry-seed p. 257 258. The description of the Hop-clover or Trefoil in English Three-leaved Grass p. 259 260. Of the long English grass in Wiltshire p. 260. Some Physical uses of Milk and of curing the black Jaundies c. p. 261. Observations concerning Oyls p. 262 263. How to make better Butter than ordinary without setting the Milk for Cream p. 263. Of Chedder Cheeses where they are made p. 263. Objections answered against propositions of Improvement by Agriculture and other the branches of good Husbandry p. 264 265 266 267. An approved Experiment for the cure of the Fashions in Horses and the Rot in Sheep p. 267. Another approved Experiment for fatting of Hogs and preserving or curing of them from Measels or other diseases p 268. Another excellent remedy against the Rot and other diseases in Sheep and Horses p. 268. Whether a good Lime may be made of Pibble and other stones whereby land may be dunged and enriched p. 268 269. The manner of planting Timber-trees in Cornwel p. 269 270. How to hasten the growth of Timber-trees p. 270. Of Turky-beans to be more frequently planted p. 271. A friendly advice how a hundred and fifty pound may be improved by Husbandry to yeeld a
be mellow not much more chargeable 3. That it would imploy many thousand of people that a third part of the seed might be saved As I have found by experience that all the weeds and grasses might be more easily destroyed thereby and the ground better accommodated for other crops and to conclude the crop considerably greater Yet thus much I must further say concerning setting of Grain That great Beans are even of necessity to be set and that small Beans in Surrey and other places are likewise set with profit for the reasons above mentioned that to set Pease unless Hastevers and Roncivals Oats Barley is a thing even ridiculous that Wheat although in divers grounds it may be set with profit yet to how it in as the Hardiners speak as they do Pease though not at the same distance but about a foot the ranges one from another is better then setting for these Reasons 1. Because to set Corn is an infinite trouble and charge and if it be not very exactly done which children neither can nor will do and these must be the chief setters will be very prejudicious 2. If worms frost ill weather or fowls destroy any part of your seed which they will do your crop is much impared 3. The ground cannot be so well weeded and the mould raised about the roots by the how Which 3 inconveniences are remedied by the other way Further I dare affirm that after the ground is digged or ploughed and harrowed even it 's better to howe Wheat in then to sowe it after the common way because that the weeds may be easily destroyed by running the howe through it in the Spring and the mould raised about the roots of the Corn as the Gardiners do with Pease it would save much Corn in dear years and for other Reasons before mentioned Yea it is not more chargeable for a Gardiner will howe in an Acre for 5 s. and after in the Spring for less money run it over with a howe and cut up all the weeds and raise the mould which charges are not great and you shall save above a bushel of seed which in dear years is more worth then all your charges Further 1 s. 6 d. or 2 s. an Acre for the sowing and harrowing of an Acre in Kent is accounted a reasonable price and may be saved but if any fear charges let him use a Dril-Plough with one horse which is commonly known at Fulham and about London I therefore cannot but commend the howing in of wheat as an excellent piece of good Husbandry whether the ground be digged or ploughed not only because it saveth much Corn imployeth much people and it is not chargeable but it also destroyeth all weeds fitteth grounds for after crops and causeth a greater increase and in my apprehension is a good Remedy against Smut and Mildew There is an Ingenious Italian who wondreth how it cometh to pass that if one setteth a Grain of Corn as Wheat Barley c. it usually produceth 300 or 400. yea 1000 2000 as I have tryed yet if you sow Wheat after the ordinary way 6 or 8 for one is accounted a good crop what becometh of all the Corn that is sown when as the 50th part if it do grow would be sufficient For answer to this 1. I say much Corn is sown which nature hath destinated for the Hens and Chickens being without any considerable vegetative faculty 2. Worms Frosts Floods Crows and Larks which every one doth not consider do devour not a little 3. Weeds as Poppy May-weed and the grasses growing with the Corn do destroy much Lastly When Corn is so sown after the ordinary manner much is buried in the furrows especially if the ground be grazy much is thrown on heaps in holes and consequently starve and choak one another Most of these Inconveniencies are to be remedyed by this way of setting and howing in of Corn. Gardening though it be a wonderfull improver of lands as it plainly appears by this that they give extraordinary rates for land viz. from 40 s per Acre to 9 pound and dig and howe and dung their lands which costeth very much Yet I know divers which by 2 or 3 Acres of land maintain themselves and family and imploy other about their ground and therefore their ground must yeild a wonderfull increase or else it could not pay charges yet I suppose there are many Deficiencies in this calling 1. Because it is but of few years standing in England therefore not deeply rooted nor well understood About 50 years ago about which time Ingenuities first began to flourish in England This Art of Gardening began to creep into England into Sandwich and Surrey Fulham and other places Some old men in Surrey where it flourisheth very much at present report That they knew the first Gardiners that came into those parts to plant Cabages Colleflowers and to sow Turneps Carrets and Parsnips to sow Raith or early ripe Pease Rape all which at that time were great rarities we having few or none in England but what came from Holland and Flanders These Gardiners with much ado procured a plot of good ground and gave no less then 8 pound per Acre yet the Gentleman was not content fearing they would spoile his ground because they did use to dig it So ignorant were we of Gardening in those days 2. Many parts of England are as yet wholly ignorant Within these 20 years a famous Town within less then 20 miles off London had not so much as a Mess of Pease but what came from London where at present Gardening flourisheth much I could instance divers other places both in the North and West of England where the name of Gardening and Howing is scarcely known in which places a few Gardiners might have saved the lives of many poor people who have starved these dear years 3. We have not Gardening-ware in that plenty and cheapness unlesse perhaps about London as in Holland and other places where they not onely feed themselves with Gardiner's ware but also fat their Hogs and Cows 4. We have as yet divers things from beyond Seas which the Gardiners may easily raise at home though nothing nigh so much as formerly for in Queen Elizabeths time we had not onely our Gardiners ware from Holland but also Cherries from Flaunders Apples from France Saffron Licorish from Spain Hops from the Low-Countreys And the Frenchman who writes the Treasure Politick saith That it 's one of the great Deficiencies of England that Hops will not grow whereas now it is known that Licorish Saffron Cherries Apples Pears Hops Cabages of England are the best in the world Notwithstanding we as yet want many things as for example We want Onnions very many coming to England from Flaunders Spain c. Madder for dying cometh from Zurick-Sea by Zealand we have Red Roses from France Annice-seeds Fennel-seeds Cumine Caraway Rice from Italy which without question would grow very well in divers
moist lands in England yea Sweet-Marjoram Barley and further Gromwell-seed and Virga Aurea and Would from the Western Isles though they grow in our hedges in England Lastly Gardening is deficient in this particular that we have not Nurceries sufficient in this land of Apples Pears Cherries Vines Chestnuts Almonds c. but Gentlemen are necessitated to send to London some hundred miles for them Briefly for the advancement of this ingenuous calling I onely desire that Industrious Gentlemen would be pleased to encourage some expert workmen into the places where they live and to let them land at a reasonable rate and if they be poor and honest to lend a little stock they will soon see the benefit that will redound not only to themselves but also to all their Neighbours especially the poor who are not a little sustained by the Gardiners labours and ingenuities 4. Our Husbandry is deficient in this that we know not how to remedy the infirmities of our growing Corn especially Smut and Mildew to instance in these two onely which oftentimes bring great calamities to these Nations Smut in wet years Mildews in dry These distempers in Corn are not onely in our Countrey but also in other places A learned Authour saith that Smuttiness of Corn which maketh it smell like a Red Herring was not known in France till about 1530. at which time the great foul disease began to break forth in those parts very hotly which he conceiveth from hence to have some original as also the camp-disease Mildews are very great in the Kingdom of Naples which oft stick to the sithes of those that mow grass and corn and God be thanked we are not troubled with Locusts which is a great flying Grass-hopper nor Palmer-worms which is a kind of great black Cater-piller which I have seen destroying much in new-New-England nor with great hail in Summer nor with great drought which stifleth the ear in the stalk which Calamities in hot Countreys do very oft totally destroy the honest and patient Husbandman's labours neither are we troubled with extream colds which in new-New-England and other cold Countreys doe oft destroy the Corn. But to return to our purpose And first briefly to shew you my opinion concerning the Causes of Smuttinesse I desire not to fetch Causes afar off and to tell you of the sad Conjunctions of Mars and Saturn for I think Quae suprae nos belong not to us when as we have enough at home This is certain that there are many evident causes of this corruption of Corn. 1. A moist season about Kerning-time which moisture either corrupteth the roots of the Plant or the nourishment of it or the seed in its Embrio or perhaps in some measure all these 2. Low moist foggy ground for the reasons above mentioned 3. Dung'd land In Vineyards it 's observed that dung causeth more increase in quantity but less in goodness so that the ill-taste of the dung may easily be discerned because wine hath an high taste without question the same happeneth to other Plants although it be not so easily discerned for the ferment or ill odour of the dung cannot be over-mastered by the Plants as we see also in Animals that corrupt diet causeth unsavory tasts in the flesh so hogs in New-found-land where they are nourished by fish may by their tasts be called rather Sea-porpusses then Land-swine 4. The sowing of Smutty Corn oft produceth Smuttyness the son like unto the father I account Smutty Corn an imperfect or sick Grain and suppose that by a Microscope the imperfection may be discerned Lastly The sowing of the same seed oft on the same field causeth Smuttyness because that nitrous juice which is convenient for the nourishment of the Grain hath been exhausted in the precedent years and therefore it is excellent Husbandry every year to change the species of Grain and also to buy your Seed-Corn from places far distant I am informed of a Gentleman who did sowe some Wheat which came from Spain where the Grain is usually very hard and flinty and as it were transparent and far weightier then ours as it appeareth by a measure at Amsterdam which holdeth about 3 bushels and in our Wheat of the Northern parts weigheth 160 whereas the Southern Corn weigheth somtimes 180 200 220. and had a crop beyond expectation The usual Cures of Smuttyness besides those mentioned before are these 1. To lime your ground which warmeth and dryeth the Land 2. To lime your Corne which is done thus First Slack your lime and then moisten your Corn or lime and stir them together till your Grain be as big as a small Pease This liming preserveth Corn likewise from birds and worms and is found a very good Remedy against this disease others make a strong lye with common salt and steep their Corn in it all night and then draw away their lye for further use which seldom faileth of its desired effect Whether this strong lye doth by its corrosiveness mortifie the weak and imperfect Corn so that it will not grow Or whether it be a Remedy to cure the imperfections thereof is worth the enquiry I suppose this lye doth exsicoate the superfluous humidity which is the cause of this corruption If Corn be brought into the Barn very Smutty in Kent they usually thresh it on dry floors planked with boards by which means the Smuttyness is beaten away and sticketh not to the Grain onely a little blackness appeareth about the eye but if it be threshed on a moist floor the blackness sticketh to the Grain which therefore appeareth dark and is sold at a lower rate to the Bakers Mildew is without question an unctuous dew which descendeth from above about Midsomer it aboundeth in dry years as Smuttynesse in moist I cannot think that there is ordinarily any Malgnity in this dew but it produceth its effect by manifest causes viz. from an oily viscuous quality which stoppeth the pores of the husk wherein the Wheat lyeth and depriveth it from the Ayre and consequently from nourishment for the Ayre is the life of all things I have heard and do believe that if you streak any ear of Wheat with oyl it will produce the same effect I am sorry that I never tryed that I might better understand the nature of this sad calamity which often undoeth the Industrious Husbandman and causeth great scarcity in this Isle It is to be observed further that Wheat onely suffereth considerable damage by Mildew because it lyeth in a chaffy husk which other Grains do not The Grounds most subject to Mildew are these 1. Those that are enclosed with Trees and high Hedges And truly this is the onely great Inconveniency I find by enclosures 2. Low Valleys I have seen very oft in the same field the banks fine bright Corn and all the lower parts though greater in straw yet little worth by reason of the Mildew 3. Dung made of straw I have observed to dispose much to Mildew
and Sheeps dung to be a kind of Antidote against it as also Pigeons-dung because as I conceive these 2 last sorts abound much in Niter which produceth a firm hard bright Corn not easily to be putrefied but the other being more oily and Sulphureous causeth a dark Spungy Corn soon corruptible And 2. because straw and dung is a part of the same kind corrupted which is always in some measure hurtful to the same species both in Animals and all Vegetables and therefore rotten sticks or the earth proceeding from them is found hurtful to the roots of trees and trees will hardly grow where Roots of other trees have formerly been corrupted The Remedies for this Accident briefly are these Not to speak of Bees who questionless make most of their Honey from these Honeys or Mildews for they gather very little in comparison of that which falleth 1. The best way is to cut down the trees about your ground and your hedges low that the wind may ventilate your Corn. 2. To sowe early that your Corn may be full Kerned before these Mildews fall I am informed that an Ingenious Knight in Kent did for curiosity sowe Wheat in all months of the year and that the Corn sown in July did produce such an increase that it is almost incredible and truly I think it a great fault in many places that they sow late for many reasons I am sure in France they usually sowe before Michaelmas 3. Some use and with good profit to draw a line over their Corn and to strike off the Mildew before it be inspissated by the Sun This ought especially to be done before Sun-rising two men in an hour will easily run over an Acre the Mildews usually fall like a thick fog or a Misty rain if you go to your Bees you will soon perceive it by their extraordinary labour very early in the morning 4. The use of a kind of bearded Wheat is an excellent Remedy for the beard shooteth off the dew that it doth not so easily insinuate it selfe into the ear and likewise causeth the ear to shake by the least wind There is a kind of Wheat in Buckinghamshire called Red-straw-Wheat which is much commended it 's a strong-stalked Wheat and doth not soon lodge and therefore excellent for Rank Land where Corn is apt to lodge and consequently to Mildew but I question whether it hath any property against Mildew This I am very confident of that if this Wheat or any other were without the Chaffy husks exposed bare to the Aire as Barley and Rie are Wheat would not be afflicted with Mildew Perhaps such Grain may be found by diligent enquiry I have casually picked out of a Wheat-field some stalks which had two ears on them and though Barley usually hath but 2 ranges in the South of England yet I have seen some sorts with 4 6 and there are many great varieties in grains not yet discovered Truly if any knoweth better ways then these how to cure this Malady of Mildew he is much to blame if he do not publish it for the good of his Countrey-men I will not here set down the divers manners of Graftings and Inoculations which nevertheless is an Art absolutely necessary in Planting for every Book of Husbandry doth shew it and every Gardiner can teach it those who are desirous to learn it Neither will I set down all the sorts of Apples Pears Cherries Plums c. For it would be too tedious a discourse and Mr. Parkinson hath already very excellently done it in his Book called Paradisus Terrestis where at leasure you may read it I will only point briefly at the Deficiencies which I find in this part of Husbandry and the best ways to Remedy them 1. I say that it is a great Deficiency in England that we have not more Orchards planted It 's true that in Kent and about London and also in Glocestershire Hereford and Worcester there are many gallant Orchards but in other Countreys they are very rare and thin but if there were as many more even in any Countrey they would be very profitable I know in Kent that some advance their ground even from 5 s. per Acre to 5 pound by this means and so proportionally and if I should relate what I have heard by divers concerning the profit of a Cherry-Orchard about Sittenburn in Kent you would hardly believe me yet I have heard it by so many that I believe it to be true Namely that an Orchard of 30 Acres of Cherries produced in one year above 1000 pound but now the Trees are almost all dead it was one of the first Orchards planted in Kent Mr. Cambden reporteth that King Henry the Eighth's Gardiner first began to plant Flemish Cherries in those parts which in his time did spread into 32 other Parishes and were at that time sold at greater rates then now yet I know that 10 or 15 pound an Acre hath been given for Cherries more for Pears and Apples 2. There is a great Deficiency in the ordering of Orchards in that they are not well pruned but full of Moss Misletoe and Suckers and oftentimes the ground is packed too thick of Trees for they should stand at least 20 foot asunder neither will ill husbands bestow dunging digging or any other cost on Orchards which if they did might pay half their Rents in some places One told me for a Secret a Composition for to make Trees bear much and excellent fruit which was this First in an old Tree to split his root then to apply a Compost made of Pigeons dung Lees of wine or stale Vrine and a little Brimstone to destroy the worms it hath some probability of truth for by experience I know that a bushel of Pigeons dung hath caused a Tree to grow and bear which for divers years before stood at a stand but concerning the splitting the roots I know not what to say Some old Authours affirm this ought to be done because that the roots may as well be hide-bound as other parts of the Tree and not able to attract his nourishment and when the Root is split it will speedily send forth divers small fibrous roots which are the principall Attractors It were good that some would give us an account exact of this Experiment But some will object against Orchards that they spoyl much ground and therefore ought to be planted only in Hedges To this I answer 1. That Plumtrees and Damsius may very well be planted in hedges being ordinarily thorny Plants this is used very much in Surrey and Kent where the Plums usually pay no small part of their Rent yet I never saw in these Southern parts of England any Apples or Pears thrive in an Hedge unless a Crab or a Wilden or some Sweeting of little worth How they thrive in Herefordshire and those places I know not 2. The Inconveniences of Orchards planted at 20 or 30 foot distance is not worth speaking of for this is
the usual course in Kent when they plant any ground they exactly place them in rank and file and then plough their Lands many years and sowe them with Corn till the Orchard beginneth to bear fruit then they lay them down for pasture which pasture is not considerably soure but hath this advantage above other Pastures 1. That it is sooner grown by 14 dayes in the Spring than the Medows and therefore very serviceable 2. In Parching Summers here is plenty when other places have scarcity 3. There are great shelters for Cattel especially sheep who will in those places in great Snows scrape up meat which in other places they cannot do and if the pasture were sour yet the loss is not great for it will be a convenient place for the Hogs to run in who must have a place for that purpose where there are no Commons 4. I say that the Benefits are so many by Orchards that you ought not like an ungratefull man to thrust them up to the hedge for they afford curious walks for pleasure food for cattel both in the Spring early and also in the parching Summer and nipping snowy Winter They afford fuel for the fire and also shades for the heat physick from the sick refreshment for the sound plenty of food for man and that not of the worst and dink also even of the best and all this without much labour care or cost who therefore can justly open his mouth against them 3. Deficiency is that we do not improve many excellent Fruits which grow amongst very well and that we have as yet many fruits from beyond Seas which will grow very well with us I passe by the generall and great Ignorance that is amongst us of the variety of Apples of which there are many sorts which have some good and peculiar uses most men contenting themselves with the knowledge of half a score of the best thinking the vertues of all the rest are comprehended in them as also of the variety of Pears which are incredibly many A Friend of mine near Gravesend hath lately collected about 200 species I know another in Essex Mr. Ward who hath nigh the same number I hear of another in Worcestershire not inferiour to these In Northamtonshire I know one who hath likewise collected very many So that I dare boldly say there are no less in this Island then 500 species some commended for their early ripenesse some for excellent tastes some for beauty others for greatness some for great bearers others for good Bakers some for long lasters others for to make Perry c. But to our purpose I say many rare fruits are neglected To instance 1. In the Small-nut or Filberd which is not much inferiour to the best and sweetest Almonds 2. The great Damsin or Pruin-plum which groweth well and beareth full in England 3. Almonds which groweth well and beareth good fruit as I have seen divers bushels on one Treee in my Brothers Orchard 4. Walnuts which is not a fruit to be despised 5. Vines and Mulberies but of these presently in another place I might likewise adde Currants Raspeses of which excellent drinks may be made 6. Quinces Of the which I cannot but tell you that a Gentleman at Prichenel in Essex who had a Tree from beyond Sea hath the best in England and hath made above 30 pound of a small piece of ground planted with them as I have heard from his own Wifes mouth And therefore it is by reason of our ill Husbandry that we have Quinces from Flaunders Small-nuts from Spain Pruins from France and also Walnuts and Almonds from Italy and Chestnuts which I had almost forgot from Portugal And now I cannot but digress a little to tell you a strange and true story with my opinion of it In divers places of Kent as at and about Gravesend in the Countrey and elsewhere very many of the prime Timbers of their old Barns and Houses are of Chestnut-wood and yet there is scarce a Chestnut-Tree within 20 miles of that place and the people altogether ignorant of such Trees This sheweth that in former times those places did abound with such timber for people were not so foolish surely in former times to run up and down the World to procure such huge massey Timbers for Barns and such Buildings when as there was plenty of Oakes and Elmes at their doors And further it sheweth that these Trees will grow again with us to a great bignesse This putteth into my mind the Story of the Moor-logs which are found in divers places of the North of England in Moors many foot deep which logs are long and black and appeare to be a kind of Fir or Pine and yet in those places people are altogether ignorant of these Trees the Countrey not producing any of these species The first Story of Kent which I know to be true causeth me to wonder the lesse at the latter for I see that a species of wood may be destroyed even totally in a place And 2. I know that in Virginia and New-England that Pines and Firs and Cedars do grow wonderfully thick in such Moors or Swamps and being light wood and easily wrought they are continually used while they last for buildings Further I suppose these Moors are Commons to the which the poor have used to resort for siring and how soon great woods will be consumed by them every one making what havock he pleaseth all men know As concerning their being so deep in the ground and their blackness I suppose that when wood was abundant in those places every one did cut what they pleased and left what was not for their turns which being in moist places was soon glutted with moisture and made ponderous by which means it soon buried it self as Ships do on Quicksand or perhaps the Turf which hath a peculiar faculty vegetative for where it is exhausted it soon groweth again in time hath grown over them the people permitting it because that wood once sobbed in wet is of little use as we see by Piles on the Marshes-side scarce any man vouchsafing to carry them home The blackness of this wood proceedeth as I suppose from the sooty fume or evaporation of the black turf which endeavoreth as all earths do to reduce all things into its own nature which though it be not able fully to accomplish yet it introduceth divers dispositions and qualities as blackness in the Wood. Some suppose that these Moor-logs have lain there ever since the flood with whom I will not contend seeing that any wood if it be kept from the Aire continually moist or dry will endure even thousands of years without putrefaction 6. Deficiency is the Not-improving of our Fruits for the best ends and purposes Normandy which produceth but little wine maketh abundance of Cider Perry which they estimate equally to wine if it be made of good fruit The ordinary Perry is made of Choaky Pears very juicy which grow along by the
which he tyeth the Vines by this means his Vines having the reflection of the yard sides of the houses and tiles do ripen very well and bear much so that one old Vine hath produced nigh a Hogshead of wine in one year and I wish all to take this course which is neither chargeable nor troublesom but very pleasant and if all in this Island would do thus it 's incredible what abundance of wine might be made even by this petty way 2. If that any Gentleman will be at the charge of making a Vineyard let him choose a fine sandy warm hill open to the South-East rather then to the South-West for though the South-West seemeth to be hotter yet the South-East ripeneth better as I have seen in Oxford Garden because the South-East is sooner warm'd by the Sun in the morning and the South-West winds are the winds which blow most frequently and bring raine which refrigerate the plants and such a place is very requisite for in other places Vines do not thrive even in France for if you travel betwixt Paris and Orleans which is above 30 leagues yet you shall scarcely see a Vineyard because it is a plain Champion-Countrey So likewise betwixt Fontarabia to Burdeaux in the Southern parts of France for an hundred miles together because the Land is generally a barren sandy Plain where only Heath abounds and Pine-trees out of which they make Turpentine and Rozen by wounding of them and Tar and Pitch by the burning of them and if any find such a fine warm hill and do dung and fence it well he hath a greater advantage of most of the Vineyards of France by this conveniency than they have of our Isle by being an hundred miles more South for most of their Vineyards are in large fields not enclosed on land that is stony and but indifferently warm But some will say that wet weather destroyes us It 's true that the wet will destroy all things Sheep Corn c. yet no man will say that therefore England will not produce and nourish these Creatures and if extraordinary wet years come they spoil even the Vines in France but take ordinary years and our moisture is not so great though some abuse us and call England Matula Coeli but the Vines especially those I have mentioned before will come to such perfection as to make good wine and if extraordinary rains fall yet we may help the immaturity by Ingenuity as I shall tell you anon or at worst make vineger or verjuice which will pay costs Further these advantages we have of France 1. This Isle is not subject to nipping frosts in May as France is because we are in an Isle where the Aire is more gross then in the Continent and therefore not so piercing and sharp as it plainly appeareth by our winters which are not so sharp as in Padua in Italy neither are we subject to such storms of hail in Summer which are very frequent in hot Countreys and for many miles together do spoil their Vines so that they cannot make wine of the Grapes for those Grapes which are touched by the hail have a Sulphureous and a very unpleasant taste and onely fit to make Aqua-vitae Further Sometimes in France cask for their wines is so dear that a tun of wine may be had for a tun of cask and the custome and excize which is laid on wines here is as much again as the poor Vigueron in France expects for his wine Not to speak of the ill managing of their Vines especially about Paris where poor men usually hire an Acre or 2 of Vines which they manage at their spare hours and most commonly pack in so many plants of Vines on their ground for to have the greater increase that the ground and Vines are so shaded by one another that I have wondered that the Sun could dart in his beams to mature them and therefore I cannot but affirm again that we may make abundance of wine here with profit the charges of an Acre of Vineyard not being so great as of Hops an hundred sets well rooted at Paris cost usually but 4 or 6 Sous or pence where I have bought many 2000 will plant an Acre very well 50 s. a year is the ordinary rate for the three diggings with their crooked Instrument called Hoyau and the increase usually four tuns for an Acre which will be profit enough and though I refer all to Bonovil and others who have written of the managing of Vines yet I counsel to get a Vigneron from France where there are plenty and at cheaper rates than ordinary servants here and who will be serviceable also for Gardening 2. I will briefly tell what I have seen In Italy through all Lombardy which is for the most part plain and Champian their Vines grow in their Hedges on Walnut-trees for the most part in which fields they speak of three Harvests yearly viz. 1. Winter-Corn which is reaped in June c. 2. Vines and Walnuts which are gathered in September 3. Their Summer-Grains as Millet Panicle Chiches Vetches c. Buck-wheat Frumentone or that which we call Virginia-Wheat Turneps which they sowe in July when their Winter-Corn is cut and reaped they reap in October In France their Vines grow three manner of wayes In Proveâ—â—e they cut the Vine about two foot high and make it strong and stubbed like as we do our Osiers which stock beareth up the branches without a prop. 2. About Orleans and where they are more curious they make frames for them to run along 3. About Paris they tye them to short poles as we do hops to long ones In France they usually make trenches or small ditches about three or four foot from one another and therein plant their Vines about one foot and an half deep which is a good way and very much to be commended but if we here in England plant Vines as we do hops 4 or 5 foot distant it will do very well but let them not be packt together too thick as they do in France in many places lest they too much shade the ground and one another In Italy when they tread their grapes with their feet in a Cart they pour the juice into a great Vessel or Fat and put to it all their husks and stones which they call Graspe and let them ferment or as we say work together 12 or 14 days and usually they put one third of water to it this maketh a wine less furious Garbo or rough and therefore a good stomack wine but it spoileth the colour and taketh away the pleasant brisk taste In France so soon as they have pressed out their liquour with their feet they put it in hogsheads and after in their Presse squeeze out what they can out of the Graspe which seemeth to fill up their Hogsheads while they work which is usually three or four dayes and then stop them close this is also the way used in Germany and is the best
every year if others were as Ingenious we should not want fire-wood Osiers planted in low Morish grounds do advance land from 5 s. per Acre to 40 s. 50 s. 3 l. and upward it 's much used Westward of London these Osiers are of great use to Basket-makers There is a sort of small Osier or Willow at Saint Omars in Flaunders which groweth on Islands which float up and downe it 's far lesse than that which the Western men call Eights with this they make their curious fine Baskets this plant is worth the procuring being so nigh John Tredeseat hath some plants of it There is a Flant likewise in England called the sweet Willows it 's not onely good for shade and firing but as I am informed the leaves do not soure the grasse but that the Cattel will eat them sooner then Hay if this be so it may be of singular use for Meadows 5. That those things which mightily destroy Woods may be restrained as Iron-works are therefore the State hath very well done to pull down divers Iron-works in the Forrest of Deâ—n that the Timber might be preserved for Shipping which is accounted the toughest in England and when it is dry as hard as Iron the Common-people did use to say that in Queen Elizabeth's dayes the Spaniard sent an Ambassadour purposely to get this wood destroyed how true this is I know not but without question it 's admirable Wood for Shipping and generally our English Oake is the best in the World for Shipping because it 's of a great Graine and therefore strong but the Oaks of other Countreys have a finer grain and more fit for Wainscot and in this kind our Forefathers have been very provident for we have an Act of long standing prohibiting Iron-works within twenty miles of London and within three miles of the River of Thames thou you may find Iron-stone in divers places as in the great gravel-pit at Woolwhich There are some Ingenious men who lately have got a Patent for making Iron with Sea-cealâ—e I hope they will accomplish their desires for it would wonderfully advance this Island and save Wood. There are two faults in Sea-coal in respect of melting Iron-oare 1. That it is apt to bake together or cake 2. It hath a sulphureous fume in it which is an enemy to Metal and consumeth it as we see by our Iron-Bars in Windows at London so that the Metallaine Nature of the Iron-stone is much wasted by it and that which remaineth is very brittle and will be Could-shire I know tâ—at by the mixture of Coal beaten with loam and throughly dryed one if not both of these Inconveniâ—nces may be taken away In the Duke of Cleveland's Countrey they use halfe Turffe half Charcoal There is a way by making a kind of Barter with Loam Vrine c. which will cause Charcoal to last very long as I am informed but these discourses belong to another place It 's a great Deficiency here in England without question that we have no more Bees considering that they are neither chargeable requiring only a few straws for an house nor troublesome and this Island may maintain ten times as many for though a place may be overstocked with these Animals as with the greater yet I know no part of this Land that is so and I know divers places which would maintaine many hundred Hives yet scarce one to be seen 2. Our Honey is the best in the World and Wax a stable Commodity Further we know that cold Countreys not comparable to ours as Muscovia have far greater quantity then we have so that it 's incredible what quantity is found in the Woods if the story of tho man be true who fell up even to the ears in Honey and had there perished had not a Bear on which he caught hold pulled him out Now I have enquired how it cometh to passe that there is so great store of Honey in Muscovia considering the Winters are extream cold and also very long and I am credibly informed that first the Spring when it beginneth cometh extraordinary fast that the dayes are very long and the Summers far dryer then ours here in England so that the Bees are not hindered by continual showers as they are some years here in this Isle And lastly that the Countrey aboundeth much with Firs and Pine-trees which the Inhabitants usually cut that the Gum Rosinous or Turpentine substance may sweat forth to which places the Bees do come and presently fill themselves and return laden and perhaps for these very reasons Bees thrive very much in New-England 2. We are Deficient in the ordering of them Not to speak of the negligence of particular men which is very frequent nor to write a general story of the ordering of them because it requireth much paper and Mr. Leveret and Butler especially the latter hath written so exactly and upon his own experience that little can be added to it onely in a point or two I differ from him of the which I will speak briefly 1. That we must take and destroy all the Bees for their Honey and not drive them as they do in Italy once or twice yearly 2. That if a Swarme be poor with little Honey that that Swarme ought to be taken because it is poor so that the rich stocks are destroyed because they be rich and the poor Swarmes because they be poor so that be they rich or be they poor they must be destroyed An Italian reporteth that in the City of Askaly there was a Law made that none should destroy a Swarme of Bees unlesse he had a just cause accounting it a part of extream injustice and cruelty to take away without cause both the goods and lives of such good and faithfull servants I am credibly informed that an English Gentleman beyond the Seas getteth many an hundred pound yearly by keeping Bees after a new and Ingenious Manner which is thus He hath a room made very warm and close yet with Glasse-windows which he can open at his pleasure to let the Bees fly abroad when he pleaseth where he keepeth his Bees and feedeth them all Winter with a sweet Composition made of Molossoes Flowers sweet Wine Milk Raisins c. for with such things as these they usually feed Bees in Italy and often times in Summer when the weather is rainy windy or so disposed that the Bees cannot conveniently go abroad he feedeth them at home with divers sweet things and gathereth divers flowers and layeth them amongst them and sticketh up many fresh boughs in divers places of his Rooms that in swarming-time they may settle on them by these means he preserveth all his Swarms and gathereth an incredible quantity of Honey and wax and truly this way seemeth to be very profitable for 1. We know the Bees even as we say of the Aunts will work continually even night and day Winter and Summer if that they were not hindered by darknesse cold and moisture 2. That Bees
do not only make Honey for I suppose that they have a peculiar propriety of making Honey as the Silk-worms Silk out of Mildews or Honey but also out of all sweet things as Sugar Molossoes c. 3. That many sweet things may be had far cheaper then Honey which I suppose the Bees will transmute into perfect Honey This way I conceive would be very advantageous to us in England for the preserving of late swarms and also for the enriching of old stocks so that we need not destroy them but might drive them from hive to hive and set them to work again and truly I think there is no place in the World so convenient for this purpose as England because that though our Winters be long yet they are not very cold but Bees would be stirring in them and further our Summers are so subject to winds and rains that many times there is scarce a fine day in a whole Week and further Molossoes Refuse-Sugar Sweet-Woort Milk c. may be had at reasonable rates I hope ere long to give an exact account of this experiment and desire those who have any Ingenuities in this kind freely to communicate them I have not observed many things more of importance concerning Bees in my travels onely in Italy they make their Hives of thin boards square in two ar three partitions standing either above one another or very close side to side by the which means they can the better borrow part of their honey when they please In Germany their hives are made of straw to the which they have a summer-door as they call it which is nigh the top of the Hive that the Bees when they are laden may the more easily enter and discharge themselves of their burthens 3. We are to blame that we do not imploy our Honeys in making Metheglin It 's true that in Herefordshire and Wales there is some quantity of this liquor made but for want of good cookery it 's of little worth but usually of a browne colour of an unpleasant taste and as I suppose commonly made of the refuse honey wax dead Bees and such stuffe as they ordinarily make it else-where for the good house-wife thinks any thing good enough for this purpose and that it is pity to spoyl good Honey by making Mead but I know that if one take pure neat Honey and ingeniously clarifie and scum and boyl it a liquour may be made not inferiour to the best Sack Muskadine c. in colour like to Rock-water without ill odour or savour so that some curious Pallats have called it Vin-Greco rich and racy Canary not knowing what name to give it for it's excellency This would bring very great Profit not onely to the Publique by saving many a thousand pound disbursed for Wines through all the world but would be very advantageous to private families who use to entertain their friends very nobly Wines being at present intolerably dear and naught I hope therefore ere long to see it put in execution An excellent drink not much unlike this may be made of Sugar Molossoes Raisins c. of the which I have already spoken yet think it fit to put you in mind of it again It 's a great Deficiency here in England that we do not keep Silk-wormes which in Italy are called Cavalieri for to make Silke I know that is a great Paradox to many but I hope by this short discourse to make this truth to appear plainly The first original of Silk-wormes by what I read in Histories is from Persia where in infinite numbers they are still maintained and the greatest profits of that great Monarch do arise from hence China also aboundeth very much with Silke In Virginia also the Silk-worms are found wilde amongst the Mulberry-woods and perhaps might be managed with great profit in those Plantations if hands were not so scarce and dear I suppose this Silk-worme of Virginia is produced by the corruption of the Mulberry-tree as Cochinneal from Ficus Indica or Indian-figtree for some ingenious curious men who have strictly observed the generation of Insects do find that every Plant hath an Insect which groweth out of its corruption as divers sorts of lice from Animals and that these Insects do usually feed on that Plant out of which they were made as Lice on the same Animals from whence they were engendred I know a Gentleman here in London who hath three or four hundred Insects and can give a very good account of their original feedings And also Mr. Moriney in Paris hath a large Book of the same subject But to return to our purpose I say that we had Silkworms first from Persia In Justinian's time about 1000 or 1100 years ago some Monks presented a few to him at Constantinople where in his time they began to plant Mulberies from thence it came to Italy about three or four hundred years since for the Auncient Writers of Husbandry as Cato Pallad Columell do not so much as mention these creatures and at length these have passed over the Mountains into France within an hundred years where they flourish so much that if we will believe our own Authours they bring greater profit then the Wine and Corn of that large Countrey But be it so or no I know that France hath Silk enough to maintain their excesse of apparel and to export Plushes Velvets c. Now then if that these worms can thrive not onely in the parched Persia but also in Greece Italy yea in France which differeth not much from the temper of England why should we think that they are confined to that place and must move no further Northward for they have come many an hundred miles towards the North why not one hundred or two more And further we see that Mulberries which is their food thrive here as well as in any place But some will object that our Air is too cold and moist To which I answer 1. That those who write of Silkworms say that you must take heed that you make not the place too hot for too much heat may destroy and therefore that you must set the windows open to let in the cold Aire 2. We know that Moistnesse of Aire rather increaseth Insects and nourisheth them Indeed if Moisture hurteth it 's because that it too much corrupteth their food and causeth a flux amongst them but this is easily prevented as I shall shew you anon But to be short it is not onely my opinion that Silkworms will thrive here but the solid judgement of King James and his Council confirmeth the same as you may see by his letter to the Deputy-Lievtenants of every County wherein also many weighty reasons are contained to convince men of the same which Letter followeth anon with the Instructions for the increase and planting of Mulberry-Trees Printed by Eliaz. Edgar in the year 1609. Lastly We find by experience that Silk-worms will thrive here and therefore the matter is out of
also their Cedars Pines Plumtrees Cherries great Strawberries and their Locusts which is a prickly plant a swift grower and therefore excellent for hedges be useful to us So for new-New-England why should we think that the Indian corn the March wheat that excellent Rie the Pease which never are eaten with magots the French or Kidney-Beans the Pumpions Squashnes Water-mellons Musk-mellons Hurtleberries wild Hemp Fir c. of those parts are altogether useless for us as also the CraÌ„berries which are so called by the Indians but by the English Bearberries because it is thought the Bears eat them in winter or Barberries by reason of their fine acid tast like Barberries which is a fruit as big as red as a Cherry ripe only in the Winter and growing close to the ground in bogs where nothing else will grow They are accounted very good against the Scurvy and very pleasant in Tarts I know not a more excellent and healthfuller fruit But some will object that they will not grow here with us our fore-fathers never used them To these I reply and ask them how they know have they tryed Idlenesse never wants an excuse and why might not our fore-fathers upon the same ground have held their hands in their pockets and have said that Wheat and Barley would not have grown amongst us and why should not they have been discouraged from planting Cherries Hops Liquorice Potatoes Apricocks Peaches Melicotones and from sowing Rape-seeds Colliflowers Great Clover Canary-seeds c. and many more of this kind and yet we know that most of these have been brought to perfection even in our days for there is a vicissitude in all things and as many things are lost which were known to our fore-fathers as the Purple colour c. as you may read in Pancirol so many things are found out by us altogether unknown to them and some things will be left for our posterities For example not to speak of Gun-powder and Printing nor of the New-world and the wonders there which notwithstanding are but of a few hundred years standing I say twenty Ingenuities have been found even in our days as Watches Clocks Way-wisers Chains for Fleas divers Mathematical Instruments Short-writing Microscopes by the which even the smallest things may be discerned as the eggs eyes legs and hair of a Mite in a Cheese Likewise the Selenoscope which discovereth mountains in the Moon divers Stars and new Planets never seen till our days But to return to our purpose I say that in Husbandry it is even so for the Ancients used divers plants which we know not as the Cytisus-tree so much commended for Cattel as also their Medick-fodder which Colum saith endureth ten years and may be mowen the four first years seven times in a year and one Acre he esteemeth enough for three horses This fodder likewise is accounted very sweet and healthful whereas the plants which are usually called Medicats with us are annual plants and have no such rare proprieties So we are ignorant what their Far or fine Bread Corn was what their Lupine Spury and an hundred of this kind as you may read in Mathiol on Dioscorides so on the contrary infinite are the Plants which we have and they knew not as well appeareth by their small and our large Herbals and daily new Plants are discovered useful for Husbandry Mechanicks and Physick and therefore let no man be discouraged from prosecuting new and laudable ingenuities And I desire Ingenious Gentlemen and Merchants who travel beyond Sea to take notice of the Husbandry of those parts viz what grains they sow at what times and seasons on what lands how they plough their lands how they dung and improve them what Cattel they use and the commodities thereby also what books are written of Husbandry and such like and I intreat them earnestly not to think these things too low for them and out of their callings nay I desire them to count nothing trivial in this kind which may be profitable to their Countrey and advance knowledge And truely I should thank any Merchant that could inform me in some trivial and ordinary things done beyond Sea viz. how they make Caviare out of Sturgeons Rows in Muscovia how they boyl and pickle their Sturgeon which we English in New-England cannot as yet do handsomly how the Bologâ—ia Sausages are made how they ferment their Bread without Yest of what materials divers sorts of Baskets Brooms Frails are made what seed Grout or Grutze is made of and also how to make the Parmisane Cheeses of Italy which are usually sold here for 2 s. or 2 s. 6 d. per pound or the Angelots of France which are accounted better Cheeses then any made in England as also the Holland Cheeses which are far better then our ordinary Cheeses and yet these sorts of Cheeses are made not of Mares milk as some think but from the Cows and our Pastures are not inferiour to theirs c. 2. I desire ingenious men to send home whatsoever they have rare of all sorts as first Animals the fine-woolled sheep of Spain Barbary Horses Spanish Jennets c. and so likewise all sorts of Vegetables not growing with us as Pannick Millet Rice which groweth in the Fenny places of Millan and France and why may it not grow in our Fens and the best sorts of Grains or Fruits in use amongst them perhaps there is Wheat that is not subject to Smut or Mildew perhaps other seeds will give double increase as Flax Oats Pease and divers other things of importance there are beyond Sea which may be useful to us as the Askeys the Cork Acorns the Scarlet-Oak sweet-Annise which groweth abundantly in Millan Fennel c. Tilia or Linder-tree for bast Ropes c. Spruce Pines for Masts and Boards seeing that they are swift growers and many will stand in a small piece of ground they have formerly grown here and some few do flourish in our Gardens and in Scotland I suppose that this ought seriously to be considered for although we have plenty of Oaks yet what will it profit for Shipping without Masts and how difficult it is to get great Masts above 22 inches diameter is very well known Many things I might add of this kind but for brevities sake I refer you to Master John Tredescan who hath taken great pains herein and daily raiseth new and curious things 3. Consider that these new Ingenuities may be profitable no onely to the Publick but also to Private men as we see by those who first planted Cherries Hops Liquorice Saffron and first sowed Rape-seeds Colliflowers Woad Would Early Pease Assparagus Melons Tulips Gilliflowers c. and why may we not find some things beneficial to us also 16. Deficiency is the ignorance of those things which are taken from the Earth and Waters of this Island Although it may seem to many that these things do little concern the Husbandman who usually is not a Naturalist but onely endeavoureth to know
continued to read on in your Legacy from page 48. where I left with my last Annotations I find nothing that needeth any Animadversions but these few following things page 60. a kind of Salix called by them Abel-tree the Tree called an Abel in Dutch is no way a kind of Salix but is I'opulus alba Ibidem If we believe their own Authours c. I know not who those Authours are but I am sure that who ever hath said so hath said most untrue for the profit that ariseth to France by Silk cannot in the least part come in competition with that of Corne and Wine Ibid. In France which differeth not much from the temper of England Silk is a stranger to those parts of France that agree with Englands temper 69. I could wish those words linea 3 4. we know nourisheth them to be left out as devoid of all truth if applyed to the â—nsect in question page 70. linea 2. Let him read Boneil adde Andream Libavium qui peculiari Tractatu inserto parti secundae Singularium fusè ac diligenter admodum omnia ad Bombyces spectantia pertractavit militerque Olivier de Serres libro 50 Theatri Agriculturae Among the things which page 70. he thinketh might be transplanted profitably into England I could wish the omission of the three first viz. Sassafras Sarsaparilla and Snake-weed the which I greatly doubt would hardly be made to grow there at all with any industry but sure I am never to any purpose and the same I believe about their Cedars and Pines Medica veterum is without all peradventure the Plant now known under the name of Lucerna wherefore it ought not to be ranked as it is page 80. amongst the Plants now unknown Quid esset lupinus veterum nemo unquam Herbariorum quod sciam dubitavit quare omittenda ejus mentio inter herbas controversas page 80. Page 81. What seed grout or grutz is made of the same seed and in the same manner as that which in English is called Groats viz. of Oats and of Barley of those three sorts of Cheeses which he reckons up page 81. onely the second and third are made of Cows milk and therefore his expression is too general and what he sayes there which are far better then our ordinary Cheeses is true indeed but as true it is that they are far better then their ordinary Cheeses and as true likewise that the best of those Cheeses are no better nor so good by far as some English Cheeses Verbi gratia Chedder-Cheeses He is much mistaken if he believeth that all those things reckoned up page 82. will grow in England at least to any purpose especially Rice Cork Scarlet-Oak and that Sentence of Virgil Vt quid quaque ferat regio quid quaeque recuset Justly termed an Oracle by Pliny doth not depend wholly as our Authour seemeth to take for granted on the Climate and the latitude of Regions for were it so Dictamnus Laser Cinamonum Balsamum Myrrha Camphora Stirax Mastick Beujovin Caryophylli Nux-Muschata and an infinite number of other Plants would not be and from all time have been confined to such Territories as they are all the Industry of man and the power and wealth of greatest Princes never having been able to make them grow at least not to make them fructifie out of their native Soils wonder also to find Linder-trees named in the Catalogue of Plants which he would have denizon'd in England seeing thaâ— great store of them and very good by ones have been growing in several parts of the Land many years since even in about London as at Exeter-house Wimbleton-house c. and there besides Sherewood-Forrest in Nottinghamshire aboundeth in them naturally Paris the 18. of November 1651. I Come now to your Legacy whereon these words page 84. It casteth up Jet and Amber I must tell you that as it is most certain that of Jet good store is found on some part of the shore of York-shire so I dare say that upon inquiry it will appear that never any Amber or Succinum was cast up there by the Sea that being a commodity so peculiar to Spruce or Prussia as the Sea was never known to render it in any other Countrey of the world whatsoever page 85. At Dover they make brick of Sea-owse a thing very incredible to me In Cumberland out of a certain kind of sand they extract salt It were worth the while to tell in a few words at least how they proceed in the doing thereof Not onely notice should be taken by the Husbandman or Countrey-Gentleman of the different colour odour and tast of waters as our Authour wisheth them to do â—adem page 85. but also and much more as a thing of a much greater and more particular concernment to them of the wonderful and vast difference of waters in which none of those three qualities is notably to be discerned for the several uses of ordinary house-keeping of Husbandry and of several Manufactures page 86. If we may believe Glauber there is scarce any sand without gold I am very sure that whosoever believeth him herein as in many other things will find himself very fouly deceived Ibidem save what is taken out of their Ditches For the word Ditches no wayes proper here should be substituted Bogs Fens or Moors It is indifferent good fuel yea many sorts of them are most excellent fuel An English-man speaking of turffe should not name Holland only but Scotland and Ireland in which two Countreys turffâ— is of very great and general use page 87. There is a stone in Durham out of which they make salt I would we were told the manner hereof Ibidem Lead is found in Durham-wall I would fain know what Durham-wall is whether a Town or Countrey and in what part of England and why Derbâ—shiâ—e where those famous Lead Mines are is not at all named here page 94. Opium is always an ingredient this is too generally spoken page 95. I am not well satisfied with what he sayes of transplanting Elephants into England and making them of common use there for many reasons and I believe it would prove as hard a task to people in England with any considerable store of Black Foxes Musk-Cats and some other of those Animals named page 96. in these words Paris the second of December 1651. THe conceit I find in your Legacy page 99. Of the medicinal virtues of the plants being sublimed into the Insects bred out of them is altogether destitute of truth as very easily and practically may be demonstrated page 101. That in Ireland rottennesse of sheep is not known It is too well known there and even in my time I have seen great mortalities of sheep caused thereby Page 103. In Holland they keep their Cattel housed winter and summer I never knew any Cattle housed in Summer in my Countrey but all about Paris that is very ordinary Ibidem they bury the grains in the ground they keep them
indeed in the ground but in that manner as cannot well be called burying for they dig holes a mans length deep and square cemented not onely in the bottom but on all the four sides with a wooden shut at the top and there they keep their Grains not lying loosly but rammed as close as may be Rapefeed-Cakes Ibidem he should have added Linseed-Cakes Ibidem Turnips I never knew them given to Cows in Holland but at Râ—ven it is an usual thing to feed Cows therewith and they do thrive wonderfully therewith as I am told by an English Lady of my acquaintance an excellent Housewife who hath lived a great while in that City eadem pagina 103. which are constantly mowed twice or thrice yearly I never in Holland saw or heard of any Meadows mowen more then once a year The Paradox held forth Initio pagine 104. of the cleanlinesse of Hogs and their not loving Dirt I believe not at all to be consonant to truth especially in the second particular Ibidem the Jews have a peculiar way after those words I could wish to be inserted which also anciently was most common among the Romans For the liver of the Goose augmented to an excessive bignesse by a peculiar kind of cramming was one of the greatest dainties of the Romans as may be seen in Pliny lib. 10. cap. 22. and the Authours there alleadged by the Scholiast Paris the 16 of December 1651. JNstead of going on for to make an end of my Annotations upon your Legacy to the end whereof I am well near come I shall at this time step back for to tell you that one of Purchaâ— his Pilgrims having given us most amply and distinctly the whole manner of making the Caveare as may be seen in his second Tâ—me page 1420. your friend will do well to leave that out of the Catalogue of those things which page 81. he desireth to be informed of by the travels of any Merchant of Gentleman as likewise give you at large a Relation made to me within these few dayes by a brave English Lady and an excellent House-wife greatly confirming and illustrating the practise of feeding Cows with Turnips of which page 103. she telleth me that at Roven where she hath lived a good while and in all the Countrey round about it they seed their Cattel usually in this manner Of Turnips not of the best but refuse ones such as being worm-eaten or otherwise faulty are not good for mans meat they boyl a great many in a great Kettle whole as they are with their leaves on their tops till they be tender adding thereto good store of bran of Wheat only because that that of Rye is scowring and so not proper for them and afterwards of the Cakes of Rape-seed or Linseed which cakes having a singular faculty of fatting Cattel they put much lesse of them into the Mesh for Mich-Cowes for fear of spoiling their Milk then for other kind of this they give them twice a day so as it maketh the greatest part of their feeding much more then the hay which they give them betwixt whiles and thus they feed them onely in Winter-time because that all the Summer long they keep them abroad at Grasse Whether this be used in Holland as your friend saith I cannot tell of my own knowledge having never there seen it nor heard of it but in France it is of very old standing as appeareth by these words of Columella lib. 2. cap. 10. Rapa non homines solum verum etiam boves pascunt praecipuè in Gallia ubi Hyberna cibaria praedictis pecudibus id olus praebet De-serres doth also speak of it but very shortly and onely mentioning it in a word or two lib. 4. cap. 9. Paris the 6. of January 1652. IN the 104th page of your Legacy where I left with my last Annotations I find these words In Barkshire many keep tamâ— Pheasants and have gained well thereby The which having communicated to a brave English Lady here a great friend of mine who hath been a great House-keeper in England and is a most excellent House-wife she tells me that at a Countrey-house of hers not far from Chelsey she had always great store of them insomuch as she hath hatched to the number of 200 in one Spring whereof though many died yet far and far the greatest part would come to perfection That of people of quality she never knew any but here self who kept any but that there is abundance in the parts near London who keep them for to make profit of them and sell them to the Poulterers that there is nothing more easie to bring up and to keep then Pheasants when they are once past the first Month for till then they must be kept onely with Aunts eggs and feed on nothing else of which one would think it a hard matter to get so many but there are fellows in England who for a little money will get one as many as one can desire the first month being past they are kept afterwards with Oats onely requiring nothing else but as they love to be kept in Grassie fields so one must change them somwhat ost to fresh grounds because they taint the grasse and the ground in the same manner as Geese do and for to keep them in my Lady used to have some parcels of ground where they were kept inclosed with lats Paris the 13. of January 1652. YOu shall have now the Conclusion of my Annotations upon your Legacy according to your desire In the bottom of page 104. your friend speaketh as if the excellency of Butter and Cheese depended onely on the handling of it and that Cheese like to Parmesan and Holland Cheese might be made in England if the same industry were used there as in those Countreys which is nothing so For though Art and Industry can do very much in this particular as in most others whereof I have seen most remarkable examples both in England and Ireland yet there is something in the particular nature of different waters and different Soils and of the food for Cattel thereon growing and consequently in that Cattels milk and in the Butter and Cheese made thereof which no Art nor humane skill can supply or imitate no more then the same kind of Beer can be brewed in all places or the same kind of Wine be made to grow on all grounds And this is most manifest hereby that in Holland it selfe there are made several sorts of Cheeses hugely different among themselves which difference is most remarkable in those two excellent sorts viz the Edam-Cheese being that kind which is so much transported into forraign Countrys every where known by the general Name of Holland-Cheese the Stolk-cheese And if it should be thought that that diversity proceedeth froÌ„ the different makings of cheese used in the several parts of that country I can assure you that if you make Edam Stolk Boors exchange their habiâ—atlons and keep all their own
it causeth barrenness but the like we may say of Lime Soot Ashes c. yea of Niter it self for I know by experience that under great Pigeon-houses Walnut-trees as Vines Peaches c. will not prosper and I know no other cause then this That too great a quantity of Pigeons dung doth fall down from the Roofe of the house and so the Trees are destroyed Animadversor They in Holland preserve their Dung and Vrine no otherwise then else-where c. They are far more careful then we are in England so that the Sun may not exhaust the vertue nor the rain wash away the strength thereof which I note as a good kind of Husbandry both to be commended and imitated Animadversor Italy sendeth forth little paper as also Holland c. The finest paper we have in England comes from Genoa and Venice yet not so much from the latter place as formerly since the plague there 1630. Much of this paper is gilded with Gold on the edges Holland ships not onely furnish us with a thick strong white paper which is commonly called Dutch paper but also abundantly with a strong brown paper much desired by the Grocers Although at present lesse is imported because we have many Paper-mils lately erected but whither this be made in Holland Friezland in Germany or elsewhere I dispute not The fifth Letter of the Animadversor The Abel Tree is a Popular not a Salix I Thank the Animadversor for reforming my errour for I was informed that it was a kind of Sallow but it seemeth it is a kind of Popular or Aspe and so at length by enquiry I have found it named by Parkinson in his Herbal Animadversor The profit of Silk is not so great as of Corn and Wine to France I do not positively affirm it but onely report it upon the credit of a late French Writer whose name I at present remember not and I am also far from my Library that I cannot turn to him It indeed seemeth to me likewise very probable for I know that Corn and Wine are heavy bulky commodities of low rate Wine sometimes being not much more worth then the Barrel and Corn scarce a Merchandable commodity in any place yea France it selfe sometimes wants it so that a little Silk will ballance these two and France as it is well known hath not onely sufficient for it selfe but many Plushes Velvets and other Manufactures of Silk were in a considerable quantity exported for England till the late prohibition and why may not Silk do that in France it doth in Italy Yea that which all will grant Flax doth for Linnen Canvases c. and are of greater value Animadversor Silk is a stranger to the parts that are nigh Englands Temper King James and his learned Councel in their Letter to the Deputy Lieutenants affirm the contrary and bring this as an Argument to encourage the people to set upon this work Secondly Much Silk is made at Tours yea I am informed that that populous Town doth even totally subsist by it which place is not very much different from Englands temper being not much above two degrees from the South of England and I say again if Silk-worms are come even out of Persia China and those very hot Countreys as far as the heart of France which is very temperate and yet these Worms thrive very well there why may they not come a little farther and why do we not strive to advance them here as well as France yea we find by experience that some few Gentlewomen have bred divers up for their pleasure even as far North as Duckenfield in Cheshire where some quantity of Silk hath been made yet this place is nigh as far North of some places of England As they of Tours Moreover a Lady Virginia F. as I have lately seen in print hath hatched worms in England and then turned them forth to the Mulberry-trees exposed to the cold and moysture of the Air and yet they have done well yea better then those within doors These and other reasons do so far convince me that I cannot but again and again desire ingenious men to proceed in this rich and pleasant work Animadversor Moysture is no way nourishing to these Worms First I say in general that heat and moisture are the two great Causes of Insects where these abound Insects abound where one of these are wanting there are but few engendered And why should we exempt these from the common generation of Insects and consequently if ingendered by these nourished by these according to the old Axiome Ex iis nutrimur ex quibus constamus And 2. We know that the damp moist Woods of Virginia do breed Silk-worms of an incredible bignesse surpassing the Spanish and Italian And likewise that a Lady in England as I have it from a friend whom I dare believe turning the Silk-worms not long after they were hatched into the Mulberry-trees by experience found that they prospered better then those that were kept dry within dore yea in Ireland in the County of Cavan in Vlster the moistest of all places a Gentleman kept divers Silk-worms which prospered very well and therefore I cannot think moisture as moisture any considerable enemy to them for of it self it hath little activity and if these worms shall not thrive in any place I will rather attribute it to cold which is known to be an active quality and the great destroyer of all Insects for we see in England that moist Summers do increase Flies Gnats Butter-flies c. and it is the cold winds and frosts that destroy them yet I will grant that moisture accidentally hurts viz. as it introduceth too much frigidity or if it be too much in their meat it may cause fluxes rottings c. as it doth to Conies Guiny-pigs c. As for Bonveil who hath writ of Silk-worms I have both read him and commend him Libavius also I have and even all his many Volums but in my opinion he hath written Multa sed non Multum Animadversor Sassafras Sarsaparilla and Snake-weed I am sure will not grow to purpose First why not I am sure that Sassafras groweth in the Northern Plantations of New-England even as far North as Sacho where the Snow usually lyeth five moneths and the Winter extream bitter in respect of England and further this Sassafras is not a small plant or shrub easily nipt with the frost but a great Tree so that boards of ten inches Diameter have been made thereof and further where it once groweth hardly to be destroyed so that it much annoyeth the Corn by its young shoots and the Mower in Harvest more then any other Tree that I heard of in that Countrey I was informed that the Native Indians of the place when they lose themselves in the Woods presently run to these small shoots and thereby know which is North and South Indeed I have observed that one side is more speckled then another and perhaps other small shoots
of plants are so but not as yet observed for ought I know of any This Plant is not sufficiently described by Gerrard Johnson Parkinson or any that yet I have seen For first They speak not of any flowers and yet it hath fair white large flowers almost as big as Rosa Canina but I perceived little smell in them though all other parts of this Plant as leaves bark wood and root especially are very odoriferoâ—s Secondly They mention not the seeds which are about the bigness of Bay-berries many of which I sent out of New-England some of which grew in York-Garden at London but through mishap perished Thirdly This tree is not alwayes green as Parkinson Johnson saith but in New-England casteth its leaves Perhaps in Florida it may perpetually be green for I know that in New-England the wild-Bays which is like our common bays in smell and leaves casteth its leaf in Winter as also a kind of â—ir about Casho-bay out of which is extracted a very odoriferous gum and others in like manner c. In New-England divers in the beginning of their plantations used this Plant in their Beer hoping that it would have served both for mault and spice but it deceived their expectations For in my apprehension it giveth a taste not pleasant and also they that accustomed themselves to this drink especially in the Summer found themselves faint and weak not able to endure labour Animadversor 2. Sarsaperilla will not thrive in England c. First Smilax to which this is referred is two-fold 1. Aspera which is not found as yet with us 2. Levis or Convolvulus this groweth naturally wild with us whose leaves though they differ much from the former yet the root is very like as I have seen them compared together and further the vertues also as I have been credibly informed by divers ingenious Apothecaries 2. This Smilax aspera is found not only in Peru c. But also in Virginia as I am informed by divers which is a Countrey whose Winters are far more piercing then in England 3. In New-England I have seen a Plant with good success used for Sarsaperilla which is a plant about one foot and an half high with an upright stalk with some few leaves at the top I at first sight thought it the plant called Herba Gerardi but the root is very like the Sarsaparil commonly used with the pithyness which maketh me to think that there are divers species of these Smilaxes some of which may well thrive and prosper in England especially those that grow in New-England and Virginia but concerning this plant and divers others which grow in New-England I cannot give you that account I desire because my seeds and papers unhappily miscarried Animadversor 3. Rattle-snake Grasse will not thrive c. Parkinson an able Botanick saith it flourisheth with us in June and July and therefore what should hinder it from thriving to the purpose 2. Virginia as I said before hath sharper Winters then England and yet there it groweth abundantly in the Woods without cultivation why not with us therefore by good managing and art When I was in New-England I was acquainted with an ancient Gentleman who also was a Scholer and had lived ten years in Virginia who certified me that there were two sorts of Rattle-snake-weeds the greater and the less That which he called the greater I casually had in my hand it was a bulbous plant about the bignesse of a Pigeons egge and â—ilky in the root it grew in the water and the leaves like Pistolochia he told me that this was accounted the best the second is called the lesse and according to Parkinsons description the leaves are like the former but the root is fibrous and this is that which is commonly brought for England and for my part I suppose and upon good grounds that not only the former but also the latter will thrive with us I have oft desired many of my friends and acquaintance to send me this plant and divers others which grow even at their doors but could never prevail so far with them and have far greater hope of the flourishing of this wild plant that of Tobacco either of that which in new-New-England is called Poak much differing from the Virginian or of that other commonly used and sown in Virginia for they grow not naturally in these places and yet Tobacco so flourisheth in England that it pleaseth the State to take notice of it and by an Act to prohibit it And though I cannot deny but God hath given his peculiar blessings to every Countrey yet it doth not hence follow that nothing which groweth in an hot Countrey will thrive in these more Northern Climates for most of our curious plants as Apricocks Peaches c. Flac. Pernvianus Juca c. came at first from hot Countreys yet thrive well with us yea true Rhenbarb if we will believe Parkinson which formerly hath only grown in the East-Indyes groweth abundantly with us This I am sure if it be not the same it is very like in vertue and daily we find that things brought out of a hot Countrey do flourish with us as lately the great Spanish Cane much used by Weavers and Vintners Master John Tradeskin brought from the Western-Isle and it flourisheth well in his Garden and groweth great and tall Animadversor So of Pines and Cedars c. I wonder that the Animadversor should question the growth of Pines in England seeing they grow commonly in the Plain of Poland as Cromer saith and the Pitch-tree is a kind of Pine growing even in the coldest places In New-England I have seen Pines above four foot Diameter and the length accordingly even in the most Northern places Further these commonly grow in the Gardens about London so concerning Cedars they grow of a very great heighth and bignesse in the Northern parts of new-New-England where show lyeth five or six months and therefore I do not any wayes question their growing with us and do again note that the neglect of these as also of the Fir-tree is a great deficiency in England and to what a straight our State might now be driven for Masts did not New-England furnish us as also for Pitch and Tar is well known And yet these Trees will grow in very barren land and are sweet growers Yea as it appears by our Mosses they have formerly grown in England Further many will stand in a little ground so that I dare boldly aver that one thousand Acres planted with these Trees would in forty years serve this Isle with Masts for ever and help us to great quantities of Pitch and Tar for where these Trees once take they are very hardly destroyed as I have observed in new-New-England where on an Isle every year in Summer the Planters spent a day or two to cut them down that the place might pasture the better for their young Cattle but these Trees did presently grow again so that they gave over their intentions seeing their
labour fruitless but whether or no these Cedars which are both white and red of New-England and Barmudaes be the same with those of Libanus which are Coniferae I will not dispute or whether they be a kind of Juniper as Parkinson saith so far as I have observed the leaves of the smaller shrubs are rough and prickly and the berries not only the Junipers Animadversor Lucerna is without doubt Medica veterum and well known I much question it for first Johnson and Gerrard and Parkinson our best Herbalists do rather think Medica veterum to be Saint Foin 2. Though I have had above twelve sorts of Medicaies yet they are all Annual and our Herbalists do not mention any other Medicaies But be it so as the Animadversor saith yet neither the Plant Lucerna not so much as the name was known to us til I mentioned it in my Letters to M. Hartlib neither did ever any sow it in their fields as the Ancient have done Animadversor Lupines known to all c. I grant that amongst our Gardiners are divers sorts of Lupines great and small with blew and yellow flowers which as I suppose may differ as our Pease and Tares and therefore require divers sorts of land but I say that these Lupines are totally unknown to the Husbandman and never used for that end the ancient Romans used them viz. to fertilize their land as in Kent some use tares In New-England I found the small blew Lupine growing naturally on a dry white sandy Plain and therefore think that that sort is more natural for the end above mentioned then the great Lupine I hope in little time to experiment something in this kind Animadversor Grout is made of Barley or Oats c. I know that we have a great kind of Oatmeal which we call Grots but this Grout which I mean is a small round thing it cometh over to us in Holland ships and I suppose it a kind of Millet or Panick but wonder how it comes to Holland because those Grains grow not there but if it be made of Oats or Barly the way to make it so round smal is unknown to us I read in Parkinson of a kind of Rice sown in Germany perhaps it may be of that kind for I have found as I suppose some of the grains unhusked which to me seemed to be like very small rice I would willingly know the truth of this whether I be mistaken or not Animadversor The two last sorts made only of Cows milk I suppose he meaneth Angelots and Holland Cheeses and that Parmisans are made of other milk then Cowes milk If so that Animadversor I dare say is mistaken for I have enquired concerning Parmisans even to Lodi in Millan where the best are supposed to be made and yet never heard any affirm that any milk besides Cows milk was an Ingredient to them and further all the Lands in those parts are very improper for sheep the Countrey being a low flat Countrey which they float three or four times every year and by that means do mow as often neither did I see any considerable flocks of sheep As for Mares milk that is improper for cheese though many good House-wives in England think that the strength and strong savour of Holland Cheese proceeds from hence but as I have formerly touched falsely perhaps there are some in other places who to excuse either their negligence or ignorance report the same of Parmisans but they are deceived As concerning Angelots and Parmisans I must say though I am unwilling to disparage our English Houswifery further then is right that to my apprehension the Angelots of France which are made in great abundance are better far then our Chester Cheeses and also our Banbury as for our Chedder Cheeses which are made onely in two or three parishes in their number so small that they are seldom seen but at some Noble-mans table or rich Vintners Sellars that they are even nothing considering the great quantity of Cheese which is made in this Isle Neither do I think they transcend the Parmisan or some Angelots but I leave this Controversie to every ones palate that being very excellent to one which is very little worth to another and I can truly affirm that it is a great deficiency even through the whole Isle if these Cheddar Cheeses be so good that there are so few made the Pastures in that Country not exceeding other Counties in England nor breed of Cattel better Neither is the price of Angelots at two Sous for half a pound a vile price as the Animadversor saith considering the Cheeses are usually sold green further I have seen some few Angelots made in England after the French manner by some curious Ladies of transcendent goodnesse according to mine and divers other palats and I suppose that other ordinary Housewives might make the same if they knew the Art Animad The Animadversor seemeth to taxe me that I account the difference of Climates and of Soils the onely causes why some places produce such and such plants abundantly other places not if I mistake him not concerning which I shal briefly and plainly declare my mind and do affirm that I think where the Climate is the same and the temper of the Soil equal in such places all plants will equally thrive but if the Climates vary either in heat or cold moisture or drinesse or the Soil in fruitfulness barrenness or in moysture driness or in stifness lightness sandyness clayishness or in such circumstantials then is there also a variation in the well or ill thriving of plants and further I suppose that whatsoever plants thrive in one hot Countrey they will also thrive in another if there concur the like moysture and soil the same cultivation being supposed this plainly appears in Oranges Lemmons which the Spaniards have planted through all the West-Inâ—lyes Olives Vines c. And on the other side what thriveth in one cold Countrey caeteris paribus thrives in all others as it appeareth in Norway Poland New-England Russia New-found-lâ—nd where Firres Pines Pitch trees c. grow abundantly and so what thrives in our temperate clime thrives in all as is manifestly seen in Apples Peares Cherries Wheat Barley and almost in all Grains and Seeds in Botanick Gardens And I can see no other cause worth the speaking of but the afore-mentioned Yet I grant that hot Countries have their peculiar plants which will very hardly thrive in cold Countries because of the nipping frost yet the frost being rebated they will thrive well and by this means I have seen six miles from London in Surrey Orange trees flourishing and growing even to the greatnesse of Trees in that kind in Italy with ripe fruit continually on them also with blossoms c. Likewise cold Countries have their peculiar fruits and plants which cannot endure the scorching heat of the Sun and therefore the Herb called Lanchitis and others which grow abundantly in cold Countries and in the
Royal Garden at Paris as difficulty preserved in Mompelier Garden as Oranges Olives c. are preserved in the cold Countries As for occult proprieties of the earth for Sympathyes and Antipathies secret influences of Planets benigne aspect c. I understand them not but dare boldly affirm if I have a convenient Clime and a Soil correspondent to the nature of the Plant to cause any plant to thrive and prosper and this we see by experience that if Rye c. be sown in a dry sandy ground whether in Poland England New-England which are many thousand miles distant yet it will thrive and prosper sic de ceteris As for Astrology to the which all in these dayes are too prone even Gardiners and Husbandmen will be talking of the dark of the Moon and of the increase and decrease of the Solar and Lunar Ecclipses and accordingly dispose of their seasons of times to their great damage for I my self even by experience have found folly in these things for things sown in the great Ecclipses both of the Sun and Moon have thriven as well as other things in the decrease as well as in the increase and therefore wish all men to sow their seeds when the season appointed is come without such vain observations For this Art for what I can perceive is no way demonstrable à priori for who can prove 12 Signes Fiery Watery Domus Planetarum Dignitates c. which are the main pillars of this Art and à posteriori by calculations it is made more uncertain for though much is undertaken by divers yet little is effected many untruths for one truth and little prognosticated but what a prudent man without advising with the Stars may foresee In brief I will declare my rude thoughts which perhaps will at length be found truths for light breaketh forth a pace In the beginning the wise Creator made two great Lights for the use of this Sphere of the World the Sun and Moon the Sun to enlighten and to warm and refresh all things and to rule the day the Moon to rule the night and to be for the distinguishing of times and seasons the Sun being the Center imparts his light to the Earth and Moon also to Venus and Mercury for they are found by the Selnescope to increase and decrease as the Moon doth and also it is probable to Mars and Jupiter and Saturn and scarce further for the power of all created things are finite as the Moon being nighest reflects its light on us so its probable that the Earth illuminates the Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn have their Lunars or small Stars moving about them which have lately been discovered the Ancient knew not thereof which its probable are for the distinguishing of times and seasons for the Inhabitants of those parts Those which we call the fixt Stars are very great many of which because of their great distance cannot be discovered but by the Glass called the Telescope and therefore surely have little operation upon us who are in another Sphere so far distant from them and amongst these its probable some are Solar bodies because of their twinckling others terrestrial which are replenished with creatures endued with life by the fountain of life which creatures do as the creatures in this earth continually set forth the infinite Greatnesse Glory Mercy and Goodnesse of the Creator and these words are even infinite for the infinite Creator hath made an infinite Work worthy of so great a Workman transcending the narrow capacity of frail mans intellect and if things be thus Astrology is vain c. but I wonder some will say toto Coelo but it s no matter ad propositum Animadversor He is much mistaken if he think that those things reckoned up page 82. will prosper in England especially Ryce Cork Scarlet Oak I answer Perhaps not much mistaken things far improbable have succeeded and again I aver that I believe they will and shall believe so till experience prove the contrary And first for Rice which first came from Babylon and the East-Indyes and is in those places their usual bread where they have usually two or three Crops every year yet we see it can condiscend now to grow in the North parts of Italy in Lombardy yea it hath stept over the Mountains and is come even as far as Tours which is in the midst of France where it growth and especially delighteth in moist morish grounds also if may believe Parkinson a good and painfull Botanick either Rice or some thing so like Rice that he puts it in the same Chapter with it grows in Germany and therefore I question not but we in England might have one good Crop of this Grain in our Morish Land yearly for the reasons that this will thrive with us to me are more strong then that Coriander Sweet-fennel Caraway Canary-grass the Great-Cane c. will thrive and yet these of late begin to flourish with us very well Cork-tree I very little question the growth of this For first these trees grow abundantly in Biscay a Countrey far colder then England where the Summers also scarcely mature the grapes Likewise they grow in the North of New-England at Parcato-way Further that Tree is a great hardy bearing Acorns and leaves like to an Oak that one may easily be deceived by it and mistake it for the common Oak Scarlet Oak I hope I shall make it very probable that even this also may flourish in our Isle In Latine it is called Ilex of which there are divers sorts Some greater some less some more some less beautiful the greater sort which indeed beareth little of the Chermes groweth very well in England to a great Tree and beareth Acorns one of which I have seen at Whitehall-Gate 2. Master Parkinson reporteth that in new-New-England and Virginia c. The smaller Ilex which is fruitful of Chermes if it be cultivated groweth naturally 3. This Scarlet Oak groweth not onely in Languedock and the hotter parts of France but I have seen it also in Paris royal Garden grow without much art or industry 4. Divers Plants though at first they difficultly thrive yet when they are habituated to the Countrey and to cast their seed there thrive well Thus I have observed that Virginia Wheat at first difficultly thrived in New-England but the seed that matured there the next year flourished very well the same I observed of Wheat brought from England of water Melon seed brought from the Western Islands the like I observe in Ireland of Oats and Barley sown before December the Winter kills much but what endureth and ripeneth is hardened for the next Winter and flourisheth c. 5. There may perhaps other Species be found of this Scarlet Oak more proper for our Climate and I remember that on the barren plains in New-England I have seen growing even every where a small Oak seldom above two foot high yet laden with small Acorns which are indifferent good to
not multiply Musk-Cats likewise divers have kept in London and with good profit c. 7 Letter All Plants sublimed into Insects are not medicinable c. J Do not positively affirm it yet I know it is the opinion of sonie not to be despised further that some have very considerable medicinable vertues it is well known and I have instanced in divers and I suppose that as yet it is altogether unknown whether others have or not Animadversor Rottenness of Sheep known in Ireland c. Rottennesse of Sheep is some times in Spain but not so much known as in England though the Countrey be moister the reasons now I well know for they have not so many base wet Commons as in England and the great Sheep-Masters usually chuse their Sheeps-Walks or Pastures on high dry Lands c. Animadv In Holland Cattle not housed in Summer c. Holland with us is usually taken for the 17 Provinces or at least for the united ones and that Cattel are housed there as well as at Paris you may read at large in Flanders husbandry as also how they give their Cattel Turnips and that they mow their Medows twice or thrice yearly which the Animadversor denyeth How the Hollanders do hoard up or bury grains for that word is proper enough for any thing that is covered in the ground the Animadversor largely describeth and I hope it will be practised about London where in the Summer time they are little worth Animadversor Hogs are not cleanly but love dort c. If Hogs love dirt then why do they not wallow it in Winter as well as in Summer but it is well known that in Winter hogs must lye warm and dry in clean straw or they will not thrive and why is it a greater disparagement to hogs in the Summer to lye in mire that thereby they may cool themselves take away their sweat and destroy their lice by rubbing when the dirt is dry then for other cattel to stand and wallow in muddy waters or for Poultry to dust themselves And further an Hog much abominateth his own dung and therefore will never dung nor pisse in his Sty if the door be open in which particular he excels even all creatures and therefore the Paradox of the Hogs cleanlinesse may be found true As concerning the extraordinary bignesse of Goose livers it is in Italy amongst the Jews where I have eaten of them highly esteemed but at present not much in credit amongst the Italians and to my Palate it is not so excellent a dainty 8. Letter Animad Purchase in his second Tome sets down the making of Caveare c. I Am certain that Purchase himselfe never saw the making of Caveare nor the Merchant perhaps that wrote it and therefore I must question the Process and know that in New-England where there are abundance of Sturgeon whose rows are ordinarily accounted the Material of it yet never any ever so much as attempted to make it though divers Fishmongers were there and attempted to pickle Sturgeon though with ill success for in the ship in which I returned from New-England many Scores of Cags of Sturgeon were sent to London which were all naught and cried about the Strees under the notion of Holy Sturgeon perhaps if Purchases way were known it might encourage some to attempt the making of it If I had Purchase by me I would write it forth and publish it at present his Works are rare and dear The Animadversor doth very well describe the manner of feeding Cows with Turnips p. 113. I hope our Gardiners will take notice of it and practise it for it may be much for their profit and for the advantage of many poor people 9. Letter J Wish also that the breeding of Pheasants as the Animadversor sets down were better known for many poor might get good living thereby as divers do in Bark-shire and about London I know also other Noble men who keep many of these fowls as also a poor man in Ireland who hath a Pheasant Cock and Hen which run amongst his Poultry his Cocks tail of a very great length which live very well and lay eggs as other fowls without further trouble and I question not but others might be made tame also in England 10. Letter COncerning Cheese I have already declared my mind viz. that Parmisans and Angelots which are commonly made in France and Italy are far beyond our Chester or what we commonly make in England 2. Our Cheddar Cheeses are seldom seen unlesse at some Nobles mans table c. and yet I doe not think they excel Parmisans but whither my Palate be a true judge or not I am sure it may be noted as a great deficiency that so little excellent Cheese is made with us seeing so much is made elwhere The cause of this deficiency the Animadversor referreth to the Water as appeareth by his examples But I and I suppose more truely to the good skill and clean handling of the Dairy Maid and also to the difference of pastures for that good or bad Houswifery maketh or marreth Cheese is very well known as also that difference of pastures in respect of sweetnesse and sowrnesse much or little fresh or stale c. causeth also great difference not onely in the quantity but also in the quality of Butter and Cheese But that the difference of water doth cause those alterations I very much question for I know that in Kent whether the Cows drink puddle or pond-water or clean spring or fresh or brackish which in some place they oft do yet the butter and Cheese are the same if the Pastures be alike But if Pastures vary these vary and so likewise I may say of the Housewife I know a Farm within a mile of Gravesend where the Cattel alwayes drink at one common pond in the Yard if they graze on one side of the house the Butter is yellow sweet and good and Cheese also but if on the other the Butter is white sowrish and Cheese naught and yet there is little difference in the pastures to a vulgar eye which hath caused the good Wife to report it as a wounderful strange thing whereas the cause is manifest for the one side hath much Trefoil and lyes on the Chalk the other side is a gravel and produceth usually Gramen Caninum or Couch-grass so we find in sheep which drink not yet both their wool and flesh vary very much in respect of pastures And I suppose that if the pastures mentioned in Holland by the Animadversor were wel viewd by a judicious man the like difference might be found for as I suppose the Waters in Holland differ little the Countrey lying for the most part in one even flatness without Minerals or Metals the Country in Winter over-flown with rain-water in the Summer time most of their waters brackish But if it be otherwise I should be very glad to have some further light and desire ingenious men not to build upon vulgar
report for I know they are apt to make Molchils Mountames c. in the Interim I shall acquiesce in my own opinion Animadversor England hath a perfect Systeme of Husbandry viz. Markham He speaketh more of Markham than ever I heard before or as yet have seen In general he is accounted little more than a Translator unless about Cattle and yet I cannot but in that question his skill Considering how grosly he mistaketh the names of Plants The works which I have seen of his are first the great book translated out of French which whether well or ill done I will not declare but I am sure our Husbandmen in England profit little by it Secondly I have seen five several bookes bound up together two or three of which he acknowledgeth to be anothers as The Improvement of the Wild of Kent also his Houswifery he acknowledgeth to have had from a Countess also part of his Farewell is borrowed and what he owneth if I have seen all are very short in many particulars as it will easily appear by my former discourse and Blithes book of Husbandry lately augmented and printed Yea if I understand any thing he setteth down many gross untruths which every Countryman will contradict viz. That Flax is ripe after Hemp That Corn sleept in Brine encreaseth fivefold more than ordinarily That Lupin must be steeped when they were never sown in England He wisheth Husbandmen to let long Grass grow amongst their Corn for saith he it keepeth it warm Fullers earth as profitable as Marle A sack or a sack and a half of Rags for an Acre Corn reapt in the wane nought Hops not to be planted in too rich a ground One Teame in one day to plough in stiffe land two Acres and a half in light four Also one to man to mow two Acres of Grass in a day to reap and bind five rood of Wheat of Fetches and Pease two Acres Also one man to dig rake and level one rood the day c. And such like which cannot be done But I have said and doe confirme it again that he hath done well in divers things and is to be commanded for his industry Animadversor The Romane Law was onely for sining c. My expression doth not necessarily conclude that ill husbandry is Crimen Lesâ— Majestatis or Treason but that the punishment was inflicted on them because the publick received damage by their ill husbandry being averse or contrary to the common good Animadversor Holy Land not barren Royer Our Sands reporteth it such and so it is commonly voted but whether through a peculiar curse of God or for want of Cultivation for we know that many hils would be very excellent for Vines and Olives which notwithstanding are little worth for Corn or Pasture c. I will not here dispute Concerning Fish-ponds Angling c. I could wish we had a good Treatise in English Vaughan was commended to me for them but I have not read him and therefore will not speak much for him c. Thus at length I have run over all if any thing be impertinent as I fear divers things are I desire you to expunge it An Observation concerning a Fish-Calender imparted from Zurich 11. Nov. 1654. There is an exact Fish-Calender printed in the Low-Country but whether it be reprinted every year I cannot tell I was enquiring here whether they had no such curiosity One told me that there is a Catalogue extant of all the sorts of Fish ever taken in their Lake or Sea as they call it When I asked whether their seasons were not added he could not tell But said that in their Stat-house they have the twelve Months painted and that under every Month are expressed in picture without any names set by them the several sorts of Fish fit to be then eaten I have not since had leisure to go see those pictures If any think this a needless or an Epicurean Curiosity let them read Doctor Bâ—ates Natural History of Ireland where he imputes the Irish Leprosie to their brutish eating of Salmons when the very eye would have made them know they were unwholsom But saith he the English having discovered it did under a penalty forbid the selling or taking of Salmons at that time of the yeare whereupon in a few years after it was as rare to finde a Leper in Ireland as in any other Country A Copy of the Letter wherein the following Discourse entituled Mercurius Laetisicans was sent enclosed to Mr. Samuel Hartlib SIR YOur cordial love to the kingdoms good being so clearly expressed to the world not onely by your pen but also by your constant practise in promoting of all good designes which tend to the general good of the Commonwealth hath emboldened me to send you this enclosed Copy desiring that you will be pleased to take care that it may be forthwith printed and published together with this Letter Neither need you fear any dishonour by promoting of this laudable design for I have shewed the Copy to the Learned as well as the unlearned to the rich as well as the poor and all approve of it and desire to have it as soon as it shall be published They think it is a fine experiment to make good bread of an old shooe And though they differ in opinion concerning other affairs yet they all love to eat bread with one consent and if they shall agree to practise according to their profession which is to doe their best endeavours to further the good of the publick then certainly the cards will turn and we shall win our money again by concord which we have lost by discord yea and twice as much more And though many of these things which I would have to be put to the best uses seem to be trivial that is for want of understanding in the Readers for in Genoa as I have been credibly informed it is an usual practise to buy barren land for little or nothing and to carry good earth to it and cover it so deep as a spade or a plough may work upon it but this practise would never counter vail the first charge unless they did usually practise another strange work which is so common there that if an horse or a beast doe dung in any street or high-way it is a marvel if some boy or girle doe not take it up before it he cold so carefull are they that the fertility of the Kingdom should not be diminished And though these boyes and girles get nothing but sinnes and points or some other trifles yet in the general the whole Countrey is made rich and plentifull Even as we see in a Bee-hive though every Bee bring but a drop of honey at a time yet it maketh up a weighty mass and many of those masses put together do make up the great masse which I have seen at Sturbridge Fayre which is able to amaz a man that beholdeth it When this Book is published then I desire you to
in or near his Orchard and then taking all earth he may conveniently from his fruit trees root he putteth this Sult unto them and this every two years and that he hath thus recovered old decaying Trees and such as had scarce bark or any life left in them and that his other Trees have shot forth and fructified double and treble to what they did before For the Devonshire Gent. I am hopelesse of seeing him again but his relation concerning Furzes was to this effect That they valued them much in Devon and sowed their seed for hedges to shelter their Cattel and for Fuel and that they found them very profitable for fruit-trees being young to hang about their bodies neer the ground to defend them from Hares which usually bawk young Trees sheep and winds and that the dressis as he called the dust of them doth marvellously hearten the earth in which they grow if laid upon the ground onely round about them and that they value that dust for that use above any horse dung They are of excellent use to keep Mice out of Barn-floors for being laied under the Corn Mice and Rats avoid touching the floors So Reeks of Corn that stand from the ground upon piles of Wood and Cheese-racks that have Furzes bound in the way where the vermin might creep are sufficiently secured The Lady D. told me that at Islington being annoied with Rats she was advised to take Furzes and place them in the passages and holes where Rats entred her rooms and that she was fully cleared of them by that means Thus contempâ—ible things are of precious use by the order of him that made nothing in vain An Estimate made some years ago of the great destruction of Corn by the multitude of Pidgeon-houses An Estimate of the great quantity of Corn that Pidgeons do eat spoil and destroy in the County of Cambridg and probata for every shire of England the one with the other as by due inquiry may be made appear as followeth viz. 1. THat there are in the County of Cambridge 163 Parishes and in every Parish one with another 3 Dove-houses every house hath in it at least one with another 200 holes which are bred in and in every hole a pair of Pidgeons which breed besides those that have no mates which breed not of whose number no notice is taken which devour eat and spoil much Corn also 2. That it hath and may be proved that a Pidgeon hath had at one time in her Crop 1000 Wheat Corns which is about a pint a Pidgeon doth feed thrice a day then conceive what every Pidgeon doth spoil eat and devour in a year but to come to a far lesse scantling that a Pidgeon doth eat but half a pint a day besides that he spoileth by the space of six weeks in the harvest time onely besides that he beateth much down and spoil in beating down the standing Corn that amounteth unto at least at the rates aforesaid for every Pidgeon house the one with the other 39 Combs and 6 pecks one sort of Corn grain with another the which tother at 10 s. the Comb comes unto 19 l. 13 s. 9 d. but let it be granted as true it is that every Pidgeon house eateth besides that he otherwise spoileth to the value of 20 l. worth by the space of six weeks as aforesaid and the number of Parishes in the whole Nation being 9533. as Whites Almanack said besides Londen and so rate every shire with the County of Cambridge at 3 Dove-houses for every Parish the one with the other for in some Parishes there be farre more at which rate the whole Kingdom amounteth unto 28599. devouring Dove-houses the which at the several rates aforesaid commeth unto 571980 l. damage to the whole Kingdom in six weeks space onely but it is conceived they haue nine weeks in the harvest to eat and spoil in which it may amount to half as much more besides that they devour at seeds and other times in their several waies 3. That the multitude of Dove-houses are winked at and are suffered to stand in many places for the ingendring of Peter where some of the Owners thereof not sowing any Corn at all and some other having but a little Land with Corn of their own inheritance And moreover the profit of any Dove house is not worth to the Owner thereof the 40. part of that which the Pidgeons devour onely in six weeks space besides what they beat out and spoil 4. That the damage then in what the Pidgeons eat devour and spoil in the whole Kingdom in six weeks space at the rates aforesaid amounteth unto One Million seven hundred and seventeen thousand nine hundred and forty pound at the least 5. But if it may be proved that they eat and devour by the space of nine weeks as aforesaid then it will amount to the sum of Two Millions five hundred seventy three thousand nine hundred and ten pounds damage to the Kingdom in that space which is more than all the Pidgeons and Peter made in the Kingdom is forty times worth 6. That if it may be computed how many poor people of six persons in a Family at a bushel a week for every family that which the Pidgeons doe eat and destroy in the space aforesaid will maintain so many thousand families for nine weeks space which is a thing worthy to be thought upon and reformed by the Parliament 7. That in some Towns where there are not above fifty or sixty Families there are ten or twelve Dove-houses and the best owners thereof except Lords of the Mannors have not above forty or threescore acres of ploughed land in the Town besides that it will be proved that in some Parishes there are two or three Dove-houses where is not one Acre of ploughed land in these Parishes 8. That Judge Crook at an Assize time was of opinion that it was neither fitting nor lawfull for any man to have a Dove-house when so many poor people and their families may be maintained with the Corn that the Doves doe eat spoyl and devour Another Estimate by way of confirmation of destructive Pidgeon-houses PIdgeons can fly farre for the filling of their crops and return the same night so long as Pidgeons can get Corn they will eat little lesse They begin to eat Corn about the end of Jâ—ly at which time the Corn which is before hand sprung up in the ear and that ear pretty well filled begins to ripen or turn colour and they hardly want Corn till the end of Barly seeding which is about May day which in all amounts to two hundred and eighty daies or thereabouts the rest of the time they live on benting c. There are in England and Wales at least 24000 Dove-houses and there cannot be lesse than 500 pair of old Pidgeons in each house one with the other which amounts to 2000000 of pairs To speak very modestly each pair of old Pidgeons with what they carry
pound weight of the Lucerne seed such as is good and of the last years growth There is another French seed called Esparcet and mentioned by the Author of Theatre d' Agriculture to grow usually about Die in Daâ—lphine I cannot conceive but that a seed of that excellency cannot but since that Authors writing have spread it self the nearer to Paris If by your Friends favour I could have his knowledge of that seed a pattern of it and if it be to be had ten or fifteen pound weight of it by or before April you would much oblige me The Answer AS to the Qu. of Sir Ch. C. I know not the Flanders Clover nor the seed of it and so can tell nothing of its agreement or disagreement with Lucerne whereof I will send the desired quantity if it may be had whereof I make some doubt for some weeks since to my knowledge there was but one shop in Town that had any which was the cause that the price was doubled and from eight sols come to sixteen and I doubt not but it hath been enhaunced since if any one be left As for the Esparced I could never yet meet with any here who could tell me what it was it being long since that I have enquired after it for mine own curiosity finding it spoke of in the Theatre d' Agriculture But if I be not hugely mistaken it is the self-same with that which in these parts is known under the name of Saint-Foin and whereof I sent you the seed lately with that of Lucâ—rne P. S. What I told you out of my conjecture that Esparced is the same with Saint-Foin that I can now give you for a certain truth Dr. H. having found it so by his Enquiries The differences between Esparcet and the other French Seeds SErres in his Theatre d' Agriculture hath a Chapter by it self concerning Saint-Foine which by the tenor of that Chapter he seems to me to intimate to be the same with Lucerne In the very next Chapter to that of Saint-Foine he treats of this Esparcet in question and by comparing of both Chapters there will be found these differences Saint-Foine requires the best sort of ground and is tender but Esparcet is a very hearty hearb and grows very well in barren ground Saint-Foine by Serres is mowable five or six times a year but for Esparcet it will be mowed but thrice a year Saint-Foine endures in the ground upon once sowing twelve or fifteen years but Esparcet by the next Chap. endures but four years Saint-Foin grows ordinarily in Languedoc Provence Dauphine the Principality of Aurange and in the region about those Provinces but Esparcet is reported to grow only about Die in Dauphine These several differences mentioned by Serres make me conceive that the seeds are not the same and that if Esparcet upon enquiry cannot be found at Die it is lost either in deed or at least in name since the time that Serres lived which yet of a thing so profitable and once in practice is hard to apprehend The last Advertisements concerning Esparcet and the other French Seeds I Have sent to Calis by the Chassemarais a sack of Saint-Foine containing two English bushels and in the sack I have put three small canvas bags of three sorts of Lucorne of Holland of Flanders and of Paris but two pounds onely of each sort because I fear they are too old and will not grow and therefore I send them rather out of curiosity than otherwise the price being not great The new Lucerne seeds of Provence and Dauphine are not yet arrived but daily expected and so have been these three weeks If they come time enough to be sent so as that they may be in England by the time your friend appoints I will not faile to send what he demandeth As for Esparcet whereof Serres makes mention and which Dalechamp saith is called Sparsse at Die in Dauphine who puts both the description and the figure of it in the words Polygala and Onobrychis I have enquired particularly of it and they write to us from Die that they have such a grasse but that 't is mixed with divers other sorts of grasse in their Saint-Foine and that there be no particular seeds to be had of it alone And I perceive by Renard the famous Gardener of the Kings Garden of Simples that of those sorts of grasse specified in Dalechamp under several names and figures as Lucerne Hedisaron Polygala Onobrychis are all but several parts of Medica or Saint-Foine and that their seeds are not to be found distinctly separate one from another If any man would be so curious he might sow them all together as they are to be had under the titles of Lucerne or Tresle and gather the seeds of them distinctly according as he shall find their divers shapes correspondent to their several figures in Dalechamps or Clusius A Letter of Dr. J. S. relating the Husbandry of the French Tares or Fetches SIR IN my voyage from Paris to Roan I observed divers fields as I thought of the hearb called Aphaca vicia or Tares and Fetches and in them horses feeding but not at random being by the means of a rope allotted onely a certain space some four yards about and this space was thought sufficient for one horse in one day But being in the Coach in company with a Gentleman of the Country who understood something in Husbandry I made these following Enquiries 1. What it was called A. Was La Romagne 2. If every year sown A. It was but if it was not it would not cease to come though not in such abundance 3. How often mowen A. Not but once not that it might not be oftner moven but because being green and so eaten off the field the cattel fatned on it they were willing it should be so to spare their hay He said likewise that it was of so quick growth that one furrow but of a competent length was sufficient and more for one horse all grasse time over which he accounted from April to the latter end of August and then being spared for a time it might be mown and kept dry and given in the Winter to Horse Oxen and Sheep either alone or mixed with other fodder I asked how that a horse eating on one furrow alwaies could be ever a fresh supplied He said that every day he was to be carefully changed and that beginning at one end of the furrow and so going on to its middle then he was to be shifted to the other end of the furrow and in like manner to proceed till he come where he had left before and by that time the first end where he first begun would be sufficiently grown and so as he had eaten it before gradatim so he found it again growing gradatim and so good pasture again Moreover I inquired what difference he made of the profit the Lucerne brought for he knew it well and that of La Romagna He answered that the
and so every Country that hath not the natural Lime-stone may have it now out of other stone and so save carriage To this I answer A. 1. What Glauber hath written in his first Part Operis Mineralis of Peble or Flint-stones is to shew how to extract out of them not quick or unslackt Lime but Gold and that by the mediation of spirit of Salt which must be made first good cheap and in abundance What your Doctor undertakes must be left to tryal whether it will succeed or not A. 2. I believe the Doctor who pretends to make Lime of Peble may make his undertaking good seeing that in Holland in Italy and in many parts of the East-Indies they make it of the shels of Oysters and of all kinds of Shel-fish and that ex silice ipso out of Peble it self Lime hath been made many Ages since as Pliny and Agricola tell us But I know not whether the Doctor be aware of the inconvenients which the Flint-Lime is subject unto viz. that it is nothing so good as other Lime and that in the burning of it great part of the Flint instead of being converted into Lime turneth into a kind of glassie slack The manner of Planting Timber-trees in Cornwel I Have observed a sort of Husbandry in Cornwall which I like exceedingly Namely that upon their Mounds or Fences which are high and thick banks almost like Fortifications they doe set or sow Oak or some other wood which thriveth so well that I have seen the Wood growing upon one fence that parted two Closes to be worth four or five pound This kinde of Fence doth much preserve the Land from Malignant Aires and is withall more than three times profitable beyond what that same Land the bank stands on would yeeld if the banks were taken away The best reason to be given for the well growing of this wood is the mixture of earth and great stones whereof the bank is made amongst which the Roots take so firm hold that no violence of weather can hurt them and by the same reason the roots are safe from the prejudice which other Trees receive by the suddain and unnatural suffering by heat cold moysture or drought How to hasten the growth of Timber-trees WHen any young Trees as Oak Birch Elm Ash c. but Ash especially are in their bodies about two inches diameter which they oftimes be at three or four years growth then if you take a peece of an old coat of Male or some like Net of small wyre and holding it in your palm rub it pretty hard so as you tear not the bark up and down the body of the Tree twice every year you shall find that Tree far to outstrip his fellows of the same age and kind If you ask the reason let the example of friction or seasonable rubbing or dressing in a horse or other cattle be considered which sooner be fat and fair and that with lesse provender than the like horse ill kept Note That one man may well look to three thousand and do much other businesse which is not above an half penny a year a peece but the Tree shall be better'd in its growth at least rwo pence a year As for those kind of Trees called Flanders Ashes whereof some young ones were sent for and planted in the drained Fens of Lincolnshire by Dutchmen I have it onely by relation but from able men that the charge was three shillings a Tree and that they grew so fast that at three years growth they were worth twenty shillings a peece for Timber Doctor H. spake of an Apple called the Gennet-moyle that makes the best Cyder that every slip of the Tree will grow that the Trees are great bearers and the slips will grow to bear fruit in three years Of Turky-Beans to be more frequently planted THere is a sort of Beans which grows in many parts of England namely in the Isle of Exholm in Lincolnshire that are called Turky-beans very large and yeelding a great increase to be eaten with a little butter and vineager after they are boyled shels and all they are ripe about July or later if you please and will come seasonably to succeed our Hasting-pease and if more frequently planted might be afforded cheap A Friendly Advice how a hundred and and fifty pound may be improved by Husbandry to yeeld a farre greater increase than if the said summe were imployed in a way of Usury upon Usury IN answer to your Question viz. how a Friend of yours might dispose of a hundred and fifty pound or any other summe to the best advantage I humbly tender you my opinion thus that summe may be turned and returned continually to no small advantage very many wayes I will onely instance four viz. by Sowing or Ploughing of Corn Flax Rape or by breeding or feeding of cattle any of these will almost double the summe every year For example a hundred and fifty pound will plant I mean in the most excellent way and consider also the dearnesse of the present time about forty Acres with Wheat which by the ordinary blessing of God cannot be lesse worth than eight pound one Acre with another which in all amounts to three hundred and twenty pound which again the next year according to the like account will advance it self to six hundred and forty pounds that is to say it will plant eighty Acres worth eight pound a peice at Harvest And from thence forward if you deduct one hundred pounds yearly for an increase of present maintainance Yet your stock will increase far more than by Interest upon Interest which is also nothing so just or ingenious a way of getting And if you say your friend is not a man addicted to or experienced in these wayes of Husbandry or of such employments otherwise as will not allow him to act in this way himself give me leave to say he may doe it by the assistance of some faithfull friend which is not impossible for you to find or make by those abundant obligations you use to lay upon all men such a friend as is skilful and active in these most pleasant and honest wayes To turn the same stock in Cattle will amount to near the same profit but either of the other viz. to sow Flax or Rape will be yet much more profitable and increase your present Revenue and Stock also faster Sir I humbly advise your Friend to take some one of these wayes by the help of such a Friend which shall never want the best furtherance I can give it which is my earnest prayers for an extraordinary blessing upon such honest endeavours which will in a few years and that in a way most pleasing to God and approved of good men make a very competent provision for himself and his living and leave a considerable estate to those that succeed Another friendly and more particular Advice how by a good husbandry of Rape-seed to raise an Estate or provide Portions for
Land is not worth above fifteen years purchase But if the use of money went at no more than at other places then five pound bestowed upon an Acre of ground would stand a man in but five or six shillings a year and the acre of land so amended would be worth as hath been shewed six and twenty or thirty yeares purchase Whereby it appeareth that as the rate of Use now goeth no man but where the land lyeth extraordinarily happy for it can amend his Land but to his own losse whereas if money were let as it is in other Countries he might bestow more than double as much as now he may and yet be a great gainer thereby and consequently as was before remembred should to his own benefit purchase land to the Common-wealth Neither would such purchase of Land to the Common-wealth be the benefit to the landed men onely the benefit would be as much to the poor Labourers of the Land For now when Corn and other fruits of the land which grow by labour are cheap the Plough and Mattock are cast into the hedge there is little work for poor men and that at a low rate whereas if the mendment of their own lands were the cheapest purchase to the owner if there were many more people than there are they should be readily set a work at better rates than now they are and none that had their health and limbs could be poor but by their extreamest lazinesse A Bank of Lands or an Improvement of Lands never thought on in former Ages Begun to be presented upon most rationable and demonstrable grounds by Mr. William Potter a Gentleman of great deserts and of a most Publique Spirit which being more fully cleared in all its Particulars and established by publique Authority may become a standing and setled Meanes to enrich the whole Nation and also to remove Taxes and other publique Burdens THrough the long continuance of the Wars Trade hath been interrupted great losses sustained at sea the people constrained to live upon the main stock mens credits ruined many debts otherwise good lost both friends and enemies plundered or sequestred and Taxes c. unavoydably continued whereby the Nation is now in a very low condition There is a great necessity that this Epidemical disease of ruin in mens estates should be cured for hereby 1. The Rich that should support others are diminished in number and weakned in means and the Poor that should be upheld are increased both in number and necessities 2. If the removing of Burdens be necessary the removing of Poverty without which the rest are in effect no burdens is more necessary 3. The Trade Manufacture Shipping Strength Repute and flourishing estate of the Nation depends as the meanes upon the Riches thereof 4. The servility of a low condition deprives men of much leisure and freedom in attending higher things This burden may be removed by encouraging such employments and undertakings as tend to increase the estates of some without impoverishing others for whatsoever takes from one mans estate as much as it adds to another doth not inrich the Nation The capacity of inriching this Nation is in a sort infinite 1. By making it the Scale of Trade to other people which consists in buying the commodities of other Countries working them here and selling them again in forraign parts Whereby if England were a City upon a Rock and held no land of their own they might be maintained comfortably Witnesse Holland 2. By Plantations throughout the world which tends to lessen our charge and increase our means by the returnes of commodities out of the industry of those that otherwise must be maintained for nothing 3. By the Fishing-trade wherein the Sea affords a vast Treasure without demanding any rent for it all which three last particulars would yeeld a kind of infinite of increase if there were no want of stock to employ therein 4. By improving our present Possessions For 1. Almost all the Land in England might be made to yeeld much more encrease if men had money to imploy in manuring the same 2. Divers Husbandmen want wherewith to stock their ground whereby perhaps the Nation suffers more than many times by much unseasonable weather 3. A great part of Ireland lyes at present waste which without great stock to plant is like so to continue 4. There are great quantities of oazie grounds about the Sea-coast and other Fens and waste grounds besides Forrests and Commons which drained and improved might equalize in value some two or three Counties in England 5. There are many Mines in England Ireland and Scotland which being wrought would much increase our Exportation and imployment for poor men To set all these Wheels a going two things are necessary viz. that the people may know where to be furnished with stock at low interest and that a sufficient quantity of currant money be disperced amongst them And indeed the great Remora is that the people are generally voyd of stock whereby it is impossible they should deal either in the Forraign Trade Fishing Plantations or Improving their own possessions by reason whereof both poor and rich are deprived of imployment and forced to live chiefly upon the Principal to the greater increase of their poverty and ruin Whereas if they knew where to obtain such stock at low Interest it would both enable them to prosecute the aforesaid ends and also make way for the more speedy vent of commodities in other Nations for greatnesse of stock at low Interest would enable the English Merchants to deal for much and thereby to buy cheap work cheap and sel for lesse profit in the pound and also to procure their commodities at the best hand viz. at the places of their growth in their proper season whereby out-trading and underselling other Nations they obtain the pre-emption of sale and so cannot fail of vent abroad Also great stock at low Interest would enable Merchants to raise the price of our own native commodities in Forraign parts by keeping them for a good Market which helps much towards the enriching of a Nation Again if there were great quantity of money disperced amongst the people of this land there would not wantvent of commodities amongst themselves For in this case every man to improve his stock would be laying out that mony in commodities those that receive it would be laying it out again upon others and those upon others and so on which would beget a constant return or quick vent for commodities proportionable to the quantity of money so perpetually revolving amongst them Now if through plenty of mony amongst the people there were as much vent for commodity as the earth could by industry be made to afford men would not spare either the Sea or the Land but the one by the Fishing Trade the other by Husbandry and all ingenious wayes of Improvement here in England by planting in Ireland and other new Plantations throughout the whole Globe would bestow
all their skill and diligence to multiply commodity and livelyhood to the imployment of innumerable poor and all other men whatsoever and the abundant increase of our Shipping and Dominion on the Sea and thereby the strength renown and flourishing estate of the Nation And not onely so but if there were such vent here in England even Forraign Nations would dispatch their commodities hither as to the quickest Market and by meeting here as in a center might furnish each other with returns so as England would become as it were a general Market or Faire to other Nations to the great enriching thereof whereby the Frontier Towns upon the Sea-coast by reason of Trade would grow populous and strong for the defence of the Nation Also quicknesse of returns here in England would expedite returns abroad for quick returns makes a small stock equivalent to a great stock with slow returns and therefore if the Merchants of England could vent all sorts of commodities here as fast as they could possibly procure them it would inable them to deal for much and consequently to buy much cheap work cheap and sell for lesse profit in the pound as before So as in this case there would not want vent for commodities either at home by reason of the plenty of mony here or abroad by reason of our own out-trading other Nations through the greatnesse of our stock and quicknesse of returns Also if men through plenty of Coyn revolving amongst them could meet with ready money for all commodities as fast as they could be made fit for sale no man for the future would deal for time the rather for that the forbearance of Debts in a time of quick trade would be great losse This would remove all those Inconveniencies which are incident to the ordinary way of Trading upon credit viz. 1. The imprisonment of mens persons for debt 2. Innumerable suits of Law about such debts 3. Much trouble in keeping Accompts 4. Great losses by mens trusting those that fail 5. Cousenage in those who concealing their estates compound with their Creditors 6. Underselling the Market for procuring money to pay debts 7. Hard bargains by taking up ware upon trust 8. Disabling men from managing their Trade and taking the advantage of the Market their stock being in other mens hands This necessity of plenty of Coyn amongst a people is the reason why States makes Laws against the Exportation thereof and many times pitch upon some Staple commodities which they will not exchange with other Nations but for returns in Bullion So much money in specie as were necessary to furnish the people with the aforesaid stock at low Interest and such plenty of Coyn as is already mentioned is impossible to be had and if it could be obtained by returnes from other Nations yet we must part with our own commodities for it which we cannot spare in such great quantities Whereas upon serious consideration it will be found that Credit grounded upon the best security is the same thing with Money and may be had in very great abundance without parting with any commodity for it That such Credit is as good as Money will appear if it be observed that Money it self is nothing else but a kind of securitie which men receive upon parting with their commodities as a ground of hope or assurance that they shall be repayed in some other commoditie since no man would sell any commoditie for the best money but in hopes thereby to procure some other commodity or necessary True it is that Coyn which hath no intrinsical value as they call it viz. Money of Brasse Copper c. though whilst it runs currant the owner may obtain commodity for it yet when the use of it is prohibited no man being engaged to make it good he suffers losse Which if he had security in Lands of sufficient value would be prevented whereby it appeares that security answers to the intrinsick value of Coyn. That such Credit is as good as Money is also evident upon this ground That Money if it were a better security than it is yet it serveth onely to supply the interval of time between the selling of one commodity and the buying of another Now the best assurances in Land are a security sufficient for the supplying of that intervall Especially considering that mens estates are generally either in land or commodities And in land though more certain than commodity yet if absolutely purchased there may be losse by its decrease in value but if accepted onely as in Morgage that hazard is prevented and so becomes the most certain security on earth and therefore must needs be sufficient to supply the short interval betwixt the selling of land or commodity and the buying thereof Upon this ground that Security is in effect the same thing with Money it is that in divers places of the world it runs currant in stead of Money Thus Bills in Flanders obliging the Debtor to pay money at a certain time are acccepted by those who esteem of the man as able and sufficient whereby such Bills doe usually passe from one hand to another untill they become payable Thus in Venice Leighorn and Amsterdam the security commonly called Credit grounded upon the depositions of money in bank runs currant and though the owners may have mony if they please yet they chuse rather to deale by credit whereby it appeares that it is neither unpossible strange nor unpracticeable for security to be made to supply the place of mony This is best effected by the way of Banks Banks as they are now practiced are nothing else in effect but places where men pawn or deposite their moneys for obtaining currant credit as that which they may keep with lesse danger and assign to another with lesse trouble If any man who hath credit in Bank demands the money it is payd him but as some men demand money out of the Bank so others when they are to receive money doe cause it to be payd into the Bank whereby to ease themselves of the trouble of receiving keeping and paying it Hence it is that the Bankers are alwaies receiving mony of some as well as paying it to others so as those who from time to time demand any money are usually payd by those who bring it in and the rest of the money lyes dead in bank or else that Bank hath no credit for look how much credit runs currant so much monâ—y doth or should lye dead in bank as a pawn for makâ—ng good theeof Now seeing such money lyes dead in bank and serveth for no other purpose but as a pawn or ground of security for making good the credit that runs currant in stead thereof there is no doubt to be made but that lands being morgaged to a Bank would serve as well and better for such a pawn which cannot be removed or made away by force or fraud as great summes of money lying long in one place may neither is any temptation