you for I will direct you a way to make this Orchard pay all your Rent give me but a Hogshead of Sider But says he my Orchard must first find Apples I perswaded him to take a Lease of one and 〈◊〉 years for I told him he had the best penny-worth in Oxford-shire but his answer was I wish I was well rid of this Well if it be so observe my Directions and you need not fear but your Orchard will pay your Rent so having viewed his Orchard round within a little space distant from his Orchard went the High-way I told him the convenience of this High-way would pay his Rent How can that be when I sell neither Beer nor Ale I desired him immediately to get me two or three Labourers and I would direct them I brought the Water from the High-way by making of a Dam through the middle of the small Ground into the Orchard then from that Trench I caused them to cut out several other Trenches leading to every row of Trees and made them dig a yard round every Tree that the Water may have time to soak into the Ground having good compass round the Tree Notwithstanding all this he had not so much Faith to take a new Lease but first desired to see the event of this new Invention This was about the middle of February I directed him also to smoother his Orchard with Muck and Fern which way to order is treated of in another place and continue it so long as the Wind should hold any way Easterly or Northerly At the latter end of September Business calling me that way I called upon the Farmer to know how his Orchard thrived with a merry countenance he replyed I have Apples enough to pay my Rent and punctually performed his promise with an over-plus I advised him now to take a new Lease which then was too late for his Landlord had been there and seen the Improvement and would not let him a new Lease under 30 l. per Annum for he was of an opinion this way would not fail in causing the Orchard to bear the Lease being expired the Landlord keeps the Orchard and lets the Ground for 15 l. per Annum The Orchard is duly worth to him twenty pound a year more that year when the improvement was made he had about sixty quarters of Apples he fatted his Hogs with the worst and sold the best at a good rate All his charges amounted but to 18 s. and 9 d. How to order old decayed Trees to make them bear as well as ever ABout the end of October or beginning of November or later until the rising of the Sap cut such superfluous Branches as seem too thick in the middle of the Tree or those which through extraordinary high Winds have been bruised or broken then having a scraping-Knife scrape off the Moss that grows about the principal Limbs of the Tree which with a Knife made convenient for the purpose a Man will cleanse forty or fifty in a days time for this Moss is full as bad for the Apple-Trees as Ivy is for the Oak this being performed dig the Earth a yard round every Tree and a spit deep which let lie open all the Winter till the middle of March then give your Orchard a good watering and if you cannot conveniently then get a small Cart with a Barrel and bestow a Barrel of Water to a Tree and fill it up with Dung and lay the Mold upon the Dung then about the latter end of May give each Tree a Barrel full of Water and you shall find the Trees shall flourish and shoot out Cienes to admiration and shall bear again as well as if it was in its prime some may say The Remedy is worse than the Disease thinking it too great a charge To which I Answer I will hire a Man by the great shall at any time undertake the performance of all that belongs to dressing and ordering of them for fourpence a Tree and I question not but every Tree will afford ten times as much advantage in the first years bearing How to order an Orchard that it shall never miss Bearing I Have seen several Orchards that have been blown as white as a sheet but when the Blossoms have been gone there hath been no appearance of Fruit therefore follow these Directions and your Trees shall not fail to be extraordinary well hung for I can assure you of my own knowledg and several others Experience that when most Orchards have miscarried their Trees could not stand under their burden When you perceive there is an Easterly or North-easterly red Wind which was ever accounted a bliting Wind if you live near any Heathy Ground then in Summer dry three or four hundred of Turfs but if you are not near any Heathy Ground then take three or four good arms full of muckle Straw Hay or Fern not too wet nor too dry and observing which side of the Orchard the Wind blows on then laying a good arm-full of Muckle in three or four places according to the bigness of your Orchard get some dry Sticks and having kindled them put an arm-full of Muckle upon the Fire and it will smoak and smoother and the Wind will drive the Smoak through the whole Orchard continue it till the Wind turn out of the Easterly quarter and it will preserve the Trees and Fruit from Blites and all manner of Flies and Caterpillars which those sorts of bliting Winds usually bring when you find the Wind changed to West North-West South or South-West you may forbear making any smoother for those Winds never hurt observing this you shall find that not once in ten times you shall ever miscarry but on the contrary have your Trees so furnished with Fruits in the worst of years according to your hearts desire After the same manner you may preserve your Wall-Fruit from Frosts A true way to make Watrish Fruit become firm sound and sweet WHen you find that your Apples are watrish puffie or hollow and will not keep which if the Ground lie low or near a River all sorts of Apples will be subject to and then they eat very unpleasant and will not keep though it appear a fair handsom beautiful fruit to the eye Now to cause your Fruit to eat firm and pleasant observe these directions About the latter end of October or beginning of November dig round every Tree about a yard and a half from the Body and a full Spit deep or more then fill up the place with the best Chalk and let it lie open all Winter that the Frost may chasten it that so it may incorporate with the Earth and about the end of March throw the Earth upon the Chalk and water the Orchard if you can and you will find in one year so great a change and extraordinary benefit accrue to the Fruit of your Orchard that you shall hardly believe your own taste and the Apples will be wholsomer pleasanter and keep
a hundred of these Traps You will find this Trap the greatest destroyer of these Mice that ever was made you may make twenty of them in an hour and set them in an hour more do but experience what I have writ if you be troubled with them and you shall find every tittle thereof true your six inch stick must be very thin otherwise it will cause the Tiles to lie hollow and then the Mouse will make his escape but if thin and the Tiles fall close you shall find him as flat as a Flounder A new way to make Arbours to become Green and Shady in one Year FIrst Set out the proportion of your Arbour for Length or Breadth and Height then imploy some of your Servants or Country-men to gather the streightest and smoothest white-Weathy Rods without knots three or four inches about then make holes with a Crow of Iron and place your Rods about a foot and a half distance more or less according to the fancy that best pleases the Planter and at least two foot into the Ground when you have so done let your cross Rods which makes the square be of the durablest Wood you can get and at every cross Joint bind them fast with your weathy Bark and not with Wire because those that stand in the Ground should grow and not be cut into with the Wire let your Rods which stand in the Ground be taper at one end and then your Arbour will come over with an Arch at the top I would advise you to let your Rods which stand in the Ground be of your white sort of Weathy and then they will not decay in a short time for they will grow and be some addition of shade but for your cross Rods the durablest wood is the best If your Arbour should be made of Rods which will not grow in three years time or less all your Labour is lost which hath been too much the indiscretion of Gardiners for many years if the cross Rods fail in two or three years you may quickly supply them without any prejudice to the Arbour After your Arbour is thus made then imploy some of your Servants or Labouring-Men to go into the Fields and take up ten or twelve of your wild Vines or Brionies every Country-man almost knows them they usually grow by Hedg-sides or in Ditches they bear a Leaf like a Vine and the Roots are commonly as big as a Man's Thigh they that take them up must do it with a deal of care for the Roots are very brickly and will break off if they be not careful Now having gotten ten or twelve Roots cut them smooth at all the little ends and set them about two foot distance or less according as you will have the Arbour shadowed and if it be a very dry time water them three or four times the first year but very well when you set them and in three months time you will have an Arbour so thick and so pleasant for the shadow and sweetness of the Flowers it bears that People will hardly believe their own eyes but think it an Apparition which the other sort of Arbours made all of dead Rods in two or three years will decay and all come to nothing but this way will continue many years being every way beneficial How to Water an Orchard after a new fashion HEre I shall shew you how to water several Orchards for very little cost but no Body is so ignorant to imagine that every one can be so except they lie convenient If your Orchard lies upon the side of a Hill near any High-way and the High-way lie somewhat higher than the Orchard then provide against any good shower of Rain which in April we commonly have enough make one great Trench through the Hedg and from that Trench make several small ones which may lead to every Tree to conduct the Water from one Tree to another throughout the Orchard one such watering shall enliven your Trees more than ten showers of Rain When you go to turn the Water into the Orchard you must make a Dam cross the High-way otherwise your Trees may be parched for want of Water If your Orchard lies drooping upon the side of a Hill and the next adjoining Ground higher though no High-way lie near it yet taking your opportunity may do thus View round your Orchard and consider which end lies most convenient to carry your Water throughout your whole Orchard for you must begin with the highest part first when you have thus taken the level of your Orchard see where the greatest Current of Water may fall and from that place begin your main Trench and let it go through your Orchard and from this large Drain cause another less to water the first row of Trees and so to the second if you find your Water prove scanty and you cannot water all your Orchard at once order it for twice thus Make a side Trench that may carry the Water to the third or fourth row and never spend any upon the first row at all Now if you have no High-way nor convenient Lane nor Ditch that carries any course of Water that may prove any way beneficial to the watering of your Orchard yet if your Orchard lean any way with Trenches made to the Trees upon any sudden shower a great deal of Water may be conveyed to them that falls in the Ground where they stand so let any Orchard stand almost how it will with skill care and diligence and small charge you will be able to cause your Orchard to return treble profit for the first years expence But suppose your Orchard lies upon an exact Flat yet if the Country-Man bestowed a small Tub of Water to every Tree especially if old and big Trees he would find the profit of it at the years end for you must observe when any Trees grows and spreads it keeps the Rain from the Roots I shall now faithfully relate what was the event of this kind of watering There was a Farmer that took a small Farm in Oxfordshire about twenty pound a year not far from Reading he took a Lease of five years and lived two years in it and received no benefit worth mentioning of his Orchard I riding that way with a Friend which was his acquaintance he called in to see the Farmer and having a little refreshed our selves we walked out in see his Ground which was very poor and at last going into his Orchard the poor Farmer fetched a great sigh O says he would all these Trees were chopped up by the Roots for this Orchard is special good Ground but I have no benefit of it for if I sow it the shade of the Trees and Birds devour all my Corn and I have not had twenty Bushels of Apples this two years off from it and I took it for the benefit of the Orchard which was between three and four Acres of Ground Country-Man says I you know not what Riches you have near
NEW ADDITIONS to the Epitome of the Art of Husbandry Sold by BBillingsley at the Printing Press in CornHill NEW ADDITIONS TO THE Art of Husbandry Comprizing A new way of Enriching Meadows Destroying of Moles making Tulips of any Colour With an approved way for ordering of Fish and Fish-Ponds and destroying the Hern and to take Carp or Tench in any muddy Pond How to take all manner of Birds Small and Great with Birdlime To make Cabbidges and Garden-Beans grow large in any Barren Ground A new way to destroy all manner of Field Mice How to make Arbors become as Shady in one year as in seven To water an Orchard after a new Fashion To make old decayed fruit-Fruit-Trees become great Bearers and watrish Fruit to become firm and sweet Also how to Order Melons Cucumbers and Pompions With a brief way to Set and Sow all manner of Physical Herbs that they may thrive and prosper And the true way for drying of Herbs in plain and easie Directions and all to be performed with very little Charge With directions for Breeding and Ordéring all sorts of Singing-Birds With Remedies for their several Maladies not before publickly made known LONDON Printed for Benjamin Billingsley at the Sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil 1675. NEW ADDITIONS TO THE Art of Husbandry How to enrich and make Barren Mossy Spiry Medows become Rich and bear Knot-grass that so one Acre shall be worth three WHen you intend to undertake this profitable Labour and Improvement consider the Meadow how it lies low or high upon a level or descending and whether any River or Ditch lie convenient to water it or not and if it be by a River if you can convey the Water out again having once turned it over the Meadow then be mindful of the burden it bears whether Spiry or Rushy or Clean being only over-topped with abundance of Moss if the Medow lie descending you have a great deal the advantage of a flat Medow by reason the Water having over-flowed the Meadow some certain time leaves a great soyl after a sudden Rain and upon the fall of the Water sinks from the Meadow and so the Meadow becomes dry with little or no trouble and so the Water not lying long upon the Meadow without it runs makes the Meadow become very fruitful which if it lay some certain time without draining would so chill the Ground that it would not be one farthing advantage for the watering Now the flat Meadow that lies lower than the River must be ordered thus You must make one large Drain through the middle of the Meadow and several leading Drains to it then the River lying higher the Meadow will over-flow with little trouble But then the chief Work and Labour will be how to drain this Meadow dry that so the Water may not lie sugging upon the Ground it not only makes the Ground breed Mossy and Spiry Grass but also it will prove so rotten that it will not bear a Cart to carry off its Burden therfore order it thus Having made your Trenches and a large one in the lowest part of the Meadow if any be then having a large Trench made to carry about a foot Water if you can make it out of a whole piece of Wood or Timber for it is much better than Planks and will last far longer when you have hewed your piece of Timber made it with what Current you can then clap a good Plank together at top with Pitch and Tow then nail him while it is warm and it will lie many years before it decay having thus fitted your Current to convey the Water from your flat Meadow lay him cross that River two foot lower than the bottom of the Meadow and then the Water will drain under the River into the next Ground where you must make a large Drain or small Ditch to convey it further where you may have more conveniency to dispose of your Water these low Meadows which are commonly the worst by reason the Water lies on till the heat of the Sun dries it off which if the Water could be conveyed off quickly would be extraordinary rich which I never could see a better way in all my Travels than this to perform with speed and cheapness they throw out the Water of flat Meadows in Poland and Sprusia over the Banks with certain Wind-mills which is a great deal of trouble and charge Having now finished this Work to lay your Meadow dry when your pleasure is without it be extraordinary Rainy Weather the next thing is to destroy your Moss Rushes and Spiery Grass which most Meadows that lie low are subject to Towards the latter end of February scour all your Drains both great and small and lay it as dry as possibly may be mending the Banks of the River if any be wanting against March which very seldom proves otherwise than a very dry windy month when you have layed it dry for some certain time and you shall then begin to perceive the Moss and Rowel to grow Russet and Dry then observing your time to be dry and windy carry down a bundle of Straw or Fern strew it upon one side that so having set it on fire the Wind may drive it quite through the Meadow and where you perceive the Moss any thing damp or wet strew some Straw or Fern upon it and set it on Fire and you will find in a short time your Meadows to be burnt as smooth as a Bowling-Green Having thus devoured by fire your Moss and course Grass then with a Harrow harrow your Meadow over once or twice then take some Hay-Seeds and sow up and down the Meadow then with the Mold that comes out of the cleansing of the Ditches spread all over the Meadow that so the Hay-Seeds may be covered and when you find the Hay-Seeds sprung up and settled if the weather be very dry you may turn the Water over for a night and turn it out again and be sure you leave no standing Water for that will presently kill the young Grass Observing these Rules the next year you will find that Improvement that one Acre will be worth two and a double burthen with much better Grass for the Moss being burnt away with the heat of the fire which will so purifie the Mold and also Hay-Seeds being sown will spring up with the tender Grass which before the Moss would never suffer to spring up This truly managed hath proved beyond what several have expected How to destroy Moles being the quickest and best way at present discovered IN the first place you must have a Paddle which must be put upon a Stick five or six foot long I need not describe which way to make a Paddle for there be but few which do not know how to give directions to have them made according to their minds for there be several fashions but they tend all to one thing which is the discovery of the Moles haunts Taking your Paddle go out