or after Meals Their pungent sharpness ought to be corrected as that of Cherries and Pomegranates or we may make them into a Sugar Paste or Gelly which is very proper for those who have the Stomach weakend by long Sicknesses and I have Cur'd many Persons of considerable quality who had this part very much afflicted by continual Vomitings and had a troublesome Loosness of the Belly by giving only a Paste or Gelly of Corands and of the moist conserve of Provins Roses In Imitation of the Turks during the great heats of the Summer we may make of the greatest part of the Fruits before spoken of a sort of Sherbet to be drank with Ice and I allow young Sanguine and bilous People who have known by experience that drinking with Ice does not incommode them I allow them I say to drink of it with prudence for allaying the excess of their heat This will be a sure means to hinder them from being set upon by continual and Malignant Fevers and to keep them in good Health during all the Summer and Autumn As for others who are of another temperament and of another Age they must not touch of it and they must remember that heat which we must not destroy is one of the Principles of our Life THE TABLE OF THE Chapters of the First PART THe Art of Pruning Fruit-trees Pag. 1 Chap. 1. The Pruning of Fruit-trees for the Month of February p. 2 Chap. 2. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the beginning of May. p. 31 Chap. 3. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the beginning of June p. 33 Chap. 4. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the end of July p 42 An Explanation of some words us'd by Gardiners to express themselves speaking of Fruit-trees p. 48 The end of the First Table THE TABLE OF THE SECOND PART OF the Vse of the Fruits of Trees for keeping us in Health or for Curing us when we are Sick Pag. 50 Chap. 1. Of the Fruits which ought to be eaten before Meals p. 59 Art 1. Of Figgs p. 60 Art 2. Of Nectarins and Peaches p. 65 Art 3. Of Plums and Apricocks p. 69 Art 4. Of Mulberries p. 71 Art 5. Of sharp Cherries p. 74 Chap. 2. Of the Fruits which ought to be eaten after Meals p. 78 Art 1. Of Pears p. 79 Art 2. Of Apples p. 83 Art 3. Of Quinces p. 87 Art 4. Of Medlars and Services p. 90 Chap. 3. Of the Fruits which may be eaten before and after Meals p. 93 Art 1. Of Raisins p. 94 Art 2. Of China and Portugal Oranges p. 98 Art 3. Of Spanish Pomegranates p. 100 Art 4. Of Corands p. 103 The end of Second Table A CATALOGUE of some Books Printed for and to be sold by Thomas Basset at the George in Fleet-street Folio DR Lightsoots Works in two Volumes Speeds Mapps and Geography of Great Brittain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Wanleys History of Man Bishop Wilkins Real Character Pharmacopeia Londinensis Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity Judge Jones Reports Judge Winches Book of Entries Guillims Heraldry Bishop Saudersons Sermons Foulis History of Romish Treasons Crokes Reports in three Volumes Daltons Offices of Sheriffs Justice of Peace Cokes Reports in 13 Parts Selden's Jani Anglorum in English Lex Mercatoria Mezerays History of France Cowels Interpreter Enlarged by Manley Littleton's Reports Dr. Howels History of the World Grotius of War and Peace English Townsends Historical Collections Pharamond Heaths Chronicle Pettus of Mines and Minerals History of the Cariby Islands Brents History of France Browns Entries in two Parts Sir Roger Manly's History of the Wars of Denmark Lord Bridgmans Conveyances Lord Cokes 2d 3d. and 4th Institutes Huttons Reports with New References Modern Reports Leys Reports Hetleys Reports The Ten Volumes of Year Books with New References Edward the Second Published by Serjeant Maynard Officina Brevium A Catalogue of all the Common and Statute Law-Books of this Realm to this present Year 1684. Quarto Dr. Littletons Dictionary the Second Edition Gouldmans Dictionary Coles Dictionary Mieges French Dictionary The Travels of the Patriarchs A Discourse of the Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical Doctrina Placitandi Moyles Entries Compleat Clerk Dr. Parker of the Law of Nature Sheppards Grand Abridgment Dr. Haywards two Sermons before the King A Collection of the Cases relating to Church Communion Written by several Ministers in and about London Counter-Scuffle Mandevils Travels History of the Seven Champions Dr. Sherlocks Sermon on the Discovery of the Plot. The Difference of the Case between the separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome and the separation of Dissenters from the Church of England Medicina Curiosa Octavo Mieges French Dictionary The London Practice of Physick being the whole Practick Part of Dr Willis's Works Dr. Salmons Dispensatory his Doron Medicum Several Tracts of Mr. Hales of Eaton Bishop Sandersons Life Coles Dictionary Latin and English Bishop Wilkins Sermons never before Extant Principles and Duty of Natural Religion Filmers Patriarcha Mieges French Grammar with a Vo cabu lary and Dialogues short French Grammar Mieges Present State of Denmark Cosmography Berniers Travels Art how to know Men. Pools English Parnassus Dr. Whitby of Idolatry Dr. Hinckley and Mr. Baxters Letters Sheppards Actions for Slander Action on the Case for Deeds Blounts Antient Tenures Compleat Solicitor entring Clerk and Attorney Touchstone for Gold and Silver Pettyt's Rights of the Commons Miscellanies The Egyptian History Atwoods Jani Anglorum facies Nova Sir John Pettus of the Constitutions of Parliaments Russian Impostor Ogilbys Aesops Fables with Cuts Lawrence's Interest of Ireland A New Book of Instruments French Monarchy Anglers vade Meum Scarons Novels Meriton of Dreams Clerks Tutor Brown of Fines and Recoveries Kitchin Physick Posing of the Parts Duodecimo Heylins help to History Lukins Chief Interest of Man Help to Discourse Mothers Blessing Grotius de veritate Relig. Christ Bishop Lauds Devotions Ladys Calling Vaughan of Coins and Coynage Meritons Guide for Constables Landlords Law Phillips Principles of the Law Manwaring of Consumptions Catalogue of Law Books Pharniacopeia Londoniensis Butlers Rhetoric Lucians Dialogues Greek and Latin Tullies Select Epistles FINIS
THE ART of Pruning Fruit-Trees WITH AN EXPLANATION Of some Words which Gardiners make use of in speaking of Trees AND A TRACT Of the Use of the FRUITS of TREES For preserving us in Health or for Curing us when we are Sick Translated from the French Original set forth the last Year by a Physician of Rochelle London Printed for Tho. Basset at the George near St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1685. THE APPROBATION OF THE Colledge-Royal Of Physicians at ROCHELLE WE subsign'd Doctors of Physick of the Colledge-Royal of this Town and deputed by our Company to Read and Examine a Book Compos'd by one of our Fellows which has for Title Of the use of the Fruits of Trees do certify that there is nothing in it which is not conformable to good Physick In Testimony of which we have subsign'd this Approbation at Rochelle the 8th of March 1683. Chauvet Arault Censors of the said Colledge THE PREFACE THere are Persons who perswade themselves that its a crime to add any thing to Antiquity and who say That nothing can be invented of new more than what the Ancients have said and that it is a vain Glory and Presumption to imagine we can say any thing which has not been written But if it were free for me to Answer this Opinion I would say That Arts are not of those things to which nothing can be added and that the Older the World grows the more they are carryed on to perfection Anatomy did not appear in so great a Luster in the Time of Galen as in our Days and the Art of Pruning Fruit-trees was not so perfect in the Time of the Curate of Henonville as at present We are like a Dwarf on a Giants shoulders We see much farther than our Fathers and we daily discover things which they knew not I will not say for this that there are not any precepts or Rules found for Fruning Trees in the Books of Agriculture and Gardening which have been Printed within Twenty or Five and Twenty Years I candidly own that there are some but in truth they are so few in Number and the greatest part so obscure and so little to be rely'd on that I very much doubt whether they may be followed without committing faults If on the contrary you stick to those which I give in this Tract many Years experience has assur'd me that Trees Prun'd according to the Rules which I Establish will produce great Fruits in abundance I have therefore reduc't The Art of Pruning Fruit-Trees into four Chapters and I have caus'd seven Figures to be Grav'd which I Judg'd necessary for the understanding of what I say The first Chapter Treats of Pruning Trees in the Month of February The second explains that of the beginning of May. The third teaches the Pruning at the end of May and the beginning of June Lastly the Fourth comprises the Pruning of July I thought fit to reduce this Book into a form of precepts without forming a continued Discourse because often we have need of one precept without having need of another and I have writ it after so popular a manner that the most Illiterate Gardiners might comprehend what I would say Opus arduum nova Conscribere Inaudita edocere Insolentia praeceptis firmare magis arduum aliquid Antiquitati addere THE Art of Pruning OR Lopping Fruit-Trees I Suppose that a Tree has been well Planted and set in a fertile Soil that the Root of it has been well cut that good choice has been made of the Plant and of its kind and that it has some years Growth to be able to endure the Pruning-knife CHAP. I. The Pruning or Lopping of Fruit-trees for the Month of February ALmost all Trees begin to sprout forth in France toward the end of February or the beginning of March and this is the motion which we call the rise of the Sap or the shooting of Trees This nevertheless happens variously the disposition of the Air the goodness of the Soil the vigour or the kind of the Tree make the Saps or shootings to come earlier or later They come early in a dry year and are backward in a moist This rise of the Sap invites then Gardiners to Prune or Lop Trees in the Month of February which is the most proper time for this work and tho' it may be done all the Winter however the Moon be dispos'd Trees being then at rest as to their Branches nevertheless it is much better to stay for this till the Colds are past and that the Rains no longer infest the wounds which are made on Trees by this means they seal themselves in a little time and soonner cover the wound which has been made on them Before you Prune or Lop a Tree you ought to consider the strength and kind of it for rendring it beautiful and fertile for all Trees are not to be Lopt after the same fashion We Lop diverly for instance a Peach-Tree and a Winter Pear-Tree and it s by Lopping of this last that the skill of the Gardiner shews it self the most conspicuously and that we judge best of his ability There are Trees which we dare not Lop by reasonof the abundance of their Sap for the more we Lop them the more Wood they shoot forth and the less Fruit even the Flower-buds yield Wood which happens often to the Tree which yields the delicate Pear call'd the little Rousselet to the lateward Bergamot to the Virgoleuse to the St. Lezan c. But when these sorts of Trees have shot forth their full after this they bear but too much In this occasion Lop sometimes short and sometimes long or not at all take away sometimes the young Wood and preserve the old another while cut away the old for the Tree to grow young again at another time cut away the Branches and all the false Sprouts but remember never to disgarnish the Stock by Lopping away all the little Branches of the sides of the Tree and making the Trunk bare Gardiners have a very true Maxim Lop in fair Weather in the decrease of the Moon and in the end of the Saps or rather when Trees are at rest The decrease of the Moon of January which happens in February is the true time for Lopping Trees and for preserving Grafts not but this Rule has some exception for weak Trees and those that are Planted but of that year ought to be Lopt at the new Moon to make them sprout vigorously And we must remember that Trees ought not to be cut when we Plant them but we ought to stay till the Month of February following When you Plant a Graft of three years which has Flower-buds preserve some to see the Fruit in the first year It is of these sorts of Trees that you must always make choice they shew from their beginning an assured fruitfulness and bear afterward a great deal of Fruit as long as they live Because it is known that an abundance of Sap makes but Branches
Peaches being of a substance to be soon digested and to pass off quickly and the Pears of a pretty firm matter requiring more time to Concoct two great inconveniencies follow the first that the Peaches trouble the Belly and make the Food taken at the Meal to descend without being fully digested the second that they hastily drag along with them the Pears which require a longer time for digestion and thus there comes of it but crudities and afterward obstructions which are the cause of some troublesome Disease It is not the same when we eat before Meals Mulberries and Peaches or after Meals Pears and Quinces the two first Fruits and the two last have a matter and qualities near alike the former pass quickly through the Belly by reason of their great humidity and the later digest themselves afterward at leasure by constringing after the Meal the superior Orifice of the Stomach which by this means acquits it self much better of its office CHAP. I. Of Fruits which ought to be eaten before Meals I Say in the first place that good Fruit which are Ripe never do hurt unless we misuse them or commit faults in eating them there are none but ill and unripe Fruit which cause Crudities Indigestions Colicks and Fevers I say much more experience daily teaches us that by the moderate use of them we prevent an infinite number of Diseases and that we Cure as many Our Gardens fail not of Remedies to relieve us and I wonder we go so far into Forrein Countrys to seek for Drogues which are musty or rotten when they are brought to us since we have so excellent at home Our Fruits have many more Vertues and Charms than all those Drogues and there are seen few Persons who refuse Peaches Mulberrys or Pears to appease the burning of the Bowels Whereas we daily see Persons have in horror Tamarinds Cassia Rhubarb and the other Drogues which are brought us from so far Because I am oblig'd to follow the Order which I have prescribed to my self I shall treat in this Chapter of the good use of those Fruits which ought to be eaten at Break-fast or before Meals and I shall begin with Figgs which among all Fruits have always been the most esteem'd ART I. Of Figgs AMong all the Food wherewith Men nourish'd themselves at the beginning of the World there is not one which deserves a greater praise than Figgs The Ancients have made Encomiums on them in many of their Books and the Lacedemonians so far esteem'd them that they would never go to any Feast where they were not provided in a great plenty Also some have compar'd them to Gold nay have esteem'd them far better than this Mettal It s doubtless by reason of their sugary sweetess which is the Symbol of peace that men formerly wisht their Friends a happy year by sending them at the beginning of it Figgs and Honey In truth they have admirable Vertues in Case they are eaten with Bread for Break-fast or before Meals For it is thus that they qualifie the Bowels and that they appease the excess of a troublesome heat They do not fail of producing other good effects they quench drought lenify the Breast and give a more easy respiration They clear the Liver and the Spleen of the Obstructious wherewith they are afflicted They discharge the Reins and the Bladder of their slime and Gravel They loosen the Belly be it never so tardy finally they nourish and fatten both together witness the famous Wrastlers who perform'd most couragiously when they liv'd but of Bread and Figgs Witness also the Keepers of Figg-Gardens who according to the Relation of Galen ate in a manner nought but Figgs and who in the mean while were so fat that a man would have said that nothing was wanting to them in their way of living Figgs also have this peculiar to them that they contribute to the vigour of young People and to the Health of such as are Old so that those who use of them often have no Wrinkles in their Face A better Reason cannot be given than that Figgs by their fat substance engender a Blood which dulcifies much and this same matter being carried to the superficies of the Body is there clear'd as well as the Blood of all its serous and superfluous excrements so that what remains serves as a natural Paint and renders the Face smooth and free from all sorts of Wrinkles After all they have the property of Penetrating Cleansing and Digesting for no man doubts but they are hot in the first degree and moist in the second the great humidity they have make them soon corrupt and obliges us to eat them with Bread before Meals for its the Leaven of the Bread which corrects all the ill qualities It s a Maxim among Physicians That we ought always to begin with the things that are moistest and easiest of digestion when we Dine or when we Sup. And this is also another That after Fruits that are Sweet and Luscious and which withall pass quickly through the Belly we ought rather to Drink pure Water or Water mixt with a little Wine than Wine alone Pure Wine carrys hastily into the Lacteal Veins the matter of the Figgs before it be digested and so causes winds and Indigestions in those who so do Whereas Water is the cause of a slower fermentation by the means of which the Figgs are perfectly digested and make afterward a very laudable Blood which easily becomes our substance They are not proper only for such as are in Health but likewise for those who have a Fever and are costive and I cannot imagine to my self that a Learned Physitian can refuse his Patient a Figg half dryed on the Tree by the heat of the Sun Dry Figgs have much more Vertue than those which we gather we may eat of them ev'n after Meals without offence also they are more penetrating and hotter than the others through the subtilty of their parts but they are not so moist If they are apply'd in the form of a Cataplasm with Bread and a little Vinegar haply they are the quickest and most certain remedy for opening an abscess for killing a Carbuncle or the swelling of the Kings-Evil or lastly to withstand the progress of a Latent Cancer They do much more if we will believe Dioscorides for they tear from the Flesh as we may say a piece of a Bone broken if we mix them with wild Popy Flowers The German Physicians have not found a better remedy in the Small-pox or Measles than the decoction of these Fruits dry experience has shewn them that this decoction by Purging by Urine carrys away all the Malignant serosity which is the cause of those troublesome Diseases But among all the good qualities which these Fruits enjoy there are observ'd some ill they cause Winds which swell the Stomach they breed Lice and makes us fond in caressing Women The Spirits irritated and set in motion by the Winds which