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
s being so large and its being incompassed with a Hoop or Case that keeps the Meal to the edge or circumference of the Stone and much deads its motion The larger the Runner is the heavier it moves which may in some measure be remedied by making four or five vents or passages in several places of the Hoop to take off the Meal as fast as it is ground that none may lie to clog the Runner Or a Mill may probably be so contrived that the Grinding-stone or Runner may be Vertical and of but a small circumference the flat and square edge whereof may be fitted into another fixed stone cut hollow about the half or third part of a Circle which Runner by its first motion may dispatch as much Corn in the same time as a larger the other way Several also of these Vertical Stones may be on the same Axis this may be used in all the said sorts of Mills CHAP. XII Of Fowling and Fishing SECT I. Of Fowling in General FOrasmuch as most Farms and Country-habitations lie near 1 Of Fowling unto the Sea great Rivers large Fens Marshes c. to which are great resorts of Water-fowl or else are well furnished with Land-fowl either of which are very profitable to the Husbandman Wherefore it may not be amiss to add some general directions for the taking of them which will redound to his advantage not only for their Carkasses but for that many sorts of the Land-fowl are somewhat injurious to his Husbandry It is generally observed that Water-fowl are in their own nature the most subtil and wisest of Birds and most careful of their own safety to which end they do form themselves into an orderly Body or Camp and have their Scouts and Sentinels at a distance to give notice of the approach of an Enemy which they suddenly do by a certain Watch-word which will oblige you to be more cautious and careful than ordinary in your endeavouring to surprize them It is needless here to particularize the several Haunts of each The Haunts of Water-fowl sort of Water-fowl seeing there are few that have Lands haunted with them but they know anear in what parts they most usually frequent The one sort that are not Web-footed as the Heron Bittern c. delight most in shallow waters and boggy Fenny places The other sort that swim as the Wilde-goose Duck Widgeon c. delight most in Rivers large and deep waters c. where they may have plenty of water and swim undisturbed of Man or Beast and especially where the water is least subject to Freeze The Wilde-goose delights very much in green Winter-corn Therefore in such Lands that are near the water may you finde them Most of these Fowl have their Day-haunts and their Night-haunts for in the Day-time they usually retire to some secure place where they may confidently rest themselves In the Evening they take to their best feeding-places and small green streams where they dare not appear in the day SECT II. Of taking the greater sort of Fowl with Nets Let your Nets be made of the best Packthread with great and large Mashes for the larger they are the better and the more surely do they intangle them so that they be not too big to let the Fowl creep through them Let the Nets be about two fathom deep and six in length Verge your Net on each side with very strong cord and extend it at each end on long Poles so that the two lower ends of the Poles may be fastened with a piece of Line to two Stakes driven into the ground at such place where you have observed to be the Morning-haunts or feeding places of these Fowl being there place your Net two hours before they come then at about two or three fathom beyond the Net in a right line from the two Stakes fix one end of the cord that the upper part of the Net was extended upon holding in your hand the other end which must be at least ten or twelve fathom long which on the appearance of Game within the Verge of the Net you may suddenly pull and cast the Net over them Let the Net be spread smooth and flat on the ground and strewed over with Grass Sedge or suchlike to hide it from the Fowl and place your self in some shelter of Grass Fern or suchlike If you have a Stale you may place it within the Verge of the Net which will very much conduce to the encrease of your sport which you may continue till the Sun be near an hour high for after that time their feeding in those places is over until about Sun-set again The Form of a Draw-Net If your Net be large and set for great Fowl one of them will be as much as you can conveniently throw over them but if you set for small Birds then two small Nets may be placed after this manner SECT III. Of the taking small Water-fowl with Nets Let these Nets be made of small and strong Packthread the Mashes proportionable according to the Fowl you designe to take Let the Net be about two foot and a half deep and of length according to the breadth of the River or other waters you intend to place them in and the Net lined on both sides with false Nets of Mashes eighteen inches square each way that when the Fowl strike they may pass through the first Net and be intangled between them both Slake this Net athwart the River the bottom being plumbed that it may sink about six inches and the upper part so strained that it may lie slantwise against the current of the water about two foot above the water but let the strings which support the upper side of the Net be fastened to small yielding sticks prickt in the bank yielding a little as the Fowl strikes against the Net the better to intangle them Place several of these Nets at several distances on the River and in the night if any Fowl fall near them you may be confident of your share The better to accomplish your designe deter them from places that lie remote where the Fowl usually haunt by shooting at them which will make them take to the River you have thus prepared SECT IV. Of taking great Fowl with Lime-twigs Besides the Art of taking Fowl with Nets there is a very ingenious way of taking them with Bird-lime which seems to be very Ancient for Pliny who lived above 1600 years since not only mentions the use of it in liming of Twigs to catch Birds withal but the manner how the Italians prepared the same of the Berries of the Misseltoe of Trees gathered in the Summer-time before they were ripe and then macerating putrifying pounding and washing it until fit for use which also they mix with Nut-Oyl as in his Natural History lib. 16. you may read But seeing that that way of making Bird-lime is not in use with us I shall not trouble you with the whole Process especially seeing that
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
of Animals yielding a very rich Compost though of themselves through over-much heat and pinguidity sterile The Saline or more fixed Principle which is esteemed by most Where Salt abounds Authors the only thing conducing to Fertility yet is of its self or in an over-bounding quantity the most barren and unfruitful It is prescribed as a sure way to destroy Weeds Vegetables by watering the place with Brine or Salt-water yet what more fruitful being moderately commixed with other Materials of another nature than Salt But observe that Salts extracted out of the Earth or from Vegetables or Animals are much more Fertile than those of the Sea containing in them more of the Vegetative Power or Principles and are therefore much to be preferred Glauber makes it the highest improvement for the Land and for Continuatio Miraculi Mundi Trees also affirming that by it you may enrich the most barren Sands beyond what can be performed by any other Soils or Manures in case it be deprived of its Corrosive Qualities for then will it naturally attract the other Principles continually breathing out of the Earth and in the Air and immediately qualifie it self for Vegetation as I observed in a parcel of Field-Land of about three Acres denshired or burn-beaten in a very hot and dry Spring of it self naturally barren and after the burning and spreading the ashes wherein was the Fertile Salt deprived of its Corrosive sterile quality the Land was plowed very shallow and Barly sown therein about the beginning of May in the very ashes as it were no Rain falling from the very beginning of cutting the Turf yet in thirty and six hours was the Barley shot forth and the Ground coloured green therewith this Salt attracting and condensing the ever-breathing Spirit The like you may observe in Walls and Buildings where several sorts of Vegetables yea trees of a great bigness will thrive and prosper remote from the Earth and without any other nourishment than what that Fertile Salt attracts and condenses as before which it could not have done had it not been purged of its Corrosive and Sterile Nature by Fire when it was made into Lime For all Chymists know that no Salts more easily dissolve per deliquum than those that are most calcined The Salt also of the Sea is not without its Fertile Nature being ordered with Judgment and Discretion as we see evidently that the Salt Marshes out of which the Sea is drain'd excel in Fertility and many places being irrigated with the Sea-Water yield a notable increase Corn also therewith imbibed hath been much advanced as appeared in the President of the Country-man that casually let his Seed-Corn fall into the Salt-Water And in the Isle of Wight it is observed that Corn flourisheth on the very Rocks that are bedewed with the Salt-water by the Blasts of the Southern Winds The shells of fish being as it were only Salt coagulated have proved an excellent Manure for barren Lands after they have lain a competent time to dissolve From what hath been before observed we may conclude that Equal commixture of Principles the highest Fertility and Improvements are to be advanced and made from the most equal Commixture of the aforesaid several Principles or of such Waters Soils Dungs Salts Manures or Composts that more or less abound with either of them having regard unto the nature of such Vegetable whose propagation or advancement you intend Some delighting in a more Hot or Cold Moist or Dry Fat or Barren than others And next unto that from due Preservation Reception and right disposing and ordering of that Spiritus Mundi every where found and to be attained without Cost and as well by the poor as rich It continually breaths from the Earth as we noted before and is diffused in the Air and lost unless we place convenient Receptacles to receive it as by Planting of Trees and sowing of Pulses Grain or Seed Out of what think you should these things be formed or made Out of rain-Rain-water is the common Answer or Opinion But we experimentally finde that this Vniversal Subject gives to every Plant its Essence or Substance although assisted by Rain or Water both in its nourishment and condensation We see how great a Tree is raised out of a small Plat of Ground by its sending forth of its Roots to receive its nourishment penetrating into the smallest Crannies and Joynts between the Stones and Rocks where it finds the greatest plenty of its proper food We constantly perceive and finde that Vegetables having once emitted their fibrous Roots vegetate and increase only from the assistance of this our Vniversal Subject when the Earth wherein it stands is of it self dry and not capable to yield that constant supply of Moisture the Plant daily requires Although we must confess that Rain or other Water accelerates its Growth having in it a Portion of that Spiritus Mundi also better qualifies the Earth for its perspiration That this Subject is the very Essence of Vegetables and that from it they receive their Substance and not from water only is evident in such places where Vegetables are not permitted to grow and where it cannot vapor away nor is exhaled by the Sun nor Air as Underbuildings Barns Stables Pigeon-houses c. where it condenses into Nitre or Salt-Petre the only fruitful Salt though improperly so called containing so equal and proportionable a quantity of the Principles of Nature wholly Volatile only condensed in defect of a due recipient not generated as some fondly conceive from any casual Moisture as Urine in Stables c. though augmented thereby but meerly from the Spiritus Mundi Lands resting from the Plough or Spade are much enriched only by the encrease of this Subject and ordinary way of Improvement Lands defended from the violent heat of the Sun and from the sweeping cleansing and exsiccating Air or Winds grow more Fertile not so much from the warmth it receives as from the preservation of that Fertile Subject from being wasted as we evidently see it to be in all open Champion Lands when part of the very same Species of Land being inclosed with tall and defensive Hedges or Planted with Woods are much more Fertile than the other yea we plainly perceive that under the Covert of a Bush Bough or such like any Vegetable will thrive and prosper better than on the naked Plain Where is there more barren dry and hungry Land than on the Plains and Waste Lands and yet but on the other side of the hedges Fertile either by Inclosure or Planted with Woods an evident and sufficient demonstration of the high Improvements that may be made by Inclosure only Also Land hath been found to be extraordinary Fertile under Stones Logs of Wood c. only by the condensation and preservation of that Vniversal Subject as appears by the flourishing Corn in the most stony Grounds where it hath been observed that the Stones taken away Corn hath not
which brings an ill name on the Hay which if cut in time would be much better and in most watered Meadows as good as any other And the Aftir-grass either to mow again or to be fed on the place will repay the former supposed Loss The former Impediments may with much facility be removed by a Law which would be of very great Advantage to the Kingdom in general The later only by the good Examples and Presidents of such industrious and worthy Persons that understand better things the generality of the world being rather introduced to any ingenious and profitable Enterprise by Example than by Precept although some are so sordid and self-willed that neither apparent Demonstration nor any convincing Argument whatsoever can divert them from their Byass of Ill-husbandry and ignorance whom we leave On the Borders or Banks of most Rivers or Streams lie several Of Meadows watered by artificial Engines Pieces of Land that are not capable of being overflown by the obstruction or diversion of the Water without a greater injury than the expected advantage would recompence which may notwithstanding be improved very considerably by placing of some Artificial Engine in or near such River or Stream for the overflowing thereof The Persian Wheel The most considerable and universal is the Persian Wheel much Of the Persian Wheel used in Persia from whence it hath its name where they say there are two or three hundred in a River whereby their Grounds are improved extraordinarily They are also much used in Spain Italy and in France and is esteemed the most facile and advantageous way of raising Water in great quantity to any Altitude within the Diameter of the Wheel where there is any current of Water to continue its motion which a small stream will do considering the quantity and height of the Water you intend to raise This way if ingeniously prosecuted would prove a very considerable Improvement for there is very much Land in many places lying near to Rivers that is of small worth which if it were watred by so constant a stream as this Wheel will yield would bear a good burthen of Hay where now it will hardly bear Corn. How many Acres of Land lie on the declining sides of hills by the Rivers sides in many places where the Water cannot be brought unto it by any ordinary way yet by this Wheel placed in the River or Current and a Trough of Boards set on Tressles to convey the Water from it to the next place of near an equal altitude to the Cistern may the Land be continually watred so far as is under the level of the water Also there is very much Land lying on the borders of Rivers that is flat and level yet neither doth the Land-floods overflow the same or at most but seldom nor can the water be made by any obstruction thereof or such-like way to overflow it But by this Persian Wheel placed in the River in the nearest place to the highest part of the Land you intend to overflow therewith may a very great quantity of water be raised For where the Land is but little above the level of the Water a far greater quantity of Water and with much more facility may be raised than where a greater height is required the Wheel easier made and with less expence There are also many large and flat pieces of Land bordering Of Wind-Engines for the raising of water near unto several Rivers or Streams that will not admit of any of the aforementioned ways of overflowing or watering either because the Current cannot easily or conveniently be obstructed or because such a Persian Wheel may not be placed in the water without trespassing on the opposite Neighbour or hinderance to others or the Water not of force sufficient c. which places may very well admit of a Wind-engine or Wind-mill erected in such part thereof where the Winds may most commodiously command it and where the Land swells above the ordinary level you intend to Water or overflow though it be remote from the Current or Stream the water being easily conducted thereto by an open or subterraneal passage from the Stream Such Wind-mils raising a sufficient quantity of water for a reasonable height for many Acres of Land must needs prove a very considerable advantage to the owner as well for the overflowing thereof as it hath done to many for the draining large Fens of great quantities of water to a considerable height Neither is it altogether necessary that such Land be wholly plain and open to all Winds for in Vallies that are on each side defended with Hills or in such Lands that are on some sides planted with Woods may such Wind-mills well be placed where the wind may at some certain seasons perform its work sufficiently though not so continually as where the place is free to all winds SECT II. The Principal Rules necessary to be observed in Overflowing or drowning of Lands When you have raised or brought the Water by any of the 1 In cutting the main Carriage aforesaid means to the height you expected then cut your main Carriage allowing it a convenient descent to give the Water a fair and plausible Current all along let the mouth of the main Carriage be of breadth rather than depth sufficient to receive the whole Stream you desire or intend and when you come to use a part of your Water let the main Carriage narrow by degrees and so let it narrow till the end that the Water may press into the lesser carriages that issue all along from the main At every rising ground or other convenient distances you ought 2 In cutting the lesser Carriages to cut small tapering Carriages proportionable to the distance and quantity of Land or Water you have which are to be as shallow as may be and as many in number as you can for although it seems to waste much Land by cutting so much turf yet it proves not so in the end for the more nimbly the Water runs over the Grass by much the better the Improvement is which is attained by making many and shallow Carriages Another principal observation in Drowning or Watering of 3 In making the Drains Lands is to make Drains to carry off the Water the Carriage brings on and therefore must bear some proportion to it though not so large and as the lesser Carriages conduct the Water to every part of your Land so must the lesser Drains be made amongst the Carriages in the lowest places to lead the Water off and must widen as they run as the Carriages lessened for if the Water be not well drained it proves injurious to the Grass by standing in pools thereon in the Winter it kills the Grass and in the Spring or Summer hinders its growth and breeds Rushes and bad Weeds which if well drained off works a contrary effect Some graze their Lands till Christmass some longer but as soon 4 Times for watring
or drowning of Land as you have fed it bare then is it best to overflow from Alhallontide throughout the Winter may you use this Husbandry until the Spring that the Grass begin to be large during April and the beginning of May in some places may you give the Grass a little water once a week and it will prove wonderfully especially in a dry Spring In Drowning observe that you let not the water rest too long on a place but let it dry in the intervals of times and it will prove the better nor let Cattle tread it whil'st it is wet In the Summer if you desire to water your Land let it be in mild or Cloudy weather or in the night-time that the water may be off in the heat of the day lest in scorch the Grass and you be frustrate of your expectation In many places you may have the opportunity to command a 5 Manner of watring of Land by small streams or Engines small Spring or Stream where you cannot a larger or may obtain water by the Engines before-mentioned which may not be sufficient to overflow your Land in that manner nor so much to your content as the greater Currents may therefore you must make your Carriages small according to your water and let there be several stops in them that you may water the one part at one time and another part at another also in such dry and shelving Lands where usually such small Springs are and water by such artificial ways advanced a small drilling water so that it be constant worketh a wonderful Improvement In some places issue Springs whose waters are sterile and injurious 6 Barren Springs not useful to the Husbandman as are usually such that flow from Coal-mines or any Sulphureous or Vitrioline Minerals being of so harsh and brackish a substance that they become destructive to Vegetables Not but that those Minerals and also those waters contain much of that matter which is the cause and of the principles of Vegetation though not duly applied nor equally proportionated as much Urine Salt c. kills Vegetables yet duly fermented and artificially applied nothing more fertile Such Springs that you suspect prove them first before you go too far those that are bad are usually reddish in colour and leave a red sediment and shine as it runs and is not fertile until it hath run far and encreased it self from other Springs and gained more fertility in its passage as we usually observe greater Rivers though reddish in colour yet make good Meadow SECT III. Of dry Meadow or Pasture Every place is almost furnished with dry Meadows which are convetible sometimes into Meadows and sometimes into Pastures and such places much more where Waters Springs and Rivolets are scarce or the Rivers very great or the Country hilly that water cannot so well be commanded over such Lands as in other places they may which dry Meadows and Pastures are capable of Improvement by several ways And principally by Enclosure for where shall we finde better Improved by Enclosure dry Meadows and richer Pastures than in several hilly places of Somersetshire among the small Enclosures which not only preserveth the young Grass from the exsiccating Spring-winds but shadoweth it also in some measure from the Summer-scorching Sun-beams as before we noted in the Chapter of Enclosure Such Meadows or Pastures well planted with either Timber or Fruit-trees in the Hedge-rows or other convenient places and enclosed in small parcels will furnish you with good Hay and good Pasture when your Neighbour whose Lands are naked goes without it for dry Springs or Summers more usually happen than wet besides the shadow for your Cattle and many other advantages as before we observed In several places where the ground is moist cold clay spewy Burning of Rushy and Mossie ground rushy or mossie or subject to such inconveniencies that the Pasture or Hay is short sower and not proveable it is very good Husbandry to pare off the turf about July or August and burn the same after the manner as is hereafter described when we come to treat of burning of Land and then plough it up immediately or in the Spring following and sowe the same with Hay-dust or with Corn and Hay-dust together for by this means will that acid Juice that lay on the surface of the Earth which was of a sterile nature and hindred the growth of the Vegetables be evaporated away and also the Grass which had a long time degenerated by standing in so poor a Soil be totally destroyed and the Land made fertile and capable to receive a better species brought in the Seed from other fertile Meadows It is too commonly observed that many excellent Meadows or Stubbing up of shrubs c. Pasture-land are so plentifully stored with Shrubs small Hillocks Ant-hills or such like that a good part thereof is wholly lost and so much thereof as is mown is but in patches here and there and that that remains not so beneficial as if it were either mown or sed together Now the best way or Method of stubbing up such thorny Shrubs or Broom or Goss or any such annoying Shrubs which proves both laborious and costly any other way than this is ingeniously delivered by Gabriel Platt the Instrument Discovery of hidden Treasures by him discovered is like a three-grained dung-fork only but much greater and stronger according to the bigness of the Shrubs c. the stale thereof like a large and strong Leaver which Instrument being set half a foot or such reasonable distance from the Root of the Shrub c. then with a Hedging-beetle drive it in a good depth then elevate the Stale and lay some weight or fulciment under it and with a Rope fastened to the upper end thereof pull it down which will wrench up the whole bush by the Roots Also Ant-hills prove a very great annoyance to Pasture and Meadow-lands which may be destroyed by dividing the Turf on the top and laying of it open several ways then take out the core and spread over the other Land and lay the Turf down neatly in its place again a little hollowing in and lower than the surface of the Earth and at the beginning of the Winter the Water standing therein will destroy the remainder of the Ants and prevent their return and settle the Turf by the Spring that by this means may a very great Improvement be made of much Meadow or Pasture-land now a great part thereof Bushes and Ant-hills These Meadows and Pasture-lands where the water overfloweth Dunging or Soyling of Meadows and Pastures not at any time are the only places where you may lay your dung or other Manure to the best advantage it being not capable of being improved by water nor the Soil laid thereon subject to be carried away or at least the better part thereof extracted by the water either casually by Floods or any other way overflowing the same The best
afterwards in the same Tract gives the partilar Process which is thus Let Pease be taken and steeped in as much Water as will cover them till they swell and Corn and be so ordered as Barley is for Maulting only with this difference that for this work if they sprout twice as much as Barley doth in Maulting 't is the better The Pease thus sprouted if beaten small which is easily done they being so tender put into a Vessel and stopt with a Bung and Rag as usually these will ferment and after two or three or four Months if distilled will really perform what before is promised Thus he also adds may a Spirit or Aqua Vitae be made out of any green growing thing Roots Berries Seeds c. which are not oyly Also that the Spirit which is made out of Grain not dried into Mault is more pleasant than the other It is not unlikely that Grain may afford its tincture and that excellent Beer or Ale may be made thereof without Maulting but these things require in another place to be treated of and also of the different ways of Fermenting Liquors which we refer to another time and place Hemp-seed is much commended for the feeding of Poultrey The uses of Hemp-seed Flax-seed Rape and Cole-seed and other Fowl so that where plenty thereof may be had and a good return for Fowl the use thereof must needs be advantageous ordered as you shall finde hereafter when we treat of Poultrey Flax-seed or Lin-seed Rape and Cole-seed are generally made use of for the making of Oyl Of the Preservation of Corn. The Preservation of Corn when it is plenty and good is of very great advantage to the Husbandman and the Kingdom in general for in scarce and dear years the Husbandman hath little to sell to advance his Stock and the Buyers are usually furnished with musty and bad Corn from Forein parts or from such that were ignorant of the ways to preserve it Therefore in cheap years it will be very necessary to make use of some of these ways for the storing up your Plenty of Corn against a time of Scarcity The way of making of it up in Reecks on Reeck-stavals set on On Reeck-stavals stones that the Mice may not come at it is usual and common But Corn thrashed and clean winnowed is apt to be musty therefore Corn laid up with Chaff some advise that you lay up your Corn in the Chaff in large Granaries made for that purpose secure from the Mice and when you use or sell it then to winnow it Also it is advised to mix Beans with Corn and that it will preserve Corn laid up with Beans it from heating and mustiness It is probable that if the Beans be well dried on a Kiln it may succeed for then will they attract all superfluous moisture unto them which is the only cause of the injury to the Corn for in Egypt where it is so dry Corn will keep in open Granaries many years as in Pharaoh's time The Beans are easily separated afterwards from the Corn. It is also reported that pieces of Iron Flints Pebles c. mixed Iron stones c mixed with Corn. with Corn preserves it from heating which may be true for it is usual to set a stick an end in Corn only to give passage for the Air to prevent heating A large Granary also full of square wooden pipes full of small holes may keep long from heating though not so well as the Chaff Beans c. Also some have had two Granaries the one over the other and A double Granary one over the other filled the upper which had a small hole in the bottom that the Corn by degrees like Sand in an Hour-glass hath fallen into the lower and when it was all in the lower they removed it into the upper and so kept it in continual motion which is a good way also to preserve it SECT VIII Of the Preparation of the Seed The greatest part of Vegetables and more especially those whereof we have before treated are propagated of Seed which included in a very small shell skin or husk containeth the very Quintessence of the Plant that produced it and is as it were the Life and Spirit of the Vegetable coagulated into a small compass Etenim Natura è tota Plantae mole nobiliores maximè activas Dr. Willis de Fermentatione particulas segregat easque cum pauxillo terrae aquae simul collectas in Semina velut Plantae cujusvis quintas essentias efformat interim truncus folia caules reliqua Plantae membra principiis activis pene orbata valdè depauperantur ac minoris efficaciae ac virtutis existunt This Seed or Spirit of the Plant being cast into its proper Matrix or Menstruum in its proper time doth attract unto its self its proper nourishment or moisture which by its own strength or power it doth ferment and transmute that which was before another thing now into its own being substance or nature and thereby doth dispand its self and encrease into the form and matter by Nature designed A more Philosophick Definition and Dissection of the nature of the Seed and Vegetation we will leave to the more Learned and content our selves in our Rural Habitation with so much of the understanding thereof as shall guide us unto the Discovery and Application of what may be this proper Menstruum wherein each Seed most rejoyceth in and with most delight attracteth for it is most evident that every Seed as it differs in nature from another so it requires a different nourishment For we perceive that in the same Land one sort of Seed will thrive where another will not according to the Proverb Ones Meat is anothers Poyson and that any sort of Grain or Seed will in time extract and diminish such Nutriment that it most delights in Which is the cause that our Husbandmen do finde so Change of Seed an Improvement great an Advantage and Improvement by changing their Seed especially from that Land which is often tilled which they call Hook-Land into Land newly broken and from dry barren and hungry Land to rich and fat Land also from Land inclining to the South to Land inclining to the North è contra all which produce a good Improvement As Cattle that are taken out of short sour and bad Pasture and put into good sweet Pasture thrive better than such that are not so exchanged After the same manner it is with Trees removed out of bad Ground into good all which are manifest Signes that there is some particular thing wherein each Seed delights which if we did but understand we might properly apply it and gain Riches and Honour to our selves but because we are ignorant thereof and are content so to remain we will make use of such Soyls Dungs Composts and other Preparations and Ways of Advancement of the Growth of Vegetables as are already discovered
and made use of and shall here give unto the Reader the several Ways and Methods we finde dispersed in our Rustick Authors for the imbibition of the Seed which hath been long attempted and many ways tried but most of them have fallen short of the expectation of the Experimenters because they neither took the right Matter nor observed the right manner of the Operation As according to some Authors Steeping of Corn in Dung-water you are prescribed to steep your Corn in Dung-water or Water wherein Cow-dung hath lain some time which its probable may be some though little advantage to the Corn. Then in one of the same Authors are ye commended to an Experiment better than the former That whereas before you steeped your Corn in the Water which had sucked out the strength and salt of the Dung you must now mingle your Dung your Water and your Corn together and stir them one whole hour at the least also in the evening stir them again for half an hour or more let them stand together all night and the next day at some tap draw away the Water then mingle the Corn and Dung throughly well together and after sowe the Dung and Corn so mixed in a barren and hungry mould and you shall have saith mine Author as rich a Crop as if the Ground it self had been dunged before he giveth also a Probatum est unto it The same Sir Hugh Platt gives you a process of steeping Corn Adam 's Tool Revived out of Johannes Baptista Porta which he pretends to cause a wonderful encrease and at least five for one above the accustomed yield which is To take the Corn out of the middle of the Ear and bathe it in sweet Oyntment made with the fat of old Goats being mixed with Bacchus and Vulcan which our Author interprets to be Goats-dung the older the better moistened with Wine or new Must or I rather judge Lees of Wine let their soft and even laid bed be gently warmed which he also Interprets to be the Digging of the Land and by warming it 's probable he means soyling or watering it with some prepared rich Liquor Also our Author there advises for the steeping of Corn in new Ale or Wort it s own natural Bathe but seems to prefer the steeping thereof in the Water wherein the Dung of Oxen Kine and Sheep and Pigeons-dung hath been imbibed which he prescribes to be about two parts of Water to one of Dung and let them stand four or five days often stirring them together which water decauted or coursly filtred is fit for your use wherein you are to steep your Corn till it be glutted therewith which you may easily discover but be sure not to overcharge the Corn with this Liquor Thus far we finde how the steeping of Corn in Dung-water hath been used and approved of and that as may be presumed from the rationality of the thing and credit of the Author with some good success But it is probable it might not always answer the expectation of the Experimenters or at least not to produce so great an Increase as the Authors promise neither can those ways be so excellent as these we shall advise you to being grounded on more rational Principles and have been proved to be more effectual than the other That which containeth in it most of the Vniversal Subject or Matter of Vegetables whereof we discoursed at the beginning of this Treatise is the fittest for this purpose of all which Nitre or Sal terrae is esteemed the best wherewith Virgil adviseth to infuse or besprinkle the Seed Semina vidi equidem multos medicare serentes Et intro prius profundere This also is that Subject Glauber so highly extols where he says Miraculum Mundi p. 50. Si Agricolae semen hoc menstruo humectatum in agrum spargunt citius maturescit granis pinguioribus c. If Husbandmen did sowe their Seed imbibed with this Menstruum it would sooner be ripe and bear better Grain c. This Subject or Menstruum he labours in several Tracts of his to prefer above any other matter whatsoever for all sorts of Vegetables either by application thereof unto the roots or by way of irrigation or by imbibition of the Seed therein as very highly conducing to Fertility and acceleration of Maturation but in another Tract of his being the Explication of the former he very honestly undeceives all such that judge this Nitre or Subject to be common Nitre or Salt-petre Velim Explicatio Miraculi Mundl 51. autem mentem intelligi meam non accipiendum esse nitrum commune hisce minime proficium Common Nitre being not fit for that purpose The Nitre or Sal terrae intended by these and other Learned Authors as apt for this work is the fixed Salt extracted out of any Vegetable Animal or Mineral throughly calcined as after the burning of Land in the common way of burn-baiting that which causeth so great Fertility is as well the fixed Salt or Alcali that 's left in the Ashes as the waste or expence of the sterile acid Spirit which before kept that vegetating Salt from acting What is it that is fertile in Lime Ashes Soap-ashes c. but this Nitre or Sal terrae this Vniversal Subject left therein and most easily separable after calcination Therefore let every Husbandman that expects so large a Product Idem 46. or Reward take the right matter such that Glauber cast on his Asparagus which through its fiery nature destroyed the Worms or banished them wholly from their ancient habitations are by its vegetating and fructifying nature it made the Asparagus thrive more fully and perfectly than before c. This Salt is as easie to be procured as the Lee or Lixivium wherewith the women usually scour their Clothes being extracted out of any Ashes either of Vegetables Animals or Minerals All the difficulty is in the true proportion and strength of this Lixivium or Menstruum for Glauber advises in another Tract of his by no means to add too Continuatio Miraculi Mundi 21. much thereof to the Vines lest they grow too rank but in our way of Imbibition of Grain we need not fear that only this we must be cautious of that the great and fiery heat thereof destroyeth not the Corn for the highest Medicines taken in excess prove the greatest Poysons but let not this prove a Discouragement for it cannot be difficult to prevent this Inconvenience either by moderating the quality of the Menstruum or the time of imbibition Next in place to this Vniversal Subject may be used such materials that contain most of the same as the Dung of Sheep Pigeons and other Fowl who because they make no Vrine have their Dung enriched with a greater quantity of that Subject than other Creatures whence it is usually extracted by the Vrine Sheep also drink but little and feed dry which makes their Dung exceeding rich and fertile I casually met with
the following Process highly applauded by the Owners thereof promising wonderful Productions from it which is thus Take half a Bushel of Sheeps-dung and put upon it twenty quarts of Spring-water set it on the fire till it be luke-warm but not boyling and so rub with your hand all the Sheeps-dung by little and little till it be dissolved in the water then let it stand twelve hours after which strain the water through a course Cloth with a hard Compression this water keep for use Then take of Bay-salt and dissolve it in luke-warm water which water filter and evaporate in an earthen Vessel over the Fire of this congealed Salt after the waters Evaporation take two good handfuls likewise do the same with Salt-petre dissolve it in water filter the water and evaporate it then take of the remaining congealed Salt-petre one good handful and let both those Salts dissolve in the fore-mentioned Liquor of Sheeps-dung making it again milk-warm when all the Salts are therein well dissolved put into that prepared Liquor eight Gallons of Corn or other Seed and let it steep therein thirty or thirty six hours then take it and put it into a Sieve and drain the water into another Vessel which water may be used again in like manner when the water is all drained away take the Corn or other Seed and dry it in some Upper-loft exposed to the Air not to the Sun and being almost dry scatter or sowe it in half proportion N. B. that the Sheeps-dung dregs being dried must be calcined and the Salt thereof drawn in luke-warm water which being filtred and evaporated the remaining Salt thereof is to be dissolved with the other Salts in the Sheeps-dung water I have here given you this Process gratis which hath been valued and contracted for at a high rate the Owners promising a very great Increase to succeed The Process appears to be made not by such that are experienced in Rural Affairs for you will finde it difficult to strain your Sheeps-dung water dissolved in those proportions for the Sheeps-dung wholly dissolves which doth so thicken the water and convert it into a mucilage that all goes where the water goes if rightly done and that which is more strange the Grain will not only imbibe the water so animated but the very substance of the Dung also if rightly ordered which is an Argument sufficient of the melioration of the Grain insomuch that no dregs or remainder of the Sheeps-dung was lost save only a few undissolved treddles As for the Salts I think little good is to be expected from them and therefore hold those troublesom preparations of them needless only the Salt of the Dung must needs be good because it is that Vegetative Salt or Vniversal Subject whereof we discoursed before only it is far fetched and dear bought as good may be had at a far easier rate for this purpose Nevertheless common Sea-salt hath been much cried up by some for an Improver of the Seed and an Example produced of a silly Jewel-house of Art and Nature Swain who passing over an Arm of the Sea with his Seed-corn in a Sack which by mischance at his landing fell into the water and so his Corn being left there till the next low water became somewhat brackish yet out of necessity did the man bestow the same Wheat upon his ploughed Grounds and at the Harvest he reaped a Crop of good Wheat such as in that year not any of his Neighbors had the like Doubtless infusion of the Corn or Seed in any of the aforesaid materials is some advantage to it or in the Lees of Wine Ale Beer Perry Syder or else in Beef-broth and the Brine of Poudering-tubs as is by some advised Also some affirm that Corn spritted a little as they use to do for Mault and then sown came up speedily and got the predomination of the Weeds at first and so kept the same that there was produced a far greater increase than ordinary which is a sufficient convincing Argument that if common water produce so manifest an Improvement that then a better Liquor may much more Because the Corn also will seem troublesom to sowe being wet it is prescribed either to let it dry a day or two on a Floor or else to sift slackened Lime thereon which is to be preferred because it preserves the Corn from Vermine Smutt c. I find also another compounded Liquor to have been commended Hartlib 's Legacie and experimented for the steeping of Grain therein which is thus Pour into quick and unslaked Lime as much Water as sufficeth to make it swim four inches above the Water and unto ten pound of the said water poured off mix one pound of Aqua Vitae and in that Liquor steep or soak wheat or Corn twenty four hours which being dried in the Sun or in the Air steep again in the said Liquor twenty four hours more and do it likewise the third time afterward sowe them at great distances the one from the other about the distance of a foot between each Grain so one Grain will produce thirty thirty six thirty eight forty two fifty two Ears and those very fruitful with a tall Stalk equalling the stature of a man in height This seems to be a most rational Process for this purpose and on this and the like ways of maceration or fermentation of the Seed depends those several Experiments where the Corn or Seed hath yielded so prodigious an Increase as that one grain of Wheat should yield a hundred and fourteen Ears and in them six thousand Grains but in case it generally hold to be but a quarter of the number it is beyond what any other way of Husbandry can perform CHAP. V. Of the Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Lands HAving discoursed of Meadows Pastures and Arable Lands and of the great Advantages and Benefits that are raised out of them and of the several ways of Improving Meadows by drowning or watering and of Pastures and Arable Lands by Inclosure by sowing and propagating New Hays Grasses and the best sorts of Corn Pulse and other Seeds and by the best way of Tilling and Ordering the same Now it will be necessary to say a little concerning this most general way of Improvement by Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Land under which terms we comprehend all the several ways of tempering altering renewing or adding unto the Land or applying any subject whatsoever thereunto for its Improvement and Advantage SECT I. Of the Burning of Land The Burning of Land or any other operation on it by Fire seems to be the greatest though not most universal advance to most of our barren poor and hungry Lands as well dry as wet the Burning of the Ground it self seems to be of very Ancient use as appears by Virgil Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros And burning of Wood and other Combustible Materials on Gages Survey of the West-Indies Sylva Land is practised amongst
barren dry and sandy grounds The Hasel also Mountains and Rocky Soils produce them but more prosperously in the fresher bottoms and sides of hills and in Hedge-rows They are best raised from the Nut preserved moist not mouldy Propagation by laying them in their own dry leaves or in sand and sown about the latter end of February They are also propagated of Sets and Suckers the young wands by no means to be cut the first year but the Spring following within three or four inches of the ground greater Sets may be cut within six inches of the Earth the first year The use of Hasel-Poles and Rods is generally known to the Use Husbandman besides for Fewel and Charcoal It is the only Plant for the Virgula Divina for the Discovery of Mines It is a good Ornament for Walks and yields a pleasant Fruit but why should we bring this so near us when we have a much more excellent Plant at as easie a rate viz. the Filbert SECT IV. Of Aquaticks or Trees affecting Moist and Watry places The white Poplar delights in moist grounds and near the Margins The Poplar of Rivers but not in the Water as the Willow doth They are usually encreased by the streght branches or pitchers Propagation set in the ground but by no means cut off the top until they have stood two or three years and then head them at eight ten or fifteen foot high or more and they will yield in a few years a very considerable shrowd which shrowds or branches may also be transplanted you may also let them grow upright without topping them they are then more Ornamental but not so beneficial It s White Wood is of singular use for the Turner and also for Use several Rustick Utensils and for the Gardiner It makes also Fewel for the fire This Tree little differs from the Poplar only it will grow not The Aspen only in moist but in dry grounds in Coppices c. is propagated by Suckers but cut not off the tops of the young Cions the first year its use the same with the Poplar The Abele-tree is a finer kinde of white Poplar and is best The Abele propagated of slips from the roots they will likewise grow of layers and cuttings In three years they will come to an incredible altitude in twelve years be as big as your middle and in eighteen or twenty arrive to full perfection This Plant of all other is the most faithful lover of Watery and The Alder. boggy places They are propagated of Truncheons and will come of Seeds Propagation but best of roots being set as big as the small of ones leg and in length about two foot if you plant smaller Sets cut them not till they have stood several years They are a very great Improvement to moist and boggy Land The greater Alders are good for uses under the Water where Use it will harden like a very stone but rots immediately where it is sometimes wet and sometimes dry the Wood is fit for the Turner and several Mechanick uses the Poles and also the Bark are very useful The Withy is a large Tree and fit to be planted on high banks The Withy because they extend their Roots deeper than either Sallies or Willows Sallies grow much faster if they are planted within the reach of The Sally the Water or in a very moorish ground and are an extraordinary Improvement They are smaller than the Sallies and shorter lived and require Osiers constant moisture The Common Willow delights in Meads and Ditch-sides not Willow over-wet They may all be planted by Pitchers as the Poplar those Sets or Pitchers are to be preferred that grow nearest to the stock they should be planted in the first fair weather in February and so till they bud the Osiers may also be planted of slips of two or three years growth a foot deep and half a yard in length in Moorish ground c. The Willow may be planted of stakes as big as ones leg and five or six foot long These Aquatick Trees yield a clean white Wood fit for many Use and benefit uses like unto the Poplar they also yield Poles Binders c. for the Gardiners use the Osier is of great use to the Basket-maker Gardiner Fisherman c. They are all good Fewel and make good Charcoal they are a very great Improvement to Moorish and wet Lands an Acre at eleven or twelve years growth may yield you near an hundred load of Wood no Tree more profitable than some of these Aquaticks according to the nature of the place to be planted upon the edges of Rivers and on Banks Bounds or Borders of Meads or wet Lands they yield a considerable head and ready for shrowding in a few years Mr. Evelin relates that a Gentleman lopped no less than two thousand yearly all of his own planting SECT V. Of other Trees usually planted for Ornament or adorning Gardens Avenues Parks and other places adjoyning to your Mansion-house and convertible also to several uses This Tree is a kind of Maple and delights in a good light Garden-mould The Sycamore and will also thrive in any indifferent Land but rather in moist than dry It 's propagated of the Keys which being It s propagation and use sown when they are ripe and falling from the Trees come up plentifully the next Spring and is a Tree of speedy growth Sets also cut from the Tree will grow set in moist ground or watered well in the Summer they afford a curious dark and pleasant shadow yield a good Fewel and the Timber fit for several Mechanick uses The Lime-tree delights in a good rich Garden-Soil and thrives The Lime-tree Propagation not in a dry hungry cold Land It is raised from Suckers as the Elm or from Seeds or Berries which in the Autumn drop from the Trees We have a sort of Tilia that grows wild here in England which almost equals those brought out of Holland where there are Nurseries to raise them streight and comely This Tree is of all other the most proper and beautiful for Use Walks as producing an upright Body smooth and even Bark ample Leaf sweet Blossom and a goodly shade at the distance of Sylva eighteen or twenty foot their heads topped at about six or eight foot high but if they are suffered to mount without check they become a very streight and tall Tree in a little time especially if they grow near together they afford a very pleasant dark shade and perfume the Air in the months of June and July with their fragrant blossom and entertain a mellifluous Army of Bees from the top of the morning till the cool and dark evening compels their return No Tree more uniform both in its height and spreading breadth I have known excellent Ladders made of Lime-tree-Poles of a very great length the Wood may also serve for several Mechanick uses like
not ruine of the Plant. The same time and Method is to be observed in the transplantation Of such Trees that come of Slips Suckers c. removal or propagation of the Suckers Cions Slips or Layers of the Elm Birch Lime-tree Horse-chesnut and such other Trees that are usually produced of Suckers Layers Slips c. as you do in the removal of the young Seedlings of the other Trees Only that for the slipping or laying of such Branches of Trees Time to slip or lay that had not before taken any Root the most proper time is in the top of the Spring about the time that the Sap is newly risen and the Tree ready to bud All Trees that are raised of Pitchers or Sets as the Poplar Aspen The time for Aquaticks Abel Alder Withy Salley Osier Willow Elder and Privet are to be planted in February or March before they are too forward Let your young Plants be removed rather into a better mould Manner of transplanting though there is but a little about the Roots than a worse let as much Earth adhere to the Roots as you may and leave as much of the Root on as you can abating only the top-root or downright Roots and spread the other every way in the pits or holes made for that purpose which ought to be made larger and deeper than the Plant at present requires and filled up with loose mould that young Roots may the better spread to seek nourishment for the Tree In Transplanting be sure to preserve the smallest Roots which gather the Sap and in filling the Earth about the Tree endeavour to keep them to a level with Earth between them that they may not be irregularly placed for the well settling these Roots will conduce very much to the prosperity of the Tree It is good to plant it as shallow as might be and not below the Plant shallow better part of the Earth into the Gravel Clay Sand nor Water c. but rather advance the Earth about the Tree than set the Tree too deep be sure also not to set it deeper than it stood before In the removal of such Trees that have arrived to any considerable Observe the coast bigness it is very expedient to observe the coast and side of the stock which way it stood before its removal and not to be esteemed such a trifle as Lawson and many other trifling Authors pretend For it is most evident that the Sap doth naturally flow most on that side of the Tree that 's next the Sun and on that side doth the Tree more encrease than on the other as is evident in observing the Pith to be nearer the North than South-side of the Tree But in such Trees that stand thick in a Nursery or have long stood in the shade where the Sun hath wrought little or nothing upon them you may be less critical The Oak Pine and Walnut-trees bear spreading large branches The distance and require greater distances than any other therefore the nearest should stand forty foot The Beech Ash Eugh Fir Chesnut c. may stand somewhat nearer than the other The Elm and the Horn-beam will grow the nearest of any Trees For the other you may plant them at what distance the magnitude of the Tree your occasions or the nature of it requires The Watering of your Trees immediately upon their transplantation Watering of Trees very much conduceth to their prosperity and settling the Earth about the Roots unless in weather extreme cold and where the Plant is of a tender kinde Also the young Plants for the first year will require your aid in watering of them in a dry Spring Also if Trees have been carried far the setting of the Roots in Water some certain time before you inter them conduces much to their revival If the Trees be of any considerable height they ought to be Staking of Trees carefully defended as well from the injurious Winds as the frications of Beasts by staking them and with a wisp of Hay or other soft Ligament to binde them to such stake not omitting to interpose a little Moss or Hay c. between the Tree and stake to preserve it from galling If your Trees be in danger of Cattles injuries then you ought to bind or set bushes about them to prevent rubbing Planters in most places do strictly observe to cut the foot or Planting of Aquaticks ground-end of Poplar Withy or other Aquatick Pitchers or Sets only one way like a Hindes foot pretending that to be a principal observation If either your impatient fancie or your urgent occasions oblige Removing Trees in Summer you to the removal or Transplantation of Trees in the Summer you may tread in the steps of a certain Prince Elector that at Hidelbergh in the midst of Summer removed very great Lime-trees out of one of his Forrests to a steep hill exceedingly exposed to the heat of the Sun the Heads being cut off and the Pits into which they were transplanted filled with a Composition of earth and Cow-dung which was exceedingly beaten and so diluted with Water as it became almost a Liquid Pap wherein he plunged the Roots covering the Surface with the Turf It is presumed that if the Trees were smaller be they of what Wood soever there needeth not so absolute a decapitation Several relations there are of Trees that have been planted or Transplanting of great Trees removed of eighty years growth and fifty foot high to the nearest bough wafted upon Floats and Engines four long miles with admirable success and of Oaks planted as big as twelve Oxen could draw to which effect these are prescribed as the ways to accomplish the like designes Chuse a Tree as big as your Thigh remove the Earth from about him cut through all the Collateral Roots till with a competent strength you can inforce him upon one side so as to come with your Axe at the Tap-Root cut that off redress your Tree and so let it stand covered about with the mould you loosened from it till the next year or longer if you think good then take it up at a fit season Or a little before the hardest Frost surprise you make a square Trench about your Tree at such distance from the stem as you judge sufficient for the Root dig this of competent depth so as almost quite to undermine it by placing blocks and quarters of Wood to sustain the Earth this done cast on it as much Water as may sufficiently wet it unless the ground were moist before thus let it stand till some very hard Frost do bind it firmly to the Roots and then convey it to the pit prepared for its new station But if it be over-ponderous you may raise it with a Pully between a Triangle placing the Cords under the Roots of the Tree set it on a Trundle or Sled to be conveyed and replanted where you please by these means you may transplant Trees
facility from Layers Slips or Suckers than from Graffing Inoculation or from the Seed and such are Codlings Gennet-Moyls Quinces Filberds Vines Figs Mulberries Goosberries Currans and Barberries The Kentish Codling is very easily propagated by slips or Codlings suckers and is of so good a nature as to thrive being set very near that they make a very ornamental hedge which will bear plentifully and make a most pleasant prospect the fruit whereof besides the ordinary way of stewing baking c. being very early makes a delicate Cider for the first drinking These Trees ought not to be topt or plashed as is usual they growing tall and handsom which if topt decay and grow stubby and unpleasant neither do they bear so well The Gennet-Moyl-Tree will be propagated by Slips or Cions Gennet-Moyls as is the Codling but is not so apt to grow in a hedge as the other Both of them bear sooner if grafted as other Apples are The manner of raising the Quince we have already discoursed Quinces where we treated of raising Stocks to Graff on Filberds are generally drawn as Suckers from the old Trees Filberds and will prosper very well and sooner come to be Trees than from the Nut. Any shoot of the last year more especially if a short piece of The Vine the former years growth be cut with it will grow being laid about a foot or eighteen inches within the ground long-ways and not above two or three Buds at most out of the ground about the moneth of February and watred well in the drought of Summer The Fig-tree yieldeth Suckers which is the usual way to multiply Figs. them The Mulberry is a very difficult Tree to raise and is best done Mulberries thus Cut a Bough off as big as a mans Arm and cut it in pieces a yard long or less lay all these in the ground a foot deep only one end out of the ground about a hands breadth let it be in fat and moist ground or usually watred and after a year or two divers young Springs may be drawn with Roots and planted at a distance and the old Roots will yet send out more These three kinds of Fruits yield such plenty of Suckers that Gooseberries Currans and Barberries To lay the Branches of Trees you never need doubt of a supply But if you desire Plants from the same or any other sorts of precious Fruits or Plants and where you cannot obtain Suckers from the Roots and where the branches will not easily take root being separated from the Tree you may obtain your desire by bending down some branch of the Tree to the ground and with a hooked stick thrust into the ground stay the same in its place and cover the same branch with good Earth as thick as you shall think fit and keep the same well watred or if you cannot bring the branch to the Earth you may have some Earthen pot Basket or such like with a hole in the bottom and fasten the same to the wall if against a wall or on some Post or Stake Put the Sprig or Branch you intend to plant through at the hole and fill the same with good Earth and water it often as before Some prick the Rinde that is in the Earth full of holes that it may the better issue thereout small Roots others advise to cut away the Bark This may be done in the Spring from March to May and the Plant will be fit to cut off below the Earth the Winter following By this means you may obtain the Plants of Vines Mulberries or any manner of choice Fruits or Plants SECT IX Of the Transplanting of Trees The best and most successful time for the transplanting or removing 1 The time to transplant of Trees such that shed their leaves in the Winter whether they are the young Stocks or new Graffed Trees or of longer standing is in the Autumnal Quarter when the Trees have done growing about the end of September you may begin the prime time is about the middle of October You may continue till the Tree begins to bud if the weather be open Be careful in taking up the Plants that requiring great care of 2 The manner of transplanting the Remover See the Roots be left on as much as may especially the spreading Roots and let the Roots be larger than the head the more ways they spread the better but you may take away such Roots as run downwards Also take off the leaves if any lest they weaken the Branches by extracting the Sap. The younger and lesser the Tree is the more likely he is to thrive and prosper because he suffers less injury by the removal than an older or greater Tree And an Orchard of young Trees will soon overtake another planted with larger Trees at the same time Plant not too deep for the Over-turf is always richer than the next Mould And in such places where the Land is Clayish over-moist or Spewy plant as near the Surface as you can or above it and raise the Earth about the Tree rather than set the Tree in the wet or Clay The same Rule observe in Gravelly or Chalky Land for the Roots will seek their way downwards but rarely upwards That I have known Trees planted too deep pine away and come to nothing This Rule observed many places may be made fruitful Orchards that now are judged impossible or not worth ones while In the transplanting of your young Trees you may Prune as well the branches as the roots taking away the tops of the branches of Apples and Pears but not of Plums Cherries nor of Wall-nuts The Coast also is necessary to be observed especially if the Tree be of any considerable bigness that the same side may stand South that was South before the Tree will thrive the better Although in small Trees it be not much observed yet it might prove none of the least helps to its growth and thriving The most facile way to preserve the memory of its scituation is to mark the South or North side of the Plant with Oker Chalk or such like before you remove it It is not a small check to a Plant to be removed out of a warm Nursery into the open Field where the Northern and Eastern Winds predominate or its shelter to be removed as by the cutting down of Hedges and other Trees that formerly defended them It is also very necessary to be observed that the ground into which you plant your Tree be of a higher and richer Mould than from whence you removed it if you expect your Tree to thrive the change of Soyls or Pastures from the worser to the better being of very high concernment for the improvement and advance of all Vegetables and Animals These and several other the like Observations if they can be observed will much advantage the growth of your Tree for the first year or two but if place and time and other accidents
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
green Herbs are apt to make your Metheglin flat or dead and that Cloves are apt to make it high coloured and that scumming of it in the boiling is not advantagious but injurious the Scum being of the nature of Yest helping to ferment and purifie Of Silk-worms THis though but a Worm yet Glorious Creature seems by the Relation of Credible Historians to be but a Modern Operator in these Northern Countries of that Excellent Commoditie Silk and these Worms also are not so much encreased nor improved especially here in England as they might be every one almost is willing to undergo the trouble and enjoy the pleasure and benefit of feeding and preserving them were there but Food enough here for them the deficiency whereof is the only Remora that impedes this most Noble Enterprise The Mulberry-leaves are the principal and I believe the only Their Food Food that will cherish and feed these Worms to advantage at least in these Countries whatever some write to the contrary as that at Dublin in Ireland the Worms have fed on Lettuce very readily and that they grew as big as those that were fed with Mulberry-leaves and did spin as much Silk eating also no other Food and that they will eat the Herb called Dandelion Others have tryed that way of feeding them with Lettuce and not found the success answerable Some also affirm that they will thrive on Poplar-trees Plum-trees and Apple-trees the certainty whereof we leave to be decided by experience But I see little reason for it the Silk-worm being only an Insect and that it is generally the nature of Insects to feed on some certain specifical matter therefore the only and principal way that is to be attempted for the propagating of this designe is for some publick-spirited persons to lay out some certain places of their Lands for the raising of Mulberry-trees as before in our discourse of Fruit-trees we observed About the beginning of May when the Mulberry-tree begins Time and manner of hatching Silk-worms Eggs. to spread its Leaf is the time the Silk-worms Eggs are as it were by nature adapted for a release from their long confinement that if you lay them in some window in the warm Sun or carry them in a little Box between some pieces of Say in some warm place about you keeping them also warm in the night they will soon appear in a new form then cut some Paper full of small holes and lay over them and over that some of your young Mulberry-leaves and these small Worms will easily finde their way to their natural Food and so fast as they are hatched they immediately apply themselves to the Leaves After they are thus betaken to the Leaves you may place on them Tables or Shelves at convenient distances according to the number of your Worms and proportion of place you have for them They are sick four times in their feeding the first commonly Their sicknesses about twelve days after they are hatched and from that time at the end of every eight days according to the weather and their good or ill usage during which time of every sickness which lasteth two or three days you must feed them but very little only to relieve such of them as have past their sickness before the rest and those that shall not fall into their sickness so soon The whole time of their feeding is about nine weeks during The time and manner of feeding which time you may feed them twice a day by laying the Leaves over them as it were to cover them and they will soon finde a way through them and as they grow in strength and bigness so may you feed them more plentifully and often It is good to let the Leaves be clear of Dew or Rain before you give them unto the Worms You may keep them spread on a Table in case they be wet you may gather and keep them two or three days without any great inconvenience in case you live remote from Mulberry-trees or the weather prove casual You must observe to rid often their Shelves of their dung and the remainders of the Leaves by removing the Worms when they are fast on the new Leaves laid on them for then may you remove easily the Worms with the Leaves the keeping clean of the Shelves and the Room being a principal means to preserve them Also remember to keep their Room warm in cold and wet weather and to give them a little cool Air in hot weather Let not the Room you keep them in be too near the Tiles on the top of your House nor in any cold or moist Room below but be sure to avoid all extreams When they have fed as long as they are able they look of Their spinning clear and Amber-colour and are then ready to go to work therefore it is then advised that you make Arches between their Shelves with Heath made very clean or with branches of Rosemary stalks of Lavender or suchlike whereupon the Worms will fasten themselves and make their bottoms which in about fourteen days are finished But the only way that I have seen practised and the best way is to make small Cones of Paper and place them with their sharp ends downwards in rows in each of which put a Worm as they appear to you to be ready to go to work and there will they finish their bottom more compleat and with les waste than on any branches whatever When they have finished their bottoms which will be in about Their breeding fourteen days then take so many as you intend to reserve for Breeders and lay them by themselves and the Worms within will eat their way out in four or five days time and when they come forth it is advised that you put them together on some piece of old Say Grogeram the back-side of old Velvet or the like made fast against some Wall or Hangings in your house but I have known them succeed very well on Tables c. Then will these Flies ingender and the Male having spent himself dies and so doth the Female after she hath lain her Eggs then take the Eggs up with the point of a knife or suchlike and put them into a piece of Say or suchlike and keep them in a Box amongst Woollen Cloths or such other dry and not warm place till the next Spring One of these Females will produce some hundreds of Eggs therefore a few kept for Seed or Increase will be sufficient the residue put into an Oven after the baking of bread c. that it may be only hot enough to kill the Worms for their gnawing their way out is some prejudice to the bottom When you have obtained your bottoms take off the Bags The winding of the Silk and having found their ends put six ten or more in a Bason of water together where a little Gum-Tragacanth is mixed and so you may easily winde them The small hairs of Silk seldom break but
if they do they are easily found again If the Worms are not well fed the Silk is small and easily breaks Another way to make these Gummy Bottoms winde easie is this Take Soap-boilers Liquor or Lee which is very sharp and strong and put therein your Bottoms and set them over the fire till the Liquor be scalding hot and so let the Bottoms remain therein about half a quarter of an hour till the Gumminess be dissolved then put the Bottoms into clean scalding water and let them lie a while therein then will they unwinde with much facility A Lixivium made of Wood-ashes very strong will do as well as the aforesaid Soap-boilers Liquor There is a kinde of Tow or rough sort of Silk that will not winde up with the other which may be prepared and good Silk made thereof and indifferent also of the Bags themselves The fine Skeins after they have past through the Scowrers Throsters and Dyers hands may compare with the finest CHAP. X. Of the common and known External Injuries Inconveniences Enemies and Diseases incident to and usually afflicting the Husbandman in most of the Ways or Methods of Agriculture before treated of and the several Natural and Artificial Remedies proposed and made use of for the Prevention and Removal of them SInce the Exclusion of our First Parents out of the state of Bliss or Paradise all our Actions Endeavours and Enterprises have been subject to the various and uncertain dispositions of an Over-ruling Providence and also of Fortune and unexpected chances and accidents and more especially the several Actions and Imployments that are incident and belonging to this Noble Art of Agriculture and its several branches before treated of that no one exercised in Husbandry can promise himself a peculiar Indemnity from the usual misfortunes that generally attend it which is the cause that at some time that very Commodity is dear and scarce which at another time is cheap and plentiful and that some Husbandmen have excellent Crops and good success at the same time when others have the contrary These very considerations have not only stirred up the Ingenious to consider of the Diseases and Injuries themselves but also to seek after the means to avoid those that of necessity attend them and to prevent such that may be prevented which we finde dispersed in several Authors and also finde to have been made use of by many of our Modern Ingenious Rusticks and not yet made publick And first we will discourse of such injuries and inconveniences that proceed SECT I. From the Heavens or the Air. This Island is generally subject to great heat or drought in Great heat or drought the Summer-time which so much exsiccateth and wasteth the moisture and Vegetative Nature of the Earth that much of our common Field or open Land yields but a reasonable Crop of In Corn-Lands Corn nor our open and wide Pastures or dry Lands much Grass or feeding for Cattle yet are these driest Summers most propitious unto us and in them do we reap the most copious Crops but it is because we have so much low grounds under the Shelter and so many Inclosures defended from the destructive and sweeping Summer-Airs where in those dry years we have our richest Harvests so that Nature it self and common Experience hath chalked out unto us a remedy for our dry barren and hungry Lands and Pastures whether Common or Appropriate against heat and drought the two principal inconveniencies attending those Lands if we had but the hearts of men to make use of it It is said that in Cornwal they begin to practise this Husbandry and plant Mounds and Fences with Timber-Trees which growing tall do much preserve the Land from malignant Airs and yield a great profit besides See more of this Remedy before in the Chapter of Inclosures Heat or Drought also produces more particular inconveniencies In planting Trees or injuries as to Trees sown or planted abroad in the open Fields or in Inclosures Gardens c. which is a very great check or impediment to the Husbandman in propagating them the preventions or remedies whereof are several 1. In the driest and most barren Lands in England if you sow the same with the Fruit or Seed of Oak Ash Beech or any other wood whatsoever you may also sow the same Land at the same time with Broom Furze or suchlike which will wonderfully thrive on the worst of Land and become a shelter to the other Trees which when once they have taken sufficient Root will soon out-strip the Furze or Broom or you may raise Banks and sow them with Furze which will soon make a Fence under the shelter whereof you may Nurse up other Trees for it is most evident that the greatest Trees that grow on the barrenest Lands had their Original in the same places where they grow and is most probable that they were thus defended by some small Bush or Brake from Cattle Heat Cold c. till they arrived to such height that they could defend themselves 2. For such Trees that are usually planted in Hedg-rows or other places of Inclosures c. which the heat and drought doth either impede their growth or totally kill them to the great discouragement of the Planter adde to the Roots of them on the Surface of the Earth a heap of stones which is the best Additament and will keep the roots and ground about it cool and moist in the Summer and warm in the Winter and fortifie the Tree against Windes c. but where stones are not easily attained heaps of Fern or any other Vegetable Straw or Stubble c. will preserve the ground moist and inrich it withal but where neither stones nor Vegetables can be had conveniently after the Tree is planted and good Mould or Earth added to the Roots raise a Hillock about it of any manner of Turf Earth c. for it is not the height of the Earth above the ground about the Tree that injures it so much as the depth of the Tree below the Surface or best Earth 3. In Gardens and such near places where you may be at hand and where you have choice Plants that suffer by heat Shadow is a principal remedy as before we noted or water in such places where it may be commanded In several places Water is the principal thing deficient to make Remedies for want of Water them pleasant and profitable and the means whereby to procure it very tedious costly and difficult It is several ways attainable 1. By sinking of Wells which where they are very deep some use a large Wheel for Man or Beast to walk in to raise it others use a double Wheel with Cogs which makes it draw easier than the ordinary single Wheel but this is not so good a way as the double Wheel with Lines the Line of the Wheel at your hand being small and very long this raiseth a large Bucket of water with very much ease and
destructive Frosts and also by covering whole Beds therewith preserves the Plants or Roots therein Also Straw Hawm Fern or suchlike dry Vagetable will defend any thing from the Frosts although the Litter be to be preferred But such things that are not to be touched or suppressed as Coleflower-plants Gilliflower-slips c. the placing of Sticks like some Booth or suchlike over them and covering them with a Mat or Canvas or suchlike doth very much defend them giving them Sun and Air in temperate days makes them the more hardy and preserves their colour Furze where it may conveniently be had is a very excellent shelter and defence against Cold being laid about Trees or over Plants of what kinde soever It breaks the violence of Winde and Frost beyond any thing else lying hollow of it self doth not that injury to Plants that other things do without support and proves many times better than a supported shelter Preserving them also from Rain unless as much as is sufficient to nourish them is a good prevention of Frosts for the Frost injureth no Plant so much as that which stands wet as I have often observed that Cyprus-trees and Rosemary standing on very dry ground have endured the greatest Frosts when others have perished by the same Frosts standing in moist ground although more in the shelter Also the most pernicious Frosts to Fruits succeed Rainy days a dry Frost rarely hurts Fruit. Gilliflowers and several other Flowers and Plants receive their greatest injury from wet which if kept dry endure severe colds the better Hot-Beds are much in use for the propagating of Seeds in the Spring c. which when they are covered prove secure remedies Conservatories wherein to remove your tender Plants in the Winter are a usual prevention of cold some whereof are made by some degrees warmer than others are suitable to the several natures of the Plants to be preserved But the compleatest Conservatories are large leaves of boards to open and shut at pleasure over your Orange or other Fruit-trees closely pruned against a Wall or Pale and planted either against your Chimney where you always keep a good fire or against some Stove made on purpose Aprecocks so planted against an ordinary wall with such doors must needs avail much in the Spring-time to defend the young and tender Fruit from the sharp Frosts and is a much more practicable and surer way than the bowing the branches into Tubs as some advise Others hang Cloaths or Mats over the Trees in frosty nights but these are troublesome It is evident that part of the same Tree being under some shelter from the Rain will bear plenty of Fruit when other part of the same Tree being open to the Rain bears but little in cold and destructive Springs though alike obvious to the cold and winde Therefore endeavour to preserve your tender Wall-fruits from the wet and you may the less fear the winde and cold To lay open the roots of Trees in the Spring to keep them backwards from springing is a very proper prevention against the Frosts in Apples Pears c. for we finde a forward Spring that excites the early Fruit too soon proves very injurious to it in case any Frosts succeed The freezing of water also proves sometime an injury to the Husbandman either by hindering his Cattle from drink or by destroying Fish that are confined in a small Pond so frozen To prevent the latter if you can let there be some constant fall of water into it though never so small which will always keep a vent open sufficient to preserve the Fish who can as ill live without Air as Terrestrial Creatures can without water Any constant motion prevents a total Congelation If you lay a good quantity of Pease-hawm in the water that part may lie above and part under the water it is observed that the water freezes not within the Hawm by reason of its close and warm lying together which will prevent the death of Fish as well as breaking of the Ice Fruit when it is gathered into the house is subject to be spoiled by Frosts therefore be careful to lay it in dry Rooms either seeled thatched or boarded for in frosty weather the condensed Air which is most in such Rooms adhering to the Fruit freezeth and destroyeth it which is usually prevented covering them with Straw c. but best of all by placing a Vessel of water near them which being of a colder nature than the Fruit attracts the moist Air to its self to the preservation of the Fruit even to admiration Great Rains prove injurious to such Lands that are of themselves Much Rain moist enough for the remedy whereof and to prevent such injuries see more in the next Section In such Lands that lie at the bottoms or foot of Hills where the great falls of Rain do annoy the Corn or Grass care is to be taken for the conveying away of the water by Channels or Passages made for that purpose In the time of Harvest the greatest Enemy the Husbandman usually finds is Rain against which the best remedy is Expedition To make Hay whilest the Sun shines It is a grand neglect that there are not some kinde of Artificial shelters made in Lands remote from our dwellings for the speedy conveyance of Corn into shelter in dripping Harvests and there to remain till fair Weather and leisure will admit of a more safe carriage Worthy of commendation is the practise used in Sommersetshire c. where they lay their Wheat-sheaves in very large shocks or heaps in the Fields and so place them that they will abide any wet for a long time when on the contrary in Wiltshire and other more Southernly Counties they leave all to the good or bad weather though far remote from Barns sometimes to their very great detriment so naturally slothful and ignorant are some people and naturally ingenious and industrious are other Where their Lands lie two or three miles from their Barns as in some places in Champion Countries they do the covered Reek-staval much in use Westward must needs prove of great advantage in wet or dry Harvests to save long draughts at so busie a time Where Lands lie at a far distance the one from the other several Barns built as the Land requireth are very convenient for the more speedy housing of the Corn for the better preserving of it the more easie thrashing it out the more convenient fothering of the Cattle with the Straw and for the cheaper disposing of the soil for the improvement of the Land where on the contrary one great Barn cannot lie near to every part of a large Farm nor can Corn be so well preserved in it nor with so much advantage disposed into Mows nor thrashed nor the fother nor soil so easily dispersed High-winds prove very pernicious and injurious to the Husbandman High Winds in several respects to his Buildings Fruits Trees Hops Corn c. as many in the
ways taken either by Nets Pots or Engines by Angling or by stupifying Baits inticing or alluring objects and these ways are used either by day or by night Also at different seasons of the year the Fish as well as Fowl having their seasons of all which we shall give you some hint SECT I. Of taking Fish by Nets Pots or Engines The usual way of Fishing by Nets is of the greatest advantage To Fish with Nets and so of greatest destruction to those watry Animals which if not moderately used destroys whole Rivers of them to prevent which there are several good Laws made though seldom executed And could all men that are concerned in this Exercise agree to neglect the use of Nets but for two or three years the Fish would encrease innumerably that in many years after they could not be destroyed which being very unlikely yet it were feasible to compel all Fishermen that they take no young Fish nor Fish in their Spawning Moneths for if they were permitted to Spawn but once before they are taken they would sufficiently stock the Rivers where they are for the destruction of Fry and Spawns is the ruine of the Fishing in most Rivers The most useful Nets in great Waters are the Trammel and With the Trammel or Sieve Sieve which according to their Mesh may be used for most sorts of Fish The making and manner of using them are known to most Fishermen The most pleasant and recreative way is with the Casting-net With the Casting-Net spreading like a Cloak and verged round with Plummets that over whatsoever Fish it is thrown it brings them to your hand This Net is either thrown off from the Banks side or from a Boat according as the water will give you leave If the remarkable places that you intend a fling at were baited before-hand your Sport would be the better In smaller Rivers where there are Roots or Stems of Trees With the Shore-Net or Poke-Net under which the Fish usually seek for shelter in the day-time the Net vulgarly called the Shore-net which is a Net broad and open before about five foot and ending backwards in a long and narrow Cod. The forepart of this Net is fixed to a semicircular Rod and to the string that strains the two Extreams of that Rod in form of a Bow-string In the use of it you pitch the straight side of the Net downwards against the place or shelter where you suppose the Fish are which Net you hold strongly against the place by the help of a Stail or handle that is fixed athwart the Bow and extends down to the String Whilest you thus hold the Net your Companion with a Pole stirs in the place of refuge and what Fish are there will suddenly bolt out into your Net By this means not only Fish in small Rivers as Trouts Humbers c. are caught but Salmon also in great Rivers where the water is thickned by the Tide the Fisherman standing against the water with the Cod of the Net between his legs and as soon as he perceiveth the Fish bolt into the Net he forthwith lifts it up In several great Rivers where shelter is scarce many have set With Fish-pots large Pots made of Osier with bars in them that when the Fish are in them driven either by the Current or seeking therein for shelter they could not get out again They are also laid in swift Currents and at Mill-tails and suchlike places for the taking of Eels which in dark nights warm weather and thick waters run down with the stream in great plenty In great Rivers the greatest destruction of Salmon and also With Wears advantage is made by Wears erected in the Main Stream that when those Fish whose nature is to swim against the stream and to spring or leap over any natural obstacle that shall oppose them by their endeavour to raise themselves over these Wears try to leap over they fall short and are taken in Grates set at the foot of them for that purpose Many other Engines there are to intercept their passage up against the waters none of which are very injurious to the encrease of that Fish were they discontinued in the Autumnal season at which time those Fish stem the swiftest Currents that they may lay their Spawn in the small shallow streams which Nature hath instructed them to do it being the sweetest meat other Fish can feed and so consequentially the best bait for a nimble and greedy Angler At which season those that do escape these destructive Wears are too often met with by the ignorant Rustick who with his Spear commonly assaults them in t he Shallows and after these Fish have Spawned and their Spawn converted into the young brood the Spring following they naturally descend with the stream and by greedy Millers and others are commonly the greatest part of them intercepted in their Pots yea sometimes in so great quantities that for want of a present Market they have given them to their Swine All which are the principal causes of the great scarcity of that Fish in these parts of England There is a sort of Engine by some termed a Hawk made almost With Hawks like unto a Fish-pot being a square frame of Timber fitted to the place you intend to set it in and wrought with wire to a point almost so that what Fish soever go through the same cannot go back again These placed the one where the River enters into your Land the other where it runs out with the Points of each towards you any Fish whatsoever that moves with or against the water when they are once within the Hawks cannot get back again In case the River be broad you may place two or three of these at an end in it a frame of Timber being set in the water that it break not out on either side nor under lest your Fish escape These Hawks ought to be made moveable to take off or on as you see occasion But in case you are in danger of Land-floods or that you have The way of making a Piscary not the command of the Land on both sides or of suchlike impediment then may you cut a large Channel out of the sides of the River and as deep as the bottom of the River with some part of the Current through it and place these Hawks at each end of it the better to intice the Fish into it At some convenient distance from the River and in the Piscary on the top of a stake pitch'd in the midst of the water and a little above the water fix a Laton-case in form of a Cylinder about three or four inches Diameter and twelve inches long in which set a Candle burning in dark nights the light whereof shines only upwards and downwards it must be open at the top because it preserves it burning the downward light intices the Fish into your Piscary so that no Fish passes up nor down the
bait that is fleshie either Worms Snails raw Flesh Frogs young Birds or the like You may Angle for them in the night in standing waters as By Angle you do for other Fish and they will bite so that you lie near or on the ground Also you may bait many Hooks over-night with Worms and With Bank-books fasten them on the Bank-sides Let the bait lie in the stream on the ground all night and you will have almost on every Hook an Eel so that you be there at day-break in the morning to take them for as soon as day-light appears they will unhook themselves though it be to the tearing to pieces their own Intrails You must be sure that your Hooks be strong and your Lines may be of good fine and strong handle-bound Pack-thread Eels commonly abscond themselves under stones in stony waters By Sniggling and under Timber Planks or suchlike about Mills Wears Flood-gates Bridges c. in the day-time where you may take them by this way of Sniggling that is by baiting a strong Hook on a short but strong Line with a large Garden-worm Then with a stick cleft at the top fasten therein the Line near the Hook and guide the stick into the places where you think the Eels are and thrust it up and down and you shall be sure if any Eel be there as soon as she feels the stick she will turn and bite but be sure you pull not too hard lest you tear out your â—old There is a way of taking Eels by Bobbing which is thus By Bobbing Take of the large Garden-worms well scoured and with a Needle run some strong twisted Silk through them from end to end and wrap them oftentimes about a board then tye them together with the ends of the Silk that they may hang in Hanks and fasten them at the end of a small cord with a Plummet of Lead about three quarters of a pound a little above the Bob The other end of the cord fasten to a long Pole and therewith may you fish in muddy water after a Rain When you perceive by moving of your Bob that the Eels do tug at it then gently raise them to the surface of the water and so bring them to Land for the Eels being greedy of the Worms swallow them and the Silk hangs in their teeth that they are easily taken five or six at a time Some make up a bundle of new Hay and Worms together and so let it down into the water which the Eels readily come to and thrust their heads into the Hay after the Worms and by that means are taken Others take a round Net made fast to a small Iron-hoop and let down into the water with a bundle of Worms in the midst which when the Eels come unto by a sudden raising the Hoop are taken in the Net for in some gravelly tide-Tide-waters Eels especially the small Grigs will seek abroad in the day-time and give you excellent sport SECT VI. Of Angling for the Barbel Grailing Umber Chevin and Chub. These Fish are not so Universal as the other before discoursed of therefore the less shall be said of them As for the Barbel Barbel it is a Fish very plentiful in the Trent and comes in season about the end of May and so holds it till near Michaelmas and hath his haunts amongst weedy and hollow places amongst Piles and Stakes is a strong Fish and must be taken with very strong tackling His bait is a very well-scoured Worm Gentles or Cheese steeped in Honey The Grailing and Vmber are near alike they are in season Grailing and Umber all the Summer and are then taken with a large Grashopper the wings being taken off After the Grashopper is on the Hook at the point put on a small Cadworm and keep your bait in continual motion Let the Hook be shank't with Lead and covered with the bait The Vmber is taken with a Fly as is a Trout The Chevin and Chub are common in the Trent but no very Chevin and Chub. pleasant Fish They are in season all the Summer and are taken with Worms Flies Snails Cherries Grashoppers Grain Cheese c. There are many other sorts of small Fish as the Bleak Flounder Small Fish Gudgeon Ruff Minnow Loach and Bullhead The ways of taking them for brevity sake I shall omit In the Isle of Wight and other places Westward in the Rocks Cormorant Fishing on the Sea-shore are great numbers of Cormorants bred being a large Fowl and live only by preying on Fish and are so dextrous at it that in the open Seas they will dive and swiftly pursue their game and take and carry them to their Nests that the Inhabitants near adjacent do often go to these Rocks and furnish themselves with Fish brought thither by them at their breeding-times These Birds may be so brought up tame that they will in our ordinary clear Rivers dive and take you as many Trouts or other Fish as you please or the place affords putting but a small Collar over the neck of the Fowl that the Fish may not pass into her stomack When you intend for your game you must carry her out fasting put on her Loop or Collar and let her go into the water she will dive and streightly pursue the Fish she hath most mind to forward and backward and when she hath caught her game she gives it a toss into the Air and receives it end-wise into her mouth which will stretch like the head of a Snake and admit of a large Fish into her throat which will stop at the Collar Then hold out an Eel to her which you must carry alive or dead with you to that purpose and she will come to your hand and will by your assistance disgorge her prey immediately and to her sport again and will so continue till she hath furnisht you with as much as you can desire By this means may you take more than any other way whatsoever and exceeds any of the Sports of Hawking or Hunting Kalendarium Rusticum OR MONETHLY DIRECTIONS FOR THE HUSBANDMAN Being CHAP. XIII SHEWING The most Seasonable Times for the performing of his Rural Affairs Throughout the YEAR Operum memor esto tempestivorum Omnium Hesiod LONDON Printed by J. C. for Tho. Dring in the Year 1675. THE PREFACE TO THE KALENDAR RUri sicuti in urbe singula opera sua habent peculiaria tempora There is a peculiar time for most Affairs in the World but more especially for such Labours and Actions that depend upon the mutable seasons of the Year which being duly observed is no small advantage to the Husbandman Ephemeridem habeat quid quoque tempore faciendum is Florentines advice that every Countryman may have his Draught before him to direct him and reinforce his memory that his multitude of occasions may not so far obliterate those things to his loss and disadvantage but that he may here daily revive and
certain fore-sight of the change of Of Water-fowl weather and alteration of the seasons and especially Water-fowl which if they fly or gather together in great flights and from the Sea or great waters hasten to the banks or shore and there sport themselves it denotes windes more especially if in the morning If the Breast-bone of a Duck be red it signifies a long Winter if white the contrary Ducks and Geese c. picking their wings washing themselves much or Cackling much signifies Rain Also Sea-fowl seeking after fresh waters signifie an open or wet season Jam varias Pelagi volucres quae Virgil. Dulcibus in stagnis rimantur c. If they betake themselves to great waters it presageth cold if Water-fowl forsake the water it signifies that Winter is at hand If Land-fowl gather towards the water and shake their wings Of Land-fowl making noises and washing themselves it portendeth Tempests at hand If small Birds gather together in Flocks it signifies cold and hard weather at hand If Birds seek shelter in Barns or houses more than usual it presages cold and hard weather If Birds fly hastily to their Nests and forsake their meat it foresheweth Tempests If in frosty weather Birds seek obscure places and seem dull and heavy it signifieth a sudden Thaw The early appearance of Field-fares or other forreign Winter-fowl presageth a hard Winter Rooks Owls Jays or suchlike wilde Fowl frequenting a Town more than usual presage Mortality or Sickness to that place If the Heron soar high seemingly even to the Clouds it signifies Of the Heron. winde If the Heron stand melancholy on the Banks it signifies Rain If the Heron cry in the night as she flies it presageth Winde If the Kite soar high it signifies fair weather Of the Kite If they make more than ordinary noise or crying for Prey it presageth Rain If the Crow hath any interruption in her Note like the Hiccough Of the Crow or Croak with a kinde of swallowing it signifieth Winds and Rain Rooks or Crows gathering together in Flocks and forsaking their Meat signifie Rain The Raven or Crow Creeking clear and reiterating her Note signifies fair weather If Sparrows chirp earlier or more than usual it signifies Of Sparrows Winde and Rain If Jays gather together in Flocks it signifies Rain and tempestuous Of the Jay weather If Bats fly abroad after Sun-set it signifies fair weather Of Bats If Owls whoop at night it signifies fair weather Of the Owl The early singing of the Wood-lark signifies Rain Of the Wood-lark Of the Swallow If the Swallow fly low and near the waters it presageth Rain The coming of the Swallow is a true presage of the Spring If Cocks crow more than ordinary especially in the Evening Of the Cock. or if Poultry go early to Roost it signifies Rain SECT V. Of Observations and Prognosticks from Fishes and Insects If Porpises or other Sea-fish leap in a calm it signifies Winde Of Sea-Fish and Rain If great numbers of the Fry of Fish are generated in Lakes Of Fresh-water Fish or Ditches where Fish rarely come it presageth great scarcity of Corn or death of Cattle If Fish leap more than ordinary in Ponds or Rivers it presageth Windes and Rain Great quantities of Frogs small or great appearing at unusual Of Frogs times and in unusual places presage great Dearth of Corn or great Sicknesses to follow in that place where they appear The Croaking of Frogs more than usual in the Evening signifies Rain The early appearing of Snakes signifies a dry Spring and a Of Snakes hot Summer If they play much in the water it signifies Rain If the Ant brings forth her Eggs it presageth Rain Of Ants. If Bees fly not far but hover about home it presageth Rain Of Bees or if they make more haste home than ordinary a Storm is at hand If Gnats Flies or Fleas bite more keenly than at other times Of Gnats Flies and Fleas it signifies Rain If Gnats or Flies swarm or gather together in multitudes before Sun-set it presageth fair weather Swarms of Gnats or Flies in the morning signifie Rain If greater numbers of them appear more than ordinary it signifieth Sickness or Mortality to Man or Beast and also scarcity of Corn and Fruits The early appearance of these or any other Insects in the Spring presageth a hot and sickly Summer If the Spiders undo their Webs Tempests follow Of Spiders Si solvit Aranea casses Avien Mox tempestates nubila tetra cientur If Spiders fall from their Webs or from the walls it signifies Rain If strings like Spiders Webs appear in the Air it signifieth Winde If Spiders spin and weave their Nets much it presageth Winde The great appearances of Chaffers or other Insects although Chaffers c. they denote a present time of Plenty yet are they Omens of a future time of Scarcity and if in very great numbers of Mortality and Sickness to Man and Beast SECT VI. Promiscuous Observations and Prognosticks Leaves of Trees and Chaff playing or moving without any Of Trees and Vegetables sensible Gale or Breath of Winde and the Down or Wooll of Thistles and other Plants flying in the Air and Feathers dancing on the water presage Winde and sometimes Rain If the Herb Trefoyl close its leaves it foreshews Rain If the Oak bear much Mast it foreshews a long and hard Winter If Oak-apples ingender or breed Flies it is said to presage Plenty but if Spiders Scarcity If Trees bear but little Fruit it usually presageth Plenty and if much Scarcity But this Rule is not always certain If the Broom be full of Flowers it usually signifies Plenty The sudden growth of Mushrooms presageth Rain Et si nocturnis ardentibus undique testis Avienus Concrescunt fungi protinus Imbres If Coals of Fire shine very clear it presageth Winde Of Fire If the Fire in Chimneys burn whiter than usual and with a murmuring noise it denoteth Tempests If the Flame wave to and fro it signifieth Winde The same doth the Flame of a Candle Si flammis emicet ignis Avienus Effluus aut lucis substantia langueat ultro Protinus Imbres If Bunches like Mushrooms grow on the wick of the Candle or Lamp it presageth Rain If fire shine much or scald or burn more than ordinary it presageth cold the contrary denoteth the contrary If Wood crackle or breath more than usual in the fire it signifieth winde If Flame cast forth many sparkles it signifies the same If the Oyl in the Lamps sparkle it signifies Rain If Ashes coagulate or grow in lumps it signifies the same If the Fire in cold weather burn violently and make a noise like the treading of Snow it usually presageth Snow If Salt become moist it signifies Rain The same if the Rain Signs of Rain raise bubbles as it falls or if the
Experiments and Improvements they finde within their Province relating to this or any other Art within their Inquiry which particular Societies might annually impart such Collections Observations Experiments and Improvements that they have obtained to the Grand Society and from them also might Copies or Duplicates of the whole Collection be Annually transmitted to each Subordinate Society that any person may have a place near unto him for the discovery of his Observations Experiments Inventions or Improvements and that diligent industrious and ingenious persons may have recourse thereunto for the inquiry and search into the several Inventions Discoveries and Improvements of others by which means every person may have an opportunity to publish or discover his Observations Experiments c. which otherwise have been and will be for the most part with their Authors buried in Oblivion and every one may also have the like opportunity or advantage to search into or enquire after the several Ways Methods Inventions c. used or discovered in any other place of England of such things relating to this Society which of necessity must abundantly improve Science and Art and advance Agriculture and the Manufactures two of the Principal Supports of this Nation Wealth and Honour That the particular proceedings already made known of that most Illustrious Society and the more Universal much desired and expected from them next unto the Publick Peace and Tranquillity of the Nation are esteemed the only ways and means to promote Industry and Ingenuity to imploy our numerous People to cultivate our waste Lands to convert our barren Fields into fruitful Gardens and Orchards to make the Poor Rich and the Rich Honourable every man is willing to assist in so Universal a work unless those who thrive by others ruines VVe finde many have acted their parts and discovered to the World what they apprehended or had the experience of which though much short of what may be done yet have they not lost their Aim Many by their Rules Precepts Observations and Experiments have highly advanced this Noble Science of Agriculture But seeing some of those Treatises are relating to particular Countries or places or to some branch only or part of this our Subject and those also difficult to be obtained and many of them filled with old obsolete and impertinent directions and things and too voluminous for our Laborious Husbandman whom they principally concern I thought it no time ill spent in such times and hours as other necessary Affairs detain me not to collect such useful Observations Precepts Experiments and Discoveries which I finde dispers'd in the several Authors treating of this Subject and to reduce them into the following Method omitting such things as have been found to be useless false or meerly putative or conjectural or relating to other Climates and adding also such Discoveries Observations and Experiments as I have obtained from others and my self discovered and never before published by any You have here Epitomized the Substance and Marrow of all or most of the known Authors treating of this Subject or any part thereof and also such new and necessary Observations and Experiments as are for the benefit and improvement of our Country-habitations which I hope may gratifie such Readers as desire a work of this Nature until our Philosophers and Heroes of Science and Art handle the Plough and Spade and undertake the more Plenary Discovery and Description of these Rustick Operations which indeed require not only an experienced Hand but a judicious and ingenious Pen until when I hope this indigested Piece may finde a place in our Rural Libraries and then I shall willingly be the first that shall commit this to the Flames to give way for a better which that we may suddenly obtain is my earnest desire VALE A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS Contained in this TREATISE I. OF Husbandry and Improvements in general plainly discovering the Nature Reasons and Causes of Improvements and the growth of Vegetables II. Of the great benefits and advantages of Inclosing Lands III. Of Meadow and Posture-lands and the several ways of their Improvements either by Watering or Drowning or by Sowing or Propagating several sorts of extraordinary Grasses Hays c. IIII. Of Arable Land and Tillage and of the several Grains Pulses c. usually propagated by the Plough V. Of the Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Land VI. Of the benefit raising planting and propagating of all sorts of Timber-trees and other Trees useful either in Building or other Mechanick uses or for Fencing Fewel c. VII Of Fruit-Trees VIII Of such Tillage Herbs Roots and Fruits that are usually planted and propagated in Gardens Garden-grounds either for necessary food use or advantage IX Of several sorts of Beasts Fowls and Insects usually kept for the advantage and use of the Husbandman X. Of common and known External Injuries Inconveniencies Enemies and Diseases incident to and usually afflicting the Husbandman in most of the Ways or Methods of Agriculture before treated of and the several Natural and Artificial Remedies proposed and made use of for the prevention and removal of them XI Of the several sorts of Instruments Tools and Engines incident to this Profession of Agriculture and of some Amendments and profitable Experiments in Building either by Timber Stone Brick or any other way XII Of Fishing and Fowling XIII Kalendarium Rusticum Or Monethly Directions for the Husbandman XIV Of the Prognosticks of Dearth or Scarcity Plenty Sickness Heat Cold Frost Snow Winds Rain Hail Thunder c. XV. Dictionarium Rusticum Or The Interpretation of Rustick Terms c. THE ANALYSIS OR Summary of the Ensuing WORK THE Preface or Introduction in the praise of Husbandry CHAP. I. Of Husbandry and Improvements in General plainly discovering the Nature Reasons and Causes of Improvements and the Growth of Vegetables c. Fol. 1 What Agriculture is id Of the subject whereon the Husbandman bestows his labor id Of the Universal Spirit or Mercury 2 Of the Universal Sulphur id Of the Universal Salt 3 Of the true matter of Vegetables id Where Water or Spirit abounds 4 Where Fatness or Sulphur abounds 5 Where Salt abounds id Equal commixture of Principles 6 CHAP. II. Of the great Benefits and Advantages of Enclosing Lands 10 Enclosure an Improvement id Several Interests an Impediment 12 Highways an Impediment id Trees not thriving an Impediment id Dividing Land into small parcels an Improvement 13 Enclosure for watered Meadows not an Improvement id Wheat in enclosures subject to mildew 14 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. 15 Sect. 1. Of the watring of Meadows id Of Meadows watered by Floods 16 Of Meadows watered by diversion of Rivers id Hinderances to such diversion id Of Meadows watered by artificial Engines 17 Of the Persian Wheel 18 Of Wind-Engines for the raising water 19 What Windmils
are best for this work id Sect. 2. Principal Rules to be observed in drowning Lands 21 Cutting the main Carriage id Cutting the Lesser Carriages id Making the Drains id Times for watering 22 Manner of watering of Land by small Streams or Engines id Barren Springs not useful id Sect. 3. Of dry Meadow or Pasture improved id By Enclosure 23 By burning the rushy mossy ground id By stubbing up Shrubs c. id By Dunging or soyling 24 Time for soyling id Soyl for rushy and cold Land id For sandy or hot land id For other Meadows id Sect. 4. Of several new Species of Hay or Grass id Of the Clover-grass 25 Of the profit of Clover-grass id Best Land for Clover-grass id Quantity of Seed for an Acre 26 Time manner of sowing Clover-grass id Of cutting it for Hay and for Seed id Of pasturing or feeding Clover-grass 27 Of thrashing or ordering the Seed id Of St Foyn and the profits thereof 28 On what Land to sow it id Quantity of Seed on an Acre and manner of sowing of it id La Lucern 29 What ground it requires id Time and manner of sowing it id It s use id Sect. 5. Of some other Grasses or Hays id Esparcet id La Romain or French Tares or Vetches id Spurry-seed id Trefoyl 30 Long Grass in Wiltshire id Saxifrage id CHAP. IV. Of Arrable Land and Tillage and of the several Grains Pulses c. usually propagated by the Plough 31 Sect. 1. What Lands Improved by Tillage id Manner of Ploughing each sort 32 Clay stiff cold and moist id Rich and mellow Land 33 Poor and barren Land id Sect. 2. Of digging of Land for Corn 34 Sect. 3. Of the different Species of Grain Corn Pulse c. usually sown or necessary to be propagated in our Country-farm 35 Wheat id Barley 36 Rye 37 Massin id Oats id Buck-wheat or French-wheat id Other sorts of Grain id Pease id Beans 38 Fitches id Lentils id Lupines id Tares id Other Pulses id Sect. 4. Hemp and Flax 39 Impediments to the sowing of Hemp and Flax id Want of Trade an Impediment id Want of Experience id Tythes an Impediment id Hemp 40 Value of Hemp id Flax id Best Seed id Value of Flax 41 Sect. 5. Woad c. id To know when it is full ripe id Profit of Woad 42 Rape and Cole-seed id Profit thereof id Turneps id Sect. 6. Of the manner of setting Corn and the howing it in c. 43 Description of Mr. Grabriel Plat's Engine of setting Corn 44 The second Engine 45 Errors in this way 46 Howing of Corn commended id New Instrument for sowing of Corn 47 The more particular use and benefit of this Instrument 48 1 As to time 2 Equality of Seed 3 Rectification of the Feeder 4 No difference in driving fast or slow 5 No loss of Seed 6 Needs no harrowing General advantages of this Instrument 49 Another excellent advantage of this Instrument 50 Sect. 7. Of the general Uses of Corn Grain Pulse and other Seeds propagated by the Plough 51 Of Wheat id Of Barley id Of Rye id Of Oats id Of Pulses id Of the uses of Hemp-seed Flax-seed Rape and Cole-seed 52 Of the preservation of Corn id Sect. 8. Of the preparation of the Seed 53 Change of Seed an Improvement id Steeping of Corn in Dung-water and other preparations 54 55 56 CHAP. V. Of the Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Land 58 Sect 1. Of Burning of Land id On what Lands Burn-baiting is good 59 Manner of Burn-baiting id Sect. 2. Soyls and Manures taken from the Earth 61 Chalk id Lime id Marle 62 Fullers-Earth 63 Clay and Sand 64 Earth id Sect. 3. Soyls taken from the Sea or Water 65 Water-sand id Sea-weeds and Weeds in Rivers id Snayl Cod or Snag greet id Oyster-shells 66 Mud id Fish id Sect. 4. Of Dungs or excrementitious soils id Of Horse-dung id Of Cow or Ox-dung id Of Sheeps-dung 67 Of Swines-dung id Of the Dung of Fowl 68 Pigeons-dung id Poultry-dung id Goose-dung id Of Urines 69 Sect. 5. Of several other Soyls or Manures id Ashes id Soot 70 Salt id Rags id Hair 71 Malt-dust id Fern Straw Stubble c. id Bones Horns c. id Bark of Trees and old Earth in Trees id Urry id CHAP. VI. Of the Benefit Raising Planting and Propagating of all sorts of Timber-trees and other Trees useful either in Building or other Mechanick uses or for Feneing Fewel c. 72 Sect. 1. Of the benefit of propagating Timber-trees and other Trees in general id Particular advantages 73 More unniversal advantages 74 Sect. 2. Of Timber-trees in general 75 The Oak its propagation and use id The Elm 76 The Beech 78 The Ash 79 The Wallnut 80 The Chesnut id The Service 81 Sect. 3. Of several other Trees not so generally made use of for Timber as for Fewel Coppice-woods Hedge-rows c. 81 The Birch id The Maple 82 The Horn-beam id The Quick-beam id The Hasel id Sect. 4. Of Aquaticks or Trees affecting moist and watry places 83 The Poplar id The Aspen id The Abele id The Alder id The Withy id The Salley id Ofiers id Willow 84 Sect. 5. Of other Trees planted for Ornament or adorning Gardens Avenues Parks and other places adjoyning to your Mansion-house and convertible also to several uses 84 The Sycomore id The Lime-tree id The Horse Chesnut-tree 85 The Fir Pine Pinaster and Pitch-tree id The Larch Platanus and Lotus id The Cyprus 86 The Cedar id The Alaternus id The Phillyrea id The Bay-tree id The Laurel id The Eugh-tree id Privet id Sect. 6. Of Shrubs and other Trees less useful yet planted for Ornament and Delight 87 The Myrtle id The Box id Juniper id Tamarisk id Arbor Vitae id Some Flower-trees and other Trees of delight id Sect. 7. Of such Trees that are necessary and proper for Fencing and Enclosing of Lands Orchards Gardens c. And the best way of raising such Fences 88 The White-thorn id The Holly id Piracantha id The Black-thorn 89 The Elder id Furzes id The speediest way of planting a Quickset-Hedge id Another way id Of planting the Holly-Hedge id Preserving Hedges from Cattle id Weeding of Hedges id Plashing of Hedges id Sect. 8. Of the Nursery for the more convenient propagation of most of the fore-mentioned Trees 90 Trees produced of Seed id Preserving and preparation of the seed id Election of the seed 91 Place for a Nursery id Manner of sowing id Ordering of the Nursery id Sowing of a Coppice id Sect. 9. Of the transplantation of Trees 92 The time id Of such Trees that come of Slips Suckers c. id Time to slip or lay id The time for Aquaticks id Manner of transplanting id Watering of Trees 93