Obstruction and hath been frequently complained of For the remedy whereof a Statute to compel the Minor party to submit to the Judgment and Vote of the Major and equally to capacitate all persons concerned for such an Enterprise would be very welcome to the Country-man wherein all particular Interests might be sufficiently provided for as well the Lord of the Soil as the Tenant and the poor It is a common thing to have very many great and large High-ways High-ways an Impediment ways over most of the Common Fields and Waste Grounds in England which prove a very great Check to the Designe of Enclosure and may most easily be reduced if a Statute may be obtained for that purpose which was not long since in agitation though not compleated than which as well for the Compulsion and Enabling of opposite and uncapacitated persons and providing for several Interests as for the Regulating and right Disposition of common and necessary Ways no Act or Statute can be of greater or more publique Advantage to the Kingdom in the more vulgar way or method of Husbandry There are several Common-fields Downs Heaths and Waste Trees not thriving an Impediment Lands that should they be enclosed it would be very difficult and in some places seem impossible to advance or propagate any quick Fences or considerable quantity of Trees as before is hinted at by reason of the great drought such Land is subject unto in the Summer and destructive cold Winds in the Winter and Spring To which we reply That after or according to the usual manner of Planting such Trees or Hedge-rows come to little because the young Cions they remove are commonly brought from a fertile warm or moist Soil into a cold barren or dry which must needs produce such an inconvenience Also they oftentimes plant Trees not naturally agreeing with the Soil they remove them into or else plant them deep into the barrenest part of the Earth or at least take little or no care to defend them when planted from the external Injuries of Drought Cold c. But if any are willing or intend to raise a Quick-fence or propagate Trees on such open Land subject to such Inconveniences the only way is to raise a sufficient quantity before-hand in a Nursery for that purpose of such Trees or Plants that naturally delight in that Land where you intend to plant them and then to place them in such order as you will finde hereafter described in the Chapter of Woods that the Roots be not below the best Soil and that they have a sufficient Bank to shelter them on the one side and an artificial dry Hedge on the other which may be continued till the quick Plants are advanced above common Injuries Or you may sowe the Seeds of such Trees you intend to propagate in Furrows made and filled with a good Earth and secured from Cattle either by a double Hedge or by ploughing the Land for several years and not feeding the same with Cattle till such time as the Trees are grown up which will soon repay the imaginary loss of the Herbage or Grasing especially if the young Cions be the first and second years of their growth a little sheltered from the sharp Winds by shattering a little Straw Brake or Hawm lightly over them which will also rot and prove a good Manure and qualifie the heat and drought of the Summer And when once you have advanced an indifferent Bank Hedge c. about your new Enclosures you may much more easily plant and multiply Rows and Walks of Timber Fruit and other necessary Trees the destructive edge of the cold Winds being abated by the Hedges c. We frequently have observed on several high and supposed barren Hills and Plains Woods and Trees flourish and in open Fields or Gardens within the shelter of those Woods Trees and other Plants prove as well as in the lower Valleys that it is enough to convince any rational person that by Enclosure only may most if not all the Open Champion Plam Waste and supposed barren Lands in England be highly improved and advanced to an equal degree of Fertility to the Enclosures next adjacent using the same good Husbandry to the one as to the other which can never be whilest it is in Common It is observed that of most sorts of Land by how much the Dividing Land into small parcels an Improvement smaller the Enclosure or Crofts are the greater yearly value they bear and the better burthen of Corn or Grass and more flourishing Trees they yield and the larger the Fields or Enclosures are the more they resemble the Common Fields or Plains and are most subject to the like inconveniencies We generally finde that a Farm divided into many Severals or Enclosures yields a greater Rent than if the same were in but few Too many Hedges and Banks in rich or watered Meadows waste Enclosing of watred Meadows not an Improvement much Land and injure the Grass by their shadow by dripping for that needs no shelter Grass abides any weather and in case the cold Spring keeps it back it fears not drought but hath water and heart sufficient to bring it forwards unless you plant such proving Aquatick Trees whose shrowds shall exceed in value the Grass they injure which may well be done in Rows and on the edges of the Banks c. and will amount unto a considerable Improvement if you select the right kinds That Wheat sown in Enclosures or any Land under the Winds Wheae in Enclosures subject to Mildew is subject to Mildew is a general opinion amongst Husbandmen And the only great Inconveniencie Enclosure is subject unto Mr. Hartlib saith is Mildew But this is only an injury to one sort Legacie of Grain Neither is it yet certain that Enclosure is the cause for we finde and observe that Wheat in the Fielden Country is subject to Mildews though not so frequent as in the Enclosure by reason that the Land is not so rich generally nor so moist as Enclosures are which in Summer-time emit a greater quantity of that Moist Spirit or Vniversal Matter of Vegetables whereof we discoursed before than the dry hungry open Field-Land doth which being coagulated in the Air falls in form of a Dew sometimes on the Oak and is then food for Bees sometimes on Hops and on Wheat whether high or low enclosed or open Nay sometimes on the one half of a Hop-garden or a Wheat-field and not on the other But Blasting hath commonly been mistaken for Mildew Wheat being subject also to it in the best and richest Lands in moist years whereof more in another place so that we cannot finde Enclosure only to be the cause of either Blasting or Mildew other than that it is the richest and best Land Also we may observe that in the Wood-lands or Countries where most Enclosure is there the Land yields the greatest burthen of Wheat as well as other Grain and more rarely
fails than in the Champion Country wet Summers being not so frequent as dry the Vales and Enclosures also being by far the greater Support of our English Granary than the Open Champion and the Hills which yields us 't is true the greater part of our Drink-corn delighting in the more hungry Soil and proves a good Supply in a wet Summer for the other CHAP. III. Of Meadow and Pasture Lands and the several ways of their Improvements either by watring or drowning or by sowing or propagating several sorts of extraordinary Grasses or Hays c. MEadow and Pasture Lands are of so considerable use and advantage to the Husbandman that they are by some preferred above Arable in respect of the advantage they bring annually into his Coffers with so little Toil Expence and Hazard far exceeding in value the Corn Lands and of principal use for the Encrease and Maintenance of his Gattle his better food and the chiefest strength he hath for the Tilling and Improving his other Lands Meadow and Pasture Lands are generally of two sorts Wet or Dry the Wet Meadows are such that the Water overflows or drowns at some times of the year under which term we shall comprehend all such Meadows or other Lands that are artificially watred or over-flown or that are under that capacity of Improvement The Dry Meadows or Pastures are such that are not over-flown or watered by any River or Stream under which we shall comprehend all such Inclosures or Severals that lie warm and in a fertile Soil yielding an annual burthen of Hay or Grass or that are capable of Improvement by sowing or propagating of new Grasses Hays c. or other ways of Improvement SECT I. Of the Watring of Meadows Of Wet Meadows or Land under that capacity of being over-flown or watred there are several sorts First Such Meadows that lie generally flat on the Banks of great Rivers and are subject to the over-flowing of such Rivers in times of Land-floods only Secondly Such Meadows that lie near to lesser River or Streams and are capable of being drowned or watered by diverting such River or some part thereof out of its natural Current over the same Thirdly Such Meadows or Lands that lie above the level of the Water and yet are capable of Improvement by raising the Water by some artificial ways or means over them All which sort of Meadows or Lands under those capacities are very much improved by the Water over-flowing them as every Country and place can sufficiently evidence and testifie Humida Majores herbas alit Virgil. Neither is there scarcely any Kingdom or Country in the World where this is not esteemed an excellent Improvement How could Egypt subsist unless Nilus did annually Fertilize its Banks by its Inundation Several other Potent and wealthy Countries there are in those African and Asian Territories whose richest and most Fertile Lands are maintained in their Fertility by the Sediment of the over-flowing Waters Huc summis liquuntur rupibus Amnes Virgil. Felicemque trahunt limum But these are Natural yet are not some Countries without their Artificial ways of advancing this ponderous Element to a very considerable Improvement as Persia Italy c. abound with most ingenious ways for the raising of the water as well for their Meadows as other necessary uses On the Banks and Borders of our great Rivers and Currents are Of Meadows watred by Floods the most and richest Meadows consisting generally of a very good fat Soil as it were composed of the very Sediment of the Water overflowing the same after great and hasty Rains such Meadows are capable of very little Improvement especially those that border on the greater Rivers as Thames Severn Trent Ouse c. uncapable of obstruction at the pleasure of the Husbandman Yet where such Meadows lying on the borders of great Rivers are of a dry and hungry Soil and not frequently overflowed by Land-floods may Artificial Works be made use of for the raising the water over the same to a very considerable advantage whereof more hereafter in this Chapter Other Meadows there are and those the most general in England Of Meadows watered by diversion of Rivers c. that border on the lesser Rivers Streams c. and in many places are overflown or drowned by diverting the Water out of its natural and usual Current over them This is of late become one of the most universal and advantageous Improvements in England within these few years and yet not comparable to what it might be advanced unto in case these several Obstructions were removed that impede this most noble and profitable Improvement First The several Interests that are in Lands bordering on Rivers Hinderances to drowning hinder very much this Improvement because the Water cannot be brought over several quantities of Land under this capacity but through the Lands of ignorant and cross Neighbours who will not consent thereunto although for their own advantage also under unreasonable terms and some will not at all others are not by the Law capacitated for such consent as we noted before concerning Enclosures Secondly That great and pernicious impediment to this Improvement Mills standing on so many fruitful Streams prohibiting the Laborious and Ingenious Husbandman to receive the benefit and advantage of such Streams and Rivers carrying in their bowels so much Wealth into the Ocean when the Mills themselves yield not a tenth of the profit to the Owners that they hinder to their Neighbours and their work may as well be performed by the Wind as by the Water or at least the Water improved to a better advantage by facilitating the Motion of the Mill whereof more hereafter Thirdly Another grand Impediment is the Ignorance of the Countrey-men who in many places are not capable of apprehending neither the Improvement nor the cause thereof But because some certain Neighbours of theirs had their Land overflown a long time and was little the better therefore will they not undergo that charge to so little purpose or because they are commonly possessed with a foolish opinion that the Water leaves all its fatness on the Ground it flows over and therefore will not advantage the next which is most untrue for I have seen Meadows successively drowned with the same Water to almost an equal Improvement for many miles together It is true the Water leaves its fatness it hath washed from the Hills and High-ways in the time of great Rains but we finde by daily experience that Meadows are fertilized by overflowing as well in frosty clear and dry weather as in rainy and that to a very considerable Improvement And also by the most clear and transparent Streams are improved ordinary Lands that they become most fertile Meadows Fourthly From a greedy and covetous Principle they suffer the Grass to stand so long on the watered Meadows that it is much discoloured and grown so hawmy and neither so toothsom nor wholesome as that on unwatered Meadows
time for the Soiling of Meadows and Pasture-lands Time for Soyling is in the Winter-season about January or February that the rains may wash to the Roots of the Grass the fatness of the Soil before the Sun drieth it away and dissolve the clots that may be spread with a Bush drawn over it like a Harrow before the Grass be too high Ashes of Wood Peat Turf Sea-coal or any other Fewel is Soyl for Rushy and cold Land very proper to be laid on Cold Spewey Rushey and Mossie Land not sandy or hot and suits best therewith and agrees with the Husbandry of burning the Turf as is before advised the dung of Pigeons or any other Fowl works a better effect on that than other Lands also all hot and sandy Soils are fittest for that sort of Lands Lime Chalk Marle or any cold fossile Soils are an extraordinary For sandy or hot Land Improvement to dry sandy hot Lands of a contrary nature or temperature as well for Meadow and Pasture as for Corn-Land I have seen much of the blew Clay which they call Vrry that 's digged out of the Coal-mines and lies near the Coal laid on Meadow and Pasture-lands to a very considerable advantage Many instances of wonderful Improvements made by mixing of Soils of contrary natures you may finde in several of our modern Rural Authors Between these two extremes your ordinary dung or Soil is best For other Meadows bestowed on your Meadows and Pastures not so much inclining either way for it is a very principal part of good Husbandry to apply the Soil or Compost properly as the nature of the ground requireth whereof you may finde more hereafter in the Chapter of Soils Dungs c. SECT IV. Of several new Species of Hay or Grass It is found by daily experience not only in forein parts but in our own Country that a very great Improvement may be made on the greater part of our Lands by altering the species of such Vegetables that are naturally produced totally suppressing the one and propagating another in its place which may rejoyce and thrive better there than that before as we evidently see by Corn sowen on Land where hardly Grass would have grown what a Crop you reap but these are but Annuals that which raises the greatest advantage to the Husbandman is what annually yields its increase without a renovation of expence in Ploughing and sowing as we finde in the Clover-grass or great Trefoyl St. Foyn or Holy-Hay La Lucern Spurrey-seed Trefoyl None-such c. whereof apart This Grass hath born the name and is esteemed the most principal Of the Clover-grass of Grass both for the great Improvement it brings by its prodigious Burthen and by the excellencie of the Grass or Hay for Food for Cattle and is much sowen and used in Flanders and in Holland Presidents to the whole world for good Husbandry In Brabant they speak of keeping four Cows Winter and Summer on an Acre some cut and laid up for Fodder others cut and eaten green here in England they say an Acre hath kept four Coach-horses and more all Summer long but if it kept but two Cows it is advantage enough upon such Lands as never kept one You may mow the first Crop in the midst or end of May and lay that up for Hay if it grow not too strong it will be exceeding good and rich and feed any thing then reserve the next for Seed which may yield four Bushels upon an Acre each Bushel being worth three or four pound a Bushel which will amount to the reputed value of ten or twelve pounds per Acre and after that Crop also it may be fed It hath also this Property that after the growing of the Clover-grass three or four years it will so frame the Earth that it will be very fit for Corn again which will prove a very great Advantage and then again for Clover Thus far Mr. English Improver Blith Others say it will last five years and then also yield three or four years together rich Crops of Wheat and after that a Crop of Oats In the Annotations upon Mr. Hartlibs Legacie we finde several Computations of the great Advantage hath been made by sowing Clover-grass as that a parcel of Ground a little above two Acres the second year did yield in May two Load of Hay worth five pounds the next Crop for Seed was ripe in August and yielded three very great Loads worth nine pounds that year the Seed was 300 l. which with the Hay was valued at thirty pounds besides the after-Pasture Another President is that on four Acres there grew twelve Loads of Hay at twice mowing and twenty Bushels of Seed one Load of the Hay mown in May being worth two Load of the best of other Hay and the After-pasture three times better than any other the four Acres yielded in one year fourscore pound Another that six Acres of Clover did maintain for half a year thirteen Cows ten Oxen three Horses and twenty six Hogs which was valued at forty pound besides the Winter-Herbage The aforesaid Presidents and Valuations seem prodigious unless The best Land for Clover-grass a rich light Land warm and dry be sown therewith in which it principally delighteth and then it may probably answer the said Valuations and must needs be a very high Improvement although the Ground were good and profitable before It will also prosper and thrive on any Corn-land well manured or soiled and brought into perfect Tillage Old Land be it course or rich long untilled is best for Corn and best and most certain for Clover-Grass and when you have Corned your Land as much as you intend then to sowe it with Clover is the properest season Land too rich for Corn cannot be too rich for Clover Poor Lands are not fit for Clover unless burnt or denshired as we shall hereafter direct or limed marled or otherwise manured and then will it bring forth good Clover An Acre of Ground will take about ten pounds of your Clover-Grass Quantity of Seed for an Acre Seed which is in measure somewhat above half a peck according to Sir Richard Weston The quantity of Seed for an Acre Mr. Blith conceives will be a Gallon or nine or ten pounds which agrees with the other But if it be husky which saves labour in cleansing of it and also sowes better by filling the hand than mixed with any other thing you must endeavor to finde out a true proportion according to the cleanness or foulness you make it but be sure to sowe enough rather too much than too little for the more there is the better it shadows the Ground Some have sowen fifteen pound on an Acre with good success ten pound some judge to be of the least however let the Seed be new and of the best which the English is esteemed to be The usual way is thus advised when you have fitted your Land The
prove better on cold stiff Land than on hot or dry c. We find many sorts of Wheat mentioned in our Rustick Authors as Whole Straw-wheat Rivet-wheat white and red Pollard-wheat white and Kinds of Wheat red great and small Turkey-wheat Purkey-wheat Gray-wheat Flaxen-weat I suppose the same in some places called Lammas-wheat Chiltern Ograve-wheat Sarasins-wheat with several other Names though it 's probable may be the same sorts The Great Pollard they say delights best on stiff Lands and so doth the Ograve Flaxen-wheat and Lammas on indifferent Land and Sarasins-wheat on any But what the different natures of these and other several sorts are and in what Land they most principally delight and the differences of their Culture I leave to the more ingenious and expert Husbandman to finde out and discover It is observed that the Bearded-wheat suffereth not by Mildew because the Beard thereof is a kinde of defence to preserve it from Dew Wheat is usually sown in the Autumn and best in a wet season Triticum luto hordeum pulvere conserite and either earlier or later as the nature of the Land and scituation of the place requires This is another very necessary Grain though usually converted Barley to the worst use of any that grows in England It is the principal Ingredient into our necessary Drink moderately used but the use thereof in excess is become the most general raging Vice and as it were the Primum Mobile to most other detestable Evils It is also a Bane to Ingenuity many of our best Mechanicks being too much addicted to the tincture of this Grain nevertheless it so naturally delights in our meaner sort of Land and in the Champion Countries that it 's become a principal part of the Countrey-mans Tillage that the too great a quantity thereof doth impede the propagation of several other Grains and Pulses much more necessary Neither know I any way to remedy this Neglect on the one side and Wilfulness on the other unless the Designe of Enclosure might take effect for then would the Lands be so much the more enriched that they would bear other Grain to a greater advantage to the Husbandman than Barley or that a double or treble Tax might be imposed on every Acre of Barley-land for what it is on other Grain which would provoke the Husbandman to that which would be most for his Advantage then would there be a greater plenty of all other sorts of Grain and Pulse and at a lower price and only good Liquor a little the dearer which may by House-keepers the easier be born withal The Seasons for sowing of Barley differ according to the nature of the Soil and Scituation of the Place Some sowe in March some in April others not until May yet with good success no certain Rule can be herein prescribed it usually proves as the succeeding Weather happens only a dry time is most kindly for the Seed There is little difference observed in Barley only there is one Difference of Barley sort called Rath-ripe Barley which is usually ripe two or three weeks before the other and delights best in some sorts of hot and dry Land This is a Grain generally known and delighteth in a dry warm Rye Land and will grow in most sorts of Land so that the Earth be well tempered and loose it needeth not so rich a Ground nor so much care nor cost bestowed thereon as doth the Wheat only it must be sowen in a dry time for rain soon drowneth it they usually say a shower of Rain will drown it in the hopper Wet is so great an Enemy to it It is quick of Growth soon up after it is sowen and sooner in the Ear usually in April and also sooner ripe than other Grain yet in some places is it usual to sowe Wheat and Rye mixed which grow together and are reaped together but the Rye must needs be ripe before the Wheat Neither can I discover where a greater advantage lies in sowing them together than in sowing them apart The principal season of sowing of Rye is in the Autumn about September according as the season permits and the nature of the Ground requires Oats are very profitable and necessary Grain in most places of Oats England they are the most principal Grain Horses affect and commended for that use above any other On such Lands that by reason of the cold no other Grain will thrive yet Oats grow there plentifully as many places in Wales and Darby-shire can witness there is no ground too rich nor too poor too hot nor too cold for them they are esteemed a peeler of the Ground the best season for sowing of them is in February or March The white Oat is the best and heaviest Grain The Meal makes good Bread and much used for that purpose in many places and also good Pottage and several other Messes and is in great request towards Scotland and in Wales Oaten Malt also makes good Beer It is a Grain exceeding advanteous on barren sandy Lands Buck-wheat or French-wheat it is much sowen in Surrey much less than any other Grain sowes an Acre it is usually sowen as Barley but later it is also late ripe and yields a very great increase and is excellent food for Swine Poultry c. after it is mowen it must lie several days till the stalks be withered before it be housed Neither is there any danger of the seed falling from it Our Rustick Authors mention several other sorts of Corn or Other sorts of Grain Grain as Xea or Spelt-corn Far Millet Sesame Rice c. which I shall forbear to particularize on until we are better satisfied of their natures and use and experienced in the way or method of their propagation Of all Pulses that are sowen or propagated Pease claim the Pease preheminence not only for their general use both by Sea and Land both for man and beast but also for the diversity of their kinds Almost for every sort of Land and for every season a different sort of Pease some are white Pease some gray green c. not necessary here to be enumerated every understanding Husbandman knowing what sorts best accord with his Land In a stiff fertile Ground they yield a very confiderable Crop without such frequent Fallowings as other Grains requires and destroy the Weeds and fit and prepare the Land for After-crops being an Improver and not an Impoverisher of Land as Husbandmen usually observe This also is of general use and benefit and placed before any Beans other Pulses by Pliny for its commodiousness both for man and beast yet we finde the Pease to be more universally propagated Of Beans there are several sorts the Great Garden-Beans and middle sort of Bean and the small Bean or Horse-bean The later only is usually sowen in Ploughed Lands and delights principally in stiff and strong ground and thrives not in light sandy or barren They are proper to be sown
afterwards in the same Tract gives the partilar Process which is thus Let Pease be taken and steeped in as much Water as will cover them till they swell and Corn and be so ordered as Barley is for Maulting only with this difference that for this work if they sprout twice as much as Barley doth in Maulting 't is the better The Pease thus sprouted if beaten small which is easily done they being so tender put into a Vessel and stopt with a Bung and Rag as usually these will ferment and after two or three or four Months if distilled will really perform what before is promised Thus he also adds may a Spirit or Aqua Vitae be made out of any green growing thing Roots Berries Seeds c. which are not oyly Also that the Spirit which is made out of Grain not dried into Mault is more pleasant than the other It is not unlikely that Grain may afford its tincture and that excellent Beer or Ale may be made thereof without Maulting but these things require in another place to be treated of and also of the different ways of Fermenting Liquors which we refer to another time and place Hemp-seed is much commended for the feeding of Poultrey The uses of Hemp-seed Flax-seed Rape and Cole-seed and other Fowl so that where plenty thereof may be had and a good return for Fowl the use thereof must needs be advantageous ordered as you shall finde hereafter when we treat of Poultrey Flax-seed or Lin-seed Rape and Cole-seed are generally made use of for the making of Oyl Of the Preservation of Corn. The Preservation of Corn when it is plenty and good is of very great advantage to the Husbandman and the Kingdom in general for in scarce and dear years the Husbandman hath little to sell to advance his Stock and the Buyers are usually furnished with musty and bad Corn from Forein parts or from such that were ignorant of the ways to preserve it Therefore in cheap years it will be very necessary to make use of some of these ways for the storing up your Plenty of Corn against a time of Scarcity The way of making of it up in Reecks on Reeck-stavals set on On Reeck-stavals stones that the Mice may not come at it is usual and common But Corn thrashed and clean winnowed is apt to be musty therefore Corn laid up with Chaff some advise that you lay up your Corn in the Chaff in large Granaries made for that purpose secure from the Mice and when you use or sell it then to winnow it Also it is advised to mix Beans with Corn and that it will preserve Corn laid up with Beans it from heating and mustiness It is probable that if the Beans be well dried on a Kiln it may succeed for then will they attract all superfluous moisture unto them which is the only cause of the injury to the Corn for in Egypt where it is so dry Corn will keep in open Granaries many years as in Pharaoh's time The Beans are easily separated afterwards from the Corn. It is also reported that pieces of Iron Flints Pebles c. mixed Iron stones c mixed with Corn. with Corn preserves it from heating which may be true for it is usual to set a stick an end in Corn only to give passage for the Air to prevent heating A large Granary also full of square wooden pipes full of small holes may keep long from heating though not so well as the Chaff Beans c. Also some have had two Granaries the one over the other and A double Granary one over the other filled the upper which had a small hole in the bottom that the Corn by degrees like Sand in an Hour-glass hath fallen into the lower and when it was all in the lower they removed it into the upper and so kept it in continual motion which is a good way also to preserve it SECT VIII Of the Preparation of the Seed The greatest part of Vegetables and more especially those whereof we have before treated are propagated of Seed which included in a very small shell skin or husk containeth the very Quintessence of the Plant that produced it and is as it were the Life and Spirit of the Vegetable coagulated into a small compass Etenim Natura è tota Plantae mole nobiliores maximè activas Dr. Willis de Fermentatione particulas segregat easque cum pauxillo terrae aquae simul collectas in Semina velut Plantae cujusvis quintas essentias efformat interim truncus folia caules reliqua Plantae membra principiis activis pene orbata valdè depauperantur ac minoris efficaciae ac virtutis existunt This Seed or Spirit of the Plant being cast into its proper Matrix or Menstruum in its proper time doth attract unto its self its proper nourishment or moisture which by its own strength or power it doth ferment and transmute that which was before another thing now into its own being substance or nature and thereby doth dispand its self and encrease into the form and matter by Nature designed A more Philosophick Definition and Dissection of the nature of the Seed and Vegetation we will leave to the more Learned and content our selves in our Rural Habitation with so much of the understanding thereof as shall guide us unto the Discovery and Application of what may be this proper Menstruum wherein each Seed most rejoyceth in and with most delight attracteth for it is most evident that every Seed as it differs in nature from another so it requires a different nourishment For we perceive that in the same Land one sort of Seed will thrive where another will not according to the Proverb Ones Meat is anothers Poyson and that any sort of Grain or Seed will in time extract and diminish such Nutriment that it most delights in Which is the cause that our Husbandmen do finde so Change of Seed an Improvement great an Advantage and Improvement by changing their Seed especially from that Land which is often tilled which they call Hook-Land into Land newly broken and from dry barren and hungry Land to rich and fat Land also from Land inclining to the South to Land inclining to the North è contra all which produce a good Improvement As Cattle that are taken out of short sour and bad Pasture and put into good sweet Pasture thrive better than such that are not so exchanged After the same manner it is with Trees removed out of bad Ground into good all which are manifest Signes that there is some particular thing wherein each Seed delights which if we did but understand we might properly apply it and gain Riches and Honour to our selves but because we are ignorant thereof and are content so to remain we will make use of such Soyls Dungs Composts and other Preparations and Ways of Advancement of the Growth of Vegetables as are already discovered
Lombardy they esteem them much above other Dung It 's best to lay them either on Corn or Pasture or Meadow in the beginning of Winter that the showers may the easier dissolve them Soot also is affirmed by some to be very good especially that Soot which is made of Wood. It 's most beneficial to Trees or Plants that either grow in the shade or to cold and moist Grounds Common Salt may prove advantageous if used with moderation Salt and discretion as well to saltish Sands Muds Earths c. Some commend very much the sweeping of a Ship of Salt or drossie Salt and Brine It is of singular use as daily experience testifies being dissolved and Seed-corn steeped therein to prevent the Smut and add fertility as we noted before in the Preparation of the Seed There is also a relation of one that sowed a Bushel of Salt long before on a small patch of barren Ground at Clapham which to that day remained more fresh and green and full of Swarth than all the rest of the Field about it This though not a beneficial Experiment by reason of the price of Salt yet a plain demonstration of the Fertility that is in Salts and gives us encouragement to make use of the Brines of Salt-pits or such-like now not in much esteem In Rags of all sorts there is good vertue they are carried far Rogs and laid upon Lands and have them in a warming improving temper one good Load will go as far as a dozen or more of the best Cow-dung Divers also have found singular profit in the Hair that is gotten Hair c. from the Hides of Beasts being thinly laid upon the Ground and suffered to putrifie Also course Wool-nippings and Tarry Pitch-marks may be reckoned into the number having great virtue in them Mault-dust is commended as an Inricher of barren Lands but Mault-dust because great quantities are not to be had thereof it is best to be used in Gardens where you will finde it to be of singular use only it is apt to breed Weeds All sorts of Fearn Straw Brake Stubble Rushes Thistles Fearn Straw Stubble c. Leaves of Trees or any manner of Vegetable Trash whatever either cast into the yards amongst the Cattle or Swine or cast into Pools or places to rot in or mixed with other Soils help very much and make very good Compost All Marrow-bones Fish-bones Horn or shavings of Horn or Bones horns stinking flesh c. Liquors wherein Flesh or Fish have lain or any other thing whatsoever that hath any oyliness or fatness in it is useful in Husbanding Lands It were not much labour to try whether the bones of Horses or other Beasts whereof there are great quantities at some Dog-kennels which if being burnt in heaps with some small addition of Fewel would be of good effect to be laid on Lands There is in all Bark a very rich Salt but in the Oaken-bark the Bark of Trees most which is made use of principally by Tanners but such Barks or Rinds of Trees not of so high a value being broken into small pieces must of necessity enrich either Corn or Pasture-ground being Earth in Willow-trees laid thereon It must needs be much richer than the Mould or Earth usually found in the bodies of old large and hollow Willow-trees that are putrified within which is esteemed to be so rich and effectual Amongst the Coal-Mines they usually dig a kind of blew or black Clay that lies near the Coal and is as it were an unripe Coal which the Country-men commonly call Vrry which they Urry lay on their Pastures with wonderful success and is very proper for warm Lands CHAP. VI. Of the Benefit Raising Planting and Propagating of all sorts of Timber-trees and other Trees useful either in Building or other Mechanick Vses or for Fencing Fewel c. SECT I. Of the Benefit of Propagating Timber-Trees and other Trees in general THe Propagation of Woods or Trees is none of the least Improvements that can be made on most of the Lands in England for the particular advantage and pleasure of the Country-man and in raising the yearly profits of his Farm and very much advancing the price of the purchase thereof over and above the Annual gain and nothing can render a Seat more delectable and pleasant than Wood and Water but principally the curious Groves surrounding or bordering near it What can be more profitable than Woods or Trees which will thrive and increase on the most barren and unfruitful Land be it either wet or dry cold mountanous uneven remote or never so inapt for any other manner of Culture where neither Corn Grass or any other necessary or useful Vegetable will hardly grow yet may we there perceive the lofty Woods flourish far exceeding in value the purchase of the Land without them and instead of injuring the Land whereon they stand it is much bettered and capacitated to bear tillage at the removal of the Trees also the other bordering grounds yield a greater encrease of Corn or Grass by their defence from the extremity of the cold and bitter blasts in the Winter and the scorching drought of the Summer And what can be more pleasant than to have the bounds and limits of your own Propriety preserved and continued from age to age by the Testimony of such living and growing witnesses in the Spring yielding a reviving Cordial to your Winter-chilled spirit giving you an assurance of the approaching Summer by their pregnant Buds and Musical Inhabitants In the Summer what more delectable than the curious prospect of the variety of Greenness dark shades and retirement from the scorching Sun-beams The Autumn and Winter also not without pleasure and content for the active Husbandman And what place can be more displeasing and ungrateful than a naked and dry Seat lying open to all Winds and Weathers of which it may be said as once of old Sarum Est ibi defectus Lymphae sed copia Cretae Saevit ibi Ventus sed Philomela silet As for the more particular advantages and benefits of planting Particular Advantages Woods and Trees you shall find that First It improves and meliorates the Land it self for those Lands where Woods have formerly stood and are now grubbed up or taken away the ground is very good and rich and bears excellent Corn or any other Tillage or Grass although the ground was before the planting or growing of those Woods barren lean and thin as may appear by the bordering Land on either side of such Woods that were never planted Secondly The Annual profits of most Land planted with Coppice-woods are much greater than if the same Land were used for Corn Grass or such-like For I have known on a hill Land not worth for Corn or Grass above five shillings per Acre that at twelve years growth the Coppice-wood thereon growing hath been sold at the rate of twenty pounds per Acre and at
destructive Frosts and also by covering whole Beds therewith preserves the Plants or Roots therein Also Straw Hawm Fern or suchlike dry Vagetable will defend any thing from the Frosts although the Litter be to be preferred But such things that are not to be touched or suppressed as Coleflower-plants Gilliflower-slips c. the placing of Sticks like some Booth or suchlike over them and covering them with a Mat or Canvas or suchlike doth very much defend them giving them Sun and Air in temperate days makes them the more hardy and preserves their colour Furze where it may conveniently be had is a very excellent shelter and defence against Cold being laid about Trees or over Plants of what kinde soever It breaks the violence of Winde and Frost beyond any thing else lying hollow of it self doth not that injury to Plants that other things do without support and proves many times better than a supported shelter Preserving them also from Rain unless as much as is sufficient to nourish them is a good prevention of Frosts for the Frost injureth no Plant so much as that which stands wet as I have often observed that Cyprus-trees and Rosemary standing on very dry ground have endured the greatest Frosts when others have perished by the same Frosts standing in moist ground although more in the shelter Also the most pernicious Frosts to Fruits succeed Rainy days a dry Frost rarely hurts Fruit. Gilliflowers and several other Flowers and Plants receive their greatest injury from wet which if kept dry endure severe colds the better Hot-Beds are much in use for the propagating of Seeds in the Spring c. which when they are covered prove secure remedies Conservatories wherein to remove your tender Plants in the Winter are a usual prevention of cold some whereof are made by some degrees warmer than others are suitable to the several natures of the Plants to be preserved But the compleatest Conservatories are large leaves of boards to open and shut at pleasure over your Orange or other Fruit-trees closely pruned against a Wall or Pale and planted either against your Chimney where you always keep a good fire or against some Stove made on purpose Aprecocks so planted against an ordinary wall with such doors must needs avail much in the Spring-time to defend the young and tender Fruit from the sharp Frosts and is a much more practicable and surer way than the bowing the branches into Tubs as some advise Others hang Cloaths or Mats over the Trees in frosty nights but these are troublesome It is evident that part of the same Tree being under some shelter from the Rain will bear plenty of Fruit when other part of the same Tree being open to the Rain bears but little in cold and destructive Springs though alike obvious to the cold and winde Therefore endeavour to preserve your tender Wall-fruits from the wet and you may the less fear the winde and cold To lay open the roots of Trees in the Spring to keep them backwards from springing is a very proper prevention against the Frosts in Apples Pears c. for we finde a forward Spring that excites the early Fruit too soon proves very injurious to it in case any Frosts succeed The freezing of water also proves sometime an injury to the Husbandman either by hindering his Cattle from drink or by destroying Fish that are confined in a small Pond so frozen To prevent the latter if you can let there be some constant fall of water into it though never so small which will always keep a vent open sufficient to preserve the Fish who can as ill live without Air as Terrestrial Creatures can without water Any constant motion prevents a total Congelation If you lay a good quantity of Pease-hawm in the water that part may lie above and part under the water it is observed that the water freezes not within the Hawm by reason of its close and warm lying together which will prevent the death of Fish as well as breaking of the Ice Fruit when it is gathered into the house is subject to be spoiled by Frosts therefore be careful to lay it in dry Rooms either seeled thatched or boarded for in frosty weather the condensed Air which is most in such Rooms adhering to the Fruit freezeth and destroyeth it which is usually prevented covering them with Straw c. but best of all by placing a Vessel of water near them which being of a colder nature than the Fruit attracts the moist Air to its self to the preservation of the Fruit even to admiration Great Rains prove injurious to such Lands that are of themselves Much Rain moist enough for the remedy whereof and to prevent such injuries see more in the next Section In such Lands that lie at the bottoms or foot of Hills where the great falls of Rain do annoy the Corn or Grass care is to be taken for the conveying away of the water by Channels or Passages made for that purpose In the time of Harvest the greatest Enemy the Husbandman usually finds is Rain against which the best remedy is Expedition To make Hay whilest the Sun shines It is a grand neglect that there are not some kinde of Artificial shelters made in Lands remote from our dwellings for the speedy conveyance of Corn into shelter in dripping Harvests and there to remain till fair Weather and leisure will admit of a more safe carriage Worthy of commendation is the practise used in Sommersetshire c. where they lay their Wheat-sheaves in very large shocks or heaps in the Fields and so place them that they will abide any wet for a long time when on the contrary in Wiltshire and other more Southernly Counties they leave all to the good or bad weather though far remote from Barns sometimes to their very great detriment so naturally slothful and ignorant are some people and naturally ingenious and industrious are other Where their Lands lie two or three miles from their Barns as in some places in Champion Countries they do the covered Reek-staval much in use Westward must needs prove of great advantage in wet or dry Harvests to save long draughts at so busie a time Where Lands lie at a far distance the one from the other several Barns built as the Land requireth are very convenient for the more speedy housing of the Corn for the better preserving of it the more easie thrashing it out the more convenient fothering of the Cattle with the Straw and for the cheaper disposing of the soil for the improvement of the Land where on the contrary one great Barn cannot lie near to every part of a large Farm nor can Corn be so well preserved in it nor with so much advantage disposed into Mows nor thrashed nor the fother nor soil so easily dispersed High-winds prove very pernicious and injurious to the Husbandman High Winds in several respects to his Buildings Fruits Trees Hops Corn c. as many in the
that your Neighbour hath without which or whilest you go farther you suffer great loss And what a sad thing it would be to be denied as Hesiod in his time observed Streighten not your self so as to ask to borrow of another lest he refuse and you want CHAP. XI Of the several sorts of Instruments Tools and Engines incident to this Profession of Agriculture and of some Amendments and Profitable Experiments in Building either by Timber Stone Brick or any other way Dicendum quae sint duris Agrestibus Arma Virgil. Queis sine nec potuere seri nec surgere Messes IT is impossible to go through the many difficulties in this Art without many and several sorts of Tools and Instruments as Ploughs Carts c. It is also difficult and unprofitable to make use of such Ploughs Tools and Instruments that are troublesome heavy and chargeable when the same labour may be as well performed if not better with such that are easie light and not so costly Therefore I shall in this Chapter discover unto you all the several sorts of Instruments necessary for the Husbandman and what inconveniencies have been found in some of them and the Remedies and what new ways or Methods have been of late discovered to facilitate his labours as I finde them dispersed in several Authors and have observed the same in several parts of this Kingdom this Instrumental part of Agriculture being not of the least concernment And shall also discover unto you several profitable Experiments and Directions in Building necessary to be known SECT I. Of the several sorts of Ploughs And first I shall begin with the Plough the most necessary Instrument the chiefest of all Engines as Gabriel Plat terms it and happily found out There is a very great difference in Ploughs that there is scarce any sure Rule for the making of them and every Country yea almost every County differs not only in the Ploughs but even in every part of them Ploughs also do not only differ according to the several Customs of several places but also as the Lands do differ in strength or weakness or the different Nature of the Soil To describe them all is not a work for this place but I will give some brief Descriptions of the more principal sorts of Ploughs of the greatest esteem And first of the Double-wheeled Double-wheeled Plough Plough which is of most constant use in Hartfordshire and many other Countries and is very useful upon all Flinty Stony or hard Gravel or any other hard Land whatsoever It 's esteemed a useful and necessary Plough These require a greater strength than other Ploughs and to be used in such places where other English Improver Ploughs will not to any purpose It is usually drawn with Horses or Oxen two abreast the Wheels are usually eighteen or twenty inches high in some places the Furrow-wheel is of a larger circumference than the other that goes on the solid Land There is another sort of Double-wheeled Ploughs called the Turnwrest-Plough Turnwrest-Plough which surpasseth for Weight and Clumliness and is called the Kentish-Plough being there much used The One-wheel Plough is an excellent good one and you may Single Wheel-Plough use it on almost any sort of Lands and is of that shape and form that will admit of more lightness and nimbleness than the other Wheel-ploughs being the same that Mr. Hartlib speaks of to be Legacy made near Greenwich by one who had excellent Corn on barren Land and yet Ploughed his Land with one Horse This Plough neatly made and very small hath been drawn English Improver with one Horse and held by one Man and ploughed one Acre a day at Sowing-time in a moist season There hath been with six good Horses six Men and six Ploughs ploughed six Acres a day at Sowing-time in light and well-wrought Land This seems to accord with the Plough used in Hesiod's time where the Plough man did both guide and drive There is a sort of Plough made without either Wheel or Foot Plain-Plough described at large by Mr. Blith to be the most easie going Plough and of least Workmanship Burden or Charge called the Plain-plough fit for any Lands unless in irregular extream Land either for Stones Roots or Hardness and there adviseth to the Double-wheeled Plough being of strength to supply extremities and cases of necessity Mr. Blith describes a double Plough the one affixed to the side Double Plough English Improver of the other that by the help of four Horses and two Men you may Plough a double portion of Land the one Furrow by the side of the other This he esteemeth not to be of any great advantage above the other plain Plough yet may be of good use on some Lands There is another sort of Double-Plough much exceeding the Another sort of Double-Plough other as Mr. Hartlib in his Legacy testifies of an Ingenious Young Man of Kent who had two Ploughs fastened together very finely by the which he ploughed two Furrows at once one under another and so stirred up the Land twelve or fourteen inches deep This is one of the best additions to the Plough if throughly prosecuted for most Land requires a deeper stirring than is ordinarily given it by the usual way of Ploughing as is evident by those Experiments that have been made in digging and setting of Corn. This way also comes near that of Digging and in some cases excels it because it only looseneth and lightneth the Land to that depth but doth not bury the upper-crust of the ground so deep as usually is done by Digging It is also much easier to Plough deep with this Double-Plough than with the single because it beareth not so great a burden but the one part thereof is discharged before the other is taken up Some have made a Plough with a Harrow affixed thereto others Other sorts of Ploughs have designed a Plough to Plough Sow and Harrow all at the same time But seeing they are of no great advantage to the Husbandman only invented to satisfie the minds of some Scrutinists I leave them Of all which several sorts of Ploughs there is great variation in the several parts of them some differ in length and shape of the Beam some in the Share others in the Coulter and in the Handles The differences are so many that no one Ploughman knoweth them all The Abuses Faults and Errours incident to the Plough are Errours of the Plough many some in the Workmen and Drivers who when they are wedded to an old Erronious Custom though never so evidently discovered will not recede from it or in the Plough it self as when it is made too big and cumbersome and disproportioned the one part too large or too little for the other and when it is rough and ill compassed in the Share when the Handles are too short or too upright the Irons dull And many other faults there
Names were brought unto him He oftentimes called for the Industrious Husbandman and courteously received him and sometimes dismissed him with Noble Gratuities And contrariwise the idle and slothful he rebuked whereby some for fear of shame and disgrace the rest in hope of favour and reward were all continually intent on their Affairs that they might render themselves and their Lands praise-worthy to their King A Worthy and Noble President for the incouragement of our English Husbandmen that are Ingenious and Industrious and for the Regulation and Reformation of the infinite abuses injuries and neglects so frequently committed and suffered in every Village by the slothful ignorant and envious Rustick The like examples we finde to be in several Countries as Spain Germany Venice Holland c. of Compulsive Laws and excellent Customs for the propagation of Trees for Timber and for Fruits In Burgundy where Wallunt-Trees abound whenever they fell a Tree they always plant a young one near that place And in several places betwixt Hanaw and Francfort in Germany no young Sylva Farmer is permitted to Marry a Wife till he bring proof that he hath Planted and is a Father of such a stated number of Wallnut-Trees which Law is inviolably observed to this day It hath been a long time designed and attempted by several VVorthy Persons Affecters of Ingenuity and the Publick Good of the Kingdom that there might be some Constitutions or Orders for the advancing and propagating of this Noble Art especially that part relating to the increase and preservation of Timber and Fruit-Trees and that there might be Judicious and Experienced Supervisors in every place for that purpose I must needs confess we have several good Laws relating to our Rural Affairs but none more slighted nor neglected than those Our hopes and expectations are now great that something will shortly be done therein seeing that Royal and most Excellent Society at Gresham-Colledge make it one of the most principal Objects of their Studies and Care it being so Universally necessary for our well-being and preservation if not the most necessary all things considered Maximus Tyrius a most Grave Philosopher composed a Dialogue wherein with many sufficient and firm Reasons be demonstrates that this Art of Agriculture hath the Precedency of and is more necessary than the Military and Elegantly and Learnedly discusseth many things and very much of the profits and advantages of the Rustick Art and Rural Affairs As to its Antiquity no Art or Science can precede it every one knows that a Country-life was the most Ancient and that men did in the Infancy of time inhabit in Country-Habitations and sustained themselves by the Fruits of the Earth and dwelt in Tents Woods c. instead of Houses As to the state qualification and condition of a Country-life we may confidently maintain that it far excels the City-life and is much to be preferred before it Plato affirms that a Country-life is the Mistress and as it were the pattern of Diligence Justice and Frugality that he could finde nothing more profitable pleasant or grateful than to live in the Country remote and free from Envy Malice Calumny Covetousness and Ambition which occasioned this Grave Author to ordain several peculiar Laws relating to this Noble Art which were brought unto and confirmed by the Emperour Justinian c. Cicero discoursing of the 1 De Offic. Utility of several Arts at length concludes that of all things necessary and useful nothing is better more advantagious stable pleasant nor more worthy a Noble and Ingenious Spirit than Agriculture c. Virgil also had as high an esteem thereof and did very much extol and celebrate this Rustick Art insomuch that when he was almost lost amongst the pleasant Groves and ruminating on the Felicities the Country yielded he brake forth into this expression O Fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint Agricolas quibus ipsa procul discordibus Armis Fundit humi facilem victum justissima tell us And Horace in a certain Ode sings thus Beatus ille qui procul negotiis Vt prisca gens mortalium Paterna Rura bobus exercit suis Solutus omnifoenore c. Also hear the Divine Du Bartas in his Commendation of Husbandry O thrice thrice happy he who shuns the cares Of City-troubles and of State-affairs And serving Ceres Tills with his own Teem His own Free-land left by his Friends to him The Pleasures and Oblectations are superabundant and infinite which we daily enjoy and receive from the Verdant Fields and Meadows from the sweetness and beauty of the flowers the springing Woods the delicate fruits and the variety of Domestick and Pleasant Animals educated even to the very hand and from the various and harmonious Notes of the Nymphs of the Woods The winged Fancies of the Learned Quill Tell of strange Wonders sweet Parnassus Hill Castalia 's Well the Heliconian Spring Star-spangled Vallies where the Muses sing Admired things another story yields Of pleasant Tempe and th' Elysian Fields Yet these are nothing to the sweet that dwells In low-built Cottages and Country-Cells c. We may well admire at such as are not highly delighted at the Prospect of the most of our Country-Villages whose beauty and lustre daily encrease where their Inhabitants are Industrious and appear more and more neat adorned and enriched and in every part yield innumerable of pleasant and fruitful Trees Can there be a more ravishing and delightful object than to behold the Towns planted with Trees in even lines before their doors which skreen their habitations from the Winde and Sun where they may fit or walk under the dark shadows of the Woods and Groves and where are always the gliding Streams most clear and bright Rivolets pleasant Hills and shadowie Vallies delightful Meadows and many other the like Oblectations Fair firm and fruitful various patient sweet Du Bartas Sumptuously cloathed in a Mantle meet Of mingled colour lac't about with Floods And all Imbroidered with fresh Blooming Buds That the highest and most absolute Content any man enjoys or finds in any Sublunary thing is in this Science of Agriculture and the several Branches and Streams of Pleasure and Delight proceeding or flowing therefrom none but such as are ignorant thereof will deny Of such that affirm it we could produce infinite of Testimonies also of many that so highly affected this Art and Life that they deserted their Powers Dignities Kingdoms Victories and Triumphs and wholly applied themselves to Agriculture and a Rustick Habitation some whereof we shall here instance as Manlius Curius Dentatus who after he had not only Conquered the Warlike King Pyrrhus but had expelled him out of all Italy and had three several times Triumphed with Glory and Renown and had very much inlarged the Roman Empire by his Honourable Atchievements returned with infinite affectation and very joyfully to his former Exercises and Rusticities and there concluded the residue of his days with much tranquillity of minde
Tillage and of the several Grains Pulses c. usually propagated by the Plough IN greatest esteem and most worthy of our Care is the Arable Land yielding unto the Laborious Husbandman the most necessary Sustentation this Life requires but not without industry and toil The Plough being the most happy Instrument that ever was discovered the Inventor of the use whereof was by the Heathens celebrated as a Goddess Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram Virgil. Instituit But the Plough it self Triptolemus is said to have invented Pliny This Art was always in esteem as before in the Preface we have shewn and from this part thereof being the most principal doth it take its Name of Agriculture from the Tilling of the Land with the Plough or with the Spade the more ancient Instrument though not more necessary and beneficial And since its first Invention hath there been many several Improvements made of it for the more facile and commodious use thereof and every day almost and in every place doth the ingenious Husbandman endeavour to excel the slothful in this most necessary Art that from a burthensom and toilsom labour it is in some places become but a pleasing and profitable Exercise and it 's hoped that by those Presidents and Examples the more Vulgar will be provoked to a more universal use of that which is best and most advantageous to themselves as well as the publike More of this Instrument see hereafter in this Treatise SECT I. What Lands are improved by Tillage Non omnis fert omnia tellus Every sort of Land almost requires a different Husbandry some Grounds producing plenty of that which on another will not grow This is none of the meanest part of the Husbandmans skill to understand what is most proper to be propagated on each sort of Land the strong and stiff ground receiving the greatest Improvement from the Plough and the mellow warm and light from other Plantations of Fruits c. Densa magis Cereri rarissima quaeque Lyaeo Virgil. Although the best warmest and lightest Land yields most excellent Corn yet the other sorts of Lands yield not so good Fruits Plants Grass Hay c. also necessary for the Husbandman therefore our principal designe must be to appropriate each sort to that Method of Husbandry most natural unto it that where the nature of the Land differs which it usually doth in the same Parish and many times in one and the same Farm and sometimes in the same Field that there may be used a different way We have before discoursed of what Lands are fittest for Meadows and Pastures and now shall give you those Directions I finde to know what is most proper for the Plough The strong and stiff as we said before and also the cold and moist and that which lies obvious to the extremities of cold or heat as is most of the Champion or field-Field-land for there may be sown such Seeds that naturally affect such places until they are reduced and better qualified by Enclosure the first and main principle of Improvement Also mossie and rusty Grounds are much improved by ploughing and Grounds subject to pernicious Weeds may be much advantaged by destroying the Weeds and propagating good Corn or other Tillage in the room thereof All clay stiff cold and moist Grounds are generally thrice The manner of ploughing or husbanding each sort Clay stiff cold and moist ploughed in the Spring Summer and at Seed-time for Wheat and four times for Barley if it be the first Grain sown after long resting which in most places is not usual These several Ploughings or Fallowings are very advantageous to Ground in several respects 1. It layeth the Ground by degrees in Ridges in such order as the nature thereof requireth for the more in number and the higher the Ridges the better they are for Wheat which naturally delighteth in a moist Ground so that it be laid dry that is not subject to be drowned or over-glutted with water in moists years And this Method of laying the Ridges much prevents the blasting of Wheat for Wheat is easily overcharged with Water either in Winter or Summer 2. This often stirring the Land makes it light and fitter for the Seed to take root therein the Clods being apt to dissolve by being exposed to the weather and often broken by the Plough 3. It kills the weeds which in strong Lands are apt to over-run the Corn. 4. It fertilizeth Land The Sun and the Sull are some Husbandmens Soil Virgil also seems to hint as much where he saith Pingue solum primis exemplo à mensibus Anni Fortes invertant Tauri glebasque jacentes Pulverulenta coquat maturis solibus aestas 5. It defends the Corn much from the extremities of Weather especially cold Winds for the more uneven any Piece of Land is the better it bears the extremities of the Winter for which reason in the open Champion where the Land is dry and they do not lay up their Ridges as in other places yet they harrow it but little and leave it as rough as they can for no other cause but to break the fleeting Winds The Gardiners near London now seem to imitate this practise by laying their Gardens in Ridges not only the better to shelter their Seeds from the cold Winds but also to give it an advantage of the Sun as I my self proved it many years since that Pease sown on the South-side of small Beds so raised that they seemed to respond the Elevation of the Pole prospered well and passed the Winter better and were much earlier in the Spring than those otherwise planted But in case you intend to sowe Barley first therein after the third Fallowing it must lie over the Winter that the Frosts may the better temper it for the Seed-time when it is to be ploughed again If for Pease or Beans once Fallowing before Winter serves the turn If it hath a good Sward or Turf on it I rather advise you to denshire or burn it the Summer before you sowe it this is the more expeditious and advantageous way it spends the Acid moisture an enemy to Vegetation it kills the weeds and brings the Land quickly to a fine light temper Other sorts of Land improveable by the Plough are very good Rich and mellow Land rich mixed Land and of a black mould Nigra fere pinguis Virgil. Optima frumentis Or of any other colour that hath lain long for Pasture till it be over-grown with Moss Weeds or such-like which will as soon grow on rich Lands as poor To these Lands Ploughing is not only a Medicine or Cure but raiseth an immediate Advantage and much benefiteth the Land for the future in case you take but a Crop or two at a time and lay it down for Pasture again well soyled or else sown with some of the New Grasses or Hays before named but if not yet only by soyling it the year before you lay
in Land at the first breaking up where you intend afterwards to sowe other Grain because they destroy the Weeds and improve the Land as generally doth all other Cod-ware Of the other sorts of Beans and also of Pease we shall say more hereafter in this Treatise The Citch or Fetch whereof there are several sorts but two of Fetches most principal Note the Winter and Summer-Fetch the own sown before Winter and abiding the extremity of the Weather the other not so hardy and sown in the Spring they are much sown in some places and to a very considerable Advantage they are a good strong and nourishing food to Cattle either given in the Straw or without and are propagated after the manner of Pease The least of all Pulses is the Lentil in some places called Tills Lentils They are sown in ordinary ground and require it not very rich Of a very few sown on an Acre you shall reap an incredible quantity although they appear on the Ground but small and lie in a little room in the Cart they are a most excellent sweet Fodder and to be preferred before any other Fodder or Pulse for Calves or any other young Cattle This Pulse though not used in this Country as ever I could understand Lupines unless a few in a Garden yet we finde them highly commended to be a Pulse requiring little trouble and to help the Ground the most of any thing that is sown and to be a good manure for barren Land where it thrives very well as on sandy gravelly and the worst that may be yea amongst Bushes and Bryars Sodden in water they are excellent Food for Oxen and doubtless for Swine and other Cattle If this be true as probably it seems to be I admire this Plant should be so much neglected but I may give you a more plenary and satisfactory Accompt of this and some other not usual Seeds and Pulses another time These are not usual in most places of England but where they Tares are sown they much benefit the Land as other Pulses and are rather to be preferred for Fodder than any other use they can be put unto There are several other Pulses or Seeds mentioned in our Authors Other Pulses as Fasels Cich Peason Wilde Tares c. which if carefully and ingeniously prosecuted might redound to the Husbandmans Advantage and in the same manner might several other not yet brought into common use although they might in all probability be as beneficial as those already in use SECT IV. Of Hemp and Flax. Within the compass of our Lands subject to the Culture of the Plough may these two necessary and profitable Vegetables be propagated requiring a competent proportion of Ground to raise a quantity sufficient to supply our ordinary occasions and necessities in defect whereof and meerly through our own neglect and sloath we purchase the greatest share of these Hempen and Flaxen Commodities we use from Strangers at a dear Rate when we have room enough to raise wherewith of the same Commodities to furnish them But that to our shame be it spoken we prefer good Liquor or at least the Corn that makes it before any other Grain or Seed although other may be propagated with greater facility less hazard and abundantly more advantageous both to the Husbandman and Nation in general than that I need not put Excuses into the Countrey-mens mouths they Impediments to the sowing of Hemp and Flax. have enough for their grand Negligence in this principal part of Agriculture but that I here propose them in hopes some Worthy Patriots will use their endeavours to remove these Impediments 1. The first and most grand Impediment to this Improvement Want of Trade an Impediment is want of Encouragement to Trade or a right Constitution or Ordering of Employments for the Poor throughout the Countries which may be accomplished without charge the common Remora to all Ingenuities by granting some extraordinary Immunities to certain Societies in several places convenient in every County to be established which being the first and chiefest thing to be done will almost of it self remove all other Impediments 2. The next is the defect of Experience very few understanding Want of Experience an Impediment the way of Sowing Gathering Watering Heckling and other particular Modes in ordering these Commodities nor yet the nature of the Ground either of them delights in All which by the President and Example of some publique and ingenious Spirits and by the constitution of a Trade to take off the said Commodities to the Husbandmans Advantage may easily be removed 3. Another main Impediment to the Improvement and Propagation Tythes an Impediment of these and several other Staple-Commodities not yet brought into publike use and practice is that the Planter after he hath been at extraordinary Expence in Fertilizing Tilling and Planting his Land and in preserving and advancing the Growth of such Commodities not only the Profit of his Land but also of all his Expence and Labour must be decimated which in some years amounts to more than his own clear Profits when before such Improvements made little Tythe was paid as for Pasture-Lands is usual either a reservation to the Parson of what was formerly paid out of such unimproved Lands or a certain Modus decimandi according to the nature of the Commodity planted might prove a very great Encouragement to the Husbandman an infinite Advantage to the Nation in general and not the least injury or loss to the Clergy or Impropriator Some other Impediments there are and also other Propositions might be made for the Advancement of this and several other Commodities but they require more time to treat of than in this place we may dispense withal Hemp delights in the best Land warm and sandy or a little Hemp. gravelly so it be rich and of a deep Soil cold Clay wet and moorish is not good It is good to destroy Weeds on any Land The best Seed is the brightest that will retain its colour and substance in Rubbing three Bushels will sowe an Acre the richer the Land the thicker it must be sown the poorer the thinner from the beginning to the end of April is the time of sowing according as the Spring falls out earlier or later it must be carefully preserved from Birds who will destroy many of the Seeds The Season of Gathering of it is first about Lammas when a good part of it will be ripe that is the lighter Summer-hemp that bears no Seed and is called the Fimble-hemp and the Stalk grows white and when it is ripe it is most easily discernable which is about that season to be pulled forth and dried and laid up for use you must be cautious of breaking what you leave lest you spoil it you must let the other grow till the Seed be ripe which will be about Michaelmas or before and this is usually called the Karle-Hemp When you have gathered and bound
it up in bundles in Bonds of a yard compass the Statute-measure you must stack it up or house it till you thrash out the Seed An Acre of Hemp may be worth unwrought from five to eight pound Value of Hemp. if wrought up to ten or twelve pound or more and is a very great succour to the poor the Hempen Harvest coming after other Harvests And then in the bad wet and Winter-seasons it affords continual employment to such also that are not capable of better But for the Method and right way of Watering Pilling Breaking Tewtawing c. I shall leave you to such that are experienced therein finding no certain Rules left us by our Rustick Authors This is also a very excellent Commodity and the Tilling and Flax. Ordering thereof a very good piece of Husbandry it will thrive in any good sound Land be it in what Country soever but that is best that hath layen long unploughed the best Land yields the best Flax and raises the greatest Improvement The Land must be well ploughed and laid flat and even and the Seed sown in a warm season about the middle or end of March or at farthest in the beginning of April If it should come a wet season it would require weeding The best Seed is that which comes from the East Countrey although Best Seed it cost dear yet it will easily repay the Charge and will last indifferent well two or three Crops then it 's best to renew it again Of the best Seed two Bushels may serve on an Acre but more of our English Seed because it groweth smaller You must be sure to sowe it on good Land because it robs the ground much and burneth it as anciently it was observed by Virgil Vrit enim lini Campum Seges but it liberally repayeth it You must be careful that it grow not till it be over-ripe nor to gather it before it be ripe the ripeness is best known by the Seed at the time let the Pluckers be nimble and tie it up in handfulls and set them up until they be perfectly dry and then house it An Acre of good Flax on the Ground may be worth if it be of Value of Flax the best Seed from seven to twelve pound yea far more but if it be wrought up fit to sell in the Market it may come to fifteen or twenty pound As for the Watering Drying Breaking and Tewtawing as we said before of Hemp we must refer to those that are better experienced therein SECT V. Of Woad c. This is a very rich Commodity and worthy to be taken notice of by the Husbandman it requires a very rich Land sound and warm saith Mr. Blith But I have seen it usually planted upon an ordinary Ground but warm and light and in good heart having long rested and but new broken up it robs Land much being long continued upon it yet moderately used it prepares Land for Corn abating the overmuch Fertility thereof and draws a different Juyce for what the Corn requires the Land must be finely ploughed and harrowed for this Seed whereof about four Bushels will sowe an Acre it must be finely harrowed and all Clots Stones Turfs c. picked away and laid on heaps as is usual in Woad-Lands then it is to be continually weeded till the Leaves cover the Ground and when the Leaves are grown fair and large then set to cutting and so throughout the Summer that you may have five or six Crops and sometimes but three in one year of Woad what grows in Winter Sheep will eat The time for sowing of Woad is in the middle and end of March. When it is cut it must be immediately carried to the Mill. The manner whereof with the right ordering of Woad and of all other necessary circumstances relating thereto is best learned of an experienced Workman which is easily obtained To take it in the very season is a fundamental Piece which is To know when it is full ripe when the Leaf is come to its full growth and retains its perfect colour and lively greenness then speedily cut it that it fade not nor wax pale before you have cut your Crop The two first Crops are the best which are usually mixed together in the seasoning the later Crops are much worse which if either are mixed with the former they mar the whole It is a Staple Commodity for the Dyers Trade and is very advantageous Profit of Woad to the Husbandman it more than doubleth the Rent of his Land sometimes it quadruples it it hath been sold from 6 l. to 30 l. the Tun. The planting and propagating whereof is esteemed another excellent Rape and Cole-Seed piece of Husbandry and Improvement for Land and more especially on Marsh-Land Fen-Land or newly recovered Sea-lands or any Land rank and fat whether Arable or Pasture The Cole-Seed is esteemed the best the biggest and fairest also that you can get let it be dry and of a clear colour like the best Onyon-Seed it is usually brought from Holland It is to be sown at or about Mid-summer you must have your Land ploughed very well and laid even and fine and then sowe it about a Gallon will sowe an Acre the Seed must be mixed with some other matter as before we directed about Clover-Grass Seed for the more even dispersing thereof When the one half of the Seed begins to look brown it 's time to reap it which must be done as you usually do Wheat and lay it two or three handfuls together till it be dry and that through-dry too which will be near a fortnight ere it be dry enough it must not be turned nor touched if it be possible lest you shed the Seed it must be gathered on Sheets or large Sayl-clothes and so carried into the Barn or Floor very large to be immediately thrashed out The main Benefit is in the Seed If it be good it will bear five Profit thereof quarters on an Acre and is worth usually four shillings the Bushel sometimes more and sometimes less the greater your parcel is the better price you will have It is used to make Oyl thereof it thrives best on moist Land it cannot be too rank it fits the Land for Corn c. Thus far hath Mr. Blith delivered little else is written of this Seed therefore we leave it to the more experienced persons Although this be a Plant usually nourisht in Gardens and be Turneps properly a Garden-Plant yet it is to the very great Advantage of the Husbandman sown in his Fields in several forein places and also in some parts of England not only for Culinary uses as about London and other great Towns and Cities but also for Food for Cattle as Cows Swine c. They delight in a warm mellow and light Land rather sandy than otherwise not coveting a rich Mould The Ground must be finely ploughed and harrowed and then the Seed sown and raked in with
Subject Non tantum in agris praestat sed Page 21. etiam arboribus vit ibus adeo ut una eodem plena tonna tantum ad agrorum stercorationem conferre valeat quantum decem simo equino aut vaccine replet a plaustra solent This kinde of Manure either by Burning as before or with the fixed Salts of any thing whatsoever doth also much more enrich your Crop than any other Dung or Soil for this tendeth principally unto fertility ordinary Dung of Beasts more unto the gross substance of the Straw or Hawme than unto Fruit or Seed and also breeds more of Weeds than this our Vniversal Subject There are also several other sorts of Materials to be used as Other Soyls and Manures Soils and Manures for the fertilizing and enriching of Lands Some whereof are taken from the Earth as Chalk Marle Clay c. Others from the Waters as Sands Weeds c. Others also are the Dungs and Excrements of living Creatures and others that are several sorts of Vegetables themselves and other casual things as Soot Raggs c. Of all which we finde these whereof we shall now treat to have been found out and commended to be useful and beneficial to the Husbandman for the purposes before mentioned SECT II. Soyls and Manures taken from the Earth Whereof there are several sorts some of so hard and undissoluble Of Chalk a nature that it is not fit to lay on Lands simply as it is but after it is burned into Lime becomes a very excellent Improver of Lands there are also other sorts of Chalk more unctuous and soluble which being laid on Lands crude as they are and let lie till the Frosts and Rain shatter and dissolve the same prove a very considerable advantage to barren Lands now where any of these Chalks are found it is good to prove their natures by laying them on some small portion of Land crude as they are or by burning them into Lime if Fewel be plenty or to half burn them by which you may experimentally know the true effects and benefits that Subject will yield And although Chalk simply of it self either burnt or unburnt may not prove so advantageous as many have reported yet is it of very great use to be mixed with Earth and the Dungs of Animals by which may be made an admirable sure and natural fruitful Composition for almost any sorts of Lands and raiseth Corn in abaundance Liming of Land is of most excellent use many barren parts of Of Lime this Nation being thereby reduced into so fertile a condition for bearing most sorts of Grain that upon Land not worth above one or two shillings an Acre well husbanded with Lime hath been raised as good Wheat Barly white and gray Pease as England yields English Improver Also that by the same means from a Ling Heath or Common naturally barren and little worth hath been raised most gallant Corn worth five or six pound an Acre By the same Author He also affirms that some men have had and received so much profit upon their Lands by once liming as hath paid the purchase of their Lands and that himself had great advance thereby yet lived twenty miles from Lime and fetched the same by Waggon so far to lay it on his Lands One Author saith twelve or fourteen quarters will Lime an Acre another saith 160 Bushels the difference of the Land may require a different proportion The most natural Land for Lime is the light and sandy the next mixt and gravelly wet and cold gravel not good cold clay the worst of all Also a mixture of Lime Earth and Dung together is a very excellent Compost for Land Marle is a very excellent thing commended of all that either Of Marle Differences of Marle write or practise any thing in Husbandry There are several kinds of it some stony some soft white gray russet yellow blew black and some red It is of a cold nature and saddens Land exceedingly and very heavy it is and will go downwards though not so much as Lime doth The goodness or badness thereof is not Signes of good or bad Marle known so much by the colour as by the Purity and Uncompoundedness of it for if it will break into bits like a Dye or smooth like Lead-Oar without any composition of Sand or Gravel or if it will slake like Slate-stones and slake or shatter after a shower of Rain or being exposed to the Sun or Air and shortly after turn to dust when it 's throughly dry again and not congeal like tough Clay question not the fruitfulness of it notwithstanding the difference of colours which are no certain signes of the goodness of the Marle As for the Slipperiness Viscousness Fattiness or Oyliness thereof although it be commonly esteemed a signe of good Marle yet the best Authors affirm the contrary viz. That there is very good Marle which is not so but lieth in the Mine pure dry and short yet nevertheless if you water it you shall finde it slippery But the best and truest Rule to know the richness and Best way to know Marle profit of your Marle is to try a Load or two on your Lands in several places and in different proportions They usually lay the same on small heaps and disperse it over Use and Benefit of Marle the whole Field as they do their Dung and this Marle will keep the Land whereon it is laid in some places ten or fifteen and in some places thirty years in heart it is most profitable in dry light and barren Lands such as is most kinde and natural for Rye as is evident by Mr. Blithes Experiment in his Chapter of Marle It also affordeth not its vertue or strength the first year so much as in the subsequent years It yields a very great Increase and Advantage on high sandy gravelly or mixed Lands though never so barren strong Clay-ground is unsutable to it yet if it can be laid dry Marle may be profitable on that also It is very necessary in marling Lands to finde out the true proportion how much on every Acre that you add not too much nor too little in medio virtus It 's better to erre by laying on too little than too much because you may add more at pleasure but you cannot take away the surest way is to try some small quantities first and proceed as your Experiments encourage It hath been also experimentally observed that you are to lay your Marle in the beginning of Winter on hard and binding Grounds And on the contrary you are to lay it in the Spring on light sandy dry and gravelly lands but it 's good to try both it 's held to be best to lay it abroad in the beginning of Winter that the Frosts may first make the same moulder into small pieces and so to become apt for Solution which is done by the Rains that more plentifully fall in the Winter You shall
clay-ground that a Tun of Timber could not be thence haled unless in the dry and Summer-season but that the Wheels would sink in the Clay to the Axle-tree They will also grow though but slowly on the high stony and barren Hills The Acorns or Oaken-Mast being sown in your Nursery after Propagation they are full ripe and before they are withered which will quickly be if they lie open in the Air will the next Spring yield you plenty of young Plants which you may order and transplant as hereafter in the Nursery you shall have Directions Or for expedition-sake you may have young Sets drawn by those that seek the Woods for Quick-sets in such places where Acorns have spontaneously grown and been sheltered from Cattle till they are fit for a remove but these prove generally crooked and ill-shaped and so are to be cut near to the ground when you plant them by which means they will emit another shoot more streight Oaks also prosper very well in Coppices being felled as other Under-woods are It is reported that a Lady in Northamptonshire sowed Acorns and lived to cut the Trees produced from them twice in two and twenty years and both as well grown as most are in sixteen or eighteen Also that Acorns set in Hedge-rows have in thirty years born a Stem of a Foot Diameter The several uses of Oaken Timber for Buildings and other Mechanick Use uses is so universally known that it is but needless to enumerate them To abide all seasons of the weather there is no Wood comparable unto it as for Pales Shingles Posts Rails Boards c. For Water-works also it is second to none especially where it lies obvious to the Air as well as the Water there is no Wood like it For Fewel either as it is or made into Chaâ—coal there is no Wood equals it The Bark also for the Tanner and Dyer exceeds all other Barks the very Saw-dust and ashes also of the Oak challenge a preference the Mast exceeds any other Mast of the Forrest-trees and is of great use to the Husbandman in fatting Swine for in the Forrests and great Woods many herds of Swine are very well fatted in such years that the Oak yields plenty of Mast and that Bacon so fed especially if the Swine are kept up with Pease some time after is the most delicious meat for the Hams we have from Westphalia and other parts of Germany under that name are of those Swine that feed on this Mast for their exercise they of necessity use in searching for these Acorns as well as the natural sweetness of the Fruit it self very much meliorateth the flesh of these Animals as it doth of Deer Hares Conies Pheasants Ducks and many others the flesh of them that are wild being by much to be preferred to the tame The young Boughs of the lopped Oak in the Spring-time are of equal use to the Tanner as is the Bark of this Tree as hath been found by the experience of many Tanners of this Nation within these few years The Elm is one of the most easie Trees to propagate and delighting The Elm. in most sorts of ground except only Land very dry hot and parching shallow Land near Chalk or Gravel on the tops of Hills it thrives not well yet it will grow almost in any place But the places it principally delights in is the level light and loose Land so that it be moist on the Banks of such level and fertile grounds whether they be of Gravel Earth or Chalk the Elm prospers well About the beginning of March fall the seeds of the Elm which Propagation being sown in your Nursery will yield you Plants But the care and trouble thereof is superfluous seeing there are newer and more expeditious and advantageous ways known viz. by the Suckers Which are produced in great plenty from the roots of the Elm and may be transplanted into any places where the Elms grow great plenty of these Suckers will yearly shoot out of the Earth if Cattle be kept from them or if any Elm be felled the old Roots will yield plenty of Suckers or if the old Roots be chopped or slit and slightly covered with light mould they will send forth plenty of Suckers all which may be slipped off and transplanted even unto any bigness there being no Tree more easily transplanted and with good success than the Elm observing these Cautions that if you remove them very young that you cut not off the top because it is sappy and the wet will be apt to get in and decay the Plant being weakened by his removal but the greater you must be sure to disbranch leaving only the stem some cover also the head of such Elm so cut off with a mixture of Clay and Horse-dung I have been very credibly informed that a certain Gentleman in the North-Country having a desire to raise suddenly a Plump or Grove of Trees about his Mansion-house there being a great scarcity of Wood in that place obtained a parcel of Elm-trees lops and tops and made Trenches or Ditches in the Earth and cut his Elm-branches c. into several lengths of six eight ten or twenty feet in length as with best conveniencie he could and buried them singly in the Trenches so digged and covered them wholly from the one end to the other leaving only a hole open about the middle of the interred branch or if it were a long piece then two open places might be left out of which places did spring forth several shoots the first year of a very great length the Winter succeeding he took these branches or shoots all save only the fairest and which was most probable and likely to thrive and so filled up the hole about it by which means they grew to a prodigious height in a few years that his habitation was compleatly adorned with living aspiring products of his ingenious attempt Note that the true time of this Sepulture is when the sap is full in the Tree when the Leaves are newly sprung for then the great quantity of the sap that is in the whole branch forceth it self into those shoots or Cions that then have found a passage also for the succeeding yeers the whole Tree in the Earth becomes a main principal nourishing Root to the nimble growing Tree For it is evident that if an Elm be felled in the Spring-time when the sap is up that then the Tree lying on the ground will spend much of its sap in small shoots in every part of it Much rather if such Tree were buried in a good moist Soil with only one part thereof open to the Air from which part you expect a flourishing shoot to proceed Some have with good success buried such Elm-branches about the end of January or beginning of March but if the Land be not over-dry the later is better If the Elm be felled between November and February it will Use be all Spine or Heart or very little sap
be well placed to the Wall for if any branch happen to be wreathed or bruised in the bending or turning which you may not easily perceive although it doth grow and prosper for the present yet it will decay in time the Sap or Gum will also spew out in that place By neglect of this Observation many seeming fair Trees decay in several parts when the Husbandman is ignorant of the cause In Pruning the Vine leave some new branches every year and take away if too many some of the old which much advantageth the Tree and encreaseth its fruit When you cut your Vine leave two knots and cut at the next interval for usually the two Buds yields a bunch of Grapes I have observed Vines thus pruned to bear many fair bunches when cut close as usually is done for Beauty sake which by the Husbandman is not in this case to be regarded the Tree hath been almost barren of Fruit. When you cut any Pithy Tree the Vine especially make your Lance if the Sprig be upright on the North-side if sloping then make your Lance under or on one side that the wet or Rain lodge not on it nor decay the Pith which usually damnifies the next Bud and sometimes more SECT XI Other necessary Observations about Fruit-trees Where the ground is shallow or lieth near Gravel Clay Stone 1 Of the raising of Land or Chalk or near the Water take the top of one half of the same Land and lay it on the other in Ridges abating the intervals like unto Walks and plant the Trees on the midst of the Ridges by which means they will have double the quantity of Earth to root in that they had before and the Walks or Intervals preserve the Ridges from superfluous moisture It hath been found an approved Remedy in dry shallow Land as well as in low wet Land It hath been observed that Pear-trees will thrive and prosper Pear-trees in cold moist hungry stony and gravelly Land where Apples will not bear so well The Roots of such Trees that thrive not nor bear well may 2 Of the ordering the Roots of old Trees be laid open about November and if the ground be poor and hungry then towards the Spring apply good fat Mould thereto but if the ground be over-fat and rich that the Tree spends it self in Branches and Leaves with little Fruit then apply to the Roots Ashes or Lime or any of the Composts that are salt hot and dry mixed with the Earth which contain more of fertility than the ordinary Dung Also laying store of any manner of Vegetables all the Summer about the roots of Fruit-trees to kill the Grass and Weeds growing about the Tree it keeps the ground moist and cool and adds much to the flourishing and fertility of the Tree and is the best Natural Remedy against the Moss so that it lye not too near the Tree to decay the Bark thereof Digging or Ploughing about the Roots of Fruit-trees adds much to their fertility and prevents the Moss in most Trees Stones laid in heaps about the Roots preserves them cool and moist in the Summer and warm in Winter and is of great use and concernment to the fertility and advance of the growth of Fruit-trees The ground wherein you plant your Fruit-trees if you finde it 3 Alteration of ground not suitable to the Nature of the Tree may be several ways altered as before and by the applying of Earth Clay or Sand of a divers Nature from the ground where the Tree grows If your Orchard or Garden be not naturally well scituate and 4 Defending Trees from Winds defended from the injurious winds by Hills or Woods or that Buildings Barns Walls or such like are not conveniently scituate near to preserve it it is of great advantage to raise a perpetual lasting and pleasant shelter by planting a compleat Thorn-hedge about the same at the time or in that Year you White-thorn first plant your Orchard or Garden which will grow in a few years to a considerable height and very much break the cold winds and preserve the smaller and lower part of the greater Trees in their blossoming and kerning time from the nipping winds But for that that the principallest parts of the greater Trees exceed the Summity of the White-thorn the Wallnut-tree Wallnut-tree raised in time on the borders or naked sides of the Orchard or Garden and if you can on the out-sides of the Fences will prove a Noble and profitable defence from the furious winds If you regard not the Fruit or profit so much as the pleasure and sudden rise of such a defence that which is most facile and expeditious to be raised is the Poplar which may be planted poplar near together and ten or fifteen foot in height the first year which will prove and thrive wonderfully especially if the ground be any whit inclineable to moisture Or the Lime-tree if you can conveniently obtain them make Lime-tree a close and secure defence from the winds and of all other is the most odoriferous regular and delicious verdant pale to a Garden or Orchard The Sycamore and the Elm also are not to be rejected only the Elm hath an ill name as being subject to raise or attract Blights At the removal of Trees the trimmings of the roots planted 5 Raising Stocks or rather buried in the ground within a quarter of an inch or little more of the level of the Bed will sprout and grow to be very good Stocks Pigeons dung or the dung of Poultry or any Fowl being of 6 Soyl for Fruit-trees a hot dry and salt Nature hath been experimentally found to be the Soyl most conducing to fertility for Fruit-trees especially in cold grounds It is usual to select aspiring Trees and to expect the fairer 7 Height of Trees Trees because taller and better and more Fruit than those that are low T is true the more remote the branches are from the Earth the less are they subject to the injuries of Cattel or the Fruit to light fingers But the lower the Tree brancheth it self and spreads the fairer and sooner will it attain to be a Tree and the greater burthen will it bear of Fruit and those better and larger The Tree and Fruit will also be less obvious to the furious winds which make havock most years of a great part of our stock and in the Spring the new-kerned Fruit will be more within the shelter of the Natural or Artificial Securities from the nipping cold morning Breese and the Fruit when ripe and apt to fall will not receive so great injury from the humble as from the aspiring Tree Sed medio Virtus As the tall Tree is not for your advantage so the Tree that 's too low is not for your conveniency I aim not at Extremes In many places Fruit-trees are much injured by Moss it rarely 8 Diseases of Trees Moss grows on Trees where the
plain open or high Countries by woful experience do finde To prevent which as to Buildings by common experience and observation we finde that Trees are the only and most proper safeguard for which the Eugh is the best although it be long a growing Next unto that the Elm which soon aspires to a good height and full proportionable body and is thickest in the branches and will thrive in most Lands but any Trees are better than none As to Fruits Walls Pales or any other Buildings are a good prevention and security for Garden-fruits but for want of that Hedges and Rows of Trees may be raised at an easie rate and in little time As to Timber or other Trees which are also subject to be subverted or broken by high windes to abate the largeness of their Heads proves a good prevention especially the Elm which ought to have its Boughs often abated else will it be much more subject to be injured by high windes than any other Tree Hops of any Plant the Husbandman propagateth receiveth the most damage from high windes which may in some measure be prevented Against the Spring-windes which nips the young Buds and afterwards bloweth them from the Poles a good Pale or Thorn-hedge much advantageth but against the boysterous windes when they are at the tops of the Poles a tall Row of Trees incompassing the whole Hop-Garden is the best security in our power to give them Also be sure to let their Poles be firm and deep in the ground As to Corn windes sometimes prove an injury to it in the Ear when they are accompanied with great Rains by lodging of it but the greatest injury to it is in the Grass when it is young I mean Winter-corn the fierce bitter blasts in the Spring destroying whole Fields The only and sure remedy or prevention against this Disease is Inclosure as before we noted of Cold. In Spain c. where the Mist of Superstition hath dimmed Thunder and Tempest Hail c. the Spiritual and Natural sight the Ringing of Sacred Bells the use of Holy Water c. are made use of to Charm the Evil Spirit of the Air which very frequently in those hotter Climates terrifies the Inhabitants that he may be a little more favourable unto them than others But it cannot enter into my thoughts or belief that any thing we can do here either by Noises Charms c. or by the use of Bays Lawrel c. can prevail with so great a Natural Power and so much beyond our Command Prayers unto God excepted which are the only Securities and Defensives against so Potent and Forcible Enemies Blighting and Mildews have been generally taken to be the Mildews same thing which hath begotten much errour and the ways and means used for the prevention and cure have miscarried through the ignorance of the Disease For Mildew is quite another thing and different from blasting Mildews being caused from the Condensation of a fat and moist Exhalation in a hot and dry Summer from the Blossoms and Vegetables of the Earth and also from the Earth its self which by the coolness and serenity of the Air in the night or in the upper serene Region of the Air is condensed into a fat glutinous matter and falls to the Earth again part whereof rests on the leaves of the Oak and some other Trees whose leaves are smooth and do not easily admit the moisture into them as the Elm or other rougher leaves do which Mildew becomes the principal Food for the industrious Bees being of its self sweet and easily convertible into Honey Other part thereof rests on the Ears and Stalks of Wheat bespotting the Stalks with a different from the natural colour and being of a glutinous substance by the heat of the Sun doth so binde up the young tender and close Ears of the Wheat that it prevents the growth and compleating of the imperfect Grain therein which occasioneth it to be very light in the Harvest and yield a poor and lean Grain in the Heap But if after this Mildew falls a showre succeeds or the winde blow stifly it washeth or shaketh it off and are the only natural Remedies against this sometimes heavy Curse Some advise in the Morning after the Mildew is fallen and before the rising of the Sun that two men go at some convenient distance in the Furrows holding a Cord stretched streight betwixt them carrying it so that it may shake off the Dew from the tops of the Corn before the heat of the Sun hath thickned it It is also advised to sow Wheat in open grounds where the winde may the better shake off this Dew this being looked upon to be the only inconvenience Inclosures are subject unto but it is evident that the Field-lands are not exempt from Mildews nor yet from Smut where it is more than in Inclosed Lands The sowing of Wheat early hath been esteemed and doubtless is the best Remedy against Mildews by which means the Wheat will be well filled in the Ear before they fall and your increase will be much more As for curiosity sake Wheat was sown in all Moneths of the Year that sown in July produced such an increase that is almost incredible In France they usually sow before Michaelmas Bearded-Wheat is not so subject to Mildews as the other the Fibres keeping the Dew from the Ear. Hops suffer very much by Mildews which if they fall on them when small totally destroy them The Remedies that may be used against it is when you perceive the Mildews on them to shake the Poles in the Morning Or you may have an Engine to cast water like unto Rain on them which will wash the Mildew from them And if you have water plenty in your Hop-garden it will quit the cost in such years Hops being usually sold at a very high rate SECT II. From the Water and Earth Next unto those Aërial or Coelestial injuries which descend upon us we shall discourse of such that proceed from the Water and Earth that do also in a very great measure at some times and in some places afflict us proving great impediments to those Improvements that might otherwise be easily accomplished and also great detriments unto the Countryman upon that which he hath already performed As the want of water in some places proves a great impediment Much water offending and injury to the improvement and management of Rustick Affairs so doth the superabundant quantity either from the flowings of the Sea over the low Marsh-Lands at Spring-tides and High-waters or from great Land-flouds but principally from the low and level scituation of the Land where it is subject to Springs Over-flowings c. It is evident that much good Land hath for many Ages yielded Over-flowing of the Sea little benefit by reason of the high waters that sometimes have covered it over and destroyed that which in the intervals hath grown and hath also over-flown much good Land so frequently
Meadows or such places where you are not willing to dig or much break the ground fuming the holes with Brimstone Garlick and other unsavoury things will drive them out of the ground that was before infested with them But the putting a dead Mole in a Common Haunt will make them absolutely forsake it Every Countryman almost is sensible of the great injuries and Mice or Rats annoyances they receive from these Vermine both in the Fields where they raise Nurseries of Trees in their Gardens where they sow and plant Beans Please c. and in their Houses Barns and Corn-reeks In the Fields Orchards Gardens c. I know no readier way to destroy them than by placing an Earthen-pot in the ground and covering it with a board with a hole in the middle thereof and over the board to lay Hawm or suchlike rubbish under which the Mice seek for shelter and soon finde their Trap to receive them The usual way of building Reeks of Corn on Stavals set on stones is the only prevention against Mice and has proved so successful that in some places large Edifices are built on such stones that they supply the defect of Barns being covered like them Granaries also I have seen built after the same manner Binnes or Hutches for Corn may be placed on Pins like the other and prove secure places for Corn against these pernicious Vermine but great caution must be used that no Stick Ladder or other thing lean against these places lest the Mice finde the way to come where you would not have them In your Flower-gardens Apiary or in the several Rooms of your House Traps may be placed to destroy them unless where you can conveniently keep a Cat the only Enemy and Destroyer of Mice and Rats Arsenick or the Root of White-hellebor will destroy them being given with Sugar or suchlike mixture The last is the best because it destroys only Rats and Mice SECT IV. From Fowls As the best of Contents this World affords hath its part or share of trouble and vexation so this pleasant and excellent Rustick Life and Imployment is not free from care and trouble how to preserve it self from those Enemies and Plagues that daily attend it Sometimes the Heavens frown the Waters swell the Bryers snarl the Wilde Beasts are envious at our Innocent and most delectable enjoyments and if these withdraw their evil influence yet have we the Fowls of the Air Insects and several other Evils to encounter withal which without our diligent care and industry are ready to bereave us of the best part of the Fruits of our labours As we frequently observe that Kites Hawks and other Birds of Kites Hawks c. Prey wait for Pigeons Chickens tame Pheasants c. therefore is it very necessary that the Countryman keeps a Fowling-piece ready fitted and charged which is the best means to destroy and scare them away Also you may place small Iron-gins about the breadth of ones hand made like a Fox-gin and baited with Raw Flesh whereby I have caught very large Hawks Also by the streining of Lines or pieces of Nets over the places where you keep tame Pheasants Chickens or suchlike will fray them away The cutting down of Trees about your Pigeon-house will keep them from haunting it so much as otherwise they would do Crows Ravens Rooks and Magpies are great annoyances to Crows and Ravens c. Corn both at Seed-time pulling it up by the Roots whilest it is young and feeding on it also at the Harvest a good Fowling-piece is the best Instrument for the present But the only way to destroy the kinde of them and make their Flocks a little thinner were by some Publick Law to incourage the destruction of their Nests and Young which are so obvious at the building-time that it seems to be a very feasible work and much to be preferr'd before Crow-nets c. Several pretty Inventions of Scare-crows there are to keep the Corn free from them amongst which this is esteemed the most effectual viz. To dig a hole in some obvious place where the Crows c. annoy your Corn let it be about a foot deep or more and near two foot over and stick long black Feathers of a Crow or other Fowl round the edges thereof and some also in the bottom Several of these holes may be made if your ground be large and where these holes are thus dressed the Crows will not dare to feed I presume the reason is because whilest they are feeding on the ground the terrifying Object is out of their sight which is not usual in other Scare-crows wherewith in a little time they grow familiar by being always in view Dead Crows c. hang'd up do much terrifie them but amongst Cherry-trees and other Fruits which are much prejudiced by the Crows c. draw a Pack-thred or small Line from Tree to Tree and fasten here and there a black Feather and it is sufficient These Fowl that bring so great an advantage to one prove Pigeons a far greater annoyance and devourer of Grain to all the rest of the Neighbourhood It is an unknown quantity of Wheat Barley Pease c. that these devour not to mention the Prodigious computation that some have made of the damage committed by them on the Corn Grain c. yet is it most evident that they destroy a great part of the Seed and Crop notwithstanding several stand for their vindication alledging that they never scrape and therefore take only the Grain that lies on the surface of the Earth that would otherwise be destroyed and not grow To which I answer That that very Corn that lies on the Surface may prove the best Corn unless in Winter-corn the extream Frosts destroy it or in the Spring the extream Drought It having been of late found to be a piece of very good Husbandry in some light and shallow Lands first to Plough it about August and then to run the Fold over it and well settle it and afterwards to sow and harrow it which must needs make well for the Pigeons and ill for the Husbandman where they cannot be kept from it Also it is to be observed that where the flight of Pigeons fall there they fill themselves and away and return again where they first rose and so proceed over a whole piece of ground if they like it Although you cannot observe any Grain above the ground they know how to finde it As I have seen the experience of it that a Piece of about two or three Acres being sown with Pease the Pigeons lay so much upon it that they devoured at least three parts in four of it which I am sure could not be all above the Surface of the ground That their Smelling is their principal Director I have also observed having sown a small Plat of Pease in my Garden near a Pigeon-house and very well covered them that not a Pease appeared above ground In a few
days a parcel of Pigeons were hard at work in discovering this hidden Treasure and in a few days of about two quarts I had not above two or three Pease left for what they could not finde before they found when the Buds appeared notwithstanding they were howed in and well covered their Smelling only directed them as I supposed because they followed the Ranges exactly The injury they do at Harvest on the Pease Fetches c. I hope none can excuse therefore may we esteem these amongst the greatest Enemies the poor Husbandman meets withal and the greater because he may not erect a Pigeon-house also to have a share of his own spoils none but the Rich being permitted so great a priviledge and also so severe a Law being made to protect these Winged Thieves that a man cannot suum defendendo encounter with them You have therefore no remedy against them but to affright them away by noises or suchlike Also you may shoot at them so that you kill them not or you may if you can take them in a Net cut off their Tails and let them go by which means you will impound them for when they are in their houses they cannot bolt or flie out of the tops of their houses but by the strength of their Tails which when they are weakned they remain Prisoners at home The Jay proves a great devourer of Beans Cherries and other Jays Garden-fruits and is also a subtil Bird but is easily met withal if you are watchful in a morning early and have a good Ambush which you must change sometimes lest they discover you They make but short flights as it were from Tree to Tree that you may easily pursue them A very good way to take them is to drive a Stake into the ground about four foot high above the Surface of the Earth let the Stake be made picked at the top that a Jay may not settle on it then within a foot or thereabouts of the top let there be a hole bored through about three quarters of an inch Diameter fit a Pin or Stick to the hole about six or eight inches long then make a Loop or Spring of Horse-hair fastened to a Stick or Wand of Hasel that may be entered into the Stake at a hole near the ground and by the bending of the Stick put the Loop of Horse-hair through the upper hole and put the short Stick a little way into the hole and lay the Loop round on the short Stick that the Jay when he comes finding this resting place to stand conveniently amongst his food perches on the short Stick which immediately by his weight falls and gives the Spring the advantage of holding the Jay by the Legs This is an undoubted way of taking them if they are placed amongst the Beans or suchlike where the Jays haunt it being their usual custom to hop from Tree to Tree or any thing they can meet withal These are most pernicious Birds to young Fruit-trees by Bull sincâ—es feeding on the young pregnant Buds in the Spring-time which contain the Blossoms and are the only hope of the succeeding Year They are easily taken off with a small Fowling-piece only you must be cautious that your shot spoil not the Young Cions or branches of your Trees This Bird is so bold or rather confident that no Scare-crow or other thing will frighten him from the Trees he delights to feed on But on the Morocco-Plum or the Damson notwithstanding all you can do he will settle and feed So that your best way to preserve those Buds is to Bird-lime the Twigs These Birds are also very injurious to the Goosberry-buds Gold-finches coming in Flights and cleansing a whole Garden of them immediately as the Bull-finch will the Buds of the Curran-tree The remedies against them are the same with the other The Chaffinch Green-finch Titmouse and other small Birds are injurious to some Fruits but not like unto the other before-mentioned who will prey on the Buds of all sorts of Fruit-trees under the very Nets that cover the Trees and near unto the dead bodies that hang on the Trees and kill'd but a little before These although they are but small yet are they a numerous Sparrows Generation of Corn-eaters It is unknown how much they devour in this Kingdom and what a great damage it proves to the Husbandman especially in scarce and dear Years Many ways are made use of to destroy them but none more effectual than the large Folding Sparrow-net which will take many dozen at a Draught they being so easily induced to come to a Shrape or place baited for them especially in the hard Weather in the Winter and in the Summer before the Corn is ready for them at both which times Meat is scarce abroad and then they flock to Barns More as to the destroying of Fowl you shall finde hereafter in the Chapter of Fowling and Fishing SECT V. Of Insects and Creeping Things offending Moist and warm Lands which are usually the most fertile Frogs and Toads are most subject to these Vermine Frogs are best destroyed and prevented in February in the Ditches where they Spawn by destroying both Frogs and Spawn Toads are easily discovered in the Summer-evenings by a Candle creeping up and down the Walks and Passages about your House Garden c. To Wall-fruit and several sorts of Garden-plants there cannot Snails and Worms be a more pernicious Enemy than Snails which you may in a Dewy Morning easily finde where they most delight to feed but the surest way is in the hard Winter to seek out their haunts and make a clean riddance of them They lie much in the holes of Walls behinde old Trees under Thorn or other old and close Hedges In one Year I caused near two Bushels to be gathered in a Winter in a Noble-mans Garden which had in precedent years destroyed the most of their Wall-fruit and ever after they had great plenty of Fruit. Ever observe not to pluck off such Fruit the Snails have begun to feed on but let it remain for they will make an end of that before they begin on more The best way to take Snails is to set Tile Brick or Board hollow against a Wall Pale or otherwise so that the Snails may seek shelter under them Then about Michaelmas the Snails secure themselves in such places for the whole Winter unless you prevent them by taking them in December and destroying them which is an easie and sure way to rid your Garden of them Worms may be picked up clean by a Candle in a moist Evening if any escape you another Evening may serve to finde them Your Beds watred with any strong Lixivium made of the Ashes or fixed Salts of any Vegetable will not only destroy Worms but prove an extraordinary improvement and inriching of the ground Lay Ashes or Lime about any Plant you desire to preserve from Snails or Worms and they will not come near it