of their Land and that to a very great advantage All manner of Sea-owse Owsy-mud or Sea-weeds or any such-like growing either in the Sea or fresh Rivers whereof there is a very great quantity lost and destroyed are very good for the bettering of Land In Cornwal there is also a Weed called Ore-weed whereof some grows upon Rocks under high Water-marks and some is broken from the bottom of the Sea by rough weather and cast upon the next shore by the Wind and Flood wherewith they Compost their Barly-Land Of Snayl-Cod or Snag-greet It lieth frequently in deep Rivers it is from a Mud or Sludge it is very soft full of Eyes and wrinkles and little shells is very rich some they sell for one shilling two pence the Load another sort they sell for two shillings four pence the Load at the Rivers-side which men fetch twenty miles an end for the Inriching of their Land for Corn and Grass one Load going as far as three Load of the best Horse or Cow-dung that can be had It hath in it many Snails and Shells which is conceived occasioneth the fatness of it I am very credibly informed that an Ingenious Gentleman living Of Oyster-shells near the Sea-side laid on his Lands great quantities of Oyster-shells which made his Neighbours laugh at him as usually they do at any thing besides their own clownish road or custom of ignorance for the first and second years they signified little but afterwards they being so long exposed to the weather and mixed with the moist Earth they exceedingly enriched his Lands for many years after which stands also with reason the Shells of all such Fish being only Salt congealed into such a form which when it is dissolved of necessity must prove fertile There is in most Rivers a very good rich Mud of great fruitfulness Of Mud. and unexpected advantage it costs nothing but labour in getting it hath in it great worth and vertue being the Soil of the Pastures and Fields Commons Roads Ways Streets and Backsides all washed down by the flood and setling in such places where it meets with rest There is likewise very great fertility in the residence of all Channels Ponds Pools Lakes and Ditches where any store of Waters do repose themselves but especially where any store of Rain-water hath a long time setled In Forein parts where Fish are plenty they prove an excellent Of Fish Manure for Land in some places here in England there are plenty of some sorts of Fish and at some seasons not capable of being kept for a Market it were better to make use of them for our advantage than not I presume they are of the best of Soils or Manures but herein I submit to experience Doubtless there is not any thing that proceeds from the Sea or other Waters whether it be Fish or the Garbish of Fish Vegetables Shells Sands or Mud or any such-like dissolving matter but must be of very great advantage to the Husbandman if duly and judiciously applied SECT IV. Of Dungs or Excrementitious Soyls This is the most common of any Dung whatsoever by reason Of Horse dung that Horses are most kept in Stables and their Soil preserved yielding a considerable price in most places the higher the Horses are fed the better is the Dung by far it is the only Dung in use whilest it is new for hot Beds and other uses for the Gardiner Next unto the Horse-dung is Cow-dung whereof by reason of Of Cow or Ox-dung its easie solution hath been made the Water wherein Grain hath been steeped and hath deceived many a plain-meaning Husbandman for there is not that richness nor vertue therein as many judge for that purpose But this together with Horse-dung or other Dung is of very great advantage to Land if it be kept till it be old and not laid abroad exposed to the Sun and Wind as is the practise of the several ignorant Husbands letting of it lie spread on their Field-Lands three or four of the Summer-months together till the Sun and Air hath exhausted all the vertue thereof which if it be laid on heaps with Earth mixed therewith and so let lie till it be rotten it will be the sooner brought to a convenient temper and on pasture-Pasture-grounds brings a sweeter Grass and goes much farther than the common way and spread before the Plough produces excellent Corn It is also to be used with Judgment for ordinary Dung used the common way in some years doth hurt and sometimes makes Weeds and trumpery to grow which ordered as before is not so apt for such inconveniences Of all Beasts Sheep Of Sheeps-dung yield the best Dung and therefore is most to be esteemed it is a very high Improvement to the common Field-lands where there is a good Flock duly folded on them especially where it is turned in with the Plough soon after the fold the only way to Improve your Sheeps-dung to the highest advantage is to fold them in a covered fold with intermixture of Earth Sand c. as before and by this means we may make our sheep enrich most of our barren Lands Sheeps-dung is very excellent being dissolved wholly as it will be if well squeezed to steep Grain therein for the Grain doth very eagerly imbibe the whole quantity of the Dung into it self except only here and there a treddle undissolved and proves a great Improvement if rightly ordered Great quantities of this Dung might be obtained if poor Women and Children were imployed to pick up the same on the Rode-ways and burning tops of hills where it seldom doth any good but would prove much more advantageous than the cost or trouble by far This hath in former Ages been esteemed the worst of Dungs Of Swines-dung very hurtful to Corn a breeder of Thistles and other noisome Weeds But our late Husbands whose experience I rather credit than English Improver an old vain Tradition say 't is very rich for Corn or Grass or any Land yea of such account to many ingenious Husbands that they prefer it before any ordinary Manure whatsoever therefore they make their Hog-yards most compleat with an high Pale paved well with Pibble or Gravel in the bottom c. they cast into this yard their Cornish Muskings and all Garbidge and all Leaves Roots Fruits and Plants out of Gardens Courts and Yards and great store of Straw Fearn or Weeds for the Swine to make Dung withal some Hog-yards will yield you forty some sixty some eighty Load of excellent Manure of ten or twelve Swine It 's most likely that this Manure so made by these large additions is more natural and kindly to Land than the bare Swines-dung it self and must of necessity prove a very high advantage considering the despicable vile state of this Beast Some good Daries will make the Soil of their Hog-yard produce them twenty or thirty pounds worth of profit in a year Of the Dung of Fowls
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
a Bush or such-like They are sown at two Seasons of the year in the Spring with other the like Kitchin-Tillage and also about Midsummer or after in the Harlib's Legacie Fields for the use of Cattle or any other use In Holland they slice their Turneps with their tops and Rape-seed Cakes and Grains c. and therewith make Mashes for the Cows and give it them warm which the Cows will eat like Hogs Cows and Swine also will eat them raw if they are introduced into the dyet by giving the Turneps first boyled unto them and then only scalded and afterwards they will eat them raw It is also reported that at Rouen they boyl Turneps with the Leaves on them till they be tender and add thereto Wheaten-bran and of the Cakes of Rape-seed or Lin-seed all which hath a singular faculty of fatting Cattle but for Milch-beasts they put less of the Seeds this they give twice a day and is the most part of their Feeding for the Winter only It is a very great neglect and deficiencie in our English Husbandry that this particular Piece is no more prosecuted seeing that the Land it requires need not be very rich and that they may be sown as a second Crop also especially after early-Pease and that it supplies the great want of Fodder that is usual in the Winter not only for fatting Beasts Swine c. but also for our Milch-Kine SECT VI. Of Setting of Corn. Besides the usual manner of sowing of Corn are there several other ways of dispersing it as by setting and howing of it in c. This Art of setting Corn seems to be very Ancient as appears by Virgil Vnguibus infodiunt ipsis fruges and hath been a long time attempted to be brought into practice again as appears by Mr. Platt's Adams Tool Revived Printed in the year 1600. where he doth very ingeniously describe not only the way but the great advantage that accrews by this then new Discovery The first part thereof giving you the reason why Corn sown in the common way yields not so great an increase as it doth by being set then he shews you the manner of digging the Land where you are to set your Corn whereof we have spoken before then he proceeds to the Description of his Instruments whereof some are only many pins set at a convenient distance in a Board which compressed on the Earth make so many holes wherein the Wheat-grains are to be dropt one by one but because these are very unnecessary and troublesome and that there are newer and better ways found out I shall decline any further discourse about them Also he gives you the distance and depth where he observes that at three Inches distance and three Inches depth there hath grown thirty Quarters of Wheat on an Acre of Ground and that four Inches in depth and distance hath yielded but twenty Quarters he also speaks of five Inches in depth and five in distance It 's probable the diversity of the Land or of these years wherein the experiments were proved might beget some differences Afterwards he adviseth in barren Lands to fill up the holes with some good mixture or fat Compost or to imbibe the Grain you set therewith whereof more hereafter Then Mr. Gabriel Platt succeeds with his newer and better Discovery of infinite Treasure composed Method of setting Corn whereby he pretends to remedy all the Inconveniences of the former way by his two new invented Engines the one for the more expeditious setting of the Corn the other for the laying up the Land on Ridges just on the tops of the rows of Corn that neither surplusage of moisture might annoy it nor frost in Winter kill it which way prevents the laying the Land in high Ridges before sowing Neither need the Land be digged only ploughed harrowed and then set The description of which Engine for the setting of Corn he Description of Mr. Platts Engine for setting Corn. gives you in these words Let there be two boards of equal breadth boared with wide holes at four inches distance and be set in a Frame of two Foot high the one from the other then let there be a Funnel for every hole made of thin boards about two Inches square Then for the top let there be two thin boards of equal breadth boared likewise whereof the uppermost is to be boared with an hot Iron with holes longer the one way than the other and is to be of such a thickness that but one Corn only can lie in the hole The other board is to be boared with wide holes and to be loose that while the Engine is charged the holey part may be under the holes of the uppermost board and when the holes in the Earth are made by the Nether-works then to be moved so that all the Corns may drop down And for charging a little Corn being swept up and down by a Broom or a Brush will fill the holes and if any miss the workman may put in here and there an odd Corn with his fingers and then moving the second Board till the holes be answerable all the Corns will drop down at an instant then let a large ledge be set about the top of the Engine to keep the Corn from spilling and so is the upper-part thereof made And as for the Nether-work it is somewhat more chargeable and intricate for there must be for every hole a little socket of brass cast with a Verge to nail unto the Nether-board about the hole which must be turned and boared all of one wideness to an hairs-breadth and must be wide above and streight below like a Faucet Then there must be Iron pins of five inches long of great thick Iron-wyer drawn so fit that no earth can come into the brass-sockets Now to make these play up and down at pleasure is the greatest skill in the whole work and there is no other way but that which is here described There must be for every wooden Funnel a piece of Iron forged flat with a hole in the middle edge-wise which through two slits in the nether-part must play up and down through which a brass-nail must be fastned cast with an head contrary to other nails bowing downwards to which the Iron-pins must be fastned with wyers and so thrust down and plucked up at pleasure And then every end of the flat pieces of Iron must be fastned into a piece of Wood of such thickness that two thereof may fill up the distance between the rows of the wooden Funnels These may be made to play up and down like Virginal-Jacks and when they are lifted up then the brass Funnels being wider above than below give leave for the Corn to fall into the holes all at an instant These Jacks must be fastned together the two first on either side of the wooden Funnels then so many together as the weight of the workmen is able to thrust down to make the holes And there
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
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
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
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
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
suffice which are common Inconveniences and usually happening to the vulgar way of sowing Corn the greater half by far is lost which in all probability may be saved by the use of this very Instrument which will doubly requite the extraordinary charge and trouble thereof for here is no Corn sowed under Clots but in Rows as the Earth is stirred and moved it is all at one certain depth and at one certain distance and equally covered below the injury of Frost and Heat and Rapine of Birds Also by this way the Corn may be sown in the very middle or convenient depth of the mould that it may have the strength of the Land both below and above the Root which in the other more usual way the Corn falls to the bottom of the Furrow on the Gravel Clay or such-like hard Ground that it seldom thrives so well as what happens to be in the midst This way also exceeds the way of Setting Corn where the Pins thrust into the Ground hardens and fastens the mould that unless the Land be very light it confines the Roots to too narrow a place which in this way is prevented as I have lately observed in Garden-beans that those howed in prove better than those set with a stick By the use of this Instrument also may you cover your Grain or Pulse with any rich Compost you shall prepare for that purpose either with Pigeon-dung dry or granulated or any other Saline or Lixivial Substance made disperseable which may drop after the Corn and prove an excellent Improvement for we finde experimentally that Pigeons-dung sown by the hand on Wheat or Barley mightily advantageth it by the common way of Husbandry much more then might we expect this way where the dung or such-like substance is all in the same Furrow with the Corn where the other vulgar way a great part thereof comes not near it It may either be done by having another Hopper on the same Frame behind that for the Corn wherein the Compost may be put and made to drop successively after the Corn or it may be sown by another Instrument to follow the former which is the better way and may both disperse the Soil and cover both Soil and Seed The Corn also thus sown in Ranges you may with much more conveniencie go between and either weed it or howe it and earth it up as you think good and at Harvest will easily repay the Charges Also the Fore-wheels being made to lock to and fro on either side you may have an upright Iron-pin fixed to the middle of the Axis extended to the top of the Frame and from thence a small Rod of Iron to come to your hand with a crooked neck just against the neck of the Hopper by means of which Iron-rod you may lock or turn the Wheels either way and guide your Instrument and rectifie it if it deviate out of its right course The Hopper must be broad and shallow that the Seed press not much harder when it is full than when it is near empty lest it sowe not proportionably This Instrument although it may at the first seem mysterious and intricate to the ignorant yet I am very confident it will answer to every particular of what I have written of it and any ingenious Wheel-wright Joyner or Carpenter may easily make the same with very little Instruction and any ordinary Plough-man may use it If your Land be either near the Water or Clay or Sand Rock Another excellent Advantage of this Instrument Gravel c. it is not then convenient to sowe the Corn within the Land because it may not have depth for rooting By this Instrument may you then by placing the Share near the top of the Land only to remove as it were the Clots c. drop your Seed in rows and by certain Phins or pieces of Wood or Iron made flat at the end and a little sloping set on each side such Rows of Corn or Grain the Earth may be cast over it and laid in Ridges above the ordinary level of the Land which way I have proved to be very advantageous to Beans laid on a shallow Ground and covered over c. SECT VII Of the General Vses of Corn Grain Pulse and other Seeds propagated by the Plough This is the most general Grain used here in England for Bread Use of Wheat although it be not unfit for most of the uses the other Grains are fit for As for Beer the best Beer to keep hath usually a proportion of Wheat added to the Malt and the Bran also of Wheat a little thereof boyled in our ordinary Beer maketh it mantle or flower in the Cup when it is poured out which sheweth with what a rich spirit Wheat is endowed withal that so much remains in the very Bran. Also Starch is made of musty and unwholesome Wheat and of the Bran thereof than which there are few things whiter It s principal Use is for the making of Beer being the sweetest Of Barley and most pleasant Grain for that purpose it is also one of the best Grains for fatting of Swine especially being either boyled till it be ready to break with no more water than it drinks up or ground in a Mill and wet into a Paste or made into a Mesh either way it produces most excellent sweet Bacon It s general Use is for Bread either of it self or mixed with Of Rye Wheat it makes Bread moist and gives it a very pleasant taste to most Appetites I know no other particular use thereof it being not universally propagated only it 's reported that it yields great store of Spirit or Aqua vitae This is the only Grain for a Horse and best agrees with that Of Oats Beast of any other and in which the Horse most delighteth and is a constant food either for Bread Cakes or Oatmeal to the Scots and several Northern places in England and in some part of Wales Oats also will make indifferent good Malt and a little thereof in strong Beer to be kept is usual They are a Grain that Poultrey also love to feed on and it makes them lay store of Eggs above what other Grain doth The common Use of Pulses are generally known as well for Of Pulses Men as Beasts but there are several that pretend to extract from them excellent Liquors and distil very good Spirits or Aqua Vitae without maulting as one in a certain Tract published by Mr. Hartlib pretends that Rye Oats Pease and the like inferior sort of Grains handled as Barley until it sprout needing not for this work to be dried but beaten and moistened with its own Liquor and soundly fermented will yield a monstrous increase He also affirms that out of one Bushel of good Pease will come of Spirit at the least two Gallons or more which will be as strong as the strongest Anniseed-Water usually sold in London this he affirms to be of the least He
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
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 Chaâ—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
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
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
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
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
plain open or high Countries by woful experience do finde To prevent which as to Buildings by common experience and observation we finde that Trees are the only and most proper safeguard for which the Eugh is the best although it be long a growing Next unto that the Elm which soon aspires to a good height and full proportionable body and is thickest in the branches and will thrive in most Lands but any Trees are better than none As to Fruits Walls Pales or any other Buildings are a good prevention and security for Garden-fruits but for want of that Hedges and Rows of Trees may be raised at an easie rate and in little time As to Timber or other Trees which are also subject to be subverted or broken by high windes to abate the largeness of their Heads proves a good prevention especially the Elm which ought to have its Boughs often abated else will it be much more subject to be injured by high windes than any other Tree Hops of any Plant the Husbandman propagateth receiveth the most damage from high windes which may in some measure be prevented Against the Spring-windes which nips the young Buds and afterwards bloweth them from the Poles a good Pale or Thorn-hedge much advantageth but against the boysterous windes when they are at the tops of the Poles a tall Row of Trees incompassing the whole Hop-Garden is the best security in our power to give them Also be sure to let their Poles be firm and deep in the ground As to Corn windes sometimes prove an injury to it in the Ear when they are accompanied with great Rains by lodging of it but the greatest injury to it is in the Grass when it is young I mean Winter-corn the fierce bitter blasts in the Spring destroying whole Fields The only and sure remedy or prevention against this Disease is Inclosure as before we noted of Cold. In Spain c. where the Mist of Superstition hath dimmed Thunder and Tempest Hail c. the Spiritual and Natural sight the Ringing of Sacred Bells the use of Holy Water c. are made use of to Charm the Evil Spirit of the Air which very frequently in those hotter Climates terrifies the Inhabitants that he may be a little more favourable unto them than others But it cannot enter into my thoughts or belief that any thing we can do here either by Noises Charms c. or by the use of Bays Lawrel c. can prevail with so great a Natural Power and so much beyond our Command Prayers unto God excepted which are the only Securities and Defensives against so Potent and Forcible Enemies Blighting and Mildews have been generally taken to be the Mildews same thing which hath begotten much errour and the ways and means used for the prevention and cure have miscarried through the ignorance of the Disease For Mildew is quite another thing and different from blasting Mildews being caused from the Condensation of a fat and moist Exhalation in a hot and dry Summer from the Blossoms and Vegetables of the Earth and also from the Earth its self which by the coolness and serenity of the Air in the night or in the upper serene Region of the Air is condensed into a fat glutinous matter and falls to the Earth again part whereof rests on the leaves of the Oak and some other Trees whose leaves are smooth and do not easily admit the moisture into them as the Elm or other rougher leaves do which Mildew becomes the principal Food for the industrious Bees being of its self sweet and easily convertible into Honey Other part thereof rests on the Ears and Stalks of Wheat bespotting the Stalks with a different from the natural colour and being of a glutinous substance by the heat of the Sun doth so binde up the young tender and close Ears of the Wheat that it prevents the growth and compleating of the imperfect Grain therein which occasioneth it to be very light in the Harvest and yield a poor and lean Grain in the Heap But if after this Mildew falls a showre succeeds or the winde blow stifly it washeth or shaketh it off and are the only natural Remedies against this sometimes heavy Curse Some advise in the Morning after the Mildew is fallen and before the rising of the Sun that two men go at some convenient distance in the Furrows holding a Cord stretched streight betwixt them carrying it so that it may shake off the Dew from the tops of the Corn before the heat of the Sun hath thickned it It is also advised to sow Wheat in open grounds where the winde may the better shake off this Dew this being looked upon to be the only inconvenience Inclosures are subject unto but it is evident that the Field-lands are not exempt from Mildews nor yet from Smut where it is more than in Inclosed Lands The sowing of Wheat early hath been esteemed and doubtless is the best Remedy against Mildews by which means the Wheat will be well filled in the Ear before they fall and your increase will be much more As for curiosity sake Wheat was sown in all Moneths of the Year that sown in July produced such an increase that is almost incredible In France they usually sow before Michaelmas Bearded-Wheat is not so subject to Mildews as the other the Fibres keeping the Dew from the Ear. Hops suffer very much by Mildews which if they fall on them when small totally destroy them The Remedies that may be used against it is when you perceive the Mildews on them to shake the Poles in the Morning Or you may have an Engine to cast water like unto Rain on them which will wash the Mildew from them And if you have water plenty in your Hop-garden it will quit the cost in such years Hops being usually sold at a very high rate SECT II. From the Water and Earth Next unto those Aërial or Coelestial injuries which descend upon us we shall discourse of such that proceed from the Water and Earth that do also in a very great measure at some times and in some places afflict us proving great impediments to those Improvements that might otherwise be easily accomplished and also great detriments unto the Countryman upon that which he hath already performed As the want of water in some places proves a great impediment Much water offending and injury to the improvement and management of Rustick Affairs so doth the superabundant quantity either from the flowings of the Sea over the low Marsh-Lands at Spring-tides and High-waters or from great Land-flouds but principally from the low and level scituation of the Land where it is subject to Springs Over-flowings c. It is evident that much good Land hath for many Ages yielded Over-flowing of the Sea little benefit by reason of the high waters that sometimes have covered it over and destroyed that which in the intervals hath grown and hath also over-flown much good Land so frequently
Water from the Earth into it Much Land there is in England that is capable of a very great Stones Shrubs c. improvement by removing those common and stubborn Obstacles as Stones Shrubs Goss Broom c. which are naturally produced in many places and the faint-hearted lazy and sometimes beggerly Husbandman had rather let them grow and suck out the Marrow and Fat of his Land than bestow any cost or pains to remove them and is contented with now and then a bundle of Bushes c. when the removal of them would not only be an improvement of his Land by their absence but the materials themselves by a right and judicious way of ordering them might become also an additional improvement As first of Stones which being picked up and laid on heaps about the roots of either Fruit or Timber-trees planted on the Bounds and in Rows on the Land is a very great help and advantage to the growth of such Trees and saves the labour of carrying them off the ground which charge usually exceeds the charge of picking them up This only where Stones offend or are injurious Shrubs Goss Broom c. prove a very great annoyance to Husbandry and the difficulty and charge in plucking them up is the principal impediment to their removal to such that are ignorant of the most dextrous ways used to that purpose the best whereof I finde to be this described by Mr. Plat Viz. A very strong Instrument of Iron like unto a Dung-fork with three Grains or Tines only much bigger according to the bigness of the Shrubs you use it about the upper part thereof is a very strong and long Stail or handle like a Leaver Now set this Instrument at a convenient distance from the Root slopewise and with a Hedging-beetle drive it in a good depth then lift up the Stail and place under it across an Iron-bar or such-like Fulciment to keep it streight and that it sink not into the ground Then take hold of the Cord that before ought to have been fastened to the top of the Stail and by this means may you Eradicate any Shrubs c. If it will not do at once place it on the other side c. These Bushes Brakes and suchlike though they are of little worth or use for any other thing yet are they very necessary and beneficial to improve the Land by burning them being dry either by themselves or under heaps of Turf Earth c. as before Chap. 5. was observed Some Lands are more prone and subject to Weeds and that in Weeds some years than other which is often occasioned by water standing on it destroying the Corn and such Seeds that are usually sown in it and nourishing such Weeds that most delight in moisture the only remedy whereof is to lay it dry and add some convenient drying and lightning materials or composts thereon as Sand Ashes c. Also some sorts of Dungs or Manures cause Weeds as Dung made of Straw Hawm Fern or suchlike laid on Lands in any great quantity without any other mixture of Horse-dung Sheeps-dung Lime Ashes or suchlike hot Compost which do in some measure correct the cold and sluggish quality of it but in some years and on some Lands any ordinary cold Dung begets Weeds which injure the Corn more than the fatness of the Dung advantages therefore Lime Marle Chalk Ashes c. are to be preferred in most Lands Weeds in Pasture-lands are best destroyed by burning of it in Turfs as before we discovered or by Plowing of it without Chap. 5. burning Rushes Flages and suchlike Aquaticks are best destroyed by Rushes Flags c. draining so that you cut your Drains below the roots thereof that it may take away the matter that feeds them The Sowthistle proves a great annoyance to some Lands by Sowthistle killing the Grass Corn c. although it be a sure Token of the strength of the Land The way to destroy them is to cut them up by the roots before feeding-time the advantage you will receive will answer your expence and more The way to destroy this so common and known an annoyance Fern. is to Mow it off in the Spring whether with an Iron or Wooden Sythe it matters not for it will easily break which work reiterate the same year as fast as it grows and it is confidently affirmed that it will kill and destroy the Fern for ever after Improvement and bettering the Land by Soyling Marling or Liming c. is also a principal remedy against all manner of Broom Furze Heath and other suchlike trumpery that delight only in barren Lands Very much differing from Mildews is the blighting of Corn Blights and Smut the Mildews proceeding from a different cause and happening only in dry Summers when on the contrary Blighting happens in wet and is also occasioned through the too much fatness and rankness in Land as is observed that strong Lands are usually sown with Barley Pease or suchlike to abate the fertility thereof before it be sown with Wheat which would otherwise be subject to Blights or Blasting Also Wheat sown on level or low Land in moist years is subject to the same inconveniencies for you may observe that the Wheat that grows on the tops of the ridges in moist years to be better and freer than what grows in the Furrows which is usually blighted by means of water and fatness lying more about it than the other for Wheat naturally affects to be kept dry on moist and strong ground Therefore as moisture and the richness of the ground together occasions this disease by knowing thereof you may easily remedy it by laying your Land on high Ridges which if it be never so rich the Wheat growing thereon will hardly be blighted if not overcome with moisture Smut seems to proceed from the same cause therefore need we Smut to say the less Only that sometimes smuttiness proceeds from other causes as by sowing of Smutty-corn by soiling the Land with rotten Vegetables as Straw Hawm Fern c. It is confidently affirmed that the smutty Grains of Wheat being sown will grow and produce Ears of Smut but I confess I have not yet tryed and shall therefore suspend the belief thereof till I have The sowing 〈◊〉 Wheat that is mixed with Smut doth generally produce a Smutty Crop whether the Smut it self grow or not unless it be first prepared by liming of it which is thus done first slake your Lime and then moisten your Corn and stir them well together c. and sow it Or by steeping of it in Brine either of which are good preventions against the Smut You may also prepare the ground by Liming or other ways of inriching it with sharp or saline Dungs or Soils and it will produce Corn free from Smut for it is most evident that Land often sown with the same Grain or much out of heart produces a smutty Crop as may be
say any thing of common Diseases of Beasts or Fowl because that Subject is so compleatly handled by several others and is not absolutely necessary for our Husbandman to know there being almost in every place Professors and Practisers of that Art and that have Materials and Instruments for that purpose yet for that I meet with some general and easily-practicable Instructions perhaps not familiar with Country Farriers or Horse-Doctors I shall a little digress This Disease is principally caused from a hot and dry season Of the Murrain of the Year or rather from some general putrefaction of the Air and begetteth an inflammation of the blood and causeth a swelling in the throat which in little time suffocateth the Cattle Also the letting dead Cattle lie unburied which Putrifying may cause a general Infection to that sort of Cattle as the Learned Van-Helmont observes that these Infectious Distempers go no farther than their own kinde Therefore to prevent this Disease let them stand cool in Summer and to have abundance of good water and speedily to bury all Carrion And if any of your Cattle be already infected speedily let them blood and give them a good Drench c. By which means divers have preserved their Cattle when their Neighbours have perished In moist Years Sheep are subject to the Rot in the same Of the Rot in Sheep grounds where in drier Years they are not and that not only from the moisture for then would Sheep Rot in all moist grounds in dry Years as well as in wet but from a certain Putrefaction both in the Air and in the Grass or Herbs that usually attends them in such moist years which together with their moist Food doth corrupt their Livers and bring this Disease The cure whereof is difficult unless it be done betime before the Liver be too much wasted The removal of them to the Salt Marshes where they may be had is a good remedy If May and June prove wet Moneths it causes a Frimmand frothy Grass which together with the bad Air that must necessarily follow causes the Rot in Sheep therefore in such Summers keep your Sheep on the dry and barren Lands and fodder them in Winter with the hardest Hay or most Astringent Fodder Some grounds yield a soft Grass more than other subject to breed the Rot in the Sheep therefore feed other Cattle there and your Sheep in the driest hardest and healthiest Pastures If your Sheep be infected with the Rot which you may discern by the colour of their Eyes some prescribe to Pen them up in a Barn or large Sheep-coat set about with wooden Troughs and therein feed them with Oats a day or two then put amongst them some Bay-salt well stamped and after that a greater quantity till such time as they begin to distaste it then give them clean Oats another day or two and afterward serve them with Salt as before This course being followed until their Eyes have recovered their Natural colour they will then be perfectly cured Where you have not a House convenient it may be done open the saving of their Dung as before we directed will answer the greatest part of your expences Chap. 5. Folding of Sheep in May or June if they prove wet makes them Rot the sooner because they more greedily devour the hurtful Grass in the Morning than those not folded therefore liberty from the Fold at that time is a good prevention An Approved Experiment for the Cure of the Fashions in Horses and the Rot in Sheep Steep the Regulus of Antimony in Ale with a little of the Spice called Grains and a little Sugar which give to a Horse about half a Pint at a time two or three times with a day or two's intermission between each time to a Sheep about two or three ounces after the same manner The same or the following Receipt may be also given to Swine for the Measles c. and to make them fat Give him half a dram of crude Antimony in his Meat it will For Swine make him have a good stomack and it will likewise cure him of all foulness of his Liver and of the Measles The same is also Soveraign for any other Beasts Trees and Plants and other Inanimate things are subject unto Of Trees and Plants Diseases that deprive them of and abate their excellency worth and duration as well as living Creatures and it doth as well require the care and industry and skill of the Husbandman to inspect into their Nature and make use of such means as are requisite as well to prevent as cure such Diseases The Canker Moss Bark-bound and Worms in Trees prove very pernicious Their Cures we have already discoursed of Chap. 7. The Jaundies or Langor of Trees makes them seem to repine and their Leaves to fall off or wither and proceeds from some hurt done to their Roots either by Moles or Mice or by the stroak of some Spade or by the Tree standing too moist or low according as you finde the Disease so must you make use of a remedy either by searching the Root and if you finde any wound or gall to cut it off a little above such wound and lay some Soot there to keep Vermine off if the injury came from them or if water offends either divert the water or remove the Tree If it be planted too deep it is better to raise it than let it stand where you may be confident it will never thrive The general Diseases of Trees and impediments to their thriving are either they stand too deep too dry too cold too moist too much in the winde c. according to the divers Nature and disposition of the Tree Therefore if you expect that a Tree should thrive observe his Nature and in what place it most delights which the sixth and seventh Chapters of this Book treating of Woods and Fruit-trees will sufficiently direct SECT VII Of Thieves and Ill Neighbours There is no more constant certain and pernicious Enemy to the Husbandmans Thrift than Man himself Homo homini Daemon they rob and steal from oppress maligne injure persecute and devour one another to the decay of Arts and Sciences and even to the ruine of whole Families of Ingenious and Industrious men every one striving to build up his house and raise his Family by the ruines and decay of his Neighbours But our only Complaint is against the common and ordinary sort of vile persons that live after a most sordid manner and seek not Wealth nor Greatness but only to maintain themselves in a most despicable lazy kinde of life by filching and stealing from their honest and laborious Neighbours and against such that though they steal not yet oppress oppugne and injure those that are more Industrious than themselves The severe penalty of death being the punishment for Theft Against Thieves is the principal cause of the infinite encrease of Thieves First because many there are who if they
we have here in England a more easie and effectual way of preparing it with the Bark of that common and so well known Tree the Holly which Preparation is thus Take the Bark of that Tree about the end of June at which To make Bird-time time it is full of Sap and fitter for your purpose fill your Vessel with it that you intend to boil it in then add thereto of clear water as much as the Vessel will conveniently hold and boil it so long until the grey and white Bark rise from the green which will be about twelve or sixteen hours Then take it off the fire and gently decant or pour the water from the Barks and separate the grey and white Barks from the green which lay on a Stone or Stone-floor in some Cellar or moist or cool place and cover it over with Fern or other green weeds to a good thickness the better to accelerate its putrifaction which will be accomplished in twelve or fourteen days time and sometimes less and it reduced to a perfect Mucilage then pound it well in a large Morter with an wooden Pestle until it be so tempered that no part of the Bark be discerned unbruised After which wash it exceeding well in clear water by renewing the water and your pains so often that no foulness or Motes remain in it and put it into a deep Earthen Vessel where it will purge it self for four or five days together Then scum it clean as its filth arises and when it hath done purging put it into a clean Vessel and keep it close for use The Bark of the Birch-tree is by some affirmed to make as good Lime as that of the Holly being the same way to be prepared so that you may try or use which is most easie to come by Also you need not boil either of the Barks if you give it longer time to putrifie for the boiling is only to accelerate putrifaction When you intend to use it take as much of it as you think fit and put it into an Earthen-pot with a third part of Capons-grease or Goose-grease well clarified and set it over the fire and let them melt together Stir them until they are throughly incorporated and so continue stirring off the Fire till it be cold If you fear the freezing of your Bird-lime add in your last mixture a quarter as much of the Oyl Petrolium as you do of the Goose or Capons-grease and no cold will congeal it When your Lime is cold take your Rods and warm them then a little besmear the Rods with your Line and draw the Rods the one from the other and close them again Work them thus continually together until they are all over equally besmeared If you lime Straws or Strings you must do it when the Lime is hot and at the thinnest by folding and doubling them together before the fire and fold and work them till it be all over throughly limed Put these in Cases of Leather until you use them When you intend to use your Bird-lime for great Fowl take of Rods long small and streight being light and yielding every way Lime the upper parts of them before the Fire that it may the better besmear them Then go where these Fowl usually haunt whether it be their Morning or Evening haunt an hour or two before they come and plant your Twigs or Rods about a foot distance one from the other that they cannot pass them without being intangled and so plant over the place where their haunt is leaving a place in the middle wide enough for your Stale to flutter in without falling foul of the Twigs which Stale you do well to provide and place there the better to attract those of its own kinde to your snares from which Stale you must have a small string to some convenient place at a distance where you may lie concealed and by plucking the string cause it to flutter which will allure down the Fowl in view Prick the Rods sloap-wise against the winde about a foot above the ground or water and if you see any taken surprize them not suddenly if any more are in view for by their fluttering others will be induced to fall in amongst them A Spaniel that is at command will be necessary to re-take them that might otherwise escape out of your reach these Fowl being very strong If you place your Twigs for the lesser Water-fowl as Duck For smaller Water-fowl Mallard Widgeon Teal c. you must fit your Rods according to the depth of the water and your Lime must be such as no wet nor Frost can prejudice the limed part must be above the water Here also it will be necessary to have a Stale of the same Fowl you intend to insnare SECT V. Of taking Fowl with Springes Most of the Cloven-footed Water-fowl delight in Plashes Water Furrows small Rivolets and suchlike places seeking for Worms Flat-grass Roots and the like in the Winter-time especially in frosty weather when many other places are frozen up and these warm Springly Water-tracts are open where you must place Springes made of Horse-hair of bigness and length according to the greatness of the Fowl you designe to take for the Heron or Bittern it must be of near a hundred Horse-hairs and above two foot in length for the Woodcock Snipe Plover c. not above eight or ten Horse-hairs and one foot in length the Main Plant or Sweeper must be also proportionable to the strength of the Fowl For the manner of the making and setting them I question not but every place will furnish you with Directors if you know it not already which is much easier and better than any written Instructions Observe also that you prick small sticks in manner of a Hedge cross-wise athwart all the other by-passages about half an inch apart and somewhat above a handful above the water or ground sloaping towards the place where your Springe is placed the better to guide which is easily done the Fowl into the Snare for such is their nature that they will not press over where they have liberty to pass through any gap If the places where these Fowl usually haunt be frozen you must make Plashes and the harder the Frost is in other places the greater will the resort of Fowl be here SECT VI. Killing of Fowl with the Fowling-piece There are many places where Fowl settle and feed at sometimes yet so uncertain that the former ways are useless and there are also many places wherein you may not have the conveniency or liberty to make use of the said ways of taking Fowl yet there may you at opportune times meet with a good shot with your Fowling-piece the length and bore of which ought to be proportionable the one to the other and both to your strength and the place you use it in Let your Powder be of the best sort as new as you can for with bad keeping it looseth its strength exceedingly