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
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
ways taken either by Nets Pots or Engines by Angling or by stupifying Baits inticing or alluring objects and these ways are used either by day or by night Also at different seasons of the year the Fish as well as Fowl having their seasons of all which we shall give you some hint SECT I. Of taking Fish by Nets Pots or Engines The usual way of Fishing by Nets is of the greatest advantage To Fish with Nets and so of greatest destruction to those watry Animals which if not moderately used destroys whole Rivers of them to prevent which there are several good Laws made though seldom executed And could all men that are concerned in this Exercise agree to neglect the use of Nets but for two or three years the Fish would encrease innumerably that in many years after they could not be destroyed which being very unlikely yet it were feasible to compel all Fishermen that they take no young Fish nor Fish in their Spawning Moneths for if they were permitted to Spawn but once before they are taken they would sufficiently stock the Rivers where they are for the destruction of Fry and Spawns is the ruine of the Fishing in most Rivers The most useful Nets in great Waters are the Trammel and With the Trammel or Sieve Sieve which according to their Mesh may be used for most sorts of Fish The making and manner of using them are known to most Fishermen The most pleasant and recreative way is with the Casting-net With the Casting-Net spreading like a Cloak and verged round with Plummets that over whatsoever Fish it is thrown it brings them to your hand This Net is either thrown off from the Banks side or from a Boat according as the water will give you leave If the remarkable places that you intend a fling at were baited before-hand your Sport would be the better In smaller Rivers where there are Roots or Stems of Trees With the Shore-Net or Poke-Net under which the Fish usually seek for shelter in the day-time the Net vulgarly called the Shore-net which is a Net broad and open before about five foot and ending backwards in a long and narrow Cod. The forepart of this Net is fixed to a semicircular Rod and to the string that strains the two Extreams of that Rod in form of a Bow-string In the use of it you pitch the straight side of the Net downwards against the place or shelter where you suppose the Fish are which Net you hold strongly against the place by the help of a Stail or handle that is fixed athwart the Bow and extends down to the String Whilest you thus hold the Net your Companion with a Pole stirs in the place of refuge and what Fish are there will suddenly bolt out into your Net By this means not only Fish in small Rivers as Trouts Humbers c. are caught but Salmon also in great Rivers where the water is thickned by the Tide the Fisherman standing against the water with the Cod of the Net between his legs and as soon as he perceiveth the Fish bolt into the Net he forthwith lifts it up In several great Rivers where shelter is scarce many have set With Fish-pots large Pots made of Osier with bars in them that when the Fish are in them driven either by the Current or seeking therein for shelter they could not get out again They are also laid in swift Currents and at Mill-tails and suchlike places for the taking of Eels which in dark nights warm weather and thick waters run down with the stream in great plenty In great Rivers the greatest destruction of Salmon and also With Wears advantage is made by Wears erected in the Main Stream that when those Fish whose nature is to swim against the stream and to spring or leap over any natural obstacle that shall oppose them by their endeavour to raise themselves over these Wears try to leap over they fall short and are taken in Grates set at the foot of them for that purpose Many other Engines there are to intercept their passage up against the waters none of which are very injurious to the encrease of that Fish were they discontinued in the Autumnal season at which time those Fish stem the swiftest Currents that they may lay their Spawn in the small shallow streams which Nature hath instructed them to do it being the sweetest meat other Fish can feed and so consequentially the best bait for a nimble and greedy Angler At which season those that do escape these destructive Wears are too often met with by the ignorant Rustick who with his Spear commonly assaults them in t he Shallows and after these Fish have Spawned and their Spawn converted into the young brood the Spring following they naturally descend with the stream and by greedy Millers and others are commonly the greatest part of them intercepted in their Pots yea sometimes in so great quantities that for want of a present Market they have given them to their Swine All which are the principal causes of the great scarcity of that Fish in these parts of England There is a sort of Engine by some termed a Hawk made almost With Hawks like unto a Fish-pot being a square frame of Timber fitted to the place you intend to set it in and wrought with wire to a point almost so that what Fish soever go through the same cannot go back again These placed the one where the River enters into your Land the other where it runs out with the Points of each towards you any Fish whatsoever that moves with or against the water when they are once within the Hawks cannot get back again In case the River be broad you may place two or three of these at an end in it a frame of Timber being set in the water that it break not out on either side nor under lest your Fish escape These Hawks ought to be made moveable to take off or on as you see occasion But in case you are in danger of Land-floods or that you have The way of making a Piscary not the command of the Land on both sides or of suchlike impediment then may you cut a large Channel out of the sides of the River and as deep as the bottom of the River with some part of the Current through it and place these Hawks at each end of it the better to intice the Fish into it At some convenient distance from the River and in the Piscary on the top of a stake pitch'd in the midst of the water and a little above the water fix a Laton-case in form of a Cylinder about three or four inches Diameter and twelve inches long in which set a Candle burning in dark nights the light whereof shines only upwards and downwards it must be open at the top because it preserves it burning the downward light intices the Fish into your Piscary so that no Fish passes up nor down the
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
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-land now a great part thereof Bushes and Ant-hills These Meadows and 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
Defence against Bees 182 To cure the sting of a Bee id Of the Bees work id The numbers of Bees 183 Of the Bees Enemies id Removing of Bees 184 Feeding of Bees id An Experiment for improving of Bees 185 A singular observation concerning the food of Bees id Of the fruit and profit of Bees id Driving of Bees 186 Exsection or gelding of Combs id Of the generation of Bees 188 The making of Metheglin id 2. Of Silk worms 190 Their Food id Time and manner of Hatching Silk-worms Eggs id Their sicknesses id Their time and manner of feeding 191 Their spinning id Their breeding id The winding of the Silk 192 CHAP. X. Of common and known external Injuries Inconveniencies Enemies and Diseases incident to and usually afflicting the Husbandman in most of the Ways and 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 193 Sect. 1. From the Heavens or Air id Great heat or drought id Remedies for want of water 195 To make Cisterns to hold water 196 Great Cold and Frost 197 Much Rain 200 High Winds id Thunder and Tempest Hail c. 201 Mildews id Sect. 2. From the Water and Earth 203 Much water offending id Overflowing of the Sea id Land-floods id Standing-waters 204 Stones Shrubs c. 205 Weeds 206 Blights and Smut 207 Sect. 3. From several Beasts 208 Foxes id Otters id Coneys Hares 209 Poll-cats Weasels and Stotes id Moles or Wants id Mice or Rats 210 Sect. 4. From Fowls 211 Kites Hawks c. id Crows Ravens c. id Pigeons 212 Jays 213 Bullfinches id Goldfinches 214 Sparrows c. id Sect. 5. Of Insects and creeping things offending id Frogs and Toads id Snails and Worms id Gnats and Flies 215 Wasps and Hornets id Caterpillars 216 Earwigs id Lice id Ants id To destroy Ant-hills id Snakes and Adders 217 To cure the stinging of Adders or biting of Snakes id Sect. 6. Of some certain Diseases in Animals and Vegetables 217 Of Beasts and Fowl id Of the Murrain 218 Of the Rot in Sheep id An approved Experiment for the cure of the Fashions in Horses and Rot in Sheep 219 Another for the Measles in Swine and also to make them fat id Sect. 7. Of Thieves and ill Neighbours 220 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 223 Sect. 1. Of the several sorts of Ploughs id Double-wheeled-Plough 224 Turn-wrest Plough id Single-wheeled-plough id Plain Plough id Double Plough id Another sort of Double Plough id Other sorts of Ploughs 225 Good properties of the Plough id Errors of the Plough id A Turfing Plough id Sect. 2. Of Carts and Waggons 226 New sort of Cart id Waggon with sails 227 Sect. 3. Of several other Instruments used in digging id Of the Trenching-plough id Of Spades id Turfing-spade id Trenching-spade id Common Spades id The How 228 Other Instruments used in digging c. id Sect. 4. Other various Instruments id Sect. 5. Of Amendments and profitable Experiments in Building 229 The scituation of a House 230 Securest and cheapest way of building a House 231 Best Covering for a House 232 Of Tiles Bricks c. id Of building of Stone or Brick-walls 233 Of Mortar id Of Timber 234 Of Mills id CHAP. XII Of Fowling and Fishing 236 Sect. 1. Of Fowling in general id Of Fowling the nature of water-fowl id The haunts of Water-fowl id Sect. 2. Of taking the greater sort of fowl with Nets 237 The form of a Draw-net id Sect. 3. Of the taking small Water-fowl with Nets 238 Sect. 4. Of taking great Fowl with Lime-twigs id Of the divers ways of making Birdlime id Of the several uses of it 139 Of the taking small Fowl with Lime-twigs 240 Sect. 5. Of taking Fowl with Springes id Sect. 6. Of killing Fowl with the Fowling-piece 241 Of the choice of Gunpowder id The way to make shot id Of the Stalking-horse 242 Of the artificial Stalking-horse 243 Artificial Trees id A digression concerning decoy-ponds id Of the taking Wilde-Ducks Eggs 244 Sect. 7. Of taking Land-fowl id The greater sorts of them id Of taking Fowl by day-nets id Of taking Larks by day-nets id Of Stales 245 Another way to take Larks by a Day-net called daring of Larks id To take Birds with the Low-bell id To take Birds with the Trammel only 246 To take Birds by Batt-fowling id To take small Birds with Lime-twigs id To take Fieldfares or Bow-thrushes 247 Sect. 8. Of taking Fowl with Baits id To take Land-fowl with Baits id To take Water-fowl with Baits id Sect. 9. Of taking some sorts of Fowl id To take the Pheasant with Nets id To drive young Pheasants 248 To take Pheasants with Lime-twigs id To perch Pheasants id To take Partridge id To take them with a Trammel-net 249 To take them with a Setting-dog id To drive Partridges id To take them with Bird-lime id To take Woodcocks id To take them in a Cock-road id Of Fishing 250 Sect. 1. Of taking Fish by Nets Pots or Engines id To Fish with Nets id With the Trammel or Sieve id With the Casting-net 251 With the shore-net or pot-net id With Fish-pots id With Wears id With Hawks 252 The way of making a Piscary id A Hawk-net id Sect. 2. Of Angling 253 Observations in Angling id Seasons for Angling 254 Seasons not to Angle in id Sect. 3. Of Angling for Salmon Trout 255 Sect. 4. Of Angling for Pike and Perch id Sect. 5. Of Angling for standing-Water or Pond-fish 256 For the Carp id For the Tench id For the Dace 257 For the Roach id For the Bream id Taking of Eels id By Angle id With Bank-hooks id By Sniggling id By Bobbing 258 Sect. 6. Of Angling for the Barbel Grailing Umber Chevin and Chub id Of Cormorant Fishing 259 CHAP. XIII Kalendarium Rusticum or Monthly Directions for the Husbandman 261 In January 265 February 267 March 269 April 271 May 273 June 275 July 277 August 279 September 281 October 283 November 285 December 287 CHAP. XIV Of the Prognosticks of Dearth or Scarcity Plenty Sickness Heat Cold Frost Snow Winds Rain Hail Thunder c. 289 Sect. 1. Of the different appearances of the Sun Moon Stars Meteors or any other thing in the Air or above us 290 Of the motions colours and appearances of the seven Planets id Of the Sun id Of the Moon 292 Of the other Erraticks or Planets id Of Comets or Blazing-stars 293 Of the shooting of Stars 294 Of the fixed Stars id Of Fire or other casual appearances id Of the Clouds 295 Of Mists and Fogs id Of Winds 296
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
the following Process highly applauded by the Owners thereof promising wonderful Productions from it which is thus Take half a Bushel of Sheeps-dung and put upon it twenty quarts of Spring-water set it on the fire till it be luke-warm but not boyling and so rub with your hand all the Sheeps-dung by little and little till it be dissolved in the water then let it stand twelve hours after which strain the water through a course Cloth with a hard Compression this water keep for use Then take of Bay-salt and dissolve it in luke-warm water which water filter and evaporate in an earthen Vessel over the Fire of this congealed Salt after the waters Evaporation take two good handfuls likewise do the same with Salt-petre dissolve it in water filter the water and evaporate it then take of the remaining congealed Salt-petre one good handful and let both those Salts dissolve in the fore-mentioned Liquor of Sheeps-dung making it again milk-warm when all the Salts are therein well dissolved put into that prepared Liquor eight Gallons of Corn or other Seed and let it steep therein thirty or thirty six hours then take it and put it into a Sieve and drain the water into another Vessel which water may be used again in like manner when the water is all drained away take the Corn or other Seed and dry it in some Upper-loft exposed to the Air not to the Sun and being almost dry scatter or sowe it in half proportion N. B. that the Sheeps-dung dregs being dried must be calcined and the Salt thereof drawn in luke-warm water which being filtred and evaporated the remaining Salt thereof is to be dissolved with the other Salts in the Sheeps-dung water I have here given you this Process gratis which hath been valued and contracted for at a high rate the Owners promising a very great Increase to succeed The Process appears to be made not by such that are experienced in Rural Affairs for you will finde it difficult to strain your Sheeps-dung water dissolved in those proportions for the Sheeps-dung wholly dissolves which doth so thicken the water and convert it into a mucilage that all goes where the water goes if rightly done and that which is more strange the Grain will not only imbibe the water so animated but the very substance of the Dung also if rightly ordered which is an Argument sufficient of the melioration of the Grain insomuch that no dregs or remainder of the Sheeps-dung was lost save only a few undissolved treddles As for the Salts I think little good is to be expected from them and therefore hold those troublesom preparations of them needless only the Salt of the Dung must needs be good because it is that Vegetative Salt or Vniversal Subject whereof we discoursed before only it is far fetched and dear bought as good may be had at a far easier rate for this purpose Nevertheless common Sea-salt hath been much cried up by some for an Improver of the Seed and an Example produced of a silly Jewel-house of Art and Nature Swain who passing over an Arm of the Sea with his Seed-corn in a Sack which by mischance at his landing fell into the water and so his Corn being left there till the next low water became somewhat brackish yet out of necessity did the man bestow the same Wheat upon his ploughed Grounds and at the Harvest he reaped a Crop of good Wheat such as in that year not any of his Neighbors had the like Doubtless infusion of the Corn or Seed in any of the aforesaid materials is some advantage to it or in the Lees of Wine Ale Beer Perry Syder or else in Beef-broth and the Brine of Poudering-tubs as is by some advised Also some affirm that Corn spritted a little as they use to do for Mault and then sown came up speedily and got the predomination of the Weeds at first and so kept the same that there was produced a far greater increase than ordinary which is a sufficient convincing Argument that if common water produce so manifest an Improvement that then a better Liquor may much more Because the Corn also will seem troublesom to sowe being wet it is prescribed either to let it dry a day or two on a Floor or else to sift slackened Lime thereon which is to be preferred because it preserves the Corn from Vermine Smutt c. I find also another compounded Liquor to have been commended Hartlib 's Legacie and experimented for the steeping of Grain therein which is thus Pour into quick and unslaked Lime as much Water as sufficeth to make it swim four inches above the Water and unto ten pound of the said water poured off mix one pound of Aqua Vitae and in that Liquor steep or soak wheat or Corn twenty four hours which being dried in the Sun or in the Air steep again in the said Liquor twenty four hours more and do it likewise the third time afterward sowe them at great distances the one from the other about the distance of a foot between each Grain so one Grain will produce thirty thirty six thirty eight forty two fifty two Ears and those very fruitful with a tall Stalk equalling the stature of a man in height This seems to be a most rational Process for this purpose and on this and the like ways of maceration or fermentation of the Seed depends those several Experiments where the Corn or Seed hath yielded so prodigious an Increase as that one grain of Wheat should yield a hundred and fourteen Ears and in them six thousand Grains but in case it generally hold to be but a quarter of the number it is beyond what any other way of Husbandry can perform CHAP. V. Of the Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Lands HAving discoursed of Meadows Pastures and Arable Lands and of the great Advantages and Benefits that are raised out of them and of the several ways of Improving Meadows by drowning or watering and of Pastures and Arable Lands by Inclosure by sowing and propagating New Hays Grasses and the best sorts of Corn Pulse and other Seeds and by the best way of Tilling and Ordering the same Now it will be necessary to say a little concerning this most general way of Improvement by Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Land under which terms we comprehend all the several ways of tempering altering renewing or adding unto the Land or applying any subject whatsoever thereunto for its Improvement and Advantage SECT I. Of the Burning of Land The Burning of Land or any other operation on it by Fire seems to be the greatest though not most universal advance to most of our barren poor and hungry Lands as well dry as wet the Burning of the Ground it self seems to be of very Ancient use as appears by Virgil Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros And burning of Wood and other Combustible Materials on Gages Survey of the West-Indies Sylva Land is practised amongst
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
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
barren dry and sandy grounds The Hasel also Mountains and Rocky Soils produce them but more prosperously in the fresher bottoms and sides of hills and in Hedge-rows They are best raised from the Nut preserved moist not mouldy Propagation by laying them in their own dry leaves or in sand and sown about the latter end of February They are also propagated of Sets and Suckers the young wands by no means to be cut the first year but the Spring following within three or four inches of the ground greater Sets may be cut within six inches of the Earth the first year The use of Hasel-Poles and Rods is generally known to the Use Husbandman besides for Fewel and Charcoal It is the only Plant for the Virgula Divina for the Discovery of Mines It is a good Ornament for Walks and yields a pleasant Fruit but why should we bring this so near us when we have a much more excellent Plant at as easie a rate viz. the Filbert SECT IV. Of Aquaticks or Trees affecting Moist and Watry places The white Poplar delights in moist grounds and near the Margins The Poplar of Rivers but not in the Water as the Willow doth They are usually encreased by the streght branches or pitchers Propagation set in the ground but by no means cut off the top until they have stood two or three years and then head them at eight ten or fifteen foot high or more and they will yield in a few years a very considerable shrowd which shrowds or branches may also be transplanted you may also let them grow upright without topping them they are then more Ornamental but not so beneficial It s White Wood is of singular use for the Turner and also for Use several Rustick Utensils and for the Gardiner It makes also Fewel for the fire This Tree little differs from the Poplar only it will grow not The Aspen only in moist but in dry grounds in Coppices c. is propagated by Suckers but cut not off the tops of the young Cions the first year its use the same with the Poplar The Abele-tree is a finer kinde of white Poplar and is best The Abele propagated of slips from the roots they will likewise grow of layers and cuttings In three years they will come to an incredible altitude in twelve years be as big as your middle and in eighteen or twenty arrive to full perfection This Plant of all other is the most faithful lover of Watery and The Alder. boggy places They are propagated of Truncheons and will come of Seeds Propagation but best of roots being set as big as the small of ones leg and in length about two foot if you plant smaller Sets cut them not till they have stood several years They are a very great Improvement to moist and boggy Land The greater Alders are good for uses under the Water where Use it will harden like a very stone but rots immediately where it is sometimes wet and sometimes dry the Wood is fit for the Turner and several Mechanick uses the Poles and also the Bark are very useful The Withy is a large Tree and fit to be planted on high banks The Withy because they extend their Roots deeper than either Sallies or Willows Sallies grow much faster if they are planted within the reach of The Sally the Water or in a very moorish ground and are an extraordinary Improvement They are smaller than the Sallies and shorter lived and require Osiers constant moisture The Common Willow delights in Meads and Ditch-sides not Willow over-wet They may all be planted by Pitchers as the Poplar those Sets or Pitchers are to be preferred that grow nearest to the stock they should be planted in the first fair weather in February and so till they bud the Osiers may also be planted of slips of two or three years growth a foot deep and half a yard in length in Moorish ground c. The Willow may be planted of stakes as big as ones leg and five or six foot long These Aquatick Trees yield a clean white Wood fit for many Use and benefit uses like unto the Poplar they also yield Poles Binders c. for the Gardiners use the Osier is of great use to the Basket-maker Gardiner Fisherman c. They are all good Fewel and make good Charcoal they are a very great Improvement to Moorish and wet Lands an Acre at eleven or twelve years growth may yield you near an hundred load of Wood no Tree more profitable than some of these Aquaticks according to the nature of the place to be planted upon the edges of Rivers and on Banks Bounds or Borders of Meads or wet Lands they yield a considerable head and ready for shrowding in a few years Mr. Evelin relates that a Gentleman lopped no less than two thousand yearly all of his own planting SECT V. Of other Trees usually planted for Ornament or adorning Gardens Avenues Parks and other places adjoyning to your Mansion-house and convertible also to several uses This Tree is a kind of Maple and delights in a good light Garden-mould The Sycamore and will also thrive in any indifferent Land but rather in moist than dry It 's propagated of the Keys which being It s propagation and use sown when they are ripe and falling from the Trees come up plentifully the next Spring and is a Tree of speedy growth Sets also cut from the Tree will grow set in moist ground or watered well in the Summer they afford a curious dark and pleasant shadow yield a good Fewel and the Timber fit for several Mechanick uses The Lime-tree delights in a good rich Garden-Soil and thrives The Lime-tree Propagation not in a dry hungry cold Land It is raised from Suckers as the Elm or from Seeds or Berries which in the Autumn drop from the Trees We have a sort of Tilia that grows wild here in England which almost equals those brought out of Holland where there are Nurseries to raise them streight and comely This Tree is of all other the most proper and beautiful for Use Walks as producing an upright Body smooth and even Bark ample Leaf sweet Blossom and a goodly shade at the distance of Sylva eighteen or twenty foot their heads topped at about six or eight foot high but if they are suffered to mount without check they become a very streight and tall Tree in a little time especially if they grow near together they afford a very pleasant dark shade and perfume the Air in the months of June and July with their fragrant blossom and entertain a mellifluous Army of Bees from the top of the morning till the cool and dark evening compels their return No Tree more uniform both in its height and spreading breadth I have known excellent Ladders made of Lime-tree-Poles of a very great length the Wood may also serve for several Mechanick uses like
not ruine of the Plant. The same time and Method is to be observed in the transplantation Of such Trees that come of Slips Suckers c. removal or propagation of the Suckers Cions Slips or Layers of the Elm Birch Lime-tree Horse-chesnut and such other Trees that are usually produced of Suckers Layers Slips c. as you do in the removal of the young Seedlings of the other Trees Only that for the slipping or laying of such Branches of Trees Time to slip or lay that had not before taken any Root the most proper time is in the top of the Spring about the time that the Sap is newly risen and the Tree ready to bud All Trees that are raised of Pitchers or Sets as the Poplar Aspen The time for Aquaticks Abel Alder Withy Salley Osier Willow Elder and Privet are to be planted in February or March before they are too forward Let your young Plants be removed rather into a better mould Manner of transplanting though there is but a little about the Roots than a worse let as much Earth adhere to the Roots as you may and leave as much of the Root on as you can abating only the top-root or downright Roots and spread the other every way in the pits or holes made for that purpose which ought to be made larger and deeper than the Plant at present requires and filled up with loose mould that young Roots may the better spread to seek nourishment for the Tree In Transplanting be sure to preserve the smallest Roots which gather the Sap and in filling the Earth about the Tree endeavour to keep them to a level with Earth between them that they may not be irregularly placed for the well settling these Roots will conduce very much to the prosperity of the Tree It is good to plant it as shallow as might be and not below the Plant shallow better part of the Earth into the Gravel Clay Sand nor Water c. but rather advance the Earth about the Tree than set the Tree too deep be sure also not to set it deeper than it stood before In the removal of such Trees that have arrived to any considerable Observe the coast bigness it is very expedient to observe the coast and side of the stock which way it stood before its removal and not to be esteemed such a trifle as Lawson and many other trifling Authors pretend For it is most evident that the Sap doth naturally flow most on that side of the Tree that 's next the Sun and on that side doth the Tree more encrease than on the other as is evident in observing the Pith to be nearer the North than South-side of the Tree But in such Trees that stand thick in a Nursery or have long stood in the shade where the Sun hath wrought little or nothing upon them you may be less critical The Oak Pine and Walnut-trees bear spreading large branches The distance and require greater distances than any other therefore the nearest should stand forty foot The Beech Ash Eugh Fir Chesnut c. may stand somewhat nearer than the other The Elm and the Horn-beam will grow the nearest of any Trees For the other you may plant them at what distance the magnitude of the Tree your occasions or the nature of it requires The Watering of your Trees immediately upon their transplantation Watering of Trees very much conduceth to their prosperity and settling the Earth about the Roots unless in weather extreme cold and where the Plant is of a tender kinde Also the young Plants for the first year will require your aid in watering of them in a dry Spring Also if Trees have been carried far the setting of the Roots in Water some certain time before you inter them conduces much to their revival If the Trees be of any considerable height they ought to be Staking of Trees carefully defended as well from the injurious Winds as the frications of Beasts by staking them and with a wisp of Hay or other soft Ligament to binde them to such stake not omitting to interpose a little Moss or Hay c. between the Tree and stake to preserve it from galling If your Trees be in danger of Cattles injuries then you ought to bind or set bushes about them to prevent rubbing Planters in most places do strictly observe to cut the foot or Planting of Aquaticks ground-end of Poplar Withy or other Aquatick Pitchers or Sets only one way like a Hindes foot pretending that to be a principal observation If either your impatient fancie or your urgent occasions oblige Removing Trees in Summer you to the removal or Transplantation of Trees in the Summer you may tread in the steps of a certain Prince Elector that at Hidelbergh in the midst of Summer removed very great Lime-trees out of one of his Forrests to a steep hill exceedingly exposed to the heat of the Sun the Heads being cut off and the Pits into which they were transplanted filled with a Composition of earth and Cow-dung which was exceedingly beaten and so diluted with Water as it became almost a Liquid Pap wherein he plunged the Roots covering the Surface with the Turf It is presumed that if the Trees were smaller be they of what Wood soever there needeth not so absolute a decapitation Several relations there are of Trees that have been planted or Transplanting of great Trees removed of eighty years growth and fifty foot high to the nearest bough wafted upon Floats and Engines four long miles with admirable success and of Oaks planted as big as twelve Oxen could draw to which effect these are prescribed as the ways to accomplish the like designes Chuse a Tree as big as your Thigh remove the Earth from about him cut through all the Collateral Roots till with a competent strength you can inforce him upon one side so as to come with your Axe at the Tap-Root cut that off redress your Tree and so let it stand covered about with the mould you loosened from it till the next year or longer if you think good then take it up at a fit season Or a little before the hardest Frost surprise you make a square Trench about your Tree at such distance from the stem as you judge sufficient for the Root dig this of competent depth so as almost quite to undermine it by placing blocks and quarters of Wood to sustain the Earth this done cast on it as much Water as may sufficiently wet it unless the ground were moist before thus let it stand till some very hard Frost do bind it firmly to the Roots and then convey it to the pit prepared for its new station But if it be over-ponderous you may raise it with a Pully between a Triangle placing the Cords under the Roots of the Tree set it on a Trundle or Sled to be conveyed and replanted where you please by these means you may transplant Trees
Cider stand in a Vat covered to ferment a day and night before you Tun it up and then draw it from the Vat by a Tap about two inches from the bottom or more according to discretion leaving the Feces behinde which will not be lost if you put it up on the Chaff for then it meliorates your Pur or Water-Cider if you make any When your Cider is Tunn'd into the Barrel where you intend to keep it leave some small vent open for several days until its wilde spirit be spent which will otherwise break the Barrel or finde some vent that will always abide open though but small to the ruine of your Cider Many have spoiled their Cider by this only neglect and never apprehended the cause thereof which when stopt close after this wilde spirit is spent although seemingly flattish at first will improve and become brisk and pleasant Cider in a little time If Cider prove thick or sowrish bruise a few Apples and put in at the Bung of your Barrel and it will beget a new Fermentation and very much mend your Cider so that in a few days after you draw it off into another Vessel If Cider be only a little sowrish or drawn off in another Vessel the way to correct or preserve it is to put about a Gallon of Wheat blaunch'd is best to a Hogshead of Cider and so according to that proportion to a greater or lesser quantity which will as well amend as preserve it If Cider hath any ill savour or taste from the Vessel or any other cause a little Mustard-seed ground with some of the Cider and put to it will help it Mixture of Fruit is of great advantage to your Cider the meanest Apples mixt make as good Cider as the best alone always observing that they be of equal ripeness except the Red-streak and some few celebrated Cider-Apples 4. Of the Wines or Juices of other Fruits If Cherries were in so great plenty that the Markets would not take them off at a good rate they would become very beneficial to be converted into Wine which they would yield in great quantity very pleasant and refreshing and a finer cooler and more natural Summer-drink than Wine It may also be made to keep long Some hath been kept a whole year and very good Although it may not prove so brisk clear and curious a drink Wine of Plums as Cherry-wine yet where Plums are in great plenty they being Trees easily propagated a very good Wine may be made of them according to the great diversity of this sort of Fruit you must expect divers Liquors to proceed from them The black tawny Plum is esteemed the best This Fruit yields a good Wine being prepared by a skilful Mulberry-Wine hand the natural Juice serves and is of excellent use to add a tincture to other paler Wines or Liquors England yields not a Fruit whereof can be made a more pleasant Rasberry-Wine drink or rather Wine than of this humble Fruit if compounded with other Wines or drinks it animates them with so high a fragrant savour and gust that it tempts the most curious Palats The juice of this Fruit boiled with a proportionable addition Wine of Currans of water and Sugar makes a very pleasant Wine to the eye and taste it being duly fermented and botled A great quantity of this Fruit may also be raised in a little ground and in a few years Of the Juice of Goosberries extracted in it's due time and Gooseberry-Wine mixed with water and Sugar is prepared a very pleasant cooling Repast This Fruit is easily propagated and yields much Liquor It 's usually made unboiled because it contracts a brown colour in the boiling As for any other Liquors Preservations or Conservations of these or any other Fruits I leave you to the many Tracts published already on that Subject CHAP. VIII Of such Tillage Herbs Roots and Fruits that are usually planted and propagated in Gardens and Garden-grounds either for necessary Food Vse or Advantage MOst of these several sorts of Tillage whereof we are now The advantage of Garden-Tillage in general to treat in this Chapter will raise unto the Industrious Husbandman an extraordinary advantage and are not to be esteemed amongst the least of Improvements for each sort being properly planted in such ground they most naturally delight in and being well Husbandried and judiciously ordered produce an incredible advantage But think not this strange that common and well-known Plants that are so natural to our English Soyl should prove so beneficial it is for no other cause than that some men are more Industrious and Ingenious than others For these Garden-plants prosper not without great labour care and skill and besides are subject more than others to the injuries of unseasonable weather Neither of which the slothful or ignorant Husbandman can away with affecting only such things that will grow with least toyl hazard or expence though they feed on bread and water when the diligent and industrious Adventurer lives like a petty Prince on the fruit of his labours and expectation which sufficiently repays his expence and hazard It is hard to finde any Trade Occupation or Imployment that a man may presume on a large and Noble Requital of his time cost or industry but it is hazardous especially to such that attempt the same without a special affectation thereunto or skill therein Nil tam difficile est quod non Solertia vincet So this Art and Imployment of Planting Propagating and Encreasing of Hops Saffron Liquorice Cabbage Onions and other Garden-Commodities being casual and more subject to the injuries of the weather than commonly Corn or Grass is makes it so much neglected for one bad Crop or bad year for any of them shall more discourage a Countryman from a Plantation thereof than five good Crops though never so profitable and advantagious shall incourage Ignorant and self-willed men are naturally so prone to raise Objections on purpose to deter themselves and others from any thing whatsoever that's either pleasant or profitable But we hope better of the Ingenious that they will set to their helping hand to promote this useful and necessary Art and thereby become a provoking President to their ignorant Neighbours that our Land may be a Land of Plenty that it may superabound with necessaries and rather afford a supply to their Neighbours than expect it from them as we are inforced to do in several sorts of those things we treat of in this Book Those of our own growth also far exceeding that we have abroad which inconveniencies and disadvantages nothing can better prevent than our own Industry and Ingenuity Besides most of this Garden-Tillage is of late years become a more general Food than formerly it was Scarce a Table well furnisht without some dishes of choice Roots or Herbs and it is not only pleasant to the rich but good for the poor labouring man many where plenty is
and dispose of the Stalk and Root to the Dyer which is of singular use for the Dying of the bright Yellow and Lemon-Colour SECT III. Of Beans Pease Melons Cucumbers Asparagus Cabbage and several other sorts of Garden-Tillage Of Beans in general we have already discoursed in this Treatise Garden-beans only here as it falls in our way we shall say a little concerning the greater sort of Garden-beans which you plant only for the Table They delight in a rich stiff Land or any Land new broken up they are usually set between S. Andrew's day and Christmas at the Wane of the Moon But if it happen to freeze hard after your Beans are spired it will go near to kill them all therefore it is the surest way to stay till the greatest Frosts are over until after Candlemas It is a general errour to set them promiscuously and too near together when it is most evident that being set or otherwise planted in Rows by a Line they bear much more the Sun and Air having a more free passage between them Also you may the better go between them to Weed top or gather them Also you may sow Carrots in the Intervals which after the Stalks are drawn up will prove a good second Crop Let the Ranges run from South to North for the greater advantage of the Sun If you sow or plant them in the Spring steep them two or three days in fat water as before is prescribed for the steeping of Corn it is better to How them in than to set them with Sticks the usual way In the gathering of green Beans for the Table the best way is to cut them off with a knife and not as is usual to strip them down for that Wound prevents the prosperity of the younger Cods not yet ripe When you have gathered your early Beans then cut off the stalks near the ground and you may probably have a second Crop e're the Winter approach These larger sort of Beans yield a far greater encrease than the ordinary sort therefore it is great pity they are no more propagated in the Fields than they are especially where the ground is rich There are several sorts of Garden-Pease sown or planted in this Of Pease Kingdom some approved of for their being early ripe and some for their pleasant taste others for their being late ripe succeeding the other The Hot-spurs are ripe the soonest from their time of sowing of any other then succeeds the large white Pease and several other sorts of green grey and white Pease then the large white Hasting and great grey Rouncival Pease There is also another sort of Pease in some places usually called the Sugar-pease for their sweetness they are to be eaten in their Cods which grow crooked and uneven their extraordinary sweetness makes them liable to be devoured by the Birds unless you take great care to prevent them These are sown later than the other by reason of their tenderness A fat rich Garden-Mould yields the largest Pease but a light warm and ordinary Soyl yields the tenderest and sweetest If you would have the earliest Pease sow them in September or October that they may get some Head before the Frosts take them and then with due care may they be preserved over the Winter and will bear very early Also to have them very late sow them a little before Midsummer and so may you have Pease in September As for the manner of sowing it is divers some sow at random as they sow Corn which is altogether to be disapproved of because they cannot be so evenly dispersed nor at so equal a depth as in the other ways Others set them in Ranges with a Dibble or Setting-stick which is a very excellent way both to save Pease and to give liberty to pass between for the Howing gathering c. But that which is most used and best approved of is the Howing of them in which makes a quick riddance of the work and covers all at a certain depth and doth not sadden or harden the ground as setting doth It is good to make the Ranges at some reasonable distance that you may the more conveniently pass between them to How the Weeds and Earth up the Roots in the Spring for the nakedness and barrenness of the ground adds much to the Maturation of the Pease by the Reflection of the Sun and the laying up the Earth at the Roots preserves them much from Drought Where your ground is small or that you can easily furnish your self with sticks they will yield a greater encrease if they have sticks to climb on But this and several other ways of ordering them we leave to the pleasure and skill of every one whose curiosity and delight is exercised in such Affairs Of all the sorts of Codware there is none so fruitful nor multiplies Of French-beans so much as doth the French or Kidney-bean being also a very pleasant curious and wholesom food and deserves a greater place and proportion of Land in our Farm than is usually given it It is a Plant lately brought into use among us and not yet sufficiently known the greatest impediment to its farther Propagation is the tenderness of it at its first springing and the sweetness of it which makes it more liable to be devoured by Snails Worms c. But a little care and industry bestowed about them will be plentifully recompenced in the fruitful Crop the several uses whereof as well for the Kitchin as for the feeding of Beasts and Fowl are not yet commonly known or practised These being meerly Fruits raised for our pleasure in the Summer-time Of Melons and Cucumbers and not of any general use nor advantage to the Husbandman we shall therefore pass them by only as to the ordering of the ground For the setting and raising them early see more at the end of this Chapter The best way for the raising of Pompions is to plant the seeds Of Pompions first in a good Mould in a warm place and then to transplant them into a rich dungy Bed made for that purpose watring them now and then with water wherein Pigeons-dung hath been infused then take away about blossoming time all the by-shoots leaving only one or two main Runners at the most and so shall you have them grow to an huge bigness Take heed you hurt not the heads of the main Runners The Artichoak is one of the most excellent Fruits of the Kitchin-garden Of Artichoaks and recommended not only for its goodness and the divers manners of Cooking of it but also for that the Fruit continues in season a long time The ground is to be very well prepared and mixed several times with good dung and that very deep The Slips that grow by the sides of the old Stubs serve for Plants which are to be taken and planted about April when the great Frosts are over and kept watred till they are firmly rooted and if they be strong
being useful at his Cart and Plough the Cow yielding great store of Provision both for the Family and the Market and both a very great advantage to the support of the Trade of the Kingdom Concerning their form nature and choice I need say little every Countryman almost understanding how to deal for them The best sort is the large Dutch Cow that brings two Calves at one Birth and gives ordinarily two Gallons of Milk at one Meal As for their breeding rearing breaking curing of their Diseases and other ordering of them and of Milk Butter and Cheese c. I refer you to such Authors that do more largely handle that Subject than this place will admit of Next unto these the Sheep deserves the chiefest place and is Of Sheep by some preferred before any other for the great profit and advantage they bring to Mankinde both for Food and Apparel Whereof there are divers sorts some bearing much finer Wooll than others as the Herefordshire-Sheep about Leicester bear the fairest Fleeces of any in England Also they are of several kinds as to their proportion some are very small others larger But the Dutch-sheep are the largest of all being much bigger than any I have seen in England and Yearly bear two or three Lambs at a time It is also reported that they sometimes bear Lambs twice in the Year It may doubtless be of very good advantage to obtain of those kindes and also of Spanish-sheep that bear such fine Fleeces As for their breeding curing and ordering I refer you as before to such Authors that have largely treated of them This Beast is also of a very considerable advantage to the Of Swine Husbandman the Flesh being a principal support to his Family yielding more dainty Dishes and variety of Meat than any other Beast whatsoever considering them as Pig Pork Bacon Brawn with the different sorts of Offal belonging to them Also they are of the coursest Feed of any Creature whatsoever being content with any thing that 's Edible so they have their fill for they are impatient of hunger It is a great neglect that they are no more bred and kept than they are their Food being obtained at so easie a rate Besides the Offal of Corn Whey and other Culinary Provision it cannot but prove a very considerable advantage to sow or plant Land on purpose with Coleworts Kidney-beans and several other gross thriving Pulses Plants and Roots whereby you may not only raise a considerable stock of them to your great gain and profit if old Tusser said true And yet by the Yeat have I proved e'te now As good to the Purse is a Sow as a Cow but also by their Treading and Batling in case they be kept in a Court made several for that purpose they will convert all such Vegetables they eat not into excellent Soil If they are suffered to run abroad they waste their flesh much therefore it is esteemed the most frugal and beneficial-way to keep them always penned into some Court both for their flesh and soil These are kept in some places for advantage being a very Of Goats course Feeder The Kids are esteemed good Meat their Hair also is of use to make Ropes and other things it never rots in the water The best sort of them breeds twice in the Year they are usually kept in Stables where many Horses are to preserve them from several Epidemical Diseases The Milk of Goats is esteemed the greatest Nourisher of all liquid things whereon we feed except Womans Milk and the most comfortable to the stomack from whence the Poets feign that their God Jupiter himself was nourished with Goats-milk They crop and are injurious to young Trees therefore are to be kept with much caution Although they are not esteemed amongst the number of profitable Of Dogs Cattle yet are they very necessary servants and the most observant and affectionate of all Beasts whatever to Mankinde Their love even to the loss of their lives in defence of their Master his Cattle Goods c. their officiousness in Hunting and seeking after all sorts of Prey or Game are so commonly known and so frequently made use of that it 's needless to tell you so Only that they are of different sorts and natures some as a Guard to defend your House and Goods others as Shepherds to defend your Sheep and Cattle others as Jaccals or Watchmen always wakeful to rouze up the heavy Mastiffs whereof some are for the Bear others for the Bull. Some Dogs also are for the Game as for the Stag Buck Fox Hare Coney Pollcat Otter Weesel Mole c. Also for the Duck Pheasant Partridge Quayl Moor-hens and several other sorts of Land and Water-fowl Others also are kept for their Beauty Shape and Proportion and for their docible Nature being apt to Dance and perform several other Acts of Activity c. Besides the wilde which are very profitable in Warrens tame Coneys Coneys may be kept to a very great advantage either in Hutches or in Pits which is much to be preferred These Pits are sunk about six or seven foot deep in a good light Mould or in Chalk or Sand they delight most These are to be made round or square and walled with Stone or Brick to preserve the Earth from foundring in leaving places on the sides for the Coneys to draw and make their Stops or Buries At the one end or side make a hollow place for the Buck to rest in chaining him to a small stump that he may have liberty to go to the Rack to feed and to his Den to rest On the other side or end let the places be left for the Does to make their stops in About the middle of the Pit may you place the Rack to feed them in the Buck on the one side and the Does on the other In a Pit of about ten foot square may be kept two or three Does besides the Buck which will bring each of them about fifty or more Young ones in a year sometimes seventy or eighty When they are about a Moneth old you may take them out of the Pit and either spend them or feed them in another Pit or place made for that purpose Their Food is for the most part Greens growing in and about your Gardens as Carrots and their Greens Coleworts Sowthistles Malloes Dandilion Saxifrage Parsley Grass and many other Also Hay Bran Grains Oats c. They ought to be constantly fed and cleansed and great care taken to keep them from Cats Pollcats c. If you have much Garden-ground and a good soil free from Water Clay or Stone for them to breed in they will thrive exceedingly and doubly repay your care and trouble By feeding them with dry Meat between whiles in the Winter-season it preserves them from the Rot which in moist weather they are subject unto but if you feed them much with dry Meat you must set them water otherwise not The
Fowl as Of Turkeys appears by their doleful cry and the anger that they seem to have against red colours being possest with a strong conceit that they are mocked by reason their own Combs or Wattels are red They are a great Feeder devouring more than they are worth by far if they are fed with Corn but if let at liberty and have Ranging room enough they feed on Herbs or the Seeds of Herbs without any great charge or trouble except in the breeding at which time they require careful attendance being an extream chill Bird. Some having the conveniency of a Wood or Grove near their house have let the Hen-Turkeys take their liberty and seek their own Nests and take care of their Young which they will do concealing their Nests from the Cock and bring up their Brood with much better success than the more tame They are seldom very fat till the Winter be well spent that they forget their Lust the cold weather gets them a stomack and the long nights afford them much rest Several sorts of Pigeons or Doves there are both wilde and Of Pigeons tame as Wood-Pigeons or Wood-Quests Rock-Pigeons Stock-Doves Turtle-Doves Then there are House-Pigeons such as are usually kept in Dove-cots or Pigeon-houses and divers sorts of Tame-Pigeons fed by hand kept for their largeness of body for their beauty and diversity of colours breeding almost every Moneth in the Year But we shall only here treat of Pigeons kept in Dove-houses that bring in unto such that are priviledged to keep them a considerable Yearly advantage with very little cost or trouble only feeding of them in the Snowy or Frosty weather when nothing is to be had abroad and about Midsummer before Pease be ripe which time they usually call Benting-time because then necessity inforceth them to feed on the Bents or seed of Bennet-grass no other food being then to be had And usually about that time have they store of Eggs and Young Ones which will otherwise be starved unless you help them but the Dung of their Houses will in a manner satisfie you for their Meat if carefully made use of There is nothing that Pigeons more affect than Salt for they To encrease a Stock of Pigeons will pick out the Mortar out of the Joynts of Stone or Brick-walls meerly for the saltness thereof therefore do they usually give them as oft as occasion requires a Lump of Salt which they usually call a Salt-Cat made for that purpose at the Salterns which makes the Pigeons much affect the place and such The Salt-Cat that casually come there usually remain where they finde such good entertainment If Assa-fetida be boiled in water and the holes washed therewith Assa-fetida their Feathers will bear the scent thereof about them that whatsoever company they light into will be so well pleased therewith that they will bear them company home to the great encrease of your Stock This hath been always esteemed an excellent Drawer of Pigeons Cummin-seed either by washing the holes with water wherein it hath been boiled or feeding them with Meat steeped in such water But that which hath been experienced to have had the greatest A baked Bitch power to draw these Birds from their former homes to the place you desire is that you take a Bitch in her heat of Lust or hot or salt as they usually term it and after she is Fleyed and Bowelled bake her in an Oven some prescribe to roast her with Cummin-seed in her Belly then lay her in the Pigeon-house and if you have but few Pigeons there you shall soon finde a wonderful encrease This hath been an experienced way to stock a decayed House in a very short time These Birds are kept for their Beauty and magnificent deportment Of Swans being the proudest most chaste and jealous and least sustainer of injuries of any other their flesh not so much regarded as the flesh of other Water-fowl Yet is the Cignet a Noble Dish at great Entertainments which Fatting of Cignets may be fatted and made the more acceptable by keeping them apart in a close Pond out of which they cannot get having only a little dry Grass-plat to sit and prune themselves in Near to the water you shall place Tubs or shallow Vessels with Oats Wheat Barley dried Mault or such like some dry and some in water for them to feed on at pleasure and sometimes cast them some hot sweet Grains on the water By this means in one moneth may they be fat These Birds are usually kept for their Excellent Beauty and Of Peacocks Deportment yet they are beneficial also to the places where they are kept by cleansing them of Snakes Adders and such-like Their Chickens also are good meat It is a Bird of Understanding and Glory for being praised he elevates and spreads his lofty Tail and of Pride for no sooner doth he behold his feet not thinking them compleat enough for so painted a Pageant he lets his Tail fall for meer conceit which appears by his melancholy posture at the loss or shedding of his Tail till Nature hath renewed it In any place these may be kept for pleasure and variety but Of tame Pheasants and the ordering of them in places near London or some great City for advantage Mr. Hartlib hath the Relation of a Lady that kept so many near Chelsey that she hatched two hundred in one Spring whereof that though many died yet by far the greater part would come to perfection Also that there are many near London who keep them to make profit of them that they are very easie to bring up and to keep when they are once past the first moneth for till then they must be kept only with Ants Eggs and fed with nothing else which are easily obtained The first moneth being past they are fed with Oats only requiring nothing else But as they love to be kept in Grassie Fields so one must change them oft to fresh grounds because they taint the Grass Also the Courts may be inclosed with Laths the Fence must be made high and places of Refuge covered with Nets to keep the Hawk from them and their Chickens which they more greedily desire than any other Game whatsoever SECT III. Of Insects Over and above the stock of Cattle Fowl c. wherewith the Country-Farm is generally replenished there are several sorts of Insects that being judiciously and carefully managed and ordered may bring into the Husbandmans-Purse no small advantage Amongst many of them that are useful in several Countries and to several ends and purposes we have only two which are Bees and Silk-worms that are familiarly known and preserved amongst us whereof we shall treat apart And first of Bees Being so commonly known and kept in this Kingdom that Of Bees there is scarcely a Village excepting near great Cities and Towns where they are not kept whereof there are many several Tracts written and published full
security to the Winder the Method being usual needs no description here 2. By bringing water in Pipes or Gutters which is easily done the Spring or Stream from whence you bring it being somewhat higher than the place where you desire it 3. By raising water by Forcers Pumps or Water-wheels many and several are the Inventions whereby to effect it but none more easie plain and durable than the Persian-wheel before-mentioned in the Chapter concerning the watering of Meadows 4. By making of Cisterns or Receptacles for water either for the Rain or some Winter-springs to fill them whereby the water may be kept throughout the Summer In this are we very deficient for on the Mountainous dry and upland parts of Spain they have no other water than what they so preserve from the Rain It being the Custom in France where in many places water is scarce to preserve their waters in Cisterns as the French Rural Poet advises That if the place you live in be so dry That neither Springs nor Rivers they are nigh Then at some distance from your Garden make Within the Gaping Earth a spacious Lake That like a Magazine may comprehend Th' assembled Flouds that from the Hills descend And all the bottom pave with Chalkie Lome c. Also in Amsterdam and Venice they keep their Rain-water in Cellars made on purpose for Cisterns capacious enough to contain water for the whole year it being renewed as oft as the Rain falls Why therefore may we not here in England on our driest hills make places Pools or Cisterns sufficient to contain water enough for our Cattle for our Domestick uses and also for our Garden-occasions if we were but diligent few years there are but yield us plenty of showres to supply them though not enough to supply the defect of them much more Rain falling here than on the Continent where those Pools and Cisterns are more used for which cause this Island is by them termed Matula Coeli and yet have we so many thousands of Acres of dry Lands uninhabited untilled and almost useless unto us from this only cause and have so easie means to remedy it If you designe to make your Cisterns under your house as a How to make Cisterns to hold Water Cellar which is the best way to preserve it for your Culinary uses then may you lay your Brick or Stone with Tarris and it will keep water very well or you may make a Cement to joynt your Stone or Brick withal with a Composition made of slacked and sifted Lime and Linseed-Oyl tempered together with Tow or Cotten-Wooll Or you may lay a Bed of good Clay and on that lay your Bricks for the Floor then raise the wall round about leaving a convenient space behinde the wall to ram in Clay which may be done as fast as you raise the wall So that when it is finished it will be a Cistern of Clay walled within with Brick and being in a Cellar the Brick will keep the Clay moist although empty of water that it will never crack This I have known to hold water perfectly well in a shadowy place though not in a Cellar Thus in any Gardens or other places may such Cisterns be made in the Earth and covered over the rain-Rain-water being conveyed thereto by declining Channels running unto it into which also the Alleys and Walks may be made to cast their water in hasty showres Also in or near houses may the water that falls from them be conducted thereunto But the usual way to make Pools of water on Hills and Downs for Cattle is to lay a good Bed of Clay near half a foot thick and after a long and laborious ramming thereof then lay another course of Clay about the same thickness and ram that also very well then pave it very well with Flints or other Stones which not only preserves the Clay from the tread of Cattle c. but from chapping of the Winde or Sun at such times as the Pool is empty Note also that if there be the least hole or chap in the bottom it will never hold water unless you renew the whole labour Some have prescribed ways for the making of Artificial Springs others for the making of Salt-water fresh but those things being not yet fully experienced we leave being not willing to trouble our Husbandman with so great Philosophical intricacies tending rather to lead him from the more plain and advantagious Method to imaginary and fruitless attempts Heat and Drought do not always attend us nor do they so Great Cold and Frost frequently afflict us especially in the greatest part or proportion of this Country but that we have also a share of a superabundant Cold and Moisture but seeing that they do not so frequently happen together as Heat and Drought usually do we will divide them The cold that most afflicts the Husbandman is the bitter Frosts that sometimes happen in the Winter or Spring and are beyond our power either to foresee or prevent yet that they may not injure us so far as otherwise they might we propose these remedies or preventions Some Lands are more inclinable and capacitated by their nature or scituation to suffer by bitter Frosts than others are as those that lie on a cold Clay or Chalk more than those that lie on a warm Sand or Gravel those that lie moist than those that lie dry those that lie on the North or East-sides of Hills than those that lie on the South or West therefore it is good to plant or sow such Trees Grains or Plants that can least abide the cold in such grounds that are most warmly seated And although that it is not an easie thing to alter the nature of the ground yet is it feasible to take away the offensive moisture that doth so much cool the Land whereof more hereafter in this Chapter and also to place such Artificial defensives against the cold that may very much remedy this inconvenience as we see it is most evident that the Frosts have a greater influence where the Air hath its free passage than where it is obstructed To which end we cannot but propose Inclosures and planting of Trees as a remedy also for this Disease for any manner of shelter preserves the Corn young Trees c. from the injury that otherwise would happen to them as we see in Snows and drowning of Meadows that the Snow and water prove defensive against the cold In Gardens and other nearer Plantations the Spring-frosts prove most pernicious the general remedies whereof where the site and position of the place is not naturally warm are Walls Pales or other Edifices or tall hedges or rows of Trees whereof the Whitethorn but chiefly Holly have the preheminence but these seem remote and rather preventions against the winde the more nearer are the application of new Horse-dung or Litter that hath lain under Horses which applied to the roots of any tender Trees or Plants preserves them from the
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
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
easily perceived where the same Seed hath been sown on two sorts of Land of different goodness the one Crop hath been smutty the other free so that Smuttiness seems to be a kinde of sickness incident to Corn which may by the aforesaid means be cured which if the Smuts themselves would really grow and produce Smut again all Remedies proposed and attempts to that purpose were needless SECT III. From several Beasts Against the Trespasses of Domestick Cattle breaking out of your Neighbours grounds into yours it 's needless to say any thing every one knowing that a good and secure Fence is the best prevention and a Pound the best remedy or cure if the other will not serve But other Beasts there are that no ordinary Fences will keep out and will hardly be brought to the Pound As Foxes which usually torment the laborious Husbandman Foxes by taking away and destroying his Lambs Poultry Geese c. that in some places near great Forrests and Woods they can hardly keep any thing but under lock and key against which Gins are usually made use of which being baited and a Train made by dragging raw flesh across his usual paths or haunts unto the Gin it proves an inducement and a snare to excite him to the place of his destruction A Fox will prey on any thing he can overcome and feeds on all sorts of Carrion but the food he most delights in is Poultry He proves injurious and destructive to Coney-warrens and destroys Hares also whom he taketh by his subtilty and deceit They may be taken with Greyhounds Hounds Terriers and Nets as well as Gins. It is also a very commendable and Noble Exercise in our Nobility and Gentry to Hunt these destructive Beasts and did they prosecute it at their breeding times and at other times also with an intent to destroy the whole Breed or Kinde there would soon be an end of them The Otter is a pernicious destroyer of Fish either in Pond or Otters Brook and her abode is commonly under the root or stem of some Tree near the water whence she expects hâ—â— food By her diving and hunting under water few Fish are able to escape her They are taken either by insnaring them under the water by the Rivers side as you may do a Hare on the Land with Hare-pipes or by hunting them with Dogs where you also make use of the Spear In several places the Husbandman suffers much by Coneys and Coneys Hares c. Hares that feed down his Corn c. when it is young especially in hard Winters and in many places they have not liberty to secure their own from them The Hare is no great destroyer of Corn yet where there are many of them the Countryman may lessen their number as he sees cause either by Hunting or Coursing them at seasonable times or by setting of Hare-pipes where he finds their haunts or by tracing them in the Snow Coneys are destroyed or taken either by Ferrets and Purse-nets in their Buries or by Hayes or by Curs Spaniels or Tumblers bred up for that sport or by Gins Pitfalls or Snares which some Ingenious Countrymen will prepare the goodness of the Game rather than the prevention of the damage prompting them thereto It is not a little injury these Animals do to Warrens Dove-houses Poll-cats Weasels and Stotes Hen-roosts c. but the ways by taking them in Hutches and in small Iron-gins like Fox-gins are so well known that I need say nothing of it Only that to prevent Poll-cats or suchlike from destroying your Pigeon-house be sure if you can to erect it where you may have a Ditch or Chanel of Water to run round it and it will keep those Vermine from making their Burroughs under the ground Moles are a most pernicious Enemy to Husbandry by loosening Moles or Wonts the Earth and destroying the Roots of Corn Grass Herbs Flowers c. and also by casting up Hills to the great hinderance of Corn Pastures c. The common and usual way of destroying them is by Traps that fall on them and strike the sharp Tines or Teeth through them and is so common that it needs no description But the best and compleatest sort of Instrument to destroy them that I have yet seen is made thus Take a small board of about three inches and a half broad and five inches long on the one side thereof raise two small round Hoops or Arches at each one end like unto the two end-Hoops of a Carriers Waggon or a Tilt-boat capacious enough that a Mole may easily pass through them in the middle of the board make a hole about the bigness that a Goose-quill may pass through so is that part finished then have in readiness a short stick about two inches and a half long about the bigness that the end thereof may just enter the hole in the middle of the board Also you must cut a Hasel or other stick about a yard or yard and half long that being stuck into the ground may spring up like unto the Springs they usually set for Fowl c. then make a link of Horse-hair very strong that will easily slip and fasten it to the end of your stick that springs Also have in readiness four small hooked sticks then go to the Furrow or passage of the Mole and after you have opened it fit in the little board with the bended Hoops downwards that the Mole when she passes that way may go directly through the two semicircular Hoops Before you fix the board down put the Hair-spring through the hole in the middle of the board and place it round that it may answer to the two-end Hoops and with the small stick gently put into the hole to stop the knot of the Hair-spring place it in the Earth in the passage and by thrusting in the four hooked sticks fasten it and cover it with Earth and then when the Mole passeth that way either the one way or the other by displacing or removing the small stick that hangs perpendicularly downwards the knot passeth through the hole and the Spring takes the Mole about the neck Though this description seem tedious yet the thing is very plain and easily performed and much cheaper surer and feasible than the ordinary way Others destroy them very expeditiously by a Spaddle waiting in the Mornings when they usually stir and immediately cast them up especially about March when they breed by turning up the Hills whereunder they lay their Young they usually making their Nests in the greater Hills and are most easily discerned then also will the Old Ones come to seek their Young which you may presently take The Pot-trap is by some much commended which is a deep Earthen-vessel set in the ground to the brim in a Bank or Hedg-row which wisely set and planted at all times but especially in the natural season of Bucking-time about March will destroy them insensibly Also where Moles annoy your Gardens
therefore let it be kept as dry as may be Let it be well dried when you use it and clean from dust it hath the more strength and less fouleth your Piece Let your Shot be well sized not too great for then it flies but thin and scattering nor too small the Bird being apt to fly away within it having not weight nor strength to enter far Shot being usually above the value of ordinary Lead and in many places not to be had of the sizes you have most occasion for I shall therefore here set down the true Process of making of it of what size you please under Mould-shot Take Lead of what quantity you please melt it down in an Iron To make Shot Vessel stir and clear it with an Iron Ladle taking off all its impurities that swim at the top When it is so hot as that the colour of the Lead begin to be greenish and not before strew upon it Auripigmentum powdered fine as much as will lie on a Shilling to twelve or fifteen pound of Lead some will require more then stir the Lead well and the Auripigmentum will flame Let your Iron Ladle have a Lip or Notch in the brim for the more convenient pouring out of the Lead and let the Ladle remain in the melted Lead for the most part that it may be of a heat agreeable to the Lead to prevent inconveniencies that may otherwise happen through its being over-hot or too cold Then take out a little of the Lead in your Ladle for an Essay and cause it to drop out of it into a Glass of Water which if the drops prove to be round and without Tails there is Auripigmentum enough in it and the temper of the heat is as it ought to be but if the congealed drops or shot prove not round but with Tails then add more of the Auripigmentum and augment the heat until you finde it right Then take a Copper-plate about the size of an ordinary Trencher-plate with a Concavity in the middle about three inches Diameter perforated with about thirty or forty small holes greater or lesser according as you would have your shot to be This Concave bottom should be thin but the thicker the brim is the better will it retain the heat Place this Plate on two Bars or other Iron-frame over a Tub or Pail of water about four inches from the water and lay on the Plate burning Coals to keep the Lead melted upon it Then with your Ladle take off your Lead and pour it gently on the Coals on the middle of the Plate and it will make its way through the holes in the bottom of the Plate into the water and fall into round drops Thus continue your Operation till all the Lead be passed through the Plate blowing the Coals to keep them alive that the Lead may not cool on the Plate and stop the holes Whilest you are thus pouring on your Lead another Stander-by may take another Ladle and put it four or five inches in the water under the bottom of the Plate and catch some of the Shot as it drops down and see what faults are in it that you may stop your hand until they are rectified The greatest care is to keep the Lead on the Plate in so moderate a degree of heat that it be not too cool to stop the holes nor too hot which will make the drops crack and fly if it be too cool blow the Coals a little if too hot stay your hand until it be a little cooler the cooler it is the larger will be your shot the hotter the smaller As near as you can observe the right temper of the heat and you will have very round shot without any tails Then take your shot and dry them over the fire with a gentle heat always stirring them that they melt not and when they are dry you may separate the small from the great in Sieves made for that purpose according to the several sizes they are of But if you would have them very large you may with a stick make the Lead trickle out of the Ladle into the water without the Plate If the Lead stop on the Plate and yet not too cool give the Plate a little knock and it will drop again Be sure let there be none of your Instruments Greasie Oyly or the like When you have separated your shot if any of it proves too great or too small or not round preserve them for the next Operation Thus having your Fowling-piece your Powder and Shot ready with your Spaniel well instructed and at command not daring to stir till you bid him then are you fit for a walk towards your Game If you are directly between the Winde and the Fowl they will be apt to scent you therefore it 's best to go against the winde or aside it it 's better to shoot at one side of them than before or behinde them for if you break a Wing you are sure of that Fowl It 's best to get as much shelter as you can by Hedges Banks or Trees for the sight or smell of a man raises them whatever danger of Hawks or any thing else be near But if they are so shie and the place so free from shelter that Stalking-horse there be no way to come at them fairly then you must lead forth your Stalking-horse being some Old Jade trained up for that purpose and that will be led in your hand as you please and not startle much at the report of a Gun behinde whose shoulders you must shelter your self and take your aim before his shoulders and under his neck which is better than under his belly If you have not such a Beast ready you may make an Artificial Artificial Stalking horse one of any old Canvas in shape like a Horse feeding on the ground You may make it double and stuff it or single and painted of a brown colour like a Horse Let it be made on a sharp stick that you may fix it into the ground as you have occasion when you take your Level It must be so light that you may carry it in one hand and high enough to conceal your body from the Fowl You may also make an Artificial Oxe or Cow which you may use for a change that when your Horse is discovered through much use you may change for the other and so make your Sport dure the longer Or you may make Artificial Stags or Bucks with their real horns on them which will be best in such grounds where those Creatures frequent and with whom the Fowl are more familiar You may either make the representation of a Tree in Canvas Artificial Trees and painted like one and so spread with small sticks that it may somewhat resemble a Tree or you may with many Boughs so form a Tree that it may shelter you from the view of the Fowl making it with a Spike at the bottom that it may stick into
Recreation by day you may more easily do it in the night several ways If in Champion and level Countries then by a Low-bell from the end of October until the Birds begin to couple towards the Spring And in the darkest nights or at least the dark time of the night your Bell must have a hollow deep and doleful sound Your Net must be about twenty yards deep and so broad as you can conveniently manage it Then go into the stubble-Fields where the Birds usually take up their Night-quarters the Wheat-Edish is the best He that carries the Bell must go foremost tolling the Bell very mournfully and not too hard then let the Net follow being supported at each corner and on the sides and when you come where you think the Game lies pitch your Net no noise being hitherto heard but that of the Bell then light your Straw or Torches at the Coals or Candle carried in a Dark-Lanthorn by one to that purpose and beat the ground and make a noise and the sight of the Fire or light will make them instantly rise and be intangled in the Net Then put out your lights and keep your usual silence and proceed as before Thus may you take Partridge Rails Quails Larks c. You may also take the same sorts of Fowl by night with a To take Birds with the Trammel only Trammel being a Net longer than that you use with the Low-bell the lower part of it plumbed with Lead loose on the ground the upper part supported at each end about three foot high and so trailed along those grounds you expect your Game on At each side of the Net carry Wisps of Straw burning or Links and let some beat the ground with long Poles which will cause the Birds to rise against the Net There is also a way to take Birds in the Night-time that Bat-fowling roost or perch in Trees and Hedg-rows which is called Bat-fowling The manner is thus When you come to the place where you expect your Sport light your Straw or Torches and beat the Bushes or Hedg-rows and the Birds will instantly fly towards the flames where you may take them either with Nets at the end of Poles or beat them down with Brushes made with Boughs at the end of Poles or by carrying large boughs limed with Bird-lime to intangle them This Sport is to be used when the weather is extreme dark and with great silence till the lights are burning for they are amazed at the light being every way else very dark and fly to the very flames so that you may take them as you please The manner of using Bird-lime you have before in this Chapter To take small Birds with Lime-twigs but for the taking of small Birds the best way is to take a large bough of Birch Willow or suchlike Tree prick and trim it clean from all superfluity that the Twigs may be smooth lime the branches very well but not too thick with the Lime then place this Bough in such place where those Birds usually resort that you designe to take standing like a Tree and place your self at some convenient distance undiscovered imitating either with your mouth or some Bird-call the Notes of the Birds you aim at which you must by practise learn which will invite the Birds to the Tree you have prepared for them Thus from Sun-rising to ten of the Clock and from one till near Sun-set may you use this Sport Or you may lay small Twigs limed and about three or four inches long in places where the Birds haunt or stick them on the tops of Hemp-cocks or Wheat-sheaves or stick small Boughs among Pease which the small Birds will suddenly pitch upon which will be a means to lessen the number of those destroyers of Corn Grain Seed c. But if you use a Stale of one or two living Night-bats placing them aloft that the Birds may gaze at them or an Owl which is the better of the two most sorts of Birds will draw towards her and so fall into your Snare A dried Owl will serve for want of a living one Also in the Winter-time the Field-fares and Bow-thrushes To take Field-fares or Bow-Thrushes which usually fly in great Flocks are easily taken by liming two or three large boughs and fixing them on the top of some tall Tree and placing in them two or three dried Stales of that kinde and beat the Fields adjacent where those Birds feed and they will in great Flights take to that Tree where your Stales are to your great pleasure and profit SECT VIII Of taking Fowl with Baits Land-fowl as Doves Pigeons Rooks Choughs and suchlike To take Land-Fowl with Baits may be taken with Baits as by boiling Wheat Barley Pease or other Grain in water with good store of Nux Vomica and when they are boiled almost ready to burst take them out and let them cool and scatter this Grain where these Birds haunt and it is said that by eating of it they will fall as dead that you may take them with your hand if you boil smaller Seeds you may take smaller Birds by the same way They also say that the said Grains or Seeds steeped in the Lees of Wine will work the same effect which if it doth it is much the cleanlier way and doth not infect the Bird with that poysonous quality as doth the Nux Vomica It is also said that Bellenge Leaves Roots and all cleansed very To take Water-Fowl with Baits well and steeped in clear running water for twenty four hours and boiled in the same water till the water be almost consumed Then when it is cold this Plant being taken and laid in the haunts where Wilde-geese Duck Mallard Bustard or any other Fowl affecting the water usually frequent that these Fowl will feed on it and be stupified or drunk therewith and the more in case you add a little Brimstone in the Concoction But this is left to the experience of those that know the Plant it's Vertues and the inticing quality it has to invite the Fowl to taste it SECT IX Of taking some sorts of Fowl Thus have I given you a hint of the divers ways of taking Fowl in general but something more may be said as to the particular ways used in taking some sorts of Fowl that are not proper for any other As in taking the Pheasant much skill is To take the Pheasant with Nets used and imployed in taking him being the best of all Land-fowl that are wilde The one way is after you have found their haunts which are usually in young Copses where you must carefully view the several places and by that means may finde them Young and Old together Provide your self with a Pheasant-call and learn all their distinct Notes and having a Net made of blew or green thred about sixteen or eighteen foot long and seven foot broad verged with small Cord go into the Woods where these Fowl are
River but will seek their way through the Hawk into the light By this very means I have known a Piscary well stored in a few nights There is a Net made round and at each end a Hawk that being A Hawk-Net set in the water and depressed by Plummets or Stones and having in the in-side thereof shining shells or red cloth or such-like inticements the Fish will seek their way in but cannot get out As for Fishing in the night by fire and stupifying of Fish with unwholesome Baits or with Lime or suchlike being ways used by evil-minded persons that rather destroy the properties of other men than lawfully use them for their necessary subsistence I shall decline any advice or directions in that kinde and prosecute that most lawful just and honest way of Angling so much celebrated by the Ingenious of every degree SECT II. Of Angling There is not any exercise more pleasing nor agreeable to a truly sober and ingenious man than this of Angling a moderate innocent salubrious and delightful exercise It wearieth not a man over-much unless the waters lie remote from his home it injureth no man so that it be in an open large water he being esteemed a Beast rather than a man that will oppose this exercise neither doth it any wise debauch him that useth it The delight also of it rouzes up the Ingenious early in the Spring-mornings that they have the benefit of the sweet and pleasant Morning-air which many through sluggishness enjoy not so that health the greatest Treasure Mortals enjoy and pleasure go hand in hand in this exercise What can more be said of it than that the most Ingenious most use it When you have any leisure days or hours from your ordinary Observations in Angling Profession or imployment you cannot better spend them than in this Innocent Exercise wherein observe that your Apparel be No bright Apparel not of any bright or frightning colour lest that drive the Fish out of your reach or make them timorous That you bait the place you intend to Angle in with such Bait the stream or place things the Fish you aim at generally affect for several days before you Angle if it be a standing or quiet water but if a swift stream there is no great need of any but if you do let it be but a few hours before or just at your Angling-time and that above your Hook The best time to provide Rods and Stocks is in December or Provide good Rods. January before the rising of the Sap when gathered dry them by degrees in a smoaky place is best they are better to use at sixteen moneths old than sooner To preserve them rub them over with Linseed-oyl or Sweet-butter never salted twice or thrice a year If your Stock be hollow fill the bore with Oyl and let it stand twenty four hours and then pour it out again this will preserve it from injury If the top of your Rod be brittle or decayed you may whip on a piece of Whalebone made round and taper which will be better than the natural top In making your Lines observe that for most sorts of Fish the The Line Hair-line is the best because it is not so apt to snarl as other Lines and will yield to the streining of the Fish very much before it will break which is a very great advantage in the taking of a stubborn Fish Let the hair be round you make your Line withal and as near as you can of a size Also you may colour your hair of a sorrel grey or green colour but then they are a little weakned by the colouring It is good to provide your self with all sorts of Hooks the The Hook smallest to take the smaller Fish withal and the greater the greater Fish Also with hooks peculiar for the Jack or Pike and hooks to lay for Eels Your Flotes may be made of Quills or of Cork and Quills The Flote and Plummet which are the best and least offensive Let your Plummet wherewith you sound the depth of the water be of Lead about the weight of a Musket-bullet which is very convenient to know the depth of the water by According to the nature of the Fish so you must provide Baits your self with baits Herein observe that if you open the first Fishes Maw that you take you may see what that Fish most delights in for that season If you use Pasts for baits you must add Flax or Wooll to keep the Paste from washing off the hook The Eyes of the Fish you take are good baits for many sorts of Fish for the Trout flies and Palmer-worms made Artificially are the best baits in clear water the season being observed wherein each of them is to be used Any baits anointed with Gum of Ivy dissolved in Oyl of Spike or with the Oyl of Ivy-berries or the Oyl of Polypodie of the Oak mixed with Turpentine will be great inticements to Fish to bite It is best fishing in a River a little disturbed with Rain or in Seasons for Angling Cloudy weather the South-winde is the best the West indifferent the East the worst but if the weather be warm and the Sky Cloudy they will bite in any winde Keep your self as far from the Water-side as you can and fish down the stream In a swift stream where the bottom is hard and not too deep if you go into the middle of it and cast your Fly up against the stream the Trout that lies upon the Fin in such strong Currents and discerns you not being behinde him presently takes your bait In March April and September and all the Winter-moneths it is best fishing in a clear serene and warm day but in the Summer-time in the mornings evenings and coolest Cloudy weather After a clear Moon-shiny night if the day succeeding prove Cloudy is a very good time for Angling for it is the nature of most Fish to be fearful to stir in bright nights and so being hungry if the weather in the morning prove Cloudy they will bite eagerly To the intent that you may not labour in vain I shall give Seasons not to Angle in you a hint of such times that Fish delight not in biting though some that have more than ordinary skill may possibly take a few at any time In the extremity of heat when the Earth is parch'd with Drought there is little sport to be obtained nor in frosty weather the Air being clear unless in the Evening nor in high winds nor in sharp North or East-winds nor immediately after Spawning-time their hunger being abated and the Fish not worth taking Nor yet after a dark night for then the greater Fish have been abroad and satiated themselves but the little Fish will then bite best having absconded themselves all night for fear of the greater The greatest Fish bite best in the night being fearful to stir in the day Therefore that is the best season
to Angle for them SECT III. Of Angling for Salmon and Trout The Salmon and Trout are Fish much of a Complexion and Nature different in their seasons from other Fish The way of Angling for them is much after the same manner The Salmon biteth best in the Summer-moneths about three Salmon of the Clock in the afternoon He keeps not to one haunt but swims generally in the deepest and broadest parts of the River near the ground and is caught with Worm Fly or Minnow The Garden-worm is an excellent bait for a Salmon if kept in Moss about twenty days which will scoure them and make them tough and clear You may also troul for a Salmon as you do for a Pike with a Trouling-rod and line Your Artificial Flies for a Salmon must be larger than for a Trout and the wings and tail long In Angling for a Salmon at ground put two or three Worms at a time on the Hook and give him time to gorge the bait The Trout is also taken with Worm Minnow or Fly To Trout fish for them in the night which is the best time for the great Trouts take two great Worms of equal length and put them on your Hook cast them at a good distance from you and draw them to you again on the top of the water not letting them sink and give the Trout time to gorge his bait Instead of these Worms you may use a black Snail or a piece of black Velvet which is as well They bite in the night best in the still Deeps but then unusually in the Streams If you bait with a Minnow you must place it so on the Hook that the Minnow must run round as you draw it towards you and to that end you must have a Swivel on your line lest the running round of the Minnow over-twist your Line The same may you do for a Salmon or Pike If you bait with Flies or Palmers Natural or Artificial be sure to observe the season what Palmer or Fly they most delight in at that time that take or imitate it as near as you can SECT IV. Of Angling for the Pike and Pearch These are two sorts of white Fish that Spawn in the Spring early and are greedy Fish of Prey especially the Pike which will prey on its own Kinde You may take the Pike by hanging your Line to a Tree on the Pike side of the River with a living bait on the Hook as a Minnow Dace Roach or yellow Frog but let not the Line hang at the full length but contracted into a cleft stick that when the Pike bites he may easily draw it out and have time and scope enough to pouch his bait Or you may Trowl for him which must be with a very long Line wound up at the handle of your Rod on a small Winch or Windlace and at the top of the Rod which is stubbed the Line must go through a Ring that when the Fish hath taken the bait he may by your letting him have Line enough gorge his bait and hang himself Your Line must be strong and armed with small Wire next the Hook about seven or eight inches You may Fish at Snap with him as with other Fish if you please but your Tackling must be very strong A Pike bites at all baits except the Fly and bites best at three in the Afternoon in clear water with a gentle Gale from Midsummer to the end of Autumn In Winter he bites all day long In the Spring he bites in the Morning and Evening The best time to take the Perch is when the Spring is far Perch spent for then you may take all near you at one standing His baits are the Minnow little Frog or a small Worm He bites well all the day in cloudy weather but chiefly from eight to ten and from three to six He also bites at almost any bait SECT V. Of Angling for standing water or Pond-fish The Fish that are most usual in standing waters or Fish-ponds are the Carp and the Tench Some there are that are common to both as the Bream Dace Roach Eel and Perch Angling for Pond-fish is the most easie of any way and where there are a good stock much sport there is The Carp is the best of all fresh-water Fish and will live the Carp longest except the Eel out of the water This Fish is very subtil and biteth but seldom and that in warm weather cloudy early in the morning or late in the evening The baits for a Carp are either Worms or Pasts A Paste made up of Bean-flower Honey and a little Assafetida hath proved very well Others have prescribed Bean-flower mingled with the flesh of a Cat cut small and beaten very well in a Mortar with Honey so long till the whole is so tough to hang on a Hook without washing off A little Wooll added in the making of it up will make it hold the better Gentles anointed with Honey and put on the Hook with a piece of Scarlet dipt in the same is esteemed the best of all baits for the Carp The Tench for his sliminess accounted the Physitian of Tench Fishes delights only in standing waters and especially amongst Weeds Flags c. In the hottest weather early and late and all the night this Fish delights most to bite He delights in the same baits as doth the Carp The stronger the Pasts are of Assafetida or other Gums or Oyls the sooner he will bite The Dace is commonly a River-fish yet doth very well in Dace Fish-ponds if any think it worth their costs and pains to keep them there But in either place the best baits for them are flies whereof they affect the Ant-fly above the rest For ground-baits the Grub that is found in plowed grounds Gentles and the young brood of Wasps or suchlike are very good Small Worms Pasts and suchlike they will not refuse The Roach is much of the same nature as is the Dace but Roach more usual in standing waters than the other Worms and other ground-baits are most proper for them Though the Bream be found in some Rivers yet is most usual Bream and best in Ponds or standing waters The best time for Angling for them is from the end of July until Autumn for in June and beginning of July they Spawn and are not in their season The best bait for them is the Red Worm that usually lies at the root of the Dock They also bite at Pasts Wasps Flies Grashoppers c. As for the Perch you have directions before concerning the taking of him in Rivers the same will serve in Ponds The Eel is a Fish that delights in obscure places whilest any Eels light either of the Sun or Moon appears being a sweet Fish and a prey to Fowl as well as Fish but in the night time and the darker the night the better This Fish wanders abroad out of her lurking places and preys on any
or expanded or more dense or contracted We shall not take any further notice of the nature of the Air in this place than it serves to our present intention which is only to demonstrate unto you that the Air is an absolute Body fluid and transparent and in several particulars like unto the water both being penetrable alike by their several Inhabitants the Fish with an equal facility piercing the waters as Fowls do the Air they are both Nutriments to their several Animals residing in them they both obstruct the Visual Faculty alike as they are more or less dense they are both subject to Expansion or Contraction but the Air more they are both subject to Undulation as they are fluid The Air is also capable to support great burdens as the vast quantities of water that flow over our heads in stormy or rainy weather which according to the rarity and density of the Air do gradatim diffuse themselves upon the Earth as is most evident in the more hot and Southerly Countries where the Air is more hot and thin there Rain falls with that violence as though it were water poured forth when in the more Northerly where the Air is more dense or gross it distils in minute drops as it were cribrated through the thick Air. We also may discern a manifest difference for in the warmer seasons of the year the Air being then most thin the Rain falls in greatest drops and in the colder seasons when the Air is more dense the Rain distils in smaller So that when the waters are above us or that Clouds or Floods of water are in being in the Air we have only to judge whether they incline towards us or that they are for some other place This rarity or density of the Air cannot be judged by the sight for it is usual when the Air it self is most rare then is it most repleat with vapours c. as water the more it is heated the less transparent it becomes Neither can it be judged by its weight as many do imagine and affirm from Fallacious Experiments for the Air is not ponderous in its own proper place no otherwise than water is in the Sea in its proper place although it be asserted by High-flown Philosophers and Learned Pens with whom it is besides our Primary intentions to contend in this place it being enough here to discover to our Country-Reader these mysterious Intricacies of Nature as they would have them esteemed by familiar Examples and Demonstrations For the true discovery of the nature and temper of the Air Of Thermometry or the Weather-glass as to its density or rarity we have not met with a more certain or compleat Invention than the Weather-glass the various and intricate Descriptions whereof we will not insist upon but take our Observations from the most plain and ordinary single Perpendicular-Glass being only as follows Procure at the Glass-house or elsewhere a Globular-glass with a Tube or Pipe thereto proportionable whereof there are many sizes but be sure let not the Head be too big nor the Pipe too long lest there be not rise enough in the Winter or fall enough in the Summer You must also have a small Glass or Vessel at the bottom that may contain water enough to fill the Tube or more Then having fixed them in some Frame made for that purpose heat the Globe of the Glass with a warm Cloth to rarifie the Air within it and then put the end of the Tube into the lower Vessel and it will attract the water more or less as you warmed the Head You may also add numbers on the Glass to shew you the degrees The water you may make blew with Roman-Vitriol boiled or red with Rose-leaves dry and imbibed in fair water wherein a little Oyl of Vitriol or Spirit of Salt is dropt With this water fill the under-Vessel which being rightly placed on the North-side of your house where the Sun rarely or never shineth against it and in a Room where you seldom make fire lest the sudden access of heat or accidental alteration of the Air might impede your Observations The Air included within the Globe or Ball of this Glass doth admit of Dilatation and Contraction equally with the Ambient Air that whensoever the Ambient Air is dilated or expanded either through the heat of the season or before the fall of Rain c. the Air in the Glass is the same and as by its Expansion it requires more room so doth it let the water in the Tube descend gradually and as it is more dense or contracted either through the coldness of the season or the serenity or inclinability to drought of the Ambient Air so also doth the Air within the Glass contract it self into a less compass and sucketh up the water in the Tube gradually as it condenseth or contracteth whence you may at any time exactly know the very degree of Rarity or Density of the Air Ambient by that which is included in the Glass and thereby inform your self what weather is most likely to succeed at any time Be sure to Quadrate or Contemporize your Observations or Numbers of Degrees with the season of the year for that Degree of Rarity that signifies Rain in the Winter may be such a Degree of Density that may signifie fair weather in the Summer The differences betwixt the highest rise and lowest fall in one day in the Summer is much more than in the Winter for you shall have a cold night and very serene Air which contracteth the Air in the Glass into a little Room after which usually succeeds a very hot day which dilateth it very much when in the Winter no such great difference happens in one day Yet in the Winter in several days will the difference be as great as in several Summer-days Although the Air appear serene and cold to your Senses yet trust not to that if the Glass signifie otherwise We shall not give you any sure Rule by which you may judge of the weather but leave it to your own observations that is draw on a paper a certain number of lines as many as you think fit as Musitians draw lines to prick their Tunes on at the end whereof as they place their Key so number your lines according to those numbers that are next unto the top of the water in the Tube of the Glass whether seven eight nine ten eleven twelve c. Over this Scale mark the day of the Month and point of the winde in the Scale make a dot or prick at what line or number the water in the Glass is at and by it the hour of the day and under it the inclination of the weather At night draw a line downright like the Musitians full time or note the next day mark as before until you know and understand the nature of your Glass and the place it stands in and the season of the year so that then you shall be able
certain fore-sight of the change of Of Water-fowl weather and alteration of the seasons and especially Water-fowl which if they fly or gather together in great flights and from the Sea or great waters hasten to the banks or shore and there sport themselves it denotes windes more especially if in the morning If the Breast-bone of a Duck be red it signifies a long Winter if white the contrary Ducks and Geese c. picking their wings washing themselves much or Cackling much signifies Rain Also Sea-fowl seeking after fresh waters signifie an open or wet season Jam varias Pelagi volucres quae Virgil. Dulcibus in stagnis rimantur c. If they betake themselves to great waters it presageth cold if Water-fowl forsake the water it signifies that Winter is at hand If Land-fowl gather towards the water and shake their wings Of Land-fowl making noises and washing themselves it portendeth Tempests at hand If small Birds gather together in Flocks it signifies cold and hard weather at hand If Birds seek shelter in Barns or houses more than usual it presages cold and hard weather If Birds fly hastily to their Nests and forsake their meat it foresheweth Tempests If in frosty weather Birds seek obscure places and seem dull and heavy it signifieth a sudden Thaw The early appearance of Field-fares or other forreign Winter-fowl presageth a hard Winter Rooks Owls Jays or suchlike wilde Fowl frequenting a Town more than usual presage Mortality or Sickness to that place If the Heron soar high seemingly even to the Clouds it signifies Of the Heron. winde If the Heron stand melancholy on the Banks it signifies Rain If the Heron cry in the night as she flies it presageth Winde If the Kite soar high it signifies fair weather Of the Kite If they make more than ordinary noise or crying for Prey it presageth Rain If the Crow hath any interruption in her Note like the Hiccough Of the Crow or Croak with a kinde of swallowing it signifieth Winds and Rain Rooks or Crows gathering together in Flocks and forsaking their Meat signifie Rain The Raven or Crow Creeking clear and reiterating her Note signifies fair weather If Sparrows chirp earlier or more than usual it signifies Of Sparrows Winde and Rain If Jays gather together in Flocks it signifies Rain and tempestuous Of the Jay weather If Bats fly abroad after Sun-set it signifies fair weather Of Bats If Owls whoop at night it signifies fair weather Of the Owl The early singing of the Wood-lark signifies Rain Of the Wood-lark Of the Swallow If the Swallow fly low and near the waters it presageth Rain The coming of the Swallow is a true presage of the Spring If Cocks crow more than ordinary especially in the Evening Of the Cock. or if Poultry go early to Roost it signifies Rain SECT V. Of Observations and Prognosticks from Fishes and Insects If Porpises or other Sea-fish leap in a calm it signifies Winde Of Sea-Fish and Rain If great numbers of the Fry of Fish are generated in Lakes Of Fresh-water Fish or Ditches where Fish rarely come it presageth great scarcity of Corn or death of Cattle If Fish leap more than ordinary in Ponds or Rivers it presageth Windes and Rain Great quantities of Frogs small or great appearing at unusual Of Frogs times and in unusual places presage great Dearth of Corn or great Sicknesses to follow in that place where they appear The Croaking of Frogs more than usual in the Evening signifies Rain The early appearing of Snakes signifies a dry Spring and a Of Snakes hot Summer If they play much in the water it signifies Rain If the Ant brings forth her Eggs it presageth Rain Of Ants. If Bees fly not far but hover about home it presageth Rain Of Bees or if they make more haste home than ordinary a Storm is at hand If Gnats Flies or Fleas bite more keenly than at other times Of Gnats Flies and Fleas it signifies Rain If Gnats or Flies swarm or gather together in multitudes before Sun-set it presageth fair weather Swarms of Gnats or Flies in the morning signifie Rain If greater numbers of them appear more than ordinary it signifieth Sickness or Mortality to Man or Beast and also scarcity of Corn and Fruits The early appearance of these or any other Insects in the Spring presageth a hot and sickly Summer If the Spiders undo their Webs Tempests follow Of Spiders Si solvit Aranea casses Avien Mox tempestates nubila tetra cientur If Spiders fall from their Webs or from the walls it signifies Rain If strings like Spiders Webs appear in the Air it signifieth Winde If Spiders spin and weave their Nets much it presageth Winde The great appearances of Chaffers or other Insects although Chaffers c. they denote a present time of Plenty yet are they Omens of a future time of Scarcity and if in very great numbers of Mortality and Sickness to Man and Beast SECT VI. Promiscuous Observations and Prognosticks Leaves of Trees and Chaff playing or moving without any Of Trees and Vegetables sensible Gale or Breath of Winde and the Down or Wooll of Thistles and other Plants flying in the Air and Feathers dancing on the water presage Winde and sometimes Rain If the Herb Trefoyl close its leaves it foreshews Rain If the Oak bear much Mast it foreshews a long and hard Winter If Oak-apples ingender or breed Flies it is said to presage Plenty but if Spiders Scarcity If Trees bear but little Fruit it usually presageth Plenty and if much Scarcity But this Rule is not always certain If the Broom be full of Flowers it usually signifies Plenty The sudden growth of Mushrooms presageth Rain Et si nocturnis ardentibus undique testis Avienus Concrescunt fungi protinus Imbres If Coals of Fire shine very clear it presageth Winde Of Fire If the Fire in Chimneys burn whiter than usual and with a murmuring noise it denoteth Tempests If the Flame wave to and fro it signifieth Winde The same doth the Flame of a Candle Si flammis emicet ignis Avienus Effluus aut lucis substantia langueat ultro Protinus Imbres If Bunches like Mushrooms grow on the wick of the Candle or Lamp it presageth Rain If fire shine much or scald or burn more than ordinary it presageth cold the contrary denoteth the contrary If Wood crackle or breath more than usual in the fire it signifieth winde If Flame cast forth many sparkles it signifies the same If the Oyl in the Lamps sparkle it signifies Rain If Ashes coagulate or grow in lumps it signifies the same If the Fire in cold weather burn violently and make a noise like the treading of Snow it usually presageth Snow If Salt become moist it signifies Rain The same if the Rain Signs of Rain raise bubbles as it falls or if 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