Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	bear_v	fruit_n	good_a	1,697	5	3.9177	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67083	Systema agriculturæ, the mystery of husbandry discovered treating of the several new and most advantagious ways of tilling, planting, sowing, manuring, ordering, improving of all sorts of gardens, orchards, meadows, pastures, corn-lands, woods & coppices, as also of fruits, corn, grain, pulse, new-hays, cattle, fowl, beasts, bees, silk-worms, &c. : with an account of the several instruments and engines used in this profession : to which is added Kalendarium rusticum, or, The husbandmans monthly directions, also the prognosticks of dearth, scarcity, plenty, sickness, heat, cold, frost, snow, winds, rain, hail, thunder, &c. and Dictionarium rusticum, or, The interpretation of rustick terms, the whole work being of great use and advantage to all that delight in that most noble practice.	Worlidge, John, fl. 1660-1698.	1675 (1675)	Wing W3599; ESTC R225414	330,040	361

Plantation the Tree groweth tall is a great defence against Winds a most Excellent Ornament delights in a dry sound and rich Land if it incline to a feeding Chalk or Marl also in stony grounds and on hills especially Chalky likewise in Corn-fields In several places in Germany no young Farmer is permitted to Marry a wife till he bring proof that he hath planted and is a father of such a stated number of Walnut-trees The Fruit will yearly sufficiently recompense the loss of the ground it drops with a good advantage the Timber bears a good price and is of excellent use in every place strong and not subject to the Worm but is not to be entertained in Hedge-rows no Tree thriving under its drip Stately Avenues and large Plantations are of them in Surry to the very great advantage and recompence of the industry of the owners That which is produced of the thick shell of the Nut becomes the best Timber that of the thinner the better Fruit. If the Market should happen to be overstocked of this Fruit for the Table by over-great Plantations yet may a considerable advantage be raised by extracting an Oyl of the Kernel as at this time they do in Normandy which is their principal use they convert them to The Oyl is excellent for the Limner for laying his white Colours it 's good for Lamps and many other uses These are a Fruit growing so low that we generally look over 5 Of Filberts them they delight in a fine mellow light ground but will grow in almost any ground especially if they are defended from the violent and cold Winds the Tree is easily propagated generally bears well and yields a most excellent Fruit not much inferior to the best and sweetest Almond There are the White and Red but the White is the best Being planted in rows near the greater Trees they will bear under the shadow of them and give you a good reward for your Industry They delight in shady places where few other fruits will prosper They are a Fruit that may be kept long in the husk or in Sand. Quinces are a very good Fruit the Trees delight in moist 6 Of Quinces ground and near the Waters-side and where they like their ground they yield a very great increase it is good to apply hot and rich Soils to the Roots of them which will be fully repaid in the Fruit. There are several kinds of them some are a small Crab-quince others a fair large kinde of quince 't is good to plant of the best sort and the best bearers the Portugal-Quince is judged to be the best both for bearing and use Mr. Hartlib tells you of a Gentleman at Prichnel in Essex who Legacie had a Tree from beyond Sea and had the best in England and had made above thirty pound of a small piece of ground planted with them They are difficult to propagate they will grow in any reasonable 7 Of Mulberries good Land the Fruit is made use of several ways some make a Drink or Wine of them it 's very good to colour Wine or Syder but the greatest and most principal benefit and use of the Mulberry-tree is the leaf being the only known food for the Silk-worm if the Trees were more encreased it would be encouragement sufficient to keep these curious Creatures although many have kept them and made great quantities of the Silk yet the difficulty of obtaining the leaves and where they are they Hartlib's Legacie grow in Gardens generally few in quantity and valued according to the ground they grow on that it 's a great discouragement to that noble Improvement If King James's Letter for the planting of Mulberry-trees were Legacie again revived or some compulsive Statute to that purpose and diligently prosecuted it would produce in time a very considerable advantage to this Kingdom Or rather if his Majesty or some Honourable Person would allot some large parcel of Land out of some Forest or Chace to be wholly Cultivated for the raising of a Mulberry-wood it would become a most noble President for others to imitate For the principal Advantage must be raised on such Land not yet improved to the highest value by other Plantations as usually Gardens are There are many kindes of Plums and very much differing 8 Of Plums from each other The better sorts as the Mustle-plum the Damazine Violet and Premorden-Plums with many others are very pleasant to be eaten and require a very good rich warm Soil and place the common ordinary Plums will grow almost any where they are not worth the planting to be eaten unless you can finde a way to make a good Wine out of them doubtless they yield store of Spirits or Aqua Vitae They are the more to be regarded for that they thrive very well in shady places where except the Filberd and the Currant scarce any other Fruit will prosper The Damzin is one of the best wholsomest and most profitable of Plums and deserves a place in your Plantation Mr. Hartlib Legacie gives it as a deficiencie that the great Damzin or Pruin-plum is neglected which groweth well and beareth full in England Plum-trees and Damzins may also be planted in Hedges being ordinarily thorny Plants they will thrive there better than Apples or Pears The Medlar is a Fruit of very little use the reason I suppose 9 Of Medlars they are no more multiplyed yet have they been of long standing they are pleasing to the Palate This Tree may serve to fill up a spare Corner in your Orchard If we could obtain the Medlars without stones mentioned in the French Gardiner they would be better worth the planting The great Dutch Medlar is the best The Barberry is a common Plant in Orchards and bears a Fruit 10 Of Barberries very useful in Housewifry There are several sorts of them although but one only common above which is to be preferred that which beareth its Fruit without stones There is also another sort and chiefly differs from the common kinde in that the Berries are twice as big and more excellent to preserve Mr. Hartlib condemns us much for neglecting the propagation 11 Of Almonds Legacie of this Tree which saith he groweth well and beareth good Fruit as he hath seen divers bushels on one Tree in his Brothers Orchard they grew large and upright and need not the help of a Wall the Almond is in some sweet in others a little bitter The Tree is chiefly received for the beauty of its Flowers which being many early and of a fair pale reddish colour make a fine shew in a Garden The common Service-tree grows wilde in many places but 12 Of the Service-Tree there is a kinde thereof more rare which by long standing grows to a fair Tree with many branches set with winged leaves like those of the Ash but smaller and indented about the edges The Flowers grow in Clusters succeeded by Fruits in some

other choice Plums upon or for the budding of Aprecocks and Peaches but for a Nectorine a Peach-Stock is most proper The Stones of Aprecocks and Peaches are not worth the setting for Stocks to Inoculate with other good kinds in respect their Roots are Spongy and will neither last nor endure to be transplanted therefore the Stones of Plums and Cherries are chiefly for that purpose to be regarded except the Peach-stock for the Nectorine Goosberries and Currans are Inoculated on their own kinde Goosberries c. and so are Plums Apples Pears and Cherries SECT IV. Of the Nursery for Stocks For the obtaining of a sufficient number of Stocks to Graft and Inoculate the several sorts of Fruits you intend to propagate and advance and also to pleasure your self with such that may be suitable for your intended purpose and not to be enforced to rely on such that the Country spontaneously affords either for quantity or quality prepare a Bed of Earth well dressed from Weeds proportionable to the Seeds or Stones you intend to sow and therein sow your Kernels of Crabs or such like Apples as you intend to raise your Stocks from and cover them with Earth sifted or raked over them two or three fingers thick This may be done about October and so let lye till the Winter For the Stones of Fruits you may prick them down in Rows two or three fingers deep with the sharp end downwards You may also cover them with long Dung or Straw to keep them from the violence of Frosts which in April you may take off and in May they will come up and being kept from Weeds in two years will be ready to remove into other Beds prepared for that purpose whereof they are to be planted at a more convenient distance and better order for the benefit of the Plant and conveniency of the Grafter In Autumn is the most convenient time for this purpose though it may be done at any time in the Winter or Spring before they bud Let them be set in Rows about two foot distance or as best pleases your self and the Plants in each Row about six or eight inches apart for the better conveniency of transplanting them make the holes with an ordinary Setting-stick and cut off the down-right Roots and the Tops and Side-branches of the Plants and fasten the Earth about them Let not the Roots be too long nor set deep because they are afterwards removed with more difficulty It is necessary to remove Seed-plants for by that means they get good Roots which otherwise they generally thrust down one single Root only The Nursery thus set may be ready after one year to Inoculate and after two or three years to Graft Crab-stocks or Apple-stocks thus raised are better than those that come from the Woods or any other ways Let the Kernels you raise your Nursery from consist most or altogether of Crabs or Wildings for the Apple-Grafts Trees Grafted on a Gennet-Moyl or Cider-stock preserve best the Gust of any delicate Apple but on a Crab-stock the Tree lasts longer and imparts a more Juicy and Tart relish and so are to be preferred before most sorts of Apples The wilde Stock does enliven the dull and Phlegmatick Apple and the Stock of a Gennet-Moyl sweetens and improves the Pepin c. or may rather seem to abate some Apple over-tart and severe The same Rules may be observed in the choice of Stocks for Pears Plums Cherries Aprecocks c. the more Acid the Stock the more life it gives to the Fruit of the Graft as the black Cherry or the Cherry-Tree is the only Stock for the Cherry c. Although the Fruit doth generally take after the Graft yet is it somewhat altered by the Stock either for the better or the worse as Apples or other Fruit Grafted on Stocks select as before advance or meliorate them so if they are Grafted on Stocks of another contrary Nature much debaseth the Gust of the Fruit. The Pear Grafted on a Quince-stock produceth its Fruit better than the same kinde upon a wilde Pear-stock and fairer much better coloured and the Trees to bear sooner and more store of Fruits for the Fruit not only receives something of the Nature of the Stock as well as the Graff but also of the Soyl wherein they are planted and of the Compost applyed unto them Therefore chuse a plat of ground for your Seminary and Nursery that may be of an indifferent nature not too much enriched with dung nor too sterile lying warm the Mould light that the Stocks may the better thrive Also let your Stocks be of Fruit select as before for that purpose If you desire to raise Dwarf-trees let the Stocks whereon you Graff them be of the Paradise-Apple for Apples of the Quince for Pears of the Morello or common English Cherry for Cherries and so will they be the more fit for the Wall or for Standards being kept low according to the new Mode though I see but little pleasure or profit in that way The best way and most expeditious to raise a great quantity of Quince-stocks for your Nursery is to cut down an old Quince-tree in March within two inches of the ground which will cause a multitude of Suckers to rise from the Root When they are grown half a yard high cover them at the bottom a foot thick with good Earth which in dry times must be watered and as soon as they have put forth Roots in Winter remove them into your Nursery where in a year or two they will be ready to Graft with Pears Plum-stocks and Cherry-stocks may be raised from Suckers as well as from Stones having regard to the kinds whence they proceed SECT V. Of the Time and Manner of Grafting Having thus prepared your Nursery and raised a sufficient quantity of Stocks to Graff or Inoculate on you must consider the several ways the several kinds of Fruits are to be propagated and which are most suitable and also the several times and seasons wherein to Graff and wherein to Inoculate The times to Graff in are most usually in February and March 1 The time for Graffing but I have grafted even unto mid-April some backward Fruits and that with good success You may begin also in January especially with the more forward Fruits as Plums Cherries c. such that have many to do or much imployment other way may begin more early lest they want time You may either Graff or Inoculate at any time of the year except October and November saith Stephens the Author of the Country Farmer but whether that may be practised with success in these colder Countries I much question But doubtless the temperature of the Season doth very much conduce to the growth or proof of the Graff as milde Weather in December or January may be better for this work than Frosty Weather in February Frost Weather at no time is fit to Graff in When the Zephyres of the Spring are stirring chuse

be well placed to the Wall for if any branch happen to be wreathed or bruised in the bending or turning which you may not easily perceive although it doth grow and prosper for the present yet it will decay in time the Sap or Gum will also spew out in that place By neglect of this Observation many seeming fair Trees decay in several parts when the Husbandman is ignorant of the cause In Pruning the Vine leave some new branches every year and take away if too many some of the old which much advantageth the Tree and encreaseth its fruit When you cut your Vine leave two knots and cut at the next interval for usually the two Buds yields a bunch of Grapes I have observed Vines thus pruned to bear many fair bunches when cut close as usually is done for Beauty sake which by the Husbandman is not in this case to be regarded the Tree hath been almost barren of Fruit. When you cut any Pithy Tree the Vine especially make your Lance if the Sprig be upright on the North-side if sloping then make your Lance under or on one side that the wet or Rain lodge not on it nor decay the Pith which usually damnifies the next Bud and sometimes more SECT XI Other necessary Observations about Fruit-trees Where the ground is shallow or lieth near Gravel Clay Stone 1 Of the raising of Land or Chalk or near the Water take the top of one half of the same Land and lay it on the other in Ridges abating the intervals like unto Walks and plant the Trees on the midst of the Ridges by which means they will have double the quantity of Earth to root in that they had before and the Walks or Intervals preserve the Ridges from superfluous moisture It hath been found an approved Remedy in dry shallow Land as well as in low wet Land It hath been observed that Pear-trees will thrive and prosper Pear-trees in cold moist hungry stony and gravelly Land where Apples will not bear so well The Roots of such Trees that thrive not nor bear well may 2 Of the ordering the Roots of old Trees be laid open about November and if the ground be poor and hungry then towards the Spring apply good fat Mould thereto but if the ground be over-fat and rich that the Tree spends it self in Branches and Leaves with little Fruit then apply to the Roots Ashes or Lime or any of the Composts that are salt hot and dry mixed with the Earth which contain more of fertility than the ordinary Dung Also laying store of any manner of Vegetables all the Summer about the roots of Fruit-trees to kill the Grass and Weeds growing about the Tree it keeps the ground moist and cool and adds much to the flourishing and fertility of the Tree and is the best Natural Remedy against the Moss so that it lye not too near the Tree to decay the Bark thereof Digging or Ploughing about the Roots of Fruit-trees adds much to their fertility and prevents the Moss in most Trees Stones laid in heaps about the Roots preserves them cool and moist in the Summer and warm in Winter and is of great use and concernment to the fertility and advance of the growth of Fruit-trees The ground wherein you plant your Fruit-trees if you finde it 3 Alteration of ground not suitable to the Nature of the Tree may be several ways altered as before and by the applying of Earth Clay or Sand of a divers Nature from the ground where the Tree grows If your Orchard or Garden be not naturally well scituate and 4 Defending Trees from Winds defended from the injurious winds by Hills or Woods or that Buildings Barns Walls or such like are not conveniently scituate near to preserve it it is of great advantage to raise a perpetual lasting and pleasant shelter by planting a compleat Thorn-hedge about the same at the time or in that Year you White-thorn first plant your Orchard or Garden which will grow in a few years to a considerable height and very much break the cold winds and preserve the smaller and lower part of the greater Trees in their blossoming and kerning time from the nipping winds But for that that the principallest parts of the greater Trees exceed the Summity of the White-thorn the Wallnut-tree Wallnut-tree raised in time on the borders or naked sides of the Orchard or Garden and if you can on the out-sides of the Fences will prove a Noble and profitable defence from the furious winds If you regard not the Fruit or profit so much as the pleasure and sudden rise of such a defence that which is most facile and expeditious to be raised is the Poplar which may be planted poplar near together and ten or fifteen foot in height the first year which will prove and thrive wonderfully especially if the ground be any whit inclineable to moisture Or the Lime-tree if you can conveniently obtain them make Lime-tree a close and secure defence from the winds and of all other is the most odoriferous regular and delicious verdant pale to a Garden or Orchard The Sycamore and the Elm also are not to be rejected only the Elm hath an ill name as being subject to raise or attract Blights At the removal of Trees the trimmings of the roots planted 5 Raising Stocks or rather buried in the ground within a quarter of an inch or little more of the level of the Bed will sprout and grow to be very good Stocks Pigeons dung or the dung of Poultry or any Fowl being of 6 Soyl for Fruit-trees a hot dry and salt Nature hath been experimentally found to be the Soyl most conducing to fertility for Fruit-trees especially in cold grounds It is usual to select aspiring Trees and to expect the fairer 7 Height of Trees Trees because taller and better and more Fruit than those that are low T is true the more remote the branches are from the Earth the less are they subject to the injuries of Cattel or the Fruit to light fingers But the lower the Tree brancheth it self and spreads the fairer and sooner will it attain to be a Tree and the greater burthen will it bear of Fruit and those better and larger The Tree and Fruit will also be less obvious to the furious winds which make havock most years of a great part of our stock and in the Spring the new-kerned Fruit will be more within the shelter of the Natural or Artificial Securities from the nipping cold morning Breese and the Fruit when ripe and apt to fall will not receive so great injury from the humble as from the aspiring Tree Sed medio Virtus As the tall Tree is not for your advantage so the Tree that 's too low is not for your conveniency I aim not at Extremes In many places Fruit-trees are much injured by Moss it rarely 8 Diseases of Trees Moss grows on Trees where the

This challengeth the Priority not only of the Dung of Fowl Of Pigeons-dung but of all other Creatures whatsoever Pigeons or Hens-dung is incomparable one Load is worth ten Load of other Dung and therefore it 's usually sown on Wheat or Barly that lieth afar off and not easily to be helped it 's extraordinary likewise on a Hop-garden A Load of Pigeons-dung is more worth than twenty shillings in many parts a very excellent Soil for a cold moist-natured Land I have caused it to be sown by hand after the Grain is sown and in the same manner and then harrowed in with the Grain and received a very great increase on poor Land I have known saith Platt a Load of Pigeons-dung fetched sixteen miles and a Load of Coals given for it which in the Soil where it was fetched would have done more hurt than good for the Manuring of Land yet where it was carried it did as much good for the fertilizing of Land as double the charges In the one Soil it cured the barrenness and in the other it poysoned the fertility This Dung is of less esteem because it is not obtained at so easie Hen-dung a rate and where it is it 's generally little set by because our Fore-fathers did not make any great matter of it and because they understand not the strength and power of it for when they take it out of the houses it 's of a very hot nature and must needs injure some things if laid thereon but if it be mixed well with common Earth Sand or such-like and let lie till it rot well together you will finde it a very rich Manure and of value to answer a great part of your Poultreys expence I have known a Quince-tree whereon Poultrey always pearched that by reason of the Rain washing to its Roots the salt and fatness of the Dung did bear yearly an incredible number of very excellent Quinces This hath been held by the Antients to be most hurtful and unprofitable Of Goose-dung Markham to any Grounds They say that to good Grass they are a great enemy for their Dung and treading will putrifie it and make it worse than barren I have it from a credible hand that Goose-dung is very advantageous to Corn it being discovered by a flock of Geese daily passing over-thwart a Field of Wheat making as it were a Lane over the same in the Winter-time and had nibbled the Wheat clean from the Ground and dunged it where they went in which passage the next year proved to be very gallant Wheat far exceeding any other part of the Field Like unto that I have heard that a Flock of Wild-geese had pitched upon a parcel of green Wheat and had eaten it up clean and sat thereon and dung'd it several nights that the Owner despaired of having any Crop that year but the contrary happened for he had a far richer Stock of Wheat there than any of his Neighbours had in the Land adjoyning to the admiration of all Which demonstrateth that this Dung is of a very hot and fiery nature which occasioneth that barrenness falsly suggested to be in it and being laid abroad thin in the Winter-time proves a very rich Manure and therefore to be esteemed of and being mixed with cooling Earths and let putrifie some time may prove very much for your benefit therefore neglect it not but make several trials the Advantage will be your own The same may be said of the Dung of any other Water-fowl Although that Urines are esteemed to be of a destructive and Of Urines Explicatio Miraculi Mundi p. 50. mortifying nature to Vegetables as Glauber affirms by reason of its Salarmoniacal and burning Spirit that is therein as is evident to our Senses upon the casting of new Urine on Nettles or other Vegetables it soon destroyeth them But it is with this as with many other moist things subject to putrefaction time will digest it and alter the nature and property thereof as it doth Wine or Beer into Vineger so it will of this fiery matter produce an excellent Soil as many have had the experience of Mr. Hartlib testifieth that in Holland they as carefully preserve the Cows Urine as the Dung to enrich their Land Columella in his Book of Husbandry saith That old Vrine is excellent for the Roots of Trees I know a woman saith Mr. Hartlib who lived five miles South of Canterbury who saved in a Pail all the Urine and when the Pail was full sprinkled it on her Meadow which caused the Grass at first to look yellow but after a little time it grew wonderfully Another also saith That Mans Urine is of great worth and will English Improver fatten Land more than you are aware of and it were not ill Husbandry to take all opportunities to preserve it for Land and so of all other Urines after the Dutch manner Humane Ordure ought not here to be omitted as a rich Soil if the Husbandman would be so careful as to place his House of Office that he may once in two or three days add some mixture of Earth Straw Stubble or such-like to reduce it into a necessary Substance portable into his Lands or Grounds remote from his Dwelling where after it hath lain some convenient time in a heap to putrifie together and then thinly dispersed proves an unexpected Advantage SECT V. Of several other Soyls or Manures Ashes contain in them very much of a rich and fertile Salt as Ashes before we noted and therefore not so much to be slighted and neglected as they are be they of what kinde or nature soever Virgil. Ne pudet Effoetos Cinerem immundum jactare per agros The Wood-ashes are the best and very useful yet after they have been used in the Bucking of Clothes they are worth little unless it be in cold and moist Land where I have known them also to avail much Sea-coal ashes with Horse-dung make an excellent Compost for divers uses Turf and Peat-ashes must needs be very rich being much after the same manner as the Burning of Land which most know to be a very great Improvement and whereof we have already treated Ashes are a great Curer of Moss and Rushes in most Grounds The Ashes of any sort of Vegetables are very profitable as divers places in England can testifie by experience who consume their Fearn Stubble Straw Heath Furs Sedge Bean-stalks and the very Sward and Swarth of their Ground to ashes and these according to the store of Salt which their Ashes do contain do either for a longer or shorter time enrich their barren Grounds Mr. Platt highly commends Soap-ashes after the Soap-boylers have made what use of them they please to be a very great enriching to Land and gives you an instance of a Stalk and Ear of Barley of an Ell and three Inches in length that grew on barren Land enriched with Soap-ashes he also saith he found the like success in pasture-Pasture-ground In

Lombardy they esteem them much above other Dung It 's best to lay them either on Corn or Pasture or Meadow in the beginning of Winter that the showers may the easier dissolve them Soot also is affirmed by some to be very good especially that Soot which is made of Wood. It 's most beneficial to Trees or Plants that either grow in the shade or to cold and moist Grounds Common Salt may prove advantageous if used with moderation Salt and discretion as well to saltish Sands Muds Earths c. Some commend very much the sweeping of a Ship of Salt or drossie Salt and Brine It is of singular use as daily experience testifies being dissolved and Seed-corn steeped therein to prevent the Smut and add fertility as we noted before in the Preparation of the Seed There is also a relation of one that sowed a Bushel of Salt long before on a small patch of barren Ground at Clapham which to that day remained more fresh and green and full of Swarth than all the rest of the Field about it This though not a beneficial Experiment by reason of the price of Salt yet a plain demonstration of the Fertility that is in Salts and gives us encouragement to make use of the Brines of Salt-pits or such-like now not in much esteem In Rags of all sorts there is good vertue they are carried far Rogs and laid upon Lands and have them in a warming improving temper one good Load will go as far as a dozen or more of the best Cow-dung Divers also have found singular profit in the Hair that is gotten Hair c. from the Hides of Beasts being thinly laid upon the Ground and suffered to putrifie Also course Wool-nippings and Tarry Pitch-marks may be reckoned into the number having great virtue in them Mault-dust is commended as an Inricher of barren Lands but Mault-dust because great quantities are not to be had thereof it is best to be used in Gardens where you will finde it to be of singular use only it is apt to breed Weeds All sorts of Fearn Straw Brake Stubble Rushes Thistles Fearn Straw Stubble c. Leaves of Trees or any manner of Vegetable Trash whatever either cast into the yards amongst the Cattle or Swine or cast into Pools or places to rot in or mixed with other Soils help very much and make very good Compost All Marrow-bones Fish-bones Horn or shavings of Horn or Bones horns stinking flesh c. Liquors wherein Flesh or Fish have lain or any other thing whatsoever that hath any oyliness or fatness in it is useful in Husbanding Lands It were not much labour to try whether the bones of Horses or other Beasts whereof there are great quantities at some Dog-kennels which if being burnt in heaps with some small addition of Fewel would be of good effect to be laid on Lands There is in all Bark a very rich Salt but in the Oaken-bark the Bark of Trees most which is made use of principally by Tanners but such Barks or Rinds of Trees not of so high a value being broken into small pieces must of necessity enrich either Corn or Pasture-ground being Earth in Willow-trees laid thereon It must needs be much richer than the Mould or Earth usually found in the bodies of old large and hollow Willow-trees that are putrified within which is esteemed to be so rich and effectual Amongst the Coal-Mines they usually dig a kind of blew or black Clay that lies near the Coal and is as it were an unripe Coal which the Country-men commonly call Vrry which they Urry lay on their Pastures with wonderful success and is very proper for warm Lands CHAP. VI. Of the Benefit Raising Planting and Propagating of all sorts of Timber-trees and other Trees useful either in Building or other Mechanick Vses or for Fencing Fewel c. SECT I. Of the Benefit of Propagating Timber-Trees and other Trees in general THe Propagation of Woods or Trees is none of the least Improvements that can be made on most of the Lands in England for the particular advantage and pleasure of the Country-man and in raising the yearly profits of his Farm and very much advancing the price of the purchase thereof over and above the Annual gain and nothing can render a Seat more delectable and pleasant than Wood and Water but principally the curious Groves surrounding or bordering near it What can be more profitable than Woods or Trees which will thrive and increase on the most barren and unfruitful Land be it either wet or dry cold mountanous uneven remote or never so inapt for any other manner of Culture where neither Corn Grass or any other necessary or useful Vegetable will hardly grow yet may we there perceive the lofty Woods flourish far exceeding in value the purchase of the Land without them and instead of injuring the Land whereon they stand it is much bettered and capacitated to bear tillage at the removal of the Trees also the other bordering grounds yield a greater encrease of Corn or Grass by their defence from the extremity of the cold and bitter blasts in the Winter and the scorching drought of the Summer And what can be more pleasant than to have the bounds and limits of your own Propriety preserved and continued from age to age by the Testimony of such living and growing witnesses in the Spring yielding a reviving Cordial to your Winter-chilled spirit giving you an assurance of the approaching Summer by their pregnant Buds and Musical Inhabitants In the Summer what more delectable than the curious prospect of the variety of Greenness dark shades and retirement from the scorching Sun-beams The Autumn and Winter also not without pleasure and content for the active Husbandman And what place can be more displeasing and ungrateful than a naked and dry Seat lying open to all Winds and Weathers of which it may be said as once of old Sarum Est ibi defectus Lymphae sed copia Cretae Saevit ibi Ventus sed Philomela silet As for the more particular advantages and benefits of planting Particular Advantages Woods and Trees you shall find that First It improves and meliorates the Land it self for those Lands where Woods have formerly stood and are now grubbed up or taken away the ground is very good and rich and bears excellent Corn or any other Tillage or Grass although the ground was before the planting or growing of those Woods barren lean and thin as may appear by the bordering Land on either side of such Woods that were never planted Secondly The Annual profits of most Land planted with Coppice-woods are much greater than if the same Land were used for Corn Grass or such-like For I have known on a hill Land not worth for Corn or Grass above five shillings per Acre that at twelve years growth the Coppice-wood thereon growing hath been sold at the rate of twenty pounds per Acre and at

Shoulder or Whip-graffing somewhat later than the other and seems to be of later invention because it is not so generally taught and used as the former is Shoulder or Whip-graffing and may be done two ways First by cutting off the head of the Stock and smooth First way it as in Cleft-graffing then cut the Graff from a Knot or Bud on one side sloping about an inch and a half long with a shouldring but not deep that it may rest on the top of the Stock The Graff must be cut from the shouldring smooth and even sloping by degrees that the lower end be thin place the shoulder on the head of the Stock and mark the length of the cut part of the Graff and with your knife cut away so much of the Stock as the Graff did cover but not any of the wood of the Stock place both together that the cut parts of both may joyn and the Saps unite the one in the other and binde them close together and defend them from the Rain with tempered Clay or Wax as before The other way of this Whip-graffing is where the Graffs and The second way Stocks are of an equal size the Stock must be cut sloping upwards from the one side to the other and the Graff after the same manner from the shoulder downwards that the Graff may exactly joyn with the Stock in every part and so binde and clay or wax them as before These especially the first way of Whip-graffing are accounted the best 1. Because you need not wait the growing of your Stocks for Cleft-graffing requires greater Stocks than those ways 2. This way injureth less the Stock and Graff than the other 3. The wound is sooner healed and thereby better defended from the injury of the Weather which the Cleft-stock is incident unto 4. This way is more facile both to be learned and performed The fourth way of Graffing is by Approach or Ablactation Graffing by Approach and this is performed later than the former ways to wit about the Moneth of April according to the state of the Spring It is to be done where the Stock you intend to Graff on and the Tree from which you take your Graff stand so near together that they may be conjoyned then take the Sprig or Branch you intend to Graff and pare away about three inches in length of the Rinde and Wood near unto the very Pith cut also the Stock or Branch on which you intend to Graff the same after the same manner that they may evenly joyn each to other and that the Saps may meet and so bind them and cover them with Clay or Wax as before As soon as you perceive the Graff and Stock to unite and be incorporated together cut off the head of the Stocks hitherto left on four inches above the binding and in March following the remaining stub also and the Cion or Graff underneath and close to the grafted place that it may subsist by the Stock only Some use to cut off the head of the Stock at first and then joyn the Cion thereunto after the manner of Shoulder-grafting differing only in not severing the Cion from its own Stock Both ways are good but the first more successful This manner of Grafting is principally used in such Plants that are not apt to take any other way as Oranges Lemons Pomgranats Vines Gessamins Althea-frutex and such like By this way also may attempts be made to Graff Trees of different kinds one on the other as Fruit-bearing Trees on those that bear not and Flower-trees on Fruit-trees and such like I have also by this inverted the top of a Cion downwards into the Stock which hath taken and afterwards cut off the Graff three or four buds above the Stock which grew although but slowly by means of the Sap being forced against its usual Current These are the most usual ways of Grafting some other there are but they differ so little from the former and where they differ it s rather for the worse and therefore not worthy the mentioning Those Graffs that are bound you must observe to unbinde them towards Mid-summer lest the Band injures them Where their heads are so great that they are subject to the violence of the Winds it 's good to preserve them by tying a stick to the Stock which may extend to the top of the Graff to which you may binde the Graff The first year the best thriving Graffs are most in danger afterwards they rarely suffer by the Winds Graffs are also subject to be injured by Birds which may be prevented by binding some small Bushes about the tops of the Stocks There is another way of Graffing lately invented which is by A new way of Graffing taking a Graft or Sprig of the Tree you designe to propagate and a small piece of the Root of another Tree of the same kinde or very near it and Whip-graft them together and binde them well and plant this Tree where you intend it shall stand or in a Nursery which piece of root will draw sap and feed the Graft as doth the Stock after the other ways You must observe to unite the two Butt-ends of the Graff and Root and that the rinde of the Root joyn to the rinde of the Graft By this means the Roots of one Crab-stock or Apple-stock will serve you for 20 or 30 Apple-grafts And in like manner of a Cherry or Merry-stock for as many Cherry-grafts and so of Pears Plums c. Thus may you also raise a Nursery of Fruit-trees instead of Stocks by planting them there when they are too small to be planted abroad where they are subject to prejudice This way more than any other is best for the raising of tender Trees that will hardly endure the Grafting in the Stock for here they are not exposed to the injuries of Sun Wind or Rain It is also probable that Fruits may be meliorated by Grafting them on Roots of a different kinde because they are more apt to take this way than any other The Trees thus Grafted will bear sooner and be more easily Dwarfed than any other because part of the very Graft is within the ground which being taken off from a bearing sprig or branch will blossom and bear suddenly in case the Root be able to maintain it The only Objection against this way is this that the young Tree grows slowly at the first which is occasioned by the smalness of the Root that feeds the Graff for in all Trees the Head must attend the encrease of the Root from whence it hath its nourishment Nevertheless this work is easily performed Roots being more plentiful than Stocks and may be done in great quantities in a little time within doors and then planted very easily with a slender Dibble in your Nursery and will in time infinitely recompence your pains SECT VI. Of the Time and Manner of Inoculation Next unto Graffing Inoculation takes place by some preferred before any

will not admit thereof in a short time the Plant may by the care and diligence of the Planter overcome those inconveniencies or obstructions Let not the Ground wherein you plant Apples be too much enriched with Dung they requiring rather a vulgar and ordinary light Mould According to the nature or quantity of your ground or Trees 3 The distance of Trees may the distance be but the usual distance and most convenient for Apple-trees or Pear-trees for an Orchard may be from twenty to thirty foot if you expect the benefit of the Land under and between them either for Grass or Tillage or that you plant them in your Fields or Pastures then from thirty to sixty foot may your distance be The farther distance they are the more benefit and refreshment do they receive from the Sun and Air the Fruit are much the better and the Trees prosper the better also And if they are too near together the ground is for the most part of no advantage under them neither do the Trees thrive so well nor are so fertil Cherry-trees Plum-trees Quince-trees and such like may be planted about fifteen or twenty foot distance which is sufficient Wall-trees may be planted at such a distance as the height or bredth of the Wall the nature of the Tree and the nature of the ground requires the higher the Wall the nearer together the Trees and the lower the Wall the farther distance that they may have the room to spread in bredth which they want in height Vines require a more spacious and ample Wall or place to spread against than any other Fruit next to that the Pear then the Aprecock the Peach the Nectorine and then the Cherry the May-cherry c. For the distance of other small Trees as Filberds Goosberries Currans c. you may plant them at such convenient distance that the branches may not intangle the one in the other according to your own discretion Codlings Cherries Plums c. may be planted to make hedges withal and then are to be planted near together the nearer the sooner it will be a hedge the farther distance the more Fruit will they bear but not so soon a hedge If you designe to fill your Plat of Ground with all sorts of Fruits for your greatest advantage then plant several Rows of Apples and Pear-trees at a convenient distance in each Row but the Rows of a farther distance each from the other and then about ten or fifteen foot on each side the Rows of the greater Trees plant a Row of Cherries Plums or such like Trees of a lesser stature or growth and nearer together than the Apple or Pear-trees Next unto them also at a convenient distance a Row of Filberds and next unto them Goosberries Currans Rasberries or such like small Fruit leaving only a Walk between the lesser Trees For by this means will the whole ground be supplied and by that time that the greater Trees are grown to any competent stature the lesser will be decayed that the greater Trees may have the sole Predominancy But the most compleat order in the planting of an Orchard of the larger Fruit-trees is that which they term the Quincunx by planting them at an equal distance every way only with this observation that every Tree of the second Row may stand against the middle of the space of the first in the third against the space of the second and so throughout which makes it appear pleasing to the eye in what part of the Orchard soever you stand In planting of Trees observe this Rule that if the crookedness of the Tree will inforce you to plant it leaning or tending any way let it be to the West from whence the strongest winds blow or to such Coast your Orchard is most obvious SECT X. Of the Pruning of Trees It conduceth very much to the proof and growth of a Tree to be Pruned or the unnecessary and injurious branches to be taken off by the skilful hand of the Husbandman When your Graffs are grown half a Yard high those you finde 1 The pruning of young Trees to shoot up in one Lance pinch off their tender tops which will prevent their mounting and cause them to put forth side-branches It 's found to be the best way to guide a Tree either to grow or extend it self in height or to cause it to spread in bredth It gives not that wound to Trees that Incisions or Lances usually do and besides this may be done at that season when the taking away of a Bud prevents the expence of Sap in waste and diverts its course to others necessary to remain In March is the best time to take away the small and superfluous branches giving the Lance close behinde a Bud a thing to be specially observed in Pruning Wall-trees are to be pruned in the Summer and in the Winter 2 Of Wall-trees In the Summer about June or July you may take of such superfluous sprigs or shoots of the same years growth off from Vines Aprecocks or other Trees that put forth many large shoots that impede the Fruit from its due Maturation and contract much of the sap of the Tree to themselves and thereby rob the other In the Winter as soon as the leaves are off the Trees you may Prune and cut away the residue of the branches and place those that are fit to be left in order This work may be continued throughout the Winter to the rising of the Sap except in great Frosts when it is not good to wound the Vine or any other tender plant Some hold February to be the best time to plash prune and nail Trees after the great Frosts are past except Peaches and Nectorines which being cut before the rising of the Sap are apt to die after the Knife and so stump and deform the Tree Therefore such must be left till they begin to put forth Buds and Blossoms The greater Trees in your Gardens Orchards Fields c. 3 The pruning of old Trees may be pruned in October November or thenceforward to the rising of the Sap. Observe to cut away superfluous branches such as cross one the other as grow too thick or that offend any other Tree or place or that are broken bruised or decaying the Tree will be the better preserved and the remaining branches will yield the greater increase In Pruning of Trees especially the Wall-tree be sure to leave Other observations in pruning Trees the small Twigs that are short and knitted to blossom the succeeding year for you may observe that most Aprecocks Peaches Plums Cherries c. hang on those Sprigs being usually of two years growth These are therefore to be carefully nourished and not cut off as is usual to beautifie the Tree By this very Observation your Walls shall be full of Fruit when your Neighbours have but few In Wall-fruit cut off all gross shoots however fair they seem to the eye that will not without much bending

Artificially made up with Straw in form of a Cheese as the experienced Country-man may direct you or in a Hair-bag the more ordinary way for small quantities and so committed to the Press of which there are several sorts but the Screw-press is to be preferred After it 's prest strain it and put it into the Vessel and place it wherein it may stand to ferment allowing but a small Vent-hole lest the spirits waste Fill not the Vessel quite till it hath done working then fill the Vessel of the same kept for that purpose and stop it well only with caution at the first lest it break the Vessel The best Vessels for the Tunning up of Cider and to preserve it are those whereof the Barrel-boards are streight the Vessel broader at the one end than the other and standing on the lesser end the Bung-hole on the top the conveniency is that in the drawing the Cider though but slowly the Skin or Cream contracted by its Fermentation descends and wholly covers the Liquor by the tapering of the Vessel and thereby preserves the Spirits of the Cider to the last which otherwise would waste and expend themselves If you intend a mixture of water with your Cider let it be done in the grinding and it will better incorporate with the Cider in the grinding and pressing than afterwards Some Cider will bear a mixture with water without injury to its preservation others will not therefore be not over-hasty with too much at once till you understand the nature of your Fruit. Some advise that before it be prest the Liquor and Must should for four and twenty hours ferment together in a Vat for that purpose close covered which is said to enrich the Liquor The other sorts of Fruits for the making of Cider are the Pippin Other Cider-Fruits Pearmain Gilliflower c. by many preferred with whom we may rank all sorts of Summer-Apples as the Kentish Codling Marigolds all other sorts of Pippins and Pearmains c. Which after they are through ripe and laid on heaps to sweat as before is directed and grownd or beaten and prest as the other then is not this Cider or Must to be tunned up immediately but suffered to stand in the Vat four and twenty hours or more according as the Apples were more or less pulpy and close covered with Hair-cloaths or Sacks that too much of the Spirits may not exaporate nor be kept so closely in as to cause Fermentation in which time the more gross part of the Feces will precipitate or fall to the bottom which otherwise would have prejudiced the Cider by an over-fermentation and have made it flat and sowre Then at a Tap three or four inches from the bottom of the Vat draw forth the Cider and Tun it up wherein is yet a sufficient quantity of that gross Lee or Feces to cause Fermentation the want of the right understanding whereof is one of the main causes of so much bad Cider throughout England 2. Of the making of Perry Non omnis fert omnia tell us In some places Pears will thrive Sorts of Pears where Apples will not the Trees are larger and bear greater quantities than Apple-trees In Worcestershire they have great plenty of Pears for Perry and also in the adjacent Countries The best for Perry are such that are not fit to be eaten so harsh that Swine will not eat nay hardly smell to them the fitter to be planted in Hedg-rows c. The Bosbury-Pear the Horse-Pear the Bareland-Pear and the Choak-Pear are such that bear the name of the best Pears for Perry the redder they are the more to be preferred Pears are to be fully mature e're they be grownd and let lye Making of Perry on heaps as the Apples Crabs and Pears grownd together make an excellent Liquor the Crabs helping to preserve the Perry The method of making Perry differeth not from that of Cider 3. Some Observations concerning Cider Thick Cider may by a second Fermentation be made good and clear but Acid Cider is rarely recovered Wheat unground about a Gallon to a Hogshead or Leven or Mustard ground with Cider or much better with Sack a pint to a Hogshead is used either to preserve or recover Cider that 's in danger of spoiling Ginger accelerateth the Maturation of the Cider giveth it a more brisky Spirit helpeth Fermentation and promoteth its duration New Vessels affect the Cider with an ill savour and deep colour therefore if you cannot obtain Wine-Cask which are the best nor yet can season your own with Beer or other Drinks then scald it with water wherein a good quantity of Apple-Pounce hath been boiled If the Vessel be tainted then boil an ounce of Pepper in water enough to fill the Vessel and let it stand therein two or three days Or take some quick Lime and put in the Vessel which slacken with water close stop it and tumble it up and down till the Commotion cease Two or three Eggs put into a Hogshead of Cider that is sharp sometimes lenifies it Two or three rotten Apples will clarifie thick Cider The mildness and temperature of the weather is of much concernment in the Fermentation of Cider Boil Cider immediately after the Press before Fermentation Wheaten-Bran cast in after Fermentation thickens the Coat or Cream and much conduceth to its preservation The Cider that runs from the ground or beaten Apples before they are in the Press is much to be preferred Let the Vessel not be quite full that there may be room for the Cider to gather a head or Cream Pearmains make but small Cider of themselves Botling is the only way to preserve Cider long It may be Botling of Cider botled two or three days after it is well setled and before it hath throughly fermented or you may bottle it in March following which is the best time Bottles may be kept all the Summer in cold Fountains or in Cellars in Sand If they are well Corked and bound they may be kept many years in cold places the longer the better if the Cider be good After Cider hath been botled a week if New Cider else at the time of botling you may put into each bottle a piece of white Sugar as big as a Nutmeg this will make it brisk If your bottles be in danger of the Frost cover them with straw about April set them in Sand or in a Fountain It is not the best way to grinde or beat Apples in Stone-troughs because it bruises the kernels and tails of the Fruit too much which gives an ill savour to the Cider but beaten or ground in wooden-troughs frees it from that quality After your Apples are beaten or ground it 's the best way to let them stand a day or two before you press them for the Cider doth a little ferment and maturate in the Pulp and obtains a better colour than if immediately pressed After they are pressed it 's good to let the

Cider stand in a Vat covered to ferment a day and night before you Tun it up and then draw it from the Vat by a Tap about two inches from the bottom or more according to discretion leaving the Feces behinde which will not be lost if you put it up on the Chaff for then it meliorates your Pur or Water-Cider if you make any When your Cider is Tunn'd into the Barrel where you intend to keep it leave some small vent open for several days until its wilde spirit be spent which will otherwise break the Barrel or finde some vent that will always abide open though but small to the ruine of your Cider Many have spoiled their Cider by this only neglect and never apprehended the cause thereof which when stopt close after this wilde spirit is spent although seemingly flattish at first will improve and become brisk and pleasant Cider in a little time If Cider prove thick or sowrish bruise a few Apples and put in at the Bung of your Barrel and it will beget a new Fermentation and very much mend your Cider so that in a few days after you draw it off into another Vessel If Cider be only a little sowrish or drawn off in another Vessel the way to correct or preserve it is to put about a Gallon of Wheat blaunch'd is best to a Hogshead of Cider and so according to that proportion to a greater or lesser quantity which will as well amend as preserve it If Cider hath any ill savour or taste from the Vessel or any other cause a little Mustard-seed ground with some of the Cider and put to it will help it Mixture of Fruit is of great advantage to your Cider the meanest Apples mixt make as good Cider as the best alone always observing that they be of equal ripeness except the Red-streak and some few celebrated Cider-Apples 4. Of the Wines or Juices of other Fruits If Cherries were in so great plenty that the Markets would not take them off at a good rate they would become very beneficial to be converted into Wine which they would yield in great quantity very pleasant and refreshing and a finer cooler and more natural Summer-drink than Wine It may also be made to keep long Some hath been kept a whole year and very good Although it may not prove so brisk clear and curious a drink Wine of Plums as Cherry-wine yet where Plums are in great plenty they being Trees easily propagated a very good Wine may be made of them according to the great diversity of this sort of Fruit you must expect divers Liquors to proceed from them The black tawny Plum is esteemed the best This Fruit yields a good Wine being prepared by a skilful Mulberry-Wine hand the natural Juice serves and is of excellent use to add a tincture to other paler Wines or Liquors England yields not a Fruit whereof can be made a more pleasant Rasberry-Wine drink or rather Wine than of this humble Fruit if compounded with other Wines or drinks it animates them with so high a fragrant savour and gust that it tempts the most curious Palats The juice of this Fruit boiled with a proportionable addition Wine of Currans of water and Sugar makes a very pleasant Wine to the eye and taste it being duly fermented and botled A great quantity of this Fruit may also be raised in a little ground and in a few years Of the Juice of Goosberries extracted in it's due time and Gooseberry-Wine mixed with water and Sugar is prepared a very pleasant cooling Repast This Fruit is easily propagated and yields much Liquor It 's usually made unboiled because it contracts a brown colour in the boiling As for any other Liquors Preservations or Conservations of these or any other Fruits I leave you to the many Tracts published already on that Subject CHAP. VIII Of such Tillage Herbs Roots and Fruits that are usually planted and propagated in Gardens and Garden-grounds either for necessary Food Vse or Advantage MOst of these several sorts of Tillage whereof we are now The advantage of Garden-Tillage in general to treat in this Chapter will raise unto the Industrious Husbandman an extraordinary advantage and are not to be esteemed amongst the least of Improvements for each sort being properly planted in such ground they most naturally delight in and being well Husbandried and judiciously ordered produce an incredible advantage But think not this strange that common and well-known Plants that are so natural to our English Soyl should prove so beneficial it is for no other cause than that some men are more Industrious and Ingenious than others For these Garden-plants prosper not without great labour care and skill and besides are subject more than others to the injuries of unseasonable weather Neither of which the slothful or ignorant Husbandman can away with affecting only such things that will grow with least toyl hazard or expence though they feed on bread and water when the diligent and industrious Adventurer lives like a petty Prince on the fruit of his labours and expectation which sufficiently repays his expence and hazard It is hard to finde any Trade Occupation or Imployment that a man may presume on a large and Noble Requital of his time cost or industry but it is hazardous especially to such that attempt the same without a special affectation thereunto or skill therein Nil tam difficile est quod non Solertia vincet So this Art and Imployment of Planting Propagating and Encreasing of Hops Saffron Liquorice Cabbage Onions and other Garden-Commodities being casual and more subject to the injuries of the weather than commonly Corn or Grass is makes it so much neglected for one bad Crop or bad year for any of them shall more discourage a Countryman from a Plantation thereof than five good Crops though never so profitable and advantagious shall incourage Ignorant and self-willed men are naturally so prone to raise Objections on purpose to deter themselves and others from any thing whatsoever that's either pleasant or profitable But we hope better of the Ingenious that they will set to their helping hand to promote this useful and necessary Art and thereby become a provoking President to their ignorant Neighbours that our Land may be a Land of Plenty that it may superabound with necessaries and rather afford a supply to their Neighbours than expect it from them as we are inforced to do in several sorts of those things we treat of in this Book Those of our own growth also far exceeding that we have abroad which inconveniencies and disadvantages nothing can better prevent than our own Industry and Ingenuity Besides most of this Garden-Tillage is of late years become a more general Food than formerly it was Scarce a Table well furnisht without some dishes of choice Roots or Herbs and it is not only pleasant to the rich but good for the poor labouring man many where plenty is

feeding for the most part on Tillage which hath occasioned that great encrease of Gardens and Plantations in most of the Southern parts of England Several sorts also of Tillage being profitable in the feeding of Cattle and Fowl SECT I. Of Hops We mention this Plant in the first place not for his worth or Dignity above the rest it being esteemed an unwholesome Herb or Flower for the use it is usually put unto which may also be supplied with several other wholesomer and better Herbs but for that of all other Plants it advanceth Land to the highest improvement usually to forty pound or fifty pound sometimes to an hundred pound per Acre And yet have we not enough planted to serve the Kingdom but yearly make use of Flemish Hops nothing near so good as our own The principal cause I presume is that few bestow that labour and industry about them they require and sufficiently retaliate for being managed carelesly they scarce yield a quarter part of the increase that those yield that are dexterously handled though with very little more cost Another cause is why they are no more propagated here that they are the most of any Plant that grows subjected to the various Mutations of the Air from the time of their first springing till they are ready to be gathered Over-much drought or wet spoils them Mill-dews also sometimes totally destroys them which casualties happening unto them makes their price and valuation so uncertain and proves so great a discouragement to the Countryman else why may not we have as great a plenty of them as in Flanders Holland c. Our Land is as cheap and affords as great a Crop if as well Husbandried and we pay not for carriage so far but that they are more Industrious than us Therefore seeing that is so gainful a Commodity to the Husbandman and that there is a sufficient vent for them at home we shall be the more Prolix in the subsequent discourse The Hop delights in the richest Land a deep Mould and Best Land and scituation for a Hop-garden light if mixed with Sand it 's the better a black Garden-mould is excellent for the Hop If it lye near the water and may be laid dry it is by much the better Most sorts of Land will serve unless stony rocky or stiff Clay-ground which are not to be commended for the Hop If you can obtain it a piece of Land a little inclining to the South and that lies low the ground mellow and deep and where water may be at command in the Summer time is to be preferred for a Hop-garden Also it ought to lye warm and free from impetuous winds especially from the North and East either defended by Hills or Trees but by Hills the best Every one cannot have what Land he pleaseth but must make Defending the Hop-garden by Trees use of what he hath therefore if your ground lye obvious to the winds it is good to raise a natural defence therefrom by planting on the edges of the Hop-garden a border or row of Trees that may grow tall and break the force of the winds at such time the Poles are laden with Hops The Elm is esteemed not fit to be planted near the Hop because it contracteth Mill-dews say our Country Hop-planters the Ash on a dry ground and the Poplar or Aspen on a moist are to be preferred for their Aspen speedy growth Also a tall and thick hedge of White-thorn keeps the ground warm and secures it in the Spring from the sharp nipping winds that spoil the young Shoots If your Land be cold stiff sowre or barren you designe for a Preparing the ground and distance of the Hills Hop-garden the best way is about the latter end of the Summer to burn it as before we directed which will be very available to the amendment of the Land Some also prescribe to sow Turnips Hemp or Beans therein to make the ground light and mellow and destroy the Weeds But in whatsoever state or condition your ground be Till it in the beginning of the Winter with either Plough or Spade And when you have set out the bounds of your ground you intend to plant and laid the same even then must you mark out the several places where each Hill is to be The best way is by a Line streightned over-thwart the ground with knots or threds tyed at such distance you intend your Hills Some plant them in squares Checquer-wise which is the best way if you intend to plough with Horses between the Hills Others plant them in form of a Quincunx which is the more beautiful to the eye and better for the Hop and will do very well where your ground is but small that you may overcome it with either the Breast-plough or Spade which way soe're it be pitch a small stick at every place where there is to be a Hill and when it is all so done in case your ground be poor or stiff bring into it of the best Mould you can get or a parcel of Dung and Earth mixed and at every stick dig a hole of about a foot square and fill it with this Mould or Compost wherein your Plants are to be set they will thrive the better and the sooner come to bear and sufficiently repay your charge and trouble Great Rarity there is both in the judgment and the practise of Distance of the Hills most men about the distance of the Hills by reason of the different Seasons Sometimes it falls out to be a moist year and then the Hop grows large and the wider the Hills are the better they prove Some years also prove hot and dry the Hops then grow thin and the nearer they are the more Hops they have But let me advise to keep a convenient distance that you may have room sufficient to come between and ground sufficient to raise the Hills with the Parings or Surface of it and that the Sun may come between and that the Poles may not be driven the one against the other with the winds when they are laden If your ground be dry and burning about six foot may be a convenient distance but if it be a moist deep and rich Mould subject to bear large Hops then eight or nine foot distance is most convenient and so according to the goodness of the ground place the distance of the Hills But if your Hills are too far asunder the best way to remedy Bigness of the Hills that inconvenience is by encreasing the number of Hops in the Root in each Hill by which means you may apply more Poles and supply the former defect Hills may be made of that bigness that they may require six ten or twenty Poles The common Objection is they cannot so conveniently be dressed but I only propose it as amendment to make them somewhat bigger than ordinary Or if your Hills be too near together you may also abate the Hops and apply the fewer

directions as you will hereafter finde Disperse the Poles among the hills before you begin to Pole laying of them between the hills Begin not to Pole until your Hops appear above the ground that you discern where the biggest Poles are required and so may you continue Poling till they are a Yard in height or more but stay not too long lest you hinder the growth of the Hop which will grow large unless it hath a Pole or such like to climb unto Set the Pole near to the hill and in depth according to the height of the Pole nature of the ground and obviousness to winds that the Pole may rather break than rise out of the ground by any fierce winds Let the Poles lean outward the one from the other that they may seem to stand equi-distant at the top to prevent Housling as they term it which they are subject unto if they grow too near the one from the other that is they will grow one amongst another and cause so great a shade that you will have more Hawm than Hops Also it is esteemed an excellent piece of Husbandry to set all the Poles inclining towards the South that the Sun may the better compass them This is most evident that a leaning or bending Pole bears more Hops than an upright Be sure to reserve a parcel of the worst Poles that you may have for your need in case when the Poles are laden a Pole may break or be over-burthened to support it for if they lie on the ground they soon perish With a Rammer you may ram the Earth at the out-side of the Pole for its further security against winds If after some time of growing you finde a Hop under or over-poled you may unwinde the Hop and place another Pole in its place having a Companion with you to hold the Hop whilest you pitch in the Pole or else you may place another Pole near it and bring the Hop from one Pole to the other The next work is after the Hops are gotten two or three foot Of tying of Hops to the Poles out of the ground to conduct them to such Poles as you think fit that are either nearest or have fewest Hops and winde them or place them to the Pole that they may winde with the course of the Sun and binde them gently thereto with some withered Rush or woollen Yarn two or three strings are enough to a Pole I have known more Hops on a Pole from one string than from four or five though there hath been more of Hawm Be cautious of breaking the tender Shoots which in the morning is most dangerous but when the warmth of the day hath toughned them may it much better be done You must be daily amongst the Hops during April and May especially guiding and directing them else will they be apt to break their own Necks by going amiss It will sufficiently requite your labour and care at Harvest It is convenient with a forked Wand to direct the Hops to the Poles that are otherwise out of reach or to have a stool to stand on or a small Ladder made with a stay on the back of it that you may reach them with your hands About Midsummer or a little after the Hop begins to leave running at length and then begins to branch that such Hops that are not yet at the tops of the Poles 't were not amiss to nip off the top or divert it from the Pole that it may branch the better which is much more for the encrease of the Hop than to extend it self only in length Sometimes in May after a Rain pare off the Surface of the Of the making up the Hills ground with a Spade How it off with a How or run it over with a Plough with one horse if you have room enough or with a Breast-plough and with these parings raise your hills in height and breadth burying and suppressing all superfluous Shoots of Hops and weeds By this means you will destroy the weeds that otherwise would beggar your Land and you suppress such Suckers and weeds that would impoverish your Hops and you also preserve the hills moist by covering them that the drought of the Summer injureth them not Also the Hop so far as it is covered with Earth issues forth its roots to the very surface of the Earth which proves a very great succour to the Hop This work may be continued throughout the Summer but more especially after a Rain to apply the moist Earth about the roots of the Hop Therefore it behoveth you to keep the ground in good heart for this purpose that your Hops may be the better and in case it should prove a very dry Spring it would not be amiss to water the Hops before you raise your hills A dry Spring such that happened in the Years 1672. and Manner of watering Hops 1674. proves a great check to the hop in its first springing especially in hot and dry grounds In such Years it is very advantagious to water them if it can with conveniency be obtained either from some Rivulet or Stream running through or near your Hop-garden or from some Well digged there or out of some Pond made with Clay in the lower part of your ground to receive hasty showres by small Aqueducts leading unto it which is the best water of all for this purpose In the midst of every hill make a hollow place and thrust some pointed Stick or Iron down in the middle thereof and pour in your water by degrees till you think the hill is well soaked then cover the hill with the parings of your Garden as before we directed which will set the Hop mainly forward as I have known which otherwise would be small and weak and hardly ever recover to attain its usual height Also a very hot and dry Summer will make the Hop blow but small and thin therefore would it not be labour lost to bestow a pail of water on every hill prepared before-hand to receive it For in such dry Springs or Summers such Hops that either stand moist or have been watred do very much out-strip their Neighbours and in such years they will far better requite your labour and industry yielding a greater price by reason of their scarcity than in other seasonable years when every ground almost produceth Hops Industry and Ingenuity in these Affairs being most incouraged and best rewarded at such times when Ignorance and Sloth come off with loss and shame After every watering which need not be above twice or thrice in the driest Summers so that they be throughly wet be sure to make up the hills with the parings and with the weeds and coolest and moistest materials you can get for the more the Hop is shaded at the root from the Sun the better it thrives as is evident by such that grow under shelter that are never drest yet may compare with those you bestow most pains and skill on The dressing

or drowning of Land as you have fed it bare then is it best to overflow from Alhallontide throughout the Winter may you use this Husbandry until the Spring that the Grass begin to be large during April and the beginning of May in some places may you give the Grass a little water once a week and it will prove wonderfully especially in a dry Spring In Drowning observe that you let not the water rest too long on a place but let it dry in the intervals of times and it will prove the better nor let Cattle tread it whil'st it is wet In the Summer if you desire to water your Land let it be in mild or Cloudy weather or in the night-time that the water may be off in the heat of the day lest in scorch the Grass and you be frustrate of your expectation In many places you may have the opportunity to command a 5 Manner of watring of Land by small streams or Engines small Spring or Stream where you cannot a larger or may obtain water by the Engines before-mentioned which may not be sufficient to overflow your Land in that manner nor so much to your content as the greater Currents may therefore you must make your Carriages small according to your water and let there be several stops in them that you may water the one part at one time and another part at another also in such dry and shelving Lands where usually such small Springs are and water by such artificial ways advanced a small drilling water so that it be constant worketh a wonderful Improvement In some places issue Springs whose waters are sterile and injurious 6 Barren Springs not useful to the Husbandman as are usually such that flow from Coal-mines or any Sulphureous or Vitrioline Minerals being of so harsh and brackish a substance that they become destructive to Vegetables Not but that those Minerals and also those waters contain much of that matter which is the cause and of the principles of Vegetation though not duly applied nor equally proportionated as much Urine Salt c. kills Vegetables yet duly fermented and artificially applied nothing more fertile Such Springs that you suspect prove them first before you go too far those that are bad are usually reddish in colour and leave a red sediment and shine as it runs and is not fertile until it hath run far and encreased it self from other Springs and gained more fertility in its passage as we usually observe greater Rivers though reddish in colour yet make good Meadow SECT III. Of dry Meadow or Pasture Every place is almost furnished with dry Meadows which are convetible sometimes into Meadows and sometimes into Pastures and such places much more where Waters Springs and Rivolets are scarce or the Rivers very great or the Country hilly that water cannot so well be commanded over such Lands as in other places they may which dry Meadows and Pastures are capable of Improvement by several ways And principally by Enclosure for where shall we finde better Improved by Enclosure dry Meadows and richer Pastures than in several hilly places of Somersetshire among the small Enclosures which not only preserveth the young Grass from the exsiccating Spring-winds but shadoweth it also in some measure from the Summer-scorching Sun-beams as before we noted in the Chapter of Enclosure Such Meadows or Pastures well planted with either Timber or Fruit-trees in the Hedge-rows or other convenient places and enclosed in small parcels will furnish you with good Hay and good Pasture when your Neighbour whose Lands are naked goes without it for dry Springs or Summers more usually happen than wet besides the shadow for your Cattle and many other advantages as before we observed In several places where the ground is moist cold clay spewy Burning of Rushy and Mossie ground rushy or mossie or subject to such inconveniencies that the Pasture or Hay is short sower and not proveable it is very good Husbandry to pare off the turf about July or August and burn the same after the manner as is hereafter described when we come to treat of burning of Land and then plough it up immediately or in the Spring following and sowe the same with Hay-dust or with Corn and Hay-dust together for by this means will that acid Juice that lay on the surface of the Earth which was of a sterile nature and hindred the growth of the Vegetables be evaporated away and also the Grass which had a long time degenerated by standing in so poor a Soil be totally destroyed and the Land made fertile and capable to receive a better species brought in the Seed from other fertile Meadows It is too commonly observed that many excellent Meadows or Stubbing up of shrubs c. Pasture-land are so plentifully stored with Shrubs small Hillocks Ant-hills or such like that a good part thereof is wholly lost and so much thereof as is mown is but in patches here and there and that that remains not so beneficial as if it were either mown or sed together Now the best way or Method of stubbing up such thorny Shrubs or Broom or Goss or any such annoying Shrubs which proves both laborious and costly any other way than this is ingeniously delivered by Gabriel Platt the Instrument Discovery of hidden Treasures by him discovered is like a three-grained dung-fork only but much greater and stronger according to the bigness of the Shrubs c. the stale thereof like a large and strong Leaver which Instrument being set half a foot or such reasonable distance from the Root of the Shrub c. then with a Hedging-beetle drive it in a good depth then elevate the Stale and lay some weight or fulciment under it and with a Rope fastened to the upper end thereof pull it down which will wrench up the whole bush by the Roots Also Ant-hills prove a very great annoyance to Pasture and Meadow-lands which may be destroyed by dividing the Turf on the top and laying of it open several ways then take out the core and spread over the other Land and lay the Turf down neatly in its place again a little hollowing in and lower than the surface of the Earth and at the beginning of the Winter the Water standing therein will destroy the remainder of the Ants and prevent their return and settle the Turf by the Spring that by this means may a very great Improvement be made of much Meadow or Pasture-land now a great part thereof Bushes and Ant-hills These Meadows and Pasture-lands where the water overfloweth Dunging or Soyling of Meadows and Pastures not at any time are the only places where you may lay your dung or other Manure to the best advantage it being not capable of being improved by water nor the Soil laid thereon subject to be carried away or at least the better part thereof extracted by the water either casually by Floods or any other way overflowing the same The best

time for the Soiling of Meadows and Pasture-lands Time for Soyling is in the Winter-season about January or February that the rains may wash to the Roots of the Grass the fatness of the Soil before the Sun drieth it away and dissolve the clots that may be spread with a Bush drawn over it like a Harrow before the Grass be too high Ashes of Wood Peat Turf Sea-coal or any other Fewel is Soyl for Rushy and cold Land very proper to be laid on Cold Spewey Rushey and Mossie Land not sandy or hot and suits best therewith and agrees with the Husbandry of burning the Turf as is before advised the dung of Pigeons or any other Fowl works a better effect on that than other Lands also all hot and sandy Soils are fittest for that sort of Lands Lime Chalk Marle or any cold fossile Soils are an extraordinary For sandy or hot Land Improvement to dry sandy hot Lands of a contrary nature or temperature as well for Meadow and Pasture as for Corn-Land I have seen much of the blew Clay which they call Vrry that 's digged out of the Coal-mines and lies near the Coal laid on Meadow and Pasture-lands to a very considerable advantage Many instances of wonderful Improvements made by mixing of Soils of contrary natures you may finde in several of our modern Rural Authors Between these two extremes your ordinary dung or Soil is best For other Meadows bestowed on your Meadows and Pastures not so much inclining either way for it is a very principal part of good Husbandry to apply the Soil or Compost properly as the nature of the ground requireth whereof you may finde more hereafter in the Chapter of Soils Dungs c. SECT IV. Of several new Species of Hay or Grass It is found by daily experience not only in forein parts but in our own Country that a very great Improvement may be made on the greater part of our Lands by altering the species of such Vegetables that are naturally produced totally suppressing the one and propagating another in its place which may rejoyce and thrive better there than that before as we evidently see by Corn sowen on Land where hardly Grass would have grown what a Crop you reap but these are but Annuals that which raises the greatest advantage to the Husbandman is what annually yields its increase without a renovation of expence in Ploughing and sowing as we finde in the Clover-grass or great Trefoyl St. Foyn or Holy-Hay La Lucern Spurrey-seed Trefoyl None-such c. whereof apart This Grass hath born the name and is esteemed the most principal Of the Clover-grass of Grass both for the great Improvement it brings by its prodigious Burthen and by the excellencie of the Grass or Hay for Food for Cattle and is much sowen and used in Flanders and in Holland Presidents to the whole world for good Husbandry In Brabant they speak of keeping four Cows Winter and Summer on an Acre some cut and laid up for Fodder others cut and eaten green here in England they say an Acre hath kept four Coach-horses and more all Summer long but if it kept but two Cows it is advantage enough upon such Lands as never kept one You may mow the first Crop in the midst or end of May and lay that up for Hay if it grow not too strong it will be exceeding good and rich and feed any thing then reserve the next for Seed which may yield four Bushels upon an Acre each Bushel being worth three or four pound a Bushel which will amount to the reputed value of ten or twelve pounds per Acre and after that Crop also it may be fed It hath also this Property that after the growing of the Clover-grass three or four years it will so frame the Earth that it will be very fit for Corn again which will prove a very great Advantage and then again for Clover Thus far Mr. English Improver Blith Others say it will last five years and then also yield three or four years together rich Crops of Wheat and after that a Crop of Oats In the Annotations upon Mr. Hartlibs Legacie we finde several Computations of the great Advantage hath been made by sowing Clover-grass as that a parcel of Ground a little above two Acres the second year did yield in May two Load of Hay worth five pounds the next Crop for Seed was ripe in August and yielded three very great Loads worth nine pounds that year the Seed was 300 l. which with the Hay was valued at thirty pounds besides the after-Pasture Another President is that on four Acres there grew twelve Loads of Hay at twice mowing and twenty Bushels of Seed one Load of the Hay mown in May being worth two Load of the best of other Hay and the After-pasture three times better than any other the four Acres yielded in one year fourscore pound Another that six Acres of Clover did maintain for half a year thirteen Cows ten Oxen three Horses and twenty six Hogs which was valued at forty pound besides the Winter-Herbage The aforesaid Presidents and Valuations seem prodigious unless The best Land for Clover-grass a rich light Land warm and dry be sown therewith in which it principally delighteth and then it may probably answer the said Valuations and must needs be a very high Improvement although the Ground were good and profitable before It will also prosper and thrive on any Corn-land well manured or soiled and brought into perfect Tillage Old Land be it course or rich long untilled is best for Corn and best and most certain for Clover-Grass and when you have Corned your Land as much as you intend then to sowe it with Clover is the properest season Land too rich for Corn cannot be too rich for Clover Poor Lands are not fit for Clover unless burnt or denshired as we shall hereafter direct or limed marled or otherwise manured and then will it bring forth good Clover An Acre of Ground will take about ten pounds of your Clover-Grass Quantity of Seed for an Acre Seed which is in measure somewhat above half a peck according to Sir Richard Weston The quantity of Seed for an Acre Mr. Blith conceives will be a Gallon or nine or ten pounds which agrees with the other But if it be husky which saves labour in cleansing of it and also sowes better by filling the hand than mixed with any other thing you must endeavor to finde out a true proportion according to the cleanness or foulness you make it but be sure to sowe enough rather too much than too little for the more there is the better it shadows the Ground Some have sowen fifteen pound on an Acre with good success ten pound some judge to be of the least however let the Seed be new and of the best which the English is esteemed to be The usual way is thus advised when you have fitted your Land The

the Land whereon it hath stood for many years and not barrennizeth it as it usual with Annual Seeds You may break it up and sowe it with Corn till it be out of heart and then sowe it with St. Foyn as formerly it will thrive on dry and barren Grounds where hardly any thing else will the roots being great and deep are not so soon dried by the parching heat of the Sun as of other Grasses they are It must be sowen in far greater quantity than the Clover-seed Quantity of Seed on an Acre and manner of sowing of it because the Seed is much larger and lighter It may be sowen with Oats or Barley as the Clover about equal parts with the Grain you sowe it will serve always remembring you sowe your Grain but thin Be sure you make your Ground fine for this and other French Seeds as you usually do for Barley Fear not the sowing of the Seeds too thick for being thick they sooner stock the Ground and destroy all other Grasses and Weeds Some advise to howe these Seeds in like Pease in Ranges though not so far distant the better to destroy the Weeds between it this will bear this way of husbandry better than the Clover because that hath but a small Root and requires to shadow the Ground more than this Feed it not the first year because the sweetness thereof will provoke the Cattle to bite too near the Ground very much to the injury of your St. Foyn but you may mow it with your Barley or Oats or if sown by it self the first year Of La Lucerne In the next place this Plant La Lucerne is commended for an excellent Fodder and by some preferred before St. Foyn as being What Ground it requires very advantageous to dry and barren Grounds It is managed like the former Seeds Some write that it requires a moist Ground and rich others a dry so that we may conclude it hath proved well on all The Land must be well dressed and three times fallowed The time for sowing it is after the cold weather be over about Time and manner of sowing of it the middle of April some Oats may be sowen therewith but in a small proportion the Seed is very small therefore the sixth part of it is allotted to an Acre as is required of any other Grain one Bushel thereof going as far as six of Corn It may be mowen twice a year and fed all the Winter the Hay must be well dried and housed for it is otherwise bad to keep It is good It s use for all kinde of Cattle but above all it agreeth best with Horses it feedeth much more than ordinary Hay that lean Beasts are suddenly fat with it it causeth abundance of Milk in Milch-beasts It must be given at the first with caution as before we directed concerning the Clover that is mixed with Straw or Hay You may also feed all sorts of Cattel with it green all the Summer It is best to mow it but once a year it will last ten or twelve years If you desire the Seed when it is ripe cut off the tops in a dewy morning and put into sheets for fear of losing the Seed and when they are dry thrash them thereon the remaining Stalks may be mowen for Hay By eating this Grass in the Spring Horses are purged and made fat in eight or ten days time One Acre will keep three Horses all the year long Hartlibs Legacie SECT V. Of some other Grasses or Hays This is a kinde of St. Foyn and by some judged to be the same Esparcet This is a Grain annually sowen in France and other Countries La Rome yn or French Tares or Vetches very quick of growth and excellent food for Cattle especially for Horses and after the feeding of it the former part of the Summer it may be let grow for Hay It is not so good as La Lucerne because this is annual the other of long continuance only this will grow on drier and poorer Land than Lucerne wherein it exceeds it In the Low-Countries they usually sowe it twice in a Summer the Spurrey-seed first in May in June and July it wil be in Flower and in August the Seed is usually ripe The second time of sowing is after Rye-harvest which Grounds they usually plough up and sowe it with Spurrey-seed that it may grow up and serve their Kine after all late Grasses be eaten up till New-years-day This Pasture makes excellent Butter preferred by many before May-butter Hens will greedily eat the Herb and it makes them lay the more Eggs. Hartlibs Legacie Hop Clover Trefoyl or Three-leaved Grass is both finer and sweeter Trefoyl than the great Clover-grass it will grow in any Ground it may be sown with Corn as before or without or being sprinkled in Meadows will exceedingly mend the Hay both in burthen and goodness At Maddington in Wiltshire about nine miles from Salisbury Long Grass in Wiltshire grows a Grass in a small Plat of Meadow-ground which Grass in some years grows to a prodigious length sometimes twenty four foot long but not in height as is usually reported but creeping on the ground or at least touching the ground at several of the knots of the Grass It is extraordinary sweet and not so easily propagated as hath been imagined the length thereof being occasioned by the washing of a declining Sheep-down that the Rain in a hasty shower brings with it much of the fatness of the Sheep-dung over the Meadow so that in such Springs that are not subject to such showers or at least from some certain Coasts this Grass thriveth not so well the Ground being then no better than another This Herb so little esteemed because not far fetched is an Saxifrage excellent and proper Herb to be nourished or sown in Meadows for amongst all House-wives it is held for an infallible Rule That where Saxifrage grows there you shall never have ill Cheese or Butter especially Cheese whence it cometh that the Netherlands abound much in that Commodity and only as is supposed through the plenty of that Herb. These and many other most rare and excellent Plants there are which if they were advanced or propagated that they might openly manifest their worth might be of much more advantage to the Laborious Husbandmen than the short sowre and naturally wilde and barren Grass mixed with a super-aboundant proportion of pernicious Weeds Therefore it would be very acceptable service to the whole Nation if those that have Land enough would yearly prove some small proportion of these and other Vegetables not yet brought into common use By which means they would not only advance their own Estates but the whole Nation in general and gain unto themselves an everlasting Fame and Honor as did the Families of Piso Fabius Lentulus and Cicero by bringing into use the several Pulses now called by their Names CHAP. IV. Of Arable Land and

Tillage and of the several Grains Pulses c. usually propagated by the Plough IN greatest esteem and most worthy of our Care is the Arable Land yielding unto the Laborious Husbandman the most necessary Sustentation this Life requires but not without industry and toil The Plough being the most happy Instrument that ever was discovered the Inventor of the use whereof was by the Heathens celebrated as a Goddess Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram Virgil. Instituit But the Plough it self Triptolemus is said to have invented Pliny This Art was always in esteem as before in the Preface we have shewn and from this part thereof being the most principal doth it take its Name of Agriculture from the Tilling of the Land with the Plough or with the Spade the more ancient Instrument though not more necessary and beneficial And since its first Invention hath there been many several Improvements made of it for the more facile and commodious use thereof and every day almost and in every place doth the ingenious Husbandman endeavour to excel the slothful in this most necessary Art that from a burthensom and toilsom labour it is in some places become but a pleasing and profitable Exercise and it 's hoped that by those Presidents and Examples the more Vulgar will be provoked to a more universal use of that which is best and most advantageous to themselves as well as the publike More of this Instrument see hereafter in this Treatise SECT I. What Lands are improved by Tillage Non omnis fert omnia tellus Every sort of Land almost requires a different Husbandry some Grounds producing plenty of that which on another will not grow This is none of the meanest part of the Husbandmans skill to understand what is most proper to be propagated on each sort of Land the strong and stiff ground receiving the greatest Improvement from the Plough and the mellow warm and light from other Plantations of Fruits c. Densa magis Cereri rarissima quaeque Lyaeo Virgil. Although the best warmest and lightest Land yields most excellent Corn yet the other sorts of Lands yield not so good Fruits Plants Grass Hay c. also necessary for the Husbandman therefore our principal designe must be to appropriate each sort to that Method of Husbandry most natural unto it that where the nature of the Land differs which it usually doth in the same Parish and many times in one and the same Farm and sometimes in the same Field that there may be used a different way We have before discoursed of what Lands are fittest for Meadows and Pastures and now shall give you those Directions I finde to know what is most proper for the Plough The strong and stiff as we said before and also the cold and moist and that which lies obvious to the extremities of cold or heat as is most of the Champion or Field-land for there may be sown such Seeds that naturally affect such places until they are reduced and better qualified by Enclosure the first and main principle of Improvement Also mossie and rusty Grounds are much improved by ploughing and Grounds subject to pernicious Weeds may be much advantaged by destroying the Weeds and propagating good Corn or other Tillage in the room thereof All clay stiff cold and moist Grounds are generally thrice The manner of ploughing or husbanding each sort Clay stiff cold and moist ploughed in the Spring Summer and at Seed-time for Wheat and four times for Barley if it be the first Grain sown after long resting which in most places is not usual These several Ploughings or Fallowings are very advantageous to Ground in several respects 1. It layeth the Ground by degrees in Ridges in such order as the nature thereof requireth for the more in number and the higher the Ridges the better they are for Wheat which naturally delighteth in a moist Ground so that it be laid dry that is not subject to be drowned or over-glutted with water in moists years And this Method of laying the Ridges much prevents the blasting of Wheat for Wheat is easily overcharged with Water either in Winter or Summer 2. This often stirring the Land makes it light and fitter for the Seed to take root therein the Clods being apt to dissolve by being exposed to the weather and often broken by the Plough 3. It kills the weeds which in strong Lands are apt to over-run the Corn. 4. It fertilizeth Land The Sun and the Sull are some Husbandmens Soil Virgil also seems to hint as much where he saith Pingue solum primis exemplo à mensibus Anni Fortes invertant Tauri glebasque jacentes Pulverulenta coquat maturis solibus aestas 5. It defends the Corn much from the extremities of Weather especially cold Winds for the more uneven any Piece of Land is the better it bears the extremities of the Winter for which reason in the open Champion where the Land is dry and they do not lay up their Ridges as in other places yet they harrow it but little and leave it as rough as they can for no other cause but to break the fleeting Winds The Gardiners near London now seem to imitate this practise by laying their Gardens in Ridges not only the better to shelter their Seeds from the cold Winds but also to give it an advantage of the Sun as I my self proved it many years since that Pease sown on the South-side of small Beds so raised that they seemed to respond the Elevation of the Pole prospered well and passed the Winter better and were much earlier in the Spring than those otherwise planted But in case you intend to sowe Barley first therein after the third Fallowing it must lie over the Winter that the Frosts may the better temper it for the Seed-time when it is to be ploughed again If for Pease or Beans once Fallowing before Winter serves the turn If it hath a good Sward or Turf on it I rather advise you to denshire or burn it the Summer before you sowe it this is the more expeditious and advantageous way it spends the Acid moisture an enemy to Vegetation it kills the weeds and brings the Land quickly to a fine light temper Other sorts of Land improveable by the Plough are very good Rich and mellow Land rich mixed Land and of a black mould Nigra fere pinguis Virgil. Optima frumentis Or of any other colour that hath lain long for Pasture till it be over-grown with Moss Weeds or such-like which will as soon grow on rich Lands as poor To these Lands Ploughing is not only a Medicine or Cure but raiseth an immediate Advantage and much benefiteth the Land for the future in case you take but a Crop or two at a time and lay it down for Pasture again well soyled or else sown with some of the New Grasses or Hays before named but if not yet only by soyling it the year before you lay

it down it may yield a very good Grass after the Corn is carried off and soon come to a Sward The Land is to be laid in height according as it is inclinable to Moisture or Drought New broken Ground if it be sowen with Pease the first year saves one ploughing and a good part of the Herbage the Summer before it also destroys the Weeds and better prepares the Land for any other Grain In every part of England there is much Waste Land and other Poor and barren Land old Pastures that bears the name of Barren Land although for the most part by good Husbandry it may be reduced into Tillage and become very fruitful and advantageous to the Husbandman in particular and Commonwealth in general As is evident in many particular parcels lately Enclosed and taken out of the supposed barren Heaths and Commons that are now fruitful Fields therefore before any thing considerable can be effected to the Improvement and right Ordering of these sorts of Land the Designe of Enclosure ought to be seriously prosecuted but for such that are already Enclosed and yet remain barren and unfruitful it is a manifest signe of the ill management of the Proprietors or that the Tenant in possession hath but a short time or that he is obliged not to alter the nature and order of the Ground or which is too common that the present charge of good Husbandry exceeds an ill Husbands Store His poor and beggarly Farm hath wasted what he hath and he has no more to try new Conclusions withal And in this condition is abundance of Land in this Kingdom barren Land poor Cattle and bad Corn do insensibly as it were devour us because once in five or seven years in a very wet Summer or such-like when the rich Vales suffer these barren Lands yield a considerable Advantage which as a Lottery encourages us to beggery The best and speediest way to reduce these Lands that have long lain untilled and that have a Sward either of sowre Grass or of Rushes Weeds or such-like or of heathy Goss Fern or Broom by which means they have contracted an evil Juice injurious to Vegetation and withal a fertile Terrestrial Salt the best way I say to improve and reduce these Lands into Tillage is to burn boot or denshire them as is hereafter shewn which way is used on the barrennest and poorest Lands in England or Wales where before hardly any thing would grow now will grow as good Wheat or other Grain as on the best Land you have Many Presidents hereof there are in several places of England where in two or three years by this only means the Husbandman gains as much above all expence as the purchase of the Land was worth before Observe only this Caution That you be not too greedy to sowe it so often till you have drawn out the heart of the Land which then it will easily yield that it must lie rested many years to gain a Sward again Nor that you expend the Soil made of the Straw on other Lands which ill Husbandry is generally used that it brings an ill name on this part of Improvement which if well soyled and laid for Pasture after two Crops will yield a very good Grass as I have seen experienced or else may be sowen with new Hays or Grasses SECT II. Of Digging of Land for Corn. The Spade seems to contend with the Plough for Antiquity and it is the common Opinion that it was in use before it the Spade being the more plain and simple Instrument and withal the laborious The Plough seeming to be an Invention for expedition ease and advantage to which generally all New Inventions should tend but that now at last the Spade should supplant the Plough I see no reason for as the one is necessary and useful for the better propagating of Plants that take deep root so is the other as necessary and profitable for such that root more shallow as Corn and Pulse usually do Other differences seem to be in the loosening and tempering the ground for the Seeds the better to extend and spread their Roots and for the better burying and destroying the Weeds These seem to be of greater Importance than the depth only but all these by a Judicious and Industrious Husbandman are remedied and performed by the Plough as well as by the Spade for if the depth of the mould will bear it or the nature of the Seed you sowe requires it a Double Plough the one succeeding Deep ploughing as good as digging the other in depth may be made or the labour may be performed by two Ploughs the one following the other in the same Furrow but if a Plough be Artificially made and set to work deep although yon plough the less in a day it will stir the Land deep enough for any of our usual Grain or Pulse And as for breaking or tempering the Land and destroying the Weeds ploughing and cross ploughing at several seasons will do more and at less expence than once digging can do And if you please you may draw over the same before your last ploughing a large kinde of Harrow very heavy or with a sufficient weight on it which in some places is usually called Dragging This extremity is only necessary in some sorts of stiff Land other lighter is much more easily managed Mr. Platt in his Adams Tool Revived or His New Art of Setting Corn where he so much contends for the Spade gives this instance of the Plough That a parcel of Land first cross ploughed with a deep-cutting Plough and then ploughed over the third time with a shallow Plough that made very close and narrow Furrows then was the Seed sown by a skilful Sower and then harrowed over yielded fifteen quarters on each Acre so Tilled and Sown I presume if this Relation may upon experience prove true that none will be so much conceited of a Novelty as to desert this Method of Agriculture for that tedious and costly way of the Spade But in case it doth not Annually amount unto such a prodigious increase as this President yet doth it plainly evidence that good Culture doth infinitely meliorate the Land and advance the Crop and manifoldly repay the expence and labour bestowed thereon which is the most you can expect of the Spade SECT III. Of the different Species of Grain Corn Pulse c. usually sown or necessary to be propagated in our Country-Farm There is not any Grain more universally useful and necessary Wheat than Wheat whereof there are several sorts some more agreeable and better thriving on some sort of Land than on other that it conduceth much to the Husbandmans advantage rightly to understand the natural temper of his Land and what Species of Grain and particular sort of such Grain best agreeth with the nature of his Land As some sorts of Land bear Pulses better than Corn and some bear Barley better than Wheat and some sorts of Wheat

prove better on cold stiff Land than on hot or dry c. We find many sorts of Wheat mentioned in our Rustick Authors as Whole Straw-wheat Rivet-wheat white and red Pollard-wheat white and Kinds of Wheat red great and small Turkey-wheat Purkey-wheat Gray-wheat Flaxen-weat I suppose the same in some places called Lammas-wheat Chiltern Ograve-wheat Sarasins-wheat with several other Names though it 's probable may be the same sorts The Great Pollard they say delights best on stiff Lands and so doth the Ograve Flaxen-wheat and Lammas on indifferent Land and Sarasins-wheat on any But what the different natures of these and other several sorts are and in what Land they most principally delight and the differences of their Culture I leave to the more ingenious and expert Husbandman to finde out and discover It is observed that the Bearded-wheat suffereth not by Mildew because the Beard thereof is a kinde of defence to preserve it from Dew Wheat is usually sown in the Autumn and best in a wet season Triticum luto hordeum pulvere conserite and either earlier or later as the nature of the Land and scituation of the place requires This is another very necessary Grain though usually converted Barley to the worst use of any that grows in England It is the principal Ingredient into our necessary Drink moderately used but the use thereof in excess is become the most general raging Vice and as it were the Primum Mobile to most other detestable Evils It is also a Bane to Ingenuity many of our best Mechanicks being too much addicted to the tincture of this Grain nevertheless it so naturally delights in our meaner sort of Land and in the Champion Countries that it 's become a principal part of the Countrey-mans Tillage that the too great a quantity thereof doth impede the propagation of several other Grains and Pulses much more necessary Neither know I any way to remedy this Neglect on the one side and Wilfulness on the other unless the Designe of Enclosure might take effect for then would the Lands be so much the more enriched that they would bear other Grain to a greater advantage to the Husbandman than Barley or that a double or treble Tax might be imposed on every Acre of Barley-land for what it is on other Grain which would provoke the Husbandman to that which would be most for his Advantage then would there be a greater plenty of all other sorts of Grain and Pulse and at a lower price and only good Liquor a little the dearer which may by House-keepers the easier be born withal The Seasons for sowing of Barley differ according to the nature of the Soil and Scituation of the Place Some sowe in March some in April others not until May yet with good success no certain Rule can be herein prescribed it usually proves as the succeeding Weather happens only a dry time is most kindly for the Seed There is little difference observed in Barley only there is one Difference of Barley sort called Rath-ripe Barley which is usually ripe two or three weeks before the other and delights best in some sorts of hot and dry Land This is a Grain generally known and delighteth in a dry warm Rye Land and will grow in most sorts of Land so that the Earth be well tempered and loose it needeth not so rich a Ground nor so much care nor cost bestowed thereon as doth the Wheat only it must be sowen in a dry time for rain soon drowneth it they usually say a shower of Rain will drown it in the hopper Wet is so great an Enemy to it It is quick of Growth soon up after it is sowen and sooner in the Ear usually in April and also sooner ripe than other Grain yet in some places is it usual to sowe Wheat and Rye mixed which grow together and are reaped together but the Rye must needs be ripe before the Wheat Neither can I discover where a greater advantage lies in sowing them together than in sowing them apart The principal season of sowing of Rye is in the Autumn about September according as the season permits and the nature of the Ground requires Oats are very profitable and necessary Grain in most places of Oats England they are the most principal Grain Horses affect and commended for that use above any other On such Lands that by reason of the cold no other Grain will thrive yet Oats grow there plentifully as many places in Wales and Darby-shire can witness there is no ground too rich nor too poor too hot nor too cold for them they are esteemed a peeler of the Ground the best season for sowing of them is in February or March The white Oat is the best and heaviest Grain The Meal makes good Bread and much used for that purpose in many places and also good Pottage and several other Messes and is in great request towards Scotland and in Wales Oaten Malt also makes good Beer It is a Grain exceeding advanteous on barren sandy Lands Buck-wheat or French-wheat it is much sowen in Surrey much less than any other Grain sowes an Acre it is usually sowen as Barley but later it is also late ripe and yields a very great increase and is excellent food for Swine Poultry c. after it is mowen it must lie several days till the stalks be withered before it be housed Neither is there any danger of the seed falling from it Our Rustick Authors mention several other sorts of Corn or Other sorts of Grain Grain as Xea or Spelt-corn Far Millet Sesame Rice c. which I shall forbear to particularize on until we are better satisfied of their natures and use and experienced in the way or method of their propagation Of all Pulses that are sowen or propagated Pease claim the Pease preheminence not only for their general use both by Sea and Land both for man and beast but also for the diversity of their kinds Almost for every sort of Land and for every season a different sort of Pease some are white Pease some gray green c. not necessary here to be enumerated every understanding Husbandman knowing what sorts best accord with his Land In a stiff fertile Ground they yield a very confiderable Crop without such frequent Fallowings as other Grains requires and destroy the Weeds and fit and prepare the Land for After-crops being an Improver and not an Impoverisher of Land as Husbandmen usually observe This also is of general use and benefit and placed before any Beans other Pulses by Pliny for its commodiousness both for man and beast yet we finde the Pease to be more universally propagated Of Beans there are several sorts the Great Garden-Beans and middle sort of Bean and the small Bean or Horse-bean The later only is usually sowen in Ploughed Lands and delights principally in stiff and strong ground and thrives not in light sandy or barren They are proper to be sown

in Land at the first breaking up where you intend afterwards to sowe other Grain because they destroy the Weeds and improve the Land as generally doth all other Cod-ware Of the other sorts of Beans and also of Pease we shall say more hereafter in this Treatise The Citch or Fetch whereof there are several sorts but two of Fetches most principal Note the Winter and Summer-Fetch the own sown before Winter and abiding the extremity of the Weather the other not so hardy and sown in the Spring they are much sown in some places and to a very considerable Advantage they are a good strong and nourishing food to Cattle either given in the Straw or without and are propagated after the manner of Pease The least of all Pulses is the Lentil in some places called Tills Lentils They are sown in ordinary ground and require it not very rich Of a very few sown on an Acre you shall reap an incredible quantity although they appear on the Ground but small and lie in a little room in the Cart they are a most excellent sweet Fodder and to be preferred before any other Fodder or Pulse for Calves or any other young Cattle This Pulse though not used in this Country as ever I could understand Lupines unless a few in a Garden yet we finde them highly commended to be a Pulse requiring little trouble and to help the Ground the most of any thing that is sown and to be a good manure for barren Land where it thrives very well as on sandy gravelly and the worst that may be yea amongst Bushes and Bryars Sodden in water they are excellent Food for Oxen and doubtless for Swine and other Cattle If this be true as probably it seems to be I admire this Plant should be so much neglected but I may give you a more plenary and satisfactory Accompt of this and some other not usual Seeds and Pulses another time These are not usual in most places of England but where they Tares are sown they much benefit the Land as other Pulses and are rather to be preferred for Fodder than any other use they can be put unto There are several other Pulses or Seeds mentioned in our Authors Other Pulses as Fasels Cich Peason Wilde Tares c. which if carefully and ingeniously prosecuted might redound to the Husbandmans Advantage and in the same manner might several other not yet brought into common use although they might in all probability be as beneficial as those already in use SECT IV. Of Hemp and Flax. Within the compass of our Lands subject to the Culture of the Plough may these two necessary and profitable Vegetables be propagated requiring a competent proportion of Ground to raise a quantity sufficient to supply our ordinary occasions and necessities in defect whereof and meerly through our own neglect and sloath we purchase the greatest share of these Hempen and Flaxen Commodities we use from Strangers at a dear Rate when we have room enough to raise wherewith of the same Commodities to furnish them But that to our shame be it spoken we prefer good Liquor or at least the Corn that makes it before any other Grain or Seed although other may be propagated with greater facility less hazard and abundantly more advantageous both to the Husbandman and Nation in general than that I need not put Excuses into the Countrey-mens mouths they Impediments to the sowing of Hemp and Flax. have enough for their grand Negligence in this principal part of Agriculture but that I here propose them in hopes some Worthy Patriots will use their endeavours to remove these Impediments 1. The first and most grand Impediment to this Improvement Want of Trade an Impediment is want of Encouragement to Trade or a right Constitution or Ordering of Employments for the Poor throughout the Countries which may be accomplished without charge the common Remora to all Ingenuities by granting some extraordinary Immunities to certain Societies in several places convenient in every County to be established which being the first and chiefest thing to be done will almost of it self remove all other Impediments 2. The next is the defect of Experience very few understanding Want of Experience an Impediment the way of Sowing Gathering Watering Heckling and other particular Modes in ordering these Commodities nor yet the nature of the Ground either of them delights in All which by the President and Example of some publique and ingenious Spirits and by the constitution of a Trade to take off the said Commodities to the Husbandmans Advantage may easily be removed 3. Another main Impediment to the Improvement and Propagation Tythes an Impediment of these and several other Staple-Commodities not yet brought into publike use and practice is that the Planter after he hath been at extraordinary Expence in Fertilizing Tilling and Planting his Land and in preserving and advancing the Growth of such Commodities not only the Profit of his Land but also of all his Expence and Labour must be decimated which in some years amounts to more than his own clear Profits when before such Improvements made little Tythe was paid as for Pasture-Lands is usual either a reservation to the Parson of what was formerly paid out of such unimproved Lands or a certain Modus decimandi according to the nature of the Commodity planted might prove a very great Encouragement to the Husbandman an infinite Advantage to the Nation in general and not the least injury or loss to the Clergy or Impropriator Some other Impediments there are and also other Propositions might be made for the Advancement of this and several other Commodities but they require more time to treat of than in this place we may dispense withal Hemp delights in the best Land warm and sandy or a little Hemp. gravelly so it be rich and of a deep Soil cold Clay wet and moorish is not good It is good to destroy Weeds on any Land The best Seed is the brightest that will retain its colour and substance in Rubbing three Bushels will sowe an Acre the richer the Land the thicker it must be sown the poorer the thinner from the beginning to the end of April is the time of sowing according as the Spring falls out earlier or later it must be carefully preserved from Birds who will destroy many of the Seeds The Season of Gathering of it is first about Lammas when a good part of it will be ripe that is the lighter Summer-hemp that bears no Seed and is called the Fimble-hemp and the Stalk grows white and when it is ripe it is most easily discernable which is about that season to be pulled forth and dried and laid up for use you must be cautious of breaking what you leave lest you spoil it you must let the other grow till the Seed be ripe which will be about Michaelmas or before and this is usually called the Karle-Hemp When you have gathered and bound

it up in bundles in Bonds of a yard compass the Statute-measure you must stack it up or house it till you thrash out the Seed An Acre of Hemp may be worth unwrought from five to eight pound Value of Hemp. if wrought up to ten or twelve pound or more and is a very great succour to the poor the Hempen Harvest coming after other Harvests And then in the bad wet and Winter-seasons it affords continual employment to such also that are not capable of better But for the Method and right way of Watering Pilling Breaking Tewtawing c. I shall leave you to such that are experienced therein finding no certain Rules left us by our Rustick Authors This is also a very excellent Commodity and the Tilling and Flax. Ordering thereof a very good piece of Husbandry it will thrive in any good sound Land be it in what Country soever but that is best that hath layen long unploughed the best Land yields the best Flax and raises the greatest Improvement The Land must be well ploughed and laid flat and even and the Seed sown in a warm season about the middle or end of March or at farthest in the beginning of April If it should come a wet season it would require weeding The best Seed is that which comes from the East Countrey although Best Seed it cost dear yet it will easily repay the Charge and will last indifferent well two or three Crops then it 's best to renew it again Of the best Seed two Bushels may serve on an Acre but more of our English Seed because it groweth smaller You must be sure to sowe it on good Land because it robs the ground much and burneth it as anciently it was observed by Virgil Vrit enim lini Campum Seges but it liberally repayeth it You must be careful that it grow not till it be over-ripe nor to gather it before it be ripe the ripeness is best known by the Seed at the time let the Pluckers be nimble and tie it up in handfulls and set them up until they be perfectly dry and then house it An Acre of good Flax on the Ground may be worth if it be of Value of Flax the best Seed from seven to twelve pound yea far more but if it be wrought up fit to sell in the Market it may come to fifteen or twenty pound As for the Watering Drying Breaking and Tewtawing as we said before of Hemp we must refer to those that are better experienced therein SECT V. Of Woad c. This is a very rich Commodity and worthy to be taken notice of by the Husbandman it requires a very rich Land sound and warm saith Mr. Blith But I have seen it usually planted upon an ordinary Ground but warm and light and in good heart having long rested and but new broken up it robs Land much being long continued upon it yet moderately used it prepares Land for Corn abating the overmuch Fertility thereof and draws a different Juyce for what the Corn requires the Land must be finely ploughed and harrowed for this Seed whereof about four Bushels will sowe an Acre it must be finely harrowed and all Clots Stones Turfs c. picked away and laid on heaps as is usual in Woad-Lands then it is to be continually weeded till the Leaves cover the Ground and when the Leaves are grown fair and large then set to cutting and so throughout the Summer that you may have five or six Crops and sometimes but three in one year of Woad what grows in Winter Sheep will eat The time for sowing of Woad is in the middle and end of March. When it is cut it must be immediately carried to the Mill. The manner whereof with the right ordering of Woad and of all other necessary circumstances relating thereto is best learned of an experienced Workman which is easily obtained To take it in the very season is a fundamental Piece which is To know when it is full ripe when the Leaf is come to its full growth and retains its perfect colour and lively greenness then speedily cut it that it fade not nor wax pale before you have cut your Crop The two first Crops are the best which are usually mixed together in the seasoning the later Crops are much worse which if either are mixed with the former they mar the whole It is a Staple Commodity for the Dyers Trade and is very advantageous Profit of Woad to the Husbandman it more than doubleth the Rent of his Land sometimes it quadruples it it hath been sold from 6 l. to 30 l. the Tun. The planting and propagating whereof is esteemed another excellent Rape and Cole-Seed piece of Husbandry and Improvement for Land and more especially on Marsh-Land Fen-Land or newly recovered Sea-lands or any Land rank and fat whether Arable or Pasture The Cole-Seed is esteemed the best the biggest and fairest also that you can get let it be dry and of a clear colour like the best Onyon-Seed it is usually brought from Holland It is to be sown at or about Mid-summer you must have your Land ploughed very well and laid even and fine and then sowe it about a Gallon will sowe an Acre the Seed must be mixed with some other matter as before we directed about Clover-Grass Seed for the more even dispersing thereof When the one half of the Seed begins to look brown it 's time to reap it which must be done as you usually do Wheat and lay it two or three handfuls together till it be dry and that through-dry too which will be near a fortnight ere it be dry enough it must not be turned nor touched if it be possible lest you shed the Seed it must be gathered on Sheets or large Sayl-clothes and so carried into the Barn or Floor very large to be immediately thrashed out The main Benefit is in the Seed If it be good it will bear five Profit thereof quarters on an Acre and is worth usually four shillings the Bushel sometimes more and sometimes less the greater your parcel is the better price you will have It is used to make Oyl thereof it thrives best on moist Land it cannot be too rank it fits the Land for Corn c. Thus far hath Mr. Blith delivered little else is written of this Seed therefore we leave it to the more experienced persons Although this be a Plant usually nourisht in Gardens and be Turneps properly a Garden-Plant yet it is to the very great Advantage of the Husbandman sown in his Fields in several forein places and also in some parts of England not only for Culinary uses as about London and other great Towns and Cities but also for Food for Cattle as Cows Swine c. They delight in a warm mellow and light Land rather sandy than otherwise not coveting a rich Mould The Ground must be finely ploughed and harrowed and then the Seed sown and raked in with

afterwards in the same Tract gives the partilar Process which is thus Let Pease be taken and steeped in as much Water as will cover them till they swell and Corn and be so ordered as Barley is for Maulting only with this difference that for this work if they sprout twice as much as Barley doth in Maulting 't is the better The Pease thus sprouted if beaten small which is easily done they being so tender put into a Vessel and stopt with a Bung and Rag as usually these will ferment and after two or three or four Months if distilled will really perform what before is promised Thus he also adds may a Spirit or Aqua Vitae be made out of any green growing thing Roots Berries Seeds c. which are not oyly Also that the Spirit which is made out of Grain not dried into Mault is more pleasant than the other It is not unlikely that Grain may afford its tincture and that excellent Beer or Ale may be made thereof without Maulting but these things require in another place to be treated of and also of the different ways of Fermenting Liquors which we refer to another time and place Hemp-seed is much commended for the feeding of Poultrey The uses of Hemp-seed Flax-seed Rape and Cole-seed and other Fowl so that where plenty thereof may be had and a good return for Fowl the use thereof must needs be advantageous ordered as you shall finde hereafter when we treat of Poultrey Flax-seed or Lin-seed Rape and Cole-seed are generally made use of for the making of Oyl Of the Preservation of Corn. The Preservation of Corn when it is plenty and good is of very great advantage to the Husbandman and the Kingdom in general for in scarce and dear years the Husbandman hath little to sell to advance his Stock and the Buyers are usually furnished with musty and bad Corn from Forein parts or from such that were ignorant of the ways to preserve it Therefore in cheap years it will be very necessary to make use of some of these ways for the storing up your Plenty of Corn against a time of Scarcity The way of making of it up in Reecks on Reeck-stavals set on On Reeck-stavals stones that the Mice may not come at it is usual and common But Corn thrashed and clean winnowed is apt to be musty therefore Corn laid up with Chaff some advise that you lay up your Corn in the Chaff in large Granaries made for that purpose secure from the Mice and when you use or sell it then to winnow it Also it is advised to mix Beans with Corn and that it will preserve Corn laid up with Beans it from heating and mustiness It is probable that if the Beans be well dried on a Kiln it may succeed for then will they attract all superfluous moisture unto them which is the only cause of the injury to the Corn for in Egypt where it is so dry Corn will keep in open Granaries many years as in Pharaoh's time The Beans are easily separated afterwards from the Corn. It is also reported that pieces of Iron Flints Pebles c. mixed Iron stones c mixed with Corn. with Corn preserves it from heating which may be true for it is usual to set a stick an end in Corn only to give passage for the Air to prevent heating A large Granary also full of square wooden pipes full of small holes may keep long from heating though not so well as the Chaff Beans c. Also some have had two Granaries the one over the other and A double Granary one over the other filled the upper which had a small hole in the bottom that the Corn by degrees like Sand in an Hour-glass hath fallen into the lower and when it was all in the lower they removed it into the upper and so kept it in continual motion which is a good way also to preserve it SECT VIII Of the Preparation of the Seed The greatest part of Vegetables and more especially those whereof we have before treated are propagated of Seed which included in a very small shell skin or husk containeth the very Quintessence of the Plant that produced it and is as it were the Life and Spirit of the Vegetable coagulated into a small compass Etenim Natura è tota Plantae mole nobiliores maximè activas Dr. Willis de Fermentatione particulas segregat easque cum pauxillo terrae aquae simul collectas in Semina velut Plantae cujusvis quintas essentias efformat interim truncus folia caules reliqua Plantae membra principiis activis pene orbata valdè depauperantur ac minoris efficaciae ac virtutis existunt This Seed or Spirit of the Plant being cast into its proper Matrix or Menstruum in its proper time doth attract unto its self its proper nourishment or moisture which by its own strength or power it doth ferment and transmute that which was before another thing now into its own being substance or nature and thereby doth dispand its self and encrease into the form and matter by Nature designed A more Philosophick Definition and Dissection of the nature of the Seed and Vegetation we will leave to the more Learned and content our selves in our Rural Habitation with so much of the understanding thereof as shall guide us unto the Discovery and Application of what may be this proper Menstruum wherein each Seed most rejoyceth in and with most delight attracteth for it is most evident that every Seed as it differs in nature from another so it requires a different nourishment For we perceive that in the same Land one sort of Seed will thrive where another will not according to the Proverb Ones Meat is anothers Poyson and that any sort of Grain or Seed will in time extract and diminish such Nutriment that it most delights in Which is the cause that our Husbandmen do finde so Change of Seed an Improvement great an Advantage and Improvement by changing their Seed especially from that Land which is often tilled which they call Hook-Land into Land newly broken and from dry barren and hungry Land to rich and fat Land also from Land inclining to the South to Land inclining to the North è contra all which produce a good Improvement As Cattle that are taken out of short sour and bad Pasture and put into good sweet Pasture thrive better than such that are not so exchanged After the same manner it is with Trees removed out of bad Ground into good all which are manifest Signes that there is some particular thing wherein each Seed delights which if we did but understand we might properly apply it and gain Riches and Honour to our selves but because we are ignorant thereof and are content so to remain we will make use of such Soyls Dungs Composts and other Preparations and Ways of Advancement of the Growth of Vegetables as are already discovered

the following Process highly applauded by the Owners thereof promising wonderful Productions from it which is thus Take half a Bushel of Sheeps-dung and put upon it twenty quarts of Spring-water set it on the fire till it be luke-warm but not boyling and so rub with your hand all the Sheeps-dung by little and little till it be dissolved in the water then let it stand twelve hours after which strain the water through a course Cloth with a hard Compression this water keep for use Then take of Bay-salt and dissolve it in luke-warm water which water filter and evaporate in an earthen Vessel over the Fire of this congealed Salt after the waters Evaporation take two good handfuls likewise do the same with Salt-petre dissolve it in water filter the water and evaporate it then take of the remaining congealed Salt-petre one good handful and let both those Salts dissolve in the fore-mentioned Liquor of Sheeps-dung making it again milk-warm when all the Salts are therein well dissolved put into that prepared Liquor eight Gallons of Corn or other Seed and let it steep therein thirty or thirty six hours then take it and put it into a Sieve and drain the water into another Vessel which water may be used again in like manner when the water is all drained away take the Corn or other Seed and dry it in some Upper-loft exposed to the Air not to the Sun and being almost dry scatter or sowe it in half proportion N. B. that the Sheeps-dung dregs being dried must be calcined and the Salt thereof drawn in luke-warm water which being filtred and evaporated the remaining Salt thereof is to be dissolved with the other Salts in the Sheeps-dung water I have here given you this Process gratis which hath been valued and contracted for at a high rate the Owners promising a very great Increase to succeed The Process appears to be made not by such that are experienced in Rural Affairs for you will finde it difficult to strain your Sheeps-dung water dissolved in those proportions for the Sheeps-dung wholly dissolves which doth so thicken the water and convert it into a mucilage that all goes where the water goes if rightly done and that which is more strange the Grain will not only imbibe the water so animated but the very substance of the Dung also if rightly ordered which is an Argument sufficient of the melioration of the Grain insomuch that no dregs or remainder of the Sheeps-dung was lost save only a few undissolved treddles As for the Salts I think little good is to be expected from them and therefore hold those troublesom preparations of them needless only the Salt of the Dung must needs be good because it is that Vegetative Salt or Vniversal Subject whereof we discoursed before only it is far fetched and dear bought as good may be had at a far easier rate for this purpose Nevertheless common Sea-salt hath been much cried up by some for an Improver of the Seed and an Example produced of a silly Jewel-house of Art and Nature Swain who passing over an Arm of the Sea with his Seed-corn in a Sack which by mischance at his landing fell into the water and so his Corn being left there till the next low water became somewhat brackish yet out of necessity did the man bestow the same Wheat upon his ploughed Grounds and at the Harvest he reaped a Crop of good Wheat such as in that year not any of his Neighbors had the like Doubtless infusion of the Corn or Seed in any of the aforesaid materials is some advantage to it or in the Lees of Wine Ale Beer Perry Syder or else in Beef-broth and the Brine of Poudering-tubs as is by some advised Also some affirm that Corn spritted a little as they use to do for Mault and then sown came up speedily and got the predomination of the Weeds at first and so kept the same that there was produced a far greater increase than ordinary which is a sufficient convincing Argument that if common water produce so manifest an Improvement that then a better Liquor may much more Because the Corn also will seem troublesom to sowe being wet it is prescribed either to let it dry a day or two on a Floor or else to sift slackened Lime thereon which is to be preferred because it preserves the Corn from Vermine Smutt c. I find also another compounded Liquor to have been commended Hartlib 's Legacie and experimented for the steeping of Grain therein which is thus Pour into quick and unslaked Lime as much Water as sufficeth to make it swim four inches above the Water and unto ten pound of the said water poured off mix one pound of Aqua Vitae and in that Liquor steep or soak wheat or Corn twenty four hours which being dried in the Sun or in the Air steep again in the said Liquor twenty four hours more and do it likewise the third time afterward sowe them at great distances the one from the other about the distance of a foot between each Grain so one Grain will produce thirty thirty six thirty eight forty two fifty two Ears and those very fruitful with a tall Stalk equalling the stature of a man in height This seems to be a most rational Process for this purpose and on this and the like ways of maceration or fermentation of the Seed depends those several Experiments where the Corn or Seed hath yielded so prodigious an Increase as that one grain of Wheat should yield a hundred and fourteen Ears and in them six thousand Grains but in case it generally hold to be but a quarter of the number it is beyond what any other way of Husbandry can perform CHAP. V. Of the Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Lands HAving discoursed of Meadows Pastures and Arable Lands and of the great Advantages and Benefits that are raised out of them and of the several ways of Improving Meadows by drowning or watering and of Pastures and Arable Lands by Inclosure by sowing and propagating New Hays Grasses and the best sorts of Corn Pulse and other Seeds and by the best way of Tilling and Ordering the same Now it will be necessary to say a little concerning this most general way of Improvement by Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Land under which terms we comprehend all the several ways of tempering altering renewing or adding unto the Land or applying any subject whatsoever thereunto for its Improvement and Advantage SECT I. Of the Burning of Land The Burning of Land or any other operation on it by Fire seems to be the greatest though not most universal advance to most of our barren poor and hungry Lands as well dry as wet the Burning of the Ground it self seems to be of very Ancient use as appears by Virgil Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros And burning of Wood and other Combustible Materials on Gages Survey of the West-Indies Sylva Land is practised amongst

the Americans for the Improvement of their Land which is an Argument as well of their Natural Ingenuity as of the excellencie and advantage of the Improvement For the burning of such Combustible things on Land doth very much heat the Ground and wastes that Acid sterile juice that hinders fertility and sets free that fertile Principle the Sal terrae which before was for the most part bound up also it leaves a good quantity of that Salt on the Land mixed with the ashes which is generally held to be the only advantage this way yields though the contrary appears for wheresoever the Fire is made although you remove the ashes wholly yet will the place bear a better Crop than where you bestow the ashes as formerly we noted This Art of Burning of Land usually called Denshiring quasi On what lands burn-baiting good Devonshiring or Denbighshiring because it seems there to be most used or to have been invented or burn-beating is not applicable or necessary to all sorts of Land for in a good fertile rich loose Soyl where a good sweet Grass or good Corn flourisheth it wastes as well the good as the bad juyce wherefore in most places in Sommersetshire and such other fertile places they reject it But for barren sour heathy and rushey Land be it either hot or cold wet or dry it is a very great Improvement insomuch that most sorts of such poor Lands will yield in two or three years after such Burning more above all charges than the Inheritance was worth before The most usual Method is with a Breast-plough to pare off the Manner of burn-baiting Turf turning it over as it 's cut that it may dry the better if it prove a very dry season and the weather hot then it needs no more turning but if the weather be casual it must be turned and the Turfs set a little hollow that they may dry the better and when they are through-dry they may be laid on small heaps about two Wheel-barrow loads on a heap the lesser the heaps are the better so there be enough to make a good Fire throughly to consume the whole to ashes If the Turf be full of fibrous roots or hath a good head on it it will burn without any other additionary fewel if not you must raise your heap on a small bundle of Ling Goss Fearn or such-like which in some places they call Ollet which will set the whole on Fire you may afterwards let those little hills of Ashes lie till they are a little saddned with rain before you spread them or take a quiet time that the wind may not waste your ashes nor hinder their equal scattering also you must pare the ground under the hills somewhat lower than the surface of the Earth to abate its over-great fertility caused by the Fire made thereon It is also to be observed that the Land is to be but shallow or half Ploughed and not above half the usual quantity of seed sown on an Acre and that also late in the year if Wheat towards the end of October only to prevent the excessive rankness or greatness of the Corn by which you may judge what advantage Burning is to the Land and this also on the poorest Plains or Heaths Others there are that when they stubb up their Goss Broom and such-like lay the Roots on heaps when they are dry and cover them with the parings of the Earth between where they raised the roots and so Burn over the Land which is also a very considerable Improvement In some places also it is usual to Burn the stubble and other trash they can rake together on their Lands which must needs be very good so far as may be according to the quantity thereof although it be not so much used for fertility-sake as to rid themselves of the stuff as they usually burn Heaths and Turf-Commons to give liberty to the Grass Sir Richard Weston gives this for a good way that is First pare off the Heath or Turff then make the paring into little Hills you may put to one hill as much paring as comes off from a Rod or Pole of Ground The Hills being sufficiently made and prepared are to be fired and burnt into ashes and unto the Ashes of every Hill you must put a peck of unslaked Lime the Lime is to be covered over with the Ashes and so to stand till rain comes and slakes the Lime after that mingle your Ashes and Lime together and so spread it over your Land In such places where Fewel is not scarce and the Land barren it is very excellent Husbandry to get together into such Land you intend to fertilize all the small Wood Bushes Furze Broom Heath Fearn Stubble or what ever combustible matter you can procure which in most places are easier obtained than Dung and in a dry time lay it in heaps dispersedly about the ground and cast over it the parings of the Land where it lies and set fire to it and whilest it burns having several to help you cast on Turf or Earth on the most flaming parts to hinder that it flame not too much the heat of which fires will so calcine the Earth under them and the Earth cast on them besides the ashes of the Vegetables that it will yield an increase far exceeding the charge and labor bestowed thereon there can be no better use made of these combustible matters and especially of the Hawme or strings of Hops which burnt in the Hop-garden and the parings of the Turfs on the side of the Garden or elsewhere or any other Earth cast over it as it burns and then more Hawme over that and more Earth on that as they use to say Stratum super stratum till all be done either in one or several places will make so excellent a Compost to be applied to the Hop-hills that none can exceed it which I my self have done And this answers to what Glauber delivers as a great secret and very profitable Perticae Longurii aut Continuatio Miraculi Mundi p. 34. pali quibus Vites lupulorum Caules sustinenter si igne qua in extremitatem suam inferiorem desunt adurantur extremitate adusta in lignorum oleum illud immittantur ut pinguedinem illam imbibant c. duplex hoc pacto emolumentum afferentes prius est quod perticae à putredine conservatae quotannis breviores non evadant sed diutius durent Alterum quod vitium lupulorum radices pinguedinem alimentum ex perticarum extremitatibus attrahentes luxuriante incremento excrescant By which it appears that the ends of the Hop-poles only being burnt and imbibed in his vegetable Oyl or fixed Salt will not only endure long from rotting but also will yield extraordinary nourishment to the Roots of the Hops of such wonderful efficacie is this subject that the least Grain thereof carrieth with it much of fertility as the same Author saith a little before of the same

Subject Non tantum in agris praestat sed Page 21. etiam arboribus vit ibus adeo ut una eodem plena tonna tantum ad agrorum stercorationem conferre valeat quantum decem simo equino aut vaccine replet a plaustra solent This kinde of Manure either by Burning as before or with the fixed Salts of any thing whatsoever doth also much more enrich your Crop than any other Dung or Soil for this tendeth principally unto fertility ordinary Dung of Beasts more unto the gross substance of the Straw or Hawme than unto Fruit or Seed and also breeds more of Weeds than this our Vniversal Subject There are also several other sorts of Materials to be used as Other Soyls and Manures Soils and Manures for the fertilizing and enriching of Lands Some whereof are taken from the Earth as Chalk Marle Clay c. Others from the Waters as Sands Weeds c. Others also are the Dungs and Excrements of living Creatures and others that are several sorts of Vegetables themselves and other casual things as Soot Raggs c. Of all which we finde these whereof we shall now treat to have been found out and commended to be useful and beneficial to the Husbandman for the purposes before mentioned SECT II. Soyls and Manures taken from the Earth Whereof there are several sorts some of so hard and undissoluble Of Chalk a nature that it is not fit to lay on Lands simply as it is but after it is burned into Lime becomes a very excellent Improver of Lands there are also other sorts of Chalk more unctuous and soluble which being laid on Lands crude as they are and let lie till the Frosts and Rain shatter and dissolve the same prove a very considerable advantage to barren Lands now where any of these Chalks are found it is good to prove their natures by laying them on some small portion of Land crude as they are or by burning them into Lime if Fewel be plenty or to half burn them by which you may experimentally know the true effects and benefits that Subject will yield And although Chalk simply of it self either burnt or unburnt may not prove so advantageous as many have reported yet is it of very great use to be mixed with Earth and the Dungs of Animals by which may be made an admirable sure and natural fruitful Composition for almost any sorts of Lands and raiseth Corn in abaundance Liming of Land is of most excellent use many barren parts of Of Lime this Nation being thereby reduced into so fertile a condition for bearing most sorts of Grain that upon Land not worth above one or two shillings an Acre well husbanded with Lime hath been raised as good Wheat Barly white and gray Pease as England yields English Improver Also that by the same means from a Ling Heath or Common naturally barren and little worth hath been raised most gallant Corn worth five or six pound an Acre By the same Author He also affirms that some men have had and received so much profit upon their Lands by once liming as hath paid the purchase of their Lands and that himself had great advance thereby yet lived twenty miles from Lime and fetched the same by Waggon so far to lay it on his Lands One Author saith twelve or fourteen quarters will Lime an Acre another saith 160 Bushels the difference of the Land may require a different proportion The most natural Land for Lime is the light and sandy the next mixt and gravelly wet and cold gravel not good cold clay the worst of all Also a mixture of Lime Earth and Dung together is a very excellent Compost for Land Marle is a very excellent thing commended of all that either Of Marle Differences of Marle write or practise any thing in Husbandry There are several kinds of it some stony some soft white gray russet yellow blew black and some red It is of a cold nature and saddens Land exceedingly and very heavy it is and will go downwards though not so much as Lime doth The goodness or badness thereof is not Signes of good or bad Marle known so much by the colour as by the Purity and Uncompoundedness of it for if it will break into bits like a Dye or smooth like Lead-Oar without any composition of Sand or Gravel or if it will slake like Slate-stones and slake or shatter after a shower of Rain or being exposed to the Sun or Air and shortly after turn to dust when it 's throughly dry again and not congeal like tough Clay question not the fruitfulness of it notwithstanding the difference of colours which are no certain signes of the goodness of the Marle As for the Slipperiness Viscousness Fattiness or Oyliness thereof although it be commonly esteemed a signe of good Marle yet the best Authors affirm the contrary viz. That there is very good Marle which is not so but lieth in the Mine pure dry and short yet nevertheless if you water it you shall finde it slippery But the best and truest Rule to know the richness and Best way to know Marle profit of your Marle is to try a Load or two on your Lands in several places and in different proportions They usually lay the same on small heaps and disperse it over Use and Benefit of Marle the whole Field as they do their Dung and this Marle will keep the Land whereon it is laid in some places ten or fifteen and in some places thirty years in heart it is most profitable in dry light and barren Lands such as is most kinde and natural for Rye as is evident by Mr. Blithes Experiment in his Chapter of Marle It also affordeth not its vertue or strength the first year so much as in the subsequent years It yields a very great Increase and Advantage on high sandy gravelly or mixed Lands though never so barren strong Clay-ground is unsutable to it yet if it can be laid dry Marle may be profitable on that also It is very necessary in marling Lands to finde out the true proportion how much on every Acre that you add not too much nor too little in medio virtus It 's better to erre by laying on too little than too much because you may add more at pleasure but you cannot take away the surest way is to try some small quantities first and proceed as your Experiments encourage It hath been also experimentally observed that you are to lay your Marle in the beginning of Winter on hard and binding Grounds And on the contrary you are to lay it in the Spring on light sandy dry and gravelly lands but it 's good to try both it 's held to be best to lay it abroad in the beginning of Winter that the Frosts may first make the same moulder into small pieces and so to become apt for Solution which is done by the Rains that more plentifully fall in the Winter You shall

observe saith Markham that if you cannot get any Of Fullers Earth perfect and rich Marle if then you can get of that Earth which is called Fullers-Earth and where the one is not commonly the other is then you may use it in the same manner as you should do Marle and it is found to be very near as profitable Mr. Bernhard Palisly that French Author cited so often by Sir Hugh Platt commends the same I have not known it at any time practised in England for the bettering of any ground saith Sir Hugh Platt but by all presumption the same must of necessity be very rich because it is full of that vegetative Salt which appears in these scouring effects for the which it is divers ways had in use amongst us Clay is by many commended to be a considerable Improvement Of Clay Jewel-house of Art and Nature to some sorts of light and sandy Ground as Sir Hugh Platt gives the relation of a certain person that assured it to be most true that the very Clay which he digged up in St. Georges Fields being laid upon his pasture-pasture-ground which he there held by Lease did exceedingly enrich the same insomuch as he did never regard to seek after any other Soil Also Mr. Gabriel Platt relates that he knew light sandy ground which was good for little or nothing cured by laying thereon a great quantity of stiff clay-Clay-ground which converted it to good temperament whereby it became fruitful and not subject to fail upon every light occasion as it did before but would abide variety of weather according to the nature of Hasel-ground And this Improvement saith he is of no little value for there is a great difference betwixt Land that is subject to fail once in two or three years and Land thus improved that will not fail once in two or three and twenty years through the distemperature of the weather Mr. Bernhard also affirms that all Marle is a kind of clay-Clay-ground and it should seem to differ only in digestion from Marle It is good to try it on several grounds both Arable and Pasture and for several Grains at several times in the year and in several proportions by this means you may finde out the true value and effect of this and by the same Method of all other Subterraneal Soyl or Manure and thereby raise unto your self a considerable advantage By the same Rule and for the same Reason that Clay advanceth Of Sand. the benefit of light and Sandy grounds may Sand be an inrichment and Improvement to cold clay-Clay-grounds as Mr. Gabriel Platt testifieth that he hath known stiff clay-Clay-grounds that would seldom be fruitful unless the season of the year proved very prosperous to have been cured by laying thereupon a great quantity of light sandy-Sandy-ground which afterwards was converted to a good temperament like to the sort of ground commonly called Hasel-ground which seldom or never faileth to be fruitful The best Sand for fertility is that which is washed from the hills or other Sandy places by the violence of Rain other Sands that are digged have little fertility in them only by way of contracting to clay-Clay-ground they may effect much as Columela saith that his Grandfather used to carry Sand on Clay and on the contrary to bring Clay on Sandy grounds and with good success Sand also is of great use to be mixed with Soil as Mr. Blith adviseth for the speedy raising of great quantities of Soil in the Winter by the sheep when foulding is generally neglected and that is by making a large Sheep-house for the housing of Sheep in Winter which may be Sheep-cribbed round about and in the middle too to fother them therein you may bring herein once or twice a week several Loads of Sand either out of the Streets or ways or from a Sand-pit and lay it three or four inches thick and so continue once or twice a week as long as you please and what with the heat and warmth of their bodies and the fatness of their Dung and Urine the Sand will turn to excellent rich Soil and go very far upon Land and be more serviceable than you can conceive There are several sorts of Earth that are of singular use for the Of Earth bettering of Land as all Earth of a Saltish nature is fruitful especially all such Earth as lies dry covered with Hovels or Houses of which you make Salt-petre is rich for Land and so are old floors under any Buildings Mr Platt affirms that he hath known many hundred loads of Earth sold for twelve pence a load being digged out of a Meadow near to Hampton-Court which were carried three or four miles to the higher grounds and fertilized those grounds wonderfully and recompensed the labour and charges very well which Earth being laid upon Arable Land within a Furlong of the same Meadow did more hurt than good which sheweth that the Earth must be of different nature from the Land whereon it is laid Also any sort of Earth may be made use of for the folding of Sheep thereon under a Covert after the Flanders Manner as before is said of Sand. All sorts of Earth are very useful to intermix with Lime Dung of Beasts Fowl or any other fatty substance being laid stratum super stratum in pits or on heaps to putrifie together as well to moderate the quality as to increase the quantity of your Soil Street-dirt in Towns and Villages is an excellent Improver of several sorts of Land especially the light and sandy SECT III. Soyls taken from the Sea or Water The richest of all Sands is what comes from the Sea-coasts and Of Water-Sand the Creeks thereof and all Lands bordering on the Sea may be improved by them it is the usual practise in the Western parts of England for the people to their great charge in carriage to convey the Saltish Sands unto their barren grounds whereof some of them do lie five miles distance from the Sea and yet they find the same exceeding profitable for that their inheritance is thereby enriched for many years together the greatest vertue consisting in the Saltishness thereof Others say the Richness of the Sands is from the fat or filth the Sea doth gather in by Land-floods and what the Tide fetches daily from the shores and from fish and from other matters that putrifie in the Sea all which the Water casts on shore and purgeth forth of it self and leaves in the Sands while it self is clean and pure The Sands of fresh Rivers challenge also a place in our Improvements being laid on Land proper for the same but more especially if it be mixed with any other matter as most usually it is where it is cast on shelves at the falls of some Land-waters descending from Hills or High-ways In Devonshire and Cornwal and many other parts they make a Of Sea-weeds and Weeds in Rivers very great Improvement of the Sea-weeds for the Soiling and Manuring

clay-ground that a Tun of Timber could not be thence haled unless in the dry and Summer-season but that the Wheels would sink in the Clay to the Axle-tree They will also grow though but slowly on the high stony and barren Hills The Acorns or Oaken-Mast being sown in your Nursery after Propagation they are full ripe and before they are withered which will quickly be if they lie open in the Air will the next Spring yield you plenty of young Plants which you may order and transplant as hereafter in the Nursery you shall have Directions Or for expedition-sake you may have young Sets drawn by those that seek the Woods for Quick-sets in such places where Acorns have spontaneously grown and been sheltered from Cattle till they are fit for a remove but these prove generally crooked and ill-shaped and so are to be cut near to the ground when you plant them by which means they will emit another shoot more streight Oaks also prosper very well in Coppices being felled as other Under-woods are It is reported that a Lady in Northamptonshire sowed Acorns and lived to cut the Trees produced from them twice in two and twenty years and both as well grown as most are in sixteen or eighteen Also that Acorns set in Hedge-rows have in thirty years born a Stem of a Foot Diameter The several uses of Oaken Timber for Buildings and other Mechanick Use uses is so universally known that it is but needless to enumerate them To abide all seasons of the weather there is no Wood comparable unto it as for Pales Shingles Posts Rails Boards c. For Water-works also it is second to none especially where it lies obvious to the Air as well as the Water there is no Wood like it For Fewel either as it is or made into Cha●coal there is no Wood equals it The Bark also for the Tanner and Dyer exceeds all other Barks the very Saw-dust and ashes also of the Oak challenge a preference the Mast exceeds any other Mast of the Forrest-trees and is of great use to the Husbandman in fatting Swine for in the Forrests and great Woods many herds of Swine are very well fatted in such years that the Oak yields plenty of Mast and that Bacon so fed especially if the Swine are kept up with Pease some time after is the most delicious meat for the Hams we have from Westphalia and other parts of Germany under that name are of those Swine that feed on this Mast for their exercise they of necessity use in searching for these Acorns as well as the natural sweetness of the Fruit it self very much meliorateth the flesh of these Animals as it doth of Deer Hares Conies Pheasants Ducks and many others the flesh of them that are wild being by much to be preferred to the tame The young Boughs of the lopped Oak in the Spring-time are of equal use to the Tanner as is the Bark of this Tree as hath been found by the experience of many Tanners of this Nation within these few years The Elm is one of the most easie Trees to propagate and delighting The Elm. in most sorts of ground except only Land very dry hot and parching shallow Land near Chalk or Gravel on the tops of Hills it thrives not well yet it will grow almost in any place But the places it principally delights in is the level light and loose Land so that it be moist on the Banks of such level and fertile grounds whether they be of Gravel Earth or Chalk the Elm prospers well About the beginning of March fall the seeds of the Elm which Propagation being sown in your Nursery will yield you Plants But the care and trouble thereof is superfluous seeing there are newer and more expeditious and advantageous ways known viz. by the Suckers Which are produced in great plenty from the roots of the Elm and may be transplanted into any places where the Elms grow great plenty of these Suckers will yearly shoot out of the Earth if Cattle be kept from them or if any Elm be felled the old Roots will yield plenty of Suckers or if the old Roots be chopped or slit and slightly covered with light mould they will send forth plenty of Suckers all which may be slipped off and transplanted even unto any bigness there being no Tree more easily transplanted and with good success than the Elm observing these Cautions that if you remove them very young that you cut not off the top because it is sappy and the wet will be apt to get in and decay the Plant being weakened by his removal but the greater you must be sure to disbranch leaving only the stem some cover also the head of such Elm so cut off with a mixture of Clay and Horse-dung I have been very credibly informed that a certain Gentleman in the North-Country having a desire to raise suddenly a Plump or Grove of Trees about his Mansion-house there being a great scarcity of Wood in that place obtained a parcel of Elm-trees lops and tops and made Trenches or Ditches in the Earth and cut his Elm-branches c. into several lengths of six eight ten or twenty feet in length as with best conveniencie he could and buried them singly in the Trenches so digged and covered them wholly from the one end to the other leaving only a hole open about the middle of the interred branch or if it were a long piece then two open places might be left out of which places did spring forth several shoots the first year of a very great length the Winter succeeding he took these branches or shoots all save only the fairest and which was most probable and likely to thrive and so filled up the hole about it by which means they grew to a prodigious height in a few years that his habitation was compleatly adorned with living aspiring products of his ingenious attempt Note that the true time of this Sepulture is when the sap is full in the Tree when the Leaves are newly sprung for then the great quantity of the sap that is in the whole branch forceth it self into those shoots or Cions that then have found a passage also for the succeeding yeers the whole Tree in the Earth becomes a main principal nourishing Root to the nimble growing Tree For it is evident that if an Elm be felled in the Spring-time when the sap is up that then the Tree lying on the ground will spend much of its sap in small shoots in every part of it Much rather if such Tree were buried in a good moist Soil with only one part thereof open to the Air from which part you expect a flourishing shoot to proceed Some have with good success buried such Elm-branches about the end of January or beginning of March but if the Land be not over-dry the later is better If the Elm be felled between November and February it will Use be all Spine or Heart or very little sap

it and prefer it before any other Every Country-man also hath the experience of it by feeding of Cattle on the fallen Hedges where the Ashen-boughs are first chewed even to admiration before any other by the tender-mouth'd Heifer For Firing there 's no Wood comparable to it for a light sweet burning it will also burn better newly cut than any other Wood. The only season for setting the Ash for use is from November till the end of January for if the sap be never so little in the Tree the Worm takes it and spoils the Wood in a short time There is no Timber of so speedy a growth as the Ash that it is related that an Ash at forty years growth from the Key hath been sold for thirty pounds Mr. Blith also inserts a President of a Nursery of young Ash that were casually sown by the Wind that speedily returned to the owner a very great advantage Because this Tree is more generally planted for the sake of the Of the Walnut-tree Fruit than the Timber we shall refer it to the Chapter of Fruit-trees only let you know that the Timber of the Walnut-tree is of so great use and benefit that it's encouragement sufficient for the propagation thereof the fruit then added makes the encouragement the greater This Timber is of universal use unless for outward Edifices none better for the Joyner Upholsterer Gunsmith Cabinet-maker and other Occupations of a more curious brown colour than the Beech or other Woods and not so obnoxious to the Worm They delight in a light ground or moist gravel and will grow Of the Chesnut-tree in Clay Sand and all mixed Soils upon exposed and bleak places as more patient of cold than heat They are raised from the Nuts thus First spread them to Propagation sweat then cover them in Sand a month being past plunge them in Water and reject those that swim being dried for thirty days more Sand them again and plunge them as before keep them in Sand till the beginning of the Spring and set them in your Nursery but they thrive best unremoved you may also set them in Winter or Autumn in or without their husks and sowe them with other Mast for the raising of Coppices The Chesnut-tree growing in Coppices yields incomparable Use Poles for the Garden or Hop-yard If it like the Ground it will in ten or twelve years time grow to a kinde of Timber and bear plentiful Fruit. The Timber whereof is next the Oak one of the most-sought after by the Carpenter and Joyner and is of very long lasting as appears by many Antient Houses and Barns built thereof about Gravesend in Kent Being planted in Hedge-rows or for Avenues to our Country-houses they are a magnificent and royal Ornament and although our Englishmen delight not so much in the Fruit of the Chesnut-tree as other Nations yet will they yield no small advantage to supply our other occasions This Tree delights in reasonable good ground rather inclining The Service-tree to cold than over-hot for in places that are too dry they never bear kindly They are raised from the Berries which being ripe may be Propagation sown as other Mast these will come soon to be Trees and being planted young thrive exceedingly the best and speediest way is to encrease them from Suckers or Sets The Timber is useful for the Joyner and being of a very delicate Use Grain is fit for divers Curiosities It also yieldeth beams of a considerable bigness for Building The shade is beautiful for Walks and the Fruit not unpleasant SECT III. Of several other Trees not so generally made use of for Timber as for Fewel Coppice-woods Hedge-rows c. The Birch will grow on any Land and cannot well be too barren The Birch it will thrive on the hot burning Sand in the cold wet Clay Marshes Bogs and Stony places no place comes amiss to it The Birch is altogether produced of Suckers which being Propagation planted at four or five feet interval will suddenly rise to Trees after the first year you may cut them within an inch of the ground and they will shoot out very strongly It is useful for the Turner and for some Rustick Utensils It Use makes good Fewel and Charcoal both great and small This tree yields the best Sap of any Tree in England and the most in quantity prepared either with Honey or Sugar into a Wine which being now frequently made hath obtained the name of Birch-wine being a very pleasant and innocent Liquor and retaineth a very fine flavour of the Tree it came from Where this Tree plentifully grows great quantities of this Liquor may be extracted by cutting off some small branches and hanging of Bottles with the ends of the Branches in the mouths of the Bottles into which the Chrystalline Liquor will distil several Bottles may thus hang on one Tree or by boring or cutting any part of the stem of the Tree and by a Chip or the like to guide the Sap into the neck of the Bottle By either of which ways great quantities of this Liquor may be extracted in the month of February or beginning of March when the Sap ascends and before the Spring of the Leaf it will run freely when the Wind is South or West or the Sun shine warm but not so if the weather be very cold or in the night-time Some have reported that a Birch-tree will yield in 12 or 14 days its own weight in this Liquor I shall not perswade any man to believe it although it be most evident that a few Trees will yield you a great quantity of it This Liquor thus extracted and duly prepared makes a very delicate repast The Maple affects a sound and dry Mould growing both in The Maple Woods and Hedge-rows It is propagated of the Keys as the Ash Propagation The Timber is excellent for the Turner and Joyner for its whiteness its lightness and fine diapred knots c. This Tree chiefly desires to grow in cold hills and in the barren The Horn-beam and most exposed parts of Woods The most expeditious way of raising it is by Sets of about an Propagation inch Diameter and cut within half a foot of the Earth it may also be raised of the Seeds sown in October which are ripe in August It is a very hard Wood for the Mill-wright for Domestique or Use Rural Utensils where hardness is required Being planted at half a yard interval in a single row it makes a stately Hedge or Walk in a Garden or Park growing tall and speedy leaved to the very foot of the stem It delights in Mountains and Woods and to fix it self in good The Quick-beam light ground The Sets may be planted as the Ash or the Berries ripe in October Propagation and use may be sown It is a quick-growing Coppice-wood is good for some ordinary uses and for Fewel This Tree above all affects cold

barren dry and sandy grounds The Hasel also Mountains and Rocky Soils produce them but more prosperously in the fresher bottoms and sides of hills and in Hedge-rows They are best raised from the Nut preserved moist not mouldy Propagation by laying them in their own dry leaves or in sand and sown about the latter end of February They are also propagated of Sets and Suckers the young wands by no means to be cut the first year but the Spring following within three or four inches of the ground greater Sets may be cut within six inches of the Earth the first year The use of Hasel-Poles and Rods is generally known to the Use Husbandman besides for Fewel and Charcoal It is the only Plant for the Virgula Divina for the Discovery of Mines It is a good Ornament for Walks and yields a pleasant Fruit but why should we bring this so near us when we have a much more excellent Plant at as easie a rate viz. the Filbert SECT IV. Of Aquaticks or Trees affecting Moist and Watry places The white Poplar delights in moist grounds and near the Margins The Poplar of Rivers but not in the Water as the Willow doth They are usually encreased by the streght branches or pitchers Propagation set in the ground but by no means cut off the top until they have stood two or three years and then head them at eight ten or fifteen foot high or more and they will yield in a few years a very considerable shrowd which shrowds or branches may also be transplanted you may also let them grow upright without topping them they are then more Ornamental but not so beneficial It s White Wood is of singular use for the Turner and also for Use several Rustick Utensils and for the Gardiner It makes also Fewel for the fire This Tree little differs from the Poplar only it will grow not The Aspen only in moist but in dry grounds in Coppices c. is propagated by Suckers but cut not off the tops of the young Cions the first year its use the same with the Poplar The Abele-tree is a finer kinde of white Poplar and is best The Abele propagated of slips from the roots they will likewise grow of layers and cuttings In three years they will come to an incredible altitude in twelve years be as big as your middle and in eighteen or twenty arrive to full perfection This Plant of all other is the most faithful lover of Watery and The Alder. boggy places They are propagated of Truncheons and will come of Seeds Propagation but best of roots being set as big as the small of ones leg and in length about two foot if you plant smaller Sets cut them not till they have stood several years They are a very great Improvement to moist and boggy Land The greater Alders are good for uses under the Water where Use it will harden like a very stone but rots immediately where it is sometimes wet and sometimes dry the Wood is fit for the Turner and several Mechanick uses the Poles and also the Bark are very useful The Withy is a large Tree and fit to be planted on high banks The Withy because they extend their Roots deeper than either Sallies or Willows Sallies grow much faster if they are planted within the reach of The Sally the Water or in a very moorish ground and are an extraordinary Improvement They are smaller than the Sallies and shorter lived and require Osiers constant moisture The Common Willow delights in Meads and Ditch-sides not Willow over-wet They may all be planted by Pitchers as the Poplar those Sets or Pitchers are to be preferred that grow nearest to the stock they should be planted in the first fair weather in February and so till they bud the Osiers may also be planted of slips of two or three years growth a foot deep and half a yard in length in Moorish ground c. The Willow may be planted of stakes as big as ones leg and five or six foot long These Aquatick Trees yield a clean white Wood fit for many Use and benefit uses like unto the Poplar they also yield Poles Binders c. for the Gardiners use the Osier is of great use to the Basket-maker Gardiner Fisherman c. They are all good Fewel and make good Charcoal they are a very great Improvement to Moorish and wet Lands an Acre at eleven or twelve years growth may yield you near an hundred load of Wood no Tree more profitable than some of these Aquaticks according to the nature of the place to be planted upon the edges of Rivers and on Banks Bounds or Borders of Meads or wet Lands they yield a considerable head and ready for shrowding in a few years Mr. Evelin relates that a Gentleman lopped no less than two thousand yearly all of his own planting SECT V. Of other Trees usually planted for Ornament or adorning Gardens Avenues Parks and other places adjoyning to your Mansion-house and convertible also to several uses This Tree is a kind of Maple and delights in a good light Garden-mould The Sycamore and will also thrive in any indifferent Land but rather in moist than dry It 's propagated of the Keys which being It s propagation and use sown when they are ripe and falling from the Trees come up plentifully the next Spring and is a Tree of speedy growth Sets also cut from the Tree will grow set in moist ground or watered well in the Summer they afford a curious dark and pleasant shadow yield a good Fewel and the Timber fit for several Mechanick uses The Lime-tree delights in a good rich Garden-Soil and thrives The Lime-tree Propagation not in a dry hungry cold Land It is raised from Suckers as the Elm or from Seeds or Berries which in the Autumn drop from the Trees We have a sort of Tilia that grows wild here in England which almost equals those brought out of Holland where there are Nurseries to raise them streight and comely This Tree is of all other the most proper and beautiful for Use Walks as producing an upright Body smooth and even Bark ample Leaf sweet Blossom and a goodly shade at the distance of Sylva eighteen or twenty foot their heads topped at about six or eight foot high but if they are suffered to mount without check they become a very streight and tall Tree in a little time especially if they grow near together they afford a very pleasant dark shade and perfume the Air in the months of June and July with their fragrant blossom and entertain a mellifluous Army of Bees from the top of the morning till the cool and dark evening compels their return No Tree more uniform both in its height and spreading breadth I have known excellent Ladders made of Lime-tree-Poles of a very great length the Wood may also serve for several Mechanick uses like

double-flowred Pomegranats Apples Pears Cherries Peaches c. Roses of all sorts and several other Trees yielding great variety pleasure and content to the Laborious Husbandman For the nature ordering and propagating and uses of them and all other pleasant Plants Flowers and Herbs I must refer you to those Tracts that peculiarly handle that Subject my intentions being only to promote the Propagation and encourage the Industrious in their advancing of such Trees Plants Grains c. that are necessary and profitable to the Country-farmer although I have a little in this place digressed from my former purpose But return and give you an account SECT VII Of such Trees that are necessary and proper for Fencing and Enclosing of Lands Orchards Gardens c. And the best way of raising such Fences Seeing that Fencing and Enclosing of Land is most evident to be a piece of the highest Improvement of Lands and that all our Plantations of Woods Fruits and other Tillage are thereby secured from external Injuries which otherwise would lie open to the Cattle Texendae sepes etiam pecus omne tenendum est Praecipue dum frons tenera c. Virgil. And also subject to the lusts of vile persons as old Tusser observed where Fences and Enclosures were deficient What Orchard unrobbed escapes Or Pullet dare walk in their Iet But homeward or outward like Apes They count it their own they can get For which reason we are obliged to maintain a good Fence if we expect an answerable success to our Labours I shall therefore enquire out the most proper Trees for that purpose And first the White-thorn is esteemed the best for fencing it is raised either of Seeds or Plants by Plants is the speediest way but by Seeds where the place will admit of delay is less charge and as succesful though it require longer time they being till the Spring come twelvemonth ere they spring out of the Earth but when they have past two or three years they flourish to admiration Next unto the White-thorn is the Holly which claims a preference Toe Holly much before the White-thorn were it not for its slow growth in its puberty which may the better be born withal if we consider the excellencie thereof either for sight ornament or defence for thickness and closeness it may compare to a Wall or Pale to defend your Inclosure from Winds or the eyes of ill neighbours and for its strength against man or beast is impregnable for height or thickness it will answer your desires It is raised of the Berries of the Sets as is the White-thorn but the Sets are more difficult of growth unless they are planted late in the Spring and well watered This Plant deserves a principal place amongst our Trees for Pyracautha Fences it yielding a very strong and firm prickly branch and ever-green leaves is quick of growth and easie of propagation it is raised either of the bright Coralline berries which hang most part of the Winter on the Trees and lie as long in the ground ere they spring as the Haw-thorn berries or else it is raised of Suckers or slips The Black-thorn and Crab also yield a very good Fencing Black-thorn branch and are raised as the White-thorn A considerable Fence may be made of Elder set of reasonable The Elder lusty Truncheons like the Willow and may be laid with great curiosity this makes a speedy shelter for a Garden from Winds Beasts or such-like injuries rather than from rude Michers Furzes Brambles c. are very necessary for the planting of Furzes c. dry Banks where it is difficult to raise a better Fence and in those places they will maintain the Bank against any Cattle Furzes are also sown on barren Land and esteemed a considerable Improvement the green tops are good food for Horses the pricklines thereof being taken away by chopping Let your Plants be about the bigness of your thumb if you can The speediest and best way of planting a Quickset-Hedge and set almost perpendicular and cut within four or five inches of the ground and planted in a double row at about half a foot distance they will prosper infinitely and much outstrip the closest ranges of our trifling Sets The other way most followed for the planting of a quick Another way more usual and better for the Field Hedge is on the Bank of a Ditch thus Place the first row of Sets on the brink of the Ditch in the upper-mould and cover them with the better part of the mould taken out of the Ditch and raise the bank about eight or ten inches above them then place another row of Sets each Set against the spaces of the first row then lay more of the best mould to the roots of the Sets and raise the bank as before and place another row of Sets opposite to the first applying the best mould to the Roots and finish the Bank with the bottom of the Ditch You may plant it as the White-thorn but if you think that too Of planting the Holly-bedge tedious to wait its rise you may plant it with the White-thorn and let every fifth or sixth be an Holly-set they will grow infallibly with the Quick and as they begin to spread make way for them by extirpating the White-thorn till they quite domineer Also you may lay along well-rooted Sets a yard or more in length and stripping of the leaves and branches cover them with a competent depth of Earth and they will send forth innumerable Suckers which will advance into an Hedge Holly is one of the slowest though best Plant for a Fence All these Hedges being young should be carefully Fenced with Preserving of Hedges from Cattle a dry Hedge from the biting of Cattle on both sides if need require until the the tops are out of their reach and where any fail to supply them in time with new or to plash the next to fill such vacant gaps Whilest they are yet young they are to be constantly weeded Weeding of Hedges lest the Weeds prevent the thick-spreading of the Hedge at the bottom as well as check the growth and prosperity of the Plant. If your Hedge stand remote or that you do not Annually keep Plashing of Hedges it clipt whereby it should thicken then at about six years age you may plash it about February or October Some workmen are far more expert and judicious at this than others are and can better do it than any pen can direct therefore I shall not trouble you therewith but leave you to the skill of the workman Whatsoever you plant or make your Fences withal it is a piece of very good husbandry to plant at some convenient distance Setters either of Timber proper for the Soil or of Crabs whereon to graff Apples or Perry-stocks for Pears as you shall be advised or judge convenient which will very much improve your Land for the future and commend the industry

of the Planter SECT VIII Of the Nursery for the more convenient propagation of most of the fore-mentioned Trees Several of the said Trees are usually produced of the Seed Trees produced of Seeds c. Mast or Berries and those are the Oak Beech Chesnut Service Maple Sycomore Horn-beam Quick-beam Hasel Firs Pines Pinaster Pitch-tree Cypress Cedar Bays Laurel Privet and Juniper which being sown spring the first year and the Ash Phillyrea Eugh-tree White-thorn Black-thorns Holly and Pyracantha whose Seeds or Berries usually lie in the Earth another year after they are sown ere they spring To produce Trees immediately of the Seed is the better way First because they take soonest Secondly because they make the Best raised of Seed streightest and most uniform shoot being very considerable in Timber-trees Thirdly because they will neither require staking nor watering which are two very considerable Articles And lastly for that all transplanting though it much improve Fruit-trees is a considerable impediment to the growth of Forrest-trees but if they are removed out of the Nursery whilest they are young and carefully preserved this injury is not so great also Plants raised of the Seed in the place where they are to stand shall soon outstrip a removed Plant of a greater age especially the Pine and Walnut where the Nut set into the ground shall certainly overtake a Tree of ten years growth which was planted at the same instant Because of the coldness of the Winter and the damage the Preserving and preparation of the Seeds Mast Seeds or Berries may receive from Mice and other Vermine it is not good to sowe them till the Spring for the better preserving of them from drying rotting or decaying you may put them into Pots Barrels or other Vessels Cellars Sheds or such-like places with a mixture of Earth or Sand not too dry intermixed stratum super stratum with the Seeds c. At the Spring you will finde them sprouted and being committed to the Earth as apt to take as if they had been sown with the most early Some affirm that by this way of preparing the Seed c. those Seeds that otherwise would have lain over another Winter in the ground before they had sprung being now committed to the ground before the Full in March will that season be chitting and speedily take root Chuse not your Mast or Seeds from the aged decaying or not Election of the Seed thriving Trees but from a thriving Tree of a sound stock and firm Wood and let the Seed be the most weighty clean and bright Make choice of some spare place of ground well Fenced and Place for a Nursery secured from Cattle Conies c. respecting the South-East rather than the full South and well protected from the North and West let the ground be rather dry than moist for Trees will rarely thrive being removed out of a wet into a dry place but exceeding well out of a dry into a moist break up the ground and prepare it the Winter before you sowe it the cleaner it is from Weeds and the lighter and mellower the ground is the better will the Seeds thrive for in much weeding the young Plants are indangered The Nursery for your Firs Pines Cypresses and all such Winter-greens and tender Plants had need be sheltered from the Southern Aspects either artificially or else made where it is naturally so defended You may make Furrows or Trenches of four or sive Inches Manner of sowing deep at about two foot breadth with a convenient Interval for the more commodious Weeding and dressing the Plants Into these Furrows cast your Seed or Mast such as usually spring the first year in beds by themselves and such that stay the second by themselves or as it is best for the better ordering them at their removal sowe each Seed or Mast apart then cover them with a Rake The Seeds of Firs Pines c. need not be sown above an inch deep and covered finely with a Sieve and duly watered If the Seeds of Pines or Firs be rolled in a fine Compost made of Sheeps-dung and planted they never fail But for the more convenient removal of the Pine which least abides it of any Tree I know take small earthen Pots without bottoms or small Baskets Boxes or such-like and set them to the brims in rows in the ground and fill them with good mould and plant in each of them two or three Seeds when they grow leave only one and by this means at two or three years growth may you securely remove them the Earth being kept fast about the Roots and where-ever you plant them the Tree it self in time will rid its stem of the Pot or Box. When the young Imps or Seedlings are sprung up you must Ordering of the Nursery be very careful in keeping them from Weeds which else will soon over-run them and after weeding the ground being unsettled give them a little water if it be a dry and hot season The Winter following you may lay a few Bushes Furze or such like over them and scatter a little Straw onely to break the force of the Winds which in the Winter season injure more than Snow or Frost But for the Cypress Phillyrea and such other tender Winter-greens you must defend them with more care If you intend to raise a Coppice from Mast or Seed dig or plough Sowing of a Coppice the parcel of ground you intend as you would prepare it for Corn and with the Corn either in the Autumn or Spring sowe also good store of such Mast Nuts Seeds Berries c. as you desire then take off your Crop of Corn and lay it up for Wood although that several sorts of your Seeds come up the first yet will they receive but little injury by treading at the Harvest but injure it as little as you can also the stubble being left high will be a shelter for the young Trees the first Winter SECT IX Of the Transplantation of Trees The best time for removing or transplanting of all Trees that The time shed their leaf is in October or the beginning of November immediately after or at the fall of their leaf but that time being omitted you may transplant them till the Spring in open weather and before they bud All Trees that shed not their leaf Annually but are ever green are to be removed in the Spring when the cold is over for they spring not so soon in the year as the other But some affirm the only time to be in August Such Trees that are pithy as the Ash Sycomore Lime-tree Aspen Cut not the tops of some Trees and such-like cut not off their tops the first year of their remove because the wet will be apt to perish the Plant neither diminish the heads nor many of the branches nor Roots of the Firs Pines or other Rosinaceous Trees for they are prone to spend their Gum to the great injury if

of a large stature and many times without topping or diminution of the head which is of great importance to supply a defect or remove a Curiosity After you have transplanted your Trees if you lay about the Helps to Trees Roots or Stems Fern Straw Stubble Hawm or any other Vegetable whatsoever either green or half rotten is best which will preserve the Roots moist in the Summer and yield a good Manure or Soil which the Rain will carry to the Roots Also stones laid about the Roots of Trees preserves them moist in the Summer and warm in the Winter and keeps them fast against the shaking Winds Copses may also be planted about Autumn with the young Planting of Copses Sets or Plants the best way is in rows about ten or fifteen foot distance for then may you reap the benefit of the Intervals by Ploughing or Digging and Sowing till the Trees are well advanced Carts also may the better pass between at the time of felling without injury to the Stems or danger of the Cattle There will also be many pleasant Walks and yet an equal burthen of Wood at the full growth of the Copse as though they were thick and confusedly planted There is a compendious way for thickning of Copses that are Thickning of Copses too thin by laying of some of the Branches of the Trees that stand nearest unto the bare places on the ground or a little in the ground giving it a chop near the foot the better to make it yield this detained with a hook or two and covered with some fresh mould at a competent depth will produce a world of Suckers and thicken and furnish a Copse speedily SECT X. Of the Pruning Shrowding Cutting and Felling of Trees and Copses In the discreet performance of this work the Improvement of Pruning of Trees our Timber and Woods doth much consist and renders our Avenues Walks Parks c. much more pleasant and commodious to have the Trees stand in order their Branches at a convenient height and kept clean from all superfluities Such Trees that are for Timber it 's best to prune whilest they are young and the Branches not too big of these and other Trees it 's good to cut off the Branches that are superfluous about January with a very sharp Bill or other Tool making the stroke upward by reason of the grain of the Wood and to prevent the slitting of the Tree at the fall of the Branch and cut it clean smooth and close for by cutting of the Branches at a distance from the Tree the stumps rot and leave hollow holes which decay the Tree and spoil the Timber Such Trees that are not fit for Timber or that you desire should Shrowding or lopping of Trees yield you a present advantage or serve for Fewel you may shrowd or lop them which will return you a considerable advantage and is much to be preferred before a Copse in these several respects 1. These Pollard or Shrowded Trees need no Fence to be maintained about them standing in no danger of the browsings or Frications of Cattle Conies c. 2. You have the benefit of Grazing under these Trees which is very considerable whilest the tops are young 3. The stocks taken in time before they decay or grow hollow yield a good Timber fit for many uses or at least good cleft for the Fire 4. And lastly you may raise these Pollards in Hedge-rows and spare places and borders of your grounds where they prove a good shelter as before we noted and little injure the ground Notwithstanding the Copse is quicker of growth and raises a more considerable advantage for the present than this way in some places therefore where you have conveniences for a Copse I leave you to your election Trees are not to be shrowded till they have taken fast rooting Times for shrowding and so stood for three or four years at what height you think convenient so it be out of the reach of Cattle either at the beginning of the Spring or the end of the Fall For the harder sorts of Woods it is very indifferent observing that they be not lopped above once in ten or twelve years and at any time in the Winter The Elm and the Ash and such-like pithy and softer Woods are fittest to be shrowded at the Spring lest the Winter injure the Tree Always observe to cut the remaining stumps aslope and Observations in shrowding smooth that they cast the Water off that the Tree perish not Take not off the head of the Poplar nor of any of the soft Woods before unshrowded growing upright and smooth after they have attained the bigness of ones Leg unless you leave some Collateral shoots to attract the Sap for it will endanger the Tree All Perennial Greens or Resinous Plants are not to be pruned Pruning of Winter-Greens or cut until the greater Frosts and bitter Winds are past and then not in any wise decapitate the Fir Pine nor such pithy Plants and be very sparing of their Collateral Branches You may cut Aquatick Trees every third or fourth year and Cutting of Aquaticks some more frequently according as the Tree is in proof or the shrowds or tops fit for your occasions cut them not too near the main stock because of perishing the Tree and besides it gives leave for the new sprouts The best time for cutting Aquaticks either to dress or plant The time them is about the beginning of March or the first open weather at the Spring but if for the Fire in the Winter before the Sap begins to rise or you may cut them at any time between Leaf and Leaf Such Copses or Copse-trees that you have lately planted at one Cutting of young Copses two or rather three years growth may be cut within two or three inches of the ground in the Spring-time the less prosperous especially which the new Cions will suddenly repair in clusters and tufts of fair Poles Copses being of a competent growth as of twelve or fifteen Felling of Copses years are esteemed fit for the Axe but those of twenty years standing are better and far advance the price seventeen years growth affords a tolerable Fell you are to spare as many likely Trees for Timber as with discretion you can The growth of Copses is so various according to the nature of the Ground some being dry and barren some moist and fruitful that no time can be set but as the Copses are quick or slow in growth and the bigness of the Wood suits with the Market or your occasions so may your discretion be guided Copses may be felled or cut from mid-September to mid-March Time and to be avoided by mid May at the farthest else much injury may be done by Teams in bruising the young Cions and injuring them with their feet also the removing of the Rough or Brush breaks off many a tender Sprig Cut not above half a foot from

facility from Layers Slips or Suckers than from Graffing Inoculation or from the Seed and such are Codlings Gennet-Moyls Quinces Filberds Vines Figs Mulberries Goosberries Currans and Barberries The Kentish Codling is very easily propagated by slips or Codlings suckers and is of so good a nature as to thrive being set very near that they make a very ornamental hedge which will bear plentifully and make a most pleasant prospect the fruit whereof besides the ordinary way of stewing baking c. being very early makes a delicate Cider for the first drinking These Trees ought not to be topt or plashed as is usual they growing tall and handsom which if topt decay and grow stubby and unpleasant neither do they bear so well The Gennet-Moyl-Tree will be propagated by Slips or Cions Gennet-Moyls as is the Codling but is not so apt to grow in a hedge as the other Both of them bear sooner if grafted as other Apples are The manner of raising the Quince we have already discoursed Quinces where we treated of raising Stocks to Graff on Filberds are generally drawn as Suckers from the old Trees Filberds and will prosper very well and sooner come to be Trees than from the Nut. Any shoot of the last year more especially if a short piece of The Vine the former years growth be cut with it will grow being laid about a foot or eighteen inches within the ground long-ways and not above two or three Buds at most out of the ground about the moneth of February and watred well in the drought of Summer The Fig-tree yieldeth Suckers which is the usual way to multiply Figs. them The Mulberry is a very difficult Tree to raise and is best done Mulberries thus Cut a Bough off as big as a mans Arm and cut it in pieces a yard long or less lay all these in the ground a foot deep only one end out of the ground about a hands breadth let it be in fat and moist ground or usually watred and after a year or two divers young Springs may be drawn with Roots and planted at a distance and the old Roots will yet send out more These three kinds of Fruits yield such plenty of Suckers that Gooseberries Currans and Barberries To lay the Branches of Trees you never need doubt of a supply But if you desire Plants from the same or any other sorts of precious Fruits or Plants and where you cannot obtain Suckers from the Roots and where the branches will not easily take root being separated from the Tree you may obtain your desire by bending down some branch of the Tree to the ground and with a hooked stick thrust into the ground stay the same in its place and cover the same branch with good Earth as thick as you shall think fit and keep the same well watred or if you cannot bring the branch to the Earth you may have some Earthen pot Basket or such like with a hole in the bottom and fasten the same to the wall if against a wall or on some Post or Stake Put the Sprig or Branch you intend to plant through at the hole and fill the same with good Earth and water it often as before Some prick the Rinde that is in the Earth full of holes that it may the better issue thereout small Roots others advise to cut away the Bark This may be done in the Spring from March to May and the Plant will be fit to cut off below the Earth the Winter following By this means you may obtain the Plants of Vines Mulberries or any manner of choice Fruits or Plants SECT IX Of the Transplanting of Trees The best and most successful time for the transplanting or removing 1 The time to transplant of Trees such that shed their leaves in the Winter whether they are the young Stocks or new Graffed Trees or of longer standing is in the Autumnal Quarter when the Trees have done growing about the end of September you may begin the prime time is about the middle of October You may continue till the Tree begins to bud if the weather be open Be careful in taking up the Plants that requiring great care of 2 The manner of transplanting the Remover See the Roots be left on as much as may especially the spreading Roots and let the Roots be larger than the head the more ways they spread the better but you may take away such Roots as run downwards Also take off the leaves if any lest they weaken the Branches by extracting the Sap. The younger and lesser the Tree is the more likely he is to thrive and prosper because he suffers less injury by the removal than an older or greater Tree And an Orchard of young Trees will soon overtake another planted with larger Trees at the same time Plant not too deep for the Over-turf is always richer than the next Mould And in such places where the Land is Clayish over-moist or Spewy plant as near the Surface as you can or above it and raise the Earth about the Tree rather than set the Tree in the wet or Clay The same Rule observe in Gravelly or Chalky Land for the Roots will seek their way downwards but rarely upwards That I have known Trees planted too deep pine away and come to nothing This Rule observed many places may be made fruitful Orchards that now are judged impossible or not worth ones while In the transplanting of your young Trees you may Prune as well the branches as the roots taking away the tops of the branches of Apples and Pears but not of Plums Cherries nor of Wall-nuts The Coast also is necessary to be observed especially if the Tree be of any considerable bigness that the same side may stand South that was South before the Tree will thrive the better Although in small Trees it be not much observed yet it might prove none of the least helps to its growth and thriving The most facile way to preserve the memory of its scituation is to mark the South or North side of the Plant with Oker Chalk or such like before you remove it It is not a small check to a Plant to be removed out of a warm Nursery into the open Field where the Northern and Eastern Winds predominate or its shelter to be removed as by the cutting down of Hedges and other Trees that formerly defended them It is also very necessary to be observed that the ground into which you plant your Tree be of a higher and richer Mould than from whence you removed it if you expect your Tree to thrive the change of Soyls or Pastures from the worser to the better being of very high concernment for the improvement and advance of all Vegetables and Animals These and several other the like Observations if they can be observed will much advantage the growth of your Tree for the first year or two but if place and time and other accidents

prevented in case the upper-bed whereon the hops lie have a Cover made that may be let down and raised at pleasure which Cover may be Tinned over only by nailing single Tin over the face of it that when the hops begin to dry and ready to turn that is that the greatest part of the moisture be evaporated away then may you let down this Cover within a foot or less of the hops which Reverberatory-like will reflect the heat upon them that the uppermost hop will soon be as dry as the lower and every hop equally dried This is the most expeditious most sure and least expensive way that can be imagined to dry hops which is one of the costliest troublesome and most hazardous piece of work that belongs to the hop as it is vulgarly used As soon as your hops are off the Kiln bag them not immediately Bagging of Hops but lay them in some room or place that they may lie three or four weeks or more that they may cool agive and toughen for if they are immediately bagged they will break to a Powder but if they lie a while the longer the better so they be close covered from the Air with Blankets you may pack or bag them with more security The manner whereof is usually thus make a hole round or square in an upper Floor big enough that a man may with ease go up and down and turn and winde in it then tack on a hop about the mouth of the Bag fast with Packthread that it may bear the weight of the Hops when full and of the Man that treads them then let the Bag down through the hole and the Hop will rest above and keep the Bag from sliding wholly through Into which Bag cast in a few Hops and before you go into ●ead tye at each lower corner a handful of Hops with a piece of Packthread to make as it were a Tassel by which you may conveniently lift or remove the Bag when he is full then go in to the Bag and tread the Hops on every side another casting still in as fast as you require them till it be full When it is well trodden and filled let down the Bag by unripping the hoop and close the mouth of the Bag filling the two upper corners as you did the two lower Which Bag if well dried and well packed may be preserved in a dry place several Years but beware lest the Mice destroy and spoil them After you have dried and laid by your Hops you may return Laying up the Poles again to the Hop-garden and take care to preserve the Poles for another Year Strip off the Hawm clean from them and set up three Poles like unto a Triangle wherewith they usually weigh heavy ware spreading at the bottom and bound together near the top about which you may set your Poles as many as you please binde them about with a little Hawm twisted to keep them together By this means the outward Poles are only subject to the injuries of the weather which keep all the inner Poles dry except only the tops which for the most part are exposed to the Air and wet Therefore the most part Pile them up at length in Piles in several places of the Hop-garden by pitching in several Poles on each side the Pile and laying two or three old Poles athwart at the bottom to keep them from the moist ground and so lay the Poles that the smaller ends may be inwards and the bigger ends outwards for which purpose the Pile must be made somewhat longer than the Poles and when you have raised them high enough with Ropes of Hawm binde the Poles that stand on the one side overthwart to the Poles on the other to preserve them upright and cover them with Hawm to defend them against the Rain But the better way is to lay them in such Shed or house erected in your Hop-garden which may serve for picking of Hops there in the Summer and preservation of the Poles in the Winter it will soon require your cost In the Winter when sittle else can be done to the hop-garden Dunging or Soyling of the Hop-garden then may you provide Soyl and Manure against the Spring if the Dung you carry in be rotten then mix it with two or three parts of the common earth and so let it lie well mixed till the Spring which will serve to make up the hills withal But if the Dung or Soyl be new then let it lie mixed till another Year for new Dung is very injurious to hops Horse-dung Cow-dung or Oxe-dung are very good but no Dung is to compare with Pigeons-dung a little thereof only to a hill and mixed that it may not be too hot in a place Sheeps-dung also is very good In the Spring or Summer-time if you steep Sheeps-dung Pigeons-dung or Hen-dung in water till it be quite dissolved and when you water your hops on the top of every hill in the hollow place made to contain the water you may put a dishful of this dissolved dung and the water wherewith you water your hops will carry with it the vertue thereof to the roots of the hop which may prove the most expeditious advantagious and least expensive way of inriching the hop-hills of any other Also by this means you may convey to the Roots of hops or any other Plant the fixed Salt or vertue of Lime Ashes or any other Fertilizing or inriching Subject whatsoever whereof we have already discoursed SECT II. Of Liquorice Saffron Madder and Dyers Weed The Land this Plant principally delights in being not every Of Liquorice where to be had is one of the causes it is so much neglected and the method of Planting and ordering of it so little understood although our English Liquorice exceeds any Forreign whatsoever yet have not we enough Planted but Yearly buy of other Nations It much delights in a dry and warm Land light and mellow Best Land for Liquorice and the ordering of it and very deep for in the length of the Root consists the greatest advantage for if it be not light dry and deep the Roots cannot inlarge freely such Land that Carriots Parsnips c. delight in Liquorice will prosper in it If the ground be not very rich of it self you must mix good store of the best and lightest Soil in the digging it must be trenched very deep at the least three Spades deep in case the Mould will bear it and lay it as light as possibly you can The best way is to dig it with the Dung at the beginning of the Winter and then dig it again at Planting-time which will lay it much the lighter and mix the Dung the better Procure your Sets from the best and largest Liquorice the best Choice of Sets Sets are the Crown-sets or heads got from the very top of the Root Next and near as good are the Runners which spread from the Master-roots and have little Sprouts

and dispose of the Stalk and Root to the Dyer which is of singular use for the Dying of the bright Yellow and Lemon-Colour SECT III. Of Beans Pease Melons Cucumbers Asparagus Cabbage and several other sorts of Garden-Tillage Of Beans in general we have already discoursed in this Treatise Garden-beans only here as it falls in our way we shall say a little concerning the greater sort of Garden-beans which you plant only for the Table They delight in a rich stiff Land or any Land new broken up they are usually set between S. Andrew's day and Christmas at the Wane of the Moon But if it happen to freeze hard after your Beans are spired it will go near to kill them all therefore it is the surest way to stay till the greatest Frosts are over until after Candlemas It is a general errour to set them promiscuously and too near together when it is most evident that being set or otherwise planted in Rows by a Line they bear much more the Sun and Air having a more free passage between them Also you may the better go between them to Weed top or gather them Also you may sow Carrots in the Intervals which after the Stalks are drawn up will prove a good second Crop Let the Ranges run from South to North for the greater advantage of the Sun If you sow or plant them in the Spring steep them two or three days in fat water as before is prescribed for the steeping of Corn it is better to How them in than to set them with Sticks the usual way In the gathering of green Beans for the Table the best way is to cut them off with a knife and not as is usual to strip them down for that Wound prevents the prosperity of the younger Cods not yet ripe When you have gathered your early Beans then cut off the stalks near the ground and you may probably have a second Crop e're the Winter approach These larger sort of Beans yield a far greater encrease than the ordinary sort therefore it is great pity they are no more propagated in the Fields than they are especially where the ground is rich There are several sorts of Garden-Pease sown or planted in this Of Pease Kingdom some approved of for their being early ripe and some for their pleasant taste others for their being late ripe succeeding the other The Hot-spurs are ripe the soonest from their time of sowing of any other then succeeds the large white Pease and several other sorts of green grey and white Pease then the large white Hasting and great grey Rouncival Pease There is also another sort of Pease in some places usually called the Sugar-pease for their sweetness they are to be eaten in their Cods which grow crooked and uneven their extraordinary sweetness makes them liable to be devoured by the Birds unless you take great care to prevent them These are sown later than the other by reason of their tenderness A fat rich Garden-Mould yields the largest Pease but a light warm and ordinary Soyl yields the tenderest and sweetest If you would have the earliest Pease sow them in September or October that they may get some Head before the Frosts take them and then with due care may they be preserved over the Winter and will bear very early Also to have them very late sow them a little before Midsummer and so may you have Pease in September As for the manner of sowing it is divers some sow at random as they sow Corn which is altogether to be disapproved of because they cannot be so evenly dispersed nor at so equal a depth as in the other ways Others set them in Ranges with a Dibble or Setting-stick which is a very excellent way both to save Pease and to give liberty to pass between for the Howing gathering c. But that which is most used and best approved of is the Howing of them in which makes a quick riddance of the work and covers all at a certain depth and doth not sadden or harden the ground as setting doth It is good to make the Ranges at some reasonable distance that you may the more conveniently pass between them to How the Weeds and Earth up the Roots in the Spring for the nakedness and barrenness of the ground adds much to the Maturation of the Pease by the Reflection of the Sun and the laying up the Earth at the Roots preserves them much from Drought Where your ground is small or that you can easily furnish your self with sticks they will yield a greater encrease if they have sticks to climb on But this and several other ways of ordering them we leave to the pleasure and skill of every one whose curiosity and delight is exercised in such Affairs Of all the sorts of Codware there is none so fruitful nor multiplies Of French-beans so much as doth the French or Kidney-bean being also a very pleasant curious and wholesom food and deserves a greater place and proportion of Land in our Farm than is usually given it It is a Plant lately brought into use among us and not yet sufficiently known the greatest impediment to its farther Propagation is the tenderness of it at its first springing and the sweetness of it which makes it more liable to be devoured by Snails Worms c. But a little care and industry bestowed about them will be plentifully recompenced in the fruitful Crop the several uses whereof as well for the Kitchin as for the feeding of Beasts and Fowl are not yet commonly known or practised These being meerly Fruits raised for our pleasure in the Summer-time Of Melons and Cucumbers and not of any general use nor advantage to the Husbandman we shall therefore pass them by only as to the ordering of the ground For the setting and raising them early see more at the end of this Chapter The best way for the raising of Pompions is to plant the seeds Of Pompions first in a good Mould in a warm place and then to transplant them into a rich dungy Bed made for that purpose watring them now and then with water wherein Pigeons-dung hath been infused then take away about blossoming time all the by-shoots leaving only one or two main Runners at the most and so shall you have them grow to an huge bigness Take heed you hurt not the heads of the main Runners The Artichoak is one of the most excellent Fruits of the Kitchin-garden Of Artichoaks and recommended not only for its goodness and the divers manners of Cooking of it but also for that the Fruit continues in season a long time The ground is to be very well prepared and mixed several times with good dung and that very deep The Slips that grow by the sides of the old Stubs serve for Plants which are to be taken and planted about April when the great Frosts are over and kept watred till they are firmly rooted and if they be strong

they will bear heads the Autumn following They are to be planted four or five foot distance the one from the other if the Soyl be rich but if it be not then nearer After the Planting they need no other Culture before Winter save only Weeding and dressing sometimes and a little water if the Spring be dry Against the Winter before the great Frosts they are to be preserved Preservation against Frosts against them Some cut the leaves within a foot of the ground and raise the Earth about them in manner of a Mole-hill within two or three inches of the top and then cover it with Long-dung which both preserves them from Frosts and keeps the Rain from rotting them Others put Long-dung about the Plants leaving the Plant a little Breath-room in the middle which will also do very well Others prescribe them to be covered with an Earthen-pot with a hole at the top but a Bee-hive is to be preferred before it It is not good to Earth them too soon left it rot them The Winter spent you shall uncover your Artichoaks by little Dressing Artichoaks and little at three several times with about four days interval each time lest the cold Ayr spoil them being yet tender you shall then dress dig about and trim them very well discharging them from most of their small slips not leaving above three of the strongest to each foot for Bearers and give a supply to the Roots as deep as conveniently you can of good fat Mould It will be good to renew your whole Plantation of Artichoaks every fifth year because the Plant impoverishes the Earth and produces but small Fruit. If you desire to have Fruit in Autumn you need only cut the Stem of such as have born Fruit in the Spring to hinder them from a second Shoot and in Autumn these lusty Stocks will not fail of bearing very fair Heads provided that you dress and dig about them well and water them in their necessity taking away the Slips which grow to their Sides and which draw all the substance from the Plants This Plant seems to contend for Preheminence with any of Of Asparagus the Garden-plants for the Kitchin being so delicate and wholesome a food coming so early and continuing so long as to usher in many other of the best Rarities They are raised of seeds in a good fat Soyl and at two years Planting of them growth may be transplanted into Beds Which must be well prepared with Dung first digged about two foot deep and four foot wide made level at the bottom and so mix very good rotten Dung with some of the Mould and fill them up considering that it will sink Then plant your Asparagus Plants at about two foot distance you may plant three or four Rows in this Bed of four foot wide they will in time extend themselves throughout all the Bed Some curious persons put Rams-horns at the bottom of the Trench and hold for certain that they have a kinde of Sympathy with Asparagus which makes them prosper the better but it 's referred to the Experienced Three years you must forbear to cut that the Plant may be Ordering and cutting of them strong not stubbed for otherwise they will prove but small but if you spare them four or five years you will have them as big as Leeks The small ones you may leave that the Roots may grow bigger permitting those that spring up about the end of the Season in every Bed to run to Seed and this will exceedingly repair the hurt which you may have done to your Plants in reaping their Fruit. At the beginning of the Winter after you have cut away the Stalks cover the Bed four or five fingers thick with new Horse-dung Some prescribe with Earth four fingers thick and over that two fingers of old dung which will preserve them from the Frost At the Spring about the middle of March uncover the Beds and take of good fat Mould and spread over them about two or three fingers thick and lay your Dung in the Alleys or elsewhere which will rot and be fit to renew the Mould the next Spring If you take up the old Roots of Asparagus about the beginning Early Asparagus of January and plant them on a hot Bed and well defend them from Frosts you may have Asparagus at Candlemas which is yearly experimented by some When you cut Asparagus remove a little of the Earth from about them lest you wound the others which are ready to peep cut them as low as you can conveniently but take heed of hurting those that lie hid There are divers sorts of this most pleasant and delicious Fruit Strawberries and not any of them but are worthy of our care and that little pains they require in Nursing them up The greater sort delight in a new-broken Bed or at least in such places where they have not grown before They must be kept stringed and removed every two or three years and then will yield a very great encrease They delight most in warm sandy Soyl the best Plants are said to be such as come of the Strings they bear best in the shade The white Strawberry and the ordinary red may be either planted in Beds or on the sides of the Banks at your pleasure The ordinary red grows plentifully in the new-fallen Copses from whence if you take your Plants about August you will have a very fair encrease There is a sort of green Strawberry though not usual that lies on the ground under the tall and slender leaves exceeding sweet in taste and of a very green colour Also there is another sort of Strawberry of a very excellent Scarlet-colour and most pleasant taste that grows plentifully in New-England and will prosper very well with us as is experienced by a Merchant at Clapham near London who hath many of them growing in his Garden To preserve them over the Winter though they seldom die you strow a little Straw Litter Fern or suchlike over them To have Strawberries in Autumn you may only cut away the Late Strawberries first blossoms which they put forth and hinder their bearing in the Spring and they will afterwards blow anew and bear in their latter season I have gathered many on Michaelmas-day As soon as your Strawberries have done bearing cut them Large Strawberries down to the ground and as often as they spire crop them till towards the Spring When you would have them proceed towards bearing now and then as you cut them strew the fine Powder of dried Cow-dung or Pigeons-dung or Sheeps-dung c. upon them and water them when there is cause The Cole-flower is an excellent Plant and deserves a place in the Kitchin-garden their seeds are brought out of Italy and the Italians receive it from Candia and other of the Levantine parts which is the best and produces the largest Heads You may either sow the seeds in August and carefully

of it If set in rich ground it encreases to admiration and may be Annually multiplied without hazard of Weather keeping down the Leaves makes the Root large They are sown as the Onions and afterwards it is best to Of Leeks transplant them deep that they may have a great deal of White-stalk one such Leek being worth two others The fairest and biggest of Leeks and Onions are to be reserved and planted for Seed the stalks whereof are to be propped up with sticks by reason of their weight When the Seed is ripe reserve the Heads on some Cloth and let them be through dry e're you rub them out There are several sorts of Kitchin-herbs and Plants very necessary and useful and also profitable to be propagated and advanced in our Country-gardens as Thime Hyssop Sage Rosemary Marjerom Violets and several others Their ways and manner of Planting being so Universally known and not altogether pertinent to our discourse I shall pass them by and refer you to others that treat of them I thought to have omitted this Plant by reason the Statute-Laws Tobacco are so severe against the Planters of it but that it is a Plant so much improving Land and imploying so many hands that in time it may gain footing in the good Opinion of the Landlord as well as of the Tenant which may prove a means to obtain some liberty for its growth here and not to be totally excluded out of the Husbandmans Farm The great Objection is the prejudice it would bring to Navigation the fewer Ships being imployed and the lessening his Majesties Revenue To which may be answered that there are but few Ships imployed to Virginia and if many yet there would be but few the less for it 's not to be imagined that we should Plant enough to furnish our whole Nation and maintain a Trade abroad also And in case it should lessen the number of Ships for the present they would soon encrease again as the Trade of Virginia would alter into other Commodities as Silk Wine and Oyl which would be a much better Trade for them and us And as to the lessening his Majesties Revenue the like Imposition may be laid on the same Commodity growing at home as if imported from abroad or some other of like value in lieu of it Certain it is that the Planting of it would imploy abundance of people in Tilling Planting Weeding Dressing and Curing of it And the improvement of Land is very great from ten shillings per Acre to thirty or forty pound per Acre all Charges paid before the last severe Laws many Plantations were in Gloucestershire Devonshire Somersetshire and Oxfordshire to the quantity of many hundreds of Acres Some object that our English-Tobacco is not so good as the Forreign but if it be as well respected by the Vulgar let the more Curious take the other that 's dearer Although many are of Opinion that it 's better than Forreign having a more Hautgust which pleaseth some if others like it not they may in the curing of it make it milder and by that means alter or change it as they please It hath been often sold in London for Spanish Tobacco The best way and manner of Planting and Curing it would be easily obtained by experience many attempting it some would be sure to discover the right way of ordering of it and what ground or places it best affects But that which hath been observed is that it affects a rich deep and warm soil well dressed in the Spring before Planting time The Young Plants raised from seed in February or March on a hot Bed and then planted abroad in your prepared ground from whence you may expect a very good Crop and sometimes two Crops in a year The leaves when gathered are first laid together on heaps for some time and then hang'd up by Threads run through them in the shade until they are through dry and then put up and kept the longer the better In this Experience is the best Master SECT V. Of the manner of ordering and preparing of Garden-Ground making of hot Beds and Watering of the Gardens c. There are many Garden-plats in England which either for their cold scituation or the cold or unnatural temper of the soil or suchlike impediments and by reason of the ignorance of the Gardiner or Owner thereof produce little or no Fruit or Tillage answerable to the costs trouble or expectation of the Owners thereof Wherefore we shall give you here the best Rules Directions and Instructions we either know or have read of in any of our Rustick Authors If the Land be of a light and warm Nature of its self whereof The several ways of tempering mould your Garden is made there needs only common Horse-dung or Cow-dung to be mixed therewith in the digging or trenching to inrich it but if the Ground or Mould incline to a cold Clay or stiff ground then procure some good light and fertil Sand or Mould of that nature and mix with your Dung in some corner of your ground equally together and suffer it so to lie and rot over the Winter which in the Spring will prove an excellent warm Manure to lay to the roots of your Plants or to make whole Beds thereof by mixing it in good quantities with the natural soil and if you can procure it with conveniency the more of Pigeons-dung Poultry-dung or Sheeps-dung you mix with it the lighter and warmer it will be Also an equal composition or mixture of Dung and Earth is necessary to be laid by that it may be throughly rotten and turned to Earth by the Spring that it may then be fit to renew the Earth about your Hops Artichoaks and suchlike and also for the planting and sowing therein Coleflowers Cabbages Onions c. The best and surest way of sowing seeds to have the most advantage The best way of sowing Garden-seeds of such Dung or soil and that they may come up most even and be all buried at one certain depth is thus First rake your Bed even then throw on a part of your mixture of Earth and Dung which also rake very even and level on which sow your seeds whether Onions Leeks Lettice or suchlike then with a wide Sieve sift on the Earth mixed with Dung that it may cover the Seeds about a quarter of an inch deep or little more and you shall not fail of a fruitful Crop If your Garden be obvious to the cold winds which are very To lay ground warm and dry injurious to most sorts of Plants next unto Trees Pales Walls Hedges c. lay your ground after this following manner that is let it be laid up in Ridges a foot or two in height somewhat upright on the back or North-side thereof and more shelving or sloping to the Southward for about three or four foot broad on which side you may sow any of your Garden-Tillage and these Banks lying one behinde the other will

being useful at his Cart and Plough the Cow yielding great store of Provision both for the Family and the Market and both a very great advantage to the support of the Trade of the Kingdom Concerning their form nature and choice I need say little every Countryman almost understanding how to deal for them The best sort is the large Dutch Cow that brings two Calves at one Birth and gives ordinarily two Gallons of Milk at one Meal As for their breeding rearing breaking curing of their Diseases and other ordering of them and of Milk Butter and Cheese c. I refer you to such Authors that do more largely handle that Subject than this place will admit of Next unto these the Sheep deserves the chiefest place and is Of Sheep by some preferred before any other for the great profit and advantage they bring to Mankinde both for Food and Apparel Whereof there are divers sorts some bearing much finer Wooll than others as the Herefordshire-Sheep about Leicester bear the fairest Fleeces of any in England Also they are of several kinds as to their proportion some are very small others larger But the Dutch-sheep are the largest of all being much bigger than any I have seen in England and Yearly bear two or three Lambs at a time It is also reported that they sometimes bear Lambs twice in the Year It may doubtless be of very good advantage to obtain of those kindes and also of Spanish-sheep that bear such fine Fleeces As for their breeding curing and ordering I refer you as before to such Authors that have largely treated of them This Beast is also of a very considerable advantage to the Of Swine Husbandman the Flesh being a principal support to his Family yielding more dainty Dishes and variety of Meat than any other Beast whatsoever considering them as Pig Pork Bacon Brawn with the different sorts of Offal belonging to them Also they are of the coursest Feed of any Creature whatsoever being content with any thing that 's Edible so they have their fill for they are impatient of hunger It is a great neglect that they are no more bred and kept than they are their Food being obtained at so easie a rate Besides the Offal of Corn Whey and other Culinary Provision it cannot but prove a very considerable advantage to sow or plant Land on purpose with Coleworts Kidney-beans and several other gross thriving Pulses Plants and Roots whereby you may not only raise a considerable stock of them to your great gain and profit if old Tusser said true And yet by the Yeat have I proved e'te now As good to the Purse is a Sow as a Cow but also by their Treading and Batling in case they be kept in a Court made several for that purpose they will convert all such Vegetables they eat not into excellent Soil If they are suffered to run abroad they waste their flesh much therefore it is esteemed the most frugal and beneficial-way to keep them always penned into some Court both for their flesh and soil These are kept in some places for advantage being a very Of Goats course Feeder The Kids are esteemed good Meat their Hair also is of use to make Ropes and other things it never rots in the water The best sort of them breeds twice in the Year they are usually kept in Stables where many Horses are to preserve them from several Epidemical Diseases The Milk of Goats is esteemed the greatest Nourisher of all liquid things whereon we feed except Womans Milk and the most comfortable to the stomack from whence the Poets feign that their God Jupiter himself was nourished with Goats-milk They crop and are injurious to young Trees therefore are to be kept with much caution Although they are not esteemed amongst the number of profitable Of Dogs Cattle yet are they very necessary servants and the most observant and affectionate of all Beasts whatever to Mankinde Their love even to the loss of their lives in defence of their Master his Cattle Goods c. their officiousness in Hunting and seeking after all sorts of Prey or Game are so commonly known and so frequently made use of that it 's needless to tell you so Only that they are of different sorts and natures some as a Guard to defend your House and Goods others as Shepherds to defend your Sheep and Cattle others as Jaccals or Watchmen always wakeful to rouze up the heavy Mastiffs whereof some are for the Bear others for the Bull. Some Dogs also are for the Game as for the Stag Buck Fox Hare Coney Pollcat Otter Weesel Mole c. Also for the Duck Pheasant Partridge Quayl Moor-hens and several other sorts of Land and Water-fowl Others also are kept for their Beauty Shape and Proportion and for their docible Nature being apt to Dance and perform several other Acts of Activity c. Besides the wilde which are very profitable in Warrens tame Coneys Coneys may be kept to a very great advantage either in Hutches or in Pits which is much to be preferred These Pits are sunk about six or seven foot deep in a good light Mould or in Chalk or Sand they delight most These are to be made round or square and walled with Stone or Brick to preserve the Earth from foundring in leaving places on the sides for the Coneys to draw and make their Stops or Buries At the one end or side make a hollow place for the Buck to rest in chaining him to a small stump that he may have liberty to go to the Rack to feed and to his Den to rest On the other side or end let the places be left for the Does to make their stops in About the middle of the Pit may you place the Rack to feed them in the Buck on the one side and the Does on the other In a Pit of about ten foot square may be kept two or three Does besides the Buck which will bring each of them about fifty or more Young ones in a year sometimes seventy or eighty When they are about a Moneth old you may take them out of the Pit and either spend them or feed them in another Pit or place made for that purpose Their Food is for the most part Greens growing in and about your Gardens as Carrots and their Greens Coleworts Sowthistles Malloes Dandilion Saxifrage Parsley Grass and many other Also Hay Bran Grains Oats c. They ought to be constantly fed and cleansed and great care taken to keep them from Cats Pollcats c. If you have much garden-Garden-ground and a good soil free from Water Clay or Stone for them to breed in they will thrive exceedingly and doubly repay your care and trouble By feeding them with dry Meat between whiles in the Winter-season it preserves them from the Rot which in moist weather they are subject unto but if you feed them much with dry Meat you must set them water otherwise not The

if they do they are easily found again If the Worms are not well fed the Silk is small and easily breaks Another way to make these Gummy Bottoms winde easie is this Take Soap-boilers Liquor or Lee which is very sharp and strong and put therein your Bottoms and set them over the fire till the Liquor be scalding hot and so let the Bottoms remain therein about half a quarter of an hour till the Gumminess be dissolved then put the Bottoms into clean scalding water and let them lie a while therein then will they unwinde with much facility A Lixivium made of Wood-ashes very strong will do as well as the aforesaid Soap-boilers Liquor There is a kinde of Tow or rough sort of Silk that will not winde up with the other which may be prepared and good Silk made thereof and indifferent also of the Bags themselves The fine Skeins after they have past through the Scowrers Throsters and Dyers hands may compare with the finest CHAP. X. Of the common and known External Injuries Inconveniences Enemies and Diseases incident to and usually afflicting the Husbandman in most of the Ways or Methods of Agriculture before treated of and the several Natural and Artificial Remedies proposed and made use of for the Prevention and Removal of them SInce the Exclusion of our First Parents out of the state of Bliss or Paradise all our Actions Endeavours and Enterprises have been subject to the various and uncertain dispositions of an Over-ruling Providence and also of Fortune and unexpected chances and accidents and more especially the several Actions and Imployments that are incident and belonging to this Noble Art of Agriculture and its several branches before treated of that no one exercised in Husbandry can promise himself a peculiar Indemnity from the usual misfortunes that generally attend it which is the cause that at some time that very Commodity is dear and scarce which at another time is cheap and plentiful and that some Husbandmen have excellent Crops and good success at the same time when others have the contrary These very considerations have not only stirred up the Ingenious to consider of the Diseases and Injuries themselves but also to seek after the means to avoid those that of necessity attend them and to prevent such that may be prevented which we finde dispersed in several Authors and also finde to have been made use of by many of our Modern Ingenious Rusticks and not yet made publick And first we will discourse of such injuries and inconveniences that proceed SECT I. From the Heavens or the Air. This Island is generally subject to great heat or drought in Great heat or drought the Summer-time which so much exsiccateth and wasteth the moisture and Vegetative Nature of the Earth that much of our common Field or open Land yields but a reasonable Crop of In Corn-Lands Corn nor our open and wide Pastures or dry Lands much Grass or feeding for Cattle yet are these driest Summers most propitious unto us and in them do we reap the most copious Crops but it is because we have so much low grounds under the Shelter and so many Inclosures defended from the destructive and sweeping Summer-Airs where in those dry years we have our richest Harvests so that Nature it self and common Experience hath chalked out unto us a remedy for our dry barren and hungry Lands and Pastures whether Common or Appropriate against heat and drought the two principal inconveniencies attending those Lands if we had but the hearts of men to make use of it It is said that in Cornwal they begin to practise this Husbandry and plant Mounds and Fences with Timber-Trees which growing tall do much preserve the Land from malignant Airs and yield a great profit besides See more of this Remedy before in the Chapter of Inclosures Heat or Drought also produces more particular inconveniencies In planting Trees or injuries as to Trees sown or planted abroad in the open Fields or in Inclosures Gardens c. which is a very great check or impediment to the Husbandman in propagating them the preventions or remedies whereof are several 1. In the driest and most barren Lands in England if you sow the same with the Fruit or Seed of Oak Ash Beech or any other wood whatsoever you may also sow the same Land at the same time with Broom Furze or suchlike which will wonderfully thrive on the worst of Land and become a shelter to the other Trees which when once they have taken sufficient Root will soon out-strip the Furze or Broom or you may raise Banks and sow them with Furze which will soon make a Fence under the shelter whereof you may Nurse up other Trees for it is most evident that the greatest Trees that grow on the barrenest Lands had their Original in the same places where they grow and is most probable that they were thus defended by some small Bush or Brake from Cattle Heat Cold c. till they arrived to such height that they could defend themselves 2. For such Trees that are usually planted in Hedg-rows or other places of Inclosures c. which the heat and drought doth either impede their growth or totally kill them to the great discouragement of the Planter adde to the Roots of them on the Surface of the Earth a heap of stones which is the best Additament and will keep the roots and ground about it cool and moist in the Summer and warm in the Winter and fortifie the Tree against Windes c. but where stones are not easily attained heaps of Fern or any other Vegetable Straw or Stubble c. will preserve the ground moist and inrich it withal but where neither stones nor Vegetables can be had conveniently after the Tree is planted and good Mould or Earth added to the Roots raise a Hillock about it of any manner of Turf Earth c. for it is not the height of the Earth above the ground about the Tree that injures it so much as the depth of the Tree below the Surface or best Earth 3. In Gardens and such near places where you may be at hand and where you have choice Plants that suffer by heat Shadow is a principal remedy as before we noted or water in such places where it may be commanded In several places Water is the principal thing deficient to make Remedies for want of Water them pleasant and profitable and the means whereby to procure it very tedious costly and difficult It is several ways attainable 1. By sinking of Wells which where they are very deep some use a large Wheel for Man or Beast to walk in to raise it others use a double Wheel with Cogs which makes it draw easier than the ordinary single Wheel but this is not so good a way as the double Wheel with Lines the Line of the Wheel at your hand being small and very long this raiseth a large Bucket of water with very much ease and

easily perceived where the same Seed hath been sown on two sorts of Land of different goodness the one Crop hath been smutty the other free so that Smuttiness seems to be a kinde of sickness incident to Corn which may by the aforesaid means be cured which if the Smuts themselves would really grow and produce Smut again all Remedies proposed and attempts to that purpose were needless SECT III. From several Beasts Against the Trespasses of Domestick Cattle breaking out of your Neighbours grounds into yours it 's needless to say any thing every one knowing that a good and secure Fence is the best prevention and a Pound the best remedy or cure if the other will not serve But other Beasts there are that no ordinary Fences will keep out and will hardly be brought to the Pound As Foxes which usually torment the laborious Husbandman Foxes by taking away and destroying his Lambs Poultry Geese c. that in some places near great Forrests and Woods they can hardly keep any thing but under lock and key against which Gins are usually made use of which being baited and a Train made by dragging raw flesh across his usual paths or haunts unto the Gin it proves an inducement and a snare to excite him to the place of his destruction A Fox will prey on any thing he can overcome and feeds on all sorts of Carrion but the food he most delights in is Poultry He proves injurious and destructive to Coney-warrens and destroys Hares also whom he taketh by his subtilty and deceit They may be taken with Greyhounds Hounds Terriers and Nets as well as Gins. It is also a very commendable and Noble Exercise in our Nobility and Gentry to Hunt these destructive Beasts and did they prosecute it at their breeding times and at other times also with an intent to destroy the whole Breed or Kinde there would soon be an end of them The Otter is a pernicious destroyer of Fish either in Pond or Otters Brook and her abode is commonly under the root or stem of some Tree near the water whence she expects h●● food By her diving and hunting under water few Fish are able to escape her They are taken either by insnaring them under the water by the Rivers side as you may do a Hare on the Land with Hare-pipes or by hunting them with Dogs where you also make use of the Spear In several places the Husbandman suffers much by Coneys and Coneys Hares c. Hares that feed down his Corn c. when it is young especially in hard Winters and in many places they have not liberty to secure their own from them The Hare is no great destroyer of Corn yet where there are many of them the Countryman may lessen their number as he sees cause either by Hunting or Coursing them at seasonable times or by setting of Hare-pipes where he finds their haunts or by tracing them in the Snow Coneys are destroyed or taken either by Ferrets and Purse-nets in their Buries or by Hayes or by Curs Spaniels or Tumblers bred up for that sport or by Gins Pitfalls or Snares which some Ingenious Countrymen will prepare the goodness of the Game rather than the prevention of the damage prompting them thereto It is not a little injury these Animals do to Warrens Dove-houses Poll-cats Weasels and Stotes Hen-roosts c. but the ways by taking them in Hutches and in small Iron-gins like Fox-gins are so well known that I need say nothing of it Only that to prevent Poll-cats or suchlike from destroying your Pigeon-house be sure if you can to erect it where you may have a Ditch or Chanel of Water to run round it and it will keep those Vermine from making their Burroughs under the ground Moles are a most pernicious Enemy to Husbandry by loosening Moles or Wonts the Earth and destroying the Roots of Corn Grass Herbs Flowers c. and also by casting up Hills to the great hinderance of Corn Pastures c. The common and usual way of destroying them is by Traps that fall on them and strike the sharp Tines or Teeth through them and is so common that it needs no description But the best and compleatest sort of Instrument to destroy them that I have yet seen is made thus Take a small board of about three inches and a half broad and five inches long on the one side thereof raise two small round Hoops or Arches at each one end like unto the two end-Hoops of a Carriers Waggon or a Tilt-boat capacious enough that a Mole may easily pass through them in the middle of the board make a hole about the bigness that a Goose-quill may pass through so is that part finished then have in readiness a short stick about two inches and a half long about the bigness that the end thereof may just enter the hole in the middle of the board Also you must cut a Hasel or other stick about a yard or yard and half long that being stuck into the ground may spring up like unto the Springs they usually set for Fowl c. then make a link of Horse-hair very strong that will easily slip and fasten it to the end of your stick that springs Also have in readiness four small hooked sticks then go to the Furrow or passage of the Mole and after you have opened it fit in the little board with the bended Hoops downwards that the Mole when she passes that way may go directly through the two semicircular Hoops Before you fix the board down put the Hair-spring through the hole in the middle of the board and place it round that it may answer to the two-end Hoops and with the small stick gently put into the hole to stop the knot of the Hair-spring place it in the Earth in the passage and by thrusting in the four hooked sticks fasten it and cover it with Earth and then when the Mole passeth that way either the one way or the other by displacing or removing the small stick that hangs perpendicularly downwards the knot passeth through the hole and the Spring takes the Mole about the neck Though this description seem tedious yet the thing is very plain and easily performed and much cheaper surer and feasible than the ordinary way Others destroy them very expeditiously by a Spaddle waiting in the Mornings when they usually stir and immediately cast them up especially about March when they breed by turning up the Hills whereunder they lay their Young they usually making their Nests in the greater Hills and are most easily discerned then also will the Old Ones come to seek their Young which you may presently take The Pot-trap is by some much commended which is a deep Earthen-vessel set in the ground to the brim in a Bank or Hedg-row which wisely set and planted at all times but especially in the natural season of Bucking-time about March will destroy them insensibly Also where Moles annoy your Gardens

places but you may raise speedily Trees about your House as before we directed it Chap. 6. being far better to have your House defended by Trees than Hills for these yield a cooling refreshing sweet and healthy Air and Shade during the heat of Summer and very much break the cold winds and Tempests from every Coast in the Winter The other according as they are scituated defend only from some certain winds and if they are on the North-side of your House as they defend you from that Air in the Winter so do they deprive you of it in the Summer if they are on the South-side it otherwise proves as inconvenient Besides they yield not the pleasures and contentments nor the varieties of Oblectations to the Ingenious Rustick as the tall plumps of Trees and pleasant Groves do yet are Hills cloathed with Coppices or otherwise improved pleasant objects so that they stand not too near your House Let not your House be too low seated lest you loose the conveniency of Cellars but if you cannot but build on low grounds set the lower Floor of your House the higher to supply the want in your Cellar of what you cannot sink in the ground for in such low and moist grounds it conduceth much to the driness and healthiness of the Air to have Cellars under the House so that the Floors be good and sieled underneath It is very inconvenient to build Barns Stables or suchlike places too near to your House because Cattle Poultry and suchlike require to be kept near them which would then annoy your House Let your Garden joyn to one if not more sides of your House for what can be more pleasant for the most part of the year than to look out at the Windows of your Parler and Chambers into a Garden What sides of your House are not joyning to your Garden let there be Courts or Yards kept from Cattle Poultry c. and planted with Trees to shade defend and refresh your House and the Walls also planted with Vines and other Fruits Not to speak of the building of Palaces or Seats for the Nobility Securest and cheapest way of Building a House or Gentry but only of plain and ordinary Farm-houses I have thus much observed that Houses built too high in places obvious to the winds and not well defended by Hills or Trees require more materials to build them and more also of reparations to maintain them and are not so commodious to the Inhabitants as the lower-built Houses which may be made at a much easier rate and also as compleat and beautiful as the other In building of a House long you loose the use of some Rooms and it takes up more for Entries and Passages and requires more doors and if it be four-square there must needs be light wanting in some part thereof more than if it be built like an H or some other suchlike Figure which maketh it stand better and firmer against the winds and Light and Air come every way to it every Room is near the one to the other The Offices as the Kitchin Dairy-rooms Brewing and Baking-rooms are near unto the Hall which only divides between those and the Parlers c. Several Descriptions and Draughts of Foundations could I give you here were not the cutting of them too costly for so Rustick a work to bear The Walls where Brick may be had are best and most securely raised with it and with little cost if you raise firm and strong Columns at the corners of your House of strength sufficient to support the Roof or main Beams you may build them square and between them may you raise the Walls with the same materials and work them up together with the Corners or Columns leaving the one half of the extraordinary breadth of the Column without and the other within the Wall whereby you will save much cost and charges both in materials and workmanship and yet your house be firm and strong The heavier any Covering is to a House the greater is the Best covering for a House expence in raising the whole Frame or Building to support it and the sooner doth it require reparations therefore healing with Lead or flat Stone is not to be approved of by reason of its weight where Earthen Tile Slate or Shingle may be had Next unto Lead or Stone Tiles made of Clay are the heaviest and most in use Pantiles such as come from Holland are the best and lightest covering of any sort of Tiles and it is to be admired at that another Nation can transport so Earthy a Commodity and pay all duties c. and sell them at our own doors at a cheaper rate than we can make them and yet have we as good materials and Fuel more plentiful than they A Composition of Clay Sand c. is easily made for Tiles Of Tiles Bricks c. that shall make them not only thinner and lighter but also stronger and more durable if Ingenious men would undertake it which are rare to be found in so dirty yet necessary an Occupation which would save very much charge and materials in Building if it were truly prosecuted The same may be said of Bricks c. and with such a Composition may be made in Molds all Window-frames for a House of different work and magnitudes and Chimney-pieces and Frames for doors c. in several pieces made in Molds that when they are burnt may be set together with a fine red Cement and seem to be as one entire piece whereby may be imitated all Stone-work now used in Building and it will very well supply its defect where Stones are scarce and dear and also may save very much Timber which is now used in Brick-building and appear much more compleat and beautiful and be of more strength and of longer continuance than Timber or ordinary Brick and is very feasible as we may perceive by the Earthen-pipes made fine thin and durable to carry water under the ground at Portsmouth and by the Earthen-backs and Grates for Chimneys made by Sir John Winter formerly at Charing-Oross of a great bigness and thickness which are evident and sufficient demonstrations of the possibility of making work fine thin and light for Tiles either plain or crooked and for the making of great work in Molds and the through burning of them for Doors Windows and Chimney-frames c. This is one of the most feasible and beneficial Operations that I know in England to be neglected Where either Tiles are scarce or Timber not very plenty that you would have your House but lightly covered Shingles Of Shingles are to be preferred before Thatch and if they are made of good Oak and slit or cleft out and then well seasoned in the water and Sun they become a sure light and durable covering Where it may be had the thin blew Slate seems to be the best Slate covering being very light and lasting This is a common covering

to Angle for them SECT III. Of Angling for Salmon and Trout The Salmon and Trout are Fish much of a Complexion and Nature different in their seasons from other Fish The way of Angling for them is much after the same manner The Salmon biteth best in the Summer-moneths about three Salmon of the Clock in the afternoon He keeps not to one haunt but swims generally in the deepest and broadest parts of the River near the ground and is caught with Worm Fly or Minnow The Garden-worm is an excellent bait for a Salmon if kept in Moss about twenty days which will scoure them and make them tough and clear You may also troul for a Salmon as you do for a Pike with a Trouling-rod and line Your Artificial Flies for a Salmon must be larger than for a Trout and the wings and tail long In Angling for a Salmon at ground put two or three Worms at a time on the Hook and give him time to gorge the bait The Trout is also taken with Worm Minnow or Fly To Trout fish for them in the night which is the best time for the great Trouts take two great Worms of equal length and put them on your Hook cast them at a good distance from you and draw them to you again on the top of the water not letting them sink and give the Trout time to gorge his bait Instead of these Worms you may use a black Snail or a piece of black Velvet which is as well They bite in the night best in the still Deeps but then unusually in the Streams If you bait with a Minnow you must place it so on the Hook that the Minnow must run round as you draw it towards you and to that end you must have a Swivel on your line lest the running round of the Minnow over-twist your Line The same may you do for a Salmon or Pike If you bait with Flies or Palmers Natural or Artificial be sure to observe the season what Palmer or Fly they most delight in at that time that take or imitate it as near as you can SECT IV. Of Angling for the Pike and Pearch These are two sorts of white Fish that Spawn in the Spring early and are greedy Fish of Prey especially the Pike which will prey on its own Kinde You may take the Pike by hanging your Line to a Tree on the Pike side of the River with a living bait on the Hook as a Minnow Dace Roach or yellow Frog but let not the Line hang at the full length but contracted into a cleft stick that when the Pike bites he may easily draw it out and have time and scope enough to pouch his bait Or you may Trowl for him which must be with a very long Line wound up at the handle of your Rod on a small Winch or Windlace and at the top of the Rod which is stubbed the Line must go through a Ring that when the Fish hath taken the bait he may by your letting him have Line enough gorge his bait and hang himself Your Line must be strong and armed with small Wire next the Hook about seven or eight inches You may Fish at Snap with him as with other Fish if you please but your Tackling must be very strong A Pike bites at all baits except the Fly and bites best at three in the Afternoon in clear water with a gentle Gale from Midsummer to the end of Autumn In Winter he bites all day long In the Spring he bites in the Morning and Evening The best time to take the Perch is when the Spring is far Perch spent for then you may take all near you at one standing His baits are the Minnow little Frog or a small Worm He bites well all the day in cloudy weather but chiefly from eight to ten and from three to six He also bites at almost any bait SECT V. Of Angling for standing water or Pond-fish The Fish that are most usual in standing waters or Fish-ponds are the Carp and the Tench Some there are that are common to both as the Bream Dace Roach Eel and Perch Angling for Pond-fish is the most easie of any way and where there are a good stock much sport there is The Carp is the best of all fresh-water Fish and will live the Carp longest except the Eel out of the water This Fish is very subtil and biteth but seldom and that in warm weather cloudy early in the morning or late in the evening The baits for a Carp are either Worms or Pasts A Paste made up of Bean-flower Honey and a little Assafetida hath proved very well Others have prescribed Bean-flower mingled with the flesh of a Cat cut small and beaten very well in a Mortar with Honey so long till the whole is so tough to hang on a Hook without washing off A little Wooll added in the making of it up will make it hold the better Gentles anointed with Honey and put on the Hook with a piece of Scarlet dipt in the same is esteemed the best of all baits for the Carp The Tench for his sliminess accounted the Physitian of Tench Fishes delights only in standing waters and especially amongst Weeds Flags c. In the hottest weather early and late and all the night this Fish delights most to bite He delights in the same baits as doth the Carp The stronger the Pasts are of Assafetida or other Gums or Oyls the sooner he will bite The Dace is commonly a River-fish yet doth very well in Dace Fish-ponds if any think it worth their costs and pains to keep them there But in either place the best baits for them are flies whereof they affect the Ant-fly above the rest For ground-baits the Grub that is found in plowed grounds Gentles and the young brood of Wasps or suchlike are very good Small Worms Pasts and suchlike they will not refuse The Roach is much of the same nature as is the Dace but Roach more usual in standing waters than the other Worms and other ground-baits are most proper for them Though the Bream be found in some Rivers yet is most usual Bream and best in Ponds or standing waters The best time for Angling for them is from the end of July until Autumn for in June and beginning of July they Spawn and are not in their season The best bait for them is the Red Worm that usually lies at the root of the Dock They also bite at Pasts Wasps Flies Grashoppers c. As for the Perch you have directions before concerning the taking of him in Rivers the same will serve in Ponds The Eel is a Fish that delights in obscure places whilest any Eels light either of the Sun or Moon appears being a sweet Fish and a prey to Fowl as well as Fish but in the night time and the darker the night the better This Fish wanders abroad out of her lurking places and preys on any