seeds need no ininclosure for Cattle will not touch them except Dear neither doth it fear the plunderer either in the field or barn 2. It 's profitable to the sower I know that they usually value an Acre at 10 or 12 l. which costeth them usually but half the money Whether there be Flax that will yeild 30 or 40 l. per Acre as some report I know not 3. To the place where it is sown because it sets many poor to work I wish it were encouraged more in the North than it is because there are many poor who could willingly take pains and though spinning of linnen be but a poor work yet it is light and may be called Womens recreation and in France and Spain the best Citizens Wives think it no disgrace to go about spinning with their Rocks and though in some part the poor think it nothing to earn 4 or 6 d per day and will as soon stand with their hands in their pockets as work cheap yet in the North they account it well to earn 3 d. or 4 d. by spinning which they may do Lastly It would be very beneficial to this Nation and save many thousand pounds I may say 100 thousands which are expected either in cash or good commodities and we should not be beholding to Holland for fine linnen and Cordage nor to France for Poldavices Locrams Canvases Nets nor to Flanders for thread but might be supplyed abundantly with these necessary commodities even at our own doors There is no small Deficiency in dunging and manuring lands both because all that manner of manuring and amending lands is not known to every one and also that they do not imploy all they know to the best use I will therefore set down most of the wayes I have seen here in England and beyond Seas by which Land is improved and the best wayes to use the same 1. To begin with Chalk which is as old a way as Julius Casars time as he himself reporteth in his Commentaries Chalk is of two sort 1. A hard strong dry Chalk with which in Kent they make walls burn lime and make whiting for houses 2. Kind is a small unctuous Chalk this is the Chalk for land the other helpeth little onely it maketh the Plough go easier in stiffe lands broomy land is accounted the best land for Chalke and Lime but it helpeth other lands also especially if you Chalke your ground and let it lye a year or two which is the way used in Kent that it may be matured and shattered by the Sun and rain otherwise if it be turned in presently it is apt to lye in great clods as I have seen it twenty years after Chalk also sweetneth pasture but doth not much increase it and killeth rushes and broom 2. Lime which is made of divers forts of stones is an excellent thing for most Lands and produceth a most pure grain 160 bushels is usually laid on an Acre but I suppose that if men did lay but half the dung on the ground as they usually do as also Lime and Chalke and Dung and Lime it oftener it would be better Husbandry for much dung causeth much weeds and causeth Corn to lodge and too much Chalk doth too much force the land so that after some good crops it lyeth barren many years It 's good Husbandry likewise to lay down lands before they be too much out of heart for they will sooner recover otherwise not 3. Ordinary Dung which every one knoweth but let it not be exposed to the Sun too much nor let it lye in an high place for the rain will waste away it's fatness It 's observable that earth the more it is exposed to the Sun it 's the better as we see that land is much bettered by oft ploughings for the Sun and dew engender a nitrous fatnesse which is the cause of fertility but dung is exhausted by the Sun as it appeareth by the folding of sheep which profit little if it be not presently turned in therefore a Shepherd if his time would permit should turn up the ground with an How for to sow Turneps as Gardiners do for to sow I have seen Ordinary Dung on dry lands in dry years to do hurt and it oft causeth weeds and trumpery to grow 4. Marle It 's of divers kinds some stony some soft some white some yellowish but most commonly blew It 's in most places in England but not known by all the best marks to know it is to expose it to the Aire and to see if the Sun or Rain cause it to shatter and break in square pieces like dice and if it be unctuous or rather to take a load or two and lay it on the midst of your fields and to try how it mendeth your lands It 's excellent for Corn and Pasture especially on dry lands In Essex the scouring of their ditches they call Marle because it looketh blew like it it helpeth their lands well 5. Snaggreet which is a kind of earth taken out of the Rivers full of small shels It helpeth the barren lands in divers parts of Surrey I believe it 's found in all Rivers It were well if in other parts of England they did take notice of it 6. Owse out of Marsh ditches hath been found very good for white Chalky land as also Sea-mud and Sea-Owse is used in divers parts of Kent and Sussex 7. Sea-weeds of all sorts rotted 8. Mr. Carew in his Survey of Cornwall relateth that they use a fat Sea-sand which they carry up many mises in sacks and by this they have very much improved their barren lands It were worth the while to try all manner of Sea-sands for I suppose that in other places they have a like fertilizing fatnesse 9. Folding of Sheep especially after the Flaunders manner viz. under a covert in which earth is strawed about 6 inches thick on which they set divers nights then more earth must be brought and strawed 6 inches thick and the Sheep folded on it and thus they do continually Winter and Summer I suppose a shepheard with one horse will do it at his spare hours and indeed sooner then remove his fold and this folding is to be continued especially in Winter and doth the sheep good because they lye warm and dry and truly if I am not mistaken by this means we may make our sheep to enrich all the barren dry lands of England 10. Ashes of any kind Sea-cole-ashes with Horse-dung the Gardiners of London much commend for divers uses It 's great pitty that so many thousand loads are thrown into wast places and do no good 11. Soot is also very good being sprinkled on ground but it 's too dear if it be of wood for it 's worth 16 d or 2 s a bushel 12. Pigeons or Hens-dung is incomparable one load is worth 10 loads of other dung therefore it 's usually sown on Wheat that lyeth afar off and not easie to be helped it 's
naturally in our Island may be very serviceable to the Husbandman both for his Pastures and corn-Corn-lands To instance in some few we see that divers sorts of wild Vetches Chiches Tares c. grow wild in divers places which though they bear not so great and large crops as some others already used yet who knoweth what they would do if they were manured as other grains and in land proper for them for we see that the transplanting of plants into gardens doth very much meliorate or better them and without doubt all those grains which are in use with us were at first picked out of the fields and woods and by ingenious men found useful for man and beast and of late divers have been found not known to our fore-fathers as Saint Foin Lucern and why may not we find divers Grasses Vetches Medicaes Wild Pease c. which as yet are scarce taken notice of 2. There grow divers sorts of wild Pease but to speak of two only 1. Sort which groweth on the stony Beaches of the Sea where there is little or no earth the roots are many foot deep in the ground In Queen Maries dayes in a dearth the poor people gathered divers sacks full of them and they were no small relief to them who hath tried whether they would thrive better on better land 2. Sort groweth on dry barren land and is commonly called the everlasting Pease which continually groweth out of the same root In Gardens I have seen it grow ten years together and larger at the ten years end then at the first I have also seen it flourish on barren grounds where Oats were burned away who knoweth but these and other Plants may be serviceable if not for man at least for beasts or pigeons for in New-England the great flights of Pigeons are much maintained by these I am sure it were good to make experiments of these and divers others 2. Head is the Ignorance of the Mechanical uses of Herbs and Trees for even for these uses most Plants have some peculiar propriety To instance in a few We know that Elm is for Wheels and the best wood to make Herrings red Oak is for Shipwright Joyner Tanner Horn-Beams Beech for Milwright Line-tree for Bass-ropes old Elder without pitch is very tough and fit for Cogs of Wheels Tooth-Pickers Pear-tree for Mathematical instruments and ingravers c. Osiers for baskets Walnut for Gunstocks Asp for Hoops Box Ash for an hundred uses and much more might be spoken of this kind if time would permit So likewise divers Plants are for Painters as you may see in Battees experiments some for the Dyers but as yet we know but four viz. Woad Would Green-wood and Madder amongst 1200 Plants and upward which grow wild with us I could wish some ingenious man would take the paines to search out the Mechanical uses of Plants surely it were a good way to advance Mechanicks who in their callings usually go round as horses in a mill and endeavour very little to advance or know the causes of their operations I know a Gentleman who promiseth some things in this kind and I hope will be as good as his word 3. Head is the ignorance of the Physical uses of the Plants for though many hundred Plants doe grow amongst us yet but few of them are used Physically whereas there is scarce any one but may be useful in this kind And truely in my opinion it is a great fault that we so much admire those things that are far fetched and dear bought when as often-times they are gathered in unseasonable times and corrupted by long voyages by Sea counterfeited by Merchants yea we have very oft quid pro quo and rank poysons and neglect those medicines which God hath given us here at home I am credibly informed that in former times Virga aurea was in great use with us and usually sold for eight pence per ounce and brought from France but so soon as it was found growing plentifully in our hedges it was cast forth of the Apothecaries shops as of little vertue And though some will object that our Plants have little vertue I say it 's false for God hath tempered them for our complections and we see very oft that one simple medicine doth more good then the great compositions of the Ancients which are rather ad pompam then for health and seem to savour somewhat of the Mountebank because Opium is alwayes an ingredient And further we see that where any Endemical or National disease reigneth there God hath also planted a specifique for it As the Cochleare or the Scurvy-grasse for the Scurvy in the Baltick Sea where it is very frequent and also in Holland England So in the West-Indies from whence the great Pox first came and where it reigneth very much that not onely man but other Creatures are infected with it so that even Dogs die of that disease in our Northern Plantations perhaps catching this infection by mingling with Indian Dogs there grow the specifiques for this Disease as Gujacum Salsaperilla Sassafras and the Salvages do easily cure these distempers Further we see that even the irrational creatures can find not only meat but also medicines for themselves as the Dog Couch-grass for a vomit the Dove Vervein the Weasel Rue the Swallow Celandine the Toad Plantine and where is our reason that we cannot I therefore desire all Country people to endeavour to know these Plants which grow at their doors for God hath not planted them there for no purpose for he doth nothing in vain and to collect together the plain simple Medicaments of their Grandame by this means they may save many a forty pence I mean preserve themselves and Families and Neighbours in good health with little charge Some small Treatises have of late been written to shew the use of our Plants in Physick and I hope ingenious men will daily more and more communicate the secrets of this kind which they have in their hands for the Publique good They that write of four-footed beasts do reckon about an hundred and twenty species of them half of them are scarcely known amongst us I do suppose therefore that divers species are wanting which may be useful To instance in some And 1. To begin with the Elephant the greatest wisest and longest lived of all Beasts which abound very much in the Eastern parts of the world as China India and are accounted very serviceable both for the Warres and for carriage fifteen men usually riding on his back together they are not chargeable to keep why may they not be of use even here when I am credibly informed an Elephant lived divers years here in a a Park so that they can endure the coldnesse of this Climate 2. The Buffle which is as big as an Ox and serviceable both for the Plough and for their Milk their skins make the best buffe they will fare very hard and live in Fens and Bogs where nothing else
for it maketh a fine Gentile wine with a curious colour In Germany when their Grapes are green they make fire in their Sellars in Stoves by the which means their wines work extraordinarily and do digest themselves the better This course we must also take here in England some years for it helpeth the rawnesse of all liquours very much There is an Ingenious Dutchman who hath a Secret which as yet he will not reveal how to help Maturation by a Compost applyed to the roots The Compost which I have spoken of before made of Brimstone Pigeons-dung is very excellent for that purpose as also Lâ—es of wine blood lime used with moderation He also knoweth how to make sour Grapes produce good wine I suppose his way to be this First all juice of Grapes newly expressed is sweet and which may by it selfe alone be made into a sweet syrup by boiling which the French call Racineè Further in the Evaporation of liquors which have not fermented or wrought the watery part goeth away first 3. Fermentation giveth a vinous taste and maketh a liquour full of spirits You may then easily guess at the way and perhaps he may adde also sugar and spices as the Vintuers do when they make Hippocras I know a Gentleman who hath made excellent wine of Raisins well boiled in water and afterward fermented by it self or with Barm it 's called usually Meade I likewise know that all sweet and fatty Juices will make sine vinous liquours as Damsins if they be wrought or fermented ingeniously but whosoever goeth about such experiments let him not think that any thing is good enough for these purposes but let him use the best he can get for of naughty corrupt things who can expect that which is excellent and delicate The Deficiency of us in this kind is so obvious that all the world takes notice of it and it is next the neglect of fishing the greatest shame to this Nation for all know that we have as good land for these seeds as any can be found in Europe and that the sowing of them requireth neither more labour cost or skill then other seeds And further that the Materials made from these are extreamly necessary for how miserable should we be without Linnen Canvases Cordage Nets How can we put our ships to Sea which are the bulwarks of this Isle And yet we are necessitated to have these Commodities from those who would destroy I will not say the Nation but I may boldly say our Shipping and Trade I hope that this will more seriously be considered by those at the Helme of our State I will freely and plainly relate how this Deficiency may easily be remedied according to my judgment 1. To compel by a Law that all Farmers who plough and sow 50 or 100 Acres of Land should sow half an Acre or an Acre of Hemp or Flax. or to pay 5 s. or 10 s. to the poor of the Parish where they live or some Law to this purpose for there is no man but hath land fit for one of these Hemp desiring a stiff deep rich land Flax that which is light For there is so much irrationality in some professions that they must be forced even like Bruits to understand their own good· In King Edward the sixth days something was enacted to this purpose as I am informed In Henry the eighth days there was a Law enacted that every man should sow his lands and that no man should enclose his lands lest he should turn it to Pasture for we have had great dearth in England through the neglect of Tillage which Laws even as yet stand in force yet there is not nor needeth there be any force to compel men to till and sow their lands for they have at length found the sweetnesse and willingly go about it for their own profits sake and now we suppose and not without cause that Enclosing is an Improvement and so concerning Hemp and Flax I say if they were once accustomed to sow them they would never leave it as I see Farmers do in East-Kent scarce a man but he will have a considerable plot of ground for Hemp and about London far greater quantities of Flax is sown then formerly 2. It were convenient that every Parish through the Nation should have a stock to set their poor to work that the young children and women might not run up and down idle and begging or stealing as they do in the Country of Apples Pease Wood Hedges and so by little and little are trained up for the Gallows 3. That a severe Law should be enacted against those who run up and down and will not work for if all know that they may have work at home and earn more within doors honestly then by running roguing up and down why should they not compel them to it And though some may think the Parishes will lose much by this way because that the stock wrought will not be put off but with losse as perhaps 10 l. will be brought to 8 l. yet let them consider how much they shal save at their doors how many inconveniences they are freed from their hedges in the Countrey shall not be pulled their fruits stoln nor their Corn purloined and further that the poor will be trained up to work and therefore fit for any service yea and in their youth learn a calling by the which they may get an honest livelyhood and I dare say their Assessements for the poor would not be so frequent nor the poor so numerous and the benefit which redounds to the Nation would be very great 4. The charitable deeds of our forefathers ought to be enquired after that they be not misplaced as usually they are but be really bestowed for the good of the poor that are laborious as in London is begun and if there be any that will not work take Saint Pauls rule who best knew what was best for them I dare not advise to take it in part of Commons Fens c. and to improve them for this use lest I should too much provoke the rude mercilesse multitude But to return to my discourse I say that sowing Hemp and Flax will be very beneficial 1. To the Owners of Land for men usually give in divers places 3 l. per Acre to sow Hemp and Flax as I have seen at Maidstone in Kent which is the only place I know in England where thread is made and though nigh an hundred bands are imployed about it yet they make not enough for this Nation and yet get good profit How advantageous will this be to those who have drained the Fens where questionlesse Hemp will flourish and exsiccate the ground for Hemp desireth stiff moist land as Flax light and dry and likewise to those in the North of England where land is very cheap I hope in a little time Ireland will furnish us with these commodities if we be idle for there land is very cheap and those
extraordinary likewise on a Hop-Garden 13. Mault-dust is exceedingly good in Corn-land blood for trees also shavings of horns which are carried many miles from London for this purpose as also the dust of mault 14. Some commend very much the sweeping of a ship of salt or drossy salt and brine it 's very probable because it killeth the worms and all fertility proceedeth from salt At Nantwich they use the dross or refuse of salt for their Meadows with very good success 15. I have seen in France poor men cut up Heath and the Turf of the ground and lay them on an heap to make mould for their barren lands Brakes laid in a moist place and rotted are used much for Hop-Grounds and generally all things that will rot if they were stones would make dung 16. In New-England they fish their ground which is done thus In the spring about April there cometh up a fish to the fresh Rivers called an Alewife because of its great belly and is a kind of Shade full of bones these are caught in wiers and sold very cheap to the Planters who usually put one or two cut in pieces into the hill where their Corn is planted called Virginia-Wheat for they plant it in hills 5 Grains in an hill almost as we plant Hops in May or June for it will not endure Frosts and at that distance it causeth fertility extraordinary for two years especially the first for they have had fifty or sixty bushels on an Acre and yet plough not their Land and in the same Hills doe plant the same Corn for many years together and have good Crops besides abundance of Pompions and French or Kidney beans In the North parts of New-England where the fisher men live they usually fish their Ground with Cods-heads which if they were in England would be better imployed I suppose that when sprats be cheap men might mend their Hop-grounds with them and it would quit cost but the dogs will be apt to scrape them up as they do in New-England unless one of their legs be tyed up 17. Vrine In Holland they as carefully preserve the Cowes Vrine as the Dung to enrich their land old Vrine is excellent for the Roots of Trees Columella in his Book of Husbandry saith that he is an ill Husband that doth not make ten loads of dung for every great beast in his yard and as much for every one in his house and one load for small Beasts as Hogs This is strange Husbandry to us and I believe there are many ill Husbands by this account I know a woman who liveth five miles South of Canterbury who saveth in a paile all the droppings of the Houses I mean the Vrine and when the paile is full sprinkleth it on her Meadow which causeth the grass at first to look yellow but after a little time it grows wonderfully that many of her Neighbours wondred at it and were like to accuse her of Witchcraft 18. Woollen-rags which Hartfort-shire men use much and Oxford-shire and many other places they do very well in thin Chalky Land in Kent for two or three years It 's a fault in many places that they neglect these as also Linnen rags or Ropes-ends of the which white and brown paper is made for it 's strange that we have not Linnen-rags enough for paper as other Nations have but must have it from Italy France and Holland 19. Denshyring so called in Kent where I onely have seen it used though by the word it should come from Denbighshire is the cutting up of all the Turffe of a Meadow with an instrument sharp on both sides which a man with violence thrusts before him and then lay the Turff on heaps and when it is dry they burn it and spread it on the ground The Charge is usually four Nobles which the goodnesse of a Crop or two repayeth 20. Mixture of Lands Columella an old Writer saith that his Grandfather used to carry sand on clay and on the contrary to bring clay on sandy grounds and with good success the Lord Bacon thinking much good may be done thereby for if Chalk be good for loamy land why should not loam be good for Chalky banks 21. I may adde Enclosure as an Improvement of land not onely because that men when their grounds are enclosed may imploy them as they please but because it giveth warmth and consequently fertility There is one in London who promised to mend lands much by warmth onely and we see that if some few sticks lye together and give a place warmth how speedily that grasse will grow 22. Steeping of Grains The Ancients used to steep Beans in salt-water and in Kent it 's usuall to steep Barley when they sow late that it may grow the faster and also to take away the soil for wild Oats Cockle and all save Drake will swim as also much of the light Corn which to take away is very good If you put Pigeons-dung into the water and let it steep all night it may be as it were half a dunging take heed of steeping Pease too long for I have seen them sprout in three or four hours 23. Is the sowing of Course and cheap Grain and when they are grown to plough them in For this purpose the Ancients did use LVPINES a Plant well known to our Gardiners and in Kent sometimes Tares are sowen which when the Cattel have eaten a little of the tops they turn them in with very good Improvement for their ground Lastly To conclude I may adde as a main Deficiency that though we by experience find that all the foresaid Materials and divers others as oft-tilling Husbandry seasons c. change of Seed and Land resting of Lands fencing c. do cause Fertility yet we are very ignorant of the true causes of Fertility and know not what Chalk Ashes Dung Marle Water Air Earth Sun c. do contribute whether something Essential or Accidental Material or Immaterial Corporal or Spiritual Principal or Instrumental Visible or Invisible whether Saline Sulphureous or Mercurial or Watry Earthy Fiery Acreal or whether all things are nourished by Vapours Fumes Atoms Effluvia or by Salt as Urine Embrionate or Non specificate or by Ferments Odours Acidities or from a Chaos or inconfused indigested and unspecificated lump or from a Spermatick dampish Vapour which ascendeth from the Centre of the Earth or from the Influence of Heaven or from Water onely impregnated corrupted or fermented or whether the Earth by reason of the Divine Benediction hath an Infinite multiplicative Vertue as Fire and the Seeds of all things have or whether the multiplicity of Opinions of learned Philosophers as Aristotle Rupesc Sendivog Norton Helmont Des Cartes Digby White Plat Gla uber concerning this Subject sheweth the great difficulty of this Question which they at leasure may peruse I for my part pare not venture on this vast Ocean in my small Bark lest I be swallowed up yet if an opportunity presents shall
yet more are to be taken in there and in other places Rumsey-marsh in Kent consisting of 45000 Acres and upwards as Cambden relateth is of some antiquity where the Land is usually set 30 s. per Acre and yet 1 d. per week constantly is payd through the whole levil for the maintenance of the wall and now and then two-pence whereas ordinary salts are accounted deare at five shillings or six shillings per Acre so that the improvement is very considerable the same I may say of Fens especially that great Fen of Lincolnshire Cambridg Huntingdon consisting as I am informed of 380000 Acres which is now almost recovered and a friend of mine told me very lately that he had profered a Mark per Acre for 900 Acres together to sowe Rape on which formerly was scarcely valued at twelve pence per Acre very great therefore is the improvement by draining of lands and our negligence very great that they have been wast so long and as yet so continue in divers places for the improving of a Kingdom is better than the conquering of a new one 2. I see likewise no small faults in this land by having so many Chases and Forrests where Bramblâ—s Brakes Furzes doe grow when as these trumperies might be cut up and pot-ashes made of them and the ground imployed profitably for Corn or Pasture I know a Forrest by Brill in Buckinghamshire taken in and the land is usually let being now well enclosed for 4 or 5 Nobles per Acre In Lancashire also as about Lerpoole and elsewhere I have seen Commons little worth advanced to a great price by Marling c. 3. Sort of waste-waste-land is dry heaâ—hy Commons I know that poor people will cry out against me because I call these waste-lands but it 's no matter I desire Ingenious Gentlemen seriously to consider whether or no these lands might not be improved very much by the Husbandry of Flaunders viz. by sowing Flax Turneps great Clover-grass if that Manure be made by folding Sheep after the Flaunders way to keep it in heart 2. Whether the Rottennesse and Scabbinesse of Sheep Murrein of Cattel Diseases of Horses and in general all diseases of Cattel doe not especially proceed from Commons 3. If the rich men who are able to keep great stocks are not great Gainers by them 4. Whether Commons do not rather make poor by causing idlenesse than maintain them and such poor who are trained up rather for the Gallows or beggery then for the Common-wealths service 5. How it cometh to pass that there are fewest poor where there fewest Commons as in Kent where there is scarce six Commons in the County of a considerable greatnesse 6. How many do they see enriched by the Commons and if their Cattel be not usualy swept away by the Rot or starved in some hard Winters 7. If that poor men might not imploy two Acres enclosed to more advantage then twice as much in a Common And Lastly If that all Commons were enclosed and part given to the Inhabitants and part rented out for a stock to set all the poor on work in every County I determine nothing in this kind but leave the determination for wiser heads 4. Parks Although I cannot but reckon Parks amongst Lands which are not improved to the full but perceive considerable waste by them by brakâ—s bushes brambles c. growing in divers places and therefore wish there were fewer in this Island yet I am not so great an enemy to them as most are for there are very great Uses of them As 1. For the bringing up of young Cattel 2. For the maintaining of Timber so that if any have occasion to use a good piece of Timber either for a Mil-port or a Keel of a Ship or other specil uses whither can they go but to a Park 3. The Skins of the Deer are very usefull and their flâ—sh excellent Foâ—d Not to speak of the Medicinal Vses nor of Acorns for Hogs c. But some will object that the Plough never goeth there To the which I answer It 's no matter For I cannot but say as Fortescue Chancellor to Henry 6. doth That God hath given us such a fruitful land that without labour we have plenty whereas France must dig and delve for what they have And I suppose that I could maintaine two things which are thought great Paradoxes viz. that it were no losse to this Island if that we should not plough at all if so be that we could certainly have Corn at a reasonable rate and likewise vent for all our Manufactures of Wool 1. Because that the Commodities from Cattel are far more stable then Corn for Cloths Stuffs Stockins Butter Cheese Hides Leather Skins Wool Tallow are certaine even every where Corne scarcely in any place constantly in none 2. Pasture imployeth more hands which is the second Paradox and therefore Pasture doth not depopulate as it is commonly said for Normandy and Picardy in France where there are Pastures in a good measure are as populous as any part of France and I am certaine that Holland Friezeland Zealand Flaunders and Lombardy which rely altogether on Pastures are the most populous places in Europe But some will object and say that a shepherd and a dog formerly hath destroyed divers Villages To this I answer that we well know what a shepherd and a dog can do viz look to two or three hundred sheep at the most and that two or three hundred Acres will maintain them or the land is extreamly barren and that these two or three hundred Acres being barren will scarcely maintain a Plough which is but one man and two boyes with the horses and that the mowing reaping and threshing of this Corne and other Work about will scarcely maintaine three more with work through the whole year But how many people may be imployed by the Wool of two or three hundred Sheep in Picking Sorting Carding Spinning Weaving Dying Fulling Knitting I leave to others to calculate And further if the Pastures be rich Meadows and go on daiâ—ing I suppose all know that an hundred Acres of such land imployeth more hands then 100 Acres of the best Corr-Land in England and produceth likewise better exportable Commodities And further if I should grant that formerly the shepherd and his dog did depopulate that I may not condemn the wisdom of former Ages yet I will deny that it doth so now for formerly we were so unwise as to send over our Wool to Antwerp and other places where they were Manufactured by which means one pound oft brought ten unwrought to them but we set now our own poor to work and so save the depopulation Yet I say it 's convenient to encourage the Plough because that we cannot have a certainty of Corn and carriage is dear both by sea and land especially into the Inland-Countreys and our Commodities by Wool do cloy the Merchants 5. Rushy-lands Blith telleth us good Remedies for these Inconveniences viz.
making deep trenches oft-mowings Chalking Liming Dunging and Ploughing I know where hungry guests Horses soon make an end of them 6. Furze Broom Heath these can hardly be so destroyed but at length they will up again for God hath given a peculiar propriety to every kind of earth to produce some peculiar kinds of Plants which it will observe even to the Worlds end unlesse by Dung Marle Chalk you alter even the very nature of the earth In Gallitia in Spaine where such barren lands do very much abound they do thus first they grub them up as clean as they can of the greater Roots and Branches they make fire-wood the smaller sticks are either imployed in fencing or else are burnt on the ground afterwards the Land being ploughed twice at least they sowe Wheat and usually the Crop is great which the Land-lord and Tenant divide according to a compact then the ground resteth and in three or four years the Furze or Brooms will recover their former growth which the painfull Husbandman grubbeth and doeth with it as formerly I set this down that you may see how laborious the Spaniard is in some places the poverty of the Countrey compelling him to it 7. There are other Inconveniences in the Land besides weeds and trumpery viz. Ill Tenures as Copy-hold Knight-service c. so that the Possessour cannot cut any Timber down without consent of the Lord and when he dyes must pay one or two years rent perhaps more because there is no certaine Fine but is at the Land-Lords mercy But these are not in the power of the poor Husbandman to remedy I therefore passe them by yet hope that in little time we shall see these Inconveniences remedied because they much discourage Improvements and are as I suppose Badges of our Norman slavery To conclude It seemeth to me very reasonable and it will be a great encouragement to laborious men to improve their barren lands if that they should have recompence for what they have done according as indifferent men should judg when they leave it as is the custome in Flaunders I have likewise observed some Deficiâ—ncies in Woods which I shall briefly declare with the best way to remedy the same 1. It 's a great fault that generally through the Island the Woods are destroyed so that we are in many places very much necessitated both for fuel and also for timber for building and other uses so that if we had Coals from Newcastle and Boards from Norwey Clap-boards Barrel-staves Wainscot and Pipe-staves from Prussia we should be brought to great extremity and many Mechanicks would be necessitated to leave their callings 2. Deficiency is that our Woods are not ordered as they should be but though Woods should be especially preserved for timber for building and shipping yet at this time it 's very rare to see a good Timber-tree in a Wood. 3. That many of our Woods are very thin and not replenished with such sorts of Woods as are convenient for the place 4. That we sell continually and never plant or take care for posterity These Deficiencies may be thus Remedyed 1. To put in execution the Statutes against grubbing of Woods which are sufficiently severe It 's well known we have good Laws but it 's better known they are not executed In the Wilde of Kent and Sussex which lies far from the Rivers and Sea and formerly have been nothing but Woods liberty is granted for men to grub what they please for they cannot want firing for themselves and they are so seated that neither fire-wood nor timber can be transported elsewhere I know a Gentleman who proffered there good Oak-timber at 6 s. 8 d. per tun and the Land in those parts in general is very good About Tunbridge there is Land which formerly was Wood is now let for 30 s. par Acre so that to keep such lands for Wood would be both losse to the owner and to the Island But in other parts of the Island it is otherwise and men are much to be blamed for destroying both timber and fuel I have seen at Shooters-hill near London some Woods stubbed up which were good ground for Wood but now are nothing but furze which is a great losse both to the owner and to tbe Countrey For the Land is made worse then it was formerly I conceive there are Lands which are as naturally ordained for Woods viz. Mountainous Craggy uneven-land as small hills for â—he Vines and Olives plain lands for Corn and low moist lands for Pasture which lands if they be stubbed do much prejudice the Common-wealth 2. That all Woods should have such a Number of Timber-trees per Acre according to the Statute There is a good Law for that purpose but men delude both themselves and the law that they every Felling cut down the standers which they left the felling before lest perchance they should grow to be Timber and leave twelve small Standers that they might seem to fulfil in some measure the Statute but it 's a meer falacy and causeth the Statute to fail of it's principal end which is to preserve Timber 3. The best Remedy against thinnesse of Woods is to plash them and spread them abroad and cover them partly in the ground as every Countrey-man can direct by this means the Wood will soon grow rough and thick It 's good Husbandry likewise to fill your Woods with swift growers as Ashes Sallow Willow Aspe which are also good for Hop-poles Hoops Sycamore is also a swift grower In Flaunders they have a kind of Poplar called by them Abell-tree which speedily groweth to be timber 4. That some Law be made that they which fell should also plant or sowe In Bisâ—ay there is a Law if that any cut down a Timber-tree he must plant three for it which law is put into execution with severity otherwise they would soon be undone for the Countrey is very mountainous and barren and dependeth wholly on Iron Mines and on Shipping their Woods are not copsed there but onely Pollards which they lop when occasion serveth I know one who was bound by his Land-Lord to plant so many Trees yearly which according he did but alwayes in such places that they might not grow In France near to the Borders of Spain they sowe Ashkey which when they grow to such a greatnesse that they may be slit into four quarters and big enough to make Pikes then they cut them down and I have seen divers Acres together thus planted hence come the excellent Pikes called Spanish-Pikes Some Gentlemen have sown Acâ—rus and it 's a good way to increase Woods Though the time is long I doubt not but every one knoweth that it 's excellent to plant Willows along the waters side and Ashes nigh their houses for firing for they are good pieces of Husbandry and it 's pity that it 's not more put in practise There is a Gentleman in Essex who hath planted so many Willows that he may lop 2000
not thrive In Bermudas they have a peculiar way of fattening their cattel not used any where else that I know which is with Green-Fennel that groweth in that Island plentifully There is a Plant in Essex called Myrchis or Cow-pursley which groweth fast and early in the Spring which they give their cattel at the beginning of the year and they eat it well It is an ill custom that is used almost every where to let hogs lie in their dirt and dung when they are fattening for all creatures generally do hate and abhor their own dung and an hog iâ— cleanliest of all creatures and will never dung nor stale in his stie if he can get forth which other creatures will and though he tumble in the dirt in Summer yet that is partly to cool himself and partly to kill his lice for when the dirt is dry he rubbeth it off and destroyeth the lice thereby Sir Hugh Platts in his writings setteth down divers ingenious ways of fattening Poultry c. and more may be found out daily The Jews have a peculiar way of fattening Geese with Milk Figs Raisins and other sweet things by which they make the liver of an extraordinary greatnesse and is a dish much valued by them as it was also among the old Romans In Moor-fields there is one that keepeth many hundreds of Conies with grains and bran and some others who keep the great laying Ducks with these things and blood to their great advantage I have seen a Book translated out of French which teacheth how to gain divers hundred pounds per annum by fifty pound stock in Hens I suppose about London where Eggs are so dear great profit might be made by them Turkeys might be kept with good profit where there are many Meadows as in Suffolk In Barkshire many keep tame Pheasants and have gained well thereby 3. We do not know how to improve the Commodities proceeding from Cattel to the highest as for example our ordinary butter might be better sented and tasted some Ladies have fine ingenuities in this kind We cannot make Cheese comparable to the Parmisan nor so good as the Angelots of France our ordinary Cheese is not comparable to the Holland Cheeses where also divers sorts of Cheeses are made of divers colours but I cannot much commend their green Cheeses which are made of that colour by Sheeps-dung c. but I hope in short time our good Hous-wifes will scorn that any shall excel them 20. Dâ—ficiency Is the want of divers things which are necessary for the accomplishment of Agriculture As 1. That we have not a Systema or compleat Book of all the parts of Agriculture Till the latter end of Queen Elizabeths days I suppose that there was scarce a book wrote of this subject I never saw or heard of any About that time Tusser made his verses and Scot wrote about an Hop-garden Gougè translated some things Lately divers small Treatises have been made by divers as Sir Hugh Platts Gab Platts Markâ—am Blith and Butler who do well in divers things but their books cannot be called compleat books as you may perceive by divers particular things not so much as mentioned by them The Countrey-Farmer translated out of French is enough if not more then enough but it is no ways framed or squared for us here in England and I fear the first Authors went on probabilities and hear-says rather then experience I hope some ingenious man will be encouraged to undertake a work so necessary and commendable 2. Deficiency is That Gentlemen try so few experiments for the advance of this honest and laborious calling when as many experiments might be made for a small matter for half a Pole square will give as certain a demonstration as an Acre and a Pottle as an Hogshead I hope in time there will be erected a Colledge of Experiments not only for this but also other Mechanical Arts. 3. Deficiency is That Gentlemen and Farmers do not meet and communicate secrets in this kind but keep what they have experimented themselves or known from others as Sybils leaves I mean as rare secrets not to be communicated I hope that we shal see a more coÌ„municative spirit amongst us ere long And Sir I cannot but desire you if you have any things more in your hands of Gabriel Platts or any mens else that you would with speed publish them 4. Deficiency is That we want a place to the which men may resort for to find such ingenious men as may be serviceable for their ends and purposes and also know where to find such seeds and plants as they desire as the great Clove-grass Saint Foiâ— La. Lucern c. 5. Deficiency is That men do usually covet great quantities of land yet cannot manage a little well There were amongst the ancient Romans some appointed to see that men did till their lands as they should do and if they did not to punish them as enemies to the Publique perhaps such a law might not be amiss with us for without question the Publique suffereth much by private mens negligences I therefore wish men to take Columel's Counsel which is Laudato in gentia Rura Exiguum Colito For Melior est â—ulta exiguitas c. as another saith or as we say in English A little Farm well tilled is to be preferred for then we should not see so much wast land but more industry greater crops and more people imployed then are at this present to the great profit of the Common-wealth I know a Gentleman who yearly letting more and more of that land he used to keep in his hands yet confesseth his Barns are fuller because he more diligently manageth what remaineth 6. I will adde that either through the negligence or ignorance of most men the enemies of the laborious Husbandmen are not destroyed viz. Crows Rooks which pluck up in light land presently after the Corn speareth much Corn and also devour much Corn when ripe these are destroyed either by shooting or by breaking their eggs in the Spring or at least may be scared with a little smoak or with a few feathers Larks also do much hurt which may be taken in snares or by day-nets Low-belling c. What Corn is in the barn and also in the field Mice and Rats oft-times destroy much which are easily destroyed either by Weasils which are far better then Cats though somewhat mischievous to eggs and poultry for two of them will speedily clear a Ship though troubled with many hundreds and therefore I know divers Masters of Ships very inquisitive for them proffering five shillings for one with many thanks so that it would be very beneficial both to Ships and also to those who would take the pains to breed them tame as many do in Ireland for their pleasure Rats also may well be destroyed by Rats-bane which is white Arsenick or with Sublimate and Butter But these things will hardly be procured from the Apothecaries because they are
profit a great deal than by beasts And if there be any doubt whether people may be had to improve the land and to produce greater profit than beasts can doe let but things be so ordered that the Plebeans may have such good employments whereby they may maintain a married estate plentifully and it will be found by a short experience there will be no want of servants By this means the Parsons may double their tyths the Landlord may double his rents and the common people though doubled in number may live twice as well as they did before and Princes and Statesmen shall not have half the trouble which they had before for want and necessity is found to produce grudgings and discontentments These have produced Rebellions and Insurrections all which have caused Princes for to lose their kingdoms many times and turned the state of Countries topsey turvey Besides that the lives of men would be lengthened as in former Ages by their good and wholsom diet for there can be no other cause in nature why men should be now of lesser stature and enjoy worse health and dye sooner than in former Ages but these few viz. First men are much imployed with worldly cares and difficulty for living in populous Countries which might easily be remedied by the means aforesaid Secondly the Corn which should be the preserver of other meats from too sudden corruption in the bodies of men before the chilus hath performed all his several offices is now adulteraâ—ed and contaminated much by mixing the dung with the corn before the corruptible part thereof be consumed and so the corn helped to contaminate the blood which should preserve it and would do it powerfully if my new Invention were generally put into practise Thirdly in populous Countries where there is difficulty of living the pure law of nature is not observed in Marriages and married estates but other respects doth sway overmuch which causeth defects in many generations But to return to my main subject I am now about a way to experiment to meliorate any Corn Pulse Seed Kernel Fruit c. and doubt not but to bring it to passe in such sort that the pleasantness of the tast the wholsomness of the smel and the ability to keep other meats from sudden corruption in mans body will invite great men in general to make use of the same and to give good prices so that a Farmer may maintain his family well and grow rich too by the planting of 1 Acre of land yearly For upon my certain knowledge there are fondly cast away in every family in England as well in great Cities as Country-towns so many things as being used according to my direction would produce such an increase of corn yearly as would serve for the maintenance of the said family and would be more wholsom for the body of man than the greater part of corn which now usually groweth in England yea though this Compost should be used in the more barren sort of land So that now the question is not whether this Land and so consequently other Kingdoms may live in worldly happiness and prosperity for ever hereafter but whether they will do so or not for if they be willing they wil shew the same by their actions and then I am sure there is no doubt to be made of the possibility thereof Whereby an Vtopia may be had really without any fiction at all If order were given that every Over-seer of the poor in their Parishes only one day in the year in the practise of some of these new Inventions as setting of Wheat of compounding of Composts in great Cities fit to be carried many miles then they would be expert against a year of dearth and famine so that they might be employed in that work whereby a wonderfull quantity of corn might be saved for the present relief of the Land which else must needs be imported from other Kingdomes for which the wealth of this Land must needs be exhausted The thirteenth Experiment wherein is shewed how timber for buildings and wood for houshold-stuffe may be provided in short space It is found by experience that a Chesnut will grow in ten or twelve yeares into a fair tree able to be the Master-post of a fair building and then there is no question but that it may be provided into lesser parts for studds and spars It is also found that a Walnut will grow in the like time into a tree able to make little tables boxes stools and chests very beautiful and sit for use to adorn the house Whereby any younger brother that will shew so much frugality and providence as to obtain leave of his father to plant a certain number of such trees in some convenient place in his fathers lands in his minority while he is a School-boy he may not onely have wood to build him an house and to furnish it against his occasion but also he may win so much credit by his industry and diligence that as for my part if I had a daughter to marry I would sooner match her with him though I purchase him land to set his house upon than with his elder brother if he wanted those gifts and qualities though he were able to make a good Joynture For I have seen by experience that a present estate either real or personal is not to be compared to the quality of thriving which any man else may likewise see by experience that sometimes yea many times a Farmer being industrious intelligent and provident though he pay a good round rent liveth better than a Freeholder which is owner of much free-land The fourteenth Experiment wherein is shewed divers waies concerning Fruit-trees It is found by experience that if the kernel of a Pear or Apple be set and not grafted but be let grow to a great tree then it will not bear fruit till forty or fifty yeares as a great number of other trees of the same kind It is likewise found by experience that a Siens taken from a tree that is fruitfull and also from the most fruitful bough of that tree and being grafted into a young stock of the same kind as that before mentioned will bear fruit in a quarter of the time which the other did the cause can be no other but that nature hath ordained a certain time for propagation in all things but yet the said time was accelerated in the grassed tree by Art helping Nature but in the other tree time was left to natures free determination So that every one may make choice of these two wayes at pleasure and if he aim at his present profit then graffing is his present way and best but if he aim at the profit of his posterity then it is best not to graft at all And by this means he may change the tasts of fruits at pleasure which by graffing he cannot doe for it is found by experience that if three kernels of several sorts be put into the cave
diligence in the penning of this discourse because I beheld the merciless dealing of men one with another upon all advantages for if corn prosper well then the buyers will cause the price to fall twice as much as much as the plenty requireth in equity and on the other side of Corn do fail never so little extraordinary then the sellers will inhaunce the price double at the least to that which a good conscience requireth The sixteenth Experiment shewing how all sublunary substances may be changed one into any another This Experiment may serve as well for pleasure to a man that delighteth in the knowledge of the secrets of nature as for profit to him that delighteth in the gaining of riches and if any man that delighteth in both shall take advantage by these my demonstrations to obtain his desires it shall not displease me When I first entered into these speculations I conceived that surely the God of Nature had endued her with a great desire of changes even as he endued the inferiour creatures with a desire of propagation for else certainly in some age or other there would have been more stability in sublunary things than hath ever been found for what changes hath their been in Monanchies Lierchies Kingdoms Common-wealths great Families Honours Governments Religions c. surely a man cannot but think that Nature taketh great delectation to ring changes upon the bels of Fortune and also in the change of one creature into another so to make varieties aâ— pleasure To proceed according to my accustomed brevity because I wil not increase my book to a greater volume then I intended I will tefer the Reader to the perusal of my former Experiments which doe in a manner containe all together such changes and here I wil onely handle some few of the most difficult and such as are by most men deemed unpossible And my first demonstration shall be to shew how Minerals may be turned into vegetables the second how vegetables may be turned into Minerals the third how animals may be turned into vegetables back again the fourth how those vegetables may be turned into Minerals And in these transmutations I mean not that the whole substance is changed but that a share thereof so much as is apt for the next body into which it is to be turned is really changed even as a man should take a great viol or instrument of Musick and make a little Fiddle thereof no man can deny but that the substance of the Viol is converted into the Fiddle notwithstanding that there is a great number of chips which entered not into the Fiddle Well then I will proceed and devide this sixteenth Experiment into several Experiments for more easie apprehension The first Experiment shewing how Minerals may be turned into vegetables First choose a parcel of Arable land that is somwhat barren and divide it into two equal parts water often the one half thereof with water wherein the oar of Copper hath been long steeped therein and putrified till it be greenish and fattish the like may be done with water wherein English Coperas hath been dissolved which is made of iron then water the other half with common water as often then sow all the land with the same seed and look how much more cometh of the one than of the other the same was produced by the vegetative part of the Minerals The second Expâ—riment shewing how this Corn may be turned into Animals Take a couple of tame of Pidgeons and let them have no other Corn but this and let them breed and multiply in number and then the increase must needs come from the vegetables which had their increase from the Minerals And if you will proceed further you may work these two Experiments in such great quantity that there may be Corn and Pidgeons and other fowle enough to serve a man and a woman without any other food till they have increased their number and then you have part of the said substance converted into reasonable creatures which are the most excellent amongst all Animals The third Experiment shewing how this Animal may be turned into Vegetable again Take a parcel of barren ground as before and bury an Animal in it then take two trees both of one growth and greatnesse and plant one upon the grave the other in the same barren ground and you shall see that the tree growing upon the grave will be greater than the other for that it is nourished with the putrified Animal and so the substance of the Animal is turned into the Vegetable The fourth Experiment shewing how this Vegetable may be turned back into Minerals This wood being put into some particular waters will be turned into stone the like may be done in some Mines and Quarries I have seen both Wood and Fishes turned into Stones and no man can deny but that stones are Minerals and if this be done in very fit water Mine or Quarrie then the Stones may be melted into Iron or other fusible substances and if Iron you may turn part thereof into good Gold by the way prescribed in my book of Minerals And thus you see how this wonder is nothing the secret being discovered and that I doe as it were carry Owles to Athens in the publishing thereof the like may be done by turning Graines into Malt again when they have been brewed by dispersing them into holes where Barley is set so that they will produce as much Barley which being turned into Malt will make as much drinke as before And so may any barren land be turned into fertile land and if any man doubt it he may see a fruitful garden made upon the top of a Turret or Rock though more pleasant than profitable and therefore the Impossibility being taken away let every one trouble himself no further but to find out where it may be done with the greatest facility for it will quit the charge the better to improve grounds near London where hay is at thirty shillings a load in a cheap year than in the Country where it is at six shillings and eight pence a load though the labour and charge be alike There is an old saying that it is better to buy good land than make good land which is true with this distinction viz. It is better for him that is ignorant in Husbandry to buy good land but for him that is skilful it is better to buy barren land so that it lye apt for Improvement for that by this means he may gain as good a revenue for a thousand pound charge and purchase as another shall gain for two thousand pound and I fear not that this discovery will leave no means for men of skil to thrive more than others for I am assured there would needs to be but little barren land in England but through the barrenness of mens wits The last Experiment shewing how weeping land may be drained where there is no level Make a ditch about it then ram
from all goodnesse As for the troublesomnesse of the times I can but put you in mind of that part of the Proposition that assures this to be one of the most safe and likely waies to save a mans estate where if it be not fully enough explained I refer you to your own better judgement to find and propound what you think best And now whosoever raised these Objections did well if he did it for the right end viz. to illustrate the Proposition that so it might be made more clear and acceptable But it s too common to object as an enemy not to demonstrate but destroy designes in themselves not evill at least well intended A new Husbandry or Improvement of Rape-seed IN the way of a Merchant I doe not certainly know but can guesse how to dispose of great quantities of Rape-seed but for Hemp seed I confesse I am ignorant how to vent any such great quantities but if I may be shewed a way to vent either particularly the last I may possibly propound a way to produce a much greater encerease than is usually had of either as namely whereas it is now the usual custome to sow Rape-seed in low lands and Fenny Moorish Countries where it is lyable to the breakings in of the Sea or overflow of Land-floods I can as well and with as much hope of a plentifull return and encrease sow it in any good upland not lyable to such casualties and for the profit more certain which at present is in the aforesaid Lowlands when it scapes those floods valued at five pound per Acre I say I can propound a way how each Acre of such rich Upland shall yeeld at least a Last or ten Quarters or eighty Bushels which at but three shillings a Bushel the cheapest rate is twelve pound sterling and for extraordinary charge I will deduct forty shillings more than the common way requires per Acre so that one Acre shall be as good as two now and fixt that is the profit much more certain And for Hemp I say that whereas an Acre of good Hemp may now be sold standing for about six pound and the very best under ten seed and all I can propound a way by taking of which each Acre shall be worth all charges defray'd at least six pound thirteen shillings four pence for the tew onely and at least six pâ—â—nd thirteen shillings and four pence more for the seed and both these productions are made by the careful and skilfull replanting of the hearbs and choice and manage of the grounds A Passage taken out of a tract against the high rate of Usury presented to the high Court of Parliament Anno Domini 1623. In which the Use for Money was brought down from ten to eight in the Hundred And now humbly recommended to a further Publique Consideration as a special Means for Advancement of the National Husbandry of this Commonwealth IT hath been the wisdom and care of former Parliament to provide for the preservation of Wood and Timber for which there is nothing more available than the calling down of the high rate of Usury for as the rate of Money now goeth no man can let his Timber stand nor his Wood grow to such years growth as is best for the Commonwealth but it will be very losse-full to him The stock of the Woods after they are worth forty or fifty the shillings the Acre growing faster at ten in the hundred than the Woods themselves doe And for Shipping which is the strength and safety of this land I have heard divers Merchants of good credit say that if they would build a Ship and let it to any other to employ they cannot make of their Mony that way counting all charges tear and wear above ten or twelve in the hundred which can be no gainful Trade without hazard Money it self going at ten in the hundred But in the Low-Countries where Mony goeth at six the building of Ships and hiring them to others is a gainfull Trade and so the stock of Rich men and the industry of beginners are well joyned for the publike And yet that which is above all the rest the greatest sin against the Land is that it makes the Land it self of small value nearer the rate of new found Lands than of any other Countrey where Laws Government and Peace have so long flourished For the high rate of Usury makes Land sell so cheap and the cheap sale of Land is the cause why men seek no more by industry and cost to improve them and this is plain both by example and demonstration for we see in other Countries where the use of Money is of a low rate Lands are generally sold for 30 40 in some for 50 years purchase And we know by the rule of bargaining that if the rate of use were not greater here than in other Countries Lands were then as good a pennyworth at twenty years purchase as they are now at sixteen For Lands being the best assurance and securest inheritance will bear a rate above Money Now if Lands were at thirty yeares purchase or near it there were no so cheap purchase as the amendment of ouâ— own Lands for it would be much cheaper to make one Acre of Land now worth five shillings by the year to be worth ten shillings or being worth ten to be worth twenty shillings and so in proportion then to purchase another acre worth five or ten shillings And in every acre thus purchased to the owner by the amendment of his own there were another purchased to the Commonwealth And it is the blessing of God to this Land that there are few places of it to which he hath not given means by reasonable cost and industry greatly to amend it in many to double the value so as in time if for their own good mens industry were compelled that way the riches and commodities of this Land would neer be doubled Then would all the wet-wet-lands in this Kingdome soon be drained the barren lands mended by Matle Sleech Lime Chalk Sea-sand and other means which for their profit mens industry would find out We see with how great industry and charge our neighbours the Dutch do drain and maintain their Lands against the Sea which floweth higher above them than it doth above the lowest parts of our drowned lands I will admit a great deal to their industry but I should very unwillingly grant that they are so much more ingenious and industrious than we as that all the odds were therein Certainly the main cause of it is that with us money is dear and land cheap with them lands dear and money cheap and consequently the improvement of their lands at so great a charge with them is gainfull to the owners which with us would be losse-full for Usuring going at ten in the hundred if a man borrow five pounds and bestow it on an Acre of ground the amendment stands him in ten shillings a year and being amended the
upon this Alphabet of Interrogatories and consider vvhat Ansvvers your Observations vvill afford unto them or vvhat you can learne from the Observations of others to clear them and as you have opportunity do as my Friend from Paris hath done furnish me vvith vvhat Gods providence shall send unto your hands that as I have begun I may put it out to use and requite you more plentifully as I hope I shall be able to do vvith the increase vvhich it shall yield by this vvay of Trading vvhich I have taken up freely to bestovv my paines and cost upon others that all may see the goodness of God in the vvorks of his hands and have cause to be thankfull unto him for the same and that so many eminent talents vvhich God hath put into your hands may not seeing he hath given you a heart to use them lye idle for vvant of Objects and sit Commodities vvherevvithall to be trading vvith him vvho subscribes himself alvvays SIR Your very much obliged and assured friend to serve you Samuel Hartlib A large Letter concerning the Defects and Remedies of English Husbandry written to Mr. Samuel Hartlib SIR ACcording to your desires I have sent you what I have observed in France about the sowing of a Seed called commonly Saint Foine which in English is as much to say as Holy-Hay by reason as I suppose of the excellency of it It 's called by Parkinson in his Herball where you may see a perfect description of it Cnobrychis Vulgaris or Cocks head because of its flower or Medick Fetchling By some it is called Polygala because it causeth cattel to give abundance of milk The plant most like unto it and commonly known being frequently sown in Gardens is that which is called French Honey-suckle and is a kind of it though not the same France although it be supposed to want the fewest things of any Province in Europe yet it hath no small want of Hay especially about Paris which hath necessitated them to sowe their dry and barren lands with this seed Their manner of sowing it is done most commonly thus When they intend to let their Corn-lands lye because they be out of heart and not scituate in a place convenient for manuring then they sowe that land with Oats and these Seeds together about equal parts the first year they onely mowe off their Oats leaving the Saint Foine to take root and strength that year Yet they may if they please when the year is seasonable mowe it the same year it is sown but it 's not the best way to do so the year following they mowe it and so do seven years together the ordinary burthen is about a load or a load and a half in good years upon an Arpent which is 100 square Poles or Rods every Pole or Rod being 20 foot wuich quantity of ground being nigh a 4th part less then an English Acre within a league of Paris is usually Rented at 6 or 7 s. After the land hath rested 7 years then they usually break it up and sowe it with corn till it be out of heart and then sowe it with Saint Foine as formerly for it doth not impoverish land as Annual Plants do but after seven years the roots of this plant being great and sweet as the roots of locorish do rot being turned up by the Plough and enrich the land I have seen it sown in divers places here in England especially in Cobham-Park in Kent about 4 miles from Gravesend where it hath thriven extraordinary well upon dry Chalky Banks where nothing else would grow and indeed such dry barren land is most proper for it as moist rich land for the great Trefoile or great Clover-Grass although it will grow indifferently well on all lands and when the other Grasses and Plants are destroyed by the parching heat of the Sun because their roots are small and shallow this flourisheth very much having a very great root and deep in the ground and therefore not easily to be exsiccated As we have observed Ononis or Rest-Harrow commonly to do on dry lands but if you sowe this on wet land the water soon corrupts the root of it This Plant without question would much improve many of our barren lands so that they might be mowen every year once at least seven years together and yield excellent fodder for cattel if so be that it be rightly managed otherwise it cometh to nothing as I have seen by experience I therefore councel those who sowe this or the great Trefoile or Clover-Grass or any other sort of grasses that they observe these Rules 1. That they do make their ground fine and kill all sorts of other grasses and plants otherwise they being Native English will by no means give way to the French ones especially in this moist climate and therefore they are to be blamed who with one ploughing sowe this or other seeds for the grass presently groweth up and choaketh them and so their negligence and ill Husbandry discourageth themselves and others 2. Let them not be too sparing of their seeds for the more they sowe the closer and thicker they will grow and presently fully stock the ground that nothing else can grow And further the seeds which come from beyond the Seas are oftentimes old and much decayed and therefore the more seed is required 3. Not to expect above 7 years profit by it for in that time it will decay and the naturall grass will prevail over it for every plant hath its period some in one year some in 2. As Would Cole Rape Wade c. Others in 3. as the common Thistle c. and therefore after 7 years let them either plough the Land up and sowe it with that same seed again or with other Grain as they do in France 4. Let not sheep or other cattel bite them the first year that they may be well rooted for these grasses are far sweeter then the ordinary grasses and cattel will eat them down leaving the other and consequently discourage their growth 5. The best way if men will be at the charge is to make their ground very fine as they do when they are to sowe Barley and harrow it even and then to howe these seeds in alone without any other grain as the Gardiners do Pease yet not at so great a distance but let them make the ranges about a foots breadth one from another and they shall see their grasses flourish as if they were green Pease especially if they draw the howe through them once or twice that summer to destroy all the weeds and grasses And if they do thus the great Clover and other seeds may be mowen even twice the first year as I have experimented in divers small plots of ground There is at Paris likewise another sort of fodder which they call La Lucern which is not inferior but rather preferred before this Saint Foine for dry barren grounds which hath bin lately brought thither and is managed as
moist lands in England yea Sweet-Marjoram Barley and further Gromwell-seed and Virga Aurea and Would from the Western Isles though they grow in our hedges in England Lastly Gardening is deficient in this particular that we have not Nurceries sufficient in this land of Apples Pears Cherries Vines Chestnuts Almonds c. but Gentlemen are necessitated to send to London some hundred miles for them Briefly for the advancement of this ingenuous calling I onely desire that Industrious Gentlemen would be pleased to encourage some expert workmen into the places where they live and to let them land at a reasonable rate and if they be poor and honest to lend a little stock they will soon see the benefit that will redound not only to themselves but also to all their Neighbours especially the poor who are not a little sustained by the Gardiners labours and ingenuities 4. Our Husbandry is deficient in this that we know not how to remedy the infirmities of our growing Corn especially Smut and Mildew to instance in these two onely which oftentimes bring great calamities to these Nations Smut in wet years Mildews in dry These distempers in Corn are not onely in our Countrey but also in other places A learned Authour saith that Smuttiness of Corn which maketh it smell like a Red Herring was not known in France till about 1530. at which time the great foul disease began to break forth in those parts very hotly which he conceiveth from hence to have some original as also the camp-disease Mildews are very great in the Kingdom of Naples which oft stick to the sithes of those that mow grass and corn and God be thanked we are not troubled with Locusts which is a great flying Grass-hopper nor Palmer-worms which is a kind of great black Cater-piller which I have seen destroying much in New-England nor with great hail in Summer nor with great drought which stifleth the ear in the stalk which Calamities in hot Countreys do very oft totally destroy the honest and patient Husbandman's labours neither are we troubled with extream colds which in New-England and other cold Countreys doe oft destroy the Corn. But to return to our purpose And first briefly to shew you my opinion concerning the Causes of Smuttinesse I desire not to fetch Causes afar off and to tell you of the sad Conjunctions of Mars and Saturn for I think Quae suprae nos belong not to us when as we have enough at home This is certain that there are many evident causes of this corruption of Corn. 1. A moist season about Kerning-time which moisture either corrupteth the roots of the Plant or the nourishment of it or the seed in its Embrio or perhaps in some measure all these 2. Low moist foggy ground for the reasons above mentioned 3. Dung'd land In Vineyards it 's observed that dung causeth more increase in quantity but less in goodness so that the ill-taste of the dung may easily be discerned because wine hath an high taste without question the same happeneth to other Plants although it be not so easily discerned for the ferment or ill odour of the dung cannot be over-mastered by the Plants as we see also in Animals that corrupt diet causeth unsavory tasts in the flesh so hogs in New-found-land where they are nourished by fish may by their tasts be called rather Sea-porpusses then Land-swine 4. The sowing of Smutty Corn oft produceth Smuttyness the son like unto the father I account Smutty Corn an imperfect or sick Grain and suppose that by a Microscope the imperfection may be discerned Lastly The sowing of the same seed oft on the same field causeth Smuttyness because that nitrous juice which is convenient for the nourishment of the Grain hath been exhausted in the precedent years and therefore it is excellent Husbandry every year to change the species of Grain and also to buy your Seed-Corn from places far distant I am informed of a Gentleman who did sowe some Wheat which came from Spain where the Grain is usually very hard and flinty and as it were transparent and far weightier then ours as it appeareth by a measure at Amsterdam which holdeth about 3 bushels and in our Wheat of the Northern parts weigheth 160 whereas the Southern Corn weigheth somtimes 180 200 220. and had a crop beyond expectation The usual Cures of Smuttyness besides those mentioned before are these 1. To lime your ground which warmeth and dryeth the Land 2. To lime your Corne which is done thus First Slack your lime and then moisten your Corn or lime and stir them together till your Grain be as big as a small Pease This liming preserveth Corn likewise from birds and worms and is found a very good Remedy against this disease others make a strong lye with common salt and steep their Corn in it all night and then draw away their lye for further use which seldom faileth of its desired effect Whether this strong lye doth by its corrosiveness mortifie the weak and imperfect Corn so that it will not grow Or whether it be a Remedy to cure the imperfections thereof is worth the enquiry I suppose this lye doth exsicoate the superfluous humidity which is the cause of this corruption If Corn be brought into the Barn very Smutty in Kent they usually thresh it on dry floors planked with boards by which means the Smuttyness is beaten away and sticketh not to the Grain onely a little blackness appeareth about the eye but if it be threshed on a moist floor the blackness sticketh to the Grain which therefore appeareth dark and is sold at a lower rate to the Bakers Mildew is without question an unctuous dew which descendeth from above about Midsomer it aboundeth in dry years as Smuttynesse in moist I cannot think that there is ordinarily any Malgnity in this dew but it produceth its effect by manifest causes viz. from an oily viscuous quality which stoppeth the pores of the husk wherein the Wheat lyeth and depriveth it from the Ayre and consequently from nourishment for the Ayre is the life of all things I have heard and do believe that if you streak any ear of Wheat with oyl it will produce the same effect I am sorry that I never tryed that I might better understand the nature of this sad calamity which often undoeth the Industrious Husbandman and causeth great scarcity in this Isle It is to be observed further that Wheat onely suffereth considerable damage by Mildew because it lyeth in a chaffy husk which other Grains do not The Grounds most subject to Mildew are these 1. Those that are enclosed with Trees and high Hedges And truly this is the onely great Inconveniency I find by enclosures 2. Low Valleys I have seen very oft in the same field the banks fine bright Corn and all the lower parts though greater in straw yet little worth by reason of the Mildew 3. Dung made of straw I have observed to dispose much to Mildew
venture to give some hints that some more able Pen may engage in this difficult Question which strikes at the Root of Nature and may unlock some of her choycest treasures The Lord Bacon hath gathered stubble as he ingeniously and truly affirms for the bricks of this foundation but as yet I have not seen so much as a solid foundation plainly laid by any on which an ingenious man might venture to raise a noble Fabrick I acknowledge the burthen too heavy for my shoulders I will not deny but that we have good Husbands who dung and Marle their Meadows and Pasture-land and throw down all Mole and Ant-hills and with their Spud-staffe cut up all thistles and weeds and that they likewise straw ashes on their Grounds to kill the Mosse and salt for the Wormes and they doe very well but yet there are many who are negligent in these particulars for the which they are blame-worthy but the Deficiencies of which I intend to speak of are these following Cato one of the wisest of the Romans saith that Pratum est quasi paratum alwayes ready and prepared and preferreth Meadows before the Olive-Gardens although the Spaniards bequeath Olive-trees to their children as we do cottages or Vines or Corn because Meadows bring in a certain profit without labour and pains But the other requireth much cost and paines and are subject to Frosts Mildew Haile Locusts to the which for the honour of Meadows I may adde that the stock of Meadows is of greater value and the Commodities which arise from them are divers and of greater value then Corn as Butter Cheese Tollow Hides Beef Wool and therefore I may conclude that England abounding in Pastures more then other Countreys is therefore richer and I know what others think I care not that France Acre for Acre is not comparable to it Fortescue Chancelour of England saith that we get more in England by standing still then the French by working but to speak of the Deficiencies amongst us 1. We are to blame that we have neglected the great Clover-grass Saint Foine Lucerne 2. That we do not float our lands as they do in Lumbard where they mowe their Lands three or four times yearly which consist of the great Clover-grass Here are the excellent Parmisane Cheeses made and indeed these Pastures far exceed any other places in Italy yea in Europe We here in England have great opportunities by Brooks and Rivers in all places to do so but we are negligent yet we might hereby double if not treble our profits kill all rushes c. But he that desireth to know the manner how to do this and that profit that will arise thereby let him read Mr. Blithes Book of Husbandry lately printed 3. That when we lay downe Land for Meadow or Pasture we doe not sowe them with the Seeds of fine sweet grasse Trefoils and other excellent herbs Concerning this you may read a large Treatise of the Countrey-Farmer for if the Land be rich it will put forth weeds and trumpery and perhaps a kind of soure grasse little worth if it be poor ye shall have thistles May-weed and little or no grasse for a year or two I know a Gentleman who at my entreaty sowed with his Oats the bottome of his Hay-mow and though his Land were worne out of heart and naturally poor yet he had that year not onely a Crop of Oats but he might if it had pleased him have mowen his grasse also but he spared it which was well done till the next year that it might make a Turffe and grow stronger By this Husbandry Lands might be well improved especially if men did consider the diversity of grasses which are ninety sorts and three and twenty of Trefoil I know a place in Kent which is a white Chalky Down which ground is sometimes sown with Corn a year or two and then it resteth as long or longer when it is laid down it maintaineth many great Sheep and very lusty so that they are even fit for the Butcher and yet there doth scarce appear any thing that they can eat which hath caused divers to wonder as if they had lived on Chalk-stones but I more seriously considering the matter throughly viewed the ground and perceived that the ground naturally produceth a small Trefoil which it seemeth is very sweet and pleasant it 's commonly called Trifolium luteum or Lupilinum that is yellow or Hop-Trefoil and I am perswaded if that the Seed of this Trefoil were preserved and sowne with Oates when they intend to lay it down it would very much advance the Pasture of that place therefore I desire all Ingenious men seriously to consider the nature of the Trefoils which are the sweetest of grasses and to observe on what grounds they naturally grow and also the nature of other grasses which as I have said before are no less then ninety sorts naturally growing in this Isle some on watry places some on dry some on clay others on sand chalk c. Some on fruitful places others in barren by the which means I suppose a solid foundation might be laid for the advancing of Pasture-lands of all sorts through this Island for I know some plants as the Orchis call'd Bee-flower c. which will thrive better on the Chalky barren banks then in any Garden though the Mould be never so rich and delicate and the Gardiner very diligent in cherishing of it and why may not the same propriety be in grasses for we see diverse beuty grasses to thrive espcially on barren places where scarce any thing else will grow I must again and again desire all men to take notice of the wonderfull grass which groweth near Salisbury and desire them to try it on their rich Meadows It 's a common saying that there are more waste lands in England in many particulars then in all Europe besides considering the quantity of land I dare not say this is true but hope if it be so that it will be mended For of late much hath been done for the advancement of these kinds of land yet there are as yer great Deficiencies In the times of Papistry all in this Island were either Souldiers or Scholars Scholars by reason of the great honours priviledges and profits the third part of the Kingdom belonging to them and Souldiers because of the many and great Wars with France Scotland Ireland Wales And in those times Gentlemen thought it an honour to be carelesse and to have Houses Furniture Diet Exercises Apparel c. yea all things at home and abroad Souldier-like Musick Pictures Perfumes Sawces unlesse good stomacks were counted perhaps unjustly too effeminate In Queen Elizabeth's dayes Ingenuities Curiosities and Good Husbandry began to take place and then Salt-Marshes began to be fenced from the Seas and yet many were neglected even to our dayes as Holhaven in Essex Axtel-holme Isle nigh York-shire many 1000 of Acres have lately been gained from the Sea in Lincolne-shire and as
every year if others were as Ingenious we should not want fire-wood Osiers planted in low Morish grounds do advance land from 5 s. per Acre to 40 s. 50 s. 3 l. and upward it 's much used Westward of London these Osiers are of great use to Basket-makers There is a sort of small Osier or Willow at Saint Omars in Flaunders which groweth on Islands which float up and downe it 's far lesse than that which the Western men call Eights with this they make their curious fine Baskets this plant is worth the procuring being so nigh John Tredeseat hath some plants of it There is a Flant likewise in England called the sweet Willows it 's not onely good for shade and firing but as I am informed the leaves do not soure the grasse but that the Cattel will eat them sooner then Hay if this be so it may be of singular use for Meadows 5. That those things which mightily destroy Woods may be restrained as Iron-works are therefore the State hath very well done to pull down divers Iron-works in the Forrest of Deâ—n that the Timber might be preserved for Shipping which is accounted the toughest in England and when it is dry as hard as Iron the Common-people did use to say that in Queen Elizabeth's dayes the Spaniard sent an Ambassadour purposely to get this wood destroyed how true this is I know not but without question it 's admirable Wood for Shipping and generally our English Oake is the best in the World for Shipping because it 's of a great Graine and therefore strong but the Oaks of other Countreys have a finer grain and more fit for Wainscot and in this kind our Forefathers have been very provident for we have an Act of long standing prohibiting Iron-works within twenty miles of London and within three miles of the River of Thames thou you may find Iron-stone in divers places as in the great gravel-pit at Woolwhich There are some Ingenious men who lately have got a Patent for making Iron with Sea-cealâ—e I hope they will accomplish their desires for it would wonderfully advance this Island and save Wood. There are two faults in Sea-coal in respect of melting Iron-oare 1. That it is apt to bake together or cake 2. It hath a sulphureous fume in it which is an enemy to Metal and consumeth it as we see by our Iron-Bars in Windows at London so that the Metallaine Nature of the Iron-stone is much wasted by it and that which remaineth is very brittle and will be Could-shire I know tâ—at by the mixture of Coal beaten with loam and throughly dryed one if not both of these Inconveniâ—nces may be taken away In the Duke of Cleveland's Countrey they use halfe Turffe half Charcoal There is a way by making a kind of Barter with Loam Vrine c. which will cause Charcoal to last very long as I am informed but these discourses belong to another place It 's a great Deficiency here in England without question that we have no more Bees considering that they are neither chargeable requiring only a few straws for an house nor troublesome and this Island may maintain ten times as many for though a place may be overstocked with these Animals as with the greater yet I know no part of this Land that is so and I know divers places which would maintaine many hundred Hives yet scarce one to be seen 2. Our Honey is the best in the World and Wax a stable Commodity Further we know that cold Countreys not comparable to ours as Muscovia have far greater quantity then we have so that it 's incredible what quantity is found in the Woods if the story of tho man be true who fell up even to the ears in Honey and had there perished had not a Bear on which he caught hold pulled him out Now I have enquired how it cometh to passe that there is so great store of Honey in Muscovia considering the Winters are extream cold and also very long and I am credibly informed that first the Spring when it beginneth cometh extraordinary fast that the dayes are very long and the Summers far dryer then ours here in England so that the Bees are not hindered by continual showers as they are some years here in this Isle And lastly that the Countrey aboundeth much with Firs and Pine-trees which the Inhabitants usually cut that the Gum Rosinous or Turpentine substance may sweat forth to which places the Bees do come and presently fill themselves and return laden and perhaps for these very reasons Bees thrive very much in New-England 2. We are Deficient in the ordering of them Not to speak of the negligence of particular men which is very frequent nor to write a general story of the ordering of them because it requireth much paper and Mr. Leveret and Butler especially the latter hath written so exactly and upon his own experience that little can be added to it onely in a point or two I differ from him of the which I will speak briefly 1. That we must take and destroy all the Bees for their Honey and not drive them as they do in Italy once or twice yearly 2. That if a Swarme be poor with little Honey that that Swarme ought to be taken because it is poor so that the rich stocks are destroyed because they be rich and the poor Swarmes because they be poor so that be they rich or be they poor they must be destroyed An Italian reporteth that in the City of Askaly there was a Law made that none should destroy a Swarme of Bees unlesse he had a just cause accounting it a part of extream injustice and cruelty to take away without cause both the goods and lives of such good and faithfull servants I am credibly informed that an English Gentleman beyond the Seas getteth many an hundred pound yearly by keeping Bees after a new and Ingenious Manner which is thus He hath a room made very warm and close yet with Glasse-windows which he can open at his pleasure to let the Bees fly abroad when he pleaseth where he keepeth his Bees and feedeth them all Winter with a sweet Composition made of Molossoes Flowers sweet Wine Milk Raisins c. for with such things as these they usually feed Bees in Italy and often times in Summer when the weather is rainy windy or so disposed that the Bees cannot conveniently go abroad he feedeth them at home with divers sweet things and gathereth divers flowers and layeth them amongst them and sticketh up many fresh boughs in divers places of his Rooms that in swarming-time they may settle on them by these means he preserveth all his Swarms and gathereth an incredible quantity of Honey and wax and truly this way seemeth to be very profitable for 1. We know the Bees even as we say of the Aunts will work continually even night and day Winter and Summer if that they were not hindered by darknesse cold and moisture 2. That Bees
their second to their third sicknesse increasing the quantity of the leaves according as you perceive the Worms to grow in strength and clear of sicknesse from the third until their fourth sicknesse you may give them leaves thrice every day and the fourth being past you may let them have so many as they will eat alwayes having a care that you give them none but such as are dry and well aired upon a Table or Cloth before they be laid upon them and withal gathered so near as may be at such times as either the Sun or Wind hath cleared them of the dew that falleth upon them For the feeding of Worms you need observe no other order then this lay the Mulberry-leaves upon them and every two or three dayes remove them and make clean their boxes or shelves unlesse in times of their sicknesse for then they are not to be touched the leaves which you take from them when you give them fresh to feed upon you must lay in some convenient place and upon them a few new leaves to which the Worms that lay hidden in the cold will come and then you may passe them with the said new leaves to the rest of the Worms And now lest any thing should be omitted which serves to perfect the discovery of so excellent a benefit I will advise you to be very diligent in keeping clean their Boxes or shelves as being a special means whereby to preserve them wherefore when you intend to do it you shall remove them together with the uppermost leaves whereon they lie unto other boxes or shelves for with your hands you may not touch them till they have throughly undergone their third sickness and then may you passe them gently with clean hands without doing them any harm provided that the party that cometh near them smell not of Garlick Onions or the like The first five weeks of their age you must be very carefull to keep them warm and in time of rain or cold weather to set in the room where they remain a pan with coals burning in it now and then some Juniper Benjamin and such like that yeildeth sweet smells But afterwards unlesse in time of extraordinary cold give them air and take heed of keeping them too hot being alwayes mindfull to store the room with herbs and flowers which are delightful and pleasing to the smell As the worms increase in bignesse you shall disperse them abroad upon more boards or shelves and not suffer them to lie too thick together and if you find any of them broken or of a yellow glistering colour inclining to sicknesse cast them away lest they infect the rest and sort such as are not sick the greatest and strongest by themselves for so the lesser will prosper the better When and how to make fit rooms for the worms to work their bottoms of silk in and in what sort the said bottoms are to be used AS soon as by the clear amber-coloured bodies of your worms you shall perceive them ready to give their silk you must with Heath made very clean or with the branches of Rosemary the stalks of Lavender or such like make Arches between the foresaid shelves Upon the branches and sprigs whereof the worms will fasten themselves and make their bottoms which in fourteen dayes after the worm beginneth to work them you may take away and those which you are minded to use for the best silk you must either presently wind or kill the worms which are within them by laying the said bottoms two or three days in the Sun or in some Oven after the bread baked therein is taken out and the fiercenesse of the heat is alaid The other bottoms which you intend to keep for seed you must lay in some convenient warm place untill the Worms come forth which is commonly some sixteen or twenty dayes from the beginning of their work and as they do come forth you must put them together upon some piece of old Say Grogeran the backside of old Velvet or the like made fast against some wall or hangings in your house There they will ingender and the Male having spent himself falleth down and in short time after dieth as also doth the Female when she hath laid her eggs which eggs when you perceive them upon the Say or Grogeran c. to be of a grayish colour you may take them off gently with a knife and baving put them in a piece of Say or such like keep them in a covered box amongst your woollen cloaths or the like till the year following But not in any moist room for it is hurtful for them neither where there is too much heat lest the worms should be hatched before you can have any food for them The making of a Wheel as likewise the way to winde the said silk from the bottoms can hardly be set down so plainly as to be rightly understood Wherefore when time shall serve there shall be sent into every County of this Kingdom a wheel ready made and a man that shall instruct all such as are desirous to learn the use thereof Till when I shill commend these brief instructions to be carefully considered of all such as are willing either to benefit themselves or their Countrey that being skilful in the Contemplation they may the readier and with lesse errour apply themselves to Action which painful industry with Gods assistance will quickly perfect 15. Deficiency is the ignorance of the Husbandry of other places viz. what seeds what fruits what grasses they use what Ploughs Harrows Gardening-tools they have how still they mannage and improve their lands what cattel they have how they feed and fatten them and how they improve their commodities c. For there is no Countrey where they are such ill Husbandmen but in some particular or other they excel as we see even in the several Counties of this Island every County hath something or other wherein they out-strip their Neighbours And that much profit may arise from hence in this Nation is manifested by that excellent Treatise which is published by you concerning the Husbandry of Flanders wherein are briefly set down divers particulars very useful for us here in England and formerly unknown And without question Franco Spain Italy Holland Poland Germany c. have many excellent things both for Husbandry Physick Mechanicks worth the manifesting and very beneficial to us so likewise there are divers things in our Plantations worth the taking notice of in Husbandry To passe by the Southern Plantations as Barbadoes Antego Saint Croix Christopher Mevis Monforate where the commodities are onely Cotten-wools Sugars Gingers Indicoes which our cold climate will not produce and also Tobacco which groweth also with us about Norwich and elsewhere We will onely fall upon our Northern Plantations Virginia New-England and instance in a few things Why may not the Silk-grass of Virginia the Salsaperilla Sassarfas Rattlâ—snake-weed which is an excellent cordial be beneficial to us as
somewhat dangerous therefore Gardiners do use very much Nux vomica which may be had every where with a little butter but take heed of the Dogs Moals likewise do much hurt both to Corn and Pasture and are too much neglected though they may easily be destroyed either with a Moal-spade or by finding their Nests in March which usually are in some extraordinary hills or else by putting a deep pot 〈◊〉 the earth where they run a clicketting in the Spring or by a Moal-trap which the Gardiners frequently use about London c. Also it were good to destroy the Birds called Tom-tits which are great enemies to Bees and fruit Sparrows Finches Snayl Warms c. 7. I cannot but adde to this place the failings in divers particulars in respect of some particular places viz. the planting of Saffron which is very well performed in some parts of Essex Cambridge c. yet altogether unknown in Kent though there are Lands both white and red as they call them with plenty of dung very proper for that purpose and yet this commodity is excellent and further I can adde as a Deficiency that I have never seen nor heard of any thing written on this Subject to any purpose 2. The planting of Hops concerning which Scot in Queen Elizabeths days wrote an excellent Treatise to the which little or nothing hath been added though the best part of an hundred years are since past and much experienced in this kind amongst us for though many fine Gardens have been planted in the Southern parts yet the Northern are deficient so that often-times we are necessitated to have great quantities from Flaunders 3. Liquorice is much planted about Pomfract in York-shire and about London but little that I hear of else-where so that we are sometimes beholding to Spain for it 4. Would is sown in divers parts of Kent not much in other places therefore we are oft beholding to the Western Isles for it 5. Wade which is abundantly sown about Coventry and yet in Kent thought to be a forraign Commodity this is of excellent use and deserveth to be sown every where I might here also adde Madder which is very necessary and scarcely sown any where as also Canary-seeds Carnways which are abundantly sown about Sandwich and Deal in Kent also Rape Cole-seeds c. whose oyl is of great use also of Fruit-trees Gardening Hemp Flax but of these I have largely discoursed before 21. Deficiency is by reason of our sins we have not the blessing of the Lord upon our labours And this the reason that although the Husbandman hath been laborious and diligent in his calling these last years yet our Crops have been thin his Cattel swept away and scarcity and famine hath siezed on all parts of this Land and if we had not been supplyed from abroad we had quite devoured all the creatures of this Island for our sustenance and yet we could not be satisfied but must have devoured one another And therefore to conclude though I desire the Husbandman to be diligent and laborious in his calling yet I counsel him to break off his sins by Repentance to have his eye towards him who is the Giver of every good thing and to pray daily to him for his blessings who giveth freely to them that ask and upbraideth not And although all callings ought to look up to him that is on high yet the Countrey-man especially for he hath a more immediate dependance on him then any other for if the Lord with-hold his fat dew from Heaven or the former or latter Rain it is in vain that the Husbandman rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefulness for we know that it is the Lord that maketh barren places fruitful and he likewise that turneth fruitful Lands into barrenness as the Land of Canaan which was very fruâ—tful even in the time of the Canaanites but now a barren desart and therefore I again desire the Countrey-man to walk as it becometh a Christian in all Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness not to trust or put his confidence in his own labours and good Husbandry but on the Lord that hath made all things for though even Paul himself doth plant and Apollo doth water yet it is only the Lord that giveth increase and plenty which he will not deny to those that fear him for they shall want nothing that is good Lastly for a Corollary I will adde though it doth not so much concern the Husbandman as those of greater Power and Authority That it is a great Deficiency in England that we do not magazine or store up Corn when the Lord sendeth us plenty and therefore at cheap rates as Joseph did in Egypt against dear years for then the Grain is purest the perfectest without Smut Mildew Shrankness or other imperfections and is the best for long preservation this is much used in Poland Dantrigk Italy Holland c. and is found of wonderful importance By this means Holland which soweth little or no Corn seldome or never feeleth a famine though it be incredibly populous and for want of this good policy England which many years aboundeth with Corn is sore bitten therewith as is manifest in these last years in which had not our Neighbours wisely and politickly provided for us we should have famished and devoured one another Further This storing of Corn will save vast Sums of money which in dear years are exported for bread and also well ballance the price of Corn so that the honest Husbandman needs not murmure and be discouraged because that the price is low and Markets scant in plentiful years because then the Magazins are to be restored nor the Artizans be famished by the excessive rate of bread in dear years for then the Magazines are to be exhausted The best way for the wise carrying on of this businesse the Politicians must lay forth but that belongs not to our calling Yet I shall here as I have done in former things gâ— some general hints and leave the rest to those who are wiser And first The City of London which is the mouth of the Island and as I am credibly informed by Meal-men spendeth about 5000 Quarters of Wheat weekly and I suppose it cannot do lesse considering there cannot be lesse then 600000 people therein and about viz. at least an hundred thousand in the 97 Parishes within the Walls and four times as many without the Walls as appeareth by the Bills of Mortality and at least an hundred thousand strangers of all sorts which proportion is lesse then four l. of bread the week for one this place ought I say to have a considerable Magazine for three or six months something hath been done in this kind by our fore-fathers as appeareth by the particular store-houses of the private Companies which store-houses ought to be augmented in number as the Companies yearly are and also the Quantity of Grain because the City daily grows more populous 2. I
as Cromer reports will plainly appear as also in France where Vines grow very far North in Picardy and Champeigne so likewise in Lorayn and in those places betwixt France and Germany not to speak of the excellent wine in Arbois in the free County Vines flourish even in Liegh also about Lovayn which are very far North many hundred miles from Alsatia Animadversor Vines grow not sixty miles North of Paris Answer That by the way of Beaumont and Beauvois I I have seen them flourish nigh twenty leagues from Paris and that they may flourish more North divers think and blame either the negligence or ignorance of the Inhabitants Moreover by the way of Pontois through Normandy Vines do flourish even so far North as Arles 35 leagues from Paris and within five leagues of Diepe and I think if the Soil of Normandy were warm land they might flourish further North but Normandy is a stiff chalky land very improper Rhemes also is above twenty leagues N. E. of Paris hath abundance of vines and is accounted the staple of wines in those parts Therefore it will plainly appear vines to flourish sixty miles North of Paris and consequently little from the latitude of some parts of England viz the South-West part of England and therefore I cannot but again desire ingenious Gentlemen to endeavour the planting of vines with us especially those four sorts I have formerly mentioned according to that way that Captain Tuck an ingenious Gentleman of great Chart in Kent doth and that Vines will prosper is not only probable for the reasons aforesaid but also because the vines flourish also naturally in Canada a very cold place and also Mr. Cambden reporteth that many hundred years since that vines did very much flourish in Britâ—ain and of latter years at Ely in Cambridgshire at Ley in Essâ—x as it appears in Dooms Book were six Arpens of Vines and it yeilded twenty Modes of wine also he accuseth us of negligence and sloth that there are not Vineyards in England at present Also William of Malmsbury who lived before William the Conquerour speaketh of the Wine of England and saith it is little inferiour to the French not having such an unpleasant tartness but not long after William and his Sons reign Gascony fell to the English and so remained three hundred years which might be the true cause of the ruine of vineyardâ— Yet at this day I know divers Gentlemen in Kent who make some Hogsheads of good wine most years and every year plant more I hope this business will be prosecuted more generally through this Land seeing it will conduce very much to the profit pleasure and honour of this fortunate Isle Animadversor Pack in so many Plants about Paris c. I mean not of different Species but of the Plants of vines as many well appear by the following words viz. That they may have greater encrease c. And I question not but that the Animadversor hath observed the same fault for the vineyards about Paris have usually twice the number of vine-plants on their ground as are necessary and farther it is certain that if the Vines were thinner the Wine would be better because the Vines do shade one another Animadversor To short Poles as we do Hops c. It is well known that we tye not Hops to short poles but to long ones and therefore I compare the Vine and Hop together in this respect only that both want poles to uphold them but because that the sense is not clear to all in the next Impression a word or two should be added viz. Hops to long ones Animadversor Pressing with the feet not frown in the Northern parts of France c. I lived in Charanton two leagus from Paris a whole Vintage purposely to see how wine was made in France and never saw any other way used there only the husks at the conclusion use to be brought to the great Presse out of which they expresse some small quantity of wine and therewith usually fill their Hogsheads which usually waste in the working and further in Italy I never saw any other way used Moreover to tread out wine with the feet is as I suppose an old custome and no disparagement to the wine for we know that most of the Bakers bread in England is kneaded with the feet and yet none are offended at it Neither did I ever see it work in Caves or great Vessels unlesse for 24 hours as is ordinarily in Lombardy in Italy by eight ten or twelve dayes but presently in France they put it into Hogsheads and there let it work keeping them alwayes full that the scum of froath may go forth Neither do I see any considerable inconvenience by doing thus onely a greater quantity of grosse lees will be at the bottom of the wine but if wine shall any time work in great tubs with the husks of the Grapes it will lose its colour grow Garbo or rough flattish c. Animadversor That would destroy A bitter word against my Countrey-men c. I particularize no Nation and we have the aforesaid Commodities from divers Countreys viz. Poland France Germany Holland Flanders I am sorry that the Animadversor did so unhappily apply it to his own Country and that against my will I am a true Prophet But whatsoever is bitter I disallow and wish it expunged for I protest against it and really did wonder to see it in my discourse hating tartnesse in writings I hope my pen shall slip so no more yet I should be glad if the State would seriously consider what extream inconveniencies may fall on this Nation through want of Hemp and Flax and how easie it is to have sufficient for our selves as I have shewed in my former discourse Animadversor Nothing more hurtful to fruitfulness then common salt c. Niter the only fructifying salt c. Though I consent with the Animadversor that to speak plainly so as the Countrey-man may understand me I say that Niter is the specal cause of fruitfulness yet I cannot deny Salt to be the greatest enemy to it For first about Nantwich where much salt is made by boyling salt-water the refuse salt doth very much improve their Meadows and Palissy a French Author doth likewise affirm that salt doth cause divers places about Rochel to be very fruitful also Sea-sand as I suppose hath its fruitfulnesse from the salt in it Likewise the salt of ashes c. seemeth to me to have as much if not more affinity to common salt as to Niter as appears by its Cubick form yet they do much fertilize both Corn and Pasture Further the Lord Bacon whose authority is of good credit with us attributeth fertility to salt As also Markham whom the Animadversor approveth of as an experienced Husbandman who prescribeth common salt alwayes to be mixed with his Grain for the obtaining of incredible Crops Indeed I grant that if too great a quantity be used through the corrosivenesse thereof
labour fruitless but whether or no these Cedars which are both white and red of New-England and Barmudaes be the same with those of Libanus which are Coniferae I will not dispute or whether they be a kind of Juniper as Parkinson saith so far as I have observed the leaves of the smaller shrubs are rough and prickly and the berries not only the Junipers Animadversor Lucerna is without doubt Medica veterum and well known I much question it for first Johnson and Gerrard and Parkinson our best Herbalists do rather think Medica veterum to be Saint Foin 2. Though I have had above twelve sorts of Medicaies yet they are all Annual and our Herbalists do not mention any other Medicaies But be it so as the Animadversor saith yet neither the Plant Lucerna not so much as the name was known to us til I mentioned it in my Letters to M. Hartlib neither did ever any sow it in their fields as the Ancient have done Animadversor Lupines known to all c. I grant that amongst our Gardiners are divers sorts of Lupines great and small with blew and yellow flowers which as I suppose may differ as our Pease and Tares and therefore require divers sorts of land but I say that these Lupines are totally unknown to the Husbandman and never used for that end the ancient Romans used them viz. to fertilize their land as in Kent some use tares In New-England I found the small blew Lupine growing naturally on a dry white sandy Plain and therefore think that that sort is more natural for the end above mentioned then the great Lupine I hope in little time to experiment something in this kind Animadversor Grout is made of Barley or Oats c. I know that we have a great kind of Oatmeal which we call Grots but this Grout which I mean is a small round thing it cometh over to us in Holland ships and I suppose it a kind of Millet or Panick but wonder how it comes to Holland because those Grains grow not there but if it be made of Oats or Barly the way to make it so round smal is unknown to us I read in Parkinson of a kind of Rice sown in Germany perhaps it may be of that kind for I have found as I suppose some of the grains unhusked which to me seemed to be like very small rice I would willingly know the truth of this whether I be mistaken or not Animadversor The two last sorts made only of Cows milk I suppose he meaneth Angelots and Holland Cheeses and that Parmisans are made of other milk then Cowes milk If so that Animadversor I dare say is mistaken for I have enquired concerning Parmisans even to Lodi in Millan where the best are supposed to be made and yet never heard any affirm that any milk besides Cows milk was an Ingredient to them and further all the Lands in those parts are very improper for sheep the Countrey being a low flat Countrey which they float three or four times every year and by that means do mow as often neither did I see any considerable flocks of sheep As for Mares milk that is improper for cheese though many good House-wives in England think that the strength and strong savour of Holland Cheese proceeds from hence but as I have formerly touched falsely perhaps there are some in other places who to excuse either their negligence or ignorance report the same of Parmisans but they are deceived As concerning Angelots and Parmisans I must say though I am unwilling to disparage our English Houswifery further then is right that to my apprehension the Angelots of France which are made in great abundance are better far then our Chester Cheeses and also our Banbury as for our Chedder Cheeses which are made onely in two or three parishes in their number so small that they are seldom seen but at some Noble-mans table or rich Vintners Sellars that they are even nothing considering the great quantity of Cheese which is made in this Isle Neither do I think they transcend the Parmisan or some Angelots but I leave this Controversie to every ones palate that being very excellent to one which is very little worth to another and I can truly affirm that it is a great deficiency even through the whole Isle if these Cheddar Cheeses be so good that there are so few made the Pastures in that Country not exceeding other Counties in England nor breed of Cattel better Neither is the price of Angelots at two Sous for half a pound a vile price as the Animadversor saith considering the Cheeses are usually sold green further I have seen some few Angelots made in England after the French manner by some curious Ladies of transcendent goodnesse according to mine and divers other palats and I suppose that other ordinary Housewives might make the same if they knew the Art Animad The Animadversor seemeth to taxe me that I account the difference of Climates and of Soils the onely causes why some places produce such and such plants abundantly other places not if I mistake him not concerning which I shal briefly and plainly declare my mind and do affirm that I think where the Climate is the same and the temper of the Soil equal in such places all plants will equally thrive but if the Climates vary either in heat or cold moisture or drinesse or the Soil in fruitfulness barrenness or in moysture driness or in stifness lightness sandyness clayishness or in such circumstantials then is there also a variation in the well or ill thriving of plants and further I suppose that whatsoever plants thrive in one hot Countrey they will also thrive in another if there concur the like moysture and soil the same cultivation being supposed this plainly appears in Oranges Lemmons which the Spaniards have planted through all the West-Inâ—lyes Olives Vines c. And on the other side what thriveth in one cold Countrey caeteris paribus thrives in all others as it appeareth in Norway Poland New-England Russia New-found-lâ—nd where Firres Pines Pitch trees c. grow abundantly and so what thrives in our temperate clime thrives in all as is manifestly seen in Apples Peares Cherries Wheat Barley and almost in all Grains and Seeds in Botanick Gardens And I can see no other cause worth the speaking of but the afore-mentioned Yet I grant that hot Countries have their peculiar plants which will very hardly thrive in cold Countries because of the nipping frost yet the frost being rebated they will thrive well and by this means I have seen six miles from London in Surrey Orange trees flourishing and growing even to the greatnesse of Trees in that kind in Italy with ripe fruit continually on them also with blossoms c. Likewise cold Countries have their peculiar fruits and plants which cannot endure the scorching heat of the Sun and therefore the Herb called Lanchitis and others which grow abundantly in cold Countries and in the
be eaten and are the special food for the wild Turkeys in Winter the leaves differ little from the common Oak but are smaller some of these small Oaks being cut up nigh to a Damme made to turn a small river for the iron works I perceived that out of the young twigs which I never before perceived in the old branches many excrescences did break forth sticking close to the bark flattish reddish set in order like buttons on a Dublet the lower-most biggest and so by little and little less and less the bigger sort bigger then Vetches These excrescences likewise grew on every twig double one range opposite to another I in September when the leaves where fallen for sooner I did not perceive them gathered about a pint hoping that this Oak might be of the same nature with the Scarlet Oak though much differing in leaves but my mishap I lost my berries and never since could obtain more For these reason therefore I believe and I hope others will so far as to endeavour by experience to find out whether the Scarlet Oak which is a considerable Plant will thrive amongst us Animadversor I wonder Linden-trees c. Linden-trees are not mentioned as not growing in England for I know that they grow in many places and in Cobham Park in Kent they make the statelyest Walk I ever beheld but Gentlemen only plant them for pleasure Whereas in other places they make Basse Roap of the Bark c. which is no where done in England that I can hear of 6 Letter Amber onely found in Prussia THis will upon strict enquiry be found otherwise for many report Amber to be found also in considerable quantity in Pomerland Cromer also in his discription of Poland saith it is found in divers Lakes with them especially at Piscia also that in other places they usually dig it up also Master Cambden an approved Author for England saith in his description of Norfolk and also Jet and Amber which saith he I willingly omit seeing that there is great store of these things elsewhere along the Coast Also that Jet or black Amber is cast up at Whitbey in Yorkshire Further I have seen long pices of a yellow transparent Stone or Amber found in a Fountain nigh Lake Neagh about six miles from Antrims which the Irish say though vainly that it is found only there on May-day and doe use it superstitiously about divers things Animadversor Sea-Owse will not make Brick c. I have seen Sea-Owse or Mud do it at Dover also in New-England and it it a common practise and if I am not misinformed that sort of Brick which in London is called Flandersbrick much used for scowring brasse c. is made of the same Material Animadversor Salt out of a Sand c. Master Cambden reports it to be at Wyre-water in Lancashire page 753. where you may read it more at large and also the same Author reports that at Butterley in Durham there are saltish stones which serve the people for their use pag. 734. Animadversor Not only the Odour Tast and Colour of Waters to be regarded but other things of greater importance I for my part know not how Countrey-men should discern such transcendent virtues in waters otherwise then by these wayes I know ingeninus men may make separations by putrifactions distillations c. And further I suppose that water is of it selfe most Homogeneus Let Faber speak what he please in his Flydrographo and that all the differences betwixt waters is accidental viz. by the mixture of some vapours Fumes or Saline nature which it receiveth by its long course throw divers Earths Clays Sands Salts Minerals Metals Stones c. and further that this mixture is most commonly perceived by our senses viz. by Colour Taste Odour and would be much more perceived by us if we did drink water continually For the use of things of high taste causeth us that we cannot distinguish things of lower gusts For I have known some who could strangely distinguish waters by their tast and further in England I know no water of any considerable vertue but an ordinary palate may distinguish it from the common waters and usually they are discoloured and have some peculiar odour As for the Mechanical uses of waters why some are fit for Brewing Washing others not I suppose the reason is plain enough but that Flatters cannot make good Hats because the water is not good enough for them or the Dary-maid make good Butter or Cheese c. I think these are but excuses by the which they usually cloak their ignorance or knavery Animadversor I am sure that whosoever shall believe Glanberus viz that in all sand almost Gold is found c. The Animadversor may think what he please but I for my part as I have formerly said think Glanberus very ingenious and a man of excellent experimental knowledge and a man of excellent experimental knowledge and therefore am easily induced to believe it considering that Gold is not only found in the parched sands of Africa India c. but it hath been also found in many Rivers of Europe as Tagus Po c. yea in Scotland Gold is found amongst their sands in divers places some of which I have seen and know two ingenious men who intended to have set up a Mercury Mill as they called it for the separation thereof had not the troubles of these times prevented Golden sands are also found in Ireland in Vlster if the Author of the Natural History of Ireland speak truth Animadversor Little fewel save out of Ditches Ditches an improper word I suppose it not much improper for I never saw either in England Ireland or elsewhere fire as it were fisht out of the water I mean that any place is so saving of their Land and so industrious in sowing their Graffs and Ditches to get fewel as in that Countrey which I note rather as a point of good husbandry to be mistated then to be discommended yet I cannot call Turf more then indifferent good fewel and really must say it is inferiour both to Coal and Wood. Animadversor Durham-Wall c. It is misprinted for Durham-Walls c. These places being sufficient for my purpose I know twenty places more may be added The expression concerning Opium and Opiates I suppose very little too large Animadversor Elephants cannot be of use Master Cambden saith in his Description of Essex that the Romans brought over Elephants to England whose bones being found have astonished many perhaps the bone at Aldermanbury is one of them also in our dayes an Elephant lived many years in England therefore to me its probable they may be as serviceable to us as to other places Animadversor An hard task to people with black Fox c. I suppose the Animadversor means to cause them to encrease with us but I think the contrary for black Foxes are found in Ireland New-England Russia and indeed in all cold Countries therefore I see not why they should
of the failing of Corn in the Common fields he sold it for forty shillings a quarter which came to twelve hundred pounds with the rent and all so that he gained above a thousand pound clear by his twenty Acres of Barley Yet I would wish no man to take in hand so hazardous a work again but rather to 2aim at a meane in fertilizing of his land which is the surest way one year with another for if he make his land too extream fertile then it is ten to one he shall have nothing but straw and some light corn which is good for little use but onely for Poultry and if on the other side he take so much are able land that he is not able to enrich it so that every Acre may bear in a reasonable year five quarters by sowing the common way or thereabouts and a eleven quarters and a half or thereabouts by setting then let him cast up his accompts justly and he shall find himself to be no good friend to himself nor yet to the Common-wealth for he might have gained more by laying his Compost upon half so much land and by setting it orderly than by the whole so that he himself and the Common-wealth is deprived of that benefit of the herbage of that land which he did unadvisedly and above his ability to enrich keep in tillage to his own loss and great damage Certain Experiments and Improvements for the inriching of Land by my new Invention or Engine which disperseth the Compost in such manner that it falleth all within the reach of the attractive virtue of the Corn. The first Experiment or Improvement It is found by experience that where dung hath been layd upon heaps upon fallowed land and hath layen unspread for a moneth or six weeks and withall some store of rain hath faln to carry down the Chilus or juice of the dung into the earth there though the dung was all removed in the spreading from the place where the heap lay yet there grew more corn in a yard square of that ground so fatned with the chilus or juice of the dung than in three yards square where the dung was dispersed in the rest of the land By this we may observe that Dung doth not enrich ground till it be putrified and turned into chilus or aqua pinguis or aqua viscosa and also that Compost of land whatsoever is to be turned into such a nature and property before it can produce great encrease in the present crop Wherefore the best Husbandry is to prepare Earth and Compost in such manner that the nutritive virtue thereof may assimilated into the corn and fruits in the first year or else the Husbandman layeth out his stock and charges long before hand and is deprived of great part of the benefit thereof by reason that the rain and land-flouds doe carry away a great share of the chilus or juice of such dung as falleth out of the reach of the attractive virtue of the seed or plant and if any man doubt of it let him fill all the holes when he hath set an Acre of Corn with such fat earth and he shall find his encrease doubled upon common barren field land and contrariwise let him fill the holes with common dung and he shall finde no such success But some will say that this is a pedling business and an endless work to which I answer That so it is indeed to those which know not the use of my new Invention or Engine but that being known is the most profitablest work in the world for a man may fill 400. holes in the twinckling of an eye and may order a whole Acre in like manner with a very little charges more than the spreading of the dung doth usually cost Therefore now I will proceed to shew how divers fertile earths may be prepared wherewith the holes may be filled and so consequently the encrease may be doubled and this practise will be excellent in such places where the charge of carriage costeth much by reason of the great distance of the place from the Compost for I find that though divers imbibitions of the seed with apt liquors doe produce a good improvement yet it is not a practise comparable to this for if a Farmer have twenty acres of Arable land and have dung but for fifteen Acres and shall yet have a good crop by means of a good imbbiition yet is not this knowledge sufficient for a Husbandman upon whose skil the happiness of himself and the whole Common-wealth dependeth For by this way he may enrich his Arable land at pleasure be it never so barren nor never so much remote from his Compost for on the one side if the filling of the holes be not sufficient he may heap them as hops are usually heaped with fertile earth and dung and on the other side if the earth be too rich so that it will make the Corn too rank then he may half fill the holes or less and then fill them up with a Rake with their own proper earth or he may make his earth so rich that he may mingle with it twice the quantity of the field earth before he disperse it by which means he may save a great deale in the charge of the carriage of his Compost where the fields are far distant The second Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth fit to fill up the holes when the Corn is set Let an Acre or more or lesse of good Areable earth neither clay nor sand but indifferently well mixed be chosen in some apt place where dung is plentifull and cheap then cover it with dung a foot thick or thereabouts and then you may be at choice whether you will at six Moneths end shovel off all the dung and carry the fat earth to be used as in the former Experiment or else to plough it four or five times all together in a years space and then carry all to be used as in the former Experiment either of these waies will serve for one Acre of earth thus made fertile will make an hundred Acres fertile and to yeeld a good crop yea even as you desire so you may fertilize by the means prescribed in the first Experiment and this same work may be done in a little garden plot in Cities Corporations or Villages where a bed of good earth may be enriched at pleasure with all liquors thrown upon it which contain any fatnesse or saltnesse as urine beef-broth soapsuds blood brine of powdering tubs kitchin-wash fish-water lees of all wine bear perrey cider or whatsoever is good for hogs the same will yeeld an excellent virtue to this earth and if a cover were set over it to keep it dry for a years space you might enrich it so that you might carry it twenty miles and yet find more gains by it than by a common dung that lyeth but a mile off and any
Husbandman that dwelleth within a few miles of any City make a rich benefit by bringing certain loads of Areable earth yearly into Cities and by giving a bushel or two of wheat to certaine Housholders of his acquaintance for the enriching of it as aforesaid The third Experiment or Improvement where is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth near to the Sea which may be carried many miles You must understand that this Compost is profitable onely for such ground where bay-salt is apt to cause fructification or sea-sand as in divers places in Cornwall where they carry it on horse back divers miles and find that it maketh a very excellent Improvement Well thus may you work and make as rich a Compost as any can be in the world for ground of that nature Let a place be chosen where there is an Acre of kindly earth where it may be floated at every spring-tide and afterward the water dryed away by the heat of the Sun and then ploughed and served so many times till it be as fertile as you please The like may be done by watering the earth with sea-water and by ploughing it with scoopes all summer or till it be as fertile as you please and in some parts of England the sea water may be let into the land many miles for the purpose aforesaid The like may be done by mingling earth with Malt dust Pigeons dung or any other Compost which is found to doe much good with a small quantity as Malt and other Corn spoyled by any accident may be ground into Meal and mingled with earth or putrified with the earth a whole yeare unground till it be turned into earth Also Lime and dung or combustible earth mixed together or all three ploughed divers times for a year till they be turned into earth is a rich Compost If you can find out the true adaptation of this and of all my other Composts then you may save forescore pounds in the hundred pounds in the fertilizing of any Arable land in England and also you may afford to carry your Compost to places and barren grounds far distant which now admit of no improvement within charge by reason of their great distance of place And if the distance be very far then you may try with Bay-salt Saltpeter Soap dissolved in hot water or any other substance which enricheth Arable land exceedingly and when you have hit the mark then you may bring these substances twenty thirty or forty miles and yet you fertilize your Arable land by my new Invention cheaper than with common dung though it were to be had within a mile of the place if you enrich the earth with these Liquors or Salts dissolved and so make use of my Engine for the filling of the holes when the Corn is set The fourth Experimene or Improvement wherein is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth for the purpose aforesaid which may also be converted into Salt-peter It is found by experience that where the Salt-peter men do find an old house of Office in a dry vault where no moysture doth annoy it there they get their best Liquors Also it is found by experience that Horse-dung being putrified and turned into earth in a dry place doth likewise yeeld much Salt-peter Also it is found by good experience that Clay walls made of some kind of Clay doe yeeld great store of Salt-peter which may be seen in Oxford-shire and divers other places where Pidgeons resort to the clay walls and thereby give intelligence to the Salt-peter men to steep the same who many times finde the liquors so rich that they will steepe many pearches in length of such walls though they make up the walls again at their own charges according to the Law By all these Experiments joyned together it seemeth that a rich Compost either for Land or for Salt-peter may be made as followeth First let an little frame of an house about four foot high be framed in every mans backside as well in Cities as Countrey Towns and let there be nothing but studs and those very thin and let it be length and bigness of a Sâ—wpit or grave or greater or lesser at pleasure Then build a little house of Office over it which be broader than it to keep it from rain and moysture Then make up the walls about a foot thick with this composition of earth following and in less than a eleven years all the walls and ordure will yeeld either good store of Saltpeter or a rich earth for Compost worth twenty shillings a load at the least for the fertilizing of land If every houshold have two of these houses he shall never have more trouble but to make use of one while the other doth ripen The walls must be made of horse dung and so much clay as will temper it and the lesse the better so that it will hold together The Clay must not be of the nature of Brewers clay I mean such as will stop water of the Mawmy clay in Oxfordshire and many other places which is partly of the nature of Marle and will break it self which lying abroad in winter like unto Marle or Lime whereby it is discovered to contain much salt in its composition which if it be well chosen will wonderfully adde to the richnesse of the earth when it is putrified fox both uses to wit for Compost or Salt-peter at pleasure If this work were well put into practise the very ordure of every family might be so improved by my new invention that it would produce as much Corn again as was spent in the sayd house in the former yeares besides that barren land and far distant from other Compost might this way be made fertile And for the poorer sort whom the charge may be made considerable for the building of the houses they may lay a load or two of good earth like a bed in a garden and cover it from rain and with a moveable stoole or seat make this earth as rich as the other But in all works where Salt-peter is expected you must make a little ditch about the earth which shall produce it or else the least moysture will draw away the Salt-peter even as the Salt-peter men doe with their Tubs And if any man would take in hand to build such houses of Office in or near to any Market-place School Colledge or other place where there is a great confluence of people he might gain soundly by it and also doe a pleasure to the Common-wealth And let no man doubt of this relation for if the Compost be apt for the land and seed it is marvellous to see the increase thereof I had the last summer 18. for one upon a tryall which I made with Beere Barly which doe call Barly which some doe call Barly big it hath four square eares and I did nothing to it but steeped in blood for one night and then set it at a eleven
inches depth and six inches distance and it yeelded more than twice as much as other Corn of the same kind being not steeped at all in any thing and being set at the same depth and distance and in the same ground on purpose to see the difference The fifth Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how the difference of the nature of land may be found out thereby to fit it with an apt Compost It is found by experience that where vegetables dumb as Ferne Whinnes Broom and the like have long grown and dyed upon the ground and have continued in this course of husbandry or rather ill husbandry for many years there the earth doth abound with the vegetable salt or juice for the cure whereof it is likewise found by experience that Lime Bay-salt and Ashes and Pidgeons dung and such like things of hot and binding nature doe poyson it and decrease the fertility It is likewise found by experience that in such grounds which have been long occupied in good Husbandry there dung is the best Compost in the world the cause is for that by long continuance in such husbandry the nature of the land is quite changed by the yearly carving of the Corn Hay or other crops whereby the vegetable salt or juice is diminished and contrariwise the hot and binding nature doth predominate which require for cure salt-peter dung blood and such things wherein the vegetable salt or juice predominateth The middle of these natures of ground require Sheeps dung as of all other most temperate being neither so hot and dry as Lime Bay-salt Ashes or Pidgeons dung nor so cold and moyst as the dung of beasts in the room whereof Lime putrified with dung or more earth as aforesaid may supply the want thereof very exceedingly The use of these Observations and Experiences may teach us that all books heretofore written for this purpose are frivolous for they prescribe such a Compost for such an earth of such a colour or of such a mixture as sand clay hasel earth white clay red clay white sand red sand black sand c. whereas it is found by good experience that where Lime was the most excellent Compost in the world about a hundred yeares agoe there about fifty yeares agoe they were forced to change their Compost and to lay upon the same ground half Lime and half Dung and now the same ground requires the Dung onely or else it will yeeld no Corn for Lime poysoneth it yet is not the colour or quality of the same ground in outward visibility to the eyes corporal but by the intellectual eyes beholden of all men of good understanding Therefore that all men may obtain their desire in this worke my counsel is that the more skilful men if they take in hand to improve twenty Acres or more or lesse of such land which they have not formerly tryed fully that they goe the best known way with nineteen Acres the first year or two and make divers several tryals in the odde Acres till they have hit the mark punctually And as for the more unskilfull my counsel is that they doe make divers several trials in the odde Acre the first year and let the other be used as aforetime till by experience they have learned to improve all the best way By this meanes many notable Improvements may be found out of inestimable benefit both to the Farmer Parson and Landlord and also to the whole Common-wealth plenty without any sensible or considerable losse to the undertaker And for the better instruction then is contained in any book formerly printed or written of this subject for the Adaptation of Compost let this suffice for brevitie viz. where the earth is subject in the heat of summer to chap much if it be clay or to burn much if it be sand there if you apply Lime Salt Ashes or Pidgeons dung or any thing of like hot and dry nature there you poyson it Also where the earth is not apt to chap or burn in the heat of summer there it you apply any other thing except Lime Salt Ashes or Pidgeon dung or other things of hot and dry nature there you poyson that also for as it is a foolish thing for a Cook to put more salt into the pot when the pottage were too salt before so is it as fond a trick in Husbandry to adde a Compost to land wherein that quality predominateth which doth also predominate in the land for Corn and Seeds are as nice in their diet and nutriment as any Lady in the world and will not prosper nor draw the nourishment if it be never so little distastful and this is the cause why so many times so little a quantity of Compost doth work such wonderful effects by the exquisite adaptation to the land or seed Men might easily find out an apt Compost for such land as hath been Devonshired and hath spent its fertility which it will do in three years and then it is reputed nothing worth I assure my self that Lime and combustible earth putrified together will doe the feat yea and that with a small quantity if it be dispersed by my Invention The sixth Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how Farm-houses Mannors or Towns may be builded upon high grounds and plentifully furnished with water It is found by experience that in some places Townes are builded upon high grounds where Springs or Wels are easily had and there a thousand Acres of land near to the Town are made worth a thousand pounds in the year and that a mile off a thousand Acres of the same land for want of Improvement are not worth above a thousand shillings so that there is lost to the Owners and to the Common-wealth nine hundred and fifty pounds yearly For the prevention of which loss let every Farmer have a Court paved like a Tennis-court and let the Barns Stables and other Edifices be so builded that all the Rain-water that they yeeld may run into the said Court and from thence into a vault or well out of which it may be pumped up or run into your kitchins or other houses of Office which rain water will keep sweet in the close vault and will serve for all uses whatsoever This is commonly practised in Spain where they have no other water throughout the whole year for all uses and their Gentlemen do chuse to build upon high grounds for the benefit of the goodness of the air which is more wholsome in all Countries in the Mountains than in the Vallies Also in Venice and Amsterdam and in other places where other waters are usually brackish they keep rain water in Sellars for all uses Also it is found by experience in Rumney Marshes that they use to gather rain water from Churches and other Edifices and never have so good and wholsom drink as when they brew with such water And where Tarris is wanting there you may make use of good clay which is of the nature of
fatnesses is gratefull to humane nature the other is offensive for the avoyding of which inconvenience I know none better than to let the dung be fully putrified and turned into earth without stnking before it be mingled with the Corn or Seeds And this may be done by my former Inventions in such sort that there may be above forescore pounds in the hundred saved in the Compost of all the Arable land in England There are three causes why people in the Country live longer and have better health than those that live in great Cities The first is the aire is more pure and wholsome The second is their food doth not abound so much with the fatness and sulphur which is apt to putrifaction and to contaminate the blood The third is their much exercise doth evacuate that part of their nutriment which is ungrateful to humane nature The contrary to all these is in great Cities where the aire dyet and exercise are so much different the effect doth shew the cause very clear so that there need no other or further philosophation concerning the same If any man doubt whether vegetables draw the corruptible or stinking sulphur or fatness which lyeth within the reach of their attractive virtue let him behold the places where beasts have lately dunged in Pastures and he shall finde that there the grasse is more sowre and gistastfull to the Beasts and Cattle The eleventhâ— Experiment wherein is shewed how rich Compost may be made in great Cities of things formerly cast away The water wherein Fishmongers water their Fish being made as salt as it will bear with the foul salt in the sweeping of ships salt Lime great Larders and other such places being boyled in Butchers slaughter-houses when their beasts are to be killed and the blood let run warm unto it being likewise hot it will not clodder but will be admirable good liquor to imbibe good Wheat earth whereby it may be made the richest Compost in the world to fill the holes where Wheat or Barley is set for that one bushel of this earth is sufficient to be mingled with three or four bushels of the earth of the land it self by which means great charge is saved in the carriage it selfe by reason that a little quantity will work a great effect Saltpeter for some grounds is more apt and cheaper though the price be greater for a little quantity will work a great effect especially where the land is hot and dry by nature Saw-dust is excellent to mingle with earth to fill the holes where Corn is set in strong binding clay ground Also shavings of horn hoofs of all beasts hair of beasts woollen rags chapped small are admirable Shavings of horn are now usually sold in London for three shillings and six pence a sack for the same purpose also woollen rags for two shillings a sack As for hoofs of beasts hair and Tanners horns may be putrified in good Arable wheat earth being kept dry from rain and then the earth and all together is the richest Compost in the world to be used for the filling of the holes where Wheat is set Also all other composts whatsoever mentioned in this book are the most wholsomest for mans body and most effectual for producing of great encrease if they be thus ordered The twelfth Experiment wherein is shewed how any Kingdom may live in great prosperity with half the trouble and charge which now they sustain and yet live in adversity It is found by experience that where there is a good Council of War there the kingdom is well defended and where there is good regularity in Divinity there the soul is preserved from sickness Why should it not be so for the state temporal if a council of Husbandry was erected whereupon the happiness of all kingdoms doth depend Surely if a certain number of the best experienced men were deputed for this purpose who might regulate the rest it would produce a great perfection in that knowledge which as it is the most ancient of all Sciences so it is the most excellent and honourable for that by it all Princes live and no Inferiour person can possibly live without it The Plebeans are like those in Ireland who will not lay aside their old custom to draw their horses by the tayls though an Act be made against it nor lay aside the burning their Corn in the straw to save the labour of thrashing though their houses lye unthatched I have known some Parsons in Parishes which have been skilful in Agriculture and have been excellent Improvers of land and some that were good physitians and have done much good in their Country that way I have also known some Landlords qualified with the same skils and certainly if all were so it would conduce greatly to the prosperity of a Kingdome for the greatest profit would redound to those two sorts of men yet may the marter be easily ordered so that the rest might live in twice as much prosperity as now they do and though they were doubled in number for I have known many men to live better with 30. acres of land than others have done with an hundred of acres and if need require I can shew where one acre of land hath been worth two hundred pound per an by being planted with Mellons and a whole family have lived well upon it and gathered riches If the course of Husbandry were regulated in this manner viz. That no man should occupy any land in Pasture whose fertility may perpetually be encreased by the means of water though the hay growing thereupon were totally spent to produce dung for the fertilizing of high grounds Also that no man should occupy any land in Tillage whose fertility may be perpetually increased in Pasture by having the same dung spent upon them which they yeeld naturally Also that no man should Till any other land but such high and barren land as is not able to fertilize it selfe and should make use of my several Inventions for the enriching of the same Then would there be left but little barren land in England in a short space whereby all the premises in this twelfth Experiment might be easily performed A friend of mine did search divers Register books in several Parishes in England he also searched the Parsons bookes of Tythes and found that where Arable land as turned into Pasture there were fewer Christnings and many more tyth Lambs and tyth Calves whereby he discovered a kinde of Witchcraft which is to turn men into beasts To dissolve this Witchcraft there is no other way but to goe the contrary way and whereas the Landlord found more gain in the increasing of sheep and beasts than formerly he found in the increasing of people to shew a way how more gain may accrew to the Landlord by the increase of people than formerly he found in the increase of beasts and surely this is no hard task for if the peoples employments be well regulated there will come more
of a Bean-stalk cut half an inch long above a knot and so set it will bear a fruit contrary in colour tast and form contrary to any one of them Also by this means he may exalt the nature and excellencie thereof at pleasure if about the root thereof he make three or four little holes in the earth and now and then with a little Fennel and a spoon he put into the holes a little of the best new wort wherein hath been boiled a little Cinamon Cloves Mace Sugar or any other substance of excellent tast and odour For as it is found by experience that any evil neutriment doth spoil yea sometimes poison the thing nourished so any excellent nutriment doth wonderfully advance the goodnesse and excellency thereof And after that these trees are come to age of maturity to be fruitful then the Siens taken thence will be perpetual and able to fill the whole Country with fruits of the same kind and by such means as these there is no question but all these varieties of excellent fruits were obtained in former times for it cannot be thought but that at the first when there was none but wild fruits there could neither be such varieties nor yet fruits of such excellency I have now some tryals in hand with some pulse fruits and garden stuffe to meliorate them in this manner and doe not doubt of the success The fifteenth Observation and Experiment shewing how it may be ordered that Corn shall never be exceeding cheap to the great prejudice of the Farmer nor exceeding dear to the grievance of the buyer It is found by experience that when Barley is at two shillings the bushel or under then an Acre and so twenty Acres of land may be manured with Malt more cheap than with dung if it he worth six pence a load and to be carried half a mile and this is true if after the common manner the Malt be sowed amongst the Wheat as they use to doe with Pidgeons dung Malt dust rags shavings of horn salt-peter bay-salt or any other thing which is potent and effectual for multiplication Now let every man judge of how great consequence this Experiment will be if by my new Invention the Malt be dispersed into the holes where the Wheat is set so that it all lye within the attractive virtue of the Corn for then none will be lost and by this means an acre of land may be manured with so much Corn as is usually cast away by the accustomed manner of sowing more than by setting And the reason why Malt is so much better than Corn is because that by drying upon the kiln the vegetative spirit is killed and by the Malting the nutritive virtue is opened and advanced and it mattereth not of what Corn the Malt is made as of Barly Pease Beans Oats Fetches or Buck-wheat or whatsoever is cheapest for by this means it is converted into the substance of the Wheat together with the benefit of the multiplication neither is it material whether the Mast be ground or not especially for Wheat or any Corn sown before winter for that in due time it will be dissolved and putrified so that by little and little it may be assimilated I have found by experience that when I have taken the great piked Wheat my increase hath been doubled more than with the smaller sort the reason can be no other but that such Wheat is both Seed and Compost I have also put into every hole with the Wheat seven or eight Malt-cornes and then increase was four or five yea sixe times more increased than before and this seven or eight Malt-corns being so dispersed by my Engine into every hole is quickly done and amounteth to no more Corn than is usually cast away in sowing more than is needful in setting Now the use to be made of this Experience for the prevention of cheapnesse is to make a great use thereof in time of exceeding plenty and to keep much dung in store for another year this with the practise of ingrossing and hoarding up of Corn taught before will prevent immoderate cheapness and preserve many an honest poor Farmer from poverty And howsoever I shall not be free from the aspersion of the ignorant Plebeans for this my attempt yet I regard them not being devoted to the universal benefit of all and let them be pleased to understand that every cheap year is but a forerunner of a dear one unless that this course be taken by reason that much Corn ground is usually upon such occasions turned into Pasture when as the Farmers find more gain in converting the fruits of the earth into Beef Mutton Butter Cheese c. then by turning them into Corn. And let them be pleased also to take notice of the Statute made in the reign of King James of happy memory which alloweth Engrossers to hoard up Corn for no other purpose but this which Statute I wish all men that can spare their money to take notice and to maste use of the same for their own advantage as wel as for the publick benefit and let them not doubt of their gain which must needs prove certain howsoever yea though nature should divers years together prove a loving Nurse and not play the Step-mother by administring too much rain or too much drought or too little of either which is sometimes seen three or four years together though very seldom and if it happen so yet by turning the Arable land into Grasse it hath alwaies come to passe as I have diligently observed for many years that the price of Corn hath been doubled at the least Now that I have done with the preventions of cheapnesse I will proceed to the preventions of dearth which may be partly done by the storing of Corn and partly by my new Invention for the expeditious setting of Corn which is so easie and quick for dispatch that he that hath an ordinary plowland viz. sixty acres in Tillage may set it all in due time and pay his charges with the fourth part of the money which he may sell his corn for presently besides the increase of the succeeding crop which wil be a third part more at least and will come in a good time for it is never seen that corn is very cheap the next year after a dear And by this meanes a good Farmer may sow twenty quarters in his seed corn which is worth twice as much mony as it is other yeares and how much corn will be thus sowed in the whole kingdom I lean to the estimation of all men and suppose that they will confess that if every Farmer keep these Engine ready for such times howsoever they make not so great use thereof in time of exceeding cheapness that it may well be called store-corn and is more effectual and preserveth greater abundance of Corn for the prevention of dearth then all the store-houses that ever were in the world I have taken the more pains and
in or near his Orchard and then taking all earth he may conveniently from his fruit trees root he putteth this Sult unto them and this every two years and that he hath thus recovered old decaying Trees and such as had scarce bark or any life left in them and that his other Trees have shot forth and fructified double and treble to what they did before For the Devonshire Gent. I am hopelesse of seeing him again but his relation concerning Furzes was to this effect That they valued them much in Devon and sowed their seed for hedges to shelter their Cattel and for Fuel and that they found them very profitable for fruit-trees being young to hang about their bodies neer the ground to defend them from Hares which usually bawk young Trees sheep and winds and that the dressis as he called the dust of them doth marvellously hearten the earth in which they grow if laid upon the ground onely round about them and that they value that dust for that use above any horse dung They are of excellent use to keep Mice out of Barn-floors for being laied under the Corn Mice and Rats avoid touching the floors So Reeks of Corn that stand from the ground upon piles of Wood and Cheese-racks that have Furzes bound in the way where the vermin might creep are sufficiently secured The Lady D. told me that at Islington being annoied with Rats she was advised to take Furzes and place them in the passages and holes where Rats entred her rooms and that she was fully cleared of them by that means Thus contempâ—ible things are of precious use by the order of him that made nothing in vain An Estimate made some years ago of the great destruction of Corn by the multitude of Pidgeon-houses An Estimate of the great quantity of Corn that Pidgeons do eat spoil and destroy in the County of Cambridg and probata for every shire of England the one with the other as by due inquiry may be made appear as followeth viz. 1. THat there are in the County of Cambridge 163 Parishes and in every Parish one with another 3 Dove-houses every house hath in it at least one with another 200 holes which are bred in and in every hole a pair of Pidgeons which breed besides those that have no mates which breed not of whose number no notice is taken which devour eat and spoil much Corn also 2. That it hath and may be proved that a Pidgeon hath had at one time in her Crop 1000 Wheat Corns which is about a pint a Pidgeon doth feed thrice a day then conceive what every Pidgeon doth spoil eat and devour in a year but to come to a far lesse scantling that a Pidgeon doth eat but half a pint a day besides that he spoileth by the space of six weeks in the harvest time onely besides that he beateth much down and spoil in beating down the standing Corn that amounteth unto at least at the rates aforesaid for every Pidgeon house the one with the other 39 Combs and 6 pecks one sort of Corn grain with another the which tother at 10 s. the Comb comes unto 19 l. 13 s. 9 d. but let it be granted as true it is that every Pidgeon house eateth besides that he otherwise spoileth to the value of 20 l. worth by the space of six weeks as aforesaid and the number of Parishes in the whole Nation being 9533. as Whites Almanack said besides Londen and so rate every shire with the County of Cambridge at 3 Dove-houses for every Parish the one with the other for in some Parishes there be farre more at which rate the whole Kingdom amounteth unto 28599. devouring Dove-houses the which at the several rates aforesaid commeth unto 571980 l. damage to the whole Kingdom in six weeks space onely but it is conceived they haue nine weeks in the harvest to eat and spoil in which it may amount to half as much more besides that they devour at seeds and other times in their several waies 3. That the multitude of Dove-houses are winked at and are suffered to stand in many places for the ingendring of Peter where some of the Owners thereof not sowing any Corn at all and some other having but a little Land with Corn of their own inheritance And moreover the profit of any Dove house is not worth to the Owner thereof the 40. part of that which the Pidgeons devour onely in six weeks space besides what they beat out and spoil 4. That the damage then in what the Pidgeons eat devour and spoil in the whole Kingdom in six weeks space at the rates aforesaid amounteth unto One Million seven hundred and seventeen thousand nine hundred and forty pound at the least 5. But if it may be proved that they eat and devour by the space of nine weeks as aforesaid then it will amount to the sum of Two Millions five hundred seventy three thousand nine hundred and ten pounds damage to the Kingdom in that space which is more than all the Pidgeons and Peter made in the Kingdom is forty times worth 6. That if it may be computed how many poor people of six persons in a Family at a bushel a week for every family that which the Pidgeons doe eat and destroy in the space aforesaid will maintain so many thousand families for nine weeks space which is a thing worthy to be thought upon and reformed by the Parliament 7. That in some Towns where there are not above fifty or sixty Families there are ten or twelve Dove-houses and the best owners thereof except Lords of the Mannors have not above forty or threescore acres of ploughed land in the Town besides that it will be proved that in some Parishes there are two or three Dove-houses where is not one Acre of ploughed land in these Parishes 8. That Judge Crook at an Assize time was of opinion that it was neither fitting nor lawfull for any man to have a Dove-house when so many poor people and their families may be maintained with the Corn that the Doves doe eat spoyl and devour Another Estimate by way of confirmation of destructive Pidgeon-houses PIdgeons can fly farre for the filling of their crops and return the same night so long as Pidgeons can get Corn they will eat little lesse They begin to eat Corn about the end of Jâ—ly at which time the Corn which is before hand sprung up in the ear and that ear pretty well filled begins to ripen or turn colour and they hardly want Corn till the end of Barly seeding which is about May day which in all amounts to two hundred and eighty daies or thereabouts the rest of the time they live on benting c. There are in England and Wales at least 24000 Dove-houses and there cannot be lesse than 500 pair of old Pidgeons in each house one with the other which amounts to 2000000 of pairs To speak very modestly each pair of old Pidgeons with what they carry
it is found meerly impossible to infuse any such thing into their heads or hands by any other means more than one manifest example and that under their noses too Amongst their irrational Customes I reckon that of bandying with the Lord though never so just and ingenuous about inclosing their Commons the Freeholder and Coppy-holder I mean chusing rather to keep three starved Sheep than one good Milch-cow which the same land inclosed would in all probability doe Also their opening their fields at Lammas or some other certain time which as some years proceed causes the losse of much Corn not to them onely but to the Common-wealth since if any man have by an un-foreseen or not to be remedied cause his Corn out later a little he is forced to fetch it in ripe or unripe wet or dry lest the known greedinesse of the neighborhood put in their Cattle and eat it up before his face Also their old Pâ—overb in in it self wise and good but as they understand and use it most prejudicial A little land wel tilled For though it be an undoubted truth that one Acre worth twenty pound all charges defrayed is better than three or four worth five pound all charges defrayed yet it is as true that if my necessary expences require threescore pounds per annum and I hold threescore Acres worth twenty pound each clear I have gained no more but my bare subsistence and have nothing to lay up for posterity no nor to stop a gap with which yet often happens and being not stopt makes others stoop to beggary whereas had I ventured as they will needs call it upon an hundred and twenty Acres I had had threescore pounds to stop gaps and lay up for posterity and farther if this should be rightly cast up by a rule of Progression it would easily appear that threescore pound driven on again and each year augmented would in a mans life rise to a plentifull fortune for his posterity and after a while afford him some better way or rate of subsistence also What should a man say but conclude with the Proverb He that is born under a three penny Planet shall never be worth a groat If it be answered that much Land is barren or uncertain and the more one deals with if the year proceeds evil the greater his losse the more certain and desperate his undoing 'T is answered That to a good Husband this so rarely happens and he by the meanes aforesaid and other good waies is so prepared that it perhaps may hinder his going forward for that year but shall not pluck him back at all And here also is the stubbornnesse of these mens natures discovered that when most rational approved good Inventions or Wayes to make their barren or uncertain land bear good crops to prevent or cure the Rot amongst their Sheep or Murrain amongst their cattle they utterly refuse the motion deride the Movers and Inventers and as much as in them lies endeavour to retard or poyson the practise lest their fordid ignorance and wicked envy should be theteby discovered or prevented Certainly he that having any considerable stock to begin with doth first carefully inform himself and consider what where and how to proceed and shall do so cheerfully and throw himself upon Gods abundant power wisdom mercy and providence for the successe cannot fail to be as rich as a good man will desire to be and he that withstands or refuses so to doe I can liken him to nothing more properly than to the dog in the manger that eats not hay himself nor lets the horse that would I am sure that the most rich men the Scripture tels us of were of this sort that were instrumental to their own greatnesse and not born so witnesse the histories of Abraham Isaac Jacob Lot Job good men or of Nabal or the Rich man in the Gospel that hath his barns full and goods laid up for many years And prophane story tell the same that Jupiter for his invention and practice in husbandry was honoured as a God that Cyrus and Tamberlane were Sheepherds c. An approved Experiment for the cure of the Fashions in Horses and the Rot in Sheep A Gentleman of note an Englishman had a strange felicitie in curing of Horses of the most desperate diseases as also Sheep strangely suddenly and perfectly by which he was much enriched and admired And it was with no other thing but the use of the Antimony-cup steeped in Ale with a little spice they call Grains and a little Sugar of which he would give them onely such a quantity as would not much weaken them and so give it two or three times with perhaps a day or two dayes intermission To horses he would administer half a pint at a time to Sheep not above two or three or at most foure Ounces by which he hath in a short time cured the Fashions in horses and the rot in sheep Indeed Antimony is so great a restorer of the Liver or so great a purifier or refiner of the masse of blood that I my self have known many recovered of the Dropsie and other desperate diseases by the use of it The same Gentleman used also the same infusion to wash all sores that were broken out upon them which also conduced much to the healing them He used it also to Swine Note The Antimony-cup is no other than a pure ordinary Regulus Antimonii cast into the form of a Cup hath no other virtues nor effects then the foresaid Regulus For this Regulus lying in any liquor doth the same which the Cupholding liquor in all respects So much of this Regulus as may serve your turn may be bought for two shillings or half a crown Another approved Experiment for fatting of Hogs and preserving or curing of them from Meazeals or other Diseases IF a Hog that is to be fatted have half a dram of crude Antimony given him in his meat three dayes before he be put up to fat it will make him have a good stomack to his meat and therefore he will soon be fat and it will likewise cure him of all foulnesse of his Liver and of the Meazels which are very frequent in Hogs The same is as soveraign for any other beasts Another excellent Remedy against the Rot and other diseases in Sheep and Horses TAke Serpents or which is better Vipers cut their heads and tayls off and dry the rest to powder Mingle this powder with salt and give a few grains of it so mingled now and then to your Horses and Sheep it is good against most diseases in them and chiefly against the fat Rot. Whether a good Lime may be made of Pibble and other Stones whereby Land may be dunged and enriched YOu say your great friend the Doctor in Chymical Physick hath a way not onely to turn the ordinary Lime-stones into Lime whereby Land may be dunged and enriched but also Peble and all other stones into Lime at an easie charge
Land is not worth above fifteen years purchase But if the use of money went at no more than at other places then five pound bestowed upon an Acre of ground would stand a man in but five or six shillings a year and the acre of land so amended would be worth as hath been shewed six and twenty or thirty yeares purchase Whereby it appeareth that as the rate of Use now goeth no man but where the land lyeth extraordinarily happy for it can amend his Land but to his own losse whereas if money were let as it is in other Countries he might bestow more than double as much as now he may and yet be a great gainer thereby and consequently as was before remembred should to his own benefit purchase land to the Common-wealth Neither would such purchase of Land to the Common-wealth be the benefit to the landed men onely the benefit would be as much to the poor Labourers of the Land For now when Corn and other fruits of the land which grow by labour are cheap the Plough and Mattock are cast into the hedge there is little work for poor men and that at a low rate whereas if the mendment of their own lands were the cheapest purchase to the owner if there were many more people than there are they should be readily set a work at better rates than now they are and none that had their health and limbs could be poor but by their extreamest lazinesse A Bank of Lands or an Improvement of Lands never thought on in former Ages Begun to be presented upon most rationable and demonstrable grounds by Mr. William Potter a Gentleman of great deserts and of a most Publique Spirit which being more fully cleared in all its Particulars and established by publique Authority may become a standing and setled Meanes to enrich the whole Nation and also to remove Taxes and other publique Burdens THrough the long continuance of the Wars Trade hath been interrupted great losses sustained at sea the people constrained to live upon the main stock mens credits ruined many debts otherwise good lost both friends and enemies plundered or sequestred and Taxes c. unavoydably continued whereby the Nation is now in a very low condition There is a great necessity that this Epidemical disease of ruin in mens estates should be cured for hereby 1. The Rich that should support others are diminished in number and weakned in means and the Poor that should be upheld are increased both in number and necessities 2. If the removing of Burdens be necessary the removing of Poverty without which the rest are in effect no burdens is more necessary 3. The Trade Manufacture Shipping Strength Repute and flourishing estate of the Nation depends as the meanes upon the Riches thereof 4. The servility of a low condition deprives men of much leisure and freedom in attending higher things This burden may be removed by encouraging such employments and undertakings as tend to increase the estates of some without impoverishing others for whatsoever takes from one mans estate as much as it adds to another doth not inrich the Nation The capacity of inriching this Nation is in a sort infinite 1. By making it the Scale of Trade to other people which consists in buying the commodities of other Countries working them here and selling them again in forraign parts Whereby if England were a City upon a Rock and held no land of their own they might be maintained comfortably Witnesse Holland 2. By Plantations throughout the world which tends to lessen our charge and increase our means by the returnes of commodities out of the industry of those that otherwise must be maintained for nothing 3. By the Fishing-trade wherein the Sea affords a vast Treasure without demanding any rent for it all which three last particulars would yeeld a kind of infinite of increase if there were no want of stock to employ therein 4. By improving our present Possessions For 1. Almost all the Land in England might be made to yeeld much more encrease if men had money to imploy in manuring the same 2. Divers Husbandmen want wherewith to stock their ground whereby perhaps the Nation suffers more than many times by much unseasonable weather 3. A great part of Ireland lyes at present waste which without great stock to plant is like so to continue 4. There are great quantities of oazie grounds about the Sea-coast and other Fens and waste grounds besides Forrests and Commons which drained and improved might equalize in value some two or three Counties in England 5. There are many Mines in England Ireland and Scotland which being wrought would much increase our Exportation and imployment for poor men To set all these Wheels a going two things are necessary viz. that the people may know where to be furnished with stock at low interest and that a sufficient quantity of currant money be disperced amongst them And indeed the great Remora is that the people are generally voyd of stock whereby it is impossible they should deal either in the Forraign Trade Fishing Plantations or Improving their own possessions by reason whereof both poor and rich are deprived of imployment and forced to live chiefly upon the Principal to the greater increase of their poverty and ruin Whereas if they knew where to obtain such stock at low Interest it would both enable them to prosecute the aforesaid ends and also make way for the more speedy vent of commodities in other Nations for greatnesse of stock at low Interest would enable the English Merchants to deal for much and thereby to buy cheap work cheap and sel for lesse profit in the pound and also to procure their commodities at the best hand viz. at the places of their growth in their proper season whereby out-trading and underselling other Nations they obtain the pre-emption of sale and so cannot fail of vent abroad Also great stock at low Interest would enable Merchants to raise the price of our own native commodities in Forraign parts by keeping them for a good Market which helps much towards the enriching of a Nation Again if there were great quantity of money disperced amongst the people of this land there would not wantvent of commodities amongst themselves For in this case every man to improve his stock would be laying out that mony in commodities those that receive it would be laying it out again upon others and those upon others and so on which would beget a constant return or quick vent for commodities proportionable to the quantity of money so perpetually revolving amongst them Now if through plenty of mony amongst the people there were as much vent for commodity as the earth could by industry be made to afford men would not spare either the Sea or the Land but the one by the Fishing Trade the other by Husbandry and all ingenious wayes of Improvement here in England by planting in Ireland and other new Plantations throughout the whole Globe would bestow
also their Cedars Pines Plumtrees Cherries great Strawberries and their Locusts which is a prickly plant a swift grower and therefore excellent for hedges be useful to us So for New-England why should we think that the Indian corn the March wheat that excellent Rie the Pease which never are eaten with magots the French or Kidney-Beans the Pumpions Squashnes Water-mellons Musk-mellons Hurtleberries wild Hemp Fir c. of those parts are altogether useless for us as also the CraÌ„berries which are so called by the Indians but by the English Bearberries because it is thought the Bears eat them in winter or Barberries by reason of their fine acid tast like Barberries which is a fruit as big as red as a Cherry ripe only in the Winter and growing close to the ground in bogs where nothing else will grow They are accounted very good against the Scurvy and very pleasant in Tarts I know not a more excellent and healthfuller fruit But some will object that they will not grow here with us our fore-fathers never used them To these I reply and ask them how they know have they tryed Idlenesse never wants an excuse and why might not our fore-fathers upon the same ground have held their hands in their pockets and have said that Wheat and Barley would not have grown amongst us and why should not they have been discouraged from planting Cherries Hops Liquorice Potatoes Apricocks Peaches Melicotones and from sowing Rape-seeds Colliflowers Great Clover Canary-seeds c. and many more of this kind and yet we know that most of these have been brought to perfection even in our days for there is a vicissitude in all things and as many things are lost which were known to our fore-fathers as the Purple colour c. as you may read in Pancirol so many things are found out by us altogether unknown to them and some things will be left for our posterities For example not to speak of Gun-powder and Printing nor of the New-world and the wonders there which notwithstanding are but of a few hundred years standing I say twenty Ingenuities have been found even in our days as Watches Clocks Way-wisers Chains for Fleas divers Mathematical Instruments Short-writing Microscopes by the which even the smallest things may be discerned as the eggs eyes legs and hair of a Mite in a Cheese Likewise the Selenoscope which discovereth mountains in the Moon divers Stars and new Planets never seen till our days But to return to our purpose I say that in Husbandry it is even so for the Ancients used divers plants which we know not as the Cytisus-tree so much commended for Cattel as also their Medick-fodder which Colum saith endureth ten years and may be mowen the four first years seven times in a year and one Acre he esteemeth enough for three horses This fodder likewise is accounted very sweet and healthful whereas the plants which are usually called Medicats with us are annual plants and have no such rare proprieties So we are ignorant what their Far or fine Bread Corn was what their Lupine Spury and an hundred of this kind as you may read in Mathiol on Dioscorides so on the contrary infinite are the Plants which we have and they knew not as well appeareth by their small and our large Herbals and daily new Plants are discovered useful for Husbandry Mechanicks and Physick and therefore let no man be discouraged from prosecuting new and laudable ingenuities And I desire Ingenious Gentlemen and Merchants who travel beyond Sea to take notice of the Husbandry of those parts viz what grains they sow at what times and seasons on what lands how they plough their lands how they dung and improve them what Cattel they use and the commodities thereby also what books are written of Husbandry and such like and I intreat them earnestly not to think these things too low for them and out of their callings nay I desire them to count nothing trivial in this kind which may be profitable to their Countrey and advance knowledge And truely I should thank any Merchant that could inform me in some trivial and ordinary things done beyond Sea viz. how they make Caviare out of Sturgeons Rows in Muscovia how they boyl and pickle their Sturgeon which we English in New-England cannot as yet do handsomly how the Bologâ—ia Sausages are made how they ferment their Bread without Yest of what materials divers sorts of Baskets Brooms Frails are made what seed Grout or Grutze is made of and also how to make the Parmisane Cheeses of Italy which are usually sold here for 2 s. or 2 s. 6 d. per pound or the Angelots of France which are accounted better Cheeses then any made in England as also the Holland Cheeses which are far better then our ordinary Cheeses and yet these sorts of Cheeses are made not of Mares milk as some think but from the Cows and our Pastures are not inferiour to theirs c. 2. I desire ingenious men to send home whatsoever they have rare of all sorts as first Animals the fine-woolled sheep of Spain Barbary Horses Spanish Jennets c. and so likewise all sorts of Vegetables not growing with us as Pannick Millet Rice which groweth in the Fenny places of Millan and France and why may it not grow in our Fens and the best sorts of Grains or Fruits in use amongst them perhaps there is Wheat that is not subject to Smut or Mildew perhaps other seeds will give double increase as Flax Oats Pease and divers other things of importance there are beyond Sea which may be useful to us as the Askeys the Cork Acorns the Scarlet-Oak sweet-Annise which groweth abundantly in Millan Fennel c. Tilia or Linder-tree for bast Ropes c. Spruce Pines for Masts and Boards seeing that they are swift growers and many will stand in a small piece of ground they have formerly grown here and some few do flourish in our Gardens and in Scotland I suppose that this ought seriously to be considered for although we have plenty of Oaks yet what will it profit for Shipping without Masts and how difficult it is to get great Masts above 22 inches diameter is very well known Many things I might add of this kind but for brevities sake I refer you to Master John Tredescan who hath taken great pains herein and daily raiseth new and curious things 3. Consider that these new Ingenuities may be profitable no onely to the Publick but also to Private men as we see by those who first planted Cherries Hops Liquorice Saffron and first sowed Rape-seeds Colliflowers Woad Would Early Pease Assparagus Melons Tulips Gilliflowers c. and why may we not find some things beneficial to us also 16. Deficiency is the ignorance of those things which are taken from the Earth and Waters of this Island Although it may seem to many that these things do little concern the Husbandman who usually is not a Naturalist but onely endeavoureth to know
his own grounds and the seeds proper for it and seldome pierceth into the bowels of the earth yet if we consider that out of the earth he hath Marle Lime Stone Chalk for the enriching his lands and also Loam and Sand for his buildings often times fuel for fire c. it will plainly appear that it is necessary for him to know all subterrany things and to be a Petty-Phylosopher and that the knowledge of these things will be very beneficial for him And here I cannot but take notice of a great deficiency amongst us viz. that we have not the natural history of all the Sands Earth Stones Mines Minerals c. which are found in this Island it would not only advance Husbandry but also many other Mechanick Arts and bring great profit to the publick I hope some ingenious man will at length undertake this task for the Lord hath blessed this Island with as great variety as any place that is known as shall in part appear anon and it may be proved by that great variety which is found near the Spaw-waters in Knaresborough as Doctor Dean relateth in his Book called the English Spaw Or the glory of Knaresborough springing from several famous Fountains there adjacent called the Vitriol sulphurous and dropping Wells and also other Mineral waters whose words are these Here is found not onely white and yellow Marle Plaister Oker Rudd Rubrick Freestone an hard Greet-stone a soft Reddish-stone Iron-stone Brimstone Vitriol Niter Allum Lead and Copper and without doubt divers mixtures of these but also many other Minerals might perhaps be found out by the diligent search and industry of those who would take pains to labour a little herein Printed at York by Thomas Broad being to be sold in his shop at the lower end of Stone-gate near to Common-Hall Gates 1649. This Letter will not permit me to make a compleat Natural History of the things of this Isle yet I shall relate divers things which may be as hints to set some others to work which I have found in Mr. Cambden and others and shall briefly instruct the Husbandman what he ought to take notice of for his own and others good And first if he live nigh the Sea let him take notice of those things the Sea casteth up for it hath even with us and also in Ireland cast up Amber-greece which is worth so much Gold with the which not long since a Fisherman of Plymouth greased his boots not knowing what it was sometimes it casteth up Jet and Amber as at Whitbey often times In former times we had Oysters which had very fair great Pearls in them of good worth and at this time some of them are found in Denbighshire Coperas-stone likewise is found along by the Sea-Coasts of Kent Essex Sussex Hampshire out of the which Corporas is made a thing very useful for Dyers Curriers c. Further Sea-weeds are not to be slighted for in Jersey they have no other fuel amongst them and here in England it is burnt to make Kelp for Glassemen and is also very good manure for divers Lands also Sea-owse is not onely good to lay on Land but at Dover and other places the Inhabitants make Brick thereof called Flanders-Bricks c. Sea-sands in Cornwall do very much enrich their Lands and in Lancashire out of a certain kind of Sand they extract Salt c. 2. Let him take notice of all sorts of Waters which issue forth of the earth differing from the ordinary in Colour Odour Taste for it is well known how advantagious these waters are often-times not only to particular men but also to the Countrey about yea to the whole Island as appeareth by the waters of Tunbridge in Kent and of Epsham in Surrey Knaresborough c. Spaw in York-shire and by the Allum-waters in Newenham in Warwick-shire like Milk in taste and colour and are excellent for the Stone and wounds and also it appeareth by the salt Fountains in Worcestershire and Cheshire which furnish all those parts with an excellent fine white salt by the hot Bathes in Summersetshire and the luke-warm waters by Bristol c. At Pitchford in Shropshire is a Fountain which casteth forth liquid Bitumen which the people use for Pitch c. 3. Let him not despise the sorts of Sands which he findeth for some Sands are for buildings as the rough sorts others for scowring others for casting fine metals as Highgate-sand others for the Glasse-men as a sand lately found in Sussex In Scotland there is a sand which containeth a considerable quantity of Gold and in divers Countreys fine Gold aboundeth very much in sands and if we may believe an excellent Dutch Chymist there is scarce any sand without it 4. Let him take notice of the Earth Loams Clayes c. which have divers and necessary uses as first the stiffest Clays as Newcastle and Nonsuch are for the Glassemens Pots for Crucibles melting-pots the lesse stiffe for ordinary Earthen wares Brewers Tiles Bricks c. white Clay is for Tobacco-pipes Marle of divers colours and stiffness is excellent for Husband-men Fullers-Earth is found in Kent Surrey and lately in divers other places for the great benefit of the Clothier Rub and Rubrick in York-shire as also divers other in Oxford and Glocestershire excellent for Painters c. Turffe for firing may be found in most parts of this Isle if people were industrious necessity now and then compelleth them to be inquisitive as it did lately at Oxford and Kent where it is found in good quantity In Holland they have little fuel save what is taken out of their ditches and therefore it is truely said that their firing is as it were fish'd out of the water and it 's indifferent good fuel Coals are found in very many places yet divers places are in great want of them 5. Let him take notice of the several stones found in this Isle as of Freestones for building Cobbels and rough hard stones for paving Tomb-stones soft sandy stones commonly called fire-stones because they will endure strong fires and therefore fit for Iron furnaces and this propriety these soft stones have that when they are white hot a steele instrument will scarce touch them to hurt them Alabaster is found at Burton on the Trent and in Staffordshire and at Titbury Castle excellent Marble at Snothil in Herefordshire a course Marble near Oxford in Kent also at Purbrick in Dorsetshire Milstones in Auglesey in Flintshire Darbyshire Lime-stones Chalk in very many places for divers uses Allum-stone is found in Anglesey but especially at Gisborrow in York-shire where the Allum works are which serve this Island Lapu Cslaminaris is lately found in Somersetshire by the which Copper is made brasse Manganese for those that make white glasse lately found in the North the best Emery for polishing Iron in Jersey Plaister at Knaresborough Black-lead in Cumberland and no where else in Europe There is a stone in Durham out of which they make salt