Imprimatur P. MEWS Vice-Cancel OXON Feb. 9. 1671. A SHORT and SURE GUID in the Practice Of Raising and Ordering OF Fruit-Trees Being the many years Recreation and Experience of FRANCIS DROPE Bachelour in Divinity late fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford OXFORD Printed for Ric. Davis An. Dom. 1672. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND TRULY NOBLE PHILIP LORD WENMAN Baron of Kilmainham Viscount Tuam My Lord AS a testimony of my Gratitude for those many Favours I have received from your Lordship I humbly present this small Book of my deceased Brothers of Planting I confesse it unworthy your Honours perusal who are as great a Judge of Books as Men yet I intreat your Lordships Patronage and Countenance presuming it may be serviceable for the preserving and perfecting your new Orchard at Brackly and so somewhat prevail towards the procuring your Honours pardon for prefixing so great a Name before so mean a Discourse My Lord I lay it at your Feet and assure your Lordship it comes from one who honours you in the most secret corners of his Heart and who had no other way nor method to express it but this I know your Lordships Charity to be so diffusive as to invite all those who have the honour to know you to make their application to it and that you are readier to afford your protection to those that want it then they are to crave it and will not I humbly conceive be offended at this Dedication knowing the weakest and meanest ever seek their support from the Great and Good And that is another Reason of the present Ambition of My Lord Your Honours most obliged most humble and most devoted servant Edward Drope THE PREFACE Friendly Reader THe Author of these following papers having lately pay'd his debt to Nature I thought it great pitty that they should die and be buryed with him since I am inform'd by some of Learning and judgment they may be useful to the publick and this is the only aim and not any popular applause that produceth this publication for though many worthy and ingenious persons have written more largely already on this Subject yet none I presume hath say'd so much in so little a Treatise and what he directs is by his own Experience which I take to be the best Instructer Yet it was not his study who was by profession a Divine but his Recreation an inoffensive delight hee took in Planting neither do I think this study so ill becoming that Function when Solomon that great King and princely Divine wrote of Trees and Plants from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hysop that springeth out of the wall that is from the highest and tallest Tree to the smallest shrub and lowest herb I may truly say this our Author knew most Herbs and Flowers in this Nation yet I do not find he wrote any thing of them but I would not have thee think that this Knowledge was his Master-peice who had a Competency in all Arts and Sciences sufficient to compleat a Scholler He was my Brother and I am affraid lest that my affection should lead me to partiality and therefore shall say no more as to that particular only somthing more as to the Book which is but small yet may prove of great benefit to thee and therefore if thou art a good Husband thou canst not but think it well worth thy money when it teaches thee how to Plant and order Fruit-trees the planting whereof both for Sider and Table Fruit I account one of the best parts of good Husbandry for I have frequently seen in diverse Countries of England what improvements persons have made upon their Estates by so doing beside that Liquor of Cider is say'd to agree best with our English Bodyes men Living to great Ages in the Cider-Countryes both Active and strong as may appear by a storie I shall here insert which I borrowed out of an Honourable and Learned Author that at a Wake in Herefordshire a Daunce was performed by eight men whose Ages added together amountted to eight hundred years some being as much above one hundred years Old as others were under that Age. We may well suppose them to be Cider-Drinkers most of their dayes and what an excellent Remedy it is for the cure of the Stone will be verifyed in this following Example a Gentleman of Quality of my acquaintance who from his Childhood was tormented with the distemper of the Stone being upon some occasion in that Countrie for one year and half or thereabouts fell to drinking of Cider and thereby cured himself as is supposed for he has not been troubled with it since and it is now four or five years agoe I will detain you no longer at the Door but let you into the Orchard and so farewel I am Thine in all Christian Offices of Love and Service Edward Drope Comner March 1672. A SHORT and SURE GUID IN The Practice of Raising and Ordering of Fruit-Trees THe goodnesse of materials and the sufficiency of the Ground-work as in Building so in Planting is the first thing considerable The stock therefore being the cheif foundation of a good Fruit-tree shall give the Beginning to this my ensuing discourse And whereas the best of stocks are produced from the seed I will not pervert Natures method but keeping in her Tract all the way treat of such in this first following Chapter CHAP. I. Of Raising stocks from the seed EVery sort of seed hath a delight peculiar to it self to be produced in a place that affords juice most agreeable to it's Nature The best Ground or mould that I have seen for the sowing of Apple and Pear-kernells is a Clay If you have not the conveniency of such for your purpose then procure and bring into the Nursery or Garden good store of Clay and make therewith a Bed of about one foot and an half in Thicknesse of what breadth and length you please Upon this Bed must be laid some spit-dung i. e. such horse-dung as is rotted in the heap and may be digged with a spade or excellent mould upon which likewise lay as much sand as will cover half a foot or more thick when you have thus done digge the sand dung or mould and half of the Clay so that they mix well together Let this be done in the Summer before you intend to sow your kernells so will this Compost be sufficiently work't together against the time you sow which may be any time after Christmas and afore Mid-March Digge it over often but especially digge it afresh and very fine when you intend to put the seeds in the ground rake it then even and pick all the stones and trash out of it Afterwards by the guidance of a line digge or drill a little trench of about two inches deep and as much broad into the which cast some of the seed When you have done this remove the line and place it about half a foot distant from the trench make by it
another trench in like manner and sow it with seeds as you did the former Do thus until all your bed is sown or your seeds spent Then cover all these little trenches by raking the earth upon them Let this bed for kernells be on the North-side of a wall or fence or in some shady place So will the young plants be freed from the parching heat in the Summer and thereby be kept moist a longer time then they would in another place This bed being thus made of clay yeildeth little harbor for the mole mouse or worm all which are very busy in destroying seeds sown in light ground what the clay is supposed to kill by its cold and astringent clamminesse the sand preserveth by heat and friability filling up the chaps which would otherwise be in the clay if the bed should happen to be neglected to be watered in season You may not wonder that I make choise of clay to sow kernells in for it is the natural soile for them witnesse the moist and clay woods which afford far better and greater store of wild stocks then any other whatsoever By this manner of sowing in clay I have known kernells to shoot some two foot others a yard in a dry year when those that were sowne in loose and richer mould grew not above half a foot or a foot at the most Having mentioned something about Mice I thinke it not amisse to adde thereunto in this place once for all how to keep them from destroying the seeds which besides the trappes may be done by mixing a little soot with them in the sowing and to scatter a little lime and soot on the superficies of the bed after the seeds are sown by the bitternesse of the soot and the heat of the lime the Mice unlesse very much pinch't with hunger will be cautelous to venter thereon as disagreeing to the relish of their discerning pallats But to return where I left Although this is the best kind of ground or mould to sow the seeds in yet will I not deny what I have seen viz. that they have thrived very much in others beside Plum-stones will grow very well this way but Cherry stones will not Wherefore you must procure or make a place of light mould or black sand and sow them therein in the like manner as you did the Apple and Pear kernels So will they thrive extraordinarily Peach-stones thrive best when set in a loomy ground such as serves to make bricks about London mixt with some spit-dung c. I have known them inoculated the first year they grew herein so bigge the next unto this is that wherein you sow the black Cherries These are the cheif seeds to make stocks but now to tell you what stocks serve for what kinds of fruit for there must not be a mixture of grafts and stocks of diverse Natures as many who treat of Miracles not truth do deliver Know therefore That the kernels of Wildings for all sorts of Apples to be grafted on are the best if you can obtain them if not of any Crabbe such as are in the hulls out of which verjuice was prest will serve the turn if the Crabbs were not too small Some are of opinion that Apple kernells make the fittest stocks for the sweetest sort of Apples but of this I never saw the tryall my opinion being wedded to the Crabb and Wilding for as the same men affirme the stock coming from the Apple is not so lasting All Pear-kernells but especially those that came from some what soure Pears such are these that make the best Perry for all kinds of Pears Wardens and Medlars though these last are usually grafted on white-thorne yet they afford larger fruit when grafted on Pear-stocks as I have seen happen by the experience of others The Service-tree both wild and planted is an excellent stock for Medlars the fruit thereof being better relish't and thicker set on then those of the Pear stock The separation of Crabb and Pear-kernells is performed on this wise After that the liquor hath been pressed forth of the bruised fruit take the hull-cakes and rubb them between your hands that they may loosen themselves from the kernells then spread them on a blancket or winnow-sheet laid in the Sun where let them dry for a while Then take a wide sive and ridder them so will the kernells drop forth like as corn usually doth If some of the smaller hulls do come forth with the kernells they may be dryed a fresh and shaken in a closer or Raying sive whereby part will fall through and part will gather into an heap by the turning round of the sive but a clean separation is tedious and unnecessary if the kernells are to be carried a great way it is good to dry them again least they grow mouldy in the carriage These and all other kinds of seeds here mentioned must be mixt with fine mould or sand in like sort as plums are mingled in fine flower by the bakers to make cakes withall and kept in tubs or pots neither too dry least they wither nor yet too moist least they grow mouldy and rotten let them therefore if they are kept within doors be watered now and then and after every watering be carried forth an hour or two for two or three days together to receive the benefit of the refreshing Air and afterwards cast into pots each kind by it self as before Some men do keep them so mixt always without doors where they stand to the adventure of all Weathers The stones of Plums coming of a kind whose bark is smooth and full of sap are the best to make stocks for all sorts of Plums and Aprecocks more especially if they are of a white Pear-plum which also will serve indifferently for the more common sorts of Peaches But The generall and best approved stocks for Peaches Nectrines Melocotoons and the rest of that tribe are the stons of Peaches themselves and among them the Melocotoon and such whose flesh easily separates from the stone which stones notwithstanding what I have said of seeds in generall ought to be set early or else which is better the shells broken in such sort that the kernells be not bruised but carefully taken forth and then set like others for the shell is a great hinderance to the speedy and regular shooting forth of the tender seedling yea many a good kernel is rotted before it can break through such a thick inclosure Some choise exoticke Plums and Aprecoks prove good when grafted or inoculated on Peach-stocks low on the face of the ground Almonds make a great shew the first year whereby many have been invited to inoculate them with the best kinds of Peaches c. but the next year or when they are once removed they do for the most part come to nought however if any of Cherrys stand they are never so good as these of Peaches Aprecock stones are little worth for they grow slowly and are somewhat to
dry to inoculate on Black Cherry stones prest from their juice and washt from their flesh make the only gallant stocks for all sorts of Cherrys if planted in a blackish sand as I have said in three or four year they shoot both in length and bignesse almost beyond beleif The English Cherry called the Hony-cherry is the stock whereon the earlyest May's do grow yet that fruit is not so good as that on the Black cherry Enquirie and tryall may be made how some Cherrys especially the Morisco will prove on the Rhamnus catharticus or the Harts Thorne For the bark thereof shews that they will agree well together The young plants must be constantly kept clean and sometimes the Earth between the ranks loosned by howing or rather gentle digging least they be overcome and choaked by the weeds If the young seedlings grow too thick or too close to one another pluck up some of the weakest of them and the rest will shoot the stronger but of this hereafter CHAP. II. Of the Nursery or place where young trees are to be brought up before the Translating into an Orchard c. BEfore that these seedlings be transplanted from the bed wherein they were sown it is requisite that a plot of ground to make a Nursery be chosen fit to cherish and entertain them the naturall or genuine soile of which I advise to be between or a mixture of clay and sand but therein the sand to abound if such with conveniency may be to this purpose acquired if not any Indifferent i. e. neither too fat nor faint will serve the turn However the Situation thereof should be guarded and fenced from the blasts of the North and North-Western Winds for those are the greatest destroyers of buds in Inoculation tender graftings where you intend the Nursery shall be large this choise will not be of such consequence for one Tree will guard another The place being thus chosen and designed ought the year or two preceding to have been well soil'd and till'd for corn or digg'd as for a garden and at the Michaelmas or at such time as the Crop is of before the planting Trenched i. e. digged two spit deep the upper spit of Earth being turned in the place of the lower and the lower cast in the room of the upper The Superficies of the whole lying in Plano as an Area in a Garden must immediately before or at the time of setting be spread over sufficiently with the best soil or dung such is that that cometh from the Brew-houses which soil in the Planting is to be lightly turned into the Earth more especially about the roots of the seedlings By this manner of Trenching and ordering the Nursery Trees are caus'd to improve exceedingly for the Earth which before like milk threw up and contained all it's fatnesse or cream on the Superficies now feedeth the lowest root that a young Tree is able to send forth and although to some it may seem to have a disprocortion or a part of bad mould in the midle i. e. where the roots will shoot out the second year yet may they understand that by the soaking or sinking of the soil that was laid afresh on the new Superficies and the rising or ebullition of the fat mould of the quondam Superficies now turned two spit into the Earth there will be a perfect mixture through out the whole before the first year be fully ended Besides this good mould being thus under the roots doth at once supply the stead of many dungings which though never so often repeated will not be able to descend so deep As to the objection of others and those the greatest number of men that deal in Fruit-Trees who say that by this enriching the Nursery those Trees that are fetch 't from off thence will not grow or thrive else where save in such like or better ground cause if into worse transplanted for the most part they dy I must answer this that no man unlesse very idle on ignorant and so unfit for imployment in this purpose would ever set a Fruit-Tree but would prepare the place by soil and mellowing it before hand whereby it cometâ— to passe that the Tree though brought off a rich Nursery yet is meliorated in the transplanting which lasteth for at least two years that space of time being enough to keep alive and make grow the Tree after which iâ— seldome happeneth that any dy Yea granting the supposition that the Tree is removed from better to worse I can say that it is a great furtherance to the quicker bearing of Fruit hereby the sap that in the Nursery spent it self altogether in effecting the growing of the Tree is arrested in it's speed and so digesteth and prepareth it self in the Tree for the bringing forthe of blossoms and consequently Fruit the next year aster this may be seen daily in the re-planting of Cherry Trees Moreover these people do not consider that young Trees like young cattle do desire in their first years a tender education which if not granted they are hindred or hide bound in their growth and improvement whereby it hapneth that an inconsiderable dilatation of their branches and in the end a mossinesse affects them though transfer'd to richer quarters where if they do escape those Maladves and thrive their growth will be so fast that for it no Fruit can be produc'd and which is the worst of all diseases a Canker in few years stops the career Most Apple-Trees give this experiment and observation But in these matters I do not take part with the too much inforced Nurseryes such being as lyable to reproof for their over-doing as these other censures are for their opinion in under-doing the first occasion and cause whereof was Lazinesse Having cleared the difficulties about the choise of ground for the Nursery and the due ordering thereof before planting I must now return to discourse of the work it self and before it the season or time of the year is to be considered This I find to be best and safest from Michaelmas to the midle of February when the weather is open for Frost will kill the roots in the Winter in like sort as the heat doth in the Summer The earlyer removall viz. in and about August I dislike because of the danger proceeding from the checking of the Tree before the sap be throughly hardned into wood by reason whereof the bark being then too tender withereth or wrinckleth and so becometh a dead cover when a live Tree is expected Secondly for that hereby it is hindred of a second spring Lastly because those fibers at root which usually sprout forth upon such early setting do perish in the Winter if the Frost be penetrating Yet when seedlings grow too thick and your mind is to save them all you may at any time throughout the whole Summer by the help of a scoop like a paddle after a watering take up what number you please with the Earth on their roots