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
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
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
Tillage and of the several Grains Pulses c. usually propagated by the Plough IN greatest esteem and most worthy of our Care is the Arable Land yielding unto the Laborious Husbandman the most necessary Sustentation this Life requires but not without industry and toil The Plough being the most happy Instrument that ever was discovered the Inventor of the use whereof was by the Heathens celebrated as a Goddess Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram Virgil. Instituit But the Plough it self Triptolemus is said to have invented Pliny This Art was always in esteem as before in the Preface we have shewn and from this part thereof being the most principal doth it take its Name of Agriculture from the Tilling of the Land with the Plough or with the Spade the more ancient Instrument though not more necessary and beneficial And since its first Invention hath there been many several Improvements made of it for the more facile and commodious use thereof and every day almost and in every place doth the ingenious Husbandman endeavour to excel the slothful in this most necessary Art that from a burthensom and toilsom labour it is in some places become but a pleasing and profitable Exercise and it 's hoped that by those Presidents and Examples the more Vulgar will be provoked to a more universal use of that which is best and most advantageous to themselves as well as the publike More of this Instrument see hereafter in this Treatise SECT I. What Lands are improved by Tillage Non omnis fert omnia tellus Every sort of Land almost requires a different Husbandry some Grounds producing plenty of that which on another will not grow This is none of the meanest part of the Husbandmans skill to understand what is most proper to be propagated on each sort of Land the strong and stiff ground receiving the greatest Improvement from the Plough and the mellow warm and light from other Plantations of Fruits c. Densa magis Cereri rarissima quaeque Lyaeo Virgil. Although the best warmest and lightest Land yields most excellent Corn yet the other sorts of Lands yield not so good Fruits Plants Grass Hay c. also necessary for the Husbandman therefore our principal designe must be to appropriate each sort to that Method of Husbandry most natural unto it that where the nature of the Land differs which it usually doth in the same Parish and many times in one and the same Farm and sometimes in the same Field that there may be used a different way We have before discoursed of what Lands are fittest for Meadows and Pastures and now shall give you those Directions I finde to know what is most proper for the Plough The strong and stiff as we said before and also the cold and moist and that which lies obvious to the extremities of cold or heat as is most of the Champion or Field-land for there may be sown such Seeds that naturally affect such places until they are reduced and better qualified by Enclosure the first and main principle of Improvement Also mossie and rusty Grounds are much improved by ploughing and Grounds subject to pernicious Weeds may be much advantaged by destroying the Weeds and propagating good Corn or other Tillage in the room thereof All clay stiff cold and moist Grounds are generally thrice The manner of ploughing or husbanding each sort Clay stiff cold and moist ploughed in the Spring Summer and at Seed-time for Wheat and four times for Barley if it be the first Grain sown after long resting which in most places is not usual These several Ploughings or Fallowings are very advantageous to Ground in several respects 1. It layeth the Ground by degrees in Ridges in such order as the nature thereof requireth for the more in number and the higher the Ridges the better they are for Wheat which naturally delighteth in a moist Ground so that it be laid dry that is not subject to be drowned or over-glutted with water in moists years And this Method of laying the Ridges much prevents the blasting of Wheat for Wheat is easily overcharged with Water either in Winter or Summer 2. This often stirring the Land makes it light and fitter for the Seed to take root therein the Clods being apt to dissolve by being exposed to the weather and often broken by the Plough 3. It kills the weeds which in strong Lands are apt to over-run the Corn. 4. It fertilizeth Land The Sun and the Sull are some Husbandmens Soil Virgil also seems to hint as much where he saith Pingue solum primis exemplo à mensibus Anni Fortes invertant Tauri glebasque jacentes Pulverulenta coquat maturis solibus aestas 5. It defends the Corn much from the extremities of Weather especially cold Winds for the more uneven any Piece of Land is the better it bears the extremities of the Winter for which reason in the open Champion where the Land is dry and they do not lay up their Ridges as in other places yet they harrow it but little and leave it as rough as they can for no other cause but to break the fleeting Winds The Gardiners near London now seem to imitate this practise by laying their Gardens in Ridges not only the better to shelter their Seeds from the cold Winds but also to give it an advantage of the Sun as I my self proved it many years since that Pease sown on the South-side of small Beds so raised that they seemed to respond the Elevation of the Pole prospered well and passed the Winter better and were much earlier in the Spring than those otherwise planted But in case you intend to sowe Barley first therein after the third Fallowing it must lie over the Winter that the Frosts may the better temper it for the Seed-time when it is to be ploughed again If for Pease or Beans once Fallowing before Winter serves the turn If it hath a good Sward or Turf on it I rather advise you to denshire or burn it the Summer before you sowe it this is the more expeditious and advantageous way it spends the Acid moisture an enemy to Vegetation it kills the weeds and brings the Land quickly to a fine light temper Other sorts of Land improveable by the Plough are very good Rich and mellow Land rich mixed Land and of a black mould Nigra fere pinguis Virgil. Optima frumentis Or of any other colour that hath lain long for Pasture till it be over-grown with Moss Weeds or such-like which will as soon grow on rich Lands as poor To these Lands Ploughing is not only a Medicine or Cure but raiseth an immediate Advantage and much benefiteth the Land for the future in case you take but a Crop or two at a time and lay it down for Pasture again well soyled or else sown with some of the New Grasses or Hays before named but if not yet only by soyling it the year before you lay
in Land at the first breaking up where you intend afterwards to sowe other Grain because they destroy the Weeds and improve the Land as generally doth all other Cod-ware Of the other sorts of Beans and also of Pease we shall say more hereafter in this Treatise The Citch or Fetch whereof there are several sorts but two of Fetches most principal Note the Winter and Summer-Fetch the own sown before Winter and abiding the extremity of the Weather the other not so hardy and sown in the Spring they are much sown in some places and to a very considerable Advantage they are a good strong and nourishing food to Cattle either given in the Straw or without and are propagated after the manner of Pease The least of all Pulses is the Lentil in some places called Tills Lentils They are sown in ordinary ground and require it not very rich Of a very few sown on an Acre you shall reap an incredible quantity although they appear on the Ground but small and lie in a little room in the Cart they are a most excellent sweet Fodder and to be preferred before any other Fodder or Pulse for Calves or any other young Cattle This Pulse though not used in this Country as ever I could understand Lupines unless a few in a Garden yet we finde them highly commended to be a Pulse requiring little trouble and to help the Ground the most of any thing that is sown and to be a good manure for barren Land where it thrives very well as on sandy gravelly and the worst that may be yea amongst Bushes and Bryars Sodden in water they are excellent Food for Oxen and doubtless for Swine and other Cattle If this be true as probably it seems to be I admire this Plant should be so much neglected but I may give you a more plenary and satisfactory Accompt of this and some other not usual Seeds and Pulses another time These are not usual in most places of England but where they Tares are sown they much benefit the Land as other Pulses and are rather to be preferred for Fodder than any other use they can be put unto There are several other Pulses or Seeds mentioned in our Authors Other Pulses as Fasels Cich Peason Wilde Tares c. which if carefully and ingeniously prosecuted might redound to the Husbandmans Advantage and in the same manner might several other not yet brought into common use although they might in all probability be as beneficial as those already in use SECT IV. Of Hemp and Flax. Within the compass of our Lands subject to the Culture of the Plough may these two necessary and profitable Vegetables be propagated requiring a competent proportion of Ground to raise a quantity sufficient to supply our ordinary occasions and necessities in defect whereof and meerly through our own neglect and sloath we purchase the greatest share of these Hempen and Flaxen Commodities we use from Strangers at a dear Rate when we have room enough to raise wherewith of the same Commodities to furnish them But that to our shame be it spoken we prefer good Liquor or at least the Corn that makes it before any other Grain or Seed although other may be propagated with greater facility less hazard and abundantly more advantageous both to the Husbandman and Nation in general than that I need not put Excuses into the Countrey-mens mouths they Impediments to the sowing of Hemp and Flax. have enough for their grand Negligence in this principal part of Agriculture but that I here propose them in hopes some Worthy Patriots will use their endeavours to remove these Impediments 1. The first and most grand Impediment to this Improvement Want of Trade an Impediment is want of Encouragement to Trade or a right Constitution or Ordering of Employments for the Poor throughout the Countries which may be accomplished without charge the common Remora to all Ingenuities by granting some extraordinary Immunities to certain Societies in several places convenient in every County to be established which being the first and chiefest thing to be done will almost of it self remove all other Impediments 2. The next is the defect of Experience very few understanding Want of Experience an Impediment the way of Sowing Gathering Watering Heckling and other particular Modes in ordering these Commodities nor yet the nature of the Ground either of them delights in All which by the President and Example of some publique and ingenious Spirits and by the constitution of a Trade to take off the said Commodities to the Husbandmans Advantage may easily be removed 3. Another main Impediment to the Improvement and Propagation Tythes an Impediment of these and several other Staple-Commodities not yet brought into publike use and practice is that the Planter after he hath been at extraordinary Expence in Fertilizing Tilling and Planting his Land and in preserving and advancing the Growth of such Commodities not only the Profit of his Land but also of all his Expence and Labour must be decimated which in some years amounts to more than his own clear Profits when before such Improvements made little Tythe was paid as for Pasture-Lands is usual either a reservation to the Parson of what was formerly paid out of such unimproved Lands or a certain Modus decimandi according to the nature of the Commodity planted might prove a very great Encouragement to the Husbandman an infinite Advantage to the Nation in general and not the least injury or loss to the Clergy or Impropriator Some other Impediments there are and also other Propositions might be made for the Advancement of this and several other Commodities but they require more time to treat of than in this place we may dispense withal Hemp delights in the best Land warm and sandy or a little Hemp. gravelly so it be rich and of a deep Soil cold Clay wet and moorish is not good It is good to destroy Weeds on any Land The best Seed is the brightest that will retain its colour and substance in Rubbing three Bushels will sowe an Acre the richer the Land the thicker it must be sown the poorer the thinner from the beginning to the end of April is the time of sowing according as the Spring falls out earlier or later it must be carefully preserved from Birds who will destroy many of the Seeds The Season of Gathering of it is first about Lammas when a good part of it will be ripe that is the lighter Summer-hemp that bears no Seed and is called the Fimble-hemp and the Stalk grows white and when it is ripe it is most easily discernable which is about that season to be pulled forth and dried and laid up for use you must be cautious of breaking what you leave lest you spoil it you must let the other grow till the Seed be ripe which will be about Michaelmas or before and this is usually called the Karle-Hemp When you have gathered and bound
of the Planter SECT VIII Of the Nursery for the more convenient propagation of most of the fore-mentioned Trees Several of the said Trees are usually produced of the Seed Trees produced of Seeds c. Mast or Berries and those are the Oak Beech Chesnut Service Maple Sycomore Horn-beam Quick-beam Hasel Firs Pines Pinaster Pitch-tree Cypress Cedar Bays Laurel Privet and Juniper which being sown spring the first year and the Ash Phillyrea Eugh-tree White-thorn Black-thorns Holly and Pyracantha whose Seeds or Berries usually lie in the Earth another year after they are sown ere they spring To produce Trees immediately of the Seed is the better way First because they take soonest Secondly because they make the Best raised of Seed streightest and most uniform shoot being very considerable in Timber-trees Thirdly because they will neither require staking nor watering which are two very considerable Articles And lastly for that all transplanting though it much improve Fruit-trees is a considerable impediment to the growth of Forrest-trees but if they are removed out of the Nursery whilest they are young and carefully preserved this injury is not so great also Plants raised of the Seed in the place where they are to stand shall soon outstrip a removed Plant of a greater age especially the Pine and Walnut where the Nut set into the ground shall certainly overtake a Tree of ten years growth which was planted at the same instant Because of the coldness of the Winter and the damage the Preserving and preparation of the Seeds Mast Seeds or Berries may receive from Mice and other Vermine it is not good to sowe them till the Spring for the better preserving of them from drying rotting or decaying you may put them into Pots Barrels or other Vessels Cellars Sheds or such-like places with a mixture of Earth or Sand not too dry intermixed stratum super stratum with the Seeds c. At the Spring you will finde them sprouted and being committed to the Earth as apt to take as if they had been sown with the most early Some affirm that by this way of preparing the Seed c. those Seeds that otherwise would have lain over another Winter in the ground before they had sprung being now committed to the ground before the Full in March will that season be chitting and speedily take root Chuse not your Mast or Seeds from the aged decaying or not Election of the Seed thriving Trees but from a thriving Tree of a sound stock and firm Wood and let the Seed be the most weighty clean and bright Make choice of some spare place of ground well Fenced and Place for a Nursery secured from Cattle Conies c. respecting the South-East rather than the full South and well protected from the North and West let the ground be rather dry than moist for Trees will rarely thrive being removed out of a wet into a dry place but exceeding well out of a dry into a moist break up the ground and prepare it the Winter before you sowe it the cleaner it is from Weeds and the lighter and mellower the ground is the better will the Seeds thrive for in much weeding the young Plants are indangered The Nursery for your Firs Pines Cypresses and all such Winter-greens and tender Plants had need be sheltered from the Southern Aspects either artificially or else made where it is naturally so defended You may make Furrows or Trenches of four or sive Inches Manner of sowing deep at about two foot breadth with a convenient Interval for the more commodious Weeding and dressing the Plants Into these Furrows cast your Seed or Mast such as usually spring the first year in beds by themselves and such that stay the second by themselves or as it is best for the better ordering them at their removal sowe each Seed or Mast apart then cover them with a Rake The Seeds of Firs Pines c. need not be sown above an inch deep and covered finely with a Sieve and duly watered If the Seeds of Pines or Firs be rolled in a fine Compost made of Sheeps-dung and planted they never fail But for the more convenient removal of the Pine which least abides it of any Tree I know take small earthen Pots without bottoms or small Baskets Boxes or such-like and set them to the brims in rows in the ground and fill them with good mould and plant in each of them two or three Seeds when they grow leave only one and by this means at two or three years growth may you securely remove them the Earth being kept fast about the Roots and where-ever you plant them the Tree it self in time will rid its stem of the Pot or Box. When the young Imps or Seedlings are sprung up you must Ordering of the Nursery be very careful in keeping them from Weeds which else will soon over-run them and after weeding the ground being unsettled give them a little water if it be a dry and hot season The Winter following you may lay a few Bushes Furze or such like over them and scatter a little Straw onely to break the force of the Winds which in the Winter season injure more than Snow or Frost But for the Cypress Phillyrea and such other tender Winter-greens you must defend them with more care If you intend to raise a Coppice from Mast or Seed dig or plough Sowing of a Coppice the parcel of ground you intend as you would prepare it for Corn and with the Corn either in the Autumn or Spring sowe also good store of such Mast Nuts Seeds Berries c. as you desire then take off your Crop of Corn and lay it up for Wood although that several sorts of your Seeds come up the first yet will they receive but little injury by treading at the Harvest but injure it as little as you can also the stubble being left high will be a shelter for the young Trees the first Winter SECT IX Of the Transplantation of Trees The best time for removing or transplanting of all Trees that The time shed their leaf is in October or the beginning of November immediately after or at the fall of their leaf but that time being omitted you may transplant them till the Spring in open weather and before they bud All Trees that shed not their leaf Annually but are ever green are to be removed in the Spring when the cold is over for they spring not so soon in the year as the other But some affirm the only time to be in August Such Trees that are pithy as the Ash Sycomore Lime-tree Aspen Cut not the tops of some Trees and such-like cut not off their tops the first year of their remove because the wet will be apt to perish the Plant neither diminish the heads nor many of the branches nor Roots of the Firs Pines or other Rosinaceous Trees for they are prone to spend their Gum to the great injury if
be well placed to the Wall for if any branch happen to be wreathed or bruised in the bending or turning which you may not easily perceive although it doth grow and prosper for the present yet it will decay in time the Sap or Gum will also spew out in that place By neglect of this Observation many seeming fair Trees decay in several parts when the Husbandman is ignorant of the cause In Pruning the Vine leave some new branches every year and take away if too many some of the old which much advantageth the Tree and encreaseth its fruit When you cut your Vine leave two knots and cut at the next interval for usually the two Buds yields a bunch of Grapes I have observed Vines thus pruned to bear many fair bunches when cut close as usually is done for Beauty sake which by the Husbandman is not in this case to be regarded the Tree hath been almost barren of Fruit. When you cut any Pithy Tree the Vine especially make your Lance if the Sprig be upright on the North-side if sloping then make your Lance under or on one side that the wet or Rain lodge not on it nor decay the Pith which usually damnifies the next Bud and sometimes more SECT XI Other necessary Observations about Fruit-trees Where the ground is shallow or lieth near Gravel Clay Stone 1 Of the raising of Land or Chalk or near the Water take the top of one half of the same Land and lay it on the other in Ridges abating the intervals like unto Walks and plant the Trees on the midst of the Ridges by which means they will have double the quantity of Earth to root in that they had before and the Walks or Intervals preserve the Ridges from superfluous moisture It hath been found an approved Remedy in dry shallow Land as well as in low wet Land It hath been observed that Pear-trees will thrive and prosper Pear-trees in cold moist hungry stony and gravelly Land where Apples will not bear so well The Roots of such Trees that thrive not nor bear well may 2 Of the ordering the Roots of old Trees be laid open about November and if the ground be poor and hungry then towards the Spring apply good fat Mould thereto but if the ground be over-fat and rich that the Tree spends it self in Branches and Leaves with little Fruit then apply to the Roots Ashes or Lime or any of the Composts that are salt hot and dry mixed with the Earth which contain more of fertility than the ordinary Dung Also laying store of any manner of Vegetables all the Summer about the roots of Fruit-trees to kill the Grass and Weeds growing about the Tree it keeps the ground moist and cool and adds much to the flourishing and fertility of the Tree and is the best Natural Remedy against the Moss so that it lye not too near the Tree to decay the Bark thereof Digging or Ploughing about the Roots of Fruit-trees adds much to their fertility and prevents the Moss in most Trees Stones laid in heaps about the Roots preserves them cool and moist in the Summer and warm in Winter and is of great use and concernment to the fertility and advance of the growth of Fruit-trees The ground wherein you plant your Fruit-trees if you finde it 3 Alteration of ground not suitable to the Nature of the Tree may be several ways altered as before and by the applying of Earth Clay or Sand of a divers Nature from the ground where the Tree grows If your Orchard or Garden be not naturally well scituate and 4 Defending Trees from Winds defended from the injurious winds by Hills or Woods or that Buildings Barns Walls or such like are not conveniently scituate near to preserve it it is of great advantage to raise a perpetual lasting and pleasant shelter by planting a compleat Thorn-hedge about the same at the time or in that Year you White-thorn first plant your Orchard or Garden which will grow in a few years to a considerable height and very much break the cold winds and preserve the smaller and lower part of the greater Trees in their blossoming and kerning time from the nipping winds But for that that the principallest parts of the greater Trees exceed the Summity of the White-thorn the Wallnut-tree Wallnut-tree raised in time on the borders or naked sides of the Orchard or Garden and if you can on the out-sides of the Fences will prove a Noble and profitable defence from the furious winds If you regard not the Fruit or profit so much as the pleasure and sudden rise of such a defence that which is most facile and expeditious to be raised is the Poplar which may be planted poplar near together and ten or fifteen foot in height the first year which will prove and thrive wonderfully especially if the ground be any whit inclineable to moisture Or the Lime-tree if you can conveniently obtain them make Lime-tree a close and secure defence from the winds and of all other is the most odoriferous regular and delicious verdant pale to a Garden or Orchard The Sycamore and the Elm also are not to be rejected only the Elm hath an ill name as being subject to raise or attract Blights At the removal of Trees the trimmings of the roots planted 5 Raising Stocks or rather buried in the ground within a quarter of an inch or little more of the level of the Bed will sprout and grow to be very good Stocks Pigeons dung or the dung of Poultry or any Fowl being of 6 Soyl for Fruit-trees a hot dry and salt Nature hath been experimentally found to be the Soyl most conducing to fertility for Fruit-trees especially in cold grounds It is usual to select aspiring Trees and to expect the fairer 7 Height of Trees Trees because taller and better and more Fruit than those that are low T is true the more remote the branches are from the Earth the less are they subject to the injuries of Cattel or the Fruit to light fingers But the lower the Tree brancheth it self and spreads the fairer and sooner will it attain to be a Tree and the greater burthen will it bear of Fruit and those better and larger The Tree and Fruit will also be less obvious to the furious winds which make havock most years of a great part of our stock and in the Spring the new-kerned Fruit will be more within the shelter of the Natural or Artificial Securities from the nipping cold morning Breese and the Fruit when ripe and apt to fall will not receive so great injury from the humble as from the aspiring Tree Sed medio Virtus As the tall Tree is not for your advantage so the Tree that 's too low is not for your conveniency I aim not at Extremes In many places Fruit-trees are much injured by Moss it rarely 8 Diseases of Trees Moss grows on Trees where the
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
feeding for the most part on Tillage which hath occasioned that great encrease of Gardens and Plantations in most of the Southern parts of England Several sorts also of Tillage being profitable in the feeding of Cattle and Fowl SECT I. Of Hops We mention this Plant in the first place not for his worth or Dignity above the rest it being esteemed an unwholesome Herb or Flower for the use it is usually put unto which may also be supplied with several other wholesomer and better Herbs but for that of all other Plants it advanceth Land to the highest improvement usually to forty pound or fifty pound sometimes to an hundred pound per Acre And yet have we not enough planted to serve the Kingdom but yearly make use of Flemish Hops nothing near so good as our own The principal cause I presume is that few bestow that labour and industry about them they require and sufficiently retaliate for being managed carelesly they scarce yield a quarter part of the increase that those yield that are dexterously handled though with very little more cost Another cause is why they are no more propagated here that they are the most of any Plant that grows subjected to the various Mutations of the Air from the time of their first springing till they are ready to be gathered Over-much drought or wet spoils them Mill-dews also sometimes totally destroys them which casualties happening unto them makes their price and valuation so uncertain and proves so great a discouragement to the Countryman else why may not we have as great a plenty of them as in Flanders Holland c. Our Land is as cheap and affords as great a Crop if as well Husbandried and we pay not for carriage so far but that they are more Industrious than us Therefore seeing that is so gainful a Commodity to the Husbandman and that there is a sufficient vent for them at home we shall be the more Prolix in the subsequent discourse The Hop delights in the richest Land a deep Mould and Best Land and scituation for a Hop-garden light if mixed with Sand it 's the better a black Garden-mould is excellent for the Hop If it lye near the water and may be laid dry it is by much the better Most sorts of Land will serve unless stony rocky or stiff clay-Clay-ground which are not to be commended for the Hop If you can obtain it a piece of Land a little inclining to the South and that lies low the ground mellow and deep and where water may be at command in the Summer time is to be preferred for a Hop-garden Also it ought to lye warm and free from impetuous winds especially from the North and East either defended by Hills or Trees but by Hills the best Every one cannot have what Land he pleaseth but must make Defending the Hop-garden by Trees use of what he hath therefore if your ground lye obvious to the winds it is good to raise a natural defence therefrom by planting on the edges of the Hop-garden a border or row of Trees that may grow tall and break the force of the winds at such time the Poles are laden with Hops The Elm is esteemed not fit to be planted near the Hop because it contracteth Mill-dews say our Country Hop-planters the Ash on a dry ground and the Poplar or Aspen on a moist are to be preferred for their Aspen speedy growth Also a tall and thick hedge of White-thorn keeps the ground warm and secures it in the Spring from the sharp nipping winds that spoil the young Shoots If your Land be cold stiff sowre or barren you designe for a Preparing the ground and distance of the Hills Hop-garden the best way is about the latter end of the Summer to burn it as before we directed which will be very available to the amendment of the Land Some also prescribe to sow Turnips Hemp or Beans therein to make the ground light and mellow and destroy the Weeds But in whatsoever state or condition your ground be Till it in the beginning of the Winter with either Plough or Spade And when you have set out the bounds of your ground you intend to plant and laid the same even then must you mark out the several places where each Hill is to be The best way is by a Line streightned over-thwart the ground with knots or threds tyed at such distance you intend your Hills Some plant them in squares Checquer-wise which is the best way if you intend to plough with Horses between the Hills Others plant them in form of a Quincunx which is the more beautiful to the eye and better for the Hop and will do very well where your ground is but small that you may overcome it with either the Breast-plough or Spade which way soe're it be pitch a small stick at every place where there is to be a Hill and when it is all so done in case your ground be poor or stiff bring into it of the best Mould you can get or a parcel of Dung and Earth mixed and at every stick dig a hole of about a foot square and fill it with this Mould or Compost wherein your Plants are to be set they will thrive the better and the sooner come to bear and sufficiently repay your charge and trouble Great Rarity there is both in the judgment and the practise of Distance of the Hills most men about the distance of the Hills by reason of the different Seasons Sometimes it falls out to be a moist year and then the Hop grows large and the wider the Hills are the better they prove Some years also prove hot and dry the Hops then grow thin and the nearer they are the more Hops they have But let me advise to keep a convenient distance that you may have room sufficient to come between and ground sufficient to raise the Hills with the Parings or Surface of it and that the Sun may come between and that the Poles may not be driven the one against the other with the winds when they are laden If your ground be dry and burning about six foot may be a convenient distance but if it be a moist deep and rich Mould subject to bear large Hops then eight or nine foot distance is most convenient and so according to the goodness of the ground place the distance of the Hills But if your Hills are too far asunder the best way to remedy Bigness of the Hills that inconvenience is by encreasing the number of Hops in the Root in each Hill by which means you may apply more Poles and supply the former defect Hills may be made of that bigness that they may require six ten or twenty Poles The common Objection is they cannot so conveniently be dressed but I only propose it as amendment to make them somewhat bigger than ordinary Or if your Hills be too near together you may also abate the Hops and apply the fewer
directions as you will hereafter finde Disperse the Poles among the hills before you begin to Pole laying of them between the hills Begin not to Pole until your Hops appear above the ground that you discern where the biggest Poles are required and so may you continue Poling till they are a Yard in height or more but stay not too long lest you hinder the growth of the Hop which will grow large unless it hath a Pole or such like to climb unto Set the Pole near to the hill and in depth according to the height of the Pole nature of the ground and obviousness to winds that the Pole may rather break than rise out of the ground by any fierce winds Let the Poles lean outward the one from the other that they may seem to stand equi-distant at the top to prevent Housling as they term it which they are subject unto if they grow too near the one from the other that is they will grow one amongst another and cause so great a shade that you will have more Hawm than Hops Also it is esteemed an excellent piece of Husbandry to set all the Poles inclining towards the South that the Sun may the better compass them This is most evident that a leaning or bending Pole bears more Hops than an upright Be sure to reserve a parcel of the worst Poles that you may have for your need in case when the Poles are laden a Pole may break or be over-burthened to support it for if they lie on the ground they soon perish With a Rammer you may ram the Earth at the out-side of the Pole for its further security against winds If after some time of growing you finde a Hop under or over-poled you may unwinde the Hop and place another Pole in its place having a Companion with you to hold the Hop whilest you pitch in the Pole or else you may place another Pole near it and bring the Hop from one Pole to the other The next work is after the Hops are gotten two or three foot Of tying of Hops to the Poles out of the ground to conduct them to such Poles as you think fit that are either nearest or have fewest Hops and winde them or place them to the Pole that they may winde with the course of the Sun and binde them gently thereto with some withered Rush or woollen Yarn two or three strings are enough to a Pole I have known more Hops on a Pole from one string than from four or five though there hath been more of Hawm Be cautious of breaking the tender Shoots which in the morning is most dangerous but when the warmth of the day hath toughned them may it much better be done You must be daily amongst the Hops during April and May especially guiding and directing them else will they be apt to break their own Necks by going amiss It will sufficiently requite your labour and care at Harvest It is convenient with a forked Wand to direct the Hops to the Poles that are otherwise out of reach or to have a stool to stand on or a small Ladder made with a stay on the back of it that you may reach them with your hands About Midsummer or a little after the Hop begins to leave running at length and then begins to branch that such Hops that are not yet at the tops of the Poles 't were not amiss to nip off the top or divert it from the Pole that it may branch the better which is much more for the encrease of the Hop than to extend it self only in length Sometimes in May after a Rain pare off the Surface of the Of the making up the Hills ground with a Spade How it off with a How or run it over with a Plough with one horse if you have room enough or with a Breast-plough and with these parings raise your hills in height and breadth burying and suppressing all superfluous Shoots of Hops and weeds By this means you will destroy the weeds that otherwise would beggar your Land and you suppress such Suckers and weeds that would impoverish your Hops and you also preserve the hills moist by covering them that the drought of the Summer injureth them not Also the Hop so far as it is covered with Earth issues forth its roots to the very surface of the Earth which proves a very great succour to the Hop This work may be continued throughout the Summer but more especially after a Rain to apply the moist Earth about the roots of the Hop Therefore it behoveth you to keep the ground in good heart for this purpose that your Hops may be the better and in case it should prove a very dry Spring it would not be amiss to water the Hops before you raise your hills A dry Spring such that happened in the Years 1672. and Manner of watering Hops 1674. proves a great check to the hop in its first springing especially in hot and dry grounds In such Years it is very advantagious to water them if it can with conveniency be obtained either from some Rivulet or Stream running through or near your Hop-garden or from some Well digged there or out of some Pond made with Clay in the lower part of your ground to receive hasty showres by small Aqueducts leading unto it which is the best water of all for this purpose In the midst of every hill make a hollow place and thrust some pointed Stick or Iron down in the middle thereof and pour in your water by degrees till you think the hill is well soaked then cover the hill with the parings of your Garden as before we directed which will set the Hop mainly forward as I have known which otherwise would be small and weak and hardly ever recover to attain its usual height Also a very hot and dry Summer will make the Hop blow but small and thin therefore would it not be labour lost to bestow a pail of water on every hill prepared before-hand to receive it For in such dry Springs or Summers such Hops that either stand moist or have been watred do very much out-strip their Neighbours and in such years they will far better requite your labour and industry yielding a greater price by reason of their scarcity than in other seasonable years when every ground almost produceth Hops Industry and Ingenuity in these Affairs being most incouraged and best rewarded at such times when Ignorance and Sloth come off with loss and shame After every watering which need not be above twice or thrice in the driest Summers so that they be throughly wet be sure to make up the hills with the parings and with the weeds and coolest and moistest materials you can get for the more the Hop is shaded at the root from the Sun the better it thrives as is evident by such that grow under shelter that are never drest yet may compare with those you bestow most pains and skill on The dressing
of your Hops and poling them the directing and binding them to the Poles the watering and making up the hills throughout the Summer seems to be a tedious task requiring daily attendance But without these Labours little is to be gotten which makes this Plantation so little made use of in some places yet he that is diligent and understands his business is so highly requited for his care cost and industry that an Acre or two of ground so managed by one or two persons shall redound one year with another to more advantage than fifty Acres of Arable-Land where there is much more time cost and expence bestowed on it Towards the end of July hops blow and about the beginning When Hops blow bell and ripen of August they bell and are sometimes ripe in forward years at the end of August but commonly at the beginning of September At such time as the hop begins to change his colour and look a When to gather Hops and the â—anner how little brownish or that they are easily pulled to pieces or that the Seeds begin to change their colour towards a brown and they smell fragrantly you may conclude them to be ripe and procure what help is necessary for a quick dispatch to gather them before they shatter one windy day or night may otherwise do you much injury The manner usually prescribed for the gathering of hops is to take down four hills standing together in the midst of your Garden cut the roots even with the ground lay it level and throw water on it tread it and sweep it so shall it be a fair Floor whereon the hops must lie to be picked On the outside of this Floor are the Pickers to sit and pick them into Baskets the hops being stript off the Poles and brought into the Floor Some there are that sit dispersedly and pick them into Baskets after they are stript off the Poles Remember always to clear your Floor twice or thrice every day and sweep it clean every such time before you go to work again In these ways of picking it is necessary that the Poles be streight without forks scrags or knobs But the best and most expeditious way is to make a Frame with four short Poles or Sticks laid on four Forks driven into the ground of that breadth to contain either the hair of your Oost or Kiln or a Blanket tacked round the same about the edges on which Frame you may lay your Poles with the hops on them either supported with Forks or with the edges of the Frame the Pickers may stand on each side and pick into it When the Blanket or hair is full untack it carry it away and place another or the same emptied in the same Frame again every day you may remove your Frame with little trouble to some new place of your Garden near your work This way is found to be most convenient expeditious and advantagious for it saves the labour of stripping the Hops off the Poles Also any forked or scraggy Poles which are best for the Hop prove no impediment to this way of Picking It preserves the hops from briting or shedding which by stripping off the Poles and wrapping them up in bundles to carry up and down they are apt to do Also this way they may pick them clean off the Poles as they hang without tumbling and tearing which causes much filth to mix with the Hops besides the spoiling and loss of many Hops and being thus picked over your Frame if the Hops be never so ripe and subject to shatter all is preserved The Pickers may this way also make more expedition than the other the Hops hanging in view as they grew on the Poles Before you draw your Poles with a sharp hook fixed at the end of a long stale or pole divide the Hops above where they grow together with other Poles then ought you to cut the Hops not as is usually prescribed and practised close at the hills but about two or three foot above the hills else will the Hop bleed much of his strength away This hath been found to be a great strengthner of weak Hops the other a weakner to all Then draw your Poles which in case they are so far or fast in the ground that you cannot raise them without breaking of them you must get a pair of Tongs made like unto a Blacksmiths Tongs only stronger and toothed at the end with which Tongs you may beclip the Pole at the bottom and resting the joynt thereof on a block of wood you may weigh up the Pole without trouble or danger of breaking the Pole or for cheapness sake you may have a wooden Leaver forked at the end in which Fork fix two sides of sharp and toothed iron which put to the Pole and on a block of wood as before you may heave up the Pole by the strength of your right hand whilest you pull the pole to you with your left Cut no more stalks nor draw no more than you can conveniently dispatch in an hour or two in case the weather be very hot or it be likely to rain If your Hop-garden be large it were worth your cost and pains to raise in the midst thereof a Shed or suchlike house on four or six main forks or posts and Thatched over under which shelter you may pick your Hops which will both defend your pickers from the Sun and your Hops from the Sun and storms Herein also may you lay a parcel of Hops unpicked over-night that your pickers may to work in the next morning before the Dew be off the other that are abroad or in case a storm comes you may lay in here enough to serve till the other are dry again Under this shelter also may your Poles lie dry all the Winter Let not your hops be wet when you gather them but if the Dew be on them or a Showre hath taken them shake the Pole and they will be dry the sooner If your hops be over-ripe they will be apt to shed their seed wherein consisteth the chiefest strength of the hop Also they will not look so green but somewhat brown which much diminisheth the value of them yet some let them stand as long as they can because they waste less in the drying four pounds of undried Hops through ripe will make one of dry and five pounds of Hops scarcely ripe yet in their prime makes but one So they judge they get more in the through-ripe Hop by the weight than they loose in the colour There are also two sorts of Hops the green and the brown the one yielding a better colour by much when they are dry the other bears larger and a greater quantity of Hops which is rather to be preferred In the picking keep them as clean as you can from leaves and stalks which will damage you more in the sale than they will advantage you in the weight As fast as you pick them dry them for their lying
much break the Winds and these shelving sides will much expedite the ripening of Pease or other Fruits by receiving more directly the Beams of the Sun and in case the ground be over-moist you may plant the higher and if over-dry then the lower so that it seems to remedy all Extreams except Heat which rarely injures To make a hot Bed in February or earlier if you please for The making of hot Beds the raising of Melons Cucumbers Radishes Coleflowers or any other tender Plants or Flowers you must provide a warm place defended from all Winds by being inclosed with a Pale or Hedge made of Reed or Straw about six or seven foot high of such distance or capacity your occasions require within which you must raise a Bed of about two or three foot high and three foot over of new Horse-dung of about six eight or ten days old treading it very hard down on the top being made level and if you will edged round with boards lay of fine rich Mould about three or four inches thick and when the extream heat of the Bed is over which you may perceive by thrusting in your finger then plant your seeds as you think fit then erect some Forks four or five inches above the Bed to support a Frame made of sticks and covered with Straw to defend the Seed and Plants from cold and wet only you may open your Covering in a warm day for an hour before Noon and an hour after Remember to Earth them up as they shoot in height when they are able to bear the cold you may transplant them Many curious and necessary Plants would suffer were they Of Watering of Plants not carefully watered at their first removal or in extream dry seasons therefore this is not to be neglected Early in the Spring whilest the Weather is cold be cautious of watering the leaves of the young and tender Plant only wet the Earth about it When your Plants or Seeds are more hardy and the Nights yet cold water in the Fore-noons but when the Nights are warm or the days very hot then the Evening is the best time If you draw your water out of Wells or deep Pits it ought to stand a day in the Sun in some Tub or suchlike for your tender Plants in the Spring But Pond or River or Rain-water needs it not and is to be preferred before Well-water or Spring-water If you infuse Pigeons-dung Sheeps-dung Hen-dung Ashes Lime or any fat soil or matter in your water either in Pits Cisterns or other Vessels for that purpose and therewith cautiously water your Plants it will much add to their encrease and multiplication For Cole-flowers Artichoaks and such like let the ground sink a little round the Plant in form of a shallow Dish the water will the better and more evenly go to the Roots Water not any Plant over-much lest the water carry with it away the Vegetative or fertil Salt and so impoverish the ground and also chill the Plant. It is also better to water a Plant seldom and throughly than often and slenderly for a shallow watering is but a delusion to the Plant and provokes it to root shallower than otherwise it would and so makes it more obvious to the extremity of the Weather If you are willing to have the ground always moist about any Plant place near it a Vessel of water putting therein a piece of Woollen Cloth or List and let the one end thereof hang out of the Vessel to the ground the other end in the water in manner of a Crane Let the List or Cloth be first wet and by this means will the water continually drop till all be dropped out of the Vessel which may then be renewed The end that hangs without the Vessel must be always lower than the water within the Vessel else it will not succeed If it drop not fast enough encrease your List or Cloth if too fast diminish it If the Weather be never so dry when you sow any sort of Seeds water them not till they have been in the ground several days and the ground a little setled about them CHAP. IX Of several sorts of Beasts Fowls and Insects usually kept for the Advantage and Vse of the Husbandman OUR Country-Farm is of little use and benefit to us notwithstanding all our care pains and cost in Fencing Planting or otherwise ordering the same unless it be well stocked and provided with Beasts and other Animals as well for labour and strength in Tilling and Manuring the Ground and facilitating other Labours and Exercises as for the furnishing the Market and Kitchin SECT I. Of Beasts The Horse hath the Preheminence above all others being the Of the Horse Noblest Strongest Swiftest and most necessary of all the Beasts used in this Country for the Saddle for the Plough and Cart and for the Pack Where you have good store of Pasture either in Several or in Common or in Woods or Groves it is no small advantage to keep a Team of Mares for the Breed but where there is most of Arable and little of Pasture-Land Horses or Geldings are more necessary which difference we may observe between the great Breeding-places for Horses in the Pastures and Wood-lands and the naked Corn-Countries the one full of gallant lusty Mares the other of Horses and Geldings As to the Shape and Proportion Colours Age Ordering Breeding Feeding and Curing the several Diseases of Horses I shall here be silent and refer you to the several Authors who have copiously treated of that Subject it being too large for this place Asses are commonly kept yet not to be little set by because of Of the Ass their sundry Commodities and the hardness of their Feeding for this poor Beast contents himself with whatsoever you give him Thistles Bryars Stalks Chaff whereof every Country hath store is good Meat with him Besides he may best abide the ill looking to of a negligent Keeper and be able to sustain blows labour hunger and thirst being seldom or never sick and therefore of all other Cattle longest endureth for being a Beast nothing chargeable he serveth for a number of necessary uses in carrying of Burdens he is comparable to the Horse he draweth the Cart so the Load be not great for grinding in the Mill he passeth all others Thus far Haresbatch The Milk also of the Ass is esteemed an excellent Restorative by most Learned Physitians in a Consumption But I presume one main impediment of their not being so frequently kept is their destructive Nature to Trees which they will bark with their mouths where they can come at them This is no ways pleasing to a good Husband The Mule or Moil is bred of a Mare covered with an Ass Of the Male. It 's a hardy Beast much better than an Ass and very tractable and capable of much service These worthy sort of Beasts are in great request with the Husbandman Of Cows and Oxin the Oxe
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-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
the Hive that was first filled away for your use and have also described unto us the particular ways of ordering these new-invented Hives and how every particular thing is to be done as though the Authors thereof had had long experience in it which hath incouraged many to the prosecution of the designe Which I finde to deceive us in several particulars for the Bees build Combs only at the former part of the Summer and after they have prepared sufficient Receptacles wherein to dispose their Honey and answerable to their number their matter also being much wasted which they gather abroad for the making of their Combs they then fall to work for the storing of their Cells with food for the approaching Winter so that whatever room you give them more seems superfluous and rather proves a burthen than an advantage unto them The next year also it 's in vain to give them more room unless it be to a Young Stock that could not or had not time enough to build sufficient the precedent Year or to an Old Stock that was streightned in room before as usually our Swarming Stocks are Also when you expect to take the top or fullest Combs you will finde the Bees most there for they will not as some fondly imagine desert the more remote and lie in the nearer Combs but on the contrary as I have often found But that which seems to me the most probable way for I have not yet fully experienced it is to make your Hives very small either the one over the other or the one behinde the other and if you finde they have a sufficient stock of Honey to preserve them in the remainder you may take the most remote Box or Hive and place it the nethermost and so drive the Bees into the other but this also must be submitted to farther Tryals To conclude from what we have before treated I judge it the most prudential way to have in your Apiary a sufficient stock of Bees kept for breeding and swarming and another stock kept in large Glass-hives whereof we have before discoursed for the raising of great quantities of Honey which they will much better do in those Hives and I see no reason why we should judge it a greater piece of cruelty or inhumanity to take away the lives of these Creatures who have so short and insensible a life and die so easily for their Honey than to take away the lives of any other Animals to feed on their Carkasses which is daily done and that with very high degrees of torture Neither can it be any loss to the Bee-master who may have an Annual supply by his swarming-stocks kept for that purpose as the great Flocks of Weathers are yearly supplied from the Flocks of Ewes and the large and vast fatning Ponds of Carps from the lesser breeding Ponds Sed si jam proles subito defecerit omnis Virgil. Nec genus unde novae stirpis revocetur habebit Which rarely happens to a careful Bee-master but if it should Tempus Arcadii memoranda inventa Magistri Idem Pandere then may you experiment the Invention of the Athenian Bee-Master Generation of Bees in Virgil wherewith in effect agrees the Experiment of our Modern and great Husbandman old Mr. Carew of Cornwal which is thus Take a Calf or Steer of a year old about the latter end of April bury it eight or ten days till it begin to putrifie and corrupt then take it forth of the Earth and opening it lay it under some hedge or wall where it may be most subject to the Sun by the heat whereof it will a great part of it turn into Maggots which without any other care will live upon the remainder of the corruption After a while when they begin to have wings the whole putrified Carkass would be carried to a place prepared where the Hives stand ready to which being perfumed with Honey and sweet Herbs the Maggots after they have received their wings will resort Quis Deus hanc Musae quis nobis excudit Artem Virgil. Vnde nova ingressus hominum experientia caepit Or if you are unwilling either to credit or make tryal of this Experiment you may purchase a new stock of your Neighbours if not with Money which is connted unfortunate yet with the exchange of other Commodities But what need we make provision against so improbable and unlikely accidents For the trying of Honey and Wax we will leave to the Experienced There are several ways of making curious Drinks or Liquors Making of Metheglin out of Honey some make it white and clear not only by the pureness and fineness and whiteness of the Honey but also by some particular Process or Art they have Others make it very good yet partly by reason of the nature and colour of the Honey and partly for want of judgment it carries with it a more gross and red tincture but if the Honey be good the tincture cannot be much injurious to the Drink Concerning the making whereof we have met with some few Directions which we shall here insert A Receipt to make a pure Mead that shall taste like Wine Take one part of Clarified Honey and eight parts of pure Water and boil them well together in a Copper Vessel till half the Liquor is boiled away but while it boils you must take off the Scum very clean and when it hath done boiling and begins to cool Tun it up and it will work of it self As soon as it hath done working you must stop the Vessel very close and bury it under ground for three Moneths which will make it loose both the smell and taste of the Honey and Wax and will make it taste very like Wine Another Proportion Take of Honey Clarified twenty pound and of clear Water thirty two Gallons mingle them well together and boil that Liquor half away and take off the Scum very clean c. and if you will have it of an Aromatick taste you may add this proportion of Ingredients Viz. Flowers of Elder Rosemary and Marjerom of each an handful of Cinamon two ounces of Cloves six ounces of Ginger Pepper and Cardamom each two scruples These will give it a pleasant taste Another Proportion thus To a dozen Gallons of the scummed Must take Ginger one ounce Cinamon half an ounce Cloves and Pepper of each alike two drams all gross beaten the one half of each being sowed in a bag the other loose and so let it boil a quarter of an hour more Some mix their Honey and Water till it will bear an Egg by which Rule you may make it stronger or smaller at pleasure Another Proportion of Ingredients To sixteen Gallons of Must take Thime one ounce Eglantine Marjerom Rosemary of each half an ounce Ginger two ounces Cinamon one ounce Cloves and Pepper of each half an ounce all gross beaten the one half boiled in a bag the other loose c. Note That all
because the hot and biting nature thereof hurt their naked and tender bodies therefore as the Rain or other Moisture weakens the Ashes or Lime renew it lest it prove useless Rarely do these offend in the Fields Orchards or Gardens yet Gnats and Flies are they very troublesome Guests in the House where it stands near any Fens Waters or suchlike places tending much to the Generation of Insects To keep the Windows of your Chambers close in the Summer-time especially towards the Evening is a good prevention To burn Straw and suchlike up and down in the Chamber in the Evening before you go to Bed will destroy them for either they will fly to the Flame and be consumed or else the Smoak will choak them Ashen-leaves hanged up in the Room will attract them unto it that you will be the less troubled with them The Balls of Horse-dung laid in the Room will do the same if they are new These usually prove very injurious to some sorts of Fruits Wasps and Hornets to Bees c. and are several ways destroyed First By way of prevention that is in the Spring or Summer before they have encreased to destroy the old ones for from a few do they encrease to a multitude Or you may smoak or stifle them if they are in any hollow Tree or scald them if in Thatch of an House or Barn c. or in the ground you may either scald or burn them or stamp in the Earth on them and bury them To destroy such as come to your Fruit Bees c. set by them Sider Verjuice sowre Drink or Grounds in a short-necked Vial open wherein you may catch many Also you may lay for them Sweet Apples Pears Beasts Liver or other Flesh or any thing that they love in several places upon which you shall have sometimes as many as will cover the Bait which you may kill at once We term those Caterpillars that destroy the leaves of our Caterpillars Trees in the Summer devour Cabbages and other Garden-tillage and are generally the effects of great Droughts To prevent their numerous encrease on Trees gather them off in the Winter taking away the Puckets which cleave about the branches and burning them In the Summer whilest they are yet young when either through the coldness of the night or some humidity they are assembled together on heaps you may take them and destroy them These in some years prove injurious to Fruits by the greatness Earwigs of their numbers feeding on and devouring them And are destroyed by placing Hoofs or Horns of Beasts amongst your Trees and Wall-fruit into which they will resort Early in the morning you must take them gently but speedily off and shake them into a Vessel of scalding water By reason of great Drought many sorts of Trees and Plants Lice are subject to Lice and seeing that they are caused by Heat and Drought as is evident in the Sweet-bryar and Gooseberry that are only Lowsie in dry times or in very hot and dry places therefore frequent washing them by dashing water on them may prove the best remedy Ants or Pismires are injurious to a Garden and also to Pasture-lands Ants. as well by feeding on Fruits as by casting up Hills c. To keep them from your Trees incompass the Stem four fingers breadth with a Circle or Rowl of Wooll newly plucked from a Sheeps Belly Or anoynt the Stem with Tar. Also you may make Boxes of Cards or Pastboard pierced full of holes with a Bodkin into which Boxes put the Powder of Arsenick mingled with a little Honey hang these Boxes on the Tree and they will certainly destroy them Make not the holes so large that a Bee may not enter lest it destroy them Also you may hang a Glass-bottle in the Tree with a little Honey in it or moistned with any sweet Liquor and it will attract the Ants which you may stop and wash out with hot water then prepare it as before Watering often of Allies or green Walks will drive away or destroy the Ants that annoy them Ant-hills prove a very great injury to Meadows and Pasture-lands To destroy Ant-hills not only by the wasting of so much Land as they cover but by hindering the Sythe and yielding a poor hungry food and pernicious to Cattle And may be thus easily destroyed Pare the Turf off beginning at the top and cutting it down into four or five parts and lay it open then cut out the Core below the surface so deep that when you lay down the Turfs in their places as they were taken up the place may be lower than the other ground to the end that water may stand in it to prevent the Ant from returning which otherwise she will assuredly do then spread the Earth you take out thinly abroad Also the proper season for this is in the Winter and if the places be left open for a certain time the Rain and Frost upon it will help to destroy the remaining Ants but be sure to cover them up time enough that the Rains may settle the Turfs before the Spring The greatest injury these Vermine do us is in biting Children Snakes and Adders Cattle c. They affect Milk above any thing and as old Authors say abominate the Ash there may you use the one by placing of it hot in any place where they frequent to attract them where you may destroy them and the other by laying Ashen-sticks in places where you would not have them come But this of the Ash is not to be credited But the most proper remedy against these Vermine is to keep Peacocks which prey upon them Their Sting or Bite is most easily cured if you timely apply To cure the Stinging of Adders or Biting of Snakes a hot Iron to it hodling it so near as you are able to abide it And it is by some Ingenious Persons confidently affirmed that it will attract the Venom totally from the Wound Travellers relate that in the Canaries the Natives cure the biting of a very Venomous Creature that Iurks amongst the Grapes and usually bites them by the Fingers by a streight Ligature below the Wound and holding the Finger bitten upright for some time out of which the Venom ascends it being of a Fiery Nature naturally tending upwards and may therefore be attracted by Fire it 's like SECT VI. Of some certain Diseases in Animals and Vegetables There are several Epidemical and destructive Diseases to Of Beasts and Fowl Cattle Fowl c. which sweep away a great part of the Husbandmans Stock before it ceaseth or he know how to prevent it which is esteemed a great deficiency that those ways that some have discovered and found effectual to prevent and also to cure such Diseases are not made publick the general Stock of the Kingdom may as well be preserved as some few Cattle in such general Distempers it being not our intent in this Book to
in most parts yet is some to be Thatch preferred before others the best that I have seen is that which is called Helm that is long and stiff Wheat-straw with the Ears cut off bound up in bundles unbruised which well laid lies thin lasts long and is much neater than the common way It is an usual thing to see thick and tall walls to fall either by Of Building of Stone or Brick-walls reason of the weakness of the foundation the weight of the wall or the decay of the Cement or Morter through Age which hath provoked several to great and unnecessary expences in laying deeper and stronger Foundations and in making the walls much thicker than usual when all that extraordinary cost might be saved by taking notice of these few Observations First that streight walls though thick and seemingly strong yet either by the falseness of the ground or being obvious to high winds or the decay of the Morter are apt to lean or fall Secondly that walls built crooked though thin and weak are yet more lasting than a streight wall Thirdly that a wall built over a River on Pillars or Arches stands as firm as the rest of the wall whose Foundation is entire as I have in several places observed Which plainly demonstrates unto us that a wall built up much thinner than usual having at every twenty foot distance or suchlike as you think fit an Angle set out about two foot or more according as the wall is in height or having at such distance a Column or Pillar erected with the wall six or eight inches or more on each side over and above the thickness of the rest of the wall the Foundation of such jetting out or Column being firmly laid that it must of necessity strengthen the wall much more than if five times the materials used in these Jettings or Columns were used in the wall being streight which most evidently saves you a great part of your expence and your wall much more firm and compleat for if it be a wall for Fruit-trees these Nooks or Corners in the Jettings out whether Angular or Semicircular are secure places for the more tender Trees or if they are Columns or Pillars they make the wall much the warmer by breaking the motion of the Winde or Air that passeth by it And these Foundations laid secure although at that distance support the wall in loose and false ground as though it were entire but if the ground be very loose you may project an Arch from each Foundation though obscurely It is a great injury to our Buildings that our Cement is no Of Morter better in former Ages when they built with small and unequal stones their Cement or Morter far exceeded ours as is most evident in the ruines of old Monasteries Castles c. where their Morter is far harder than in any of our more Modern Buildings It is a great errour in Masons Bricklayers c. to let the Lime slacken and cool before they make up their Morter and also to let their Morter cool and die before they use it also their stone they let be moist before they use them Therefore if you expect your work to be well done and long to continue work up your Lime quick and but little at a time that the Morter may not lie long before it be used and also with dry stone for which the Summer is principally to be elected For Brick if it be in the Winter-time let them be laid dry if in the Summer-time wet It will quit your cost to imploy a Boy to wet them in the Summer for they will unite with the Morter the better The Lime it self also in some places is very weak being made of soft Chalk-stones the other that is made of harder is much to be preferred In former Ages they cut their Timber in the Winter-time Of Timber when the Sap was most out of it but now by reason of the scarceness of Oak the principal Timber our Statutes oblige us to fell it in the Summer for the Bark being necessary for Tanners c. by which means our Timber shrinks chaps and decays much more and sooner than otherwise it would do which inconveniences in square-Timber are not so apparent as in Plank Board or suchlike broad and thin work therefore in such cases it requires some kinde of seasoning or other to prevent them if you lay them in the Sun or Winde they chap or shrink or cast The best remedy in that case is to lay them in a Pool or Running Stream a few days to extract the Sap that remains in them and afterwards dry them in the Sun or Air and they will neither chap cast nor cleave Against shrinking there is no remedy When Timber or Boards are well seasoned or dried in the Sun or Air and fixed in their places and what labour you intend is bestowed on them the use of Linseed-oyl Tar or suchlike Oleaginous matter tends much to their preservation and duration Hesiod prescribes to hang your Instruments in the smoak to make them strong and lasting temonem in fumo poneres surely then the Oyl of Smoak or the Vegetable Oyl by some other means obtained must needs be effectual in the preservation of Timber Also Virgil adviseth the same Et suspensa focis exploret robora fumus In Ancient times they bruised their Corn in Morters since Of Mills which most tedious and incompleat way Mills have been invented some to be used by hands as Querns others to be moved by Horses others by the Winde and others by the Water which last being maintained with least cost more certainty and most advantage hath gained the Preheminence and is made use of in every place where there is water fit for that purpose and where there is imployment although a little for the ease and conveniency of the near Inhabitants and for the particular advantage of the Owner yet very much to the detriment and damage of the Kingdom in general by injurious obstructions of water to the spoiling of much meadow-Meadow-ground and by the preventing the use of the water for that most advantagious improvement of over-flowing or drowning of Land which upon the removal of these Mills might be done and the Corn as well ground to serve every ones occasions Either by Windmills which may be erected on Hills in Hilly places and in Plains on any open place where the winde may as well grinde all your Corn in places where the Water-mills now stand as in other places where are only Winde-mills for many miles together Or by the Rectification of Water-mills that a less quantity of water may do that which now requires a greater to which end many have made very Ingenious attempts and without question may much be done in it both in the framing and ordering the Water-works which we will pass by and in the contrivance of the Mill it self which doubtless goes much heavier by the Stone they call the Runner it
we have here in England a more easie and effectual way of preparing it with the Bark of that common and so well known Tree the Holly which Preparation is thus Take the Bark of that Tree about the end of June at which To make Bird-time time it is full of Sap and fitter for your purpose fill your Vessel with it that you intend to boil it in then add thereto of clear water as much as the Vessel will conveniently hold and boil it so long until the grey and white Bark rise from the green which will be about twelve or sixteen hours Then take it off the fire and gently decant or pour the water from the Barks and separate the grey and white Barks from the green which lay on a Stone or Stone-floor in some Cellar or moist or cool place and cover it over with Fern or other green weeds to a good thickness the better to accelerate its putrifaction which will be accomplished in twelve or fourteen days time and sometimes less and it reduced to a perfect Mucilage then pound it well in a large Morter with an wooden Pestle until it be so tempered that no part of the Bark be discerned unbruised After which wash it exceeding well in clear water by renewing the water and your pains so often that no foulness or Motes remain in it and put it into a deep Earthen Vessel where it will purge it self for four or five days together Then scum it clean as its filth arises and when it hath done purging put it into a clean Vessel and keep it close for use The Bark of the Birch-tree is by some affirmed to make as good Lime as that of the Holly being the same way to be prepared so that you may try or use which is most easie to come by Also you need not boil either of the Barks if you give it longer time to putrifie for the boiling is only to accelerate putrifaction When you intend to use it take as much of it as you think fit and put it into an Earthen-pot with a third part of Capons-grease or Goose-grease well clarified and set it over the fire and let them melt together Stir them until they are throughly incorporated and so continue stirring off the Fire till it be cold If you fear the freezing of your Bird-lime add in your last mixture a quarter as much of the Oyl Petrolium as you do of the Goose or Capons-grease and no cold will congeal it When your Lime is cold take your Rods and warm them then a little besmear the Rods with your Line and draw the Rods the one from the other and close them again Work them thus continually together until they are all over equally besmeared If you lime Straws or Strings you must do it when the Lime is hot and at the thinnest by folding and doubling them together before the fire and fold and work them till it be all over throughly limed Put these in Cases of Leather until you use them When you intend to use your Bird-lime for great Fowl take of Rods long small and streight being light and yielding every way Lime the upper parts of them before the Fire that it may the better besmear them Then go where these Fowl usually haunt whether it be their Morning or Evening haunt an hour or two before they come and plant your Twigs or Rods about a foot distance one from the other that they cannot pass them without being intangled and so plant over the place where their haunt is leaving a place in the middle wide enough for your Stale to flutter in without falling foul of the Twigs which Stale you do well to provide and place there the better to attract those of its own kinde to your snares from which Stale you must have a small string to some convenient place at a distance where you may lie concealed and by plucking the string cause it to flutter which will allure down the Fowl in view Prick the Rods sloap-wise against the winde about a foot above the ground or water and if you see any taken surprize them not suddenly if any more are in view for by their fluttering others will be induced to fall in amongst them A Spaniel that is at command will be necessary to re-take them that might otherwise escape out of your reach these Fowl being very strong If you place your Twigs for the lesser Water-fowl as Duck For smaller Water-fowl Mallard Widgeon Teal c. you must fit your Rods according to the depth of the water and your Lime must be such as no wet nor Frost can prejudice the limed part must be above the water Here also it will be necessary to have a Stale of the same Fowl you intend to insnare SECT V. Of taking Fowl with Springes Most of the Cloven-footed Water-fowl delight in Plashes Water Furrows small Rivolets and suchlike places seeking for Worms Flat-grass Roots and the like in the Winter-time especially in frosty weather when many other places are frozen up and these warm Springly Water-tracts are open where you must place Springes made of Horse-hair of bigness and length according to the greatness of the Fowl you designe to take for the Heron or Bittern it must be of near a hundred Horse-hairs and above two foot in length for the Woodcock Snipe Plover c. not above eight or ten Horse-hairs and one foot in length the Main Plant or Sweeper must be also proportionable to the strength of the Fowl For the manner of the making and setting them I question not but every place will furnish you with Directors if you know it not already which is much easier and better than any written Instructions Observe also that you prick small sticks in manner of a Hedge cross-wise athwart all the other by-passages about half an inch apart and somewhat above a handful above the water or ground sloaping towards the place where your Springe is placed the better to guide which is easily done the Fowl into the Snare for such is their nature that they will not press over where they have liberty to pass through any gap If the places where these Fowl usually haunt be frozen you must make Plashes and the harder the Frost is in other places the greater will the resort of Fowl be here SECT VI. Killing of Fowl with the Fowling-piece There are many places where Fowl settle and feed at sometimes yet so uncertain that the former ways are useless and there are also many places wherein you may not have the conveniency or liberty to make use of the said ways of taking Fowl yet there may you at opportune times meet with a good shot with your Fowling-piece the length and bore of which ought to be proportionable the one to the other and both to your strength and the place you use it in Let your Powder be of the best sort as new as you can for with bad keeping it looseth its strength exceedingly
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
renew his necessary intentions and take Time by the Fore-lock as Pliny observed Frontem Domini plus prodesse quam occipitum for Time is a thing so precious and Occasion so precipitous and where many things are to be done Time let pass prevents the success of our endeavours and loss and confusion succeeds Semper autem dilator operum vir cum damnis luctatur It is a very great neglect in Agriculture to be too late it brings a considerable damage like a backward year that produces a bad Crop so doth a backward Husbandman meet with small gains You very rarely finde a thriving Husband behinde with his Affairs or a declining Husband so forward as his Neighbour Nudus serito nudusque arato Nudus quoque metito si quidem tempestiva omnia voles Opera ferre cereris ut tibi singula Tempestiva crescant ne quando interim egens Mendices ad alienas domos nihilque efficias It was Hesiod's advice to Plough Sow and Reap in good time if you expect a compleat reward of your Labours But if it be not in every ones power though he knew the seasons for all things to observe them by reason of the multitude and variousness of business that flows upon the laborious Husbandman at some certain times of the year more than at other many casualties also intervening to such it is advised that they make use of the next opportunity convenient to do what before they have omitted Yet Cato tells you Res Rustica sic est si unum sero feceris omnia opera sero facies neglect one neglect all There are two sorts of Times and Seasons prescribed by the Ancients to be observed in Agriculture viz. of the Year being only of the motion of the Sun through the Twelve Signs of the Zodiaque which begets the different Seasons and Temperatures of the Spring Summer Autumn and Winter and of the Aspects and state of the Moon and Stars whereof and also of several Prognosticks of the mutability state and condition of the several Seasons and their Natural Inclinations I shall give you at the end of this Kalendar a Breviat and of such Observations as I have found in several Ancient and Modern Authors treating of that Subject As for the Times and Seasons of the Year from the beginning to the end thereof every day something is to be done by the Husbandman as was said of a Gardiner that his work is never at an end it begins with the Year and continues to the next Annus in opere Rustico absolutus est yet is it not every year alike neither is every place alike some years or at least some seasons of the year prove more forward by two or three weeks or more at one time than at another Also the scituation of places either better defended from or more obvious to the intemperature of the Air begets some alterations In these and suchlike cases the subsequent Rules are to be seasonably applied by the Judicious Husbandman according as the season happens to be earlier or later or the different scituation of places requires This Method in general is the same that hath been used by the most Ancient that I have understood to have written of Agriculture and also our Moderns as you may observe in Hesiod Columella Palladius de Serres Augustino Gallo Tusser Markham Stevenson and others and last of all Mr. Evelin his excellent Kalendarium Hortense at the end of his Sylva I shall endeavour herein to be as brief as I can I shall add nothing more than what is necessary and shall leave out such things that are but little to our purpose and shall begin with the major part of our Presidents in the like case although the year in respect of the Suns entrance into Aries and the Commencement of the date of the year begins in March yet Tusser declines both and begins at Michaelmas it being the usual time for the Farmer to enter on his Farm the ground being then more easily cleared of its former stook than at any other time But seeing that it is no very material thing when we begin our labour having no end we will tread the most usual Path decline both Extreams and begin when our days do sensibly lengthen our hopes revive of an approaching Summer and our Almanacks give us a New-years-day JANVARY Day Sun rise h. m. Sun set h. m.  1 New-years day   2    3   Castor and Pollux rise in the evening 4 8 00 4 00  5    6 Twelf-tide   7    8   Lucida Corona or the Crown is with the Sun 9    10 Sun in Aqua  The Dog-star riseth in the evening 11    12    13    14    15    16 7 45 4 15  17    18    19    20    21    22 Vincent   23    24 7 30 4 30  25 Pauls day   26    27    28    29    30 K. Charles his Martyrdom  31 7 15 4 45  Mensis difficillimus hic Hybernus difficilis ovibus difficilisque hominibus THis Moneth is the rich mans charge and the poor mans misery the cold like the days increase yet qualified with the hopes and expectations of the approaching Spring The Trees Meadows and Fields are now naked unless cloathed in white whilest the Countryman sits at home and enjoys the fruit of his past labours and contemplates on his intended Enterprises Now is welcom a cup of good Cider or other excellent Liquors such that you prepared the Autumn before moderately taken it proves the best Physick A cold January is seasonable Plough up or fallow the ground you intend for Pease water Meadows and Pastures drain Arable grounds where you intend to sow Pease Oats or Barley rear Calves Pigs c. lay Dung on heaps carry it on the Land in frosty weather on Pasture-land hedge and ditch Plant Timber-trees or any Coppice-wood or Hedge-wood and also Quick-sets cut Coppices and Hedge-rows lop and prune greater Trees Feed Doves and repair Dove-houses cut away Ant-hills and fill up the holes in Meadow and Pasture-grounds gather stones c. have special care to Ews and Lambs house Calves Geld young Cattle soon after they are fallen sow Oats if you will have of the best says old Tusser In Janivere Husband that poucheth the Grotes Otes Will break up his Lay or be sowing of Otes Otes sown in Janivere lay by the Wheat In May by the Hay for Cattle to eat PLant Vines and other Fruit-trees if the weather be open Garden and Orchard and milde dig and trench Gardens or other ground for Pease Beans c. against the Spring dig Borders uncover roots of Trees where need is and add such