which he tyeth the Vines by this means his Vines having the reflection of the yard sides of the houses and tiles do ripen very well and bear much so that one old Vine hath produced nigh a Hogshead of wine in one year and I wish all to take this course which is neither chargeable nor troublesom but very pleasant and if all in this Island would do thus it 's incredible what abundance of wine might be made even by this petty way 2. If that any Gentleman will be at the charge of making a Vineyard let him choose a fine sandy warm hill open to the South-East rather then to the South-West for though the South-West seemeth to be hotter yet the South-East ripeneth better as I have seen in Oxford Garden because the South-East is sooner warm'd by the Sun in the morning and the South-West winds are the winds which blow most frequently and bring raine which refrigerate the plants and such a place is very requisite for in other places Vines do not thrive even in France for if you travel betwixt Paris and Orleans which is above 30 leagues yet you shall scarcely see a Vineyard because it is a plain Champion-Countrey So likewise betwixt Fontarabia to Burdeaux in the Southern parts of France for an hundred miles together because the Land is generally a barren sandy Plain where only Heath abounds and Pine-trees out of which they make Turpentine and Rozen by wounding of them and Tar and Pitch by the burning of them and if any find such a fine warm hill and do dung and fence it well he hath a greater advantage of most of the Vineyards of France by this conveniency than they have of our Isle by being an hundred miles more South for most of their Vineyards are in large fields not enclosed on land that is stony and but indifferently warm But some will say that wet weather destroyes us It 's true that the wet will destroy all things Sheep Corn c. yet no man will say that therefore England will not produce and nourish these Creatures and if extraordinary wet years come they spoil even the Vines in France but take ordinary years and our moisture is not so great though some abuse us and call England Matula Coeli but the Vines especially those I have mentioned before will come to such perfection as to make good wine and if extraordinary rains fall yet we may help the immaturity by Ingenuity as I shall tell you anon or at worst make vineger or verjuice which will pay costs Further these advantages we have of France 1. This Isle is not subject to nipping frosts in May as France is because we are in an Isle where the Aire is more gross then in the Continent and therefore not so piercing and sharp as it plainly appeareth by our winters which are not so sharp as in Padua in Italy neither are we subject to such storms of hail in Summer which are very frequent in hot Countreys and for many miles together do spoil their Vines so that they cannot make wine of the Grapes for those Grapes which are touched by the hail have a Sulphureous and a very unpleasant taste and onely fit to make Aqua-vitae Further Sometimes in France cask for their wines is so dear that a tun of wine may be had for a tun of cask and the custome and excize which is laid on wines here is as much again as the poor Vigueron in France expects for his wine Not to speak of the ill managing of their Vines especially about Paris where poor men usually hire an Acre or 2 of Vines which they manage at their spare hours and most commonly pack in so many plants of Vines on their ground for to have the greater increase that the ground and Vines are so shaded by one another that I have wondered that the Sun could dart in his beams to mature them and therefore I cannot but affirm again that we may make abundance of wine here with profit the charges of an Acre of Vineyard not being so great as of Hops an hundred sets well rooted at Paris cost usually but 4 or 6 Sous or pence where I have bought many 2000 will plant an Acre very well 50 s. a year is the ordinary rate for the three diggings with their crooked Instrument called Hoyau and the increase usually four tuns for an Acre which will be profit enough and though I refer all to Bonovil and others who have written of the managing of Vines yet I counsel to get a Vigneron from France where there are plenty and at cheaper rates than ordinary servants here and who will be serviceable also for Gardening 2. I will briefly tell what I have seen In Italy through all Lombardy which is for the most part plain and Champian their Vines grow in their Hedges on Walnut-trees for the most part in which fields they speak of three Harvests yearly viz. 1. Winter-Corn which is reaped in June c. 2. Vines and Walnuts which are gathered in September 3. Their Summer-Grains as Millet Panicle Chiches Vetches c. Buck-wheat Frumentone or that which we call Virginia-Wheat Turneps which they sowe in July when their Winter-Corn is cut and reaped they reap in October In France their Vines grow three manner of wayes In Proveâ—â—e they cut the Vine about two foot high and make it strong and stubbed like as we do our Osiers which stock beareth up the branches without a prop. 2. About Orleans and where they are more curious they make frames for them to run along 3. About Paris they tye them to short poles as we do hops to long ones In France they usually make trenches or small ditches about three or four foot from one another and therein plant their Vines about one foot and an half deep which is a good way and very much to be commended but if we here in England plant Vines as we do hops 4 or 5 foot distant it will do very well but let them not be packt together too thick as they do in France in many places lest they too much shade the ground and one another In Italy when they tread their grapes with their feet in a Cart they pour the juice into a great Vessel or Fat and put to it all their husks and stones which they call Graspe and let them ferment or as we say work together 12 or 14 days and usually they put one third of water to it this maketh a wine less furious Garbo or rough and therefore a good stomack wine but it spoileth the colour and taketh away the pleasant brisk taste In France so soon as they have pressed out their liquour with their feet they put it in hogsheads and after in their Presse squeeze out what they can out of the Graspe which seemeth to fill up their Hogsheads while they work which is usually three or four dayes and then stop them close this is also the way used in Germany and is the best
not thrive In Bermudas they have a peculiar way of fattening their cattel not used any where else that I know which is with Green-Fennel that groweth in that Island plentifully There is a Plant in Essex called Myrchis or Cow-pursley which groweth fast and early in the Spring which they give their cattel at the beginning of the year and they eat it well It is an ill custom that is used almost every where to let hogs lie in their dirt and dung when they are fattening for all creatures generally do hate and abhor their own dung and an hog iâ— cleanliest of all creatures and will never dung nor stale in his stie if he can get forth which other creatures will and though he tumble in the dirt in Summer yet that is partly to cool himself and partly to kill his lice for when the dirt is dry he rubbeth it off and destroyeth the lice thereby Sir Hugh Platts in his writings setteth down divers ingenious ways of fattening Poultry c. and more may be found out daily The Jews have a peculiar way of fattening Geese with Milk Figs Raisins and other sweet things by which they make the liver of an extraordinary greatnesse and is a dish much valued by them as it was also among the old Romans In Moor-fields there is one that keepeth many hundreds of Conies with grains and bran and some others who keep the great laying Ducks with these things and blood to their great advantage I have seen a Book translated out of French which teacheth how to gain divers hundred pounds per annum by fifty pound stock in Hens I suppose about London where Eggs are so dear great profit might be made by them Turkeys might be kept with good profit where there are many Meadows as in Suffolk In Barkshire many keep tame Pheasants and have gained well thereby 3. We do not know how to improve the Commodities proceeding from Cattel to the highest as for example our ordinary butter might be better sented and tasted some Ladies have fine ingenuities in this kind We cannot make Cheese comparable to the Parmisan nor so good as the Angelots of France our ordinary Cheese is not comparable to the Holland Cheeses where also divers sorts of Cheeses are made of divers colours but I cannot much commend their green Cheeses which are made of that colour by Sheeps-dung c. but I hope in short time our good Hous-wifes will scorn that any shall excel them 20. Dâ—ficiency Is the want of divers things which are necessary for the accomplishment of Agriculture As 1. That we have not a Systema or compleat Book of all the parts of Agriculture Till the latter end of Queen Elizabeths days I suppose that there was scarce a book wrote of this subject I never saw or heard of any About that time Tusser made his verses and Scot wrote about an Hop-garden Gougè translated some things Lately divers small Treatises have been made by divers as Sir Hugh Platts Gab Platts Markâ—am Blith and Butler who do well in divers things but their books cannot be called compleat books as you may perceive by divers particular things not so much as mentioned by them The Countrey-Farmer translated out of French is enough if not more then enough but it is no ways framed or squared for us here in England and I fear the first Authors went on probabilities and hear-says rather then experience I hope some ingenious man will be encouraged to undertake a work so necessary and commendable 2. Deficiency is That Gentlemen try so few experiments for the advance of this honest and laborious calling when as many experiments might be made for a small matter for half a Pole square will give as certain a demonstration as an Acre and a Pottle as an Hogshead I hope in time there will be erected a Colledge of Experiments not only for this but also other Mechanical Arts. 3. Deficiency is That Gentlemen and Farmers do not meet and communicate secrets in this kind but keep what they have experimented themselves or known from others as Sybils leaves I mean as rare secrets not to be communicated I hope that we shal see a more coÌ„municative spirit amongst us ere long And Sir I cannot but desire you if you have any things more in your hands of Gabriel Platts or any mens else that you would with speed publish them 4. Deficiency is That we want a place to the which men may resort for to find such ingenious men as may be serviceable for their ends and purposes and also know where to find such seeds and plants as they desire as the great Clove-grass Saint Foiâ— La. Lucern c. 5. Deficiency is That men do usually covet great quantities of land yet cannot manage a little well There were amongst the ancient Romans some appointed to see that men did till their lands as they should do and if they did not to punish them as enemies to the Publique perhaps such a law might not be amiss with us for without question the Publique suffereth much by private mens negligences I therefore wish men to take Columel's Counsel which is Laudato in gentia Rura Exiguum Colito For Melior est â—ulta exiguitas c. as another saith or as we say in English A little Farm well tilled is to be preferred for then we should not see so much wast land but more industry greater crops and more people imployed then are at this present to the great profit of the Common-wealth I know a Gentleman who yearly letting more and more of that land he used to keep in his hands yet confesseth his Barns are fuller because he more diligently manageth what remaineth 6. I will adde that either through the negligence or ignorance of most men the enemies of the laborious Husbandmen are not destroyed viz. Crows Rooks which pluck up in light land presently after the Corn speareth much Corn and also devour much Corn when ripe these are destroyed either by shooting or by breaking their eggs in the Spring or at least may be scared with a little smoak or with a few feathers Larks also do much hurt which may be taken in snares or by day-nets Low-belling c. What Corn is in the barn and also in the field Mice and Rats oft-times destroy much which are easily destroyed either by Weasils which are far better then Cats though somewhat mischievous to eggs and poultry for two of them will speedily clear a Ship though troubled with many hundreds and therefore I know divers Masters of Ships very inquisitive for them proffering five shillings for one with many thanks so that it would be very beneficial both to Ships and also to those who would take the pains to breed them tame as many do in Ireland for their pleasure Rats also may well be destroyed by Rats-bane which is white Arsenick or with Sublimate and Butter But these things will hardly be procured from the Apothecaries because they are
continued to read on in your Legacy from page 48. where I left with my last Annotations I find nothing that needeth any Animadversions but these few following things page 60. a kind of Salix called by them Abel-tree the Tree called an Abel in Dutch is no way a kind of Salix but is I'opulus alba Ibidem If we believe their own Authours c. I know not who those Authours are but I am sure that who ever hath said so hath said most untrue for the profit that ariseth to France by Silk cannot in the least part come in competition with that of Corne and Wine Ibid. In France which differeth not much from the temper of England Silk is a stranger to those parts of France that agree with Englands temper 69. I could wish those words linea 3 4. we know nourisheth them to be left out as devoid of all truth if applyed to the â—nsect in question page 70. linea 2. Let him read Boneil adde Andream Libavium qui peculiari Tractatu inserto parti secundae Singularium fusè ac diligenter admodum omnia ad Bombyces spectantia pertractavit militerque Olivier de Serres libro 50 Theatri Agriculturae Among the things which page 70. he thinketh might be transplanted profitably into England I could wish the omission of the three first viz. Sassafras Sarsaparilla and Snake-weed the which I greatly doubt would hardly be made to grow there at all with any industry but sure I am never to any purpose and the same I believe about their Cedars and Pines Medica veterum is without all peradventure the Plant now known under the name of Lucerna wherefore it ought not to be ranked as it is page 80. amongst the Plants now unknown Quid esset lupinus veterum nemo unquam Herbariorum quod sciam dubitavit quare omittenda ejus mentio inter herbas controversas page 80. Page 81. What seed grout or grutz is made of the same seed and in the same manner as that which in English is called Groats viz. of Oats and of Barley of those three sorts of Cheeses which he reckons up page 81. onely the second and third are made of Cows milk and therefore his expression is too general and what he sayes there which are far better then our ordinary Cheeses is true indeed but as true it is that they are far better then their ordinary Cheeses and as true likewise that the best of those Cheeses are no better nor so good by far as some English Cheeses Verbi gratia Chedder-Cheeses He is much mistaken if he believeth that all those things reckoned up page 82. will grow in England at least to any purpose especially Rice Cork Scarlet-Oak and that Sentence of Virgil Vt quid quaque ferat regio quid quaeque recuset Justly termed an Oracle by Pliny doth not depend wholly as our Authour seemeth to take for granted on the Climate and the latitude of Regions for were it so Dictamnus Laser Cinamonum Balsamum Myrrha Camphora Stirax Mastick Beujovin Caryophylli Nux-Muschata and an infinite number of other Plants would not be and from all time have been confined to such Territories as they are all the Industry of man and the power and wealth of greatest Princes never having been able to make them grow at least not to make them fructifie out of their native Soils wonder also to find Linder-trees named in the Catalogue of Plants which he would have denizon'd in England seeing thaâ— great store of them and very good by ones have been growing in several parts of the Land many years since even in about London as at Exeter-house Wimbleton-house c. and there besides Sherewood-Forrest in Nottinghamshire aboundeth in them naturally Paris the 18. of November 1651. I Come now to your Legacy whereon these words page 84. It casteth up Jet and Amber I must tell you that as it is most certain that of Jet good store is found on some part of the shore of York-shire so I dare say that upon inquiry it will appear that never any Amber or Succinum was cast up there by the Sea that being a commodity so peculiar to Spruce or Prussia as the Sea was never known to render it in any other Countrey of the world whatsoever page 85. At Dover they make brick of Sea-owse a thing very incredible to me In Cumberland out of a certain kind of sand they extract salt It were worth the while to tell in a few words at least how they proceed in the doing thereof Not onely notice should be taken by the Husbandman or Countrey-Gentleman of the different colour odour and tast of waters as our Authour wisheth them to do â—adem page 85. but also and much more as a thing of a much greater and more particular concernment to them of the wonderful and vast difference of waters in which none of those three qualities is notably to be discerned for the several uses of ordinary house-keeping of Husbandry and of several Manufactures page 86. If we may believe Glauber there is scarce any sand without gold I am very sure that whosoever believeth him herein as in many other things will find himself very fouly deceived Ibidem save what is taken out of their Ditches For the word Ditches no wayes proper here should be substituted Bogs Fens or Moors It is indifferent good fuel yea many sorts of them are most excellent fuel An English-man speaking of turffe should not name Holland only but Scotland and Ireland in which two Countreys turffâ— is of very great and general use page 87. There is a stone in Durham out of which they make salt I would we were told the manner hereof Ibidem Lead is found in Durham-wall I would fain know what Durham-wall is whether a Town or Countrey and in what part of England and why Derbâ—shiâ—e where those famous Lead Mines are is not at all named here page 94. Opium is always an ingredient this is too generally spoken page 95. I am not well satisfied with what he sayes of transplanting Elephants into England and making them of common use there for many reasons and I believe it would prove as hard a task to people in England with any considerable store of Black Foxes Musk-Cats and some other of those Animals named page 96. in these words Paris the second of December 1651. THe conceit I find in your Legacy page 99. Of the medicinal virtues of the plants being sublimed into the Insects bred out of them is altogether destitute of truth as very easily and practically may be demonstrated page 101. That in Ireland rottennesse of sheep is not known It is too well known there and even in my time I have seen great mortalities of sheep caused thereby Page 103. In Holland they keep their Cattel housed winter and summer I never knew any Cattle housed in Summer in my Countrey but all about Paris that is very ordinary Ibidem they bury the grains in the ground they keep them
of the failing of Corn in the Common fields he sold it for forty shillings a quarter which came to twelve hundred pounds with the rent and all so that he gained above a thousand pound clear by his twenty Acres of Barley Yet I would wish no man to take in hand so hazardous a work again but rather to 2aim at a meane in fertilizing of his land which is the surest way one year with another for if he make his land too extream fertile then it is ten to one he shall have nothing but straw and some light corn which is good for little use but onely for Poultry and if on the other side he take so much are able land that he is not able to enrich it so that every Acre may bear in a reasonable year five quarters by sowing the common way or thereabouts and a eleven quarters and a half or thereabouts by setting then let him cast up his accompts justly and he shall find himself to be no good friend to himself nor yet to the Common-wealth for he might have gained more by laying his Compost upon half so much land and by setting it orderly than by the whole so that he himself and the Common-wealth is deprived of that benefit of the herbage of that land which he did unadvisedly and above his ability to enrich keep in tillage to his own loss and great damage Certain Experiments and Improvements for the inriching of Land by my new Invention or Engine which disperseth the Compost in such manner that it falleth all within the reach of the attractive virtue of the Corn. The first Experiment or Improvement It is found by experience that where dung hath been layd upon heaps upon fallowed land and hath layen unspread for a moneth or six weeks and withall some store of rain hath faln to carry down the Chilus or juice of the dung into the earth there though the dung was all removed in the spreading from the place where the heap lay yet there grew more corn in a yard square of that ground so fatned with the chilus or juice of the dung than in three yards square where the dung was dispersed in the rest of the land By this we may observe that Dung doth not enrich ground till it be putrified and turned into chilus or aqua pinguis or aqua viscosa and also that Compost of land whatsoever is to be turned into such a nature and property before it can produce great encrease in the present crop Wherefore the best Husbandry is to prepare Earth and Compost in such manner that the nutritive virtue thereof may assimilated into the corn and fruits in the first year or else the Husbandman layeth out his stock and charges long before hand and is deprived of great part of the benefit thereof by reason that the rain and land-flouds doe carry away a great share of the chilus or juice of such dung as falleth out of the reach of the attractive virtue of the seed or plant and if any man doubt of it let him fill all the holes when he hath set an Acre of Corn with such fat earth and he shall find his encrease doubled upon common barren field land and contrariwise let him fill the holes with common dung and he shall finde no such success But some will say that this is a pedling business and an endless work to which I answer That so it is indeed to those which know not the use of my new Invention or Engine but that being known is the most profitablest work in the world for a man may fill 400. holes in the twinckling of an eye and may order a whole Acre in like manner with a very little charges more than the spreading of the dung doth usually cost Therefore now I will proceed to shew how divers fertile earths may be prepared wherewith the holes may be filled and so consequently the encrease may be doubled and this practise will be excellent in such places where the charge of carriage costeth much by reason of the great distance of the place from the Compost for I find that though divers imbibitions of the seed with apt liquors doe produce a good improvement yet it is not a practise comparable to this for if a Farmer have twenty acres of Arable land and have dung but for fifteen Acres and shall yet have a good crop by means of a good imbbiition yet is not this knowledge sufficient for a Husbandman upon whose skil the happiness of himself and the whole Common-wealth dependeth For by this way he may enrich his Arable land at pleasure be it never so barren nor never so much remote from his Compost for on the one side if the filling of the holes be not sufficient he may heap them as hops are usually heaped with fertile earth and dung and on the other side if the earth be too rich so that it will make the Corn too rank then he may half fill the holes or less and then fill them up with a Rake with their own proper earth or he may make his earth so rich that he may mingle with it twice the quantity of the field earth before he disperse it by which means he may save a great deale in the charge of the carriage of his Compost where the fields are far distant The second Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth fit to fill up the holes when the Corn is set Let an Acre or more or lesse of good Areable earth neither clay nor sand but indifferently well mixed be chosen in some apt place where dung is plentifull and cheap then cover it with dung a foot thick or thereabouts and then you may be at choice whether you will at six Moneths end shovel off all the dung and carry the fat earth to be used as in the former Experiment or else to plough it four or five times all together in a years space and then carry all to be used as in the former Experiment either of these waies will serve for one Acre of earth thus made fertile will make an hundred Acres fertile and to yeeld a good crop yea even as you desire so you may fertilize by the means prescribed in the first Experiment and this same work may be done in a little garden plot in Cities Corporations or Villages where a bed of good earth may be enriched at pleasure with all liquors thrown upon it which contain any fatnesse or saltnesse as urine beef-broth soapsuds blood brine of powdering tubs kitchin-wash fish-water lees of all wine bear perrey cider or whatsoever is good for hogs the same will yeeld an excellent virtue to this earth and if a cover were set over it to keep it dry for a years space you might enrich it so that you might carry it twenty miles and yet find more gains by it than by a common dung that lyeth but a mile off and any
of a Bean-stalk cut half an inch long above a knot and so set it will bear a fruit contrary in colour tast and form contrary to any one of them Also by this means he may exalt the nature and excellencie thereof at pleasure if about the root thereof he make three or four little holes in the earth and now and then with a little Fennel and a spoon he put into the holes a little of the best new wort wherein hath been boiled a little Cinamon Cloves Mace Sugar or any other substance of excellent tast and odour For as it is found by experience that any evil neutriment doth spoil yea sometimes poison the thing nourished so any excellent nutriment doth wonderfully advance the goodnesse and excellency thereof And after that these trees are come to age of maturity to be fruitful then the Siens taken thence will be perpetual and able to fill the whole Country with fruits of the same kind and by such means as these there is no question but all these varieties of excellent fruits were obtained in former times for it cannot be thought but that at the first when there was none but wild fruits there could neither be such varieties nor yet fruits of such excellency I have now some tryals in hand with some pulse fruits and garden stuffe to meliorate them in this manner and doe not doubt of the success The fifteenth Observation and Experiment shewing how it may be ordered that Corn shall never be exceeding cheap to the great prejudice of the Farmer nor exceeding dear to the grievance of the buyer It is found by experience that when Barley is at two shillings the bushel or under then an Acre and so twenty Acres of land may be manured with Malt more cheap than with dung if it he worth six pence a load and to be carried half a mile and this is true if after the common manner the Malt be sowed amongst the Wheat as they use to doe with Pidgeons dung Malt dust rags shavings of horn salt-peter bay-salt or any other thing which is potent and effectual for multiplication Now let every man judge of how great consequence this Experiment will be if by my new Invention the Malt be dispersed into the holes where the Wheat is set so that it all lye within the attractive virtue of the Corn for then none will be lost and by this means an acre of land may be manured with so much Corn as is usually cast away by the accustomed manner of sowing more than by setting And the reason why Malt is so much better than Corn is because that by drying upon the kiln the vegetative spirit is killed and by the Malting the nutritive virtue is opened and advanced and it mattereth not of what Corn the Malt is made as of Barly Pease Beans Oats Fetches or Buck-wheat or whatsoever is cheapest for by this means it is converted into the substance of the Wheat together with the benefit of the multiplication neither is it material whether the Mast be ground or not especially for Wheat or any Corn sown before winter for that in due time it will be dissolved and putrified so that by little and little it may be assimilated I have found by experience that when I have taken the great piked Wheat my increase hath been doubled more than with the smaller sort the reason can be no other but that such Wheat is both Seed and Compost I have also put into every hole with the Wheat seven or eight Malt-cornes and then increase was four or five yea sixe times more increased than before and this seven or eight Malt-corns being so dispersed by my Engine into every hole is quickly done and amounteth to no more Corn than is usually cast away in sowing more than is needful in setting Now the use to be made of this Experience for the prevention of cheapnesse is to make a great use thereof in time of exceeding plenty and to keep much dung in store for another year this with the practise of ingrossing and hoarding up of Corn taught before will prevent immoderate cheapness and preserve many an honest poor Farmer from poverty And howsoever I shall not be free from the aspersion of the ignorant Plebeans for this my attempt yet I regard them not being devoted to the universal benefit of all and let them be pleased to understand that every cheap year is but a forerunner of a dear one unless that this course be taken by reason that much Corn ground is usually upon such occasions turned into Pasture when as the Farmers find more gain in converting the fruits of the earth into Beef Mutton Butter Cheese c. then by turning them into Corn. And let them be pleased also to take notice of the Statute made in the reign of King James of happy memory which alloweth Engrossers to hoard up Corn for no other purpose but this which Statute I wish all men that can spare their money to take notice and to maste use of the same for their own advantage as wel as for the publick benefit and let them not doubt of their gain which must needs prove certain howsoever yea though nature should divers years together prove a loving Nurse and not play the Step-mother by administring too much rain or too much drought or too little of either which is sometimes seen three or four years together though very seldom and if it happen so yet by turning the Arable land into Grasse it hath alwaies come to passe as I have diligently observed for many years that the price of Corn hath been doubled at the least Now that I have done with the preventions of cheapnesse I will proceed to the preventions of dearth which may be partly done by the storing of Corn and partly by my new Invention for the expeditious setting of Corn which is so easie and quick for dispatch that he that hath an ordinary plowland viz. sixty acres in Tillage may set it all in due time and pay his charges with the fourth part of the money which he may sell his corn for presently besides the increase of the succeeding crop which wil be a third part more at least and will come in a good time for it is never seen that corn is very cheap the next year after a dear And by this meanes a good Farmer may sow twenty quarters in his seed corn which is worth twice as much mony as it is other yeares and how much corn will be thus sowed in the whole kingdom I lean to the estimation of all men and suppose that they will confess that if every Farmer keep these Engine ready for such times howsoever they make not so great use thereof in time of exceeding cheapness that it may well be called store-corn and is more effectual and preserveth greater abundance of Corn for the prevention of dearth then all the store-houses that ever were in the world I have taken the more pains and
from all goodnesse As for the troublesomnesse of the times I can but put you in mind of that part of the Proposition that assures this to be one of the most safe and likely waies to save a mans estate where if it be not fully enough explained I refer you to your own better judgement to find and propound what you think best And now whosoever raised these Objections did well if he did it for the right end viz. to illustrate the Proposition that so it might be made more clear and acceptable But it s too common to object as an enemy not to demonstrate but destroy designes in themselves not evill at least well intended A new Husbandry or Improvement of Rape-seed IN the way of a Merchant I doe not certainly know but can guesse how to dispose of great quantities of Rape-seed but for Hemp seed I confesse I am ignorant how to vent any such great quantities but if I may be shewed a way to vent either particularly the last I may possibly propound a way to produce a much greater encerease than is usually had of either as namely whereas it is now the usual custome to sow Rape-seed in low lands and Fenny Moorish Countries where it is lyable to the breakings in of the Sea or overflow of Land-floods I can as well and with as much hope of a plentifull return and encrease sow it in any good upland not lyable to such casualties and for the profit more certain which at present is in the aforesaid Lowlands when it scapes those floods valued at five pound per Acre I say I can propound a way how each Acre of such rich Upland shall yeeld at least a Last or ten Quarters or eighty Bushels which at but three shillings a Bushel the cheapest rate is twelve pound sterling and for extraordinary charge I will deduct forty shillings more than the common way requires per Acre so that one Acre shall be as good as two now and fixt that is the profit much more certain And for Hemp I say that whereas an Acre of good Hemp may now be sold standing for about six pound and the very best under ten seed and all I can propound a way by taking of which each Acre shall be worth all charges defray'd at least six pound thirteen shillings four pence for the tew onely and at least six pâ—â—nd thirteen shillings and four pence more for the seed and both these productions are made by the careful and skilfull replanting of the hearbs and choice and manage of the grounds A Passage taken out of a tract against the high rate of Usury presented to the high Court of Parliament Anno Domini 1623. In which the Use for Money was brought down from ten to eight in the Hundred And now humbly recommended to a further Publique Consideration as a special Means for Advancement of the National Husbandry of this Commonwealth IT hath been the wisdom and care of former Parliament to provide for the preservation of Wood and Timber for which there is nothing more available than the calling down of the high rate of Usury for as the rate of Money now goeth no man can let his Timber stand nor his Wood grow to such years growth as is best for the Commonwealth but it will be very losse-full to him The stock of the Woods after they are worth forty or fifty the shillings the Acre growing faster at ten in the hundred than the Woods themselves doe And for Shipping which is the strength and safety of this land I have heard divers Merchants of good credit say that if they would build a Ship and let it to any other to employ they cannot make of their Mony that way counting all charges tear and wear above ten or twelve in the hundred which can be no gainful Trade without hazard Money it self going at ten in the hundred But in the Low-Countries where Mony goeth at six the building of Ships and hiring them to others is a gainfull Trade and so the stock of Rich men and the industry of beginners are well joyned for the publike And yet that which is above all the rest the greatest sin against the Land is that it makes the Land it self of small value nearer the rate of new found Lands than of any other Countrey where Laws Government and Peace have so long flourished For the high rate of Usury makes Land sell so cheap and the cheap sale of Land is the cause why men seek no more by industry and cost to improve them and this is plain both by example and demonstration for we see in other Countries where the use of Money is of a low rate Lands are generally sold for 30 40 in some for 50 years purchase And we know by the rule of bargaining that if the rate of use were not greater here than in other Countries Lands were then as good a pennyworth at twenty years purchase as they are now at sixteen For Lands being the best assurance and securest inheritance will bear a rate above Money Now if Lands were at thirty yeares purchase or near it there were no so cheap purchase as the amendment of ouâ— own Lands for it would be much cheaper to make one Acre of Land now worth five shillings by the year to be worth ten shillings or being worth ten to be worth twenty shillings and so in proportion then to purchase another acre worth five or ten shillings And in every acre thus purchased to the owner by the amendment of his own there were another purchased to the Commonwealth And it is the blessing of God to this Land that there are few places of it to which he hath not given means by reasonable cost and industry greatly to amend it in many to double the value so as in time if for their own good mens industry were compelled that way the riches and commodities of this Land would neer be doubled Then would all the wet-lands in this Kingdome soon be drained the barren lands mended by Matle Sleech Lime Chalk Sea-sand and other means which for their profit mens industry would find out We see with how great industry and charge our neighbours the Dutch do drain and maintain their Lands against the Sea which floweth higher above them than it doth above the lowest parts of our drowned lands I will admit a great deal to their industry but I should very unwillingly grant that they are so much more ingenious and industrious than we as that all the odds were therein Certainly the main cause of it is that with us money is dear and land cheap with them lands dear and money cheap and consequently the improvement of their lands at so great a charge with them is gainfull to the owners which with us would be losse-full for Usuring going at ten in the hundred if a man borrow five pounds and bestow it on an Acre of ground the amendment stands him in ten shillings a year and being amended the
for it maketh a fine Gentile wine with a curious colour In Germany when their Grapes are green they make fire in their Sellars in Stoves by the which means their wines work extraordinarily and do digest themselves the better This course we must also take here in England some years for it helpeth the rawnesse of all liquours very much There is an Ingenious Dutchman who hath a Secret which as yet he will not reveal how to help Maturation by a Compost applyed to the roots The Compost which I have spoken of before made of Brimstone Pigeons-dung is very excellent for that purpose as also Lâ—es of wine blood lime used with moderation He also knoweth how to make sour Grapes produce good wine I suppose his way to be this First all juice of Grapes newly expressed is sweet and which may by it selfe alone be made into a sweet syrup by boiling which the French call Racineè Further in the Evaporation of liquors which have not fermented or wrought the watery part goeth away first 3. Fermentation giveth a vinous taste and maketh a liquour full of spirits You may then easily guess at the way and perhaps he may adde also sugar and spices as the Vintuers do when they make Hippocras I know a Gentleman who hath made excellent wine of Raisins well boiled in water and afterward fermented by it self or with Barm it 's called usually Meade I likewise know that all sweet and fatty Juices will make sine vinous liquours as Damsins if they be wrought or fermented ingeniously but whosoever goeth about such experiments let him not think that any thing is good enough for these purposes but let him use the best he can get for of naughty corrupt things who can expect that which is excellent and delicate The Deficiency of us in this kind is so obvious that all the world takes notice of it and it is next the neglect of fishing the greatest shame to this Nation for all know that we have as good land for these seeds as any can be found in Europe and that the sowing of them requireth neither more labour cost or skill then other seeds And further that the Materials made from these are extreamly necessary for how miserable should we be without Linnen Canvases Cordage Nets How can we put our ships to Sea which are the bulwarks of this Isle And yet we are necessitated to have these Commodities from those who would destroy I will not say the Nation but I may boldly say our Shipping and Trade I hope that this will more seriously be considered by those at the Helme of our State I will freely and plainly relate how this Deficiency may easily be remedied according to my judgment 1. To compel by a Law that all Farmers who plough and sow 50 or 100 Acres of Land should sow half an Acre or an Acre of Hemp or Flax. or to pay 5 s. or 10 s. to the poor of the Parish where they live or some Law to this purpose for there is no man but hath land fit for one of these Hemp desiring a stiff deep rich land Flax that which is light For there is so much irrationality in some professions that they must be forced even like Bruits to understand their own good· In King Edward the sixth days something was enacted to this purpose as I am informed In Henry the eighth days there was a Law enacted that every man should sow his lands and that no man should enclose his lands lest he should turn it to Pasture for we have had great dearth in England through the neglect of Tillage which Laws even as yet stand in force yet there is not nor needeth there be any force to compel men to till and sow their lands for they have at length found the sweetnesse and willingly go about it for their own profits sake and now we suppose and not without cause that Enclosing is an Improvement and so concerning Hemp and Flax I say if they were once accustomed to sow them they would never leave it as I see Farmers do in East-Kent scarce a man but he will have a considerable plot of ground for Hemp and about London far greater quantities of Flax is sown then formerly 2. It were convenient that every Parish through the Nation should have a stock to set their poor to work that the young children and women might not run up and down idle and begging or stealing as they do in the Country of Apples Pease Wood Hedges and so by little and little are trained up for the Gallows 3. That a severe Law should be enacted against those who run up and down and will not work for if all know that they may have work at home and earn more within doors honestly then by running roguing up and down why should they not compel them to it And though some may think the Parishes will lose much by this way because that the stock wrought will not be put off but with losse as perhaps 10 l. will be brought to 8 l. yet let them consider how much they shal save at their doors how many inconveniences they are freed from their hedges in the Countrey shall not be pulled their fruits stoln nor their Corn purloined and further that the poor will be trained up to work and therefore fit for any service yea and in their youth learn a calling by the which they may get an honest livelyhood and I dare say their Assessements for the poor would not be so frequent nor the poor so numerous and the benefit which redounds to the Nation would be very great 4. The charitable deeds of our forefathers ought to be enquired after that they be not misplaced as usually they are but be really bestowed for the good of the poor that are laborious as in London is begun and if there be any that will not work take Saint Pauls rule who best knew what was best for them I dare not advise to take it in part of Commons Fens c. and to improve them for this use lest I should too much provoke the rude mercilesse multitude But to return to my discourse I say that sowing Hemp and Flax will be very beneficial 1. To the Owners of Land for men usually give in divers places 3 l. per Acre to sow Hemp and Flax as I have seen at Maidstone in Kent which is the only place I know in England where thread is made and though nigh an hundred bands are imployed about it yet they make not enough for this Nation and yet get good profit How advantageous will this be to those who have drained the Fens where questionlesse Hemp will flourish and exsiccate the ground for Hemp desireth stiff moist land as Flax light and dry and likewise to those in the North of England where land is very cheap I hope in a little time Ireland will furnish us with these commodities if we be idle for there land is very cheap and those
seeds need no ininclosure for Cattle will not touch them except Dear neither doth it fear the plunderer either in the field or barn 2. It 's profitable to the sower I know that they usually value an Acre at 10 or 12 l. which costeth them usually but half the money Whether there be Flax that will yeild 30 or 40 l. per Acre as some report I know not 3. To the place where it is sown because it sets many poor to work I wish it were encouraged more in the North than it is because there are many poor who could willingly take pains and though spinning of linnen be but a poor work yet it is light and may be called Womens recreation and in France and Spain the best Citizens Wives think it no disgrace to go about spinning with their Rocks and though in some part the poor think it nothing to earn 4 or 6 d per day and will as soon stand with their hands in their pockets as work cheap yet in the North they account it well to earn 3 d. or 4 d. by spinning which they may do Lastly It would be very beneficial to this Nation and save many thousand pounds I may say 100 thousands which are expected either in cash or good commodities and we should not be beholding to Holland for fine linnen and Cordage nor to France for Poldavices Locrams Canvases Nets nor to Flanders for thread but might be supplyed abundantly with these necessary commodities even at our own doors There is no small Deficiency in dunging and manuring lands both because all that manner of manuring and amending lands is not known to every one and also that they do not imploy all they know to the best use I will therefore set down most of the wayes I have seen here in England and beyond Seas by which Land is improved and the best wayes to use the same 1. To begin with Chalk which is as old a way as Julius Casars time as he himself reporteth in his Commentaries Chalk is of two sort 1. A hard strong dry Chalk with which in Kent they make walls burn lime and make whiting for houses 2. Kind is a small unctuous Chalk this is the Chalk for land the other helpeth little onely it maketh the Plough go easier in stiffe lands broomy land is accounted the best land for Chalke and Lime but it helpeth other lands also especially if you Chalke your ground and let it lye a year or two which is the way used in Kent that it may be matured and shattered by the Sun and rain otherwise if it be turned in presently it is apt to lye in great clods as I have seen it twenty years after Chalk also sweetneth pasture but doth not much increase it and killeth rushes and broom 2. Lime which is made of divers forts of stones is an excellent thing for most Lands and produceth a most pure grain 160 bushels is usually laid on an Acre but I suppose that if men did lay but half the dung on the ground as they usually do as also Lime and Chalke and Dung and Lime it oftener it would be better Husbandry for much dung causeth much weeds and causeth Corn to lodge and too much Chalk doth too much force the land so that after some good crops it lyeth barren many years It 's good Husbandry likewise to lay down lands before they be too much out of heart for they will sooner recover otherwise not 3. Ordinary Dung which every one knoweth but let it not be exposed to the Sun too much nor let it lye in an high place for the rain will waste away it's fatness It 's observable that earth the more it is exposed to the Sun it 's the better as we see that land is much bettered by oft ploughings for the Sun and dew engender a nitrous fatnesse which is the cause of fertility but dung is exhausted by the Sun as it appeareth by the folding of sheep which profit little if it be not presently turned in therefore a Shepherd if his time would permit should turn up the ground with an How for to sow Turneps as Gardiners do for to sow I have seen Ordinary Dung on dry lands in dry years to do hurt and it oft causeth weeds and trumpery to grow 4. Marle It 's of divers kinds some stony some soft some white some yellowish but most commonly blew It 's in most places in England but not known by all the best marks to know it is to expose it to the Aire and to see if the Sun or Rain cause it to shatter and break in square pieces like dice and if it be unctuous or rather to take a load or two and lay it on the midst of your fields and to try how it mendeth your lands It 's excellent for Corn and Pasture especially on dry lands In Essex the scouring of their ditches they call Marle because it looketh blew like it it helpeth their lands well 5. Snaggreet which is a kind of earth taken out of the Rivers full of small shels It helpeth the barren lands in divers parts of Surrey I believe it 's found in all Rivers It were well if in other parts of England they did take notice of it 6. Owse out of Marsh ditches hath been found very good for white Chalky land as also Sea-mud and Sea-Owse is used in divers parts of Kent and Sussex 7. Sea-weeds of all sorts rotted 8. Mr. Carew in his Survey of Cornwall relateth that they use a fat Sea-sand which they carry up many mises in sacks and by this they have very much improved their barren lands It were worth the while to try all manner of Sea-sands for I suppose that in other places they have a like fertilizing fatnesse 9. Folding of Sheep especially after the Flaunders manner viz. under a covert in which earth is strawed about 6 inches thick on which they set divers nights then more earth must be brought and strawed 6 inches thick and the Sheep folded on it and thus they do continually Winter and Summer I suppose a shepheard with one horse will do it at his spare hours and indeed sooner then remove his fold and this folding is to be continued especially in Winter and doth the sheep good because they lye warm and dry and truly if I am not mistaken by this means we may make our sheep to enrich all the barren dry lands of England 10. Ashes of any kind Sea-cole-ashes with Horse-dung the Gardiners of London much commend for divers uses It 's great pitty that so many thousand loads are thrown into wast places and do no good 11. Soot is also very good being sprinkled on ground but it 's too dear if it be of wood for it 's worth 16 d or 2 s a bushel 12. Pigeons or Hens-dung is incomparable one load is worth 10 loads of other dung therefore it 's usually sown on Wheat that lyeth afar off and not easie to be helped it 's
extraordinary likewise on a Hop-Garden 13. Mault-dust is exceedingly good in Corn-land blood for trees also shavings of horns which are carried many miles from London for this purpose as also the dust of mault 14. Some commend very much the sweeping of a ship of salt or drossy salt and brine it 's very probable because it killeth the worms and all fertility proceedeth from salt At Nantwich they use the dross or refuse of salt for their Meadows with very good success 15. I have seen in France poor men cut up Heath and the Turf of the ground and lay them on an heap to make mould for their barren lands Brakes laid in a moist place and rotted are used much for Hop-Grounds and generally all things that will rot if they were stones would make dung 16. In New-England they fish their ground which is done thus In the spring about April there cometh up a fish to the fresh Rivers called an Alewife because of its great belly and is a kind of Shade full of bones these are caught in wiers and sold very cheap to the Planters who usually put one or two cut in pieces into the hill where their Corn is planted called Virginia-Wheat for they plant it in hills 5 Grains in an hill almost as we plant Hops in May or June for it will not endure Frosts and at that distance it causeth fertility extraordinary for two years especially the first for they have had fifty or sixty bushels on an Acre and yet plough not their Land and in the same Hills doe plant the same Corn for many years together and have good Crops besides abundance of Pompions and French or Kidney beans In the North parts of New-England where the fisher men live they usually fish their Ground with Cods-heads which if they were in England would be better imployed I suppose that when sprats be cheap men might mend their Hop-grounds with them and it would quit cost but the dogs will be apt to scrape them up as they do in New-England unless one of their legs be tyed up 17. Vrine In Holland they as carefully preserve the Cowes Vrine as the Dung to enrich their land old Vrine is excellent for the Roots of Trees Columella in his Book of Husbandry saith that he is an ill Husband that doth not make ten loads of dung for every great beast in his yard and as much for every one in his house and one load for small Beasts as Hogs This is strange Husbandry to us and I believe there are many ill Husbands by this account I know a woman who liveth five miles South of Canterbury who saveth in a paile all the droppings of the Houses I mean the Vrine and when the paile is full sprinkleth it on her Meadow which causeth the grass at first to look yellow but after a little time it grows wonderfully that many of her Neighbours wondred at it and were like to accuse her of Witchcraft 18. Woollen-rags which Hartfort-shire men use much and Oxford-shire and many other places they do very well in thin Chalky Land in Kent for two or three years It 's a fault in many places that they neglect these as also Linnen rags or Ropes-ends of the which white and brown paper is made for it 's strange that we have not Linnen-rags enough for paper as other Nations have but must have it from Italy France and Holland 19. Denshyring so called in Kent where I onely have seen it used though by the word it should come from Denbighshire is the cutting up of all the Turffe of a Meadow with an instrument sharp on both sides which a man with violence thrusts before him and then lay the Turff on heaps and when it is dry they burn it and spread it on the ground The Charge is usually four Nobles which the goodnesse of a Crop or two repayeth 20. Mixture of Lands Columella an old Writer saith that his Grandfather used to carry sand on clay and on the contrary to bring clay on sandy grounds and with good success the Lord Bacon thinking much good may be done thereby for if Chalk be good for loamy land why should not loam be good for Chalky banks 21. I may adde Enclosure as an Improvement of land not onely because that men when their grounds are enclosed may imploy them as they please but because it giveth warmth and consequently fertility There is one in London who promised to mend lands much by warmth onely and we see that if some few sticks lye together and give a place warmth how speedily that grasse will grow 22. Steeping of Grains The Ancients used to steep Beans in salt-water and in Kent it 's usuall to steep Barley when they sow late that it may grow the faster and also to take away the soil for wild Oats Cockle and all save Drake will swim as also much of the light Corn which to take away is very good If you put Pigeons-dung into the water and let it steep all night it may be as it were half a dunging take heed of steeping Pease too long for I have seen them sprout in three or four hours 23. Is the sowing of Course and cheap Grain and when they are grown to plough them in For this purpose the Ancients did use LVPINES a Plant well known to our Gardiners and in Kent sometimes Tares are sowen which when the Cattel have eaten a little of the tops they turn them in with very good Improvement for their ground Lastly To conclude I may adde as a main Deficiency that though we by experience find that all the foresaid Materials and divers others as oft-tilling Husbandry seasons c. change of Seed and Land resting of Lands fencing c. do cause Fertility yet we are very ignorant of the true causes of Fertility and know not what Chalk Ashes Dung Marle Water Air Earth Sun c. do contribute whether something Essential or Accidental Material or Immaterial Corporal or Spiritual Principal or Instrumental Visible or Invisible whether Saline Sulphureous or Mercurial or Watry Earthy Fiery Acreal or whether all things are nourished by Vapours Fumes Atoms Effluvia or by Salt as Urine Embrionate or Non specificate or by Ferments Odours Acidities or from a Chaos or inconfused indigested and unspecificated lump or from a Spermatick dampish Vapour which ascendeth from the Centre of the Earth or from the Influence of Heaven or from Water onely impregnated corrupted or fermented or whether the Earth by reason of the Divine Benediction hath an Infinite multiplicative Vertue as Fire and the Seeds of all things have or whether the multiplicity of Opinions of learned Philosophers as Aristotle Rupesc Sendivog Norton Helmont Des Cartes Digby White Plat Gla uber concerning this Subject sheweth the great difficulty of this Question which they at leasure may peruse I for my part pare not venture on this vast Ocean in my small Bark lest I be swallowed up yet if an opportunity presents shall
Diamonds are found about Bristol and Cornwall very large but soft There is a stone near Beaver Castle like a Star In York-shire another like a Serpent petrefied and also other stones round like bullets which being broken have as it were a Serpent in them without an head c. 6. Of all Minerals and Metals Iron-stone is found almost in every County and is profitable where Wood is plentiful the best is found in Laneashire one load and an half making a Tun of Iron it hath been transported into Ireland to mix with poor Mine In Richard the seconds time a Copper-Mine was found in Wenlock in Shrepshire but exhausted in Queen Elizabeth's dayes one was found at Keswick in Cumberland and ately in Staffordshire York-shire and near Barstable in Devonshire on which some Gentlemen intend speedily to work Lead is found in Durham Wales and Devonshire Brimstone in York-shire and Wales Antimony in Staffordshire a silver Mine in Cardiganshire a gold Mine was discovered in Scotland in King James his time and many rich Mines might be discovered in England if that the Kings Prerogative which was to take all Royal Mines to himself viz. Silver Gold Copper were so cerainly abolished that they which should find these Metals in their own Lands might safely dig them But some wil object say that many things are of little worth and profit To these I answer that God hath made nothing in vain every thing hath his peculiar use and though some things seem to be of little worth and contemptible as Sand Loam Chalk yet it hath pleased the wise Creatour to make these things very necessary for mans comfortable subsistence which they that want these things can testifie As for example in New-England where there is no Chalk nor Lime-stone they are compelled to burn Oyster-shels Cockles to make Lime or else they could hardly build any houses The like I may say of Sand and Loam in divers places where they are wanting 2. I say that most of those things I have spoken of are very profitable in one place or other To instance in some of the meaner sort at London Brickmen give 50 li. per Acre onely for Loam to make Bricks and pay 3 li. per Acre of yearly Rent and are to leave the Land worth the same yearly Rent likewise I know a Chalk-cliff in Kent not two Acres of ground valued at many an hundred pound and that one Colum of Chalk which is ten foot square is valued at forty or fifty pound at 8 d. per load The Oker Mines of Oxford and Glocestershire are of great value and so would others of that kind if they could be found so is the Black-lead Mine Also the pits of Clay Marle Coale Turffe c. And therefore I desire all Country men to endeavour to know all sorts of Stones Clays Earths Oares and to teach their Children the use of them that they may know that this sand is for building this Loam is for Bricks this Clay for Pots this Marle for Corn-land and if that they shall find any Stones Earths which they know not that they would lay them up till that they meet with some ingenious man that can inform them The richest Mines of the world have been found out by these means if we will believe Histories And this I am sure of that by this means they may much advance their knowledge and be more profitable to the Publique their Neighbours and also to themselves 17. Deficiency is the ignorance of the Vegetables of this Island and their Vertues and Vses And the first Deficiency that I take notice of is the ignorance of the ordinary seeds which are commonly sown amongst us for usually the Countrey-man contenteth himself with one or two sorts and knoweth no more when as there are very great varieties some of which agree with one sort of ground some with another As for example there are very many sorts of Wheats some called White Wheat some Red Wheat some Bearded which as I have said before is not so subject to Mildews as others others not some sorts with two rows others with four and six some with one ear on a stalk others with double ears or two on the same stalk Red-stalk Wheat of Buckinghamshire Winter Wheat Summer Wheat which is sown abundantly in New-England in April and May and reaped ordinarily in three months and many sorts more Not to trouble my discourse with Spelt Zea Tiphine-Wheat or Olew Far Silâ—go Alica which were used amongst the Ancients but now unknown not onely to the Countrey-man but even to the learnedest Botanicks so I may say that the ordinary Yeoman is ignorant of the diversities of Barley's for there is not onely the ordinary Barley but big sprat-Barley which hath lately been sown in Kent with good profit also Winter-Barley sowen in Winter Barley with four six rows naked Barley which require divers dispositions in Land some delighting in finer others in stiffer grounds So there is also Winter and Summer-Rie and twenty sorts of Pease the ordinary Schew the Raith or Early-ripe Pease the Roncivals Hastivers Hotarses Gray-Pease Green-Pease Pease without skins Sugar-Pease whose shels are sweeter then the Pease it self and have been within these ten years plentifully sowen in Lincoln-shire with profit also Fulham Sandwich-Pease c. which require divers sorts of lands and seasons so also there are divers sorts of Oats white black naked which in New-England serveth well for Oatmel without grinding being beaten as they come out of the Barn Scotch Poland c. Also Buck-wheat Lentiles divers sorts of Tares of Hemp and Flax altogether unknown to most Countrey-men but I hope that hereafter they will be more inquisitive after them for divers of them may be of good use on their lands 2. Deficiency in this kind is that they are ignorant of the Plants and Grasses which naturally grow amongst us and their Uses which likewise were made for to be food for Cattel and also for the service of man This ignorance causeth them to admire and to esteem even as miraculous ordinary and trivial things as for example how it cometh to passe that in one Meadow an Horse thriveth very much and speedily and yet a Bullock will not in that place and contrariwise in a Meadow close by the former the Bullock will thrive and the Horse not so also how it cometh to pass that Conies and Sheep will thrive well where there is scarcely any pasture and yet come to nothing on Commons where there is a greater quantity of pasture which proceedeth from this cause that some kind of Plants are more agreeing and sweeter to one sort of Cattel then to another and every Beast almost hath some Plant or other which they love exceedingly I suppose that the observances of this kind might be very useful in Husbandry These Deficienciâ—s I will draw to three Heads 1. I say that divers Plants not to speak of Fruits because we have already spoken of them that grow
Cures which would be too long and you may read them in Master Markam's works the Countrey-Farmer and others I will instance only in two which some years sweep away Cattel as the Plague doth men viz. the Murrein amongst great Cattel and the Rot amongst Sheep And though divers have wrot concerning the Cures of these Diseases yet we doe not find that effect which we desire and therefore I hope some will attempt to supply this Deficiency and write a good Treatise about the Diseases of Cattel Of these two Diseases I shall briefly declare my mind And 1. Of the Murrein which proceedeth from an inflamation of the blood and causeth a swelling in the throat which in little time suffocateth the Cattel The especial Causes of this Disease are a hot and dry season of the year which dryeth up the waters or at least doth so putrify them that they are unwholsome and also the letting of Carrion lie unburied This Disease is thought to be infectious but perhaps it may proceed from one common cause as the rottennesse of sheep The best way to keep your Cattel from this Disease is to let them stand in cool places in Summer and to have abundance of good water and speedily to bury all Carrion and if any of your Cattel be infected speedily to let them blood and to give them a good Drench c. By these means divers have preserved their Cattel when their Neighbours have perished 2. Concerning the Rot of Sheep not to speak of the Pelt-rot or sheep that are starved but of the ordinary rot called by some the white rot and is a kind of dropsie their bellies are full of water and their liver discoloured I have seen out of the livers of sheep tending to rottennesse living Creatures leaping like small Flounders which without question in little tune will destroy the liver and consequently produce an indisposition not unlike to the Rot. The common people say that these worms are caused by the over-heatings of sheep and that Rottennesse proceedeth from a Plant called Cotyledon or Marsh-Penny-wort which is of a very sharp tast and therefore not likely that sheep will eat it but it may be a signe of wet rotten land as broom is of sound and dry land This is certain that in wet moist years sheep dye very much of the Rot and in dry years on the same ground they hold sound and yet I have heard that in Ireland which is far moisture then England rottennesse of sheep is not known so much It were therefore well worth the labour of an ingenious man to inquire into the causes of these indispositions in sheep The means which have been found very effectual for the curing of these Diseases are these first to drive your sheep up to dry Lands or to keep them in the fold till the dew be off the grass or to feed them some days with fine dry hay especially of salt Meadow or to put them into salt Marshes for in those places sheep never rot or to drive them to some salt River and there to wash them and make them drink of the water this will kill the scab and also the ticks and fasten the wool but if you have not the conveniences before said then rub their teeth with salt or rather make a strong pickle with salt and water and force them to drink thereof Some dry pitch in an Oven and adde to the pickle and have found very good success for these Medicines do exsiccate the superfluous humidities open obstructions and kill worms Some commend the Antimonial Cup as a Catholick Medicine against all diseases of cattel 3. We are ignorant of divers ingenuities concerning feeding and fatting of cattel and other creatures To instance in some And 1. Of the Horse who is a great feeder In Kent and Hartsortshire they usually cut all their Oats and Pease small and give them with their â—haff by this means the Horses sooner fill themselves and eat all the straw up some put the Horse-meat into a bag and so order it that a little only lyeth in the Manger which when that is eaten up more falleth down and not before by this way Horses do not blow their meat nor throw it out of the manger with their Noses A further good piece of Husbandry they use which is this when their Horses are well fed at night they fill the Rack with Wheat or Barley-straw and so leave them the Horse perceiving that that which is in the Rack is not very pleasant lyeth down and taketh his rest which is as good to him as his meat if he rise in the night and fall to the rack and manger as he usually doth and findeth nothing but straw he sleepeth till the morning but if it be Hay Tares or Pease the Jade will pull it all down and spoil it and and likewise will be hindered from his rest by the which double damage doth insue Currying and dressing of horses ought not to be forgot it is half as good as their meat Brimstone and Elecampane roots are the especial ingredients for this Physick For Worms and Surfet are the two commonest Diseases 2. Of the feeding and fatting of Cows We usuall feed cattel with straw in racks in the yard or turn them to the fields and there let them feed as much and how they please which hath many inconveniences as first Cattel spoil as much with their heels as they eat especially if the ground be moist or if the fliebe very troublesome and they blow stench tumble much and if the flie be busie they run up and down and over-heat themselves and fat very little so that often-times in June or July they fatten as little as at Christmas and most of their dung is lost by these means c. But in Holland they do thus They keep their Cattel housed Winter and Summer for the Winter provision they lay in not only hay but also grains which they buy in Summer and bury in the ground and also Rape-seed and Lin-seed cakes and sow Turneps not only for themselves but their Cows also with the which Turneps being sliced and their tops and Rape-seed cakes and Grains c. they make Meshes for their Cows and give it them warm which the Cows will slop up like Hogs and by this means they give very much milk In the Summer time they mow the great Clover-grasse and give it them in racks so that their Cattel are not troubled with the pinching frosts nor rains nor with the parching Sun in Summer neither with the Flie nor do they over-heat themselves or spoil half so much meat and are always as fat as their Masters or Bacon-hogs The Dung and Urine they charily preserve and thereby keep their Meadows of Clover-grass which are constantly mowen twice or thrice yearly in good heart and indeed cattel ought not to go amongst Clover-grass because it usually groweth with long Haum as they call it like Pease which if it be broken will
Husbandman that dwelleth within a few miles of any City make a rich benefit by bringing certain loads of Areable earth yearly into Cities and by giving a bushel or two of wheat to certaine Housholders of his acquaintance for the enriching of it as aforesaid The third Experiment or Improvement where is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth near to the Sea which may be carried many miles You must understand that this Compost is profitable onely for such ground where bay-salt is apt to cause fructification or sea-sand as in divers places in Cornwall where they carry it on horse back divers miles and find that it maketh a very excellent Improvement Well thus may you work and make as rich a Compost as any can be in the world for ground of that nature Let a place be chosen where there is an Acre of kindly earth where it may be floated at every spring-tide and afterward the water dryed away by the heat of the Sun and then ploughed and served so many times till it be as fertile as you please The like may be done by watering the earth with sea-water and by ploughing it with scoopes all summer or till it be as fertile as you please and in some parts of England the sea water may be let into the land many miles for the purpose aforesaid The like may be done by mingling earth with Malt dust Pigeons dung or any other Compost which is found to doe much good with a small quantity as Malt and other Corn spoyled by any accident may be ground into Meal and mingled with earth or putrified with the earth a whole yeare unground till it be turned into earth Also Lime and dung or combustible earth mixed together or all three ploughed divers times for a year till they be turned into earth is a rich Compost If you can find out the true adaptation of this and of all my other Composts then you may save forescore pounds in the hundred pounds in the fertilizing of any Arable land in England and also you may afford to carry your Compost to places and barren grounds far distant which now admit of no improvement within charge by reason of their great distance of place And if the distance be very far then you may try with Bay-salt Saltpeter Soap dissolved in hot water or any other substance which enricheth Arable land exceedingly and when you have hit the mark then you may bring these substances twenty thirty or forty miles and yet you fertilize your Arable land by my new Invention cheaper than with common dung though it were to be had within a mile of the place if you enrich the earth with these Liquors or Salts dissolved and so make use of my Engine for the filling of the holes when the Corn is set The fourth Experimene or Improvement wherein is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth for the purpose aforesaid which may also be converted into Salt-peter It is found by experience that where the Salt-peter men do find an old house of Office in a dry vault where no moysture doth annoy it there they get their best Liquors Also it is found by experience that Horse-dung being putrified and turned into earth in a dry place doth likewise yeeld much Salt-peter Also it is found by good experience that Clay walls made of some kind of Clay doe yeeld great store of Salt-peter which may be seen in Oxford-shire and divers other places where Pidgeons resort to the clay walls and thereby give intelligence to the Salt-peter men to steep the same who many times finde the liquors so rich that they will steepe many pearches in length of such walls though they make up the walls again at their own charges according to the Law By all these Experiments joyned together it seemeth that a rich Compost either for Land or for Salt-peter may be made as followeth First let an little frame of an house about four foot high be framed in every mans backside as well in Cities as Countrey Towns and let there be nothing but studs and those very thin and let it be length and bigness of a Sâ—wpit or grave or greater or lesser at pleasure Then build a little house of Office over it which be broader than it to keep it from rain and moysture Then make up the walls about a foot thick with this composition of earth following and in less than a eleven years all the walls and ordure will yeeld either good store of Saltpeter or a rich earth for Compost worth twenty shillings a load at the least for the fertilizing of land If every houshold have two of these houses he shall never have more trouble but to make use of one while the other doth ripen The walls must be made of horse dung and so much clay as will temper it and the lesse the better so that it will hold together The Clay must not be of the nature of Brewers clay I mean such as will stop water of the Mawmy clay in Oxfordshire and many other places which is partly of the nature of Marle and will break it self which lying abroad in winter like unto Marle or Lime whereby it is discovered to contain much salt in its composition which if it be well chosen will wonderfully adde to the richnesse of the earth when it is putrified fox both uses to wit for Compost or Salt-peter at pleasure If this work were well put into practise the very ordure of every family might be so improved by my new invention that it would produce as much Corn again as was spent in the sayd house in the former yeares besides that barren land and far distant from other Compost might this way be made fertile And for the poorer sort whom the charge may be made considerable for the building of the houses they may lay a load or two of good earth like a bed in a garden and cover it from rain and with a moveable stoole or seat make this earth as rich as the other But in all works where Salt-peter is expected you must make a little ditch about the earth which shall produce it or else the least moysture will draw away the Salt-peter even as the Salt-peter men doe with their Tubs And if any man would take in hand to build such houses of Office in or near to any Market-place School Colledge or other place where there is a great confluence of people he might gain soundly by it and also doe a pleasure to the Common-wealth And let no man doubt of this relation for if the Compost be apt for the land and seed it is marvellous to see the increase thereof I had the last summer 18. for one upon a tryall which I made with Beere Barly which doe call Barly which some doe call Barly big it hath four square eares and I did nothing to it but steeped in blood for one night and then set it at a eleven
inches depth and six inches distance and it yeelded more than twice as much as other Corn of the same kind being not steeped at all in any thing and being set at the same depth and distance and in the same ground on purpose to see the difference The fifth Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how the difference of the nature of land may be found out thereby to fit it with an apt Compost It is found by experience that where vegetables dumb as Ferne Whinnes Broom and the like have long grown and dyed upon the ground and have continued in this course of husbandry or rather ill husbandry for many years there the earth doth abound with the vegetable salt or juice for the cure whereof it is likewise found by experience that Lime Bay-salt and Ashes and Pidgeons dung and such like things of hot and binding nature doe poyson it and decrease the fertility It is likewise found by experience that in such grounds which have been long occupied in good Husbandry there dung is the best Compost in the world the cause is for that by long continuance in such husbandry the nature of the land is quite changed by the yearly carving of the Corn Hay or other crops whereby the vegetable salt or juice is diminished and contrariwise the hot and binding nature doth predominate which require for cure salt-peter dung blood and such things wherein the vegetable salt or juice predominateth The middle of these natures of ground require Sheeps dung as of all other most temperate being neither so hot and dry as Lime Bay-salt Ashes or Pidgeons dung nor so cold and moyst as the dung of beasts in the room whereof Lime putrified with dung or more earth as aforesaid may supply the want thereof very exceedingly The use of these Observations and Experiences may teach us that all books heretofore written for this purpose are frivolous for they prescribe such a Compost for such an earth of such a colour or of such a mixture as sand clay hasel earth white clay red clay white sand red sand black sand c. whereas it is found by good experience that where Lime was the most excellent Compost in the world about a hundred yeares agoe there about fifty yeares agoe they were forced to change their Compost and to lay upon the same ground half Lime and half Dung and now the same ground requires the Dung onely or else it will yeeld no Corn for Lime poysoneth it yet is not the colour or quality of the same ground in outward visibility to the eyes corporal but by the intellectual eyes beholden of all men of good understanding Therefore that all men may obtain their desire in this worke my counsel is that the more skilful men if they take in hand to improve twenty Acres or more or lesse of such land which they have not formerly tryed fully that they goe the best known way with nineteen Acres the first year or two and make divers several tryals in the odde Acres till they have hit the mark punctually And as for the more unskilfull my counsel is that they doe make divers several trials in the odde Acre the first year and let the other be used as aforetime till by experience they have learned to improve all the best way By this meanes many notable Improvements may be found out of inestimable benefit both to the Farmer Parson and Landlord and also to the whole Common-wealth plenty without any sensible or considerable losse to the undertaker And for the better instruction then is contained in any book formerly printed or written of this subject for the Adaptation of Compost let this suffice for brevitie viz. where the earth is subject in the heat of summer to chap much if it be clay or to burn much if it be sand there if you apply Lime Salt Ashes or Pidgeons dung or any thing of like hot and dry nature there you poyson it Also where the earth is not apt to chap or burn in the heat of summer there it you apply any other thing except Lime Salt Ashes or Pidgeon dung or other things of hot and dry nature there you poyson that also for as it is a foolish thing for a Cook to put more salt into the pot when the pottage were too salt before so is it as fond a trick in Husbandry to adde a Compost to land wherein that quality predominateth which doth also predominate in the land for Corn and Seeds are as nice in their diet and nutriment as any Lady in the world and will not prosper nor draw the nourishment if it be never so little distastful and this is the cause why so many times so little a quantity of Compost doth work such wonderful effects by the exquisite adaptation to the land or seed Men might easily find out an apt Compost for such land as hath been Devonshired and hath spent its fertility which it will do in three years and then it is reputed nothing worth I assure my self that Lime and combustible earth putrified together will doe the feat yea and that with a small quantity if it be dispersed by my Invention The sixth Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how Farm-houses Mannors or Towns may be builded upon high grounds and plentifully furnished with water It is found by experience that in some places Townes are builded upon high grounds where Springs or Wels are easily had and there a thousand Acres of land near to the Town are made worth a thousand pounds in the year and that a mile off a thousand Acres of the same land for want of Improvement are not worth above a thousand shillings so that there is lost to the Owners and to the Common-wealth nine hundred and fifty pounds yearly For the prevention of which loss let every Farmer have a Court paved like a Tennis-court and let the Barns Stables and other Edifices be so builded that all the Rain-water that they yeeld may run into the said Court and from thence into a vault or well out of which it may be pumped up or run into your kitchins or other houses of Office which rain water will keep sweet in the close vault and will serve for all uses whatsoever This is commonly practised in Spain where they have no other water throughout the whole year for all uses and their Gentlemen do chuse to build upon high grounds for the benefit of the goodness of the air which is more wholsome in all Countries in the Mountains than in the Vallies Also in Venice and Amsterdam and in other places where other waters are usually brackish they keep rain water in Sellars for all uses Also it is found by experience in Rumney Marshes that they use to gather rain water from Churches and other Edifices and never have so good and wholsom drink as when they brew with such water And where Tarris is wanting there you may make use of good clay which is of the nature of
a Rick of Corn upon it which may be kept three or four years without losse or trouble If when Winter is past Corn be very cheap then would I have all the richest Farmers who are able to forbear their money to thrash up the most part of their other Corn and to take down the foresaid Rick and to make it up again with a leere of thrashed Corn with chaffe and all together by which meanes he may lay up a wonderfull great quantity in a little room and have his Straw for his present use and withall the poorer sort of Farmers may have a better sale for their Corn to pay their rents withall And as for Cities and Corporate Towns I would have all Housholders of good ability to keep a yeares provision of Corn before hand and not to spend it till time of dearth by which means the dearth will not be so grievous when it cometh and also the cheapnesse in time of plenty will not so much â—rejudice the poor Farmer And for the preservation of this Bread-corn he may lay it up in a Garner four or five foot thick and it will keep sweet a long time without stirring If he mingle therewith some Flint stones Pibbles old Iron peeces of Iron taken out of the Kiln which never took rain since their burning one bushel of any of these mingled with twenty bushels of Wheat Rie Mastline or any other Bread-corn will keep it from heating and if it heat not it cannot corrupt As for Malt it will keep two or three years upon a great heap without stirring or trouble if it be well dryed at the first And if the price expected come not soon enough it is good to change this old store sometimes and to lay up new in the room and never to diminish the stock till it will yeeld double price at least I have known Barly at six pence the bushel in Northampton Market and at five shillings a bushel in the same place within a year also I have known Wheat at three shillings and six pence in London and at fifteen shillings the bushel within a year following and Histories of good credit declare greater changes than these in former Ages so that me-thinks that it were well if Rich men when they dye were strongly exhorted and perswaded to give some number of quarters of Corn to be preserved for the publick store against such miserable times of dearth and famine A friend of mine propounded to the City of London to shew them a way how they might keep a thousand quarters of Corn in such a floor where now they can keep a hundred by mingling Corn with great Beans exceeding hard dryed on a kiln which may be separated easily with a wire Trie and are as profitable as the Wheat and that they should be eased of the charges of turning Corn in the store-houses This Gentleman had learned the experience by long traveling into far Countries who when the City were not forward to gratifie him for his paines and good will told me how it was to be done which here I will divulge for the benefit of posterity In hot Countries the use is in some places to put Corn inâ— Vaults to keep it cool from putrifaction but this is not found to be a good experiment for these cold Countries In Egypt I have credibly heard that the Store-houses which Joseph erected had no covers but how it was so long preserved I cannot learn nor conceive unlesse those Countries being hot and dry having no rain at all doe ripen the Corn so well and free it from moysture that it is not apt to putrifie though it lye sub dio which seemed to be possible for that Malt well dryed will keep two or three years without stirring and also Corn in Russia where for want of maturation they are 2forced to dry it in stoves which will keep a long time but howsoever it is certain that these former directions being observed in England the extream cheapnesse in time of plenty may be remedyed whereby poor Farmers may not be so greatly damnified and also the extream dearnesse in time of scarcity may be mitigated whereby the poor buyers of Corn supply the rest which I wish may be practised with all possible diligence especially in time of dearth which will save such a wonderful quantity of Corn for present relief as 〈◊〉 he Store-houses in any Kingdom could never preserve the â—â—e in all Ages heretofore It is found by experience that when there is but a little Corn too much to sell in a Market there the price falleth too extreamly Also if there be never so little a quantity too small to serve then the price is enhansed too much in all conscience For the remedy of which two inconveniences being so great all courses seem to be taken which may possibly be devised The tenth Experiment wherein is shewed the natural cause why the changing of Seed corn produceth an improvement also certain wayes for the melioration of Seeds and Fruits It is found by experience that if Seed-wheat be brought from barren and stony land and sown upon rich clay ground it prospereth wonderfully the cause is double First the Corn that groweth upon a barren land is more plump and full than that which groweth upon very rich land and therefore hath more force to encrease Secondly the Corn that growth upon stony land hath attracted plentifully the Juter or petrifying saltish nature which falling into another earth where that substance is wanting standeth in stead not onely of seed but also of compost The like might be shewed in many other works of this kind but I wish that this may serve to give light to the rest As for the meliorating of Seeds and Fruits the former experience sheweth the way for there is in every compounded substance in the world a double kind of fatness or sulphur the one â—s apt to putrifie the other not so apt but endureth longer without putrifaction this may be seen in Cabbages and other Garden fruits growing near great Cities where dung is plentiful which if they be boyled in water and the water kept a little time it will stink sooner than that wherein the like stuffe hath been boyled which growed in grounds more barren Whereby it appeareth that the extream fatting of ground with dung doth in some sort adulterate the seeds and fruits and pisorate their quality and contrariwise the sowing the same in more barren earth doth meliorate the quality of the same Therefore the best way is to sow set or plant seeds in barren land for seeds onely for by that meanes they will get a greater melioration in their quality when they are intended for seed than the posoration can be in the sowing them in earth much enriched with dung for in all rich dunged earth the attractive virtue of the seed draweth much of the fatness which is not much putrified whereby it declineth from its former virtue and goodnesse The one of these
fatnesses is gratefull to humane nature the other is offensive for the avoyding of which inconvenience I know none better than to let the dung be fully putrified and turned into earth without stnking before it be mingled with the Corn or Seeds And this may be done by my former Inventions in such sort that there may be above forescore pounds in the hundred saved in the Compost of all the Arable land in England There are three causes why people in the Country live longer and have better health than those that live in great Cities The first is the aire is more pure and wholsome The second is their food doth not abound so much with the fatness and sulphur which is apt to putrifaction and to contaminate the blood The third is their much exercise doth evacuate that part of their nutriment which is ungrateful to humane nature The contrary to all these is in great Cities where the aire dyet and exercise are so much different the effect doth shew the cause very clear so that there need no other or further philosophation concerning the same If any man doubt whether vegetables draw the corruptible or stinking sulphur or fatness which lyeth within the reach of their attractive virtue let him behold the places where beasts have lately dunged in Pastures and he shall finde that there the grasse is more sowre and gistastfull to the Beasts and Cattle The eleventhâ— Experiment wherein is shewed how rich Compost may be made in great Cities of things formerly cast away The water wherein Fishmongers water their Fish being made as salt as it will bear with the foul salt in the sweeping of ships salt Lime great Larders and other such places being boyled in Butchers slaughter-houses when their beasts are to be killed and the blood let run warm unto it being likewise hot it will not clodder but will be admirable good liquor to imbibe good Wheat earth whereby it may be made the richest Compost in the world to fill the holes where Wheat or Barley is set for that one bushel of this earth is sufficient to be mingled with three or four bushels of the earth of the land it self by which means great charge is saved in the carriage it selfe by reason that a little quantity will work a great effect Saltpeter for some grounds is more apt and cheaper though the price be greater for a little quantity will work a great effect especially where the land is hot and dry by nature Saw-dust is excellent to mingle with earth to fill the holes where Corn is set in strong binding clay ground Also shavings of horn hoofs of all beasts hair of beasts woollen rags chapped small are admirable Shavings of horn are now usually sold in London for three shillings and six pence a sack for the same purpose also woollen rags for two shillings a sack As for hoofs of beasts hair and Tanners horns may be putrified in good Arable wheat earth being kept dry from rain and then the earth and all together is the richest Compost in the world to be used for the filling of the holes where Wheat is set Also all other composts whatsoever mentioned in this book are the most wholsomest for mans body and most effectual for producing of great encrease if they be thus ordered The twelfth Experiment wherein is shewed how any Kingdom may live in great prosperity with half the trouble and charge which now they sustain and yet live in adversity It is found by experience that where there is a good Council of War there the kingdom is well defended and where there is good regularity in Divinity there the soul is preserved from sickness Why should it not be so for the state temporal if a council of Husbandry was erected whereupon the happiness of all kingdoms doth depend Surely if a certain number of the best experienced men were deputed for this purpose who might regulate the rest it would produce a great perfection in that knowledge which as it is the most ancient of all Sciences so it is the most excellent and honourable for that by it all Princes live and no Inferiour person can possibly live without it The Plebeans are like those in Ireland who will not lay aside their old custom to draw their horses by the tayls though an Act be made against it nor lay aside the burning their Corn in the straw to save the labour of thrashing though their houses lye unthatched I have known some Parsons in Parishes which have been skilful in Agriculture and have been excellent Improvers of land and some that were good physitians and have done much good in their Country that way I have also known some Landlords qualified with the same skils and certainly if all were so it would conduce greatly to the prosperity of a Kingdome for the greatest profit would redound to those two sorts of men yet may the marter be easily ordered so that the rest might live in twice as much prosperity as now they do and though they were doubled in number for I have known many men to live better with 30. acres of land than others have done with an hundred of acres and if need require I can shew where one acre of land hath been worth two hundred pound per an by being planted with Mellons and a whole family have lived well upon it and gathered riches If the course of Husbandry were regulated in this manner viz. That no man should occupy any land in Pasture whose fertility may perpetually be encreased by the means of water though the hay growing thereupon were totally spent to produce dung for the fertilizing of high grounds Also that no man should occupy any land in Tillage whose fertility may be perpetually increased in Pasture by having the same dung spent upon them which they yeeld naturally Also that no man should Till any other land but such high and barren land as is not able to fertilize it selfe and should make use of my several Inventions for the enriching of the same Then would there be left but little barren land in England in a short space whereby all the premises in this twelfth Experiment might be easily performed A friend of mine did search divers Register books in several Parishes in England he also searched the Parsons bookes of Tythes and found that where Arable land as turned into Pasture there were fewer Christnings and many more tyth Lambs and tyth Calves whereby he discovered a kinde of Witchcraft which is to turn men into beasts To dissolve this Witchcraft there is no other way but to goe the contrary way and whereas the Landlord found more gain in the increasing of sheep and beasts than formerly he found in the increasing of people to shew a way how more gain may accrew to the Landlord by the increase of people than formerly he found in the increase of beasts and surely this is no hard task for if the peoples employments be well regulated there will come more
profit a great deal than by beasts And if there be any doubt whether people may be had to improve the land and to produce greater profit than beasts can doe let but things be so ordered that the Plebeans may have such good employments whereby they may maintain a married estate plentifully and it will be found by a short experience there will be no want of servants By this means the Parsons may double their tyths the Landlord may double his rents and the common people though doubled in number may live twice as well as they did before and Princes and Statesmen shall not have half the trouble which they had before for want and necessity is found to produce grudgings and discontentments These have produced Rebellions and Insurrections all which have caused Princes for to lose their kingdoms many times and turned the state of Countries topsey turvey Besides that the lives of men would be lengthened as in former Ages by their good and wholsom diet for there can be no other cause in nature why men should be now of lesser stature and enjoy worse health and dye sooner than in former Ages but these few viz. First men are much imployed with worldly cares and difficulty for living in populous Countries which might easily be remedied by the means aforesaid Secondly the Corn which should be the preserver of other meats from too sudden corruption in the bodies of men before the chilus hath performed all his several offices is now adulteraâ—ed and contaminated much by mixing the dung with the corn before the corruptible part thereof be consumed and so the corn helped to contaminate the blood which should preserve it and would do it powerfully if my new Invention were generally put into practise Thirdly in populous Countries where there is difficulty of living the pure law of nature is not observed in Marriages and married estates but other respects doth sway overmuch which causeth defects in many generations But to return to my main subject I am now about a way to experiment to meliorate any Corn Pulse Seed Kernel Fruit c. and doubt not but to bring it to passe in such sort that the pleasantness of the tast the wholsomness of the smel and the ability to keep other meats from sudden corruption in mans body will invite great men in general to make use of the same and to give good prices so that a Farmer may maintain his family well and grow rich too by the planting of 1 Acre of land yearly For upon my certain knowledge there are fondly cast away in every family in England as well in great Cities as Country-towns so many things as being used according to my direction would produce such an increase of corn yearly as would serve for the maintenance of the said family and would be more wholsom for the body of man than the greater part of corn which now usually groweth in England yea though this Compost should be used in the more barren sort of land So that now the question is not whether this Land and so consequently other Kingdoms may live in worldly happiness and prosperity for ever hereafter but whether they will do so or not for if they be willing they wil shew the same by their actions and then I am sure there is no doubt to be made of the possibility thereof Whereby an Vtopia may be had really without any fiction at all If order were given that every Over-seer of the poor in their Parishes only one day in the year in the practise of some of these new Inventions as setting of Wheat of compounding of Composts in great Cities fit to be carried many miles then they would be expert against a year of dearth and famine so that they might be employed in that work whereby a wonderfull quantity of corn might be saved for the present relief of the Land which else must needs be imported from other Kingdomes for which the wealth of this Land must needs be exhausted The thirteenth Experiment wherein is shewed how timber for buildings and wood for houshold-stuffe may be provided in short space It is found by experience that a Chesnut will grow in ten or twelve yeares into a fair tree able to be the Master-post of a fair building and then there is no question but that it may be provided into lesser parts for studds and spars It is also found that a Walnut will grow in the like time into a tree able to make little tables boxes stools and chests very beautiful and sit for use to adorn the house Whereby any younger brother that will shew so much frugality and providence as to obtain leave of his father to plant a certain number of such trees in some convenient place in his fathers lands in his minority while he is a School-boy he may not onely have wood to build him an house and to furnish it against his occasion but also he may win so much credit by his industry and diligence that as for my part if I had a daughter to marry I would sooner match her with him though I purchase him land to set his house upon than with his elder brother if he wanted those gifts and qualities though he were able to make a good Joynture For I have seen by experience that a present estate either real or personal is not to be compared to the quality of thriving which any man else may likewise see by experience that sometimes yea many times a Farmer being industrious intelligent and provident though he pay a good round rent liveth better than a Freeholder which is owner of much free-land The fourteenth Experiment wherein is shewed divers waies concerning Fruit-trees It is found by experience that if the kernel of a Pear or Apple be set and not grafted but be let grow to a great tree then it will not bear fruit till forty or fifty yeares as a great number of other trees of the same kind It is likewise found by experience that a Siens taken from a tree that is fruitfull and also from the most fruitful bough of that tree and being grafted into a young stock of the same kind as that before mentioned will bear fruit in a quarter of the time which the other did the cause can be no other but that nature hath ordained a certain time for propagation in all things but yet the said time was accelerated in the grassed tree by Art helping Nature but in the other tree time was left to natures free determination So that every one may make choice of these two wayes at pleasure and if he aim at his present profit then graffing is his present way and best but if he aim at the profit of his posterity then it is best not to graft at all And by this means he may change the tasts of fruits at pleasure which by graffing he cannot doe for it is found by experience that if three kernels of several sorts be put into the cave
gained that is about fourteen shillings in the pound gained yearly And for two years after the same ground will bear most excellent Wheat Rye or Barley all charges payed to the value of four Quarters of Barley on an Acre worth one time with another twenty shillings a Quarter al a hundred and twenty thousand Quarters and so also a hundred and twenty thousand pound yearly Thus shall forty thousand Poor be kept constantly at work all the year and the Commonwealth eased of that burthen and advantaged besides a hundred and fifty thousand Quarters of Hemp-seed a hundred and fity thousand tun of Cloth and Cordage and above a hundred and twenty thousand Quarters of good Corn and the Undertakers amongst them shall gain clearly three hundred and sixty thousand pound sterling yearly This is set down purposely the Charge with the most and the Return with the least And if the number of so many Rich men cannot be found to engage for any of these sums more persons and lesse engagements may begin the work An Answer to five Queres or Objections against the Proposition for setting the Poor to work upon Hemp growing or to be growing in England Qu. 1. WHether those in France c. practising this way do make the Gaines here supposed all Casualties considered Answ Whether they in France c. doe make so great or greater profit I cannot tell as having never been there to see but 't is probable they doe equal this if their ground be equal as some will have it superiour to ours in fertility and fitnesse for this weed Qu. 2. Whether we can spare the land here in England or whether it is not already imployed to more benefit Answ To this I can better answer as the thing I pretty well know that the Land may not onely be spared but will otherwise very much enrich us and advance our plenty of Corn and this is declared in the Proposition and the Question therefore not so pertinent Yet for a farther Answer I affiâ—m that there is demonstratively in England and Wales above 4000000 of Acres for Tillage and you finde but forty thousand Acres to be used yearly for the sowing of Hemp which is but the hundereth part and it is there promised that in the two or three succeeding years wherein the same land shall be sowed with Corn amends shall be fully made for the missing of that yeares crop and more by the goodnesse of those that follow The last part of this Quere is soon answered for it is generally known that an Acre of Corn taking one time place grain with another throughout is hardly worth forty shillings whereas a reasonable Acre of Hemp is worth standing four pound some five pound some six pound and very many more And then the Acre of Corn is worth no more than it shews for whereas the Hemp to the Commonwealth as well as the particular owner is of far greater value if we consider that one Acre of Hemp well wrought up may be worth above a hundred pound but then the charge may amount to the better half indeed Qu. 3. Whether by the inexperience of the people of this Land other Nations will not very much under-sell us Answ I could as well have propounded Flax as Hemp since in many cases and places it is more usefull and profitable but â— onely name it in the Proposition and if you observe the reason there given for so doing you will find much of this Question answered or prevented But how far other Nations may under-sell us or we them I leave to the judgment of those that are more Merchant-like to which I lay no claim but at most to be one that would fain be a good Inland Husband a Lover of my Country and a faithful seeker of her Peace Prosperity by all just and lawful means Yet thus much I can say to the point that to my knowledge many hundreds I think I may say thousands of Acres are with great advantage to the possessors imployed in this way namely in the Isle of Axholm and other the parts of Lincolush c. which place is more populous than any part of England that I know and yet few or no Beggars And I have a little lookt into the prizes yet I find not English hemp differ much in price from that which is imported it seems to me that necessity rather as not having enough at home causes such importing I have seen a Hull Merchant stand upon three pence a pound for raw Hemp when the same day English Hemp that was adjudged every whit as good was sold for two pence half penny I have also known Hemp fetched by Waggon from Bourn in Lincolnshire to Glocester upon the River of Severn And our Experience certainly we may blush to say we have not sufficient skill to make Cordage or such kinds of coarse cloath as the Proposition intends namely such as is commonly used to make Sheets Table-cloathes Towels Napkins and the coarser sorts of Shirting or the like As for the finer sorts we may work our selves into the kill and practice of making such by degrees and at more leasure Qu. 4. Whether when we make so much Linnen Cordage as here we shall have so good vent for our Native commodities for which Cordage Hemp c. is returned Answ As I said I pretend not to judge of Merchants affairs yet I have not heard of any of our native commodities which are vented for Hemp or Cordage or the like which will not be acceptable to the same or other Countries for the return of as good commodities Once I am sure that those commodities are onely or at least most fit to import which we cannot so well make native to us as Spices Wines Drugs Medicinal Silkes c. And I suppose it cannot be unhappy or unfit for us to make as many our own as by good meanes we can especially Hemp Cordare c. since we cannot be without them and are not sure alwaies to hold fair correspondence with those Nations from whom we have them the chief strength of England principally consisting in Shipping 't is but a coarse policy to have our Cordage c. to keep Qu. 5. Who will advance so great a summe in unsetled times upon a New Trade having in it the afore-mentioned and perhaps more difficulties Answ If you please to observe my Proposition you will find I say onely if such men may be found I promise not to find them but if they will finde themselves I hold forth to them the sweet invitation of a greater advantage than I beleeve they can otherwise obtain by direct and good means And then adde to that the double and treble service or good they shall all under one do tax for their Christian Brethren and native Country And if this will not this will not invite cannot perswade them yet me-thinks we should rather take occasion to bewaile our own theirs and the Commonwealths misery and aversnesse