which brings an ill name on the Hay which if cut in time would be much better and in most watered Meadows as good as any other And the Aftir-grass either to mow again or to be fed on the place will repay the former supposed Loss The former Impediments may with much facility be removed by a Law which would be of very great Advantage to the Kingdom in general The later only by the good Examples and Presidents of such industrious and worthy Persons that understand better things the generality of the world being rather introduced to any ingenious and profitable Enterprise by Example than by Precept although some are so sordid and self-willed that neither apparent Demonstration nor any convincing Argument whatsoever can divert them from their Byass of Ill-husbandry and ignorance whom we leave On the Borders or Banks of most Rivers or Streams lie several Of Meadows watered by artificial Engines Pieces of Land that are not capable of being overflown by the obstruction or diversion of the Water without a greater injury than the expected advantage would recompence which may notwithstanding be improved very considerably by placing of some Artificial Engine in or near such River or Stream for the overflowing thereof The Persian Wheel The most considerable and universal is the Persian Wheel much Of the Persian Wheel used in Persia from whence it hath its name where they say there are two or three hundred in a River whereby their Grounds are improved extraordinarily They are also much used in Spain Italy and in France and is esteemed the most facile and advantageous way of raising Water in great quantity to any Altitude within the Diameter of the Wheel where there is any current of Water to continue its motion which a small stream will do considering the quantity and height of the Water you intend to raise This way if ingeniously prosecuted would prove a very considerable Improvement for there is very much Land in many places lying near to Rivers that is of small worth which if it were watred by so constant a stream as this Wheel will yield would bear a good burthen of Hay where now it will hardly bear Corn. How many Acres of Land lie on the declining sides of hills by the Rivers sides in many places where the Water cannot be brought unto it by any ordinary way yet by this Wheel placed in the River or Current and a Trough of Boards set on Tressles to convey the Water from it to the next place of near an equal altitude to the Cistern may the Land be continually watred so far as is under the level of the water Also there is very much Land lying on the borders of Rivers that is flat and level yet neither doth the Land-floods overflow the same or at most but seldom nor can the water be made by any obstruction thereof or such-like way to overflow it But by this Persian Wheel placed in the River in the nearest place to the highest part of the Land you intend to overflow therewith may a very great quantity of water be raised For where the Land is but little above the level of the Water a far greater quantity of Water and with much more facility may be raised than where a greater height is required the Wheel easier made and with less expence There are also many large and flat pieces of Land bordering Of Wind-Engines for the raising of water near unto several Rivers or Streams that will not admit of any of the aforementioned ways of overflowing or watering either because the Current cannot easily or conveniently be obstructed or because such a Persian Wheel may not be placed in the water without trespassing on the opposite Neighbour or hinderance to others or the Water not of force sufficient c. which places may very well admit of a Wind-engine or Wind-mill erected in such part thereof where the Winds may most commodiously command it and where the Land swells above the ordinary level you intend to Water or overflow though it be remote from the Current or Stream the water being easily conducted thereto by an open or subterraneal passage from the Stream Such Wind-mils raising a sufficient quantity of water for a reasonable height for many Acres of Land must needs prove a very considerable advantage to the owner as well for the overflowing thereof as it hath done to many for the draining large Fens of great quantities of water to a considerable height Neither is it altogether necessary that such Land be wholly plain and open to all Winds for in Vallies that are on each side defended with Hills or in such Lands that are on some sides planted with Woods may such Wind-mills well be placed where the wind may at some certain seasons perform its work sufficiently though not so continually as where the place is free to all winds SECT II. The Principal Rules necessary to be observed in Overflowing or drowning of Lands When you have raised or brought the Water by any of the 1 In cutting the main Carriage aforesaid means to the height you expected then cut your main Carriage allowing it a convenient descent to give the Water a fair and plausible Current all along let the mouth of the main Carriage be of breadth rather than depth sufficient to receive the whole Stream you desire or intend and when you come to use a part of your Water let the main Carriage narrow by degrees and so let it narrow till the end that the Water may press into the lesser carriages that issue all along from the main At every rising ground or other convenient distances you ought 2 In cutting the lesser Carriages to cut small tapering Carriages proportionable to the distance and quantity of Land or Water you have which are to be as shallow as may be and as many in number as you can for although it seems to waste much Land by cutting so much turf yet it proves not so in the end for the more nimbly the Water runs over the Grass by much the better the Improvement is which is attained by making many and shallow Carriages Another principal observation in Drowning or Watering of 3 In making the Drains Lands is to make Drains to carry off the Water the Carriage brings on and therefore must bear some proportion to it though not so large and as the lesser Carriages conduct the Water to every part of your Land so must the lesser Drains be made amongst the Carriages in the lowest places to lead the Water off and must widen as they run as the Carriages lessened for if the Water be not well drained it proves injurious to the Grass by standing in pools thereon in the Winter it kills the Grass and in the Spring or Summer hinders its growth and breeds Rushes and bad Weeds which if well drained off works a contrary effect Some graze their Lands till Christmass some longer but as soon 4 Times for watring
or drowning of Land as you have fed it bare then is it best to overflow from Alhallontide throughout the Winter may you use this Husbandry until the Spring that the Grass begin to be large during April and the beginning of May in some places may you give the Grass a little water once a week and it will prove wonderfully especially in a dry Spring In Drowning observe that you let not the water rest too long on a place but let it dry in the intervals of times and it will prove the better nor let Cattle tread it whil'st it is wet In the Summer if you desire to water your Land let it be in mild or Cloudy weather or in the night-time that the water may be off in the heat of the day lest in scorch the Grass and you be frustrate of your expectation In many places you may have the opportunity to command a 5 Manner of watring of Land by small streams or Engines small Spring or Stream where you cannot a larger or may obtain water by the Engines before-mentioned which may not be sufficient to overflow your Land in that manner nor so much to your content as the greater Currents may therefore you must make your Carriages small according to your water and let there be several stops in them that you may water the one part at one time and another part at another also in such dry and shelving Lands where usually such small Springs are and water by such artificial ways advanced a small drilling water so that it be constant worketh a wonderful Improvement In some places issue Springs whose waters are sterile and injurious 6 Barren Springs not useful to the Husbandman as are usually such that flow from Coal-mines or any Sulphureous or Vitrioline Minerals being of so harsh and brackish a substance that they become destructive to Vegetables Not but that those Minerals and also those waters contain much of that matter which is the cause and of the principles of Vegetation though not duly applied nor equally proportionated as much Urine Salt c. kills Vegetables yet duly fermented and artificially applied nothing more fertile Such Springs that you suspect prove them first before you go too far those that are bad are usually reddish in colour and leave a red sediment and shine as it runs and is not fertile until it hath run far and encreased it self from other Springs and gained more fertility in its passage as we usually observe greater Rivers though reddish in colour yet make good Meadow SECT III. Of dry Meadow or Pasture Every place is almost furnished with dry Meadows which are convetible sometimes into Meadows and sometimes into Pastures and such places much more where Waters Springs and Rivolets are scarce or the Rivers very great or the Country hilly that water cannot so well be commanded over such Lands as in other places they may which dry Meadows and Pastures are capable of Improvement by several ways And principally by Enclosure for where shall we finde better Improved by Enclosure dry Meadows and richer Pastures than in several hilly places of Somersetshire among the small Enclosures which not only preserveth the young Grass from the exsiccating Spring-winds but shadoweth it also in some measure from the Summer-scorching Sun-beams as before we noted in the Chapter of Enclosure Such Meadows or Pastures well planted with either Timber or Fruit-trees in the Hedge-rows or other convenient places and enclosed in small parcels will furnish you with good Hay and good Pasture when your Neighbour whose Lands are naked goes without it for dry Springs or Summers more usually happen than wet besides the shadow for your Cattle and many other advantages as before we observed In several places where the ground is moist cold clay spewy Burning of Rushy and Mossie ground rushy or mossie or subject to such inconveniencies that the Pasture or Hay is short sower and not proveable it is very good Husbandry to pare off the turf about July or August and burn the same after the manner as is hereafter described when we come to treat of burning of Land and then plough it up immediately or in the Spring following and sowe the same with Hay-dust or with Corn and Hay-dust together for by this means will that acid Juice that lay on the surface of the Earth which was of a sterile nature and hindred the growth of the Vegetables be evaporated away and also the Grass which had a long time degenerated by standing in so poor a Soil be totally destroyed and the Land made fertile and capable to receive a better species brought in the Seed from other fertile Meadows It is too commonly observed that many excellent Meadows or Stubbing up of shrubs c. Pasture-land are so plentifully stored with Shrubs small Hillocks Ant-hills or such like that a good part thereof is wholly lost and so much thereof as is mown is but in patches here and there and that that remains not so beneficial as if it were either mown or sed together Now the best way or Method of stubbing up such thorny Shrubs or Broom or Goss or any such annoying Shrubs which proves both laborious and costly any other way than this is ingeniously delivered by Gabriel Platt the Instrument Discovery of hidden Treasures by him discovered is like a three-grained dung-fork only but much greater and stronger according to the bigness of the Shrubs c. the stale thereof like a large and strong Leaver which Instrument being set half a foot or such reasonable distance from the Root of the Shrub c. then with a Hedging-beetle drive it in a good depth then elevate the Stale and lay some weight or fulciment under it and with a Rope fastened to the upper end thereof pull it down which will wrench up the whole bush by the Roots Also Ant-hills prove a very great annoyance to Pasture and Meadow-lands which may be destroyed by dividing the Turf on the top and laying of it open several ways then take out the core and spread over the other Land and lay the Turf down neatly in its place again a little hollowing in and lower than the surface of the Earth and at the beginning of the Winter the Water standing therein will destroy the remainder of the Ants and prevent their return and settle the Turf by the Spring that by this means may a very great Improvement be made of much Meadow or pasture-Pasture-land now a great part thereof Bushes and Ant-hills These Meadows and pasture-Pasture-lands where the water overfloweth Dunging or Soyling of Meadows and Pastures not at any time are the only places where you may lay your dung or other Manure to the best advantage it being not capable of being improved by water nor the Soil laid thereon subject to be carried away or at least the better part thereof extracted by the water either casually by Floods or any other way overflowing the same The best
time for the Soiling of Meadows and pasture-Pasture-lands Time for Soyling is in the Winter-season about January or February that the rains may wash to the Roots of the Grass the fatness of the Soil before the Sun drieth it away and dissolve the clots that may be spread with a Bush drawn over it like a Harrow before the Grass be too high Ashes of Wood Peat Turf Sea-coal or any other Fewel is Soyl for Rushy and cold Land very proper to be laid on Cold Spewey Rushey and Mossie Land not sandy or hot and suits best therewith and agrees with the Husbandry of burning the Turf as is before advised the dung of Pigeons or any other Fowl works a better effect on that than other Lands also all hot and sandy Soils are fittest for that sort of Lands Lime Chalk Marle or any cold fossile Soils are an extraordinary For sandy or hot Land Improvement to dry sandy hot Lands of a contrary nature or temperature as well for Meadow and Pasture as for Corn-Land I have seen much of the blew Clay which they call Vrry that 's digged out of the Coal-mines and lies near the Coal laid on Meadow and Pasture-lands to a very considerable advantage Many instances of wonderful Improvements made by mixing of Soils of contrary natures you may finde in several of our modern Rural Authors Between these two extremes your ordinary dung or Soil is best For other Meadows bestowed on your Meadows and Pastures not so much inclining either way for it is a very principal part of good Husbandry to apply the Soil or Compost properly as the nature of the ground requireth whereof you may finde more hereafter in the Chapter of Soils Dungs c. SECT IV. Of several new Species of Hay or Grass It is found by daily experience not only in forein parts but in our own Country that a very great Improvement may be made on the greater part of our Lands by altering the species of such Vegetables that are naturally produced totally suppressing the one and propagating another in its place which may rejoyce and thrive better there than that before as we evidently see by Corn sowen on Land where hardly Grass would have grown what a Crop you reap but these are but Annuals that which raises the greatest advantage to the Husbandman is what annually yields its increase without a renovation of expence in Ploughing and sowing as we finde in the Clover-grass or great Trefoyl St. Foyn or Holy-Hay La Lucern Spurrey-seed Trefoyl None-such c. whereof apart This Grass hath born the name and is esteemed the most principal Of the Clover-grass of Grass both for the great Improvement it brings by its prodigious Burthen and by the excellencie of the Grass or Hay for Food for Cattle and is much sowen and used in Flanders and in Holland Presidents to the whole world for good Husbandry In Brabant they speak of keeping four Cows Winter and Summer on an Acre some cut and laid up for Fodder others cut and eaten green here in England they say an Acre hath kept four Coach-horses and more all Summer long but if it kept but two Cows it is advantage enough upon such Lands as never kept one You may mow the first Crop in the midst or end of May and lay that up for Hay if it grow not too strong it will be exceeding good and rich and feed any thing then reserve the next for Seed which may yield four Bushels upon an Acre each Bushel being worth three or four pound a Bushel which will amount to the reputed value of ten or twelve pounds per Acre and after that Crop also it may be fed It hath also this Property that after the growing of the Clover-grass three or four years it will so frame the Earth that it will be very fit for Corn again which will prove a very great Advantage and then again for Clover Thus far Mr. English Improver Blith Others say it will last five years and then also yield three or four years together rich Crops of Wheat and after that a Crop of Oats In the Annotations upon Mr. Hartlibs Legacie we finde several Computations of the great Advantage hath been made by sowing Clover-grass as that a parcel of Ground a little above two Acres the second year did yield in May two Load of Hay worth five pounds the next Crop for Seed was ripe in August and yielded three very great Loads worth nine pounds that year the Seed was 300 l. which with the Hay was valued at thirty pounds besides the after-Pasture Another President is that on four Acres there grew twelve Loads of Hay at twice mowing and twenty Bushels of Seed one Load of the Hay mown in May being worth two Load of the best of other Hay and the After-pasture three times better than any other the four Acres yielded in one year fourscore pound Another that six Acres of Clover did maintain for half a year thirteen Cows ten Oxen three Horses and twenty six Hogs which was valued at forty pound besides the Winter-Herbage The aforesaid Presidents and Valuations seem prodigious unless The best Land for Clover-grass a rich light Land warm and dry be sown therewith in which it principally delighteth and then it may probably answer the said Valuations and must needs be a very high Improvement although the Ground were good and profitable before It will also prosper and thrive on any Corn-land well manured or soiled and brought into perfect Tillage Old Land be it course or rich long untilled is best for Corn and best and most certain for Clover-Grass and when you have Corned your Land as much as you intend then to sowe it with Clover is the properest season Land too rich for Corn cannot be too rich for Clover Poor Lands are not fit for Clover unless burnt or denshired as we shall hereafter direct or limed marled or otherwise manured and then will it bring forth good Clover An Acre of Ground will take about ten pounds of your Clover-Grass Quantity of Seed for an Acre Seed which is in measure somewhat above half a peck according to Sir Richard Weston The quantity of Seed for an Acre Mr. Blith conceives will be a Gallon or nine or ten pounds which agrees with the other But if it be husky which saves labour in cleansing of it and also sowes better by filling the hand than mixed with any other thing you must endeavor to finde out a true proportion according to the cleanness or foulness you make it but be sure to sowe enough rather too much than too little for the more there is the better it shadows the Ground Some have sowen fifteen pound on an Acre with good success ten pound some judge to be of the least however let the Seed be new and of the best which the English is esteemed to be The usual way is thus advised when you have fitted your Land The
the Americans for the Improvement of their Land which is an Argument as well of their Natural Ingenuity as of the excellencie and advantage of the Improvement For the burning of such Combustible things on Land doth very much heat the Ground and wastes that Acid sterile juice that hinders fertility and sets free that fertile Principle the Sal terrae which before was for the most part bound up also it leaves a good quantity of that Salt on the Land mixed with the ashes which is generally held to be the only advantage this way yields though the contrary appears for wheresoever the Fire is made although you remove the ashes wholly yet will the place bear a better Crop than where you bestow the ashes as formerly we noted This Art of Burning of Land usually called Denshiring quasi On what lands burn-baiting good Devonshiring or Denbighshiring because it seems there to be most used or to have been invented or burn-beating is not applicable or necessary to all sorts of Land for in a good fertile rich loose Soyl where a good sweet Grass or good Corn flourisheth it wastes as well the good as the bad juyce wherefore in most places in Sommersetshire and such other fertile places they reject it But for barren sour heathy and rushey Land be it either hot or cold wet or dry it is a very great Improvement insomuch that most sorts of such poor Lands will yield in two or three years after such Burning more above all charges than the Inheritance was worth before The most usual Method is with a Breast-plough to pare off the Manner of burn-baiting Turf turning it over as it 's cut that it may dry the better if it prove a very dry season and the weather hot then it needs no more turning but if the weather be casual it must be turned and the Turfs set a little hollow that they may dry the better and when they are through-dry they may be laid on small heaps about two Wheel-barrow loads on a heap the lesser the heaps are the better so there be enough to make a good Fire throughly to consume the whole to ashes If the Turf be full of fibrous roots or hath a good head on it it will burn without any other additionary fewel if not you must raise your heap on a small bundle of Ling Goss Fearn or such-like which in some places they call Ollet which will set the whole on Fire you may afterwards let those little hills of Ashes lie till they are a little saddned with rain before you spread them or take a quiet time that the wind may not waste your ashes nor hinder their equal scattering also you must pare the ground under the hills somewhat lower than the surface of the Earth to abate its over-great fertility caused by the Fire made thereon It is also to be observed that the Land is to be but shallow or half Ploughed and not above half the usual quantity of seed sown on an Acre and that also late in the year if Wheat towards the end of October only to prevent the excessive rankness or greatness of the Corn by which you may judge what advantage Burning is to the Land and this also on the poorest Plains or Heaths Others there are that when they stubb up their Goss Broom and such-like lay the Roots on heaps when they are dry and cover them with the parings of the Earth between where they raised the roots and so Burn over the Land which is also a very considerable Improvement In some places also it is usual to Burn the stubble and other trash they can rake together on their Lands which must needs be very good so far as may be according to the quantity thereof although it be not so much used for fertility-sake as to rid themselves of the stuff as they usually burn Heaths and Turf-Commons to give liberty to the Grass Sir Richard Weston gives this for a good way that is First pare off the Heath or Turff then make the paring into little Hills you may put to one hill as much paring as comes off from a Rod or Pole of Ground The Hills being sufficiently made and prepared are to be fired and burnt into ashes and unto the Ashes of every Hill you must put a peck of unslaked Lime the Lime is to be covered over with the Ashes and so to stand till rain comes and slakes the Lime after that mingle your Ashes and Lime together and so spread it over your Land In such places where Fewel is not scarce and the Land barren it is very excellent Husbandry to get together into such Land you intend to fertilize all the small Wood Bushes Furze Broom Heath Fearn Stubble or what ever combustible matter you can procure which in most places are easier obtained than Dung and in a dry time lay it in heaps dispersedly about the ground and cast over it the parings of the Land where it lies and set fire to it and whilest it burns having several to help you cast on Turf or Earth on the most flaming parts to hinder that it flame not too much the heat of which fires will so calcine the Earth under them and the Earth cast on them besides the ashes of the Vegetables that it will yield an increase far exceeding the charge and labor bestowed thereon there can be no better use made of these combustible matters and especially of the Hawme or strings of Hops which burnt in the Hop-garden and the parings of the Turfs on the side of the Garden or elsewhere or any other Earth cast over it as it burns and then more Hawme over that and more Earth on that as they use to say Stratum super stratum till all be done either in one or several places will make so excellent a Compost to be applied to the Hop-hills that none can exceed it which I my self have done And this answers to what Glauber delivers as a great secret and very profitable Perticae Longurii aut Continuatio Miraculi Mundi p. 34. pali quibus Vites lupulorum Caules sustinenter si igne qua in extremitatem suam inferiorem desunt adurantur extremitate adusta in lignorum oleum illud immittantur ut pinguedinem illam imbibant c. duplex hoc pacto emolumentum afferentes prius est quod perticae à putredine conservatae quotannis breviores non evadant sed diutius durent Alterum quod vitium lupulorum radices pinguedinem alimentum ex perticarum extremitatibus attrahentes luxuriante incremento excrescant By which it appears that the ends of the Hop-poles only being burnt and imbibed in his vegetable Oyl or fixed Salt will not only endure long from rotting but also will yield extraordinary nourishment to the Roots of the Hops of such wonderful efficacie is this subject that the least Grain thereof carrieth with it much of fertility as the same Author saith a little before of the same
that your Neighbour hath without which or whilest you go farther you suffer great loss And what a sad thing it would be to be denied as Hesiod in his time observed Streighten not your self so as to ask to borrow of another lest he refuse and you want CHAP. XI Of the several sorts of Instruments Tools and Engines incident to this Profession of Agriculture and of some Amendments and Profitable Experiments in Building either by Timber Stone Brick or any other way Dicendum quae sint duris Agrestibus Arma Virgil. Queis sine nec potuere seri nec surgere Messes IT is impossible to go through the many difficulties in this Art without many and several sorts of Tools and Instruments as Ploughs Carts c. It is also difficult and unprofitable to make use of such Ploughs Tools and Instruments that are troublesome heavy and chargeable when the same labour may be as well performed if not better with such that are easie light and not so costly Therefore I shall in this Chapter discover unto you all the several sorts of Instruments necessary for the Husbandman and what inconveniencies have been found in some of them and the Remedies and what new ways or Methods have been of late discovered to facilitate his labours as I finde them dispersed in several Authors and have observed the same in several parts of this Kingdom this Instrumental part of Agriculture being not of the least concernment And shall also discover unto you several profitable Experiments and Directions in Building necessary to be known SECT I. Of the several sorts of Ploughs And first I shall begin with the Plough the most necessary Instrument the chiefest of all Engines as Gabriel Plat terms it and happily found out There is a very great difference in Ploughs that there is scarce any sure Rule for the making of them and every Country yea almost every County differs not only in the Ploughs but even in every part of them Ploughs also do not only differ according to the several Customs of several places but also as the Lands do differ in strength or weakness or the different Nature of the Soil To describe them all is not a work for this place but I will give some brief Descriptions of the more principal sorts of Ploughs of the greatest esteem And first of the Double-wheeled Double-wheeled Plough Plough which is of most constant use in Hartfordshire and many other Countries and is very useful upon all Flinty Stony or hard Gravel or any other hard Land whatsoever It 's esteemed a useful and necessary Plough These require a greater strength than other Ploughs and to be used in such places where other English Improver Ploughs will not to any purpose It is usually drawn with Horses or Oxen two abreast the Wheels are usually eighteen or twenty inches high in some places the Furrow-wheel is of a larger circumference than the other that goes on the solid Land There is another sort of Double-wheeled Ploughs called the Turnwrest-Plough Turnwrest-Plough which surpasseth for Weight and Clumliness and is called the Kentish-Plough being there much used The One-wheel Plough is an excellent good one and you may Single Wheel-Plough use it on almost any sort of Lands and is of that shape and form that will admit of more lightness and nimbleness than the other Wheel-ploughs being the same that Mr. Hartlib speaks of to be Legacy made near Greenwich by one who had excellent Corn on barren Land and yet Ploughed his Land with one Horse This Plough neatly made and very small hath been drawn English Improver with one Horse and held by one Man and ploughed one Acre a day at sowing-Sowing-time in a moist season There hath been with six good Horses six Men and six Ploughs ploughed six Acres a day at Sowing-time in light and well-wrought Land This seems to accord with the Plough used in Hesiod's time where the Plough man did both guide and drive There is a sort of Plough made without either Wheel or Foot Plain-Plough described at large by Mr. Blith to be the most easie going Plough and of least Workmanship Burden or Charge called the Plain-plough fit for any Lands unless in irregular extream Land either for Stones Roots or Hardness and there adviseth to the Double-wheeled Plough being of strength to supply extremities and cases of necessity Mr. Blith describes a double Plough the one affixed to the side Double Plough English Improver of the other that by the help of four Horses and two Men you may Plough a double portion of Land the one Furrow by the side of the other This he esteemeth not to be of any great advantage above the other plain Plough yet may be of good use on some Lands There is another sort of Double-Plough much exceeding the Another sort of Double-Plough other as Mr. Hartlib in his Legacy testifies of an Ingenious Young Man of Kent who had two Ploughs fastened together very finely by the which he ploughed two Furrows at once one under another and so stirred up the Land twelve or fourteen inches deep This is one of the best additions to the Plough if throughly prosecuted for most Land requires a deeper stirring than is ordinarily given it by the usual way of Ploughing as is evident by those Experiments that have been made in digging and setting of Corn. This way also comes near that of Digging and in some cases excels it because it only looseneth and lightneth the Land to that depth but doth not bury the upper-crust of the ground so deep as usually is done by Digging It is also much easier to Plough deep with this Double-Plough than with the single because it beareth not so great a burden but the one part thereof is discharged before the other is taken up Some have made a Plough with a Harrow affixed thereto others Other sorts of Ploughs have designed a Plough to Plough Sow and Harrow all at the same time But seeing they are of no great advantage to the Husbandman only invented to satisfie the minds of some Scrutinists I leave them Of all which several sorts of Ploughs there is great variation in the several parts of them some differ in length and shape of the Beam some in the Share others in the Coulter and in the Handles The differences are so many that no one Ploughman knoweth them all The Abuses Faults and Errours incident to the Plough are Errours of the Plough many some in the Workmen and Drivers who when they are wedded to an old Erronious Custom though never so evidently discovered will not recede from it or in the Plough it self as when it is made too big and cumbersome and disproportioned the one part too large or too little for the other and when it is rough and ill compassed in the Share when the Handles are too short or too upright the Irons dull And many other faults there
of Animals yielding a very rich Compost though of themselves through over-much heat and pinguidity sterile The Saline or more fixed Principle which is esteemed by most Where Salt abounds Authors the only thing conducing to Fertility yet is of its self or in an over-bounding quantity the most barren and unfruitful It is prescribed as a sure way to destroy Weeds Vegetables by watering the place with Brine or Salt-water yet what more fruitful being moderately commixed with other Materials of another nature than Salt But observe that Salts extracted out of the Earth or from Vegetables or Animals are much more Fertile than those of the Sea containing in them more of the Vegetative Power or Principles and are therefore much to be preferred Glauber makes it the highest improvement for the Land and for Continuatio Miraculi Mundi Trees also affirming that by it you may enrich the most barren Sands beyond what can be performed by any other Soils or Manures in case it be deprived of its Corrosive Qualities for then will it naturally attract the other Principles continually breathing out of the Earth and in the Air and immediately qualifie it self for Vegetation as I observed in a parcel of Field-Land of about three Acres denshired or burn-beaten in a very hot and dry Spring of it self naturally barren and after the burning and spreading the ashes wherein was the Fertile Salt deprived of its Corrosive sterile quality the Land was plowed very shallow and Barly sown therein about the beginning of May in the very ashes as it were no Rain falling from the very beginning of cutting the Turf yet in thirty and six hours was the Barley shot forth and the Ground coloured green therewith this Salt attracting and condensing the ever-breathing Spirit The like you may observe in Walls and Buildings where several sorts of Vegetables yea trees of a great bigness will thrive and prosper remote from the Earth and without any other nourishment than what that Fertile Salt attracts and condenses as before which it could not have done had it not been purged of its Corrosive and Sterile Nature by Fire when it was made into Lime For all Chymists know that no Salts more easily dissolve per deliquum than those that are most calcined The Salt also of the Sea is not without its Fertile Nature being ordered with Judgment and Discretion as we see evidently that the Salt Marshes out of which the Sea is drain'd excel in Fertility and many places being irrigated with the Sea-Water yield a notable increase Corn also therewith imbibed hath been much advanced as appeared in the President of the Country-man that casually let his Seed-Corn fall into the Salt-Water And in the Isle of Wight it is observed that Corn flourisheth on the very Rocks that are bedewed with the Salt-water by the Blasts of the Southern Winds The shells of fish being as it were only Salt coagulated have proved an excellent Manure for barren Lands after they have lain a competent time to dissolve From what hath been before observed we may conclude that Equal commixture of Principles the highest Fertility and Improvements are to be advanced and made from the most equal Commixture of the aforesaid several Principles or of such Waters Soils Dungs Salts Manures or Composts that more or less abound with either of them having regard unto the nature of such Vegetable whose propagation or advancement you intend Some delighting in a more Hot or Cold Moist or Dry Fat or Barren than others And next unto that from due Preservation Reception and right disposing and ordering of that Spiritus Mundi every where found and to be attained without Cost and as well by the poor as rich It continually breaths from the Earth as we noted before and is diffused in the Air and lost unless we place convenient Receptacles to receive it as by Planting of Trees and sowing of Pulses Grain or Seed Out of what think you should these things be formed or made Out of Rain-water is the common Answer or Opinion But we experimentally finde that this Vniversal Subject gives to every Plant its Essence or Substance although assisted by Rain or Water both in its nourishment and condensation We see how great a Tree is raised out of a small Plat of Ground by its sending forth of its Roots to receive its nourishment penetrating into the smallest Crannies and Joynts between the Stones and Rocks where it finds the greatest plenty of its proper food We constantly perceive and finde that Vegetables having once emitted their fibrous Roots vegetate and increase only from the assistance of this our Vniversal Subject when the Earth wherein it stands is of it self dry and not capable to yield that constant supply of Moisture the Plant daily requires Although we must confess that Rain or other Water accelerates its Growth having in it a Portion of that Spiritus Mundi also better qualifies the Earth for its perspiration That this Subject is the very Essence of Vegetables and that from it they receive their Substance and not from water only is evident in such places where Vegetables are not permitted to grow and where it cannot vapor away nor is exhaled by the Sun nor Air as Underbuildings Barns Stables Pigeon-houses c. where it condenses into Nitre or Salt-Petre the only fruitful Salt though improperly so called containing so equal and proportionable a quantity of the Principles of Nature wholly Volatile only condensed in defect of a due recipient not generated as some fondly conceive from any casual Moisture as Urine in Stables c. though augmented thereby but meerly from the Spiritus Mundi Lands resting from the Plough or Spade are much enriched only by the encrease of this Subject and ordinary way of Improvement Lands defended from the violent heat of the Sun and from the sweeping cleansing and exsiccating Air or Winds grow more Fertile not so much from the warmth it receives as from the preservation of that Fertile Subject from being wasted as we evidently see it to be in all open Champion Lands when part of the very same Species of Land being inclosed with tall and defensive Hedges or Planted with Woods are much more Fertile than the other yea we plainly perceive that under the Covert of a Bush Bough or such like any Vegetable will thrive and prosper better than on the naked Plain Where is there more barren dry and hungry Land than on the Plains and Waste Lands and yet but on the other side of the hedges Fertile either by Inclosure or Planted with Woods an evident and sufficient demonstration of the high Improvements that may be made by Inclosure only Also Land hath been found to be extraordinary Fertile under Stones Logs of Wood c. only by the condensation and preservation of that Vniversal Subject as appears by the flourishing Corn in the most stony Grounds where it hath been observed that the Stones taken away Corn hath not
Obstruction and hath been frequently complained of For the remedy whereof a Statute to compel the Minor party to submit to the Judgment and Vote of the Major and equally to capacitate all persons concerned for such an Enterprise would be very welcome to the Country-man wherein all particular Interests might be sufficiently provided for as well the Lord of the Soil as the Tenant and the poor It is a common thing to have very many great and large High-ways High-ways an Impediment ways over most of the Common Fields and Waste Grounds in England which prove a very great Check to the Designe of Enclosure and may most easily be reduced if a Statute may be obtained for that purpose which was not long since in agitation though not compleated than which as well for the Compulsion and Enabling of opposite and uncapacitated persons and providing for several Interests as for the Regulating and right Disposition of common and necessary Ways no Act or Statute can be of greater or more publique Advantage to the Kingdom in the more vulgar way or method of Husbandry There are several Common-fields Downs Heaths and Waste Trees not thriving an Impediment Lands that should they be enclosed it would be very difficult and in some places seem impossible to advance or propagate any quick Fences or considerable quantity of Trees as before is hinted at by reason of the great drought such Land is subject unto in the Summer and destructive cold Winds in the Winter and Spring To which we reply That after or according to the usual manner of Planting such Trees or Hedge-rows come to little because the young Cions they remove are commonly brought from a fertile warm or moist Soil into a cold barren or dry which must needs produce such an inconvenience Also they oftentimes plant Trees not naturally agreeing with the Soil they remove them into or else plant them deep into the barrenest part of the Earth or at least take little or no care to defend them when planted from the external Injuries of Drought Cold c. But if any are willing or intend to raise a Quick-fence or propagate Trees on such open Land subject to such Inconveniences the only way is to raise a sufficient quantity before-hand in a Nursery for that purpose of such Trees or Plants that naturally delight in that Land where you intend to plant them and then to place them in such order as you will finde hereafter described in the Chapter of Woods that the Roots be not below the best Soil and that they have a sufficient Bank to shelter them on the one side and an artificial dry Hedge on the other which may be continued till the quick Plants are advanced above common Injuries Or you may sowe the Seeds of such Trees you intend to propagate in Furrows made and filled with a good Earth and secured from Cattle either by a double Hedge or by ploughing the Land for several years and not feeding the same with Cattle till such time as the Trees are grown up which will soon repay the imaginary loss of the Herbage or Grasing especially if the young Cions be the first and second years of their growth a little sheltered from the sharp Winds by shattering a little Straw Brake or Hawm lightly over them which will also rot and prove a good Manure and qualifie the heat and drought of the Summer And when once you have advanced an indifferent Bank Hedge c. about your new Enclosures you may much more easily plant and multiply Rows and Walks of Timber Fruit and other necessary Trees the destructive edge of the cold Winds being abated by the Hedges c. We frequently have observed on several high and supposed barren Hills and Plains Woods and Trees flourish and in open Fields or Gardens within the shelter of those Woods Trees and other Plants prove as well as in the lower Valleys that it is enough to convince any rational person that by Enclosure only may most if not all the Open Champion Plam Waste and supposed barren Lands in England be highly improved and advanced to an equal degree of Fertility to the Enclosures next adjacent using the same good Husbandry to the one as to the other which can never be whilest it is in Common It is observed that of most sorts of Land by how much the Dividing Land into small parcels an Improvement smaller the Enclosure or Crofts are the greater yearly value they bear and the better burthen of Corn or Grass and more flourishing Trees they yield and the larger the Fields or Enclosures are the more they resemble the Common Fields or Plains and are most subject to the like inconveniencies We generally finde that a Farm divided into many Severals or Enclosures yields a greater Rent than if the same were in but few Too many Hedges and Banks in rich or watered Meadows waste Enclosing of watred Meadows not an Improvement much Land and injure the Grass by their shadow by dripping for that needs no shelter Grass abides any weather and in case the cold Spring keeps it back it fears not drought but hath water and heart sufficient to bring it forwards unless you plant such proving Aquatick Trees whose shrowds shall exceed in value the Grass they injure which may well be done in Rows and on the edges of the Banks c. and will amount unto a considerable Improvement if you select the right kinds That Wheat sown in Enclosures or any Land under the Winds Wheae in Enclosures subject to Mildew is subject to Mildew is a general opinion amongst Husbandmen And the only great Inconveniencie Enclosure is subject unto Mr. Hartlib saith is Mildew But this is only an injury to one sort Legacie of Grain Neither is it yet certain that Enclosure is the cause for we finde and observe that Wheat in the Fielden Country is subject to Mildews though not so frequent as in the Enclosure by reason that the Land is not so rich generally nor so moist as Enclosures are which in Summer-time emit a greater quantity of that Moist Spirit or Vniversal Matter of Vegetables whereof we discoursed before than the dry hungry open Field-Land doth which being coagulated in the Air falls in form of a Dew sometimes on the Oak and is then food for Bees sometimes on Hops and on Wheat whether high or low enclosed or open Nay sometimes on the one half of a Hop-garden or a Wheat-field and not on the other But Blasting hath commonly been mistaken for Mildew Wheat being subject also to it in the best and richest Lands in moist years whereof more in another place so that we cannot finde Enclosure only to be the cause of either Blasting or Mildew other than that it is the richest and best Land Also we may observe that in the Wood-lands or Countries where most Enclosure is there the Land yields the greatest burthen of Wheat as well as other Grain and more rarely
fails than in the Champion Country wet Summers being not so frequent as dry the Vales and Enclosures also being by far the greater Support of our English Granary than the Open Champion and the Hills which yields us 't is true the greater part of our Drink-corn delighting in the more hungry Soil and proves a good Supply in a wet Summer for the other CHAP. III. Of Meadow and Pasture Lands and the several ways of their Improvements either by watring or drowning or by sowing or propagating several sorts of extraordinary Grasses or Hays c. MEadow and Pasture Lands are of so considerable use and advantage to the Husbandman that they are by some preferred above Arable in respect of the advantage they bring annually into his Coffers with so little Toil Expence and Hazard far exceeding in value the Corn Lands and of principal use for the Encrease and Maintenance of his Gattle his better food and the chiefest strength he hath for the Tilling and Improving his other Lands Meadow and Pasture Lands are generally of two sorts Wet or Dry the Wet Meadows are such that the Water overflows or drowns at some times of the year under which term we shall comprehend all such Meadows or other Lands that are artificially watred or over-flown or that are under that capacity of Improvement The Dry Meadows or Pastures are such that are not over-flown or watered by any River or Stream under which we shall comprehend all such Inclosures or Severals that lie warm and in a fertile Soil yielding an annual burthen of Hay or Grass or that are capable of Improvement by sowing or propagating of new Grasses Hays c. or other ways of Improvement SECT I. Of the Watring of Meadows Of Wet Meadows or Land under that capacity of being over-flown or watred there are several sorts First Such Meadows that lie generally flat on the Banks of great Rivers and are subject to the over-flowing of such Rivers in times of Land-floods only Secondly Such Meadows that lie near to lesser River or Streams and are capable of being drowned or watered by diverting such River or some part thereof out of its natural Current over the same Thirdly Such Meadows or Lands that lie above the level of the Water and yet are capable of Improvement by raising the Water by some artificial ways or means over them All which sort of Meadows or Lands under those capacities are very much improved by the Water over-flowing them as every Country and place can sufficiently evidence and testifie Humida Majores herbas alit Virgil. Neither is there scarcely any Kingdom or Country in the World where this is not esteemed an excellent Improvement How could Egypt subsist unless Nilus did annually Fertilize its Banks by its Inundation Several other Potent and wealthy Countries there are in those African and Asian Territories whose richest and most Fertile Lands are maintained in their Fertility by the Sediment of the over-flowing Waters Huc summis liquuntur rupibus Amnes Virgil. Felicemque trahunt limum But these are Natural yet are not some Countries without their Artificial ways of advancing this ponderous Element to a very considerable Improvement as Persia Italy c. abound with most ingenious ways for the raising of the water as well for their Meadows as other necessary uses On the Banks and Borders of our great Rivers and Currents are Of Meadows watred by Floods the most and richest Meadows consisting generally of a very good fat Soil as it were composed of the very Sediment of the Water overflowing the same after great and hasty Rains such Meadows are capable of very little Improvement especially those that border on the greater Rivers as Thames Severn Trent Ouse c. uncapable of obstruction at the pleasure of the Husbandman Yet where such Meadows lying on the borders of great Rivers are of a dry and hungry Soil and not frequently overflowed by Land-floods may Artificial Works be made use of for the raising the water over the same to a very considerable advantage whereof more hereafter in this Chapter Other Meadows there are and those the most general in England Of Meadows watered by diversion of Rivers c. that border on the lesser Rivers Streams c. and in many places are overflown or drowned by diverting the Water out of its natural and usual Current over them This is of late become one of the most universal and advantageous Improvements in England within these few years and yet not comparable to what it might be advanced unto in case these several Obstructions were removed that impede this most noble and profitable Improvement First The several Interests that are in Lands bordering on Rivers Hinderances to drowning hinder very much this Improvement because the Water cannot be brought over several quantities of Land under this capacity but through the Lands of ignorant and cross Neighbours who will not consent thereunto although for their own advantage also under unreasonable terms and some will not at all others are not by the Law capacitated for such consent as we noted before concerning Enclosures Secondly That great and pernicious impediment to this Improvement Mills standing on so many fruitful Streams prohibiting the Laborious and Ingenious Husbandman to receive the benefit and advantage of such Streams and Rivers carrying in their bowels so much Wealth into the Ocean when the Mills themselves yield not a tenth of the profit to the Owners that they hinder to their Neighbours and their work may as well be performed by the Wind as by the Water or at least the Water improved to a better advantage by facilitating the Motion of the Mill whereof more hereafter Thirdly Another grand Impediment is the Ignorance of the Countrey-men who in many places are not capable of apprehending neither the Improvement nor the cause thereof But because some certain Neighbours of theirs had their Land overflown a long time and was little the better therefore will they not undergo that charge to so little purpose or because they are commonly possessed with a foolish opinion that the Water leaves all its fatness on the Ground it flows over and therefore will not advantage the next which is most untrue for I have seen Meadows successively drowned with the same Water to almost an equal Improvement for many miles together It is true the Water leaves its fatness it hath washed from the Hills and High-ways in the time of great Rains but we finde by daily experience that Meadows are fertilized by overflowing as well in frosty clear and dry weather as in rainy and that to a very considerable Improvement And also by the most clear and transparent Streams are improved ordinary Lands that they become most fertile Meadows Fourthly From a greedy and covetous Principle they suffer the Grass to stand so long on the watered Meadows that it is much discoloured and grown so hawmy and neither so toothsom nor wholesome as that on unwatered Meadows
the Land whereon it hath stood for many years and not barrennizeth it as it usual with Annual Seeds You may break it up and sowe it with Corn till it be out of heart and then sowe it with St. Foyn as formerly it will thrive on dry and barren Grounds where hardly any thing else will the roots being great and deep are not so soon dried by the parching heat of the Sun as of other Grasses they are It must be sowen in far greater quantity than the Clover-seed Quantity of Seed on an Acre and manner of sowing of it because the Seed is much larger and lighter It may be sowen with Oats or Barley as the Clover about equal parts with the Grain you sowe it will serve always remembring you sowe your Grain but thin Be sure you make your Ground fine for this and other French Seeds as you usually do for Barley Fear not the sowing of the Seeds too thick for being thick they sooner stock the Ground and destroy all other Grasses and Weeds Some advise to howe these Seeds in like Pease in Ranges though not so far distant the better to destroy the Weeds between it this will bear this way of husbandry better than the Clover because that hath but a small Root and requires to shadow the Ground more than this Feed it not the first year because the sweetness thereof will provoke the Cattle to bite too near the Ground very much to the injury of your St. Foyn but you may mow it with your Barley or Oats or if sown by it self the first year Of La Lucerne In the next place this Plant La Lucerne is commended for an excellent Fodder and by some preferred before St. Foyn as being What Ground it requires very advantageous to dry and barren Grounds It is managed like the former Seeds Some write that it requires a moist Ground and rich others a dry so that we may conclude it hath proved well on all The Land must be well dressed and three times fallowed The time for sowing it is after the cold weather be over about Time and manner of sowing of it the middle of April some Oats may be sowen therewith but in a small proportion the Seed is very small therefore the sixth part of it is allotted to an Acre as is required of any other Grain one Bushel thereof going as far as six of Corn It may be mowen twice a year and fed all the Winter the Hay must be well dried and housed for it is otherwise bad to keep It is good It s use for all kinde of Cattle but above all it agreeth best with Horses it feedeth much more than ordinary Hay that lean Beasts are suddenly fat with it it causeth abundance of Milk in Milch-beasts It must be given at the first with caution as before we directed concerning the Clover that is mixed with Straw or Hay You may also feed all sorts of Cattel with it green all the Summer It is best to mow it but once a year it will last ten or twelve years If you desire the Seed when it is ripe cut off the tops in a dewy morning and put into sheets for fear of losing the Seed and when they are dry thrash them thereon the remaining Stalks may be mowen for Hay By eating this Grass in the Spring Horses are purged and made fat in eight or ten days time One Acre will keep three Horses all the year long Hartlibs Legacie SECT V. Of some other Grasses or Hays This is a kinde of St. Foyn and by some judged to be the same Esparcet This is a Grain annually sowen in France and other Countries La Rome yn or French Tares or Vetches very quick of growth and excellent food for Cattle especially for Horses and after the feeding of it the former part of the Summer it may be let grow for Hay It is not so good as La Lucerne because this is annual the other of long continuance only this will grow on drier and poorer Land than Lucerne wherein it exceeds it In the Low-Countries they usually sowe it twice in a Summer the Spurrey-seed first in May in June and July it wil be in Flower and in August the Seed is usually ripe The second time of sowing is after Rye-harvest which Grounds they usually plough up and sowe it with Spurrey-seed that it may grow up and serve their Kine after all late Grasses be eaten up till New-years-day This Pasture makes excellent Butter preferred by many before May-butter Hens will greedily eat the Herb and it makes them lay the more Eggs. Hartlibs Legacie Hop Clover Trefoyl or Three-leaved Grass is both finer and sweeter Trefoyl than the great Clover-grass it will grow in any Ground it may be sown with Corn as before or without or being sprinkled in Meadows will exceedingly mend the Hay both in burthen and goodness At Maddington in Wiltshire about nine miles from Salisbury Long Grass in Wiltshire grows a Grass in a small Plat of Meadow-ground which Grass in some years grows to a prodigious length sometimes twenty four foot long but not in height as is usually reported but creeping on the ground or at least touching the ground at several of the knots of the Grass It is extraordinary sweet and not so easily propagated as hath been imagined the length thereof being occasioned by the washing of a declining Sheep-down that the Rain in a hasty shower brings with it much of the fatness of the Sheep-dung over the Meadow so that in such Springs that are not subject to such showers or at least from some certain Coasts this Grass thriveth not so well the Ground being then no better than another This Herb so little esteemed because not far fetched is an Saxifrage excellent and proper Herb to be nourished or sown in Meadows for amongst all House-wives it is held for an infallible Rule That where Saxifrage grows there you shall never have ill Cheese or Butter especially Cheese whence it cometh that the Netherlands abound much in that Commodity and only as is supposed through the plenty of that Herb. These and many other most rare and excellent Plants there are which if they were advanced or propagated that they might openly manifest their worth might be of much more advantage to the Laborious Husbandmen than the short sowre and naturally wilde and barren Grass mixed with a super-aboundant proportion of pernicious Weeds Therefore it would be very acceptable service to the whole Nation if those that have Land enough would yearly prove some small proportion of these and other Vegetables not yet brought into common use By which means they would not only advance their own Estates but the whole Nation in general and gain unto themselves an everlasting Fame and Honor as did the Families of Piso Fabius Lentulus and Cicero by bringing into use the several Pulses now called by their Names CHAP. IV. Of Arable Land and
Tillage and of the several Grains Pulses c. usually propagated by the Plough IN greatest esteem and most worthy of our Care is the Arable Land yielding unto the Laborious Husbandman the most necessary Sustentation this Life requires but not without industry and toil The Plough being the most happy Instrument that ever was discovered the Inventor of the use whereof was by the Heathens celebrated as a Goddess Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram Virgil. Instituit But the Plough it self Triptolemus is said to have invented Pliny This Art was always in esteem as before in the Preface we have shewn and from this part thereof being the most principal doth it take its Name of Agriculture from the Tilling of the Land with the Plough or with the Spade the more ancient Instrument though not more necessary and beneficial And since its first Invention hath there been many several Improvements made of it for the more facile and commodious use thereof and every day almost and in every place doth the ingenious Husbandman endeavour to excel the slothful in this most necessary Art that from a burthensom and toilsom labour it is in some places become but a pleasing and profitable Exercise and it 's hoped that by those Presidents and Examples the more Vulgar will be provoked to a more universal use of that which is best and most advantageous to themselves as well as the publike More of this Instrument see hereafter in this Treatise SECT I. What Lands are improved by Tillage Non omnis fert omnia tellus Every sort of Land almost requires a different Husbandry some Grounds producing plenty of that which on another will not grow This is none of the meanest part of the Husbandmans skill to understand what is most proper to be propagated on each sort of Land the strong and stiff ground receiving the greatest Improvement from the Plough and the mellow warm and light from other Plantations of Fruits c. Densa magis Cereri rarissima quaeque Lyaeo Virgil. Although the best warmest and lightest Land yields most excellent Corn yet the other sorts of Lands yield not so good Fruits Plants Grass Hay c. also necessary for the Husbandman therefore our principal designe must be to appropriate each sort to that Method of Husbandry most natural unto it that where the nature of the Land differs which it usually doth in the same Parish and many times in one and the same Farm and sometimes in the same Field that there may be used a different way We have before discoursed of what Lands are fittest for Meadows and Pastures and now shall give you those Directions I finde to know what is most proper for the Plough The strong and stiff as we said before and also the cold and moist and that which lies obvious to the extremities of cold or heat as is most of the Champion or Field-land for there may be sown such Seeds that naturally affect such places until they are reduced and better qualified by Enclosure the first and main principle of Improvement Also mossie and rusty Grounds are much improved by ploughing and Grounds subject to pernicious Weeds may be much advantaged by destroying the Weeds and propagating good Corn or other Tillage in the room thereof All clay stiff cold and moist Grounds are generally thrice The manner of ploughing or husbanding each sort Clay stiff cold and moist ploughed in the Spring Summer and at Seed-time for Wheat and four times for Barley if it be the first Grain sown after long resting which in most places is not usual These several Ploughings or Fallowings are very advantageous to Ground in several respects 1. It layeth the Ground by degrees in Ridges in such order as the nature thereof requireth for the more in number and the higher the Ridges the better they are for Wheat which naturally delighteth in a moist Ground so that it be laid dry that is not subject to be drowned or over-glutted with water in moists years And this Method of laying the Ridges much prevents the blasting of Wheat for Wheat is easily overcharged with Water either in Winter or Summer 2. This often stirring the Land makes it light and fitter for the Seed to take root therein the Clods being apt to dissolve by being exposed to the weather and often broken by the Plough 3. It kills the weeds which in strong Lands are apt to over-run the Corn. 4. It fertilizeth Land The Sun and the Sull are some Husbandmens Soil Virgil also seems to hint as much where he saith Pingue solum primis exemplo à mensibus Anni Fortes invertant Tauri glebasque jacentes Pulverulenta coquat maturis solibus aestas 5. It defends the Corn much from the extremities of Weather especially cold Winds for the more uneven any Piece of Land is the better it bears the extremities of the Winter for which reason in the open Champion where the Land is dry and they do not lay up their Ridges as in other places yet they harrow it but little and leave it as rough as they can for no other cause but to break the fleeting Winds The Gardiners near London now seem to imitate this practise by laying their Gardens in Ridges not only the better to shelter their Seeds from the cold Winds but also to give it an advantage of the Sun as I my self proved it many years since that Pease sown on the South-side of small Beds so raised that they seemed to respond the Elevation of the Pole prospered well and passed the Winter better and were much earlier in the Spring than those otherwise planted But in case you intend to sowe Barley first therein after the third Fallowing it must lie over the Winter that the Frosts may the better temper it for the Seed-time when it is to be ploughed again If for Pease or Beans once Fallowing before Winter serves the turn If it hath a good Sward or Turf on it I rather advise you to denshire or burn it the Summer before you sowe it this is the more expeditious and advantageous way it spends the Acid moisture an enemy to Vegetation it kills the weeds and brings the Land quickly to a fine light temper Other sorts of Land improveable by the Plough are very good Rich and mellow Land rich mixed Land and of a black mould Nigra fere pinguis Virgil. Optima frumentis Or of any other colour that hath lain long for Pasture till it be over-grown with Moss Weeds or such-like which will as soon grow on rich Lands as poor To these Lands Ploughing is not only a Medicine or Cure but raiseth an immediate Advantage and much benefiteth the Land for the future in case you take but a Crop or two at a time and lay it down for Pasture again well soyled or else sown with some of the New Grasses or Hays before named but if not yet only by soyling it the year before you lay
it down it may yield a very good Grass after the Corn is carried off and soon come to a Sward The Land is to be laid in height according as it is inclinable to Moisture or Drought New broken Ground if it be sowen with Pease the first year saves one ploughing and a good part of the Herbage the Summer before it also destroys the Weeds and better prepares the Land for any other Grain In every part of England there is much Waste Land and other Poor and barren Land old Pastures that bears the name of Barren Land although for the most part by good Husbandry it may be reduced into Tillage and become very fruitful and advantageous to the Husbandman in particular and Commonwealth in general As is evident in many particular parcels lately Enclosed and taken out of the supposed barren Heaths and Commons that are now fruitful Fields therefore before any thing considerable can be effected to the Improvement and right Ordering of these sorts of Land the Designe of Enclosure ought to be seriously prosecuted but for such that are already Enclosed and yet remain barren and unfruitful it is a manifest signe of the ill management of the Proprietors or that the Tenant in possession hath but a short time or that he is obliged not to alter the nature and order of the Ground or which is too common that the present charge of good Husbandry exceeds an ill Husbands Store His poor and beggarly Farm hath wasted what he hath and he has no more to try new Conclusions withal And in this condition is abundance of Land in this Kingdom barren Land poor Cattle and bad Corn do insensibly as it were devour us because once in five or seven years in a very wet Summer or such-like when the rich Vales suffer these barren Lands yield a considerable Advantage which as a Lottery encourages us to beggery The best and speediest way to reduce these Lands that have long lain untilled and that have a Sward either of sowre Grass or of Rushes Weeds or such-like or of heathy Goss Fern or Broom by which means they have contracted an evil Juice injurious to Vegetation and withal a fertile Terrestrial Salt the best way I say to improve and reduce these Lands into Tillage is to burn boot or denshire them as is hereafter shewn which way is used on the barrennest and poorest Lands in England or Wales where before hardly any thing would grow now will grow as good Wheat or other Grain as on the best Land you have Many Presidents hereof there are in several places of England where in two or three years by this only means the Husbandman gains as much above all expence as the purchase of the Land was worth before Observe only this Caution That you be not too greedy to sowe it so often till you have drawn out the heart of the Land which then it will easily yield that it must lie rested many years to gain a Sward again Nor that you expend the Soil made of the Straw on other Lands which ill Husbandry is generally used that it brings an ill name on this part of Improvement which if well soyled and laid for Pasture after two Crops will yield a very good Grass as I have seen experienced or else may be sowen with new Hays or Grasses SECT II. Of Digging of Land for Corn. The Spade seems to contend with the Plough for Antiquity and it is the common Opinion that it was in use before it the Spade being the more plain and simple Instrument and withal the laborious The Plough seeming to be an Invention for expedition ease and advantage to which generally all New Inventions should tend but that now at last the Spade should supplant the Plough I see no reason for as the one is necessary and useful for the better propagating of Plants that take deep root so is the other as necessary and profitable for such that root more shallow as Corn and Pulse usually do Other differences seem to be in the loosening and tempering the ground for the Seeds the better to extend and spread their Roots and for the better burying and destroying the Weeds These seem to be of greater Importance than the depth only but all these by a Judicious and Industrious Husbandman are remedied and performed by the Plough as well as by the Spade for if the depth of the mould will bear it or the nature of the Seed you sowe requires it a Double Plough the one succeeding Deep ploughing as good as digging the other in depth may be made or the labour may be performed by two Ploughs the one following the other in the same Furrow but if a Plough be Artificially made and set to work deep although yon plough the less in a day it will stir the Land deep enough for any of our usual Grain or Pulse And as for breaking or tempering the Land and destroying the Weeds ploughing and cross ploughing at several seasons will do more and at less expence than once digging can do And if you please you may draw over the same before your last ploughing a large kinde of Harrow very heavy or with a sufficient weight on it which in some places is usually called Dragging This extremity is only necessary in some sorts of stiff Land other lighter is much more easily managed Mr. Platt in his Adams Tool Revived or His New Art of Setting Corn where he so much contends for the Spade gives this instance of the Plough That a parcel of Land first cross ploughed with a deep-cutting Plough and then ploughed over the third time with a shallow Plough that made very close and narrow Furrows then was the Seed sown by a skilful Sower and then harrowed over yielded fifteen quarters on each Acre so Tilled and Sown I presume if this Relation may upon experience prove true that none will be so much conceited of a Novelty as to desert this Method of Agriculture for that tedious and costly way of the Spade But in case it doth not Annually amount unto such a prodigious increase as this President yet doth it plainly evidence that good Culture doth infinitely meliorate the Land and advance the Crop and manifoldly repay the expence and labour bestowed thereon which is the most you can expect of the Spade SECT III. Of the different Species of Grain Corn Pulse c. usually sown or necessary to be propagated in our Country-Farm There is not any Grain more universally useful and necessary Wheat than Wheat whereof there are several sorts some more agreeable and better thriving on some sort of Land than on other that it conduceth much to the Husbandmans advantage rightly to understand the natural temper of his Land and what Species of Grain and particular sort of such Grain best agreeth with the nature of his Land As some sorts of Land bear Pulses better than Corn and some bear Barley better than Wheat and some sorts of Wheat
it up in bundles in Bonds of a yard compass the Statute-measure you must stack it up or house it till you thrash out the Seed An Acre of Hemp may be worth unwrought from five to eight pound Value of Hemp. if wrought up to ten or twelve pound or more and is a very great succour to the poor the Hempen Harvest coming after other Harvests And then in the bad wet and Winter-seasons it affords continual employment to such also that are not capable of better But for the Method and right way of Watering Pilling Breaking Tewtawing c. I shall leave you to such that are experienced therein finding no certain Rules left us by our Rustick Authors This is also a very excellent Commodity and the Tilling and Flax. Ordering thereof a very good piece of Husbandry it will thrive in any good sound Land be it in what Country soever but that is best that hath layen long unploughed the best Land yields the best Flax and raises the greatest Improvement The Land must be well ploughed and laid flat and even and the Seed sown in a warm season about the middle or end of March or at farthest in the beginning of April If it should come a wet season it would require weeding The best Seed is that which comes from the East Countrey although Best Seed it cost dear yet it will easily repay the Charge and will last indifferent well two or three Crops then it 's best to renew it again Of the best Seed two Bushels may serve on an Acre but more of our English Seed because it groweth smaller You must be sure to sowe it on good Land because it robs the ground much and burneth it as anciently it was observed by Virgil Vrit enim lini Campum Seges but it liberally repayeth it You must be careful that it grow not till it be over-ripe nor to gather it before it be ripe the ripeness is best known by the Seed at the time let the Pluckers be nimble and tie it up in handfulls and set them up until they be perfectly dry and then house it An Acre of good Flax on the Ground may be worth if it be of Value of Flax the best Seed from seven to twelve pound yea far more but if it be wrought up fit to sell in the Market it may come to fifteen or twenty pound As for the Watering Drying Breaking and Tewtawing as we said before of Hemp we must refer to those that are better experienced therein SECT V. Of Woad c. This is a very rich Commodity and worthy to be taken notice of by the Husbandman it requires a very rich Land sound and warm saith Mr. Blith But I have seen it usually planted upon an ordinary Ground but warm and light and in good heart having long rested and but new broken up it robs Land much being long continued upon it yet moderately used it prepares Land for Corn abating the overmuch Fertility thereof and draws a different Juyce for what the Corn requires the Land must be finely ploughed and harrowed for this Seed whereof about four Bushels will sowe an Acre it must be finely harrowed and all Clots Stones Turfs c. picked away and laid on heaps as is usual in Woad-Lands then it is to be continually weeded till the Leaves cover the Ground and when the Leaves are grown fair and large then set to cutting and so throughout the Summer that you may have five or six Crops and sometimes but three in one year of Woad what grows in Winter Sheep will eat The time for sowing of Woad is in the middle and end of March. When it is cut it must be immediately carried to the Mill. The manner whereof with the right ordering of Woad and of all other necessary circumstances relating thereto is best learned of an experienced Workman which is easily obtained To take it in the very season is a fundamental Piece which is To know when it is full ripe when the Leaf is come to its full growth and retains its perfect colour and lively greenness then speedily cut it that it fade not nor wax pale before you have cut your Crop The two first Crops are the best which are usually mixed together in the seasoning the later Crops are much worse which if either are mixed with the former they mar the whole It is a Staple Commodity for the Dyers Trade and is very advantageous Profit of Woad to the Husbandman it more than doubleth the Rent of his Land sometimes it quadruples it it hath been sold from 6 l. to 30 l. the Tun. The planting and propagating whereof is esteemed another excellent Rape and Cole-Seed piece of Husbandry and Improvement for Land and more especially on Marsh-Land Fen-Land or newly recovered Sea-lands or any Land rank and fat whether Arable or Pasture The Cole-Seed is esteemed the best the biggest and fairest also that you can get let it be dry and of a clear colour like the best Onyon-Seed it is usually brought from Holland It is to be sown at or about Mid-summer you must have your Land ploughed very well and laid even and fine and then sowe it about a Gallon will sowe an Acre the Seed must be mixed with some other matter as before we directed about Clover-Grass Seed for the more even dispersing thereof When the one half of the Seed begins to look brown it 's time to reap it which must be done as you usually do Wheat and lay it two or three handfuls together till it be dry and that through-dry too which will be near a fortnight ere it be dry enough it must not be turned nor touched if it be possible lest you shed the Seed it must be gathered on Sheets or large Sayl-clothes and so carried into the Barn or Floor very large to be immediately thrashed out The main Benefit is in the Seed If it be good it will bear five Profit thereof quarters on an Acre and is worth usually four shillings the Bushel sometimes more and sometimes less the greater your parcel is the better price you will have It is used to make Oyl thereof it thrives best on moist Land it cannot be too rank it fits the Land for Corn c. Thus far hath Mr. Blith delivered little else is written of this Seed therefore we leave it to the more experienced persons Although this be a Plant usually nourisht in Gardens and be Turneps properly a Garden-Plant yet it is to the very great Advantage of the Husbandman sown in his Fields in several forein places and also in some parts of England not only for Culinary uses as about London and other great Towns and Cities but also for Food for Cattle as Cows Swine c. They delight in a warm mellow and light Land rather sandy than otherwise not coveting a rich Mould The Ground must be finely ploughed and harrowed and then the Seed sown and raked in with
This challengeth the Priority not only of the Dung of Fowl Of Pigeons-dung but of all other Creatures whatsoever Pigeons or Hens-dung is incomparable one Load is worth ten Load of other Dung and therefore it 's usually sown on Wheat or Barly that lieth afar off and not easily to be helped it 's extraordinary likewise on a Hop-garden A Load of Pigeons-dung is more worth than twenty shillings in many parts a very excellent Soil for a cold moist-natured Land I have caused it to be sown by hand after the Grain is sown and in the same manner and then harrowed in with the Grain and received a very great increase on poor Land I have known saith Platt a Load of Pigeons-dung fetched sixteen miles and a Load of Coals given for it which in the Soil where it was fetched would have done more hurt than good for the Manuring of Land yet where it was carried it did as much good for the fertilizing of Land as double the charges In the one Soil it cured the barrenness and in the other it poysoned the fertility This Dung is of less esteem because it is not obtained at so easie Hen-dung a rate and where it is it 's generally little set by because our Fore-fathers did not make any great matter of it and because they understand not the strength and power of it for when they take it out of the houses it 's of a very hot nature and must needs injure some things if laid thereon but if it be mixed well with common Earth Sand or such-like and let lie till it rot well together you will finde it a very rich Manure and of value to answer a great part of your Poultreys expence I have known a Quince-tree whereon Poultrey always pearched that by reason of the Rain washing to its Roots the salt and fatness of the Dung did bear yearly an incredible number of very excellent Quinces This hath been held by the Antients to be most hurtful and unprofitable Of Goose-dung Markham to any Grounds They say that to good Grass they are a great enemy for their Dung and treading will putrifie it and make it worse than barren I have it from a credible hand that Goose-dung is very advantageous to Corn it being discovered by a flock of Geese daily passing over-thwart a Field of Wheat making as it were a Lane over the same in the Winter-time and had nibbled the Wheat clean from the Ground and dunged it where they went in which passage the next year proved to be very gallant Wheat far exceeding any other part of the Field Like unto that I have heard that a Flock of Wild-geese had pitched upon a parcel of green Wheat and had eaten it up clean and sat thereon and dung'd it several nights that the Owner despaired of having any Crop that year but the contrary happened for he had a far richer Stock of Wheat there than any of his Neighbours had in the Land adjoyning to the admiration of all Which demonstrateth that this Dung is of a very hot and fiery nature which occasioneth that barrenness falsly suggested to be in it and being laid abroad thin in the Winter-time proves a very rich Manure and therefore to be esteemed of and being mixed with cooling Earths and let putrifie some time may prove very much for your benefit therefore neglect it not but make several trials the Advantage will be your own The same may be said of the Dung of any other Water-fowl Although that Urines are esteemed to be of a destructive and Of Urines Explicatio Miraculi Mundi p. 50. mortifying nature to Vegetables as Glauber affirms by reason of its Salarmoniacal and burning Spirit that is therein as is evident to our Senses upon the casting of new Urine on Nettles or other Vegetables it soon destroyeth them But it is with this as with many other moist things subject to putrefaction time will digest it and alter the nature and property thereof as it doth Wine or Beer into Vineger so it will of this fiery matter produce an excellent Soil as many have had the experience of Mr. Hartlib testifieth that in Holland they as carefully preserve the Cows Urine as the Dung to enrich their Land Columella in his Book of Husbandry saith That old Vrine is excellent for the Roots of Trees I know a woman saith Mr. Hartlib who lived five miles South of Canterbury who saved in a Pail all the Urine and when the Pail was full sprinkled it on her Meadow which caused the Grass at first to look yellow but after a little time it grew wonderfully Another also saith That Mans Urine is of great worth and will English Improver fatten Land more than you are aware of and it were not ill Husbandry to take all opportunities to preserve it for Land and so of all other Urines after the Dutch manner Humane Ordure ought not here to be omitted as a rich Soil if the Husbandman would be so careful as to place his House of Office that he may once in two or three days add some mixture of Earth Straw Stubble or such-like to reduce it into a necessary Substance portable into his Lands or Grounds remote from his Dwelling where after it hath lain some convenient time in a heap to putrifie together and then thinly dispersed proves an unexpected Advantage SECT V. Of several other Soyls or Manures Ashes contain in them very much of a rich and fertile Salt as Ashes before we noted and therefore not so much to be slighted and neglected as they are be they of what kinde or nature soever Virgil. Ne pudet Effoetos Cinerem immundum jactare per agros The Wood-ashes are the best and very useful yet after they have been used in the Bucking of Clothes they are worth little unless it be in cold and moist Land where I have known them also to avail much Sea-coal ashes with Horse-dung make an excellent Compost for divers uses Turf and Peat-ashes must needs be very rich being much after the same manner as the Burning of Land which most know to be a very great Improvement and whereof we have already treated Ashes are a great Curer of Moss and Rushes in most Grounds The Ashes of any sort of Vegetables are very profitable as divers places in England can testifie by experience who consume their Fearn Stubble Straw Heath Furs Sedge Bean-stalks and the very Sward and Swarth of their Ground to ashes and these according to the store of Salt which their Ashes do contain do either for a longer or shorter time enrich their barren Grounds Mr. Platt highly commends Soap-ashes after the Soap-boylers have made what use of them they please to be a very great enriching to Land and gives you an instance of a Stalk and Ear of Barley of an Ell and three Inches in length that grew on barren Land enriched with Soap-ashes he also saith he found the like success in Pasture-ground In
the ground and that slopewise Manner trimming up such as you spare for Standards as you go from their extravagant Branches Water-boughs c. that hinder the growth of others After the Felling and removing of the Wood shut up all the Gaps about the Copse having received a sufficient Hedge about the same before the Spring and so keep it fenced and defended from Cattle till it be above their reach then about July may you put in your Beasts to spend the Herbage in such well-grown Copses If your Copses have been neglected so that they have been browsed by Cattle and kept under that they are not apt to thrive the best way is at felling-time to new cut them and preserve them better from Cattle and they will soon be reduced to a better state than before and thrive beyond expectation When your Timber-Trees are arrived to their perfect age full Felling of Timber-trees growth or best state for at such a time it cannot be esteemed ill-husbandry to take them away so that you be careful to preserve others in their stead though not in their places or that you are necessitated to fell them then consider which way and what time is best for your advantage The time of the year is to be considered of according to the Time occasions or uses you have for your Timber if it be for sale and that your present advantage only you seek then the best time to fell Oak is from mid-April to Mid-summer the Sap being then proud and the Bark easie to be taken off which will yield you a considerable price But all other Timber whilest the Sap is down in the Winter-season If you desire your Oaken Timber for your own proper occasions fell it in December or January when the Tree is clearest of Sap by which means the Timber will not be so much subject to the Worm neither will it cast rift or twine as it will if cut in the Summer It will also last longer in any Buildings and not be so apt to yield under a Burden for the great plenty of Sap mollifies the Timber and makes it rot and decay therefore the cutting of Trees at Barking-time doth very much injure our Timber debilitates our Edifices and expedites their approaching decay Fell not in the increase nor full of the Moon nor in Windy-weather at least in great Winds lest it throw the Tree before you are willing I have seen a good Tree much injured by falling too soon For the Felling of the greater sort of Timber-trees one of the Manner of felling great Trees first and most principal things is the skilful disbranching of the Boal of all such Arms and Limbs as may endanger it in the fall for many excellent Trees have been utterly spoiled for want only of this consideration In the greater Arms chop a nick under it close to the Boal and meet it with the down-right stroke it will be cut without splitting If you reserve the Roots in the Earth in expectation of a new encrease of Suckers then fell the Tree as near the Earth as you can for that is the best Timber But if you intend a total extirpation then grub the Tree which is more for your advantage some advise to Bark the Trees as they stand and the next season to fell them which I take to be worthy of your practise CHAP. VII Of Fruit-trees SECT I. Of the Profits and Pleasures of Fruit-trees THe planting of Fruit-trees is undoubtedly one of the greatest Improvements that can be made of the most part of our English Land as all who have written of Improvents do agree and Worcester-shire Hereford-shire Gloucester-shire Kent and many other particular places in this Land can sufficiently evidence the truth thereof 1. Because it is more universal than many other sorts of Improvements there being but little ground in England but one sort of Fruit or another will prosper upon it if judicially prosecuted The Charge of planting or raising most sort of Fruit-trees being so small and the pains so easie that the most slothful hath not any rational objection against it but the most common is that the poorer sort of people will rob and spoil the Plantations c. If you plant but a few this objection may have place but if you plant any considerable number it will be worth while to attend them at that season which is but short when they are pallatable or to plant such that are not very inviting and yet as profitable to the Planter as the most pleasant And when they become more common they will be little regarded by these Filchers or if they do borrow a few sometimes in their Pockets or to make a few Apple-pies withal yet that is a poor discouragement to an ingenuous Spirit and much like that Rusick Humor of one that would not improve a very good piece of ground for that purpose with Fruit-trees because the Parson would have the decimation of it and so denied himself the nine parts because the Parson should not have the Tenth which indeed is a grand Impediment to Improvement and it is to be wished that there were some more certain Modus in lieu of that troublesome way of Tything This way of Improving by planting of Fruit-trees is more practised within these few years than hath been in Ages before a sufficient Argument of the benefit the Country-man receives by it The Computation may be taken from the expence of the young Trees especially of Syder-fruit that our Nurseries have annually yielded throughout the greatest part of this Kingdom 2. The use of Fruits is also universal both for meat and drink That there cannot be an over-stocking of the Country with them especially of Syder-fruits This drink being more universally celebrated than any other as the most pleasant being of good Fruits and rightly prepared the most healthy and the most durable of any other and must necessarily bring a very considerable advantage to the whole Kingdom in general because a far greater quantity of Syder is usually produced out of an Acre of Land in one year than can be made of the Barly growing on an Acre and much less cost and trouble in the preparation so that if but a small part of every Farm were planted for Syder much of the barley-Barley-land might be converted to other uses which in the end would be a National Improvement and advantage It will also lessen that vast consumption we make of French-Wines which we drink to the enriching of a Foreiner the impoverishing of our selves and the great prejudice of our healths especially by the corroding Claret and stummed White-Wines when we have a thousand Testimonies that English Syder is to be preferred before any French-Wines and known to be more Homogeneal to our Natures Mr. Hartlib in his Legacie tells you of the benefits of Orchard-fruits that they afford curious Walks for pleasure food for Cattle in the Spring Summer and Winter meaning under their shadow Fewel for
destructive Frosts and also by covering whole Beds therewith preserves the Plants or Roots therein Also Straw Hawm Fern or suchlike dry Vagetable will defend any thing from the Frosts although the Litter be to be preferred But such things that are not to be touched or suppressed as Coleflower-plants Gilliflower-slips c. the placing of Sticks like some Booth or suchlike over them and covering them with a Mat or Canvas or suchlike doth very much defend them giving them Sun and Air in temperate days makes them the more hardy and preserves their colour Furze where it may conveniently be had is a very excellent shelter and defence against Cold being laid about Trees or over Plants of what kinde soever It breaks the violence of Winde and Frost beyond any thing else lying hollow of it self doth not that injury to Plants that other things do without support and proves many times better than a supported shelter Preserving them also from Rain unless as much as is sufficient to nourish them is a good prevention of Frosts for the Frost injureth no Plant so much as that which stands wet as I have often observed that Cyprus-trees and Rosemary standing on very dry ground have endured the greatest Frosts when others have perished by the same Frosts standing in moist ground although more in the shelter Also the most pernicious Frosts to Fruits succeed Rainy days a dry Frost rarely hurts Fruit. Gilliflowers and several other Flowers and Plants receive their greatest injury from wet which if kept dry endure severe colds the better Hot-Beds are much in use for the propagating of Seeds in the Spring c. which when they are covered prove secure remedies Conservatories wherein to remove your tender Plants in the Winter are a usual prevention of cold some whereof are made by some degrees warmer than others are suitable to the several natures of the Plants to be preserved But the compleatest Conservatories are large leaves of boards to open and shut at pleasure over your Orange or other Fruit-trees closely pruned against a Wall or Pale and planted either against your Chimney where you always keep a good fire or against some Stove made on purpose Aprecocks so planted against an ordinary wall with such doors must needs avail much in the Spring-time to defend the young and tender Fruit from the sharp Frosts and is a much more practicable and surer way than the bowing the branches into Tubs as some advise Others hang Cloaths or Mats over the Trees in frosty nights but these are troublesome It is evident that part of the same Tree being under some shelter from the Rain will bear plenty of Fruit when other part of the same Tree being open to the Rain bears but little in cold and destructive Springs though alike obvious to the cold and winde Therefore endeavour to preserve your tender Wall-fruits from the wet and you may the less fear the winde and cold To lay open the roots of Trees in the Spring to keep them backwards from springing is a very proper prevention against the Frosts in Apples Pears c. for we finde a forward Spring that excites the early Fruit too soon proves very injurious to it in case any Frosts succeed The freezing of water also proves sometime an injury to the Husbandman either by hindering his Cattle from drink or by destroying Fish that are confined in a small Pond so frozen To prevent the latter if you can let there be some constant fall of water into it though never so small which will always keep a vent open sufficient to preserve the Fish who can as ill live without Air as Terrestrial Creatures can without water Any constant motion prevents a total Congelation If you lay a good quantity of Pease-hawm in the water that part may lie above and part under the water it is observed that the water freezes not within the Hawm by reason of its close and warm lying together which will prevent the death of Fish as well as breaking of the Ice Fruit when it is gathered into the house is subject to be spoiled by Frosts therefore be careful to lay it in dry Rooms either seeled thatched or boarded for in frosty weather the condensed Air which is most in such Rooms adhering to the Fruit freezeth and destroyeth it which is usually prevented covering them with Straw c. but best of all by placing a Vessel of water near them which being of a colder nature than the Fruit attracts the moist Air to its self to the preservation of the Fruit even to admiration Great Rains prove injurious to such Lands that are of themselves Much Rain moist enough for the remedy whereof and to prevent such injuries see more in the next Section In such Lands that lie at the bottoms or foot of Hills where the great falls of Rain do annoy the Corn or Grass care is to be taken for the conveying away of the water by Channels or Passages made for that purpose In the time of Harvest the greatest Enemy the Husbandman usually finds is Rain against which the best remedy is Expedition To make Hay whilest the Sun shines It is a grand neglect that there are not some kinde of Artificial shelters made in Lands remote from our dwellings for the speedy conveyance of Corn into shelter in dripping Harvests and there to remain till fair Weather and leisure will admit of a more safe carriage Worthy of commendation is the practise used in Sommersetshire c. where they lay their Wheat-sheaves in very large shocks or heaps in the Fields and so place them that they will abide any wet for a long time when on the contrary in Wiltshire and other more Southernly Counties they leave all to the good or bad weather though far remote from Barns sometimes to their very great detriment so naturally slothful and ignorant are some people and naturally ingenious and industrious are other Where their Lands lie two or three miles from their Barns as in some places in Champion Countries they do the covered Reek-staval much in use Westward must needs prove of great advantage in wet or dry Harvests to save long draughts at so busie a time Where Lands lie at a far distance the one from the other several Barns built as the Land requireth are very convenient for the more speedy housing of the Corn for the better preserving of it the more easie thrashing it out the more convenient fothering of the Cattle with the Straw and for the cheaper disposing of the soil for the improvement of the Land where on the contrary one great Barn cannot lie near to every part of a large Farm nor can Corn be so well preserved in it nor with so much advantage disposed into Mows nor thrashed nor the fother nor soil so easily dispersed High-winds prove very pernicious and injurious to the Husbandman High Winds in several respects to his Buildings Fruits Trees Hops Corn c. as many in the
Trees A Shard Vide Gap A Shed a place erected and covered over for shelter for Cattle or any other use against a wall or other Edifice To Sheer is used in the Northern parts for to Reap Shock Several sheaves of Corn set together A Shrape or Scrape a place baited with Chaff or Corn to intice Birds To Shroud To cut off the head-branches of a Tree A Sickle a toothed Reap-hook A Site or Scite a principal Mannour or Farm-house A Skepe or Scuttle a flat and broad Basket made to carry Corn withal A Skreyn is an Instrument made of Wire on a Frame for the dividing of Corn from Dust Cockle Ray c. Also it is usually made of Lath for the skreining of Earth Sand Gravel c. Slab The out-side sappy Plank or Board sawn off from the sides of Timber A Sled a thing without Wheels whereon to lay a Plough or other ponderous thing to be drawn A Sluce a Vent or Drain for water Sneed or Snead The handle of a Sythe or suchlike Tool Souse The Offal of Swine Soutage Course Cloth or bagging for Hops or suchlike A Spade or Spitter wherewith they dig or delve Also a Cutting-Spade wherewith they cut Hay or Corn-Mowes Stack of Corn. See Reek Staddles Standils or Standards Trees reserved at the felling of Woods for growth for Timber Stail The handle of a Tool Stale a living Fowl put in any place to allure other Fowl where they may be taken Stercoration Dunging Sterile Barren Stover Straw A Strike of Flax so much as is heckled at one handful Also it signifies an Instrument wherewith they strike Corn in the measuring Also it is used in the Northern parts for a Measure containing about a Bushel Structures Buildings A Sturk a young Beeve or Heifer A Sty a place for fatting or keeping Swine Succulation a Pruning of Trees Succulent Juicy A Sull a term used for a Plough in the Western parts A Sull-paddle a small Spade-staff or Instrument to cleanse the Plough from the clogging Earth To Summer-stir To fallow Land in the Summer A Sussingle a large Girt that Carriers use to binde or fasten their Packs withal Sward Ground is said to have a Sward or to be swarded when it is well grown or Coated over with Grass or other Vegetables Swath or Swarth Grass Corn or suchlike as it is laid by the Mower from the Sythe Swill Used in the Northern parts for shade or shadow To Swingle Flax a term used by Flax-dressers A Swine-herd a Keeper of Swine A Sythe wherewith they Mow Grass or Corn. T TAre of Flax the finest drest part thereof ready for the Spinner Tares A sort of Grain To Ted To turn or spread new-mown Grass A Teem or Team A certain number of Horses or other Beasts for the Draught Terrasse a Walk on a Bank or Bulwark Tet The Cows Dug by some is called the Tet. A Thrave of Corn contains four Shocks each Shock consisting of six Sheaves A Tike a small Bullock or Heifer Tills Lentils a sort of Pulse Tylth Soyl or other improvement of Land The Tine or Grain of a Fork Tits Small Cattle A Trendle a flat Vessel by some called a Kiver A Trough a Vessel to hold water c. to feed Cattle in c. or for the beating of Apples for Cider or the like A Trundle a thing made and set on low Wheels to draw heavy burdens on A Trunchion a piece of Wood cut short like a Quarter-staff A Tumbrel a Dung-cart V AVat a Vessel to contain Beer Ale Cider or any other Liquor in its preparation Vallor or Vallow or Vate a Concave-Mold wherein a Cheese is pressed Vindemiation The gathering of Grapes or reaping the Fruit of any thing as of Cherries Apples Bees c. To Vindemiate To gather the same Fruits Vinous Winy Vnderwood Coppice or any other Wood that is not esteemed Timber Vrry The blew Clay that is digged out of the Coal-mines and lies next the Coal being crude and immature and used for soyling of Land Vtensils Instruments used in any Art especially Husbandry W AWantey Vide Sussingle Wattell The naked fleshie matter that hangs about a Turkeys head A Weanel a young Beast newly weaned Whinnes Furzes A Wind-row Hay or Grass raked in Rows in order to be set up in Cocks Winlace or Winch that by which any burden is wound up or drawn out of a Well or other deep place To Winnow to separate by Winde the Corn from the Chaff To Winter-rig to fallow Land in the Winter Wood-land Places where much Woods are or it 's generally taken for Countries inclosed Y A Yate or Yatt A Gate A Yoak is either an Instrument for Oxen to draw by or to put on Swine or other unruly Creatures to keep them from running through Hedges Z ZEphyrus The West-winde An ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF The Principal Matters before treated of A OF the Abele Tree Page 83 Agriculture what it is 1 The Air it 's divers signification 298 Of the Alaternus 86 Of the Alder-Tree 83 Almonds 103 Anise the ordering thereof 154 Ants and Ant-hills to destroy 216 Angling 253 The Apiary its form and manner 170 Apples 99 The Apple-tree id April's Observations 269 Aprecocks 107 Aquatic-Trees 83. 92. 93 Arable Land it 's improvement 31 Arbor Vitae 87 Artichoaks 151 Artichoaks of Jerusalem 155 The Ass 160 Ashes their use 66 The Ash it 's propagation and use 79 Asparagus 151 The Aspen 83 Augusts Observations 279 B BAuk-hooks to lay 257 Barbel to take 258 Barley 36 Its Use 51 Barberries 103 Bark of Trees a good Soyl 71 The Bay-tree 86 Bat-fowling 246 Beasts 160 Beam See Horn Beam and Quick-Beam Their signification in change of Weather Several Beasts injurious to Husbandry 208 Beans of divers sorts 38. 149 The Beech it 's propagation and use 78 Beans called French or Kidney-Beans 150 Bees the several ways of ordering them from page 168. to page 188 Beets 154 Small Birds to destroy 213 The Birch 81 Of making and using Bird-lime 238. 246 The Black-thorn 89 Blight to prevent 207 Bobbing 258 Box 87 Bream to take 257 Brick and Tiles to make 232 Buck-wheat 37 Building profitable Experiments therein 229 Burning of Land or Burn-baiting 58 59 60 Of Rushie and Mossie Ground 23 Of Stones Chalk c. 61 C CAbbages and Coleworts 153 Carp to take 256 Carriages in Watering Meadows 21 Carts and Waggons the several sorts 226 Carrots 154 Cedar 86 Cherries 101 Chesnut it 's propagation and use 80 Chevin and Chub to take 258 Chalk the use thereof 61 Cider the making thereof 126 127 Cignet to fat 167 Cisterns or Pits for Water to make 196 Clay and Cold Land its use 32 Clay its use 63 Clouds their signification 295 Clover-grass its improvement and use 25 Cold and Frost remedies against it 197 Coleflower 153 Coleseed its use 42. 52 Codlings to plant 118. 121 Coneys to destroy 162. 209 Cormorant-Fishing 259 Corn its preservation 52 Cows and Oxen 161 Cow Dung 66 Copses
and rest No less delight did L. Quintus Cincinnatus take in that Country-life who when he was called by the Roman Senate to the Dictatorship an Office of very high Dignity was found at Plough in a rude and dirty habit or condition in his little Farm and after he had obtained his freedom from the Office he immediately returns to his Rural Occupations Also Attalus that rich Asian King who left his Regal Dignity and refigned his Empire was then so intent on Agriculture with such incessant care and diligence that he formed planted and contrived several peculiar Gardens by his own singular Ingenuity and Industry We must not omit Dioclesian the Emperour who left the troublesome Empire and affecting a Private Life betook himself to the Country and there lived a long time and enjoyed the Experience and reaped the Fruits of most pleasing Tranquillity and happy rest And although that he were oftentimes invited and sollicited by Letters and Embassadours from the Senate to return again to his Empire yet could he never be tempted away from his Beloved Village We read also of that most excellent person Attilius Calatinus who for his singular Vertue was called from the Plough and Harrow to be a Dictator yet still so persisted in his pleasing Frugality and Parsimony for the great love he bare to Agriculture that he rather chose to live privately in the Country and to weary himself with digging and ploughing his Land than to be a Prince of the Romans and possess the highest place amongst the Senators And likewise of Abdolonymus who from a poor Gardiner yet of Princely Race was chosen to the Crown of Sidon Noah the Just Meek Moses Abraham Du Bartas Who Father of the Faithful Race became Were Shepherds all or Husbandmen at least And in the Fields passed their days the best Such were not yerst Attalus Philemetor Archelaus Hiero and many a Pretor Great Kings and Consuls who oft for Blades And glist'ring Scepters handled Hooks and Spades Such were not yerst Cincinnatus Fabricious Serranus Curius who un-self-delicious With Crowned Coulters with Imperial hands With Ploughs triumphant plough'd the Roman Lands How much honour were Piso Fabius Lentulus and Cicero worthy of who invented and brought into use the Commodious way of sowing of the several Pulses that from that time have born their names We must not forget our Famous and most Ingenious Countryman the Lord Verulam a Person who though much concerned in the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom yet spent much of his time and Studies in the diligent scrutiny of the Nature and Causes and proposed means for the advancement and propagation of this part of Natural Philosophy as his Sylva and several other of his Works testifie Many other Examples of this Nature might here be inserted But these together with the multitude of the like Presidents our present Age and Country affords us as well of the Industrious and most Judicious Operations of our Nobles and Gentry in these Rusticities as of their Noble and pleasant Palaces and Rural Habitations and the Contentments and Delights they place in them may be sufficient to convince all Ingenious Spirits that are not prejudiced against this Art not only of the Dignity Pleasure and Delight thereof but of its Utility and Necessity Here they enjoy all things necessary for the sustentation of life and are freed from the perturbations cares and troubles that in other places disturb the mind and live content with their Lot in tranquillity and moderation of spirit Here is Secura quies nescia fallere Vita Dives opum variarum This Country-life improves and exercises the most Noble and Excellent parts of our Intellects and affords the best-opportunities to the infatiable humane spirit to contemplate and meditate on and to penetrate into and discover the obscure and hitherto-occult Mysteries and Secrets of Nature the fixity or mobility of the Earth the nature of the Air its weight and divers Mutations the Flux and Reflux of the Sea the nature and matter of Comets Meteors c. the Mystery of Vegetation the nature of Animals and their different Species the discovery and improvements of Minerals and to attain the highest perfections in Science and Art yea this condition capacitates a man to the study and practise of the most secret and mystical things Nature affords if adapted thereunto That there is no place so fit for such study or contemplation of Natural Philosophy or any of the Liberal Arts Plato the Prince of Philosophers testifies by his deserting Athens that Splendid City and erecting his Academy in a remote and Rustick place Also Petrarchus for the quietude and solitariness of that kinde of life was so much delighted therewith that he most pleasingly spent those years he lived alone in a secret Valley which caused him so often to invite his Friends to come and enjoy with him the contentments of so happy and grateful a Country-life as it appears by many of his Epistles You will also finde that all studious and learned men have exceedingly delighted in a solitary and Rural Habitation and to have much preferred it for besides the serenity of the Air and the pleasing Viridity which much quickens the Genius it is most certain that the Spirits also are thereby recreated and the Intellectual parts wonderfully acuated as the same Petrarcha says Hic non Palatia non Theatra nec atria Sed ipsorum loco Abies Fagus Pinus Inter herbas virescentes pulchrum montem vicinum Vnde Carmina descendunt Pluviae Attolluntque de terra ad sidera nostram mentem By which it is most apparent that the Study of Arts and Sciences and the exercise and fruition of a Country-life are of so near a Resemblance that they may both be practised without impeding each the other This Rustick life also most certainly hath the Preheminence above the habitations in great Towns and Cities for that it yields a perpetual Rotation of its infinite variety of Oblectations and Contents as the various times and seasons of the year with a pleasing Face successively present themselves Sometimes the Spring approaches the most certain Fore-runner of the Summer all Trees then exercising as it were a mutual Emulation which should be arrayed with the most verdant leaves and adorned with the most excellent and curious blossoms that they afford besides most fragrant Odours every way breathing from them incredible delight and pleasure to all To these may you add the pleasant Notes of the Chanting Nymphs of the Woods singing their Amorous Ditties ravishing our Ears with their sweet Harmony Then follows the Summer adorned with various Flowers the Lilly the Rose the Gilliflower and infinite other most curious and pleasant and also several delightful Fruits Animals and other necessaries for humane use Then also succeeds the Autumn or Harvest wherein we reap the fruits of our past labours then doth the Earth discharge it self of its infinite variety of its Grain and Pulse and the
are best for this work id Sect. 2. Principal Rules to be observed in drowning Lands 21 Cutting the main Carriage id Cutting the Lesser Carriages id Making the Drains id Times for watering 22 Manner of watering of Land by small Streams or Engines id Barren Springs not useful id Sect. 3. Of dry Meadow or Pasture improved id By Enclosure 23 By burning the rushy mossy ground id By stubbing up Shrubs c. id By Dunging or soyling 24 Time for soyling id Soyl for rushy and cold Land id For sandy or hot land id For other Meadows id Sect. 4. Of several new Species of Hay or Grass id Of the Clover-grass 25 Of the profit of Clover-grass id Best Land for Clover-grass id Quantity of Seed for an Acre 26 Time manner of sowing Clover-grass id Of cutting it for Hay and for Seed id Of pasturing or feeding Clover-grass 27 Of thrashing or ordering the Seed id Of St Foyn and the profits thereof 28 On what Land to sow it id Quantity of Seed on an Acre and manner of sowing of it id La Lucern 29 What ground it requires id Time and manner of sowing it id It s use id Sect. 5. Of some other Grasses or Hays id Esparcet id La Romain or French Tares or Vetches id Spurry-seed id Trefoyl 30 Long Grass in Wiltshire id Saxifrage id CHAP. IV. Of Arrable Land and Tillage and of the several Grains Pulses c. usually propagated by the Plough 31 Sect. 1. What Lands Improved by Tillage id Manner of Ploughing each sort 32 Clay stiff cold and moist id Rich and mellow Land 33 Poor and barren Land id Sect. 2. Of digging of Land for Corn 34 Sect. 3. Of the different Species of Grain Corn Pulse c. usually sown or necessary to be propagated in our Country-farm 35 Wheat id Barley 36 Rye 37 Massin id Oats id Buck-wheat or French-wheat id Other sorts of Grain id Pease id Beans 38 Fitches id Lentils id Lupines id Tares id Other Pulses id Sect. 4. Hemp and Flax 39 Impediments to the sowing of Hemp and Flax id Want of Trade an Impediment id Want of Experience id Tythes an Impediment id Hemp 40 Value of Hemp id Flax id Best Seed id Value of Flax 41 Sect. 5. Woad c. id To know when it is full ripe id Profit of Woad 42 Rape and Cole-seed id Profit thereof id Turneps id Sect. 6. Of the manner of setting Corn and the howing it in c. 43 Description of Mr. Grabriel Plat's Engine of setting Corn 44 The second Engine 45 Errors in this way 46 Howing of Corn commended id New Instrument for sowing of Corn 47 The more particular use and benefit of this Instrument 48 1 As to time 2 Equality of Seed 3 Rectification of the Feeder 4 No difference in driving fast or slow 5 No loss of Seed 6 Needs no harrowing General advantages of this Instrument 49 Another excellent advantage of this Instrument 50 Sect. 7. Of the general Uses of Corn Grain Pulse and other Seeds propagated by the Plough 51 Of Wheat id Of Barley id Of Rye id Of Oats id Of Pulses id Of the uses of Hemp-seed Flax-seed Rape and Cole-seed 52 Of the preservation of Corn id Sect. 8. Of the preparation of the Seed 53 Change of Seed an Improvement id Steeping of Corn in Dung-water and other preparations 54 55 56 CHAP. V. Of the Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Land 58 Sect 1. Of Burning of Land id On what Lands Burn-baiting is good 59 Manner of Burn-baiting id Sect. 2. Soyls and Manures taken from the Earth 61 Chalk id Lime id Marle 62 Fullers-Earth 63 Clay and Sand 64 Earth id Sect. 3. Soyls taken from the Sea or Water 65 Water-sand id Sea-weeds and Weeds in Rivers id Snayl Cod or Snag greet id Oyster-shells 66 Mud id Fish id Sect. 4. Of Dungs or excrementitious soils id Of Horse-dung id Of Cow or Ox-dung id Of Sheeps-dung 67 Of Swines-dung id Of the Dung of Fowl 68 Pigeons-dung id Poultry-dung id Goose-dung id Of Urines 69 Sect. 5. Of several other Soyls or Manures id Ashes id Soot 70 Salt id Rags id Hair 71 Malt-dust id Fern Straw Stubble c. id Bones Horns c. id Bark of Trees and old Earth in Trees id Urry id CHAP. VI. Of the Benefit Raising Planting and Propagating of all sorts of Timber-trees and other Trees useful either in Building or other Mechanick uses or for Feneing Fewel c. 72 Sect. 1. Of the benefit of propagating Timber-trees and other Trees in general id Particular advantages 73 More unniversal advantages 74 Sect. 2. Of Timber-trees in general 75 The Oak its propagation and use id The Elm 76 The Beech 78 The Ash 79 The Wallnut 80 The Chesnut id The Service 81 Sect. 3. Of several other Trees not so generally made use of for Timber as for Fewel Coppice-woods Hedge-rows c. 81 The Birch id The Maple 82 The Horn-beam id The Quick-beam id The Hasel id Sect. 4. Of Aquaticks or Trees affecting moist and watry places 83 The Poplar id The Aspen id The Abele id The Alder id The Withy id The Salley id Ofiers id Willow 84 Sect. 5. Of other Trees planted for Ornament or adorning Gardens Avenues Parks and other places adjoyning to your Mansion-house and convertible also to several uses 84 The Sycomore id The Lime-tree id The Horse Chesnut-tree 85 The Fir Pine Pinaster and Pitch-tree id The Larch Platanus and Lotus id The Cyprus 86 The Cedar id The Alaternus id The Phillyrea id The Bay-tree id The Laurel id The Eugh-tree id Privet id Sect. 6. Of Shrubs and other Trees less useful yet planted for Ornament and Delight 87 The Myrtle id The Box id Juniper id Tamarisk id Arbor Vitae id Some Flower-trees and other Trees of delight id Sect. 7. Of such Trees that are necessary and proper for Fencing and Enclosing of Lands Orchards Gardens c. And the best way of raising such Fences 88 The White-thorn id The Holly id Piracantha id The Black-thorn 89 The Elder id Furzes id The speediest way of planting a Quickset-Hedge id Another way id Of planting the Holly-Hedge id Preserving Hedges from Cattle id Weeding of Hedges id Plashing of Hedges id Sect. 8. Of the Nursery for the more convenient propagation of most of the fore-mentioned Trees 90 Trees produced of Seed id Preserving and preparation of the seed id Election of the seed 91 Place for a Nursery id Manner of sowing id Ordering of the Nursery id Sowing of a Coppice id Sect. 9. Of the transplantation of Trees 92 The time id Of such Trees that come of Slips Suckers c. id Time to slip or lay id The time for Aquaticks id Manner of transplanting id Watering of Trees 93
Staking of Trees id Planting of Aquaticks id Removing of Trees 94 Transplanting of great Trees id Helps to Trees id Planting of Coppices 95 Thickning of Coppices id Sect. 10. Of the pruning shrouding cutting and felling of Trees and Coppices id Pruning of Trees id Times for Shrouding 96 Observations in Shrouding id Pruning of Winter-greens id Cutting of Aquaticks id Cutting of young Coppices id Felling of Coppices time manner id Felling Timber-trees time manner 97 CHAP. VII Of Fruit-trees Sect. 1. Of the profits and pleasures of Fruit-trees 98 Of Apples 99 Of Pears 100 Of Cherries 101 Of Walnuts id Of Filberts 102 Of Quinces id Of Mulberries id Of Plums 103 Of Medlars id Of Barberries id Of Almonds id Of Services 104 Of Gooseberries id Of Currans id Of Rasberries id Sect. 2. Of Wall-trees id Of the Vine 105 Of Aprecocks 107 Peaches Nectorines and Melacotones id Of Figs id Of Currans id Other Fruits id Sect. 3. Of the propagation of Fruit-trees id By Grafting 108 What Fruits are grafted and on what Stocks id By Inoculation id What Fruits are Inoculated and on what Stocks id Sect. 4. Of the Nursery for Stocks 109 Sect. 5. Of the time and manner of grasting 111 The time for Grafting id The choice of Grafts id The keeping of Grafts id Instruments for Grafting 112 Grafting in the Cleft id In the Bark id Shoulder or Whip-grafting 113 Grafting by Approach 114 A new way of Grafting 115 Sect. 6. Of the time and manner of Inoculation 116 The time for Inoculation id Choice of Buds id Instruments for Inoculation id The three several ways of Inoculation id Sect. 7. Of raising Fruit-trees by the Seeds Stones Nuts or Kernels 117 What Trees are so raised id Sect. 8. Of raising and propagating of Fruit-trees by Layers Slips or Suckers 118 What Trees are to be so raised id To lay the branches of Trees 119 Sect. 9. Of the transplanting of Trees id Time to transplant Trees id The manner of transplanting Trees id The distance of Trees 120 Sect. 10. Of the pruning of Trees 122 Of young Trees id Of Wall-trees id Of old Trees id Sect. 11. Other necessary observations about Fruit-trees 123 The raising of Land id The ordering of the Roots of old Trees id Alteration of the Ground 124 Defending Trees from Winds id Raising Stocks id Soyl for Fruit-trees 125 Height of Trees id Diseases of Trees id Sect. 12. Of the use and benefit of Fruit-trees 126 By Cider id Cider-fruits id Making of Cider 127 By Perry 128 Making of Perry 129 Some observations concerning Cider id Botling of Cider id Of the Wines or Juices of other Fruits As Cherry-Wine 130 131 Wine of Plums Mulberry-Wine Rasberry-Wine Wine of Currans CHAP. VIII Of such Tillage Herbs Roots and Fruits that are usually planted and propagated in Gardens and Garden-grounds either for necessary food use or advantage 132 The advantage of Garden-tillage in general id Sect. 1. Of Hops 133 Best Land and Scituation of a Hop-garden 134 Defending the Hop-garden by Trees id Preparing the Ground id Distance of the Hills id Bigness of the Hills 135 Time of planting Hops id Choice of Sets and manner of setting id Dressing of Hops 136 Poling Hops 137 Tying of Hops of the poles 138 Of the making up the Hills 139 Manner of watering Hops id When Hops blow bell and ripen 140 When to gather Hops and the manner how id Of the drying of Hops 142 Description of an Oost or Kiln id Another way to dry Hops 143 The best way to dry Hops id To dry Hops suddenly without turning of them 144 Bagging of Hops id Laying up the poles 145 Dunging or soyling the Hop-garden id Sect. 2. Of Liquorice Saffron Madder and Dyers Weed 146 Best Land for Liquorice and ordering of it id Choice of Sets id Time and manner of planting id Taking up of Liquorice and its profit 147 Of Saffron id What Land is best for Saffron id Time and manner of planting of it id Time of the flowering and gathering of Saffron id Drying of Saffron 148 Profits of Saffron id Of Madder id Land fit for Madder id Time and manner of planting it id The use and profit of Madder id Of Weld or Dyars Weed id What Land it requires id Manner of sowing it id Gathering and ordering of it id Sect. 3. Of Beans Pease Melons Cucumbers Asparagus Cabbage and several other sorts of Garden-tillage 149 Garden-beans id Pease id French-beans 150 Melons and Cucumbers id Pompions id Artichoaks 151 Their preservation against Frost id Dressing of Artichoaks id Asparagus id Planting of them 152 Odering and cutting of them id Early Asparagus id Strawberries id The Coleflower 153 Cabbages and Coleworts id Lettuce 154 Savoys id Beets id Anise id Sect. 4. Of Carrots Turneps and other Roots useful in the Kitchen id Carrots id Turneps 155 Parships id Skirrets id Radishes id Potatoes id Jerusalem Artichoaks id Onions id Garlick 156 Leeks id Tobacco id Sect. 5. Of the manner of ordering and preparing of Garden-ground making of Hot-beds and watering of the Gardens c. 157 The several ways of tempering Mold id The best way of sowing Garden-seeds 158 To lay ground warm and dry id The making of Hot-beds id Of watering of plants id CHAP. IX Of several sorts of Beasts Fowls and Insects usually kept for the advantage and use of the Husbandman 160 Sect. 1. Of Beasts id Of the Horse id Of the Ass id Of the Mule 161 Of Cows and Oxen id Of Sheep id Of Swine id Of Goats 162 Of Dogs id Of Coneys id Sect. 2. Of Fowl 163 Of Poultry id Profit of Poultry 164 Feeding and fatting of Poultry id Encreasing of Eggs id Hatching of Eggs Artificially id Of Geese id Of fatting of Geese 165 A principal observation of fatting of Geese id The Jews manner of fatting of Geese id Of Ducks id Of Decoy-Ducks id Of Turkeys id Of Pigeons 166 To encrease a Stock of Pigeons id Of Swans 167 Fatting of Cignets id Of Peacocks id Of tame Pheasants and the ordering of them id Sect. 3. Of Insects 168 1 Of Bees id The praise and pleasure of Bees id Of the Apiary 170 Form and manner of the Apiary id Of the seats or stools for Bees 171 Of Benches 172 The best Seats id Of the Hives 173 The form and bigness of the Hives 174 Dressing the Hives id Of Wooden Hives id Of Glassen Hives id Of Spleeting the Hives 176 Of the swarming of Bees id Several Experiments to encrease Bees without swarming id The bigness of swarms or stocks of Bees 178 Signs of swarming 179 Signs of present swarming id Signs and causes of not swarming id To make them swarm id Signs of after-swarms 180 Ringing of Bees id Hiving of Bees id Uniting of Swarms 181
Volatile Mercury or Spirit to the more fixed Salt Spiritus Mediante Anima cum corpore conjungitur ligatur fit unum cum eis say the Philosophers This Sulphur or oyly part is easily separated and distinguish'd in Vegetables by the more curious it ariseth out of the earth with the aforesaid Mercury or Aqueous Spirit though not at the first discernable yet in every Plant more and more maturated and augmented by the Suns influence as the Seed or Matrix is more or less inclined to this Principle This is also that which gives to our hot and stinking Dungs Soils or Manures the Oleaginous pinguidity and Fertility and which begets that fiery heat which is in Vegetables as Hay Corn c. laid on heaps not throughly dry Not only the Duration of Individuals but also the Propagation Of the Universal Salt Willis de fermentatione of the Species dependeth much on the Principle of Salt for the Growth of Minerals the Fertility of Land the Vegetation or Growth of Plants and chiefly the fruitful Foetation and Progeny of Animals have their Original from their Saline Seed This Salt obscurely passeth with the Mercurial Spirit and the Sulphur and is associated therewith where ever that passes and where it finds a convenient Receptable Seed or Matrix it is more fixed than either the Sulphur or Spirit The Salt is that which gives to every Creature a Substance or Body without which neither the Spirit nor Sulphur could be reduced or coagulated into any Form It is in every thing Sal autem reperitur in rebus omnibus It is volatile when carried in the wings of the Spirit and Sulphur by the natural Fire or Motion But afterwards it is more fixed when separated from the Spirit or Mercury and Sulphur by artificial Fire as appears in the ashes or Caput Mortuum of all Vegetables Animals or Minerals distilled or burnt much also of the Sulphureous or Mercurial parts are coagulated by or transmuted into the Saline by natural or artificial Heat or Warmth as is evident in the Sea the nearer it is to the Equinoctial Line and the more it receives of the Perpendicular or direct Beams of the Sun the greater quantity of Salt it contains not only by the exhalation of the Aqueous or Phlegmatick parts but the Maturation Transmutation or Fixation of the more Volatile Spiritual and Sulphureous parts into the more Saline or fixed For in those hotter Climates the Land it self also is more Fertile through the abounding quantity of this Vegetating Salt as appears by the great plenty of Nitre or Sal terrae found in the hotter Climates lying on the Surface of the Earth in the morning like a hoary Frost when the Regions nearer the Poles having not those natural advantages of the Sun-beams in so high a degree are not so Fertile nor abound so much with Salt the most principal cause of Fertility But we will leave these Philosophical Principles as they are simply Of the true matter of Vegetables and apart very necessary to be known by those that Operate in the more-Secret Mystical and Mechanick Indagations of Nature and discourse only of that Universal Spirit or Vapor which daily and every moment perspires and proceeds out of every part of the Earth and is in every thing containing in it self the Spirit or Mercury the Sulphur and the Salt in one body united and without Art indivisible yet some one Part or Principle abounding more or less in every thing as the Water containeth more of the Spiritual or Aqueous part several Fruits Plants Flowers and Soils more of the Sulphureous and Barks of Trees Blood of Animals and several Minerals more of the Saline And wheresoever these Principles are most equally tempered or mixed there is most of Fertility as is evident in the several Natures Tempers and Qualities of Places for the Production or Propagation of Vegetables and wheresoever any or either of these Principles do over-much abound Vegetables are not produced as Waters or any other Liquors or Spirits are not Where Water or Spirits abound Fertile in themselves as to Vegetation unless they are either conjoyned with some other Substance or Matter or the more Phlegmatick parts evaporated and the remaining part maturated by the Sun or Air into an augmentation of the other Principles then is it capable of yielding naturally some sort of Vegetables For although several Plants set in Water only do emit fibrous roots and flourish therein for a time yet is it meerly an attraction of the most Saline and Sulphureous parts or Principles to its own relief as is evident by its better thriving if the Water be often changed At best this nourishment is but weak having so little of the Sulphur and Salt as the Withy Poplar and other Aquatick Plants demonstrate Therefore out of any sort of Waters only it is in vain to attempt any material or effectual increase of Vegetables other than that are naturally Aquatick because they contain a superaboundant Spirit or Moisture Therefore vain is the new received Opinion that Trees and other Vegetables and also other Minerals proceed from Water only But our Spiritus Mundi or Materia propinqua Vegetabilium although it appear in a Liquid form yet it contains actually an equal proportion of the three Principles And the more any Substance or Matter is impregnated or irrigated therewith the more prone or apt it is to Vegetation as Rain-water being animated with it by the continual Exhalations or Fumes ascending from the Earth and by it coagulated and detained is more prone to Vegetation than any other Waters as you may perceive by Plants watered therewith and by its sudden Generation of Animals and Vegetables in the Spring-time then the Earth more copiously breathing forth that Spiritus Mundi which returned again doth by the vivifying heat of the Sun easily transcend into another Species How soon will Horse-hairs receive life lying in Rain-water but a few days in the heat of the Sun in the Spring-time whereof I have seen many in the High-ways after Rain in the Month of May very nimble and quick that had not yet lost their shape of a Horse-hair This is worthy our further enquiry to what Period this may be advanced it may also serve as an Index to point at several other Excellent Discoveries Neither is the more Sulphureous part or Principle of it self capable Where Fumes or Sulphur abounds of yielding Vegetables being of too hot and pinguid a Nature as the Dung of Animals and especially of Volatiles that eject no Urine whereby the more fiery and Sulphureous part of the others is diluted containing much of that pinguidity produce no Vegetables of it self unless commixed or allayed with some other Matter abounding with the other Principles or that it loose it s too fiery or destructive Nature by being exposed to the Sun or Air untill it be evaporated then will it emit several Vegetables Of the like Nature also are the flesh and bones
proved so well and Trees having Stones laid on the Ground about the Roots of them have prospered wonderfully from the same cause As the Learned Virgil hinted on the same occasion Jamque reperti Qui Saxo super atque ingentis pondere testae Vrgerent In the watering of Meadows you may observe that the superficial gliding watering thereof doth infinitely advance its fertility and accelerates its growth or vegetation not so much from the fruitfulness of the water although that be a very great help and some waters abound very much with that Vniversal Subject but by its condensation and preservation of that Subject as appears by the warmth and early springing of such Meadows where the water thinly and superficially moves over it where on the contrary water standing and submerging such Meadows and lying and soaking long under the superficies of the Earth impedes the motion of that Subject and makes the ground more sterile and backward in its growth or springing That this Spiritus Mundi hath in it a sensible heat as well as fertility we may perceive by Springs in great Frosts when the Pores of the Earth are shut the Body from whence the Springs flow is warm on the contrary when the Pores are open and this Spirit wasted and transformed into Vegetables Animals c. and exhausted by the heat of the Sun then is the Body internally cold as we sensibly perceive by the waters in Wells in Summer-time This Spiritus Mundi whereof we treat is that which in some places perspires more freely than in other and causes that different verdant colour of the Grass in certain rings or circles where the Country-people fancie the Fairies dance The more the Aqueous humour or part is concocted or exhausted by the heat of the Sun in the Summer-time the thicker and more viscous is this subject as appears by its condensation in the Air into Mildews which after a more glutinous manner than other Rains or Dews is by the cool Air condensed into a fat and fruitful matter part thereof resting on the close and glazie leaves of the Oak and such-like Trees is collected and with very little Art transformed by the industrious Bee into that noble substance Honey other part thereof falls on the young Ears of Wheat and the Buds of springing Hops where suffering a further degree of congelation impedes their growth unless a timely shower wash it off It also by its heat tinges the straw of corn and the leaves of some Trees in spots At that season of the year also it usually coagulates in some places into Mushrooms which are meerly formed and made up of this subject undigested and perspire forth in such places in great plenty so that I have seen a Mushroom near an Ell in compass of less than two days growth the Owner in whose Garden it grew affirmed it to be of one night only You may also perceive it in a clear and cool morning condensed into small lines like unto Spiders-webs near the surface of the earth especially on the lower and richer Lands This is that Viscous Vapour that being concocted and digested long in the Air by the heat of the Sun or otherwise is condensed at length into that Sulpherous and Saline Matter and which by its combat in the Air occasions those Igneal Flames and Claps of Thunder which more frequently happen at such seasons of the year and in such Climates when and where this more concocted Vapour abounds and less in the colder Climates and Seasons where it is more aqueous This is that inexhaustible Treasure the Country-man is to preserve much more than the Soils and Dungs and such-like matters washed away with waters into the Sea which are inconsiderable in comparison of this for although Land be never so much impoverished through over-tilling thereof yet duly order'd and defended by this only Subject may it be recruited and fertilized as is evident in the poorest Land where Trees are grown after the removal of them the Land is much inriched by their shelter Also the return of the Soil or Dung that is made of the Product of any Land either by Pasturing or Tilling the same is a principal part of a good Husband and not to feed Cattle cut Hay and sowe corn on some Lands and spend their Soil and Manure on other which is a grand neglect and a main cause of so much barren and unfruitful Land in England Another thing worthy our consideration concerning this Vniversal Subject is the abating or removing the Impediments of its Fertility which do as it were suffocate or conceal that fertile or vegetating quality that is in many things As in Chalk and several other Stones Minerals and Earths the Acid or sterile Juice doth prevent that Fertility which otherwise might be raised from it Therefore do our Husband-men usually burn Stones into Lime which gradually evaporateth the Acid quality and coagulateth and fixeth the more Saline and Fertile which causeth it to yield so plentiful a nourishment unto Vegetables more than before it was burnt into Lime For the same cause is the Superficies or Turf of the Earth burnt in many places which Country-men usually call denshiring or burn-beating only they suppose that the Ashes of the Vegetable contained in the Turf occasions the Fertility But although that doth yield a part yet it is the heat of the fire evaporating and consuming the Acidity of the Earth which makes the Earth it self so prepared to be the more fertile As you may observe by the very places where those hills of fire were made that although you take the Ashes wholly away yet the Earth under those hills being so calcined yields a greater nourishment to such Vegetables growing thereon than on any other part of the ground where the Ashes themselves are spread For the same reason are the Summer-Fallowings advantageous to the Husbandman not only for the destroying of the weeds but for the evaporation of the Acid barren Juyce and digesting and fixing the fertile by which way of Calcination may several Stones Minerals and Earths be made fertile which unprepared are not so this may also prove of great use for the advancement of the growth of many excellent Plants and Flowers as I have been credibly informed hath been secretly practised to that purpose The last and none of the least considerable means for the re-reviving and improving this Subject is not only the planting sowing and propagating of Vegetables in every place but to plant sowe or propagate such that delight in the Soyl or Place under your improvement be the nature of the Soyl or Earth what it will there is some Plant or other delights in it from the highest cold hot dry or barren hill to the lowest valley although in the water it self you will finde either Trees Pulses Grasses Grains or some other Vegetable may be found that will thrive in it Hic segetes illic veniunt faelicius uvae Arborei foetus alibi atque myrissa virescunt gramina
c. Virgil. The want of the right understanding hereof hath been one of the greatest checks to our English Improvements there being so great variety of Land in this Kingdom yea almost in every Parish doth the Land vary that when we have had any new way or Method of Improvement urged by sowing or propagating any new sort of Grain Pulse or Hay or otherwise several have attempted it few only perhaps have hit the mark or applied it to the right Soil the rest having lost their labour and cost meerly through their own ignorance of the true nature and way of ordering of what they undertake have cast a scandal on the thing it self to the great discouragement of others who otherwise might have reaped great advantage by it Having thus given you a short Description of the Growth of Vegetables and of that Vniversal Subject or Spiritus Mundi out of which they are formed and of the general Causes of Improvements I will now descend to the more particular and practicable Application thereof And first CHAP. II. Of the great Benefits and Advantages of Enclosing Lands ENclosing of Lands and dividing the same into several Fields Pastures c. is and hath been ever esteemed a most principal way of Improvement it ascertaineth every man his just and due Propriety and Interest and preventeth such infinite of Trespasses and injuries that Lands in common are subject unto occasioning so much of Law Strife and Contention It capacitates all sorts of Land whatsoever for some of the Improvements mentioned in the subsequent Discourse so that a good husband may plant Timber Fruit or other Trees in his Hedge-rows or any other part of his Lands or may convert the same to Meadows Pasture Arable or Gardens c. And sowe or plant the same with any sorts or species of Grain Pulse or other Tillage whatsoever without the check or controul of his unthrifty or envious Neighbours It is also of its self a very considerable Improvement And take Enclosure an Improvement it as it is the most general so it is one of the highest Improvements in England and it seems to have born an equal honor and preheminence above Lands in Common in other Countreys and to contend for its Antiquity with the Plough it self else why should Virgil say Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva Coloni Nec signare quidem aut partire limite Campum Fas erat Enclosure with a good tall Hedge-row preserves the Land warm and defends and shelters it from the violent and nipping Winds that generally nip and destroy much of the Corn Pulse or whatsoever grows on the open Field or Champion Grounds and preserves it also from those drying and scorching Winds more frequent in hot and dry Springs much damaging the Champion Lands It much preserves that fertility and richness the Land is either naturally subject unto or that is by the diligent care and cost of the Husbandman added It furnisheth the Owners thereof with a greater burthen of Corn Pulse or what ever is sown thereon Also where it is laid down for Meadow or Pasture it yields much more of Grass than the open Field-Land and the Hedges being well planted with Trees affords shelter and shadow for the Cattel both in Summer and Winter which else would destroy more with their feet than they eat with their mouths and might lose more of their fat or flesh in one hot day than they gain in three cool days and affords the industrious Husbandman plenty of Provision for the maintenance of Fire-boot Plough-boot Cart-boot and if carefully planted and preserved furnishes him with Timber Mast for his Swine and Fruits for Syder as we have in several other parts of this Treatise casually hinted It is one of the greatest Encouragements to good Husbandry and a good Remedy against Beggery for it brings Employment to the poor by the continual labour that is bestowed thereon which is doubly repaid by the fruitful crop it annually yieldeth and generally maintains treble the number of Inhabitants or more than the Champion as you may easily perceive if you compare such Counties and Places in England that are for the most part upon Enclosure with the Champion and Chilterne Counties or Places And compare also the difference of their manner and condition of Living and their Food and Apparel c. it must needs convince you that Enclosure is much to be preferred above the Champion as well for the publique as private advantage Our Predecessors were very sensible of the difference as appears by what ingenious old Tusser who took upon him Husbandry in Edward the Sixth's days saith in his Rythms in his Comparison between Champion Country and Several T 'one barefoot and ragged doth go And ready in Winter to sterve When t'other ye see do not so But hath that is needful to serve T 'one pain in a Cottage doth take When t'other trim Bowers do make T 'one layeth for Turf and for Sedge And hath it with wonderful suit When t'other in every Hedge Hath plenty of Fuel and Fruit Evils twenty times worser than these Enclosure quickly would ease In Wood-land the poor men that have Scarce fully two Acres of Land More merrily live and do save Than t'other with twenty in hand Yet pay they as much for the two As t'other for twenty must do The Differences also and the Profits thereof are plainly to be discerned and proved by the Severals or enclosed Parcels of Land that have been formerly taken out of the Field-land or Commons and how much they excel the other in every respect though of the same Soil and only a Hedge between and what a yearly value they bear above the other And also by the great quantities of Lands that have within our memories lain open and in common and of little value yet when enclosed tilled and well ordered have proved excellent good Land and suddenly repayed the present and greatest expence incident to Enclosure Of all which and many other infinite Pleasures Contentments and Advantages that Enclosure yields above the Champion and Field-Land were they but sensible who so much affect and contend for the Champion c. they could never be so brutish as to persist in so injurious and unthrifty a method of Husbandry both to themselves to their neighbors to the poor and to the Commonwealth in general This great Improvement meeteth with the greatest difficulties Several Interests an Impement and impediments amongst which none appears with a bigger face than the several Interests and diversity of Titles and Claims to almost every Common-field or waste Land in England And although by many the greater part of the Interested Persons are willing to divide and inclose it yet if but one or more envious or ignorant person concerned oppose the Design or that some or other of them be not by the Law under a capacity of assuring his Interest to his Neighbour the whole must unavoidably cease which hath proved a general
time and manner of sowing Clover-grass by Tillage and good Husbandry then sowe your Barley and Oats and harrow them then sowe your Clover-grass upon the same Land and cover it over with a small Harrow or Bush but sowe not the Corn so thick as at other times the Land usually requires The principal seasons for the sowing thereof are the end of March and throughout April Sir Richard Weston adviseth to sowe the Clover-seed when the Oats begin to come up also that you may sowe it alone without any other Seed or Grain and that it will be ready to cut by the first of June the first year It is also observed that Polish Oats are the best Corn to be sowen with Clover about the middle of April two Bushels and a half or three Bushels to an Acre which will yield a middle Crop of Oats at Harvest and shadow the Clover from the heat of the Sun which will be a notable Pasture in September or October following About the midst or end of May may you cut the first Crop for Of cutting it for Hay and for seed Hay which takes up more time and labour to dry it than ordinary Hay and will go very near together yet if it grow not too strong it will be exceeding rich and good and feed any thing The exact time of cutting is when it begins to knot and then will it yield good Hay and ere the year be about it may yield you three such Crops and afterwards feed it with Cattle all the Winter or until January as you do other Ground But if you intend to preserve the Seed then you must expect but two Crops that year the first Crop as before but the second must stand till the Seed be come to a full and dead ripeness for it will not be very apt to shed When first you can observe the Seed in the Husk about a moneth after it may be ripe and then the Seed begins to change its colour and the Stalk begins to die and turn brown and being turned to a yellowish colour in a dry time mow it and preserve it till it be perfectly dry In some years it ripens sooner than in other therefore you need not be precise as to the time but to the ripeness of it The Stalks or Hawm after you have thrashed out your Seed Cattle will eat but if they be too old and hard they will not Some direct to boyl them and make a Mash of them Sir Richard Weston and it will be very nourishing either for Hogs or any thing that will eat thereof Others reject the Stalks as useless and esteem the Seed only to be a sufficient Advance of that Crop If after two years standing of Clover-grass you suffer the later Crop to shed its Seed you will have your Land new stored with Clover that you need not convert it to other uses One Acre of this Grass will feed you as many Cows as six Acres Of pasturing or feeding of Clover-grass of other common Grass and you will finde your Milk much richer and exceeding in quantity and fatterns very well The best way of feeding of it and as is reported is the usual way in Holland and Flanders is to cut it daily as your Cattle spend it and give it them in Racks under some Trees or in some Shed or Out-house for the Cattle will injure it much with their feet it being a gross sort of Vegetable Unless you mow it for the Seed the best husbandry is to graze it or feed it in Racks because it is so excellent a Food green and shrinks so much in the drying Swine will grow fat with what falls from the Racks It is not good to let Cattle that are not used to this Food eat too liberally of it at the first for I knew a Yoke of Oxen put hungry into a field of Clover-grass where they fed so heartily on this sweet Food that one immediately died through a meer Surfeit the other with difficulty preserved therefore some prescribe to give them a little Straw mixed therewith at the first or to diet them as to the quantity may do as well Swine will pasture on it in the fields It being preserved throughly dry about the middest of March Of threshing or ordering the Seed thrash it and cleanse it from the Straw as much as you can then beat the Husk again being exceeding well dried in the Sun after the first Thrashing and then get out what Seed you can or after you have thrashed it and chaved it with a fine Rake and sunned it in a hot and dry season if you will then rub it you may get very much out of it some have this way got above two Bushels out of an Acre Sir Richard Weston saith you may have five Bushels from an Acre He is a good Thrasher that can thrash six Gallons in a day and English Improver after the second Thrashing drying and winnowing or chaving it is confidently averred that it may be purely separated from its Husk by a Mill after the manner as Oatmeal is separated from the Chaff and that at a very easie rate But it is also experimented that our own Seed sown in the Husk hath proved the best thicker and certainer than that sowed of the pure Seed it self otherwise you must be forced to mix therewith ashes of Wood or Coals coursly sifted or with Saw-dust or good Sand or fine Mould or any thing else that will help to fill the hand that you may sowe it evenly and with a full hand Some have invented new ways of separating the Seed from the Husk Of St. Foyn This St. Foyn or Holy-hay hath in several places of England The profit thereof obtained the preferrence above Clover-Grass for that it thrives so well and is so great an Improvement on our barren Lands where the other will not it being also natural to our timorous Rusticks not to hazard Land that will yield them any considerable advantage any other way on any new method of Husbandry but if they have a Corner of Land that is of little use to them they will perhaps bestow a little Seed on it and but few of that minde neither Then it continues longer in proof than Clover-Grass which wears out in a few years this continues many which is a daily provocation to the sloathful to go so near and plain a way when so long time trodden before his face In Wiltshire in several places there are Presidents of St. Foyn that hath been these twenty years growing on poor Land and hath so far improved the same that from a Noble per Acre twenty acres together have been constantly worth thirty shillings per Acre and yet continues in good proof If it be sowen on the poorest and barrennest Land we have it On what Land to sowe it will thrive and raise a very considerable Improvement for on rich Land the Weeds destroy it besides it meliorateth and fertilizeth
prove better on cold stiff Land than on hot or dry c. We find many sorts of Wheat mentioned in our Rustick Authors as Whole Straw-wheat Rivet-wheat white and red Pollard-wheat white and Kinds of Wheat red great and small Turkey-wheat Purkey-wheat Gray-wheat Flaxen-weat I suppose the same in some places called Lammas-wheat Chiltern Ograve-wheat Sarasins-wheat with several other Names though it 's probable may be the same sorts The Great Pollard they say delights best on stiff Lands and so doth the Ograve Flaxen-wheat and Lammas on indifferent Land and Sarasins-wheat on any But what the different natures of these and other several sorts are and in what Land they most principally delight and the differences of their Culture I leave to the more ingenious and expert Husbandman to finde out and discover It is observed that the Bearded-wheat suffereth not by Mildew because the Beard thereof is a kinde of defence to preserve it from Dew Wheat is usually sown in the Autumn and best in a wet season Triticum luto hordeum pulvere conserite and either earlier or later as the nature of the Land and scituation of the place requires This is another very necessary Grain though usually converted Barley to the worst use of any that grows in England It is the principal Ingredient into our necessary Drink moderately used but the use thereof in excess is become the most general raging Vice and as it were the Primum Mobile to most other detestable Evils It is also a Bane to Ingenuity many of our best Mechanicks being too much addicted to the tincture of this Grain nevertheless it so naturally delights in our meaner sort of Land and in the Champion Countries that it 's become a principal part of the Countrey-mans Tillage that the too great a quantity thereof doth impede the propagation of several other Grains and Pulses much more necessary Neither know I any way to remedy this Neglect on the one side and Wilfulness on the other unless the Designe of Enclosure might take effect for then would the Lands be so much the more enriched that they would bear other Grain to a greater advantage to the Husbandman than Barley or that a double or treble Tax might be imposed on every Acre of Barley-land for what it is on other Grain which would provoke the Husbandman to that which would be most for his Advantage then would there be a greater plenty of all other sorts of Grain and Pulse and at a lower price and only good Liquor a little the dearer which may by House-keepers the easier be born withal The Seasons for sowing of Barley differ according to the nature of the Soil and Scituation of the Place Some sowe in March some in April others not until May yet with good success no certain Rule can be herein prescribed it usually proves as the succeeding Weather happens only a dry time is most kindly for the Seed There is little difference observed in Barley only there is one Difference of Barley sort called Rath-ripe Barley which is usually ripe two or three weeks before the other and delights best in some sorts of hot and dry Land This is a Grain generally known and delighteth in a dry warm Rye Land and will grow in most sorts of Land so that the Earth be well tempered and loose it needeth not so rich a Ground nor so much care nor cost bestowed thereon as doth the Wheat only it must be sowen in a dry time for rain soon drowneth it they usually say a shower of Rain will drown it in the hopper Wet is so great an Enemy to it It is quick of Growth soon up after it is sowen and sooner in the Ear usually in April and also sooner ripe than other Grain yet in some places is it usual to sowe Wheat and Rye mixed which grow together and are reaped together but the Rye must needs be ripe before the Wheat Neither can I discover where a greater advantage lies in sowing them together than in sowing them apart The principal season of sowing of Rye is in the Autumn about September according as the season permits and the nature of the Ground requires Oats are very profitable and necessary Grain in most places of Oats England they are the most principal Grain Horses affect and commended for that use above any other On such Lands that by reason of the cold no other Grain will thrive yet Oats grow there plentifully as many places in Wales and Darby-shire can witness there is no ground too rich nor too poor too hot nor too cold for them they are esteemed a peeler of the Ground the best season for sowing of them is in February or March The white Oat is the best and heaviest Grain The Meal makes good Bread and much used for that purpose in many places and also good Pottage and several other Messes and is in great request towards Scotland and in Wales Oaten Malt also makes good Beer It is a Grain exceeding advanteous on barren sandy Lands Buck-wheat or French-wheat it is much sowen in Surrey much less than any other Grain sowes an Acre it is usually sowen as Barley but later it is also late ripe and yields a very great increase and is excellent food for Swine Poultry c. after it is mowen it must lie several days till the stalks be withered before it be housed Neither is there any danger of the seed falling from it Our Rustick Authors mention several other sorts of Corn or Other sorts of Grain Grain as Xea or Spelt-corn Far Millet Sesame Rice c. which I shall forbear to particularize on until we are better satisfied of their natures and use and experienced in the way or method of their propagation Of all Pulses that are sowen or propagated Pease claim the Pease preheminence not only for their general use both by Sea and Land both for man and beast but also for the diversity of their kinds Almost for every sort of Land and for every season a different sort of Pease some are white Pease some gray green c. not necessary here to be enumerated every understanding Husbandman knowing what sorts best accord with his Land In a stiff fertile Ground they yield a very confiderable Crop without such frequent Fallowings as other Grains requires and destroy the Weeds and fit and prepare the Land for After-crops being an Improver and not an Impoverisher of Land as Husbandmen usually observe This also is of general use and benefit and placed before any Beans other Pulses by Pliny for its commodiousness both for man and beast yet we finde the Pease to be more universally propagated Of Beans there are several sorts the Great Garden-Beans and middle sort of Bean and the small Bean or Horse-bean The later only is usually sowen in Ploughed Lands and delights principally in stiff and strong ground and thrives not in light sandy or barren They are proper to be sown
in Land at the first breaking up where you intend afterwards to sowe other Grain because they destroy the Weeds and improve the Land as generally doth all other Cod-ware Of the other sorts of Beans and also of Pease we shall say more hereafter in this Treatise The Citch or Fetch whereof there are several sorts but two of Fetches most principal Note the Winter and Summer-Fetch the own sown before Winter and abiding the extremity of the Weather the other not so hardy and sown in the Spring they are much sown in some places and to a very considerable Advantage they are a good strong and nourishing food to Cattle either given in the Straw or without and are propagated after the manner of Pease The least of all Pulses is the Lentil in some places called Tills Lentils They are sown in ordinary ground and require it not very rich Of a very few sown on an Acre you shall reap an incredible quantity although they appear on the Ground but small and lie in a little room in the Cart they are a most excellent sweet Fodder and to be preferred before any other Fodder or Pulse for Calves or any other young Cattle This Pulse though not used in this Country as ever I could understand Lupines unless a few in a Garden yet we finde them highly commended to be a Pulse requiring little trouble and to help the Ground the most of any thing that is sown and to be a good manure for barren Land where it thrives very well as on sandy gravelly and the worst that may be yea amongst Bushes and Bryars Sodden in water they are excellent Food for Oxen and doubtless for Swine and other Cattle If this be true as probably it seems to be I admire this Plant should be so much neglected but I may give you a more plenary and satisfactory Accompt of this and some other not usual Seeds and Pulses another time These are not usual in most places of England but where they Tares are sown they much benefit the Land as other Pulses and are rather to be preferred for Fodder than any other use they can be put unto There are several other Pulses or Seeds mentioned in our Authors Other Pulses as Fasels Cich Peason Wilde Tares c. which if carefully and ingeniously prosecuted might redound to the Husbandmans Advantage and in the same manner might several other not yet brought into common use although they might in all probability be as beneficial as those already in use SECT IV. Of Hemp and Flax. Within the compass of our Lands subject to the Culture of the Plough may these two necessary and profitable Vegetables be propagated requiring a competent proportion of Ground to raise a quantity sufficient to supply our ordinary occasions and necessities in defect whereof and meerly through our own neglect and sloath we purchase the greatest share of these Hempen and Flaxen Commodities we use from Strangers at a dear Rate when we have room enough to raise wherewith of the same Commodities to furnish them But that to our shame be it spoken we prefer good Liquor or at least the Corn that makes it before any other Grain or Seed although other may be propagated with greater facility less hazard and abundantly more advantageous both to the Husbandman and Nation in general than that I need not put Excuses into the Countrey-mens mouths they Impediments to the sowing of Hemp and Flax. have enough for their grand Negligence in this principal part of Agriculture but that I here propose them in hopes some Worthy Patriots will use their endeavours to remove these Impediments 1. The first and most grand Impediment to this Improvement Want of Trade an Impediment is want of Encouragement to Trade or a right Constitution or Ordering of Employments for the Poor throughout the Countries which may be accomplished without charge the common Remora to all Ingenuities by granting some extraordinary Immunities to certain Societies in several places convenient in every County to be established which being the first and chiefest thing to be done will almost of it self remove all other Impediments 2. The next is the defect of Experience very few understanding Want of Experience an Impediment the way of Sowing Gathering Watering Heckling and other particular Modes in ordering these Commodities nor yet the nature of the Ground either of them delights in All which by the President and Example of some publique and ingenious Spirits and by the constitution of a Trade to take off the said Commodities to the Husbandmans Advantage may easily be removed 3. Another main Impediment to the Improvement and Propagation Tythes an Impediment of these and several other Staple-Commodities not yet brought into publike use and practice is that the Planter after he hath been at extraordinary Expence in Fertilizing Tilling and Planting his Land and in preserving and advancing the Growth of such Commodities not only the Profit of his Land but also of all his Expence and Labour must be decimated which in some years amounts to more than his own clear Profits when before such Improvements made little Tythe was paid as for Pasture-Lands is usual either a reservation to the Parson of what was formerly paid out of such unimproved Lands or a certain Modus decimandi according to the nature of the Commodity planted might prove a very great Encouragement to the Husbandman an infinite Advantage to the Nation in general and not the least injury or loss to the Clergy or Impropriator Some other Impediments there are and also other Propositions might be made for the Advancement of this and several other Commodities but they require more time to treat of than in this place we may dispense withal Hemp delights in the best Land warm and sandy or a little Hemp. gravelly so it be rich and of a deep Soil cold Clay wet and moorish is not good It is good to destroy Weeds on any Land The best Seed is the brightest that will retain its colour and substance in Rubbing three Bushels will sowe an Acre the richer the Land the thicker it must be sown the poorer the thinner from the beginning to the end of April is the time of sowing according as the Spring falls out earlier or later it must be carefully preserved from Birds who will destroy many of the Seeds The Season of Gathering of it is first about Lammas when a good part of it will be ripe that is the lighter Summer-hemp that bears no Seed and is called the Fimble-hemp and the Stalk grows white and when it is ripe it is most easily discernable which is about that season to be pulled forth and dried and laid up for use you must be cautious of breaking what you leave lest you spoil it you must let the other grow till the Seed be ripe which will be about Michaelmas or before and this is usually called the Karle-Hemp When you have gathered and bound
a Bush or such-like They are sown at two Seasons of the year in the Spring with other the like Kitchin-Tillage and also about Midsummer or after in the Harlib's Legacie Fields for the use of Cattle or any other use In Holland they slice their Turneps with their tops and Rape-seed Cakes and Grains c. and therewith make Mashes for the Cows and give it them warm which the Cows will eat like Hogs Cows and Swine also will eat them raw if they are introduced into the dyet by giving the Turneps first boyled unto them and then only scalded and afterwards they will eat them raw It is also reported that at Rouen they boyl Turneps with the Leaves on them till they be tender and add thereto Wheaten-bran and of the Cakes of Rape-seed or Lin-seed all which hath a singular faculty of fatting Cattle but for Milch-beasts they put less of the Seeds this they give twice a day and is the most part of their Feeding for the Winter only It is a very great neglect and deficiencie in our English Husbandry that this particular Piece is no more prosecuted seeing that the Land it requires need not be very rich and that they may be sown as a second Crop also especially after early-Pease and that it supplies the great want of Fodder that is usual in the Winter not only for fatting Beasts Swine c. but also for our Milch-Kine SECT VI. Of Setting of Corn. Besides the usual manner of sowing of Corn are there several other ways of dispersing it as by setting and howing of it in c. This Art of setting Corn seems to be very Ancient as appears by Virgil Vnguibus infodiunt ipsis fruges and hath been a long time attempted to be brought into practice again as appears by Mr. Platt's Adams Tool Revived Printed in the year 1600. where he doth very ingeniously describe not only the way but the great advantage that accrews by this then new Discovery The first part thereof giving you the reason why Corn sown in the common way yields not so great an increase as it doth by being set then he shews you the manner of digging the Land where you are to set your Corn whereof we have spoken before then he proceeds to the Description of his Instruments whereof some are only many pins set at a convenient distance in a Board which compressed on the Earth make so many holes wherein the Wheat-grains are to be dropt one by one but because these are very unnecessary and troublesome and that there are newer and better ways found out I shall decline any further discourse about them Also he gives you the distance and depth where he observes that at three Inches distance and three Inches depth there hath grown thirty Quarters of Wheat on an Acre of Ground and that four Inches in depth and distance hath yielded but twenty Quarters he also speaks of five Inches in depth and five in distance It 's probable the diversity of the Land or of these years wherein the experiments were proved might beget some differences Afterwards he adviseth in barren Lands to fill up the holes with some good mixture or fat Compost or to imbibe the Grain you set therewith whereof more hereafter Then Mr. Gabriel Platt succeeds with his newer and better Discovery of infinite Treasure composed Method of setting Corn whereby he pretends to remedy all the Inconveniences of the former way by his two new invented Engines the one for the more expeditious setting of the Corn the other for the laying up the Land on Ridges just on the tops of the rows of Corn that neither surplusage of moisture might annoy it nor frost in Winter kill it which way prevents the laying the Land in high Ridges before sowing Neither need the Land be digged only ploughed harrowed and then set The description of which Engine for the setting of Corn he Description of Mr. Platts Engine for setting Corn. gives you in these words Let there be two boards of equal breadth boared with wide holes at four inches distance and be set in a Frame of two Foot high the one from the other then let there be a Funnel for every hole made of thin boards about two Inches square Then for the top let there be two thin boards of equal breadth boared likewise whereof the uppermost is to be boared with an hot Iron with holes longer the one way than the other and is to be of such a thickness that but one Corn only can lie in the hole The other board is to be boared with wide holes and to be loose that while the Engine is charged the holey part may be under the holes of the uppermost board and when the holes in the Earth are made by the Nether-works then to be moved so that all the Corns may drop down And for charging a little Corn being swept up and down by a Broom or a Brush will fill the holes and if any miss the workman may put in here and there an odd Corn with his fingers and then moving the second Board till the holes be answerable all the Corns will drop down at an instant then let a large ledge be set about the top of the Engine to keep the Corn from spilling and so is the upper-part thereof made And as for the Nether-work it is somewhat more chargeable and intricate for there must be for every hole a little socket of brass cast with a Verge to nail unto the Nether-board about the hole which must be turned and boared all of one wideness to an hairs-breadth and must be wide above and streight below like a Faucet Then there must be Iron pins of five inches long of great thick Iron-wyer drawn so fit that no earth can come into the brass-sockets Now to make these play up and down at pleasure is the greatest skill in the whole work and there is no other way but that which is here described There must be for every wooden Funnel a piece of Iron forged flat with a hole in the middle edge-wise which through two slits in the nether-part must play up and down through which a brass-nail must be fastned cast with an head contrary to other nails bowing downwards to which the Iron-pins must be fastned with wyers and so thrust down and plucked up at pleasure And then every end of the flat pieces of Iron must be fastned into a piece of Wood of such thickness that two thereof may fill up the distance between the rows of the wooden Funnels These may be made to play up and down like Virginal-Jacks and when they are lifted up then the brass Funnels being wider above than below give leave for the Corn to fall into the holes all at an instant These Jacks must be fastned together the two first on either side of the wooden Funnels then so many together as the weight of the workmen is able to thrust down to make the holes And there
and very little extraordinary charge expence or hazard First Make a Frame of Timber of about two or three Inches square the breadth of the Frame about two foot the height about eighteen inches the length about four foot more or less as you please place this Frame on two pair of ordinary Wheels like Plough-wheels The Axletree of the two foremost Wheels is to lock to either side as doth the fore Axletree of a Waggon for reasons hereafter shewn the hindermost Axeltree being of Iron and square in the middle must be fixed to the Centre of the Wheels that the Axes and Wheels may move together Then about the middle of the Frame in the bottom let there be fixed an Iron-Instrument or of Wood pointed with Iron like unto a Coulter made a little spreading at the bottom in the nature of a Share made to pass through two Mortoises on the top for its greater strength and made also to be wedged higher or lower according as you will have your furrow in depth the use whereof is only to make the furrow so that you must make the point thereof of breadth only to move the Earth and cast it or force it on either side that the Corn may fall to the bottom of the furrow then over this Share or Coulter a little behinde it may a Wooden-pipe be made to come from the top of the Frame to the lower end of the Share tapering downwards and as near as you can to the Share to deliver the Corn immediately as the ground is opened and before any Earth falls in that what Earth doth afterwards fall in it may fall on the Corn. This Pipe is to proceed out of a large Hopper fixed on the top of the Frame that may contain about a Bushel more or less as you think fit but that the Corn may gradually descend according to the quantity you intend to bestow on an Acre at the very neck of the Hopper underneath in the square hollows thereof must be fitted in the edge of a Wheel of Wood about half an Inch thick and proportionable to the cavity of the neck the Wheel need not be above two or three Inches Diameter and fixed on an Axis extending from one side of the Frame to the other on which Axis is also to be another Wheel with an edge on the Circumference thereof like the wheel of a Spit or Jack which must answer to another Wheel of the like nature form fixed on the Axis of the hindermost Wheels then fit a Line of silk is best because it will not be so apt to shrink and reach as Hemp about these two Wheels that when the Instrument moves on the hindermost Wheels by the means of the line the small Wheel at the neck of the Hopper may also move which lesser Wheel in the neck of the Hopper may have short pieces of thick Leather fixed in the Circumference thereof like unto the teeth of a Jack-wheel that upon its motion it may deduce the Corn out of the Hopper in what proportion you please for in case it comes too fast then may you by a wedge at the Tenon of the piece whereon the Hopper rests or at the end of the Axis of the lesser Wheel like as in a Querne force the Wheel and Hopper together and in case it feeds too slow then may you remove them by the same wedges to a further distance also in case your line be too slack or too hard you may prevent either extreme by a wedge in the place where the Axis of the wheels moves or by a third Wheel about the middle of the line made to move further or nearer as you see cause One Horse and one Man may work with this Instrument and The more particular use and benefit of this Instrument sowe Land as fast or faster than six Horses can Plough so that you may with ease compute the expence in case your Instrument be single but you may in the same Frame have two Shares at twelve inches distance more or less as you will have the rows of Corn distant 1 As to time the one from the other and two Pipes out of the same Hopper and two small Wheels on the same Axis with other Wheels answerable every whit as easie to be performed as one and then may you double your proportion of Land in a day This Instrument will always keep the same proportion you first set him to which you must thus contrive First know the length 2. Equality of Seed of the Furrow you sowe then cast up how many of these Furrows at such distance your Instrument is made for whether a foot more or less will amount unto an Acre then conclude how much to sowe on an Acre as suppose a Bushel then divide that Bushel into so many parts as you have furrows or distances in that Acre then take one or two of those parts and put into your Hopper and observe whether it will hold out or super-abound at the end of one or two Furrows and accordingly proceed and rectifie the Feeder or you may judge by your own reason whether it feed too fast or too slow In case it feeds too fast notwithstanding they be close placed 3 Rectification of the Feeder together then you may make that Wheel at the lower Axis wherein the Line moves to be less than the upper then will the motion be slower And thus may you make it move as slow as you will by augmenting the upper and diminishing the lower Wheels wherein the Line is and make it move faster by the contrary Rule In case you drive apace it feeds apace in case you drive but 4 No difference in driving fast or slow slow it feeds but slowly here is no error When you come to any turning at the Lands-end by lifting up 5 No loss of Seed the hindermost part of the Instrument that those Wheels touch not the ground the feeding of the Corn immediately ceaseth until you set it down again Also all the Corn you sowe lies at one certain depth none too deepâ— nor any too shallow You may place a small kinde of Harrow to follow but the best 6 Needs no harrowing way is to have on each side each Furrow a piece of wood a little broad at the end set aslope to force the Earth rounding on the Corn this may well be placed and fitted to the bottom of this Instrument just behinde the Share and Feeding-pipe By this Method of Sowing any sort of Grain or Pulse may be General Advantages of this Instrument saved the one half and in some places more which by the other way is either buried so deep under Clots that it cannot come up or else is so shallow that the Cold in the Winter or Drought in the Summer killeth it or else lies on the Surface as a prey to the Fowls of the Air Much also thereof falls in clusters twenty or thirty Grains where one or two might
afterwards in the same Tract gives the partilar Process which is thus Let Pease be taken and steeped in as much Water as will cover them till they swell and Corn and be so ordered as Barley is for Maulting only with this difference that for this work if they sprout twice as much as Barley doth in Maulting 't is the better The Pease thus sprouted if beaten small which is easily done they being so tender put into a Vessel and stopt with a Bung and Rag as usually these will ferment and after two or three or four Months if distilled will really perform what before is promised Thus he also adds may a Spirit or Aqua Vitae be made out of any green growing thing Roots Berries Seeds c. which are not oyly Also that the Spirit which is made out of Grain not dried into Mault is more pleasant than the other It is not unlikely that Grain may afford its tincture and that excellent Beer or Ale may be made thereof without Maulting but these things require in another place to be treated of and also of the different ways of Fermenting Liquors which we refer to another time and place Hemp-seed is much commended for the feeding of Poultrey The uses of Hemp-seed Flax-seed Rape and Cole-seed and other Fowl so that where plenty thereof may be had and a good return for Fowl the use thereof must needs be advantageous ordered as you shall finde hereafter when we treat of Poultrey Flax-seed or Lin-seed Rape and Cole-seed are generally made use of for the making of Oyl Of the Preservation of Corn. The Preservation of Corn when it is plenty and good is of very great advantage to the Husbandman and the Kingdom in general for in scarce and dear years the Husbandman hath little to sell to advance his Stock and the Buyers are usually furnished with musty and bad Corn from Forein parts or from such that were ignorant of the ways to preserve it Therefore in cheap years it will be very necessary to make use of some of these ways for the storing up your Plenty of Corn against a time of Scarcity The way of making of it up in Reecks on Reeck-stavals set on On Reeck-stavals stones that the Mice may not come at it is usual and common But Corn thrashed and clean winnowed is apt to be musty therefore Corn laid up with Chaff some advise that you lay up your Corn in the Chaff in large Granaries made for that purpose secure from the Mice and when you use or sell it then to winnow it Also it is advised to mix Beans with Corn and that it will preserve Corn laid up with Beans it from heating and mustiness It is probable that if the Beans be well dried on a Kiln it may succeed for then will they attract all superfluous moisture unto them which is the only cause of the injury to the Corn for in Egypt where it is so dry Corn will keep in open Granaries many years as in Pharaoh's time The Beans are easily separated afterwards from the Corn. It is also reported that pieces of Iron Flints Pebles c. mixed Iron stones c mixed with Corn. with Corn preserves it from heating which may be true for it is usual to set a stick an end in Corn only to give passage for the Air to prevent heating A large Granary also full of square wooden pipes full of small holes may keep long from heating though not so well as the Chaff Beans c. Also some have had two Granaries the one over the other and A double Granary one over the other filled the upper which had a small hole in the bottom that the Corn by degrees like Sand in an Hour-glass hath fallen into the lower and when it was all in the lower they removed it into the upper and so kept it in continual motion which is a good way also to preserve it SECT VIII Of the Preparation of the Seed The greatest part of Vegetables and more especially those whereof we have before treated are propagated of Seed which included in a very small shell skin or husk containeth the very Quintessence of the Plant that produced it and is as it were the Life and Spirit of the Vegetable coagulated into a small compass Etenim Natura è tota Plantae mole nobiliores maximè activas Dr. Willis de Fermentatione particulas segregat easque cum pauxillo terrae aquae simul collectas in Semina velut Plantae cujusvis quintas essentias efformat interim truncus folia caules reliqua Plantae membra principiis activis pene orbata valdè depauperantur ac minoris efficaciae ac virtutis existunt This Seed or Spirit of the Plant being cast into its proper Matrix or Menstruum in its proper time doth attract unto its self its proper nourishment or moisture which by its own strength or power it doth ferment and transmute that which was before another thing now into its own being substance or nature and thereby doth dispand its self and encrease into the form and matter by Nature designed A more Philosophick Definition and Dissection of the nature of the Seed and Vegetation we will leave to the more Learned and content our selves in our Rural Habitation with so much of the understanding thereof as shall guide us unto the Discovery and Application of what may be this proper Menstruum wherein each Seed most rejoyceth in and with most delight attracteth for it is most evident that every Seed as it differs in nature from another so it requires a different nourishment For we perceive that in the same Land one sort of Seed will thrive where another will not according to the Proverb Ones Meat is anothers Poyson and that any sort of Grain or Seed will in time extract and diminish such Nutriment that it most delights in Which is the cause that our Husbandmen do finde so Change of Seed an Improvement great an Advantage and Improvement by changing their Seed especially from that Land which is often tilled which they call Hook-Land into Land newly broken and from dry barren and hungry Land to rich and fat Land also from Land inclining to the South to Land inclining to the North è contra all which produce a good Improvement As Cattle that are taken out of short sour and bad Pasture and put into good sweet Pasture thrive better than such that are not so exchanged After the same manner it is with Trees removed out of bad Ground into good all which are manifest Signes that there is some particular thing wherein each Seed delights which if we did but understand we might properly apply it and gain Riches and Honour to our selves but because we are ignorant thereof and are content so to remain we will make use of such Soyls Dungs Composts and other Preparations and Ways of Advancement of the Growth of Vegetables as are already discovered
Subject Non tantum in agris praestat sed Page 21. etiam arboribus vit ibus adeo ut una eodem plena tonna tantum ad agrorum stercorationem conferre valeat quantum decem simo equino aut vaccine replet a plaustra solent This kinde of Manure either by Burning as before or with the fixed Salts of any thing whatsoever doth also much more enrich your Crop than any other Dung or Soil for this tendeth principally unto fertility ordinary Dung of Beasts more unto the gross substance of the Straw or Hawme than unto Fruit or Seed and also breeds more of Weeds than this our Vniversal Subject There are also several other sorts of Materials to be used as Other Soyls and Manures Soils and Manures for the fertilizing and enriching of Lands Some whereof are taken from the Earth as Chalk Marle Clay c. Others from the Waters as Sands Weeds c. Others also are the Dungs and Excrements of living Creatures and others that are several sorts of Vegetables themselves and other casual things as Soot Raggs c. Of all which we finde these whereof we shall now treat to have been found out and commended to be useful and beneficial to the Husbandman for the purposes before mentioned SECT II. Soyls and Manures taken from the Earth Whereof there are several sorts some of so hard and undissoluble Of Chalk a nature that it is not fit to lay on Lands simply as it is but after it is burned into Lime becomes a very excellent Improver of Lands there are also other sorts of Chalk more unctuous and soluble which being laid on Lands crude as they are and let lie till the Frosts and Rain shatter and dissolve the same prove a very considerable advantage to barren Lands now where any of these Chalks are found it is good to prove their natures by laying them on some small portion of Land crude as they are or by burning them into Lime if Fewel be plenty or to half burn them by which you may experimentally know the true effects and benefits that Subject will yield And although Chalk simply of it self either burnt or unburnt may not prove so advantageous as many have reported yet is it of very great use to be mixed with Earth and the Dungs of Animals by which may be made an admirable sure and natural fruitful Composition for almost any sorts of Lands and raiseth Corn in abaundance Liming of Land is of most excellent use many barren parts of Of Lime this Nation being thereby reduced into so fertile a condition for bearing most sorts of Grain that upon Land not worth above one or two shillings an Acre well husbanded with Lime hath been raised as good Wheat Barly white and gray Pease as England yields English Improver Also that by the same means from a Ling Heath or Common naturally barren and little worth hath been raised most gallant Corn worth five or six pound an Acre By the same Author He also affirms that some men have had and received so much profit upon their Lands by once liming as hath paid the purchase of their Lands and that himself had great advance thereby yet lived twenty miles from Lime and fetched the same by Waggon so far to lay it on his Lands One Author saith twelve or fourteen quarters will Lime an Acre another saith 160 Bushels the difference of the Land may require a different proportion The most natural Land for Lime is the light and sandy the next mixt and gravelly wet and cold gravel not good cold clay the worst of all Also a mixture of Lime Earth and Dung together is a very excellent Compost for Land Marle is a very excellent thing commended of all that either Of Marle Differences of Marle write or practise any thing in Husbandry There are several kinds of it some stony some soft white gray russet yellow blew black and some red It is of a cold nature and saddens Land exceedingly and very heavy it is and will go downwards though not so much as Lime doth The goodness or badness thereof is not Signes of good or bad Marle known so much by the colour as by the Purity and Uncompoundedness of it for if it will break into bits like a Dye or smooth like Lead-Oar without any composition of Sand or Gravel or if it will slake like Slate-stones and slake or shatter after a shower of Rain or being exposed to the Sun or Air and shortly after turn to dust when it 's throughly dry again and not congeal like tough Clay question not the fruitfulness of it notwithstanding the difference of colours which are no certain signes of the goodness of the Marle As for the Slipperiness Viscousness Fattiness or Oyliness thereof although it be commonly esteemed a signe of good Marle yet the best Authors affirm the contrary viz. That there is very good Marle which is not so but lieth in the Mine pure dry and short yet nevertheless if you water it you shall finde it slippery But the best and truest Rule to know the richness and Best way to know Marle profit of your Marle is to try a Load or two on your Lands in several places and in different proportions They usually lay the same on small heaps and disperse it over Use and Benefit of Marle the whole Field as they do their Dung and this Marle will keep the Land whereon it is laid in some places ten or fifteen and in some places thirty years in heart it is most profitable in dry light and barren Lands such as is most kinde and natural for Rye as is evident by Mr. Blithes Experiment in his Chapter of Marle It also affordeth not its vertue or strength the first year so much as in the subsequent years It yields a very great Increase and Advantage on high sandy gravelly or mixed Lands though never so barren strong Clay-ground is unsutable to it yet if it can be laid dry Marle may be profitable on that also It is very necessary in marling Lands to finde out the true proportion how much on every Acre that you add not too much nor too little in medio virtus It 's better to erre by laying on too little than too much because you may add more at pleasure but you cannot take away the surest way is to try some small quantities first and proceed as your Experiments encourage It hath been also experimentally observed that you are to lay your Marle in the beginning of Winter on hard and binding Grounds And on the contrary you are to lay it in the Spring on light sandy dry and gravelly lands but it 's good to try both it 's held to be best to lay it abroad in the beginning of Winter that the Frosts may first make the same moulder into small pieces and so to become apt for Solution which is done by the Rains that more plentifully fall in the Winter You shall
of their Land and that to a very great advantage All manner of Sea-owse Owsy-mud or Sea-weeds or any such-like growing either in the Sea or fresh Rivers whereof there is a very great quantity lost and destroyed are very good for the bettering of Land In Cornwal there is also a Weed called Ore-weed whereof some grows upon Rocks under high Water-marks and some is broken from the bottom of the Sea by rough weather and cast upon the next shore by the Wind and Flood wherewith they Compost their Barly-Land Of Snayl-Cod or Snag-greet It lieth frequently in deep Rivers it is from a Mud or Sludge it is very soft full of Eyes and wrinkles and little shells is very rich some they sell for one shilling two pence the Load another sort they sell for two shillings four pence the Load at the Rivers-side which men fetch twenty miles an end for the Inriching of their Land for Corn and Grass one Load going as far as three Load of the best Horse or Cow-dung that can be had It hath in it many Snails and Shells which is conceived occasioneth the fatness of it I am very credibly informed that an Ingenious Gentleman living Of Oyster-shells near the Sea-side laid on his Lands great quantities of Oyster-shells which made his Neighbours laugh at him as usually they do at any thing besides their own clownish road or custom of ignorance for the first and second years they signified little but afterwards they being so long exposed to the weather and mixed with the moist Earth they exceedingly enriched his Lands for many years after which stands also with reason the Shells of all such Fish being only Salt congealed into such a form which when it is dissolved of necessity must prove fertile There is in most Rivers a very good rich Mud of great fruitfulness Of Mud. and unexpected advantage it costs nothing but labour in getting it hath in it great worth and vertue being the Soil of the Pastures and Fields Commons Roads Ways Streets and Backsides all washed down by the flood and setling in such places where it meets with rest There is likewise very great fertility in the residence of all Channels Ponds Pools Lakes and Ditches where any store of Waters do repose themselves but especially where any store of Rain-water hath a long time setled In Forein parts where Fish are plenty they prove an excellent Of Fish Manure for Land in some places here in England there are plenty of some sorts of Fish and at some seasons not capable of being kept for a Market it were better to make use of them for our advantage than not I presume they are of the best of Soils or Manures but herein I submit to experience Doubtless there is not any thing that proceeds from the Sea or other Waters whether it be Fish or the Garbish of Fish Vegetables Shells Sands or Mud or any such-like dissolving matter but must be of very great advantage to the Husbandman if duly and judiciously applied SECT IV. Of Dungs or Excrementitious Soyls This is the most common of any Dung whatsoever by reason Of Horse dung that Horses are most kept in Stables and their Soil preserved yielding a considerable price in most places the higher the Horses are fed the better is the Dung by far it is the only Dung in use whilest it is new for hot Beds and other uses for the Gardiner Next unto the Horse-dung is Cow-dung whereof by reason of Of Cow or Ox-dung its easie solution hath been made the Water wherein Grain hath been steeped and hath deceived many a plain-meaning Husbandman for there is not that richness nor vertue therein as many judge for that purpose But this together with Horse-dung or other Dung is of very great advantage to Land if it be kept till it be old and not laid abroad exposed to the Sun and Wind as is the practise of the several ignorant Husbands letting of it lie spread on their Field-Lands three or four of the Summer-months together till the Sun and Air hath exhausted all the vertue thereof which if it be laid on heaps with Earth mixed therewith and so let lie till it be rotten it will be the sooner brought to a convenient temper and on Pasture-grounds brings a sweeter Grass and goes much farther than the common way and spread before the Plough produces excellent Corn It is also to be used with Judgment for ordinary Dung used the common way in some years doth hurt and sometimes makes Weeds and trumpery to grow which ordered as before is not so apt for such inconveniences Of all Beasts Sheep Of Sheeps-dung yield the best Dung and therefore is most to be esteemed it is a very high Improvement to the common Field-lands where there is a good Flock duly folded on them especially where it is turned in with the Plough soon after the fold the only way to Improve your Sheeps-dung to the highest advantage is to fold them in a covered fold with intermixture of Earth Sand c. as before and by this means we may make our sheep enrich most of our barren Lands Sheeps-dung is very excellent being dissolved wholly as it will be if well squeezed to steep Grain therein for the Grain doth very eagerly imbibe the whole quantity of the Dung into it self except only here and there a treddle undissolved and proves a great Improvement if rightly ordered Great quantities of this Dung might be obtained if poor Women and Children were imployed to pick up the same on the Rode-ways and burning tops of hills where it seldom doth any good but would prove much more advantageous than the cost or trouble by far This hath in former Ages been esteemed the worst of Dungs Of Swines-dung very hurtful to Corn a breeder of Thistles and other noisome Weeds But our late Husbands whose experience I rather credit than English Improver an old vain Tradition say 't is very rich for Corn or Grass or any Land yea of such account to many ingenious Husbands that they prefer it before any ordinary Manure whatsoever therefore they make their Hog-yards most compleat with an high Pale paved well with Pibble or Gravel in the bottom c. they cast into this yard their Cornish Muskings and all Garbidge and all Leaves Roots Fruits and Plants out of Gardens Courts and Yards and great store of Straw Fearn or Weeds for the Swine to make Dung withal some Hog-yards will yield you forty some sixty some eighty Load of excellent Manure of ten or twelve Swine It 's most likely that this Manure so made by these large additions is more natural and kindly to Land than the bare Swines-dung it self and must of necessity prove a very high advantage considering the despicable vile state of this Beast Some good Daries will make the Soil of their Hog-yard produce them twenty or thirty pounds worth of profit in a year Of the Dung of Fowls
the next felling at seven years growth it is like to be of the same value it coming much thicker and being better preserved than at the first which is a very considerable advance of the value or profits besides it is not subject to those casualties and hazards that Corn Cattle c. are subject unto It will also bring in an Annual profit if you divide your Coppice into so many parts as you intend it shall stand years before it be felled then may you every year fell a part as if you have ten Acres you may every year fell one Acre at ten years growth The better and lighter your Land is the greater will your encrease be which may in some sort if the Land be very good make good the Improvement Mr. Blyth instances in his Improver Improved of a new Plantation that at eleven years growth a fall was made and so much Wood cut upon the same as was worth or sold for sixty pounds per Acre or more it was much Pole-wood yea a good part of it made Spars and some part of it small Building Timber c. the Land was worth about ten shillings per Acre digged and planted with Quicksets The same Author also gives very great encouragement for the planting of Poplar Willow and Alder on wet morish or boggy Land to the advancement of Land not worth two shillings an Acre unto five pounds an Acre at seven years growth which is the least I am confident if it be carefully ordered Thirdly The Benefit and Advantage is very great that is raised from Timber and other Trees standing singly and in Hedge-rows Avenues or any other way disposed or ordered about your Houses Lands Commons c. that a man may plant and in a few years himself or his successors may reap the benefit Mr. Blith gives you an instance of one that planted one hundred Ashes and at the end of fifty years sold them for five hundred pounds And of another that planted so much Wood in his own life that he would not take 50000 l. for For Ash Elm Poplar Willow and such Trees that are quick of growth it is a very great profit that is made of them where Fewel is scarce by planting them in Hedge-rows and other spare places and shrouding them at five six eight or ten years growth they constantly bear a good head and every time whilest the Tree is in proof the shrowds encrease They are out of the danger of the bite of Cattle and require no Fence Fourthly Another main Benefit accrews to the industrious Husbandman from the Propagation of Trees in Hedge-rows and Out-bounds of his Lands it gives a check to the fierce cold Winter-blasts which nip the Winter-Corn and finely refrigerates the Air in the Summer-parching Heats and qualifies the dry and injurious Winds both in Spring and Summer Let the Champion-Farmers object what they please there 's no Field Champion-Land of that yearly value for either Corn or Pasture as is the Woodland I know no other reason for it than the natural warmth and defence thereof by the Fences and Trees else why should an Enclosed and well-planted piece of Several yield so much more certain Rent than the Land of the like nature in Common and Open lying but on the other side of the Hedge obvious to the injurious Airs although both converted to the same use Fifthly Trees planted sparsim here and there in the Hedge-rows and other places of your Land prove an excellent shelter for Cattle in the Winter to preserve them from cold Storms and Winds and also in the Summer from the scorching Sun-beams else would the Cattle destroy more with their Feet than they eat with their mouths and lose more fatness in one hot day than they gain in three cool days These universal Advantages also accrew to those Places or More universal Advantatages Countries well planted with Woods and Timber First There is a constant supply of Timber for the Building of Ships the Bulwarks and Defence of this Nation and for the reedifying of Towns or Houses destroyed by Fire or other Casualties and for the Building Maintaining of and Repairing of all Houses Barns and other Edifices And also it yieldeth us a continual Recruit of necessary Boots Instruments and Materials for all our Rural and Mechanick uses as for our Mills Carts Ploughs c. and for Turners Joyners and other Wooden Trades also for the maintenance of the Grooves or Pits of Lead Coal and other Mines under the Earth that where plenty of Woods and Trees are they need not be enforced to fetch these Materials afar off at a great expence and labor In some places they fetch most of the Necessaries aforesaid near twenty miles on Horsback when the Land at the same place where they need it as is capable of bearing it as the place from whence they bring it Secondly Where Woods are raised and maintained there is a constant Supply of Fewel The difference may be very easily discerned between the Woodlands and the Champion in the one you have Fewel in every house as well poor as rich of good Wood in the other the Rich have but little and that at extraordinary Rates and the poor none but what they filch and steal from the Rich or if their honesty exceed their necessity they either sit and starve with cold or burn Stubble of Corn or Cow-dung dried or the Parings of the Earth or such-like that the other make use of for the Improvement and Manuring their Land Thirdly The Tanners Trade depends upon the Oaken-Trees therefore where they are scarce there must of necessity be a defect of that Occupation which must in fine prove prejudicial to the whole Nation Fourthly Where Beech Oak Hasel and such-like Mast-bearing Trees are in any considerable quantity standing they yield a very good Food for Swine of no small value to the Husbandman in such years they take I shall therefore give you a brief Catalogue of such Trees as usually flourish in our English Soil the places they most delight in the most natural and likely way of Propagation and their uses and what other Observations we have met withal concern-them And first SECT II. Of Timber-trees in particular There is no Timber natural to our English Soil exceeds the The Oak Oak for its Plenty Strength and Durableness Where are better or stronger Ships for the War than those built of Oak And what Timber more lasting or stronger than Oak in our Rural Edifices It is a Tree universally known and will grow and prosper in any Land good or bad Clay Gravel Sand or mixed warm cold dry or moist as experimentally appears by its growth in several Place places of contrary natures or tempers but they do most affect the sound black deep and fast Mould rather warm than over-wet and cold and a little rising for this produces the firmest Timber although I have known them thrive very well in extraordinary cold moist and
clay-ground that a Tun of Timber could not be thence haled unless in the dry and Summer-season but that the Wheels would sink in the Clay to the Axle-tree They will also grow though but slowly on the high stony and barren Hills The Acorns or Oaken-Mast being sown in your Nursery after Propagation they are full ripe and before they are withered which will quickly be if they lie open in the Air will the next Spring yield you plenty of young Plants which you may order and transplant as hereafter in the Nursery you shall have Directions Or for expedition-sake you may have young Sets drawn by those that seek the Woods for Quick-sets in such places where Acorns have spontaneously grown and been sheltered from Cattle till they are fit for a remove but these prove generally crooked and ill-shaped and so are to be cut near to the ground when you plant them by which means they will emit another shoot more streight Oaks also prosper very well in Coppices being felled as other Under-woods are It is reported that a Lady in Northamptonshire sowed Acorns and lived to cut the Trees produced from them twice in two and twenty years and both as well grown as most are in sixteen or eighteen Also that Acorns set in Hedge-rows have in thirty years born a Stem of a Foot Diameter The several uses of Oaken Timber for Buildings and other Mechanick Use uses is so universally known that it is but needless to enumerate them To abide all seasons of the weather there is no Wood comparable unto it as for Pales Shingles Posts Rails Boards c. For Water-works also it is second to none especially where it lies obvious to the Air as well as the Water there is no Wood like it For Fewel either as it is or made into Chaâ—coal there is no Wood equals it The Bark also for the Tanner and Dyer exceeds all other Barks the very Saw-dust and ashes also of the Oak challenge a preference the Mast exceeds any other Mast of the Forrest-trees and is of great use to the Husbandman in fatting Swine for in the Forrests and great Woods many herds of Swine are very well fatted in such years that the Oak yields plenty of Mast and that Bacon so fed especially if the Swine are kept up with Pease some time after is the most delicious meat for the Hams we have from Westphalia and other parts of Germany under that name are of those Swine that feed on this Mast for their exercise they of necessity use in searching for these Acorns as well as the natural sweetness of the Fruit it self very much meliorateth the flesh of these Animals as it doth of Deer Hares Conies Pheasants Ducks and many others the flesh of them that are wild being by much to be preferred to the tame The young Boughs of the lopped Oak in the Spring-time are of equal use to the Tanner as is the Bark of this Tree as hath been found by the experience of many Tanners of this Nation within these few years The Elm is one of the most easie Trees to propagate and delighting The Elm. in most sorts of ground except only Land very dry hot and parching shallow Land near Chalk or Gravel on the tops of Hills it thrives not well yet it will grow almost in any place But the places it principally delights in is the level light and loose Land so that it be moist on the Banks of such level and fertile grounds whether they be of Gravel Earth or Chalk the Elm prospers well About the beginning of March fall the seeds of the Elm which Propagation being sown in your Nursery will yield you Plants But the care and trouble thereof is superfluous seeing there are newer and more expeditious and advantageous ways known viz. by the Suckers Which are produced in great plenty from the roots of the Elm and may be transplanted into any places where the Elms grow great plenty of these Suckers will yearly shoot out of the Earth if Cattle be kept from them or if any Elm be felled the old Roots will yield plenty of Suckers or if the old Roots be chopped or slit and slightly covered with light mould they will send forth plenty of Suckers all which may be slipped off and transplanted even unto any bigness there being no Tree more easily transplanted and with good success than the Elm observing these Cautions that if you remove them very young that you cut not off the top because it is sappy and the wet will be apt to get in and decay the Plant being weakened by his removal but the greater you must be sure to disbranch leaving only the stem some cover also the head of such Elm so cut off with a mixture of Clay and Horse-dung I have been very credibly informed that a certain Gentleman in the North-Country having a desire to raise suddenly a Plump or Grove of Trees about his Mansion-house there being a great scarcity of Wood in that place obtained a parcel of Elm-trees lops and tops and made Trenches or Ditches in the Earth and cut his Elm-branches c. into several lengths of six eight ten or twenty feet in length as with best conveniencie he could and buried them singly in the Trenches so digged and covered them wholly from the one end to the other leaving only a hole open about the middle of the interred branch or if it were a long piece then two open places might be left out of which places did spring forth several shoots the first year of a very great length the Winter succeeding he took these branches or shoots all save only the fairest and which was most probable and likely to thrive and so filled up the hole about it by which means they grew to a prodigious height in a few years that his habitation was compleatly adorned with living aspiring products of his ingenious attempt Note that the true time of this Sepulture is when the sap is full in the Tree when the Leaves are newly sprung for then the great quantity of the sap that is in the whole branch forceth it self into those shoots or Cions that then have found a passage also for the succeeding yeers the whole Tree in the Earth becomes a main principal nourishing Root to the nimble growing Tree For it is evident that if an Elm be felled in the Spring-time when the sap is up that then the Tree lying on the ground will spend much of its sap in small shoots in every part of it Much rather if such Tree were buried in a good moist Soil with only one part thereof open to the Air from which part you expect a flourishing shoot to proceed Some have with good success buried such Elm-branches about the end of January or beginning of March but if the Land be not over-dry the later is better If the Elm be felled between November and February it will Use be all Spine or Heart or very little sap
and is of most singular use in the Water where it lies always wet and also where it may always dry it is also a timber of great use for its toughness and therefore used by Wheel-wrights Mill-wrights c. It is also good to make Dressers and Planks to chop on because it will not break away in chips like other Timber The Elm is good Fewel and makes very good Charcoal the Branches and Leaves of this Tree are good food for Cattle in the Winter where other fodder is dear they will eat them before Oats The Elm is also a most pleasant Tree to Plant in Avenues or Walks it growing so streight and upright and mounts to the greatest height of any other Tree in so short a space It will grow the nearest of any other together being very sociable and affecting to grow in company and spreads its Branches but little to the offence of Corn or Pasture-grounds to both which and the Cattle it affords a benign Shade Defence and agreeable Ornament This Tree is also very flexible and to be reduced into what form or shape you please for shade and delight it also springs earlier than most other Forrest-trees This Tree commonly grows to a great stature delights most in The Beech. warm Land it grows plentifully in Gravelly Stony and sandy Land great Beechen-woods I have seen on the driest barren sandy Lands they delight on the sides and tops of high Hills and chalky Mountains they will strangely insinuate their Roots into the bowels of those seemingly impenetrable places This Tree is altogether a stranger to most Counties in England And it is probable that there might be none here when the Great Caesar denied that he found any For many of those great Woods of Beeches may have sprung up after the felling of Oak as it hath been observed of late years that where Oak hath been felled the Beech hath succeeded and that not only here and there a Tree but in many Acres and also where no Beech hath been near unto the place Sponte sua veniunt Some places naturally produce them If the Species of Trees may be wholly extinct as is reported of the Chesnut at least from a spontaneous growth why may not aswel a new Species naturally succeed As the Elm which is reported to be no antient product of our English Soil This is raised from the Mast as the Oak and from young Plants Propagation drawn by the Quickset-gatherers and planted as the Oak it grows but slow whilest it is young but when the Beech is gotten a little out of the way no Tree thrives better nor sooner attains to a large bulk than this Tree and although it be crooked knotty and ill-shapen whilest it is young yet will it overcome all those and prove a streight and compleat Tree It s use is principally for the Turner Joyner Upholsterer and Use such-like Mechanick Occupations the Wood being of a clean white and fine Grain and not apt to rend or slit it is sometimes used in building It is also very good Fewel burning clear and light and makes good Charcoal though not long-lasting the Mast feeds Swine Deer Pheasants c. The Wood of this Tree will be cut by an Instrument made for that purpose into thin and broad Leaves wherewith they make Band-boxes Hat-cases c. being covered with Paper this they now do in London though formerly sent into other Countries for that purpose That it is a Tree of great use in Mechanicks witness the vast quantities that are in Hampshire and some adjacent places converted into Turners-ware and weekly sent to London Many of the Instruments used aboard-ship are made of this Timber This Tree planted in Avenues or Walks yield a most delectable and agreeable shadow all the Summer few or none exceeding it for colour and shade The Leaves also gathered about the Fall and somewhat before they are much frost-bitten afford the best and easiest Mattresses in the world to lay under our Quilts instead of Straw and continue sweet for seven or eight years The Ash is a gallant quick-thriving Wood it delights in the The Ash best Land and will prove well in almost any sort of Land whatsoever and will also grow in the hard barren mountanous Land but not so well for Timber as in Coppice-woods Pollards shrowded or lopped refuse no place The best Ash grows in the best Land yet is it not convenient to plant them near Plough-lands for the Roots hinder the Coulter and exhaust the fertility of the Soil the dripping also is injurious to Corn. There is no Tree delights more nor is more beneficial in the Chalk or White Land than the Ash for on those white Hills in Wiltshire Hampshire c. that Tree thrives exceeding well and being sown in the Keys there would in time prove a very considerable advantage aswel to the private as publike It is propagated from the Seed or Keys which being gathered Propagation in October or after when they begin to fall and sown in your Nursery the next Spring come twelvemonth they will appear and will afterwards thrive and prosper very well they are to be removed whilest they are small because of their speedy deep rooting Take not off the tops of the small young Ash because it is a sappy plant but of the greater Sets it's best to cut them near the ground and then will they send forth new shoots which will soon supply the defect of the other which may also be done in all young Ash after they are well settled and it will cause to shoot large and thriving shoots I have seen the experience of it in such plants that stood several years and every year decayed till cut off at the roots and then they did wonderfully thrive You may also have Plants drawn by those that draw Quick-sets c. When you intend to raise this Tree on hills or in open grounds the best way is to sowe the Seeds in the place before or after the Plough if in Copses where the Plough cannot pass then to prick them in amongst the Rides of Hasel or other stuff which will defend this Plant from the bite of Cattle so that amongst the infinite numbers that thus you may cause to be interred in a few years you may observe many fair Trees to steal up amongst the Underwood which you may preserve The use of the Ash is almost universal good for Building or Use any other use where it may lie dry serves the occasions of the Carpenter Plow-right Wheel-wright Cart-wright Cooper Turner c. For Garden-uses also no Wood exceeds it as for Ladders Hop-poles Palisade-hedges and all manner of Utensils for the Gardiner or Husbandman It serves also at Sea for Oars Handspikes c. and is preferred before any other There is not any Wood so sweet for Cattle to brouse on as this Rangers and Keepers of Parks in hard Winters have the experience of it by brousing their Deer on
unto the other soft and Aquatick Woods This most excellent Tree delights in a rich Garden-mould or The Horse Chesnut-tree other light mould not too dry and is easily propagated by Layers It 's a quick-growing Tree most pleasant to the eye at the Spring It s propagation and use when its clammy Turpentine buds break forth into curious divided hanging Leaves it bears a cluster of beautiful Flowers and prospers well in our cold Country and therefore worthy to be taken into our most pleasant Gardens Avenues Parks and other places of delight and pleasure They delight in cold high and rocky Mountains where they The Fir Pine Pinaster and Pitch-tree naturally grow in great abundance yet will they grow in better and warmer but not in over-rich and pinguid if you plant them you must be careful at first to preserve them moist therefore Land over-hot Sandy or Gravelly is not so good They are all raised of the Kernels taken out of the Clogs which Propagation being laid in Water some days and then exposed to some gentle warmth of the fire will open that you get the Seeds out with much facility which may be sown in your Nursery or rather where you intend they should grow especially the Pine which will hardly bear a remove unless very young the Firs will very easily and may also be propagared of slips as I have been credibly informed The Fir grows tall streight and neatly tapering therefore more Use uniform for Walks c. but the Pinaster bears the proudest and stateliest branches with a fairer and more beautiful Leaf these two excel the rest for any Ornamental use and are sooner mounted growing in a few years to a very great height Mr. Evelin gives you the relation of one that shot no less than sixty foot in height in little more than twenty years I have seen Presidents of the like nature For the first half dozen years they make no considerable advance but afterwards they come away miraculously The use of this Timber is so well known to our Ship-wrights Carpenters and other Mechanicks inhabiting near the Maritime Coasts that nothing here need be said Out of these Trees are made Turpentine Rosin Tar and Pitch These Trees are not much in use yet deserve to be propagated The Larch Platanus and Lotus for their rarity excellent shade and durable Timber This curious Tree delights in a warm and dry Land not so The Cypress much desiring a rich as a warm place It is propagated from the seed sown in March and easily abides Propagation and use transplantation It is one of the most Ornamental Plants nature affords and may either stand single Pyramid-like or set in Hedges and clipped to any form you please we have so little of its Timber here that we only refer you to the joyner and Cabinet-maker for its use This Tree grows in all extremes in the moist Barbado's the hot Cedar Bermudas the cold New-England in the Bogs of America in the Mountains of Asia It is propagated of the Seeds is a beautiful Tree its Timber incomparable and almost perpetual The Alaternus thrives very well in England as if it were natural The Alaternus is raised from Seeds is swift of growth and one of the most beautiful and useful of Hedges and Verdure in the world and yields an early honey-breathing Blossom This Tree delights in a warm fertile Soil and is propagated of The Phillyrea the Berries or Seeds sown in the Spring and also of the slips set like the slips of Box. It is a most beautiful Plant and one of the quickest growth of any for the raising of Espalier Hedges and covering of Arbors being always of incomparable Verdure This Tree greatly loves the shade yet thrives well in our hottest The Bay-tree Gravel They are raised of their Suckers and their Seeds gathered when they are through ripe in the midst of Winter and sown in March The beauty and use of this Tree is commonly known This Tree preserves its Verdure best in the shade but grows any The Laurel where is propagated like the Bay and is one of the most proper and Ornamental Trees for Walks and Avenues of any growing It grows generally in the barrennest grounds and coldest of our The Eugh-tree Mountains is easily produced of the Seeds washed and cleansed from their Mucilage and buried in the ground like Haws it will be the second year ere they peep and then they rise with their caps on their heads at three years old you may transplant them they are also propagated by Plants or Suckers but they are difficult of growth The Timber is a very hard wood and very useful to most Mechanicks that work in Wood they are also a beautiful Ornament and a sure defence against impetuous Winds and nipping Cold. Privet is a Plant that hath been in great request for adorning Privet Walks and Arbors till of late other new and more acceptable Plants by degrees begin to extirpate it out of the most modish Plantations nevertheless it may yet claim a corner in ours SECT VI. Of Shrubs and other Trees less useful yet planted for Ornament and Delight This Tree requires a Winter-shelter is raised usually by slips Myrtle and layers but may be raised of Seeds it is a very sweet and pleasant Plant. The Box is a Plant that hath been much more in use than now Box. it is in the Garden from whence most banish it by reason of its injurious scent it deserves to be planted in the more remote parts it will grow in any indifferent Land and is encreased by slips the Tree is a very curious Ornament and may be reduced to diversity of shapes and forms and yields a most excellent Wood than which none is more desired by our Mechanicks This Tree is highly commended by Mr. Evelin in his Sylva for Juniper a Tree that may be formed into most beautiful and useful Hedges and that one only Tree covered an Arbor capable for three to sit in seven foot square and eleven in height yet continually kept shorn having been planted there hardly ten years They are raised of their Berries which come up in two months This Tree groweth tall and great is increased by Suckers and Tamarisk Layers and is usually planted by those who respect variety and pleasure the Wood also is medicinal Is usually propagated for its pleasant green leaf though the Arbor Vitae cold Winter makes it dark and brown it is usually planted by slips and layers There are several Trees that are planted on the edges of Walks Some flower-trees and other trees of delight and in spare places in Rural Gardens and Orchards only for their Ornamental habits they usually wear in the Spring and Summer as Arbor Judae Laburnum the Sena-tree Spanish-broom the Bladder-nut the Gelder-rose the Pipe-tree Paliurus Jesamies Wood-binds Virgins-bower the Stawberry-tree Mezereon Laurus-tinus
ground is yearly digged ploughed or otherwise preserved from Grass or Weeds as we noted before If the cold moist or barren nature of the ground be the cause then rectifie the same as before After Rain you may scrape off the Moss with a knife or rub it off with a Hair-cloth If the Tree be Bark-bound and thrive not well with a knife Bark-bound you may slit the Bark down the body of the Tree in April or May and it will cure it If the Cleft where the Tree was grafted or any other wounded Canker place be neglected the Rain is apt to ingender the Canker the cure is difficult if too far gone There are many prescriptions for the cure of it but if the cutting off of the Canker or cankered-branches will not cure it and the Tree be much infected with it the best way is to place a better in the room Some Trees are hurt with small Worms that breed between Worms in the Bark the bark and wood which makes the bark swell cut away part of the bark and wash with Urine and Cow-dung Strong or hot dung is not good for Fruit-trees but after it is Soyl for Trees throughly rotten and cold it may be mixed in cold grounds with success but in rich or warm Land Any dirt or soyl that lies in streets or high-ways where it may be had is best especially for the Apple-tree Commonly Husbandmen apply Soyl Fern c. to the stems of How to apply Soyl to Trees their Trees and if they dig to apply it it is usually near the body of the Tree which will not answer the trouble for the Roots that feed the Tree spread far from the Trunk or Stem therefore the soyl that is to be applied should be laid at a convenient distance proportionable to the spreading of the Roots wherein the long standing of the Tree is to be considered digging about the roots of Trees should also be used accordingly In planting of Trees it 's usual to apply good Mould or other additional soyl to fill up the Foss after the placing the Tree which conduceth not so much to the prosperity of the Plant as to place the better Mould or soyl in the bottom of the Foss and then plant your Tree on it spreading its roots over the good soyl for all roots of Plants as naturally tend downwards and side-ways as the branches spread and advance upwards So that the soyl that lies above the roots only yields some fatness which the Rain washeth down unto them but the soyl that is under the roots flourish in it The difference in this case may at any time be sensibly perceived by the experienced SECT XII Of the use and benefit of Fruits Not any of the afore-mentioned Fruits but are very pleasant necessary and profitable to many of our English Palats and Purses the most of them being a familiar food to the Noble and Ignoble These extend their vertue also to the cure of many infirmities or diseases being judiciously applied But over and above their use for food for pleasure and for Physick to be converted into so many several sorts of curious pleasant palatable and lasting Liquors is not the least of the benefits accrewing unto the Husbandman from the diversity of Fruits by him propagated Next unto Wine whereof we treat not in this place Cider is esteemed the most pleasant natural Liquor our English Fruits afford Several are the ways used in making this excellent Liquor and 1 By Cider that according to the skill of the Operator and divers kinds of the Fruit whereof it is made Cider-fruits may be reduced into two sorts or kinds either the wilde harsh and common Apple growing in great plenty in Hereford Worcester and Gloucestershire and in several other adjacent places in the fields and hedg-rows and planted in several other places of England for Cider only not at all tempting the Palate of the Thief nor requiring the charge and trouble of the more reserved inclosures Or the more curious Table-fruits as the Pippin Pearmain c. which are by many preferred to make the best Cider as having in them a more Cordial and pleasant Juice than other Apples For the former the best sorts for Cider are found to be the Cider-fruits Red-streak the White-Must and the Green-Must the Gennet-Moyl Eliots Stocken-Apple Summer-Fillet Winter-Fillet c. The greater part of them being meerly savage and so harsh that hardly Swine will eat them yet yielding a most plentiful smart and winy Liquor comparable or rather exceeding the best French-Wines And for the advantage of planting them they claim a preference before Pippins or any other of our pleasant Garden-fruits especially the Red-streak which Mr. Evelin so highly commends as at three years grafting to give you fair hopes and last almost an hundred years and will bear as much Fruit at ten years as Pippins or Pearmains at thirty The best sorts of Cider-fruit are far more succulent and the Liquor more easily divides from the Pulp of the Apple than in the best Table-fruit Some observe the more of red any Apple hath in his rinde the better for Cider the paler the worse No sweet Apple that hath a tough rinde is bad for Cider Cider-Apples require full maturity e're they be taken from Making of Cider the Trees And after they are gathered which is to be done with as much caution as may be to preserve them from bruises it very much conduces to the goodness and lasting of the Cider to let them lye a week or two on heaps out of the Rain and Dew the harsher and more solid the Fruit is the longer may they lye the more mellow and pulpy the less time This makes them sweat forth their Aqueous Humidity injurious to the Cider and matureth the Juice remaining and digesteth it more than if on the Tree or in the Vessel But it 's probable they will yield more from the Tree than so kept but not so good Such that are Wind-falls bruised or any ways injured or unripe fruit divide from the sound and mature It 's better to make two sorts of Cider the one good the other bad than only bad Take away all stalks leaves and rotten Apples the stalks and leaves give an ill taste to the Cider the rotten Apples makes it deadish Let such that are through casualty or otherwise fallen from the Trees before their full time of maturity be kept to the full time else will not the Cider be worth the drinking About twenty or twenty two bushels of good Cider-Apples from the Tree will make a Hogshead of Cider after they have lain a while in heaps to mellow about twenty five bushels will make a Hogshead Then either grinde them in a Horse-mill like as Tanners grinde their Bark or beat them with Beaters in a Trough of Wood rather than of Stone the more they are ground or beaten the better After the grinding it should be prest either being
feeding for the most part on Tillage which hath occasioned that great encrease of Gardens and Plantations in most of the Southern parts of England Several sorts also of Tillage being profitable in the feeding of Cattle and Fowl SECT I. Of Hops We mention this Plant in the first place not for his worth or Dignity above the rest it being esteemed an unwholesome Herb or Flower for the use it is usually put unto which may also be supplied with several other wholesomer and better Herbs but for that of all other Plants it advanceth Land to the highest improvement usually to forty pound or fifty pound sometimes to an hundred pound per Acre And yet have we not enough planted to serve the Kingdom but yearly make use of Flemish Hops nothing near so good as our own The principal cause I presume is that few bestow that labour and industry about them they require and sufficiently retaliate for being managed carelesly they scarce yield a quarter part of the increase that those yield that are dexterously handled though with very little more cost Another cause is why they are no more propagated here that they are the most of any Plant that grows subjected to the various Mutations of the Air from the time of their first springing till they are ready to be gathered Over-much drought or wet spoils them Mill-dews also sometimes totally destroys them which casualties happening unto them makes their price and valuation so uncertain and proves so great a discouragement to the Countryman else why may not we have as great a plenty of them as in Flanders Holland c. Our Land is as cheap and affords as great a Crop if as well Husbandried and we pay not for carriage so far but that they are more Industrious than us Therefore seeing that is so gainful a Commodity to the Husbandman and that there is a sufficient vent for them at home we shall be the more Prolix in the subsequent discourse The Hop delights in the richest Land a deep Mould and Best Land and scituation for a Hop-garden light if mixed with Sand it 's the better a black Garden-mould is excellent for the Hop If it lye near the water and may be laid dry it is by much the better Most sorts of Land will serve unless stony rocky or stiff Clay-ground which are not to be commended for the Hop If you can obtain it a piece of Land a little inclining to the South and that lies low the ground mellow and deep and where water may be at command in the Summer time is to be preferred for a Hop-garden Also it ought to lye warm and free from impetuous winds especially from the North and East either defended by Hills or Trees but by Hills the best Every one cannot have what Land he pleaseth but must make Defending the Hop-garden by Trees use of what he hath therefore if your ground lye obvious to the winds it is good to raise a natural defence therefrom by planting on the edges of the Hop-garden a border or row of Trees that may grow tall and break the force of the winds at such time the Poles are laden with Hops The Elm is esteemed not fit to be planted near the Hop because it contracteth Mill-dews say our Country Hop-planters the Ash on a dry ground and the Poplar or Aspen on a moist are to be preferred for their Aspen speedy growth Also a tall and thick hedge of White-thorn keeps the ground warm and secures it in the Spring from the sharp nipping winds that spoil the young Shoots If your Land be cold stiff sowre or barren you designe for a Preparing the ground and distance of the Hills Hop-garden the best way is about the latter end of the Summer to burn it as before we directed which will be very available to the amendment of the Land Some also prescribe to sow Turnips Hemp or Beans therein to make the ground light and mellow and destroy the Weeds But in whatsoever state or condition your ground be Till it in the beginning of the Winter with either Plough or Spade And when you have set out the bounds of your ground you intend to plant and laid the same even then must you mark out the several places where each Hill is to be The best way is by a Line streightned over-thwart the ground with knots or threds tyed at such distance you intend your Hills Some plant them in squares Checquer-wise which is the best way if you intend to plough with Horses between the Hills Others plant them in form of a Quincunx which is the more beautiful to the eye and better for the Hop and will do very well where your ground is but small that you may overcome it with either the Breast-plough or Spade which way soe're it be pitch a small stick at every place where there is to be a Hill and when it is all so done in case your ground be poor or stiff bring into it of the best Mould you can get or a parcel of Dung and Earth mixed and at every stick dig a hole of about a foot square and fill it with this Mould or Compost wherein your Plants are to be set they will thrive the better and the sooner come to bear and sufficiently repay your charge and trouble Great Rarity there is both in the judgment and the practise of Distance of the Hills most men about the distance of the Hills by reason of the different Seasons Sometimes it falls out to be a moist year and then the Hop grows large and the wider the Hills are the better they prove Some years also prove hot and dry the Hops then grow thin and the nearer they are the more Hops they have But let me advise to keep a convenient distance that you may have room sufficient to come between and ground sufficient to raise the Hills with the Parings or Surface of it and that the Sun may come between and that the Poles may not be driven the one against the other with the winds when they are laden If your ground be dry and burning about six foot may be a convenient distance but if it be a moist deep and rich Mould subject to bear large Hops then eight or nine foot distance is most convenient and so according to the goodness of the ground place the distance of the Hills But if your Hills are too far asunder the best way to remedy Bigness of the Hills that inconvenience is by encreasing the number of Hops in the Root in each Hill by which means you may apply more Poles and supply the former defect Hills may be made of that bigness that they may require six ten or twenty Poles The common Objection is they cannot so conveniently be dressed but I only propose it as amendment to make them somewhat bigger than ordinary Or if your Hills be too near together you may also abate the Hops and apply the fewer
of your Hops and poling them the directing and binding them to the Poles the watering and making up the hills throughout the Summer seems to be a tedious task requiring daily attendance But without these Labours little is to be gotten which makes this Plantation so little made use of in some places yet he that is diligent and understands his business is so highly requited for his care cost and industry that an Acre or two of ground so managed by one or two persons shall redound one year with another to more advantage than fifty Acres of arable-Arable-Land where there is much more time cost and expence bestowed on it Towards the end of July hops blow and about the beginning When Hops blow bell and ripen of August they bell and are sometimes ripe in forward years at the end of August but commonly at the beginning of September At such time as the hop begins to change his colour and look a When to gather Hops and the â—anner how little brownish or that they are easily pulled to pieces or that the Seeds begin to change their colour towards a brown and they smell fragrantly you may conclude them to be ripe and procure what help is necessary for a quick dispatch to gather them before they shatter one windy day or night may otherwise do you much injury The manner usually prescribed for the gathering of hops is to take down four hills standing together in the midst of your Garden cut the roots even with the ground lay it level and throw water on it tread it and sweep it so shall it be a fair Floor whereon the hops must lie to be picked On the outside of this Floor are the Pickers to sit and pick them into Baskets the hops being stript off the Poles and brought into the Floor Some there are that sit dispersedly and pick them into Baskets after they are stript off the Poles Remember always to clear your Floor twice or thrice every day and sweep it clean every such time before you go to work again In these ways of picking it is necessary that the Poles be streight without forks scrags or knobs But the best and most expeditious way is to make a Frame with four short Poles or Sticks laid on four Forks driven into the ground of that breadth to contain either the hair of your Oost or Kiln or a Blanket tacked round the same about the edges on which Frame you may lay your Poles with the hops on them either supported with Forks or with the edges of the Frame the Pickers may stand on each side and pick into it When the Blanket or hair is full untack it carry it away and place another or the same emptied in the same Frame again every day you may remove your Frame with little trouble to some new place of your Garden near your work This way is found to be most convenient expeditious and advantagious for it saves the labour of stripping the Hops off the Poles Also any forked or scraggy Poles which are best for the Hop prove no impediment to this way of Picking It preserves the hops from briting or shedding which by stripping off the Poles and wrapping them up in bundles to carry up and down they are apt to do Also this way they may pick them clean off the Poles as they hang without tumbling and tearing which causes much filth to mix with the Hops besides the spoiling and loss of many Hops and being thus picked over your Frame if the Hops be never so ripe and subject to shatter all is preserved The Pickers may this way also make more expedition than the other the Hops hanging in view as they grew on the Poles Before you draw your Poles with a sharp hook fixed at the end of a long stale or pole divide the Hops above where they grow together with other Poles then ought you to cut the Hops not as is usually prescribed and practised close at the hills but about two or three foot above the hills else will the Hop bleed much of his strength away This hath been found to be a great strengthner of weak Hops the other a weakner to all Then draw your Poles which in case they are so far or fast in the ground that you cannot raise them without breaking of them you must get a pair of Tongs made like unto a Blacksmiths Tongs only stronger and toothed at the end with which Tongs you may beclip the Pole at the bottom and resting the joynt thereof on a block of wood you may weigh up the Pole without trouble or danger of breaking the Pole or for cheapness sake you may have a wooden Leaver forked at the end in which Fork fix two sides of sharp and toothed iron which put to the Pole and on a block of wood as before you may heave up the Pole by the strength of your right hand whilest you pull the pole to you with your left Cut no more stalks nor draw no more than you can conveniently dispatch in an hour or two in case the weather be very hot or it be likely to rain If your Hop-garden be large it were worth your cost and pains to raise in the midst thereof a Shed or suchlike house on four or six main forks or posts and Thatched over under which shelter you may pick your Hops which will both defend your pickers from the Sun and your Hops from the Sun and storms Herein also may you lay a parcel of Hops unpicked over-night that your pickers may to work in the next morning before the Dew be off the other that are abroad or in case a storm comes you may lay in here enough to serve till the other are dry again Under this shelter also may your Poles lie dry all the Winter Let not your hops be wet when you gather them but if the Dew be on them or a Showre hath taken them shake the Pole and they will be dry the sooner If your hops be over-ripe they will be apt to shed their seed wherein consisteth the chiefest strength of the hop Also they will not look so green but somewhat brown which much diminisheth the value of them yet some let them stand as long as they can because they waste less in the drying four pounds of undried Hops through ripe will make one of dry and five pounds of Hops scarcely ripe yet in their prime makes but one So they judge they get more in the through-ripe Hop by the weight than they loose in the colour There are also two sorts of Hops the green and the brown the one yielding a better colour by much when they are dry the other bears larger and a greater quantity of Hops which is rather to be preferred In the picking keep them as clean as you can from leaves and stalks which will damage you more in the sale than they will advantage you in the weight As fast as you pick them dry them for their lying
and Roots which will make excellent Sets being cut about four or five inches long The branches also may be slipped and planted if it prove moist weather they will many of them grow these may serve to thicken where they are too thin The usual and best time for the planting of Liquorice is in Time and manner of Setting February and March about a foot distance is usual to plant your Sets in Rows by a Line in holes made with a Setting-stick deep enough to contain the Plant which as soon as it is in the hole Earth it up and if they prove dry water them as soon as they are set and so for several days until they have recovered their witheredness The first Year you may sow the ground with Onions Lettice or suchlike herbs Then afterwards they must be kept Howed every Year till they are taken up The Sets are impatient of being planted after they are once out of the ground therefore use what expedition you can and Earth them up if you carry them far and be sure to have the ground ready before the Sets After it hath stood three Summers in the ground you may dig Taking up of Liquorice and its profit it up about the Moneth of November or December for then it weighs most and will keep best without loss for some time It is best to dispose of it whilest it is new and green because it will much decay in its weight Some that have very good Liquorish have gained much by it the better the Land is the more is the advantage There hath been made from fifty pound to an hundred pound of an Acre as some affirm Pontefract in York-shire is the most noted place for this Plant Improver improved that I have heard of Next unto that Godalming in Surry deserves to be remembred also for the industry of the Inhabitants in propagating this necessary Plant The long continuance of the Planting whereof in those places to the so great advantage of the Inhabitants is an Argument sufficient of the improvement it makes there being in many other places as good Land for this purpose as either of those places afford English Saffron is esteemed the best in the world it 's a Plant Of Saffron What Land is best for Saffron very suitable to our Climate and Soyl therefore it is our negligence that it is no more propagated It delights in a good dry sound Land brought into perfect Tillage by Manure and good Husbandry the better your Land is the better may you expect your Crop About Midsummer it is to be planted some say Time and manner of planting of it about March it is encreased by the Roots which yearly multiply in the ground like unto other Bulbous Roots or rather more They are to be taken up and new planted usually once in three Years and then may many of the Roots be obtained They are set in Ranges two or three inches deep and about two or three inches asunder but the Ranges about four or five inches apart for the more convenient weeding or howing of them About September the Flower appears like a blew Crocus and Time of the flowring and gathering of Saffron in the middle of it comes up two or three Chives which grow upright together and the rest of the Flower spreads abroad which Chives being the very Saffron and no more you may gather betwixt your Fingers and reserve it This must be done early in the morning else it returns into the body of the Flower again and so for about a Moneths space may you gather Saffron You must procure many hands according to the quantity of your ground you may gather two or three Crops and then remove it After it hath done Flowring it remains green all the Winter Care must be also taken in the drying of it which may be done Drying of Saffron in a small Kiln made of Clay and with a very little fire and that with careful attendance three pound thereof moist usually making one of dry One Acre may bear from seven to fifteen pound and hath been Profits of Saffron sold from twenty shillings a pound to five pound a pound and may cost about four pound per Acre the management thereof which gives a very considerable Improvement and Advantage This is esteemed by some to be a very rich Commodity and Of Madder worthy our care and cost to propagate it being so much used by Dyers in the Dying of their red colours and in so great request of the Apothecaries for Medicinal uses and a Plant also that delights in our Climate It is to be planted in a very rich deep warm and well-manured Land fit for Madder Land digged at least two or three Spade graft deep Then about March or April as soon as it springs out of the Time and manner of planting it ground is it to be planted The Sets are to be gathered two or three inches long with Roots to them and immediately planted or put into Mould if carried far and then set about a foot apart the one from the other and kept watred till they Spring and continually Weeded till they have got the Mastery of the Weeds At three Years end you may take it up reserve the Plants for The nse and profit of Madder your own use and sell the roots to the Apothecaries or dry them for the Dyers use But the description and manner of drying and Milling thereof for that purpose I leave to those that are better experienced therein or until I have obtained some light thereinto The great advantage that it brings to the Planter according as it is by some related is encouragement sufficient to any Ingenious man to make a farther enquiry and progress into its Nature and Method of ordering it This is a rich Dyers Commodity it groweth in many places Of Weld or Dyers Weed what Land it requires wilde and is sown also in many places in Kent to a very great advantage it will grow on any ordinary or barren Land so that it be dry and warm It may be sown on Barley or Oats after they are sown and Manner of sowing it harrowed this requiring only a Bush to be drawn over it A Gallon of Seed will sow an Acre it being very small and is best to be mixed with some other material as before we advised concerning Clover-grass Seed it groweth not much the first Summer but after the Corn is gathered it is to be preserved and the next Summer you shall receive your Crop You must be very cautious in the gathering of it that the Gathering and ordering of it Seed be not over-ripe for then it will fall out if not enough neither Seed nor Stalk will be good It is to be pulled as they do Flax by the Roots and bound up in little handfuls and set to dry and then housed Then may you beat or lash out the Seed which is of good value
of it If set in rich ground it encreases to admiration and may be Annually multiplied without hazard of Weather keeping down the Leaves makes the Root large They are sown as the Onions and afterwards it is best to Of Leeks transplant them deep that they may have a great deal of White-stalk one such Leek being worth two others The fairest and biggest of Leeks and Onions are to be reserved and planted for Seed the stalks whereof are to be propped up with sticks by reason of their weight When the Seed is ripe reserve the Heads on some Cloth and let them be through dry e're you rub them out There are several sorts of Kitchin-herbs and Plants very necessary and useful and also profitable to be propagated and advanced in our Country-gardens as Thime Hyssop Sage Rosemary Marjerom Violets and several others Their ways and manner of Planting being so Universally known and not altogether pertinent to our discourse I shall pass them by and refer you to others that treat of them I thought to have omitted this Plant by reason the Statute-Laws Tobacco are so severe against the Planters of it but that it is a Plant so much improving Land and imploying so many hands that in time it may gain footing in the good Opinion of the Landlord as well as of the Tenant which may prove a means to obtain some liberty for its growth here and not to be totally excluded out of the Husbandmans Farm The great Objection is the prejudice it would bring to Navigation the fewer Ships being imployed and the lessening his Majesties Revenue To which may be answered that there are but few Ships imployed to Virginia and if many yet there would be but few the less for it 's not to be imagined that we should Plant enough to furnish our whole Nation and maintain a Trade abroad also And in case it should lessen the number of Ships for the present they would soon encrease again as the Trade of Virginia would alter into other Commodities as Silk Wine and Oyl which would be a much better Trade for them and us And as to the lessening his Majesties Revenue the like Imposition may be laid on the same Commodity growing at home as if imported from abroad or some other of like value in lieu of it Certain it is that the Planting of it would imploy abundance of people in Tilling Planting Weeding Dressing and Curing of it And the improvement of Land is very great from ten shillings per Acre to thirty or forty pound per Acre all Charges paid before the last severe Laws many Plantations were in Gloucestershire Devonshire Somersetshire and Oxfordshire to the quantity of many hundreds of Acres Some object that our English-Tobacco is not so good as the Forreign but if it be as well respected by the Vulgar let the more Curious take the other that 's dearer Although many are of Opinion that it 's better than Forreign having a more Hautgust which pleaseth some if others like it not they may in the curing of it make it milder and by that means alter or change it as they please It hath been often sold in London for Spanish Tobacco The best way and manner of Planting and Curing it would be easily obtained by experience many attempting it some would be sure to discover the right way of ordering of it and what ground or places it best affects But that which hath been observed is that it affects a rich deep and warm soil well dressed in the Spring before Planting time The Young Plants raised from seed in February or March on a hot Bed and then planted abroad in your prepared ground from whence you may expect a very good Crop and sometimes two Crops in a year The leaves when gathered are first laid together on heaps for some time and then hang'd up by Threads run through them in the shade until they are through dry and then put up and kept the longer the better In this Experience is the best Master SECT V. Of the manner of ordering and preparing of Garden-Ground making of hot Beds and Watering of the Gardens c. There are many Garden-plats in England which either for their cold scituation or the cold or unnatural temper of the soil or suchlike impediments and by reason of the ignorance of the Gardiner or Owner thereof produce little or no Fruit or Tillage answerable to the costs trouble or expectation of the Owners thereof Wherefore we shall give you here the best Rules Directions and Instructions we either know or have read of in any of our Rustick Authors If the Land be of a light and warm Nature of its self whereof The several ways of tempering mould your Garden is made there needs only common Horse-dung or Cow-dung to be mixed therewith in the digging or trenching to inrich it but if the Ground or Mould incline to a cold Clay or stiff ground then procure some good light and fertil Sand or Mould of that nature and mix with your Dung in some corner of your ground equally together and suffer it so to lie and rot over the Winter which in the Spring will prove an excellent warm Manure to lay to the roots of your Plants or to make whole Beds thereof by mixing it in good quantities with the natural soil and if you can procure it with conveniency the more of Pigeons-dung Poultry-dung or Sheeps-dung you mix with it the lighter and warmer it will be Also an equal composition or mixture of Dung and Earth is necessary to be laid by that it may be throughly rotten and turned to Earth by the Spring that it may then be fit to renew the Earth about your Hops Artichoaks and suchlike and also for the planting and sowing therein Coleflowers Cabbages Onions c. The best and surest way of sowing seeds to have the most advantage The best way of sowing Garden-seeds of such Dung or soil and that they may come up most even and be all buried at one certain depth is thus First rake your Bed even then throw on a part of your mixture of Earth and Dung which also rake very even and level on which sow your seeds whether Onions Leeks Lettice or suchlike then with a wide Sieve sift on the Earth mixed with Dung that it may cover the Seeds about a quarter of an inch deep or little more and you shall not fail of a fruitful Crop If your Garden be obvious to the cold winds which are very To lay ground warm and dry injurious to most sorts of Plants next unto Trees Pales Walls Hedges c. lay your ground after this following manner that is let it be laid up in Ridges a foot or two in height somewhat upright on the back or North-side thereof and more shelving or sloping to the Southward for about three or four foot broad on which side you may sow any of your Garden-Tillage and these Banks lying one behinde the other will
boughs or herbs and he will desert you But the most secure way of all and beyond the compleatest Harness yet published is to have a Net knit with so small Meshes that a Bee cannot pass through and of fine Thred or Silk large enough to come over your Hat and to lie down to the Coller of your Doublet through which you may perfectly see what you do without any danger having also on a good pair of Gloves whereof Woollen are the best But if the Bee happen to catch you unawares pull out the To cure the sting of a Bee sting as soon as you can Some prescribe to wash the same with your Spittle and say that that will prevent swelling Others commend the rubbing thereon the Leaves of Marigolds House-leek Rue Mallows Ivy Holyhock and Vinegar Salt and Vinegar and divers other things But the most sure and Natural Remedy is to heat a piece of Iron in the fire or for want of that to take a live Coal and hold it as near and as long to the place as you can possibly endure it which will Sympathetically attract the fiery venom that by the sting was left in the wound or force it out of the place affected and give you an immediate ease and cure The same it will effect on the bitings or stingings of Snakes or other venomous Creatures and it 's probable on the bitings of mad Dogs But of this in another place As soon as a Swarm hath entered his Hive they immediately Of the Bees work if the Weather permit gather Wax and build Combs that in a few days time there will be several large and compleat Combs they lie so thick about them that it 's impossible one quarter of them can be imployed at once until the Combs are brought to a considerable length and then a great part of them may be imployed in filling them the rest in finishing their Cells or Combs It 's a difficult matter in our transparent Hives to discern how these Admirable Creatures frame their curious Workmanship by reason they are so numerous that they generally cover their whole Work that unless the Bees also were transparent as Butler terms it it cannot be discerned But through the Glass you may observe how they carry up their far-fetcht goods and what a mighty stir they make and how perpetually busie they are and in a clear day when most are abroad especially towards the end of the Summer Also when their Young Bees are fit for service and are abroad which are those chiefly that hide so much of the Combs then may you plainly discern their Combs and Cells filled with bright and clear Honey Their numbers also towards the end of the Summer begin The numbers of Bees to lessen which gives you a great advantage of beholding them and their work For in their prosperity at Swarming-time and shortly after they are far more in number than in the Autumn or Winter as you may easily discern between the quantity and number of a Swarm and those you kill when you take them for the Bees of the last years breed do now by degrees waste and perish by their extraordinary labour their Wings decay and fail them so that a Year with some advantage is the usual Age of a Bee and the young only of the last Spring survive and preserve the kinde till the next There are several things that are injurious to Bees and much Of the Bees Enemies hinder their prosperity if not prevented 1. Noise which may in part be remedied by the scituation of the Apiary free from the Noises of Carts and Coaches the sound of Bells from Ecchoes c. 2. Smoak I have known that when Land hath been burn-beaten near unto an Apiary and the Winde brought the Smoak towards it that a great part of the Bees intercepted by the Smoak in their flight have been destroyed which is a principal cause that Bees thrive not in or near a great Town 3. Ill Smells also are very offensive to them as before we noted 4. Ill Weather as Windes Rain Cold Heat c. prevented by the scituation and fencing the Apiary and ordering the Stocks as before 5. The Mouse Birds and other devouring Creatures which are to be destroyed as hereafter we shall shew you 6. Noysome Creatures as Toads Frogs Snails Spiders Moths c. which you must endeavour to keep out of your Apiary and also cleanse your Hives ever and anon from these Vermine 7. Hornets and Wasps in such years wherein they abound prove great Enemies to the Bees by robbing them of their wealth which are destroyed by placing near the door of the Hive a Glass-Vial half full of Cider Verjuice sowre drink or suchlike wherein they go and never return 8. Bees themselves prove the greatest Enemies both by fighting and robbing Several occasions provoke the Bees to fight which if the Battle be but newly begun may be hindred by stopping up the Hive close where they begin to fight or if it be so far gone that most of the Bees are out and that the Conflict is very great the casting up of dust amongst them was the ancient way to pacifie them as Virgil witnesseth Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescent But Butler condemns this Custom and also of casting drink amongst them To keep and preserve your Bees from Robbers which are very usual both in the Spring and Autumn you must be sure to cloom up the Hives very close leaving the doors very small and according to the season of the year to widen and streighten them as you may observe in the Kalendar towards the end of this Book inserted The best time to remove an old Stock is a little before or a Removing of Bees little after Michaelmas or if you have over-slipt that time then about the end of February or beginning of March before they go much abroad lest it prevent their Swarming or you may remove any time of the Winter though not so well as in the aforesaid seasons For the removing of a Swarm it 's best to do it the Evening next after the Hiving Let the Weather be fair as near as you can when you remove and let it be done in the Evening when all the Bees are quiet The best way is thus Take a board about the breadth of the bottom of the Hive you intend to remove and in the Evening or two or three Evenings before you remove your Stock lift it up and brush the Bees that are on the Stool forwards or let the board be a little supported by two ledges to prevent the death of the Bees on the Stool on this board set your Stock and so let them stand till you remove them when you come to remove them stop up the door of the Hive and set the board whereon the Hive standeth on a Hand-barrow and carry them to the place you intend and there place them by
green Herbs are apt to make your Metheglin flat or dead and that Cloves are apt to make it high coloured and that scumming of it in the boiling is not advantagious but injurious the Scum being of the nature of Yest helping to ferment and purifie Of Silk-worms THis though but a Worm yet Glorious Creature seems by the Relation of Credible Historians to be but a Modern Operator in these Northern Countries of that Excellent Commoditie Silk and these Worms also are not so much encreased nor improved especially here in England as they might be every one almost is willing to undergo the trouble and enjoy the pleasure and benefit of feeding and preserving them were there but Food enough here for them the deficiency whereof is the only Remora that impedes this most Noble Enterprise The Mulberry-leaves are the principal and I believe the only Their Food Food that will cherish and feed these Worms to advantage at least in these Countries whatever some write to the contrary as that at Dublin in Ireland the Worms have fed on Lettuce very readily and that they grew as big as those that were fed with Mulberry-leaves and did spin as much Silk eating also no other Food and that they will eat the Herb called Dandelion Others have tryed that way of feeding them with Lettuce and not found the success answerable Some also affirm that they will thrive on Poplar-trees Plum-trees and Apple-trees the certainty whereof we leave to be decided by experience But I see little reason for it the Silk-worm being only an Insect and that it is generally the nature of Insects to feed on some certain specifical matter therefore the only and principal way that is to be attempted for the propagating of this designe is for some publick-spirited persons to lay out some certain places of their Lands for the raising of Mulberry-trees as before in our discourse of Fruit-trees we observed About the beginning of May when the Mulberry-tree begins Time and manner of hatching Silk-worms Eggs. to spread its Leaf is the time the Silk-worms Eggs are as it were by nature adapted for a release from their long confinement that if you lay them in some window in the warm Sun or carry them in a little Box between some pieces of Say in some warm place about you keeping them also warm in the night they will soon appear in a new form then cut some Paper full of small holes and lay over them and over that some of your young Mulberry-leaves and these small Worms will easily finde their way to their natural Food and so fast as they are hatched they immediately apply themselves to the Leaves After they are thus betaken to the Leaves you may place on them Tables or Shelves at convenient distances according to the number of your Worms and proportion of place you have for them They are sick four times in their feeding the first commonly Their sicknesses about twelve days after they are hatched and from that time at the end of every eight days according to the weather and their good or ill usage during which time of every sickness which lasteth two or three days you must feed them but very little only to relieve such of them as have past their sickness before the rest and those that shall not fall into their sickness so soon The whole time of their feeding is about nine weeks during The time and manner of feeding which time you may feed them twice a day by laying the Leaves over them as it were to cover them and they will soon finde a way through them and as they grow in strength and bigness so may you feed them more plentifully and often It is good to let the Leaves be clear of Dew or Rain before you give them unto the Worms You may keep them spread on a Table in case they be wet you may gather and keep them two or three days without any great inconvenience in case you live remote from Mulberry-trees or the weather prove casual You must observe to rid often their Shelves of their dung and the remainders of the Leaves by removing the Worms when they are fast on the new Leaves laid on them for then may you remove easily the Worms with the Leaves the keeping clean of the Shelves and the Room being a principal means to preserve them Also remember to keep their Room warm in cold and wet weather and to give them a little cool Air in hot weather Let not the Room you keep them in be too near the Tiles on the top of your House nor in any cold or moist Room below but be sure to avoid all extreams When they have fed as long as they are able they look of Their spinning clear and Amber-colour and are then ready to go to work therefore it is then advised that you make Arches between their Shelves with Heath made very clean or with branches of Rosemary stalks of Lavender or suchlike whereupon the Worms will fasten themselves and make their bottoms which in about fourteen days are finished But the only way that I have seen practised and the best way is to make small Cones of Paper and place them with their sharp ends downwards in rows in each of which put a Worm as they appear to you to be ready to go to work and there will they finish their bottom more compleat and with les waste than on any branches whatever When they have finished their bottoms which will be in about Their breeding fourteen days then take so many as you intend to reserve for Breeders and lay them by themselves and the Worms within will eat their way out in four or five days time and when they come forth it is advised that you put them together on some piece of old Say Grogeram the back-side of old Velvet or the like made fast against some Wall or Hangings in your house but I have known them succeed very well on Tables c. Then will these Flies ingender and the Male having spent himself dies and so doth the Female after she hath lain her Eggs then take the Eggs up with the point of a knife or suchlike and put them into a piece of Say or suchlike and keep them in a Box amongst Woollen Cloths or such other dry and not warm place till the next Spring One of these Females will produce some hundreds of Eggs therefore a few kept for Seed or Increase will be sufficient the residue put into an Oven after the baking of bread c. that it may be only hot enough to kill the Worms for their gnawing their way out is some prejudice to the bottom When you have obtained your bottoms take off the Bags The winding of the Silk and having found their ends put six ten or more in a Bason of water together where a little Gum-Tragacanth is mixed and so you may easily winde them The small hairs of Silk seldom break but
if they do they are easily found again If the Worms are not well fed the Silk is small and easily breaks Another way to make these Gummy Bottoms winde easie is this Take Soap-boilers Liquor or Lee which is very sharp and strong and put therein your Bottoms and set them over the fire till the Liquor be scalding hot and so let the Bottoms remain therein about half a quarter of an hour till the Gumminess be dissolved then put the Bottoms into clean scalding water and let them lie a while therein then will they unwinde with much facility A Lixivium made of Wood-ashes very strong will do as well as the aforesaid Soap-boilers Liquor There is a kinde of Tow or rough sort of Silk that will not winde up with the other which may be prepared and good Silk made thereof and indifferent also of the Bags themselves The fine Skeins after they have past through the Scowrers Throsters and Dyers hands may compare with the finest CHAP. X. Of the common and known External Injuries Inconveniences Enemies and Diseases incident to and usually afflicting the Husbandman in most of the Ways or Methods of Agriculture before treated of and the several Natural and Artificial Remedies proposed and made use of for the Prevention and Removal of them SInce the Exclusion of our First Parents out of the state of Bliss or Paradise all our Actions Endeavours and Enterprises have been subject to the various and uncertain dispositions of an Over-ruling Providence and also of Fortune and unexpected chances and accidents and more especially the several Actions and Imployments that are incident and belonging to this Noble Art of Agriculture and its several branches before treated of that no one exercised in Husbandry can promise himself a peculiar Indemnity from the usual misfortunes that generally attend it which is the cause that at some time that very Commodity is dear and scarce which at another time is cheap and plentiful and that some Husbandmen have excellent Crops and good success at the same time when others have the contrary These very considerations have not only stirred up the Ingenious to consider of the Diseases and Injuries themselves but also to seek after the means to avoid those that of necessity attend them and to prevent such that may be prevented which we finde dispersed in several Authors and also finde to have been made use of by many of our Modern Ingenious Rusticks and not yet made publick And first we will discourse of such injuries and inconveniences that proceed SECT I. From the Heavens or the Air. This Island is generally subject to great heat or drought in Great heat or drought the Summer-time which so much exsiccateth and wasteth the moisture and Vegetative Nature of the Earth that much of our common Field or open Land yields but a reasonable Crop of In Corn-Lands Corn nor our open and wide Pastures or dry Lands much Grass or feeding for Cattle yet are these driest Summers most propitious unto us and in them do we reap the most copious Crops but it is because we have so much low grounds under the Shelter and so many Inclosures defended from the destructive and sweeping Summer-Airs where in those dry years we have our richest Harvests so that Nature it self and common Experience hath chalked out unto us a remedy for our dry barren and hungry Lands and Pastures whether Common or Appropriate against heat and drought the two principal inconveniencies attending those Lands if we had but the hearts of men to make use of it It is said that in Cornwal they begin to practise this Husbandry and plant Mounds and Fences with Timber-Trees which growing tall do much preserve the Land from malignant Airs and yield a great profit besides See more of this Remedy before in the Chapter of Inclosures Heat or Drought also produces more particular inconveniencies In planting Trees or injuries as to Trees sown or planted abroad in the open Fields or in Inclosures Gardens c. which is a very great check or impediment to the Husbandman in propagating them the preventions or remedies whereof are several 1. In the driest and most barren Lands in England if you sow the same with the Fruit or Seed of Oak Ash Beech or any other wood whatsoever you may also sow the same Land at the same time with Broom Furze or suchlike which will wonderfully thrive on the worst of Land and become a shelter to the other Trees which when once they have taken sufficient Root will soon out-strip the Furze or Broom or you may raise Banks and sow them with Furze which will soon make a Fence under the shelter whereof you may Nurse up other Trees for it is most evident that the greatest Trees that grow on the barrenest Lands had their Original in the same places where they grow and is most probable that they were thus defended by some small Bush or Brake from Cattle Heat Cold c. till they arrived to such height that they could defend themselves 2. For such Trees that are usually planted in Hedg-rows or other places of Inclosures c. which the heat and drought doth either impede their growth or totally kill them to the great discouragement of the Planter adde to the Roots of them on the Surface of the Earth a heap of stones which is the best Additament and will keep the roots and ground about it cool and moist in the Summer and warm in the Winter and fortifie the Tree against Windes c. but where stones are not easily attained heaps of Fern or any other Vegetable Straw or Stubble c. will preserve the ground moist and inrich it withal but where neither stones nor Vegetables can be had conveniently after the Tree is planted and good Mould or Earth added to the Roots raise a Hillock about it of any manner of Turf Earth c. for it is not the height of the Earth above the ground about the Tree that injures it so much as the depth of the Tree below the Surface or best Earth 3. In Gardens and such near places where you may be at hand and where you have choice Plants that suffer by heat Shadow is a principal remedy as before we noted or water in such places where it may be commanded In several places Water is the principal thing deficient to make Remedies for want of Water them pleasant and profitable and the means whereby to procure it very tedious costly and difficult It is several ways attainable 1. By sinking of Wells which where they are very deep some use a large Wheel for Man or Beast to walk in to raise it others use a double Wheel with Cogs which makes it draw easier than the ordinary single Wheel but this is not so good a way as the double Wheel with Lines the Line of the Wheel at your hand being small and very long this raiseth a large Bucket of water with very much ease and
plain open or high Countries by woful experience do finde To prevent which as to Buildings by common experience and observation we finde that Trees are the only and most proper safeguard for which the Eugh is the best although it be long a growing Next unto that the Elm which soon aspires to a good height and full proportionable body and is thickest in the branches and will thrive in most Lands but any Trees are better than none As to Fruits Walls Pales or any other Buildings are a good prevention and security for Garden-fruits but for want of that Hedges and Rows of Trees may be raised at an easie rate and in little time As to Timber or other Trees which are also subject to be subverted or broken by high windes to abate the largeness of their Heads proves a good prevention especially the Elm which ought to have its Boughs often abated else will it be much more subject to be injured by high windes than any other Tree Hops of any Plant the Husbandman propagateth receiveth the most damage from high windes which may in some measure be prevented Against the Spring-windes which nips the young Buds and afterwards bloweth them from the Poles a good Pale or Thorn-hedge much advantageth but against the boysterous windes when they are at the tops of the Poles a tall Row of Trees incompassing the whole Hop-Garden is the best security in our power to give them Also be sure to let their Poles be firm and deep in the ground As to Corn windes sometimes prove an injury to it in the Ear when they are accompanied with great Rains by lodging of it but the greatest injury to it is in the Grass when it is young I mean Winter-corn the fierce bitter blasts in the Spring destroying whole Fields The only and sure remedy or prevention against this Disease is Inclosure as before we noted of Cold. In Spain c. where the Mist of Superstition hath dimmed Thunder and Tempest Hail c. the Spiritual and Natural sight the Ringing of Sacred Bells the use of Holy Water c. are made use of to Charm the Evil Spirit of the Air which very frequently in those hotter Climates terrifies the Inhabitants that he may be a little more favourable unto them than others But it cannot enter into my thoughts or belief that any thing we can do here either by Noises Charms c. or by the use of Bays Lawrel c. can prevail with so great a Natural Power and so much beyond our Command Prayers unto God excepted which are the only Securities and Defensives against so Potent and Forcible Enemies Blighting and Mildews have been generally taken to be the Mildews same thing which hath begotten much errour and the ways and means used for the prevention and cure have miscarried through the ignorance of the Disease For Mildew is quite another thing and different from blasting Mildews being caused from the Condensation of a fat and moist Exhalation in a hot and dry Summer from the Blossoms and Vegetables of the Earth and also from the Earth its self which by the coolness and serenity of the Air in the night or in the upper serene Region of the Air is condensed into a fat glutinous matter and falls to the Earth again part whereof rests on the leaves of the Oak and some other Trees whose leaves are smooth and do not easily admit the moisture into them as the Elm or other rougher leaves do which Mildew becomes the principal Food for the industrious Bees being of its self sweet and easily convertible into Honey Other part thereof rests on the Ears and Stalks of Wheat bespotting the Stalks with a different from the natural colour and being of a glutinous substance by the heat of the Sun doth so binde up the young tender and close Ears of the Wheat that it prevents the growth and compleating of the imperfect Grain therein which occasioneth it to be very light in the Harvest and yield a poor and lean Grain in the Heap But if after this Mildew falls a showre succeeds or the winde blow stifly it washeth or shaketh it off and are the only natural Remedies against this sometimes heavy Curse Some advise in the Morning after the Mildew is fallen and before the rising of the Sun that two men go at some convenient distance in the Furrows holding a Cord stretched streight betwixt them carrying it so that it may shake off the Dew from the tops of the Corn before the heat of the Sun hath thickned it It is also advised to sow Wheat in open grounds where the winde may the better shake off this Dew this being looked upon to be the only inconvenience Inclosures are subject unto but it is evident that the Field-lands are not exempt from Mildews nor yet from Smut where it is more than in Inclosed Lands The sowing of Wheat early hath been esteemed and doubtless is the best Remedy against Mildews by which means the Wheat will be well filled in the Ear before they fall and your increase will be much more As for curiosity sake Wheat was sown in all Moneths of the Year that sown in July produced such an increase that is almost incredible In France they usually sow before Michaelmas Bearded-Wheat is not so subject to Mildews as the other the Fibres keeping the Dew from the Ear. Hops suffer very much by Mildews which if they fall on them when small totally destroy them The Remedies that may be used against it is when you perceive the Mildews on them to shake the Poles in the Morning Or you may have an Engine to cast water like unto Rain on them which will wash the Mildew from them And if you have water plenty in your Hop-garden it will quit the cost in such years Hops being usually sold at a very high rate SECT II. From the Water and Earth Next unto those Aërial or Coelestial injuries which descend upon us we shall discourse of such that proceed from the Water and Earth that do also in a very great measure at some times and in some places afflict us proving great impediments to those Improvements that might otherwise be easily accomplished and also great detriments unto the Countryman upon that which he hath already performed As the want of water in some places proves a great impediment Much water offending and injury to the improvement and management of Rustick Affairs so doth the superabundant quantity either from the flowings of the Sea over the low Marsh-Lands at Spring-tides and High-waters or from great Land-flouds but principally from the low and level scituation of the Land where it is subject to Springs Over-flowings c. It is evident that much good Land hath for many Ages yielded Over-flowing of the Sea little benefit by reason of the high waters that sometimes have covered it over and destroyed that which in the intervals hath grown and hath also over-flown much good Land so frequently
that it hath become useless but by the extraordinary charge labour art and industry of some publick-spirited persons very great quantities thereof have been gained from the power of that Grand Enemy to Husbandry as may be observed in those vast Levels of rich Land in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Cambridgeshire c. in our Age recovered Many other vast Flats and Levels there are on the Borders of this Kingdom that are beyond the power strength or interest of a private Purse to attempt yet to the publick at a publick charge would redound to an infinite advantage and not only maintain thousands at work imployment being the greatest check to factious spirits but bring in an yearly increase of wealth one of the principal Supports of this Kingdom against its Enemies and that without the hazards of an Indian Voyage Land-flouds in some places especially on the great Flats and Land-flouds Levels prove a great annoyance to the Husbandman that it is of equal concernment to divert the Land-flouds from some Lands as to drain the water that resides upon it and otherwise annoys it As we see in the Draining the Great Level between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire by the Isle of Axholm where the great River Idle Navigable of its self that formerly passed with its great Land-flouds through the vast Level on the Yorkshire side of Axholm by the Art and industry of the Drainers through a new Cut is carried into Trent on the other side of the Isle that the Draining of that Great Level which otherwise might seem impossible to be done by that very means became most feasible So that here we need say no more but that as the conveniency of the place will permit you divert the Land-flouds and Streams before you attempt a through Draining if it be feasible and requisite lest you multiply your cost and be at last frustrate of your purpose The greatest of our In-land annoyances to Husbandry occasioned Standing Waters by water is from the standing or residing of water on our flat and level Marishes Meadows or other Lands whether occasioned from Rains Springs or otherwise Where there is any descent or declining of Land by cutting Drains to the lowest part it is most easily performed But where it is absolutely flat and level it is much more difficult yet are there few such Levels but there are places or Currents for the water to pass out of them which you must sink deep and wide enough to drain the whole and then make several drains from each part of the Marsh or Level beginning large and wide at the mouth of the Drain and lessening by degrees as it extends to the extreams of the Land you drain Be sure to make the Drains deep enough to draw the water from under the Marsh or Bog and make enough of them that may lay it throughly dry If you cannot make a passage deep enough to take the water away from the bottom of your Drain which in many places is a great impediment of this improvement either by reason that you cannot cut through anothers Land or that the passage be long or that some River is near which will be apt to revert upon you or suchlike then may an Engine commanded by the winde be of great use and effect that which by any other way could not be done the description whereof see before in the third Chapter According to the height you raise the water may you proportion the greatness or smalness of your Engine You need not fear winde sufficient at one time or other to keep your Drains emyty for during the greatest Calms are usually the greatest Droughts and in the wettest seasons windes are seldom wanting especially on Flats and Levels Over-much moisture proves also very injurious to Corn and other Plantations the usual remedy whereof is to lay the Land high in Ridges and cut Drains at the ends of the Furrows to carry away the superfluous water In Orchards and Gardens it usually hinders the growth and prosperity of Trees and other Plants against which the best remedy is to double the Land that is by abating the one half thereof about a foot more or less according to the nature and goodness of the Soil in long Walks or Rows about seven or ten foot broad as to you seems best and most convenient and cast it on the other in banks or borders so that you will then have those banks lie dry to the bottom of your Walks and all of the best of the Mould on which you may plant your Trees c. where they will thrive as well as on any other drier Land being planted shallow Take this as a general Observation in Agriculture that most of the barren and unimproved Lands in England are so either because of Drought or the want of Water or Moisture or that they are poysoned or glutted with too much therefore let every Husbandman make the best use of that water that runs through his Lands and by preserving what falls upon his Lands as we have at large before directed in this Treatise and drain or convey away that which superabounds and offends then would there be a far greater plenty of all manner of Tillage and Cattle to the great inriching of this Kingdom Water is also very offensive in our Dwelling-houses that we cannot make Cellars for Beer c. which may be several ways cured or prevented Either by laying the bottom and sides of the Cellar with Sheet-Lead and a Floor of boards thereon to preserve it from injury Several such Cellars there are in some Cities and Towns that lie low in the water but this is too costly a way for our Husbandman Another way is to joynt your Bricks or Stone with Tarris or the Cement before described in this Chapter for the keeping in of water in Cisterns Also you may Bed your Cellar with Clay and then Brick or Stone it over after the same manner as we directed before in this Chapter for the keeping of water c. Or you may sink a Well or Pit near your Cellar and somewhat lower than it into which you place a Pump that at such times as water annoys you it may by that means be removed Sometimes it happens that the Floor of the House you live in or the Barn you lay your Corn in are damp or moistened by certain Springs that some times or other do annoy them to your great detriment as well to your health as injury to your Goods or Corn which if the scituation of the place will bear it as most usually it will the cutting of a Trench or Ditch round about the same of such depth as you may drain it dry by the fall that is naturally from it will cure this disease This Ditch or Trench may be paved walled on the sides and covered as you please so that the Brick or Stone of the Wall on the side next the House or Barn be not laid with Mortar to prevent the issue of the
Water from the Earth into it Much Land there is in England that is capable of a very great Stones Shrubs c. improvement by removing those common and stubborn Obstacles as Stones Shrubs Goss Broom c. which are naturally produced in many places and the faint-hearted lazy and sometimes beggerly Husbandman had rather let them grow and suck out the Marrow and Fat of his Land than bestow any cost or pains to remove them and is contented with now and then a bundle of Bushes c. when the removal of them would not only be an improvement of his Land by their absence but the materials themselves by a right and judicious way of ordering them might become also an additional improvement As first of Stones which being picked up and laid on heaps about the roots of either Fruit or Timber-trees planted on the Bounds and in Rows on the Land is a very great help and advantage to the growth of such Trees and saves the labour of carrying them off the ground which charge usually exceeds the charge of picking them up This only where Stones offend or are injurious Shrubs Goss Broom c. prove a very great annoyance to Husbandry and the difficulty and charge in plucking them up is the principal impediment to their removal to such that are ignorant of the most dextrous ways used to that purpose the best whereof I finde to be this described by Mr. Plat Viz. A very strong Instrument of Iron like unto a Dung-fork with three Grains or Tines only much bigger according to the bigness of the Shrubs you use it about the upper part thereof is a very strong and long Stail or handle like a Leaver Now set this Instrument at a convenient distance from the Root slopewise and with a Hedging-beetle drive it in a good depth then lift up the Stail and place under it across an Iron-bar or such-like Fulciment to keep it streight and that it sink not into the ground Then take hold of the Cord that before ought to have been fastened to the top of the Stail and by this means may you Eradicate any Shrubs c. If it will not do at once place it on the other side c. These Bushes Brakes and suchlike though they are of little worth or use for any other thing yet are they very necessary and beneficial to improve the Land by burning them being dry either by themselves or under heaps of Turf Earth c. as before Chap. 5. was observed Some Lands are more prone and subject to Weeds and that in Weeds some years than other which is often occasioned by water standing on it destroying the Corn and such Seeds that are usually sown in it and nourishing such Weeds that most delight in moisture the only remedy whereof is to lay it dry and add some convenient drying and lightning materials or composts thereon as Sand Ashes c. Also some sorts of Dungs or Manures cause Weeds as Dung made of Straw Hawm Fern or suchlike laid on Lands in any great quantity without any other mixture of Horse-dung Sheeps-dung Lime Ashes or suchlike hot Compost which do in some measure correct the cold and sluggish quality of it but in some years and on some Lands any ordinary cold Dung begets Weeds which injure the Corn more than the fatness of the Dung advantages therefore Lime Marle Chalk Ashes c. are to be preferred in most Lands Weeds in Pasture-lands are best destroyed by burning of it in Turfs as before we discovered or by Plowing of it without Chap. 5. burning Rushes Flages and suchlike Aquaticks are best destroyed by Rushes Flags c. draining so that you cut your Drains below the roots thereof that it may take away the matter that feeds them The Sowthistle proves a great annoyance to some Lands by Sowthistle killing the Grass Corn c. although it be a sure Token of the strength of the Land The way to destroy them is to cut them up by the roots before feeding-feeding-time the advantage you will receive will answer your expence and more The way to destroy this so common and known an annoyance Fern. is to Mow it off in the Spring whether with an Iron or Wooden Sythe it matters not for it will easily break which work reiterate the same year as fast as it grows and it is confidently affirmed that it will kill and destroy the Fern for ever after Improvement and bettering the Land by Soyling Marling or Liming c. is also a principal remedy against all manner of Broom Furze Heath and other suchlike trumpery that delight only in barren Lands Very much differing from Mildews is the blighting of Corn Blights and Smut the Mildews proceeding from a different cause and happening only in dry Summers when on the contrary Blighting happens in wet and is also occasioned through the too much fatness and rankness in Land as is observed that strong Lands are usually sown with Barley Pease or suchlike to abate the fertility thereof before it be sown with Wheat which would otherwise be subject to Blights or Blasting Also Wheat sown on level or low Land in moist years is subject to the same inconveniencies for you may observe that the Wheat that grows on the tops of the ridges in moist years to be better and freer than what grows in the Furrows which is usually blighted by means of water and fatness lying more about it than the other for Wheat naturally affects to be kept dry on moist and strong ground Therefore as moisture and the richness of the ground together occasions this disease by knowing thereof you may easily remedy it by laying your Land on high Ridges which if it be never so rich the Wheat growing thereon will hardly be blighted if not overcome with moisture Smut seems to proceed from the same cause therefore need we Smut to say the less Only that sometimes smuttiness proceeds from other causes as by sowing of Smutty-corn by soiling the Land with rotten Vegetables as Straw Hawm Fern c. It is confidently affirmed that the smutty Grains of Wheat being sown will grow and produce Ears of Smut but I confess I have not yet tryed and shall therefore suspend the belief thereof till I have The sowing 〈◊〉 Wheat that is mixed with Smut doth generally produce a Smutty Crop whether the Smut it self grow or not unless it be first prepared by liming of it which is thus done first slake your Lime and then moisten your Corn and stir them well together c. and sow it Or by steeping of it in Brine either of which are good preventions against the Smut You may also prepare the ground by Liming or other ways of inriching it with sharp or saline Dungs or Soils and it will produce Corn free from Smut for it is most evident that Land often sown with the same Grain or much out of heart produces a smutty Crop as may be
Fin like a knife turned up by the side of the Spade and sometimes on both sides to divide the Clay or moist Earth and cut the small Roots that it come clean away The ordinary Spade is made several ways but the most commendable Common spades are the lightest and thinnest wrought not wanting their due strength the cleaner they are kept the better they work The How is an Instrument of very great use and it is great pity The How it 's no more used If the spare-times of the year except when the Earth is frozen were but made use of to How the several creeks corners and patches of your Land it would undoubtedly prove a very great Improvement More hereof in their proper Chap. 4. places Besides the Spade and How and their kinds there are several Other Instruments used in Digging c. other Instruments used by the Husbandman for the grubbing and raising of Trees both great and small and Bushes Brakes c. and for the making holes and passages in hard and stony Lands for several occasions and for the loading and spreading of Dung Earth c. As Mattocks Pick-axes or Grubbing-axes and also the great Instrument described by Mr. Platt for the quick riddance of Shrubs Broom and suchlike mentioned before Chap. 10. The Iron-crow or Iron-bar are not to be wanting Also Shovels the Dung-fork Mole-spades or Paddle-staffs you will sometimes have occasion for SECT IV. Other various Instruments He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing is an old and true Proverb Therefore it behoves our Husbandman that intends to thrive to possess or furnish himself with all things necessary and of present necessity for his Occupation that he may not put himself to the trouble of borrowing nor the damage he is likely to sustain for want of nor the scorn or disgrace of being denied any thing he wants That you may not be forgetful of any or at least of the most useful and necessary Instruments besides the fore-mentioned I will enumerate such as come into my minde and advise you to add what you finde deficient and let them be all placed in their proper places according to Xenophon's advice Supellex Instrumenta varia Rustica suo quaeque loco ordine disposita in promptu sint quoties vel promenda vel requisita seponenda sunt Belonging to the Arable and Field-land are Harrows Drags Forks Sickles Reap-hooks Weed-hooks Pitchforks Rakes Plough-staff and Beetle Sleds Roller Mold-spears and Traps Cradle-sythes Seed-lip To the Barn and Stable Flails Ladders Winnowing-fan Measures for Corn. Sieves and Rudders Brooms Sacks Skeps or Scuttles Bins Pails Curry-combs Main-combs Whips Goads Harneys for Horses and Yokes for Oxen. Pannels Wanteys Pack-saddles Sussingles Cart-lines Skrein for Corn. To Meadows and Pastures Sythes Rakes Pitchforks and Prongs Fetters and Clogs and Shackles Cutting-Spade for Hay-reeks Horse-locks Other necessary Instruments Hand-barrows Wheel-barrows Dibbles Hammer and Nails Pincers Sissers Bridle and Saddle Nail-piercers or Gimlets Hedging-hooks and Bills Garden-sheers A Grindstone Whetstones Hatchets and Axes Sawes Beetle and Wedges Leavers Shears for Sheep Trowels for House and Garden Hod and Tray. Hog-yokes and Rings Marks for Beasts and Utensils Scales and Weights An Aul and every other thing necessary SECT V. Of Amendments and Profitable Experiments in Building As the Manners and Customs of Men are in every Age refined and tend more and more to Purity and Perfection in these Northern and formerly-rude and salvage Countries or rather grow more exact and imitate the other more Southerly and first civilized parts in Language Manners Arts and Sciences so do they also endeavour to reform their most gross undigested and ill-contrived Structures and Edifices not only in Cities and Towns but in their Country-Villages also that we now compare some of our Cities and Towns with most of theirs and even excel them in several and that not a few of our most suavious and delectable Rural Seats as well for their Magnificent Regular and Artificial Structures and most Ingenious contrivances as in their most salubrious convenient and pleasant Scituations And for the future were but the Rules of Architecture duly observed and those new and compleat Methods and Models contrived for Building and the Scituations of places according to the best judgments taken notice of in such Buildings that may hereafter be raised either de Novo or in the restoring or reedifying of our ancient and decayed Seats in our Country-Villages our England in a few Ages would appear a Kingdom beset and adorned in every part with curious and admirable Habitations possessed with Noble and Ingenious Inhabitants and would at large represent to the view of all what Middlesex it's Epitome now doth and would contract the envy of other Nations as the Land of Canaan formerly did Therefore let me advise all such that are willing or necessitated to Build that they sit down and consider of the manner and Method of Building as well as of the charge and expence and that they will make choise of such Surveyors and Workmen that understand what they go about and not be guided or perswaded by such that are wedded to an old deformed Custom who will in no wise consent to a more compleat way although it be much more Beautiful and Regular and also with less materials and cheaper and more convenient than the other for no other reason but that it is a Novel and not as our Forefathers did before us yet perhaps are willing to bestow expence enough upon it in inriching it although but with little skill or Art But I suppose it is better to erect that which will be pleasing to and content both Wise-men and Fools then that though done by the same cost and expence which will only please Fools This is a digression from our intended design and here inserted only to perswade such that intend any store of Building to make use of such Authors and persons that understand that Art which in this place we do not undertake to teach only shall give the Husbandman a few general Rules and Directions that I have casually met withal about the scituation and building of a plain Country-seat and the building of Walls Barns Mills c. Praedium Rusticum bonum Coelum habeat c. Let your Country-house have a good Air and not open to Tempests The scituation of a House seated in a good Soil let it therein excel if you can let it stand under a hill and behold the South in a healthy place let there be no want of Workmen or Labourers let there be good water and let it stand near some City or Market-Town or the Sea or some Navigable River or have a good Road or way from it Thus Cato advises Little more can be said but that Woods also as well as water may be near it they being the principal things that adorn a Country Habitation But if you cannot conveniently seat your House amongst the Trees yet are there few
bait that is fleshie either Worms Snails raw Flesh Frogs young Birds or the like You may Angle for them in the night in standing waters as By Angle you do for other Fish and they will bite so that you lie near or on the ground Also you may bait many Hooks over-night with Worms and With Bank-books fasten them on the Bank-sides Let the bait lie in the stream on the ground all night and you will have almost on every Hook an Eel so that you be there at day-break in the morning to take them for as soon as day-light appears they will unhook themselves though it be to the tearing to pieces their own Intrails You must be sure that your Hooks be strong and your Lines may be of good fine and strong handle-bound Pack-thread Eels commonly abscond themselves under stones in stony waters By Sniggling and under Timber Planks or suchlike about Mills Wears Flood-gates Bridges c. in the day-time where you may take them by this way of Sniggling that is by baiting a strong Hook on a short but strong Line with a large Garden-worm Then with a stick cleft at the top fasten therein the Line near the Hook and guide the stick into the places where you think the Eels are and thrust it up and down and you shall be sure if any Eel be there as soon as she feels the stick she will turn and bite but be sure you pull not too hard lest you tear out your â—old There is a way of taking Eels by Bobbing which is thus By Bobbing Take of the large Garden-worms well scoured and with a Needle run some strong twisted Silk through them from end to end and wrap them oftentimes about a board then tye them together with the ends of the Silk that they may hang in Hanks and fasten them at the end of a small cord with a Plummet of Lead about three quarters of a pound a little above the Bob The other end of the cord fasten to a long Pole and therewith may you fish in muddy water after a Rain When you perceive by moving of your Bob that the Eels do tug at it then gently raise them to the surface of the water and so bring them to Land for the Eels being greedy of the Worms swallow them and the Silk hangs in their teeth that they are easily taken five or six at a time Some make up a bundle of new Hay and Worms together and so let it down into the water which the Eels readily come to and thrust their heads into the Hay after the Worms and by that means are taken Others take a round Net made fast to a small Iron-hoop and let down into the water with a bundle of Worms in the midst which when the Eels come unto by a sudden raising the Hoop are taken in the Net for in some gravelly Tide-waters Eels especially the small Grigs will seek abroad in the day-time and give you excellent sport SECT VI. Of Angling for the Barbel Grailing Umber Chevin and Chub. These Fish are not so Universal as the other before discoursed of therefore the less shall be said of them As for the Barbel Barbel it is a Fish very plentiful in the Trent and comes in season about the end of May and so holds it till near Michaelmas and hath his haunts amongst weedy and hollow places amongst Piles and Stakes is a strong Fish and must be taken with very strong tackling His bait is a very well-scoured Worm Gentles or Cheese steeped in Honey The Grailing and Vmber are near alike they are in season Grailing and Umber all the Summer and are then taken with a large Grashopper the wings being taken off After the Grashopper is on the Hook at the point put on a small Cadworm and keep your bait in continual motion Let the Hook be shank't with Lead and covered with the bait The Vmber is taken with a Fly as is a Trout The Chevin and Chub are common in the Trent but no very Chevin and Chub. pleasant Fish They are in season all the Summer and are taken with Worms Flies Snails Cherries Grashoppers Grain Cheese c. There are many other sorts of small Fish as the Bleak Flounder Small Fish Gudgeon Ruff Minnow Loach and Bullhead The ways of taking them for brevity sake I shall omit In the Isle of Wight and other places Westward in the Rocks Cormorant Fishing on the Sea-shore are great numbers of Cormorants bred being a large Fowl and live only by preying on Fish and are so dextrous at it that in the open Seas they will dive and swiftly pursue their game and take and carry them to their Nests that the Inhabitants near adjacent do often go to these Rocks and furnish themselves with Fish brought thither by them at their breeding-times These Birds may be so brought up tame that they will in our ordinary clear Rivers dive and take you as many Trouts or other Fish as you please or the place affords putting but a small Collar over the neck of the Fowl that the Fish may not pass into her stomack When you intend for your game you must carry her out fasting put on her Loop or Collar and let her go into the water she will dive and streightly pursue the Fish she hath most mind to forward and backward and when she hath caught her game she gives it a toss into the Air and receives it end-wise into her mouth which will stretch like the head of a Snake and admit of a large Fish into her throat which will stop at the Collar Then hold out an Eel to her which you must carry alive or dead with you to that purpose and she will come to your hand and will by your assistance disgorge her prey immediately and to her sport again and will so continue till she hath furnisht you with as much as you can desire By this means may you take more than any other way whatsoever and exceeds any of the Sports of Hawking or Hunting Kalendarium Rusticum OR MONETHLY DIRECTIONS FOR THE HUSBANDMAN Being CHAP. XIII SHEWING The most Seasonable Times for the performing of his Rural Affairs Throughout the YEAR Operum memor esto tempestivorum Omnium Hesiod LONDON Printed by J. C. for Tho. Dring in the Year 1675. THE PREFACE TO THE KALENDAR RUri sicuti in urbe singula opera sua habent peculiaria tempora There is a peculiar time for most Affairs in the World but more especially for such Labours and Actions that depend upon the mutable seasons of the Year which being duly observed is no small advantage to the Husbandman Ephemeridem habeat quid quoque tempore faciendum is Florentines advice that every Countryman may have his Draught before him to direct him and reinforce his memory that his multitude of occasions may not so far obliterate those things to his loss and disadvantage but that he may here daily revive and
them the more fruitful if it prove moist renew and cover the Hills still with fresh Mould Now Bees cast their latter Swarms which are of little advantage Apiary therefore it 's best to prevent them Streighten the entrance of your Bees Kill the Drones Wasps Flies c. AVGVST Day Sun rise h. m. Sun set h. m.  1 Lammas  Orion appears in the morning 2    3    4    5    6 4 45 7 15  7    8   Cor Leonis riseth in the morning with the Sun 9    10 Laurence   11    12    13 5 00 7 00 Sun in Virgo 14    15    16    17    18    19    20    21 5 15 6 45  22    23   Cauda Leonis riseth in the morning with the Sun 24 Bartholomew   25    26    27 Dog-days end   28 5 30 6 30  29    30    31    Non semper aest as erit facite Nidos NOw bright Phoebus after he hath warmed our Northern Hemisphere retires nimbly towards the Southern and the fresh Gales of Zephyrus begin to refrigerate the scorching Sun-beams The Earth now yields to the patient Husbandman the fruits of his labours This Month returns the Countrymans expences into his Coffers with increase and encourages him to another years adventure If this Month prove dry warm and free from high winds it rejoyceth the Countrymans heart encreaseth his gains and abates a great part of his Disbursements You may yet Thryfallow Also lay on your Compost or Soyl as well on your barley-Barley-land as Wheat-land Carry Wood or other Fewel home before Winter Provide good Seed and well picked against Seed-time Put your Ews and Cows you like not to fatting This is the most principal Harvest-month for most sorts of Grain therefore make use of good weather whilest you have it About the end of this Month you may Mow your after-grass and also Clover St. Foyn and other French Hays or Grasses Geld Lambs THis is a very good time for Inoculation in the former part Garden and Orchard of this Month. You may now make Cider of Summer-Fruits prune away superfluous branches from your Wall-fruit-Trees but leave not the Fruit bare except the red Nectorine which is much meliorated and beautified by lying open to the Sun Pull up Suckers from the roots of Trees unbinde the Buds you Inoculated a Month before if taken Plant Saffron set slips of Gilliflowers sow Anise Now is beginning a second season for the encreasing and transplanting most Flowers and other Garden-plants as Herbs Strawberries c. The Seeds of Flowers and Herbs are now to be gathered Also gather Onions Garlick c. Sow Cabbages Colleflowers Turnips and other Plants Roots and Herbs for the Winter and against the Spring Now sow Larks-heels Canditufts Columbines c. and such Plants as will endure the Winter You may yet slip Gilliflowers and transplant bulbous Roots about Bartholomew-tide some esteem the only secure season for removing your Perennial or Winter-greens as Phyllirea's Myrtles c. It 's also the best time to plant Strawberries and it 's not amiss to dress Rose-trees and plant them about this time Prop up the Poles the winde blows down Also near the end Hop-garden of the Month gather Hops Toward the end of this Month take Bees unless the goodness Apiary of the weather provoke you to stay till the middle of the next destroy Wasps and other Insects and streighten the passages to secure them from Robbers SEPTEMBER Day Sun rise h. m. Sun set h. m.  1 Giles   2    3    4    5    6 5 45 6 15  7    8 Nat. of Mary   9    10    11   Arcturus setteth after the Sun 12    13 6 00 6 00 Sun in Libra Equinoctial 14 Holy Cross   15    16    17    18    19    20 6 15 5 45  21 Matthew Ap.   22    23   Spica Virginis is with the Sun 24    25    26    27 6 30 5 30  28   Pleiades rise in the evening 29 Michael Ar.   30    IT is now the Equinoctial that bids adieu to the pleasant Summer past and summons us to prepare for the approaching Winter the beauty and lustre of the Earth is generally decaying our Countrymen and Ladies do now lament the loss of those beautiful Objects Ceres Flora and Pomona in their Fields Gardens and Orchards so lately presented them withal but that their minds and hands are busied in preparing for another return in hopes of a better Crop Gentle showres now glad the Ploughmans heart make the Earth mellow and better prepare it for the Wheat which delights in a moist Receptacle still weather and dry is most seasonable for the Fruits yet on the Trees The Salmon and Trout in most Rivers go now out of season till Christmas This Month is the most Universal time for the Farmer to take possession of his new Farm get good Seed and sow Wheat in the dirt and Rye in the dust Amend the Fences about the new-sown Corn skare away Crows Pigeons c. Geld Rams Bulls c. few Ponds put Boars up in Sty Beat out Hemp-seed and water Hemp gather Mast and put Swine into the Woods Carry home Brakes saw Timber and Boards manure your Wheat-lands before the Plough YOu may now make Cider and Perry of such Fruits as are Garden and Orchard not lasting and gather most sorts of Winter-Pears and some sorts of Winter-apples but gather not long-lasting Fruit till after Michaelmas Sow Cabbages Colleflowers Turnips Onions c. Now transplant Artichoaks and Asparagus-roots and Strawberries out of the Woods plant forth your Cabbages and Colleflowers that were sown in August and make thin the Turnips where they grow too thick Now plant your Tulips and other bulbous roots you formerly took up or you may now remove them you may also transplant all fibrous roots Now retire your choice Plants into the Conservatory and shelter such Plants that are tender and stand abroad Towards the end of this Month may you gather Saffron Now finish the gathering and drying of your Hops cleanse Hop-garden the Poles of the Hawm and lay up the Poles for the next Spring Take Bees in time streighten the entrance into the Hives Apiary destroy Wasps c. Also you may now remove Bees OCTOBER Day Sun rise h.
m. Sun set h. m.  1    2    3   Spica Virginis riseth in the morning with the Sun 4 6 45 5 15  5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12 7 00 5 00  13    14 Sun in Scorp   15    16   Cauda Leonis sets in the evening 17    18 Luke Evan.   19    20 7 15 4 45  21    22    23    24    25 Crispine   26    27    28 Sim. and Jude   29 7 30 4 30  30    31    Phoebus withdraws his Lustre and his Rays He but obliquely on the Earth displays NOw enters October which many times gives us earnest of what we are to expect the Winter succeeding that I may say The Sun declines and now no comfort yields Vnto the fading Off-spring of the Fields The Tree is scarce adorn'd with one wan Leaf And Ceres dwells no longer at the Sheaf If it prove windy as it usually doth it finishes the Fall of the Leaf and also shatters down the Mast and other Fruits leaving neither Leaf nor Fruit. Lay up barley-Barley-land as dry as you can Seed-time yet continues and especially for Wheat Well water furrow and drain the new-sown corn-Corn-land now is a good time for the sowing of Acorns or Nuts or other sort of Mast or Berries for Timber Coppice-wood or Hedges Sow Pease in a fat and warm Land you may plant Quick-sets and also all sorts of Trees for Ornament or for use and also plash Quick-sets Wean the Foals that were foaled of your Draught-Mares at Spring put off such Sheep as you have not wintering for Follow Malting this being a good time for that work MAke Cider and Perry of Winter-fruits throughout this Garden and Orchard Month. Now is a very good time for the planting and removing of all sorts of Fruit-trees or any other Trees that shed their Leaf Trench the stiffer grounds for Orcharding and Gardening to lie for a Winter-mellowing Now lay open the roots of old and unthriving Trees or such that spend themselves too much or too soon in blossoms Gather the residue of the Winter-fruits also gather Saffron Sow all sorts of Fruit-stones Nuts Kernels and Seeds either for Trees or Stocks Cut and prune Rose-trees Many of September-works may yet be done if the Winter be not too forward Now plant your bulbous Roots of all sorts and continue planting and removing several Herbs and Flowers with fibrous roots if the former and better season be omitted This Month is the best time to plant Hops Also may you bag Hop-garden or pack those you dried the last Month. Now you may safely remove Bees Apiary NOVEMBER Day Sun rise h. m. Sun set h. m.  1 Alhallontide   2    3    4    5 Powder-plot   6 7 45 4 15 Leonard 7    8    9   Virgiliae or the Seven Stars set in the morning 10    11 Martin-mas  The Bulls Eye sets in the morning 12 Sun in Sagit   13    14    15    16 8 00 4 00 Edmund 17    18    19    20    21    22   Cor Scorpii rise in the morning 23    24    25   Last three bright Stars in the middle of Scorpio rise in the morning 26 8 10 3 50  27   The Bulls Eye riseth in the evening 28    29   The Middle-stars of Andromeda's Girdle rise in the morning 30 S. Andrew Ap.   Hyems Ignava Colono Virgil. NOvember generally proves a dirty Month the Earth and Trees wholly uncloathed Sowing of Wheat and Rye on a conclusion the Countryman generally forsakes the Fields and spends his time at the Barn and at the Market A good fire begins to be welcome Wheat may yet be sown on very warm and rich Lands especially on burn-baited Land Fat Swine are now fit for slaughter lessen your Stocks of Poultry and Swine Thrash not Wheat to keep until March lest it prove foisty Lay Straw or other waste Stuff in moist places to rot for Dung Also lay Dung on heaps Fell Coppice-woods and plant all sorts of Timber or other Trees fell Trees for Mechanick uses as Plough-boot Cart-boot c. Break Hemp and Flax. Now may you begin to overflow or drown your Meadows that are fed low Destroy Ant-hills PEase and Beans may now be set some say Garlick also Garden and Orchard trench or dig Gardens Remove and plant Fruit-trees furnish your Nursery with Stocks against the Spring Yet may you make Cider of hard fruits that are not pulpy Prune Trees mingle your rich Compost with the Earth in your Orchards against the Spring Some very hard Fruits may yet be gathered Lay up Carrots Parsnips Turnips Cabbages Colleflowers c. either for your use or to transplant for Seed at the Spring cover the Asparagus-beds Artichoaks Strawberries and other tender Plants with Long-dung Horse-litter Straw or suchlike to preserve them from the bitter Frosts Also dig up Liquorice Now is the best season to plant the fairest Tulips if the weather prove not very bitter Cover with Mattresses Boxes Straw c. the tender Seedlings Plant Roses Lilac and several other Plants and Flowers the weather being open As yet you may sow Nuts Stones c. Now carry Dung into your Hop-garden and mix it with Hop-garden store of Earth that it may rot against the Spring You may this Month stop up your Bees close so that you leave Apiary breathing vents or you may house them till March. DECEMBER Day Sun rise h. m. Sun set h. m.  1    2    3 8 15 3 45  4   Right foot of Gemini sets in the morn 5   The Lesser Dog-star sets in the morn 6    7    8    9    10    11    12 8 17 3 43 Sun in Capricorn Solstice 13   Arcturus sets in the evening 14    15    16   Cor Hydrae sets in the morning 17    18    19    20 8 15 3 45  21 Thomas Ap.   22    23    24    25 Christmas  Right shoulder of Orion riseth in the evening 26 St. Stephen   27 8 10 3 50
St. John Evangelist 28 Innocents   29    30   The left foot of Gemini rises in the evening 31    PHoebus now leaves us the shortest Days and longest nights is newly entred Capricornus the most Southern Celestial Sign and begins his Annual Return which very much rejoyceth the Countrymans heart to see a lengthening of the day although accompanied with an increase of Cold. The Earth is generally fast locked up under its frozen Coat that the Husbandman hath leisure to sit and spend what Store he hath before-hand provided Frigoribus parto agricolae plerumque fruuntur Mutuaque inter se laeti convivia curant Now is it time to house old Cattle cut all sorts of Timber and other Trees for Building or other Utensils fell Coppices Plant all sorts of Trees that shed their Leaf and are Natural to our English Clime and not too tender Let Horses blood fat Swine and kill them Plough up the Land for Beans drain Corn-fields where water offends and water or overflow your Meadows Destroy Ant-hills YOu may now set such Fruit-trees as are not very tender Garden and Orchard and subject to the injury of the Frost Also transplant any sort of Fruit-trees in open weather Plant Vines and other Slips and Cions and Stocks for Grafting Prune Vines if the weather be open Cover the Beds of Asparagus Artichoaks and Strawberries c. with warm Horse-litter Straw c. if not covered before Sow Beans and Pease if the Winter be moderate trench ground and dress it against the Spring Set Traps for Vermine and pick out Snails out of the holes of walls c. Sow or set Bay-berries Laurel-berries c. dropping ripe This Month may you dig up Liquorice Dig a weedy Hop-garden and carry Dung into it and mix Hop-garden it with Earth Feed weak Stocks Apiary Annus in Angue latet CHAP. XIV Of the Prognosticks of Dearth or Scarcity Plenty Sickness Heat Cold Frost Snow Winds Rain Hail Thunder c. WE have in the precedent Discourse discovered unto you the Reasons of and the best newest and most Rational Methods and ways for the better improvement of any sort of Lands capable thereof and have also given you a Kalendar of the most select Times and Seasons in the Year for the performance of most of Rural Affairs abroad and also an account of the Rising Setting c. of several of the Fixed Stars formerly observed by the Ancients in ordering their Rustick Affairs Yet remaineth there a more peculiar Art or Science equally necessary with if not more than any of the former and that is to foresee or understand what shall or may probably be before it comes to pass which is of so great concernment that could men but attain to it that alone were Art enough not only to raise their own Fortunes but advantage the whole Kingdom by laying up stores in time of plenty to supply the defects of scarcity That there is such fore-knowledge in some measure attainable from the Natural Significations or Prognostications of Comets unusual Meteors c. is most evident because they are either Providentially placed as Signes which must signifie somewhat to come or they are natural or accidental causes of some extraordinary and unusual effects that always succeed such rare Appearances If we should deprive Man of this Spirit or Art of fore-seeing or judging of future things from evident Signs and Tokens we should instead of making him more excellent set him a degree below the Beasts and other Animals who not only foresee the different changes of the Times and Seasons but also prepare for them as in the subsequent discourse will be made appear Solers Natura rerum genitabilis Ordo Avien Certa suis studiis affixit signa futuri So that we are not naturally uncapable of foreseeing what is to be but we are prejudiced against the thing it self because superstitious people and blinde as to things Divine have in several Ages doated so much upon their own attainments in this Art that instead of making a lawful use thereof they have Religiously interposed it between themselves and the true and living Spirit which hath begotten so great a prejudice against the thing it self because of the abuse thereof that it is generally deserted and neglected and those that have any the least judgment or insight therein much scorned and slighted by the vulgar and ignorant sort of people Which notwithstanding leaving the more Sublime Method of Predicting things to come in the greater Sphere not at all conducing to our intentions nor within our Rustick capacity to write of or apprehend we will give a brief account of the common and natural significations of usual signs and tokens of Heat Drought Cold Rain Tempests c. on which depend and from which usually proceed Plenty Scarcity c. of Corn Hay c. or the sickness or welfare of Men Beasts c. All which are very necessary for our Countryman to understand and I hope free from any thing of Superstition or Irreligion Qui haec omnia Sciens operatus fuerit inculpatur diis Auguria observans delicta evitans SECT I. Of the different Appearances of the Sun Moon Stars Meteors or any other thing in the Air or above us The most principal of natural causes of all changes and variations Of the motions colours and appearances of the seven Planets of the seasons of the year and of the different degrees of Heat Cold Driness Moisture c. in those seasons are first the Sun then the Moon and other of the moveable Stars or Planets but more especially the Sun whose distance or nearness unto us or rather whose Obliquity or Perpendicularity in respect of any part of this Globe doth beget that most apparent variety in the different seasons which indeed would be certain were there not intervening causes that did divert the general influence of the Sun and sometimes aggravate and sometimes impede the extreams of weather c. occasioned by it But let those alterations in the Air or above us be what they will there are some certain Prodromi that give us to understand thereof and none more than the Sun as principal in the Heavens next unto it the Moon as Virgil Si vero Solem ad rapidum Lunasque sequentes Ordine respicies nunquam te crastina fallet Hora. The Sun doth indicate unto us the true temperament of the Of the Sun Air through which we receive its beams and according to its density or rarity thereof do we perceive that Luminous Globe as if the Air be serene and clear then do we most perfectly receive the beams of the Sun the weather is then most inclinable to driness and according to the winde so is it either hot or cool which if it be either East or North-East in the fore-part of the Summer the weather is like to continue dry and if Westward towards the end of the
feed on To Burn-beat or burn the Bait. Vide Denshire Bulchin a Calf Bullimony a mixture of several sorts of Grain Bushel in some places it is taken for two Strike or two Bushels and sometimes for more C ACartwright one that makes Carts Waggons c. To Cave or Chave is with a large Rake or suchlike Instrument to divide the greater from the lesser as the larger Chaff from the Corn or smaller Chaff Also larger coals from the lesser Ceres the Goddess of Corn Seeds and Tillage Also the Title of one of the Books of Mr. Rea treating of Seeds Chaff the Refuse or Dust in winnowing of Corn. Champion Lands not inclosed or large Fields Downs or places without Woods or Hedges Cheese-lip the Bag wherein Housewifes prepare and keep their Runnet or Rennet for their Cheese Chitting the Seed is said to chit when it shoots first its small root in the Earth Cider or Cyder a Drink made of the juyce of Apples A Ciderist one that deals in Cider or an Affector of Cider Clogs pieces of wood or suchlike fastened about the Necks or to the Legs of Beasts that they run not away A Cock is of Hay or Corn laid on heaps to preserve it against the extremities of the weather Codware such Seed or Grain that is contained in Cods as Pease Beans c. A Colefire is a parcel of Fire-wood set up for sale or use containing when it is burnt a Load of Coals Collers about the Cattles Necks by the strength whereof they draw Come The small Fibres or Tails of Malt. Compas or Compost Soyl for Land Trees c. Coniferous Trees are such that bear Cones or Clogs as the Fir Pine c. A Conservatory a place to keep Plants Fruits c. in A Coom four Bushels Coppice Copise or Copse The smaller sort of wood or Vnderwood A Cord of wood is set out as the Coalfire and contains by measure four foot in breadth four foot in height and eight foot in length Covert a shady place for Beasts A Cradle is a frame of wood fixed to a Sythe for the mowing of Corn and causes it to be laid the better in swarth and it is then called a Cradle-Sythe A Cratch a Rack for Hay or Straw Vide Rack A Croft a small Inclosure Crones old Eaws A Crotch the forked part of a Tree useful in many cases of Husbandry A Crow or Crome of Iron an Iron-bar with one end flat To Cultivate to Till Culture Tilling A Curry-comb an Iron-comb wherewith they kemb Horses A Curtilage a Gate-room or Back-side A Cyon a young Tree or Slip springing from an old D DAllops a term used in some places for Patches or corners of Grass or Weeds among the Corn. Darnel Cockle-weed injurious to Corn. To Denshire is to cut off the Turf of Land and when it is dry to lay it on heaps and burn it To Delve to dig A Diqble an Instrument wherewith they make holes for the setting of Beans c. A Dike a Ditch Dredge Oats and Barley mixed Drought a long time of dry weather Dug of a Cow that is the Cows Teat A Dung-fork is a Tool of three Tines or Pikes for the better casting of Dung E TO Ear or Are to Plough or Fallow Earning Runnet wherewith they convert Milk into Cheese Eddish Eadish Etch or Eegrass the latter Pasture or Grass that comes after Mowing or Reaping To Edge to Harrow Edifice Building Egistments Cattle taken in to graze or be fed by the Week or Month. Espaliers Trees planted in a curious order against a Frame for the bounding of Walks Borders c. Exoticks Forreign Plants not growing naturally in our English Soyl. F TO Fallow To prepare Land by Ploughing long before it be ploughed for Seed Thus may you fallow twifallow and trifallow that is once twice or thrice Plough it before the Seed-time A Fan is an Instrument that by its motion Artificially causeth Winde useful in the winnowing of Corn. A Farding Land or Farundale of Land is the fourth part of an Acre A Fathom of Wood is a parcel of Wood set out six whereof make a Coal-fire To Faulter Thrashers are said to faulter when they thrash or beat over the Corn again To Ferment that is to cause Beer Cider or other Drinks to work that the dregs or impurities may be separated upwards or downwards Fermentation such working Fertile Fruitful Fertility Fruitfulness Fetters are usually made of Iron and hanged about the legs of Cattle that they leap not or run away Fewel any combustible matter wherewith a fire is made Filly a She-colt Fimble Hemp that is the yellow early Hemp. Flayl a thrashing Instrument Floating or drowning or watering of Meadows Also Floating of a Cheese is the separating the Whey from the Curd Flora the Goddess of Flowers Also the Title of Mr. Rea his Excellent Treatise of Flowers Fodder Hay Straw or suchlike food for Cattle Foison plenty of Riches Foisty Musty Fork There are several sorts of them some of Wood some of Iron some for Hay others for Corn c. To Foyl That is to fallow Land in the Summer or Autumn Fragrant Smelling pleasantly Frith Underwood or the shroud of Trees A Frower An Edg-tool used in cleaving Lath. Furrow The low fall or drain in Land either left by the Plough or otherwise made G A Gap An open place in a Hedge or suchlike A Garner A Granary to put Corn in Georgicks Belonging to Husbandry or Tillage as Virgil's Georgicks his Books of Husbandry Germins Young shoots of Trees Germination A budding forth Glandiferous Bearing Mast To Glean To pick up or gather the shattered Corn. A Goad A small staff or rod with a sharp Iron-pin at the end thereof to quicken Horses or Oxen in their motion A Geoff or Goffe A Mow or Reek of Corn. To Gore To make up such Mows or Reeks Goss or Gorse Furzes Groats Oats after the Hulls are off or great Oatmeal Grubbage See Mattock H TO Hale or Hawl To draw Harneys Ropes Collers and other Accoutrements fitted to Horses or other Beasts for their drawing Hatches Flood-gates placed in the water to obstruct its current Haws the Fruit of the White-thorn Hawm The stalks of Pease Beans or suchlike Head-land That which is ploughed overthwart at the ends of the other Lands Heckle An Instrument used in the trimming and perfecting of Hemp and Flax for the Spinner by dividing the Tow or Hurds from the Tare Helm Is Wheat or Rye-straw unbruised by thrashing or otherwise and bound in bundles for Thatching Heps The Fruit of the Black-thorn Herbage The Feeding Grazing or Mowing of Land Heyrs Young Timber-trees that are usually left for Standils in the felling of Copses Hide-bound A Disease whereunto Trees as well as Cattle are subject A Hinde a Servant in Husbandry Hillock A little Hill as a Hop-hill c. Hogs In some places Swine are so called in some places young Weathers Hook Land Tilled and Sown every year Hopper Wherein they carry their
the planting of them 91. 95 Crows to kill 211 Cucumbers 150 Currans 104. 107 Cyprus-Tree 86 D DAce to take 257 Decembers Observations 287 Decoy-Ponds 243 Digging of Land 34 Dictionarium Rusticum 313 Street-Dirt its use 65 Diseases of Trees 125. 219 Of Beasts and Fowl 217 Dividing of Land an improvement 13 Dogs 162 Draining of Land 21 Drowning of Land See watering of Land Drought its prevention 193 Dueks and Decoy-Ducks 165 Dunging of Land and the time thereof 24. 58. Dungs of Beasts Fowl c. 66 67 68 Dyars Weed 148 E EArth its use in soyling of Land 64. 71 Fullers Earth 63 It s Prognostical signification 302 Ecchoes their signification Eels to take 257 Eggs their increase and artificial hatching 164 Elder-Tree 89 Elm its propagation and use 76 Enclosure an improvement 10. 23 Impediments to Enclosure 12 Enemies to Bees 183 Enemies to Husbandry 193 Engine for stubbing up Shrubs c. 23 For setting of Corn 44 45 For sowing of Corn 47 Advantages thereof 49 Esparcet 29 Eugh-Tree 86 F FEbruary's Observations 267 Felling of Trees and Coppices 95 96 97 Fences the making 88 Fern to destroy 207 Fertility Causes of 6 Fetches 38 Figs 107 Filberts 103 Fire its signification Fir-Tree 85 To take all sorts of Fish 250 Fish for soyl 66 Their significations Flax its manner of sowing and ordering 39 40 The use of its Seed 52 Of Fowl 163 Of taking all sorts of Fowl 236 Several to destroy 211 Of the Fowling-piece 241 Several predict the change of Weather S. Foyn its improvement and use 28 Foxes to take 208 French Wheat 37 Fruit-Trees their profit and pleasure 98 Fruits their use and benefit 98 99 c. 126 Furzes 89 G GArden-Tillage 132 Preparing the Ground 157 Garlick 156 Geese 164 Several ways of fatting 165 Goats 162 Gooseberries 104 Goose-Dung 68 Grafting-Trees 108 109 110 111 c. Grafts choice and keeping 111 Grailing to take 258 Grain the different Species thereof 35 36 37 38 Of some Grasses 29 Grass long in Wiltshire 30 H HAir a good Soyl 71 Hay or Grass several new Species thereof 24 Hasel-Tree 82 Hedges the best 89 Hemp its manner of sowing and ordering 39 40 The use of its Seed 52 Impediments to its improvement 39 Highways impediments to Enclosure 12 Hives for Bees 173 Wooden 174 Of Glass id Holy-Tree 88 Hops and the ways of ordering them from page 133. to page 146 Horns a good Soyl 71 Horn-Beam 82 Of the Horse 160 Dung 66 Chesnut-Tree 85 Hot-beds to make 158 House its convenient scituation 230 The How and its use 228 Howing of Corn 46 I JAnuary's Observations 265 Inoculation of Trees 116 Insects 168 Their signification Insects to destroy 214 Instruments of Agriculture 223 227 228 229 Juniper-Tree 87 Juices of Fruits See Wines 130 July 's Observations 277 Junes Observations 275 K KAlendarium Rusticum Kilns for the drying of Hops their several Descriptions 142 L LA Lucern its improvement and the manner of sowing thereof 29 Larch and Lotus Trees 85 Larks to take 244 Laurel-Tree 86 Leeks 156 Lentils 38 Lettuce 154 Lime and the use thereof 61 Lime-Tree 84 Liquorice its Plantation and use 146 Low-Bell to use 245 Lupins 38 M MAdder 148 Manuring of Land 58 Maple-Tree 82 Marl the use and the different kindes thereof 62 Marches Observations 269 Mays Observations 273 Maslin 37 Medlars 103 Meadows their profit 15 Several ways of watering them id 16 17 Impediments to Drowning 16 Meadows dry their improvement 22 Melons 150 Mercury one of the principles of Vegetables â—â—2 Metheglin the different ways of making thereof 188 189. Mice to destroy 210 Mildews the cause 814 Remedies against them 201 Mills to amend 234 Mists their signification 295 Moles to destroy 209 Moon its various signification 292 Mortar the best 233 Mud 66 Mulberries 102 Mule 161 Myrtle-Tree 87 N NEighbours ill remedies against them 222 The form of a Draw-Net 237 Novembers Observations 285 Nursery for Trees 90 91 O OAk its propagation and use 75 Oats 37 Their use 51 Observations about Fruit-Trees 123 About Cider 129 Octobers Observations 283 Onions 155 Osier 83 Otters to take 208 Oxen. Vide Cows Oyster shells a good Soyl 66 P PArsnips 155 Pasture-lands their improvement 22 Partridges to take 248 Peaches 107 Peacocks 167 Pears 100 Pease 37 Garden-Pease 149 Perry the making thereof 128 Perch to take 255 Persian-Wheel 18 Pheasants 167 To take 247 Phillyrea 86 Pigeons and the several ways to order and increase them 166 To keep them from Corn-fields 212 Their Dung 68 Pikes to take 255 Pine Pinaster and Pitch-tree 85 Piscary to make 252 Pyracantha 88 Platanus-Tree 8 Plough the invention thereof and its use 31 The several sorts of Ploughs 223 Plums 103 Poor and barren Land its improvement 33 Poplar 83 Potatoes 155 Poultry their profit and manner of ordering 163 164 Privet 86 Principles or matter of Vegetables 3. 6 Prognosticks 289 And Observations Promiscuous 289 Pruning of Trees 95. 122 Pulse 38 Their use 51 Pompians 150 Q QVick-Beam 82 Quick-set Hedges 89 Quinces 102 Quincunx to plant 121 R RAdishes 155 Rags a good Soyl 70 Rain much remedies against it 200 Rainbow its signification Rape and Cole-seed 42 Their use 52 Rasberries 104 Removing of Trees 92. 119 Rye 37 Its use 51 Roach to take 257 La Romein or French-tares 29 Roots of Trees the ordering 123 Rot in Sheep to prevent and cure 218 Rushes Flags c. to destroy 206 Rushie Land its improvement 59 S SAffron 147 Salley 83 Salmon to take 255 Salt one of the principles of Vegetables 3 Salt a good Soyl 70 Saltness of the Sea the causes thereof 5 Sand its use 64 Water-Sand its use 64 65 Sandy-lands its improvement 24 Savoys 154 Saxifrage 30 Sea significations therefrom 302 Seeds the preparations of all sorts before they are sown 53 Septembers Observations 281 Sowing of Garden-Seeds 158 Seeds of Trees the manner of sowing and ordering 90 91. 117 Service-Tree 81. 104 Setting of Corn 43 Sheep 161 Sheeps-Dung 67 Rotting to prevent and cure See Rot Shot to make 241 Silk-worms their manner of ordering 190 Sycamore-Tree 84 Skirrets 155 Slips and Suckers of Trees 118 Smut to cure 207 Snail Cod or Snag-greet 65 Soyling of Land and the several sorts of Soyls 24. 58. 69 Spades several sorts 227 Several new Species of Hay or Grass 24 Of Grain Corn or Pulse 35 Spirits out of Grain 55 The Universal Spirit or Mercury 2 Springes to make 240 Spurry-seed 29 Stales for Fowling 245 Stars their various significations 292 Staking of Trees 93 Stalking for Fowl 242 Sting of a Bee to cure 182 Stocks what to graft and Inoculate on 108 Strawberries 152 Stones and Shrubs enemies to Husbandry 205 Stubbing up of Shrubs 23 Sulphur one of the Principles of Vegetables 2 Sun its various significations 290 Swans 167 Swarming of Bees 176 Swine 161 Dung 67 T TAmarisk 87 Tares 38 Tench to take 256 Thieves remedies against 220 Thunder and Tempest remedies against 201 Timber the best for building 234 Advantages of Timber 72 73 74 Tillage improvement of Land 132 Tobacco 156 Trees their propagation and advantage 72 To Transplant 92. 119 Trefoyl 30 Trenching-Plough 227 Trout to take 255 Turkeys 165 Turneps 42. 155 V THe true matter of Vegetables 3 Vine 103 Vmber to take 258 Vrins good for Land c. 69 Vrry a good Soyl 71 Vses of Corn Grain Pulse c. 51 W WAlls the best way to build 233 Wallnut-Tree 80. 101 Wall-Trees 104 Water its signification 302 Water to prevent over-much 203 Want of Water its remedies 195 Watering of Land 15 The times for Watering 22 Bad Water for Lands 22 Watering of Trees 93 Watering of Gardens 158 Weather-Glass 299 Sea-Weeds and Weeds in Rivers 65 Weeds to prevent 206 Wheat the divers kinds thereof 35 36 Its use 51 The White-Thorn 88 Winds their signification 296 High Winds remedies against them 200 Defending Trees from Winde 124 Wind mill for watering Meadows 20 Wines or Juices of Fruits 130 The Withy and Willow 83 84 Woad its manner of ordering 41 Woodcocks to take 249 FINIS
observe saith Markham that if you cannot get any Of Fullers Earth perfect and rich Marle if then you can get of that Earth which is called Fullers-Earth and where the one is not commonly the other is then you may use it in the same manner as you should do Marle and it is found to be very near as profitable Mr. Bernhard Palisly that French Author cited so often by Sir Hugh Platt commends the same I have not known it at any time practised in England for the bettering of any ground saith Sir Hugh Platt but by all presumption the same must of necessity be very rich because it is full of that vegetative Salt which appears in these scouring effects for the which it is divers ways had in use amongst us Clay is by many commended to be a considerable Improvement Of Clay Jewel-house of Art and Nature to some sorts of light and sandy Ground as Sir Hugh Platt gives the relation of a certain person that assured it to be most true that the very Clay which he digged up in St. Georges Fields being laid upon his pasture-ground which he there held by Lease did exceedingly enrich the same insomuch as he did never regard to seek after any other Soil Also Mr. Gabriel Platt relates that he knew light sandy ground which was good for little or nothing cured by laying thereon a great quantity of stiff Clay-ground which converted it to good temperament whereby it became fruitful and not subject to fail upon every light occasion as it did before but would abide variety of weather according to the nature of Hasel-ground And this Improvement saith he is of no little value for there is a great difference betwixt Land that is subject to fail once in two or three years and Land thus improved that will not fail once in two or three and twenty years through the distemperature of the weather Mr. Bernhard also affirms that all Marle is a kind of Clay-ground and it should seem to differ only in digestion from Marle It is good to try it on several grounds both Arable and Pasture and for several Grains at several times in the year and in several proportions by this means you may finde out the true value and effect of this and by the same Method of all other Subterraneal Soyl or Manure and thereby raise unto your self a considerable advantage By the same Rule and for the same Reason that Clay advanceth Of Sand. the benefit of light and Sandy grounds may Sand be an inrichment and Improvement to cold Clay-grounds as Mr. Gabriel Platt testifieth that he hath known stiff Clay-grounds that would seldom be fruitful unless the season of the year proved very prosperous to have been cured by laying thereupon a great quantity of light Sandy-ground which afterwards was converted to a good temperament like to the sort of ground commonly called Hasel-ground which seldom or never faileth to be fruitful The best Sand for fertility is that which is washed from the hills or other Sandy places by the violence of Rain other Sands that are digged have little fertility in them only by way of contracting to Clay-ground they may effect much as Columela saith that his Grandfather used to carry Sand on Clay and on the contrary to bring Clay on Sandy grounds and with good success Sand also is of great use to be mixed with Soil as Mr. Blith adviseth for the speedy raising of great quantities of Soil in the Winter by the sheep when foulding is generally neglected and that is by making a large Sheep-house for the housing of Sheep in Winter which may be Sheep-cribbed round about and in the middle too to fother them therein you may bring herein once or twice a week several Loads of Sand either out of the Streets or ways or from a Sand-pit and lay it three or four inches thick and so continue once or twice a week as long as you please and what with the heat and warmth of their bodies and the fatness of their Dung and Urine the Sand will turn to excellent rich Soil and go very far upon Land and be more serviceable than you can conceive There are several sorts of Earth that are of singular use for the Of Earth bettering of Land as all Earth of a Saltish nature is fruitful especially all such Earth as lies dry covered with Hovels or Houses of which you make Salt-petre is rich for Land and so are old floors under any Buildings Mr Platt affirms that he hath known many hundred loads of Earth sold for twelve pence a load being digged out of a Meadow near to Hampton-Court which were carried three or four miles to the higher grounds and fertilized those grounds wonderfully and recompensed the labour and charges very well which Earth being laid upon Arable Land within a Furlong of the same Meadow did more hurt than good which sheweth that the Earth must be of different nature from the Land whereon it is laid Also any sort of Earth may be made use of for the folding of Sheep thereon under a Covert after the Flanders Manner as before is said of Sand. All sorts of Earth are very useful to intermix with Lime Dung of Beasts Fowl or any other fatty substance being laid stratum super stratum in pits or on heaps to putrifie together as well to moderate the quality as to increase the quantity of your Soil Street-dirt in Towns and Villages is an excellent Improver of several sorts of Land especially the light and sandy SECT III. Soyls taken from the Sea or Water The richest of all Sands is what comes from the Sea-coasts and Of Water-Sand the Creeks thereof and all Lands bordering on the Sea may be improved by them it is the usual practise in the Western parts of England for the people to their great charge in carriage to convey the Saltish Sands unto their barren grounds whereof some of them do lie five miles distance from the Sea and yet they find the same exceeding profitable for that their inheritance is thereby enriched for many years together the greatest vertue consisting in the Saltishness thereof Others say the Richness of the Sands is from the fat or filth the Sea doth gather in by Land-floods and what the Tide fetches daily from the shores and from fish and from other matters that putrifie in the Sea all which the Water casts on shore and purgeth forth of it self and leaves in the Sands while it self is clean and pure The Sands of fresh Rivers challenge also a place in our Improvements being laid on Land proper for the same but more especially if it be mixed with any other matter as most usually it is where it is cast on shelves at the falls of some Land-waters descending from Hills or High-ways In Devonshire and Cornwal and many other parts they make a Of Sea-weeds and Weeds in Rivers very great Improvement of the Sea-weeds for the Soiling and Manuring
they will bear heads the Autumn following They are to be planted four or five foot distance the one from the other if the Soyl be rich but if it be not then nearer After the Planting they need no other Culture before Winter save only Weeding and dressing sometimes and a little water if the Spring be dry Against the Winter before the great Frosts they are to be preserved Preservation against Frosts against them Some cut the leaves within a foot of the ground and raise the Earth about them in manner of a Mole-hill within two or three inches of the top and then cover it with Long-dung which both preserves them from Frosts and keeps the Rain from rotting them Others put Long-dung about the Plants leaving the Plant a little Breath-room in the middle which will also do very well Others prescribe them to be covered with an Earthen-pot with a hole at the top but a Bee-hive is to be preferred before it It is not good to Earth them too soon left it rot them The Winter spent you shall uncover your Artichoaks by little Dressing Artichoaks and little at three several times with about four days interval each time lest the cold Ayr spoil them being yet tender you shall then dress dig about and trim them very well discharging them from most of their small slips not leaving above three of the strongest to each foot for Bearers and give a supply to the Roots as deep as conveniently you can of good fat Mould It will be good to renew your whole Plantation of Artichoaks every fifth year because the Plant impoverishes the Earth and produces but small Fruit. If you desire to have Fruit in Autumn you need only cut the Stem of such as have born Fruit in the Spring to hinder them from a second Shoot and in Autumn these lusty Stocks will not fail of bearing very fair Heads provided that you dress and dig about them well and water them in their necessity taking away the Slips which grow to their Sides and which draw all the substance from the Plants This Plant seems to contend for Preheminence with any of Of Asparagus the Garden-plants for the Kitchin being so delicate and wholesome a food coming so early and continuing so long as to usher in many other of the best Rarities They are raised of seeds in a good fat Soyl and at two years Planting of them growth may be transplanted into Beds Which must be well prepared with Dung first digged about two foot deep and four foot wide made level at the bottom and so mix very good rotten Dung with some of the Mould and fill them up considering that it will sink Then plant your Asparagus Plants at about two foot distance you may plant three or four Rows in this Bed of four foot wide they will in time extend themselves throughout all the Bed Some curious persons put Rams-horns at the bottom of the Trench and hold for certain that they have a kinde of Sympathy with Asparagus which makes them prosper the better but it 's referred to the Experienced Three years you must forbear to cut that the Plant may be Ordering and cutting of them strong not stubbed for otherwise they will prove but small but if you spare them four or five years you will have them as big as Leeks The small ones you may leave that the Roots may grow bigger permitting those that spring up about the end of the Season in every Bed to run to Seed and this will exceedingly repair the hurt which you may have done to your Plants in reaping their Fruit. At the beginning of the Winter after you have cut away the Stalks cover the Bed four or five fingers thick with new Horse-dung Some prescribe with Earth four fingers thick and over that two fingers of old dung which will preserve them from the Frost At the Spring about the middle of March uncover the Beds and take of good fat Mould and spread over them about two or three fingers thick and lay your Dung in the Alleys or elsewhere which will rot and be fit to renew the Mould the next Spring If you take up the old Roots of Asparagus about the beginning Early Asparagus of January and plant them on a hot Bed and well defend them from Frosts you may have Asparagus at Candlemas which is yearly experimented by some When you cut Asparagus remove a little of the Earth from about them lest you wound the others which are ready to peep cut them as low as you can conveniently but take heed of hurting those that lie hid There are divers sorts of this most pleasant and delicious Fruit Strawberries and not any of them but are worthy of our care and that little pains they require in Nursing them up The greater sort delight in a new-broken Bed or at least in such places where they have not grown before They must be kept stringed and removed every two or three years and then will yield a very great encrease They delight most in warm sandy Soyl the best Plants are said to be such as come of the Strings they bear best in the shade The white Strawberry and the ordinary red may be either planted in Beds or on the sides of the Banks at your pleasure The ordinary red grows plentifully in the new-fallen Copses from whence if you take your Plants about August you will have a very fair encrease There is a sort of green Strawberry though not usual that lies on the ground under the tall and slender leaves exceeding sweet in taste and of a very green colour Also there is another sort of Strawberry of a very excellent Scarlet-colour and most pleasant taste that grows plentifully in New-England and will prosper very well with us as is experienced by a Merchant at Clapham near London who hath many of them growing in his Garden To preserve them over the Winter though they seldom die you strow a little Straw Litter Fern or suchlike over them To have Strawberries in Autumn you may only cut away the Late Strawberries first blossoms which they put forth and hinder their bearing in the Spring and they will afterwards blow anew and bear in their latter season I have gathered many on Michaelmas-day As soon as your Strawberries have done bearing cut them Large Strawberries down to the ground and as often as they spire crop them till towards the Spring When you would have them proceed towards bearing now and then as you cut them strew the fine Powder of dried Cow-dung or Pigeons-dung or Sheeps-dung c. upon them and water them when there is cause The Cole-flower is an excellent Plant and deserves a place in the Kitchin-garden their seeds are brought out of Italy and the Italians receive it from Candia and other of the Levantine parts which is the best and produces the largest Heads You may either sow the seeds in August and carefully
preserve them over the Winter or you may raise them in your hot Beds at the Spring and remove them when they have indifferent large leaves into good Land prepared for that purpose but the best way is to dig small Pits and fill them with good rich light Mould and therein plant your Cole-flower which must be carefully watered There are divers sorts of Cabbages and of several colours and Cabbages and Coleworts forms but we shall here take notice of no more than the ordinary Cabbage and Colewort being sufficient for our Country-Kitchin The Seed is to be sown between Midsummer and Michaelmas that it may gain strength to defend it self against the violence of the Winter which nevertheless it can hardly do in some years or you may raise them on a hot Bed in the Spring In April or about that time they are to be transplanted into a very rich and well-stirred Mould if you expect the largest Cabbages they delight most in a warm and light Soyl and require daily watering till they have taken Root In any ordinary ground being well digged and wrought may you raise great quantities of ordinary Cabbages and Coleworts If you intend to reserve the seed let it be of your best Cabbages placed low in the ground during the Winter to preserve them from the great Frosts and cold Winds cover them with Earthen-pots and warm soyl over the Pots and at Spring plant them forth There is another sort of Cabbage commonly called the Savoy Savoys being somewhat sweeter and earlier than the common Cabbage and therefore to be preferred It is raised and planted as the other as also is the small Dutch Cabbage This is so common a Sallet-herb either raw or boiled and the Lettuce way of propagating thereof so easie that I may the better pass it by Only if you have a desire to have them white or blanch them as the French term it then when they are headed or loaved in a fair day when the Dew is vanished binde them about with long Straw or raw Hemp or more speedily you may cover every Plant with a small Earthen-pot and lay some hot Soyl upon them and thus they will quickly become white This ordinary Plant is by several made use of it loves a fat Of Beets and rich Soyl it 's usually sown in the Spring and will come up several years in the same ground and may be planted forth as Cabbages are Aniseeds may also be propagated in England as some have Of Anise already experienced by sowing them in February between the Full and Change of the Moon then strow new Horse-dung upon them to defend them from the Frosts These will ripen about Bartholomew-tide then also may you sow again for the next year Let your ground be well stirred about Michaelmas for that which you sow in February the black rich mellow-ground is the best SECT IV. Of Carrots Turneps and other Roots useful in the Kitchin This is one of the most Universal and necessary Roots this Of Carrots Country affords only they will not prosper in every ground they principally delighting in a warm light or sandy Soyl or if others it must be well stirred and manured but if the ground be naturally warm and light though but indifferently fertil yet will they thrive therein It is usual to sow them in the Intervals between the Beans in digged not in ploughed Land because of extending their Roots downwards After the Beans are gone they become a second Crop the best are for the Table the other for the feeding or fatting of Swine Geese c. some of the fairest laid up in reasonable dry Sand will keep throughout the Winter The fairest of them may you reserve till the Spring and plant them for Seed As to the general way of propagating them we have already Turneps given you a hint therefore have we little more to say but that for your Kitchin-use you may sow them at several times and if the Weather the Birds or the Worm destroy them you may renew your labour and cost for a small matter After they are in their prime you must house them from the Frost by laying them in your Celler or suchlike place on heaps This is an excellent sweet Root and very pleasing to some Parsneps people it is to be sown in the Spring in a rich mellow and well-stirred Soyl. When they are grown to any bigness tread down the tops which will make the Roots grow the larger The like may be done to Carrots Turneps or any other Roots Towards the Winter when you raise them they may be disposed of in Sand to be preserved as Carrots Turneps c. The fairest may be kept for Seed as before of Carrots and then take the fairest and tallest tops of those seeds in the Summer and sow them and by this means may you attain the fairest Roots The Skirret is sweeter than any of the former Roots they delight Of Skirrets in a very fat and light Mould and are raised of the Slips being planted in the Spring-time in Ranges about five or six inches asunder At the Winter when you raise the Roots you may lay the tops in Earth till the Spring for your farther encrease They are so cummonly known and their propagation so easie Of Radishes that here needs no more to be said of them These are very usual in Forreign parts and are planted in several Of Potatoes places of this Country to a very good advantage they are easily encreased by cutting the Roots in several pieces each piece growing as well as the whole Root they require a good fat Garden-mould but will grow indifferently well in any they are commonly eaten either Buttered or in Milk I do not hear that it hath been as yet essayed whether they may not be propagated in great quantities for food for Swine or other Cattle These are near of the Nature of the Potatoes but not so good Of Jerusalem-Artichoaks nor so wholesome but may probably be propagated in great quantities and prove good food for Swine They are either planted of the Roots or of Seeds Onions are Roots very much in request for their several and Of Onions divers uses they are put unto in the Kitchin they delight in a fine fat and warm Mould and are to be sown in March or soon after but if you sow them sooner you must cover them at the first where they come up too thick they may be drawn and planted where they are thinner when they are grown to some reasonable bigness you ought to bend down or tread the Spindle or Stalk which will make the head the larger being sown with Bay-salt they have prospered exceeding well In August they are usually ripe then are they to be taken up and dried in the Sun and reserved for use in places rather dry than moist This is so Universally known and propagated that I need say Of Garlick little
Seed-corn at the time of Sowing Also the Vessel that contains the Corn at the top of the Mill. How An Instrument made like a Coopers Adds for the cutting up of Weeds in Gardens Fields c. and between Beans Pease c. Hovel A mean Building or Hole for any ordinary use Hoven Cheese that is raised or swelled up Hull or Hulls the Chaff of Corn. Hurds of Flax or Hemp are the worser parts separated from the Tare in the Heckling of it whereby may be made Linnen-cloath Hutch A Vessel or Place to lay Grain or suchlike thing in Also a Trap made hollow for the taking of Weasels or suchlike Vermine alive Hut A small Hovel or Cottage I A Jack A term sometimes used for a Horse whereon they saw Wood. Iles or Oiles Vide Aanes An Imp a young Tree Infertile Barren Inoculation The grafting or placing of the Bud of one Tree into the stock or branch of another Irrigation Watering of a Meadow Garden c. Irroration A bedewing or besprinkling of a Plant. Junames That is Land sown with the same Grain it was sown with the precedent year Juter A term by some used for the fertile coagulating saltish nature of the Earth K KArle Hemp That is the latter green Hemp. Kell or Kiln whereon they dry Malt or Hops L LActary A Dairy-house Laire Layer or Lieare Places where Cattle usually repose themselves under some shelter the ground being inriched by their Soyl. A Lath a Barn Laund or Lawn in a Park Plain and untilled ground To Lease or Leaze Vide to Glean Lentils A sort of Grain less than Fitches Litter Straw or suchlike stuff for Cattle to lodge on To Lock is a term used by Drivers in moving the Fore-wheels of a Waggon to and fro Log A term used in some places for a cleft of Wood in some places for a long Piece or Pole by some for a small Wand or Switch To Lop To cut off the head-branches of a Tree A Lug. Vide Perch Lynchet A certain line of Green-sword or Bounds dividing Arable Land in Common Fields M MAds a Disease in Sheep Manger The place wherein beasts eat Corn or other short Meat A Mash or Mesh Ground-corn or suchlike boiled in water for Cattle to eat Mast The fruits of wilde Trees as of Oaks Beech c. Mattock A Tool wherewith they grub Roots of Trees Weeds c. by some called a Grub-axe or Rooting-axe Mature Ripe A Mayn-Comb wherewith they kemb Horses Mayns A Meak wherewith they Mow or Hack Pease or Brake c. Mere The same as Lynchet Mildew A certain Dew falling in the Months of June and July which being of a Viscous Nature much impedes the growth or Maturation of Wheat Hops c. unless a showre of Rain wash it off It is also very sweet as appears by the Bees so mightily inriching their stores thereby Mislen or Maslen Corn mixed as Wheat with Rye c. Mogshade The shadows of Trees or suchlike Mold Earth Mounds Banks or Bounds Muck Dung or Soyl. Murc The Husks or Chaff of Fruits out of which Wine or other Liquors is pressed Must The new Liquor or Pressure of Fruits before Fermentation N NEat A Heifer or any of the kinde of Beeves A Neat-herd A Keeper of Neat Beeves or Cows A Nursery A place set apart for the raising of young Trees or Stocks O OLlet Fewel Olitory An Olitory-garden is a Kitchen-garden or a Garden of Herbs Roots c. for food Ost Oost or Eest The same as Kell or Kiln P A Paddle-staff A long Staff with an Iron Bit at the end thereof like a small Spade much used by Mole-catchers A Pail The same as a Bucket Pallisade A sort of slight open Pale or Fence set to beautifie a place or Walk Palms The white Excrescencies of Buds of Sallies or Withy coming before the Leaf Pannage The feeding of Swine or other Cattle on the Mast or other Herbage in Forrests Woods c. A Pannel Pad or Pack-saddle Kindes of Saddles whereon they carry burthens on Horse-back Parterre or Partir A name proper to a Garden divided into Beds Walks and Borders for curious Flowers Herbs c. Pease-bolt Pease-hawm or Straw Pedware Pulse Penstocks See Hatches A Perch or Lug is sixteen foot and a half Land-measure but is usually eighteen foot to measure Coppice-woods withal A Pike A Fork or Prong of Iron A Pile A parcel of Wood two whereof make one Coal-fire A Piscary A liberty of Fishing or a place where Fishes are confined A Pitch-fork or Pick-fork the same with Pike A Plough A term used in the Western parts for a Team of Horse or Oxen. A Plough-wright One that makes Ploughs Podds The Cods or Shells of Cod-ware or any other Seed Pollard or Pollinger An old Tree usually lopped To Polt To beat or thrash Pomona The Goddess of Fruits Also the Title of several Treatises of Fruit-trees Pregnant Full as a Bud or Seed or Kernel ready to sprout A Prong The same as Pike To Propagate To increase or multiply any thing A Propagator A Planter To Prune To trim Trees by cutting off the superfluous Branches or Roots Puckets Nests of Cater-pillars or suchlike Vermine A Puddock or Purrock A small Inclosure Q QVincunx Is an order of planting Trees or Plants that may be in order every way R A Rack A place made to contain Hay or other Fodder for Beasts to feed on To Ree or Ray To handle Corn in a Sieve so as the chaffy or lighter part gather to one place Reed is either the long grass that grows in Fens or watery places or Straw bound up for thatching by some called Helm See Helm A Reek of Corn a Mowe or Heap of Corn so laid for its preservation out of any Barn A Reek-staval A frame of Wood placed on stones on which such Mowe is raised Resinaceous Roseny or yielding Rosin Rice The shrouds or tops of Trees or fellings of Coppices A Ride of Hazle or suchlike Wood is a whole plump of Sprigs or Frith growing out of the same Root The Ridge The upper edge of a Bank or other rising Land A Rock an Instrument generally used in some parts for the Spinning of Flax or Hemp. A Rod. See Perch A Roller wherewith they roll Barley or other Grain A Rood a fourth part of an Acre Rough The rough Coppice-wood or Brushy-wood Rowen Rough Pasture full of Stubble or Weeds Rudder or Ridder The widest sort of Sieves for the separating the Corn from the Chaff Runnet A certain sowre matter made use of by Country-Housewives for the Coming or coagulation of their Cheese Rural Of or belonging to the Country Rusticities Country-affairs Rustick Country-like S A Seed-lop or Seed-lip The Hopper or Vessel wherein they carry their Seed at the time of Sowing A Seminary a place where you sow seeds for the raising of Trees or Plants To Sew To drain Ponds Ditches c. Shake-time The season of the Year that Mast and such Fruits fall from