more in ten or twelve years than all other imaginable Plantations accompanied with our usual neglect can do in forty or fifty 10. To conclude in the time of this Work would our ingenious Arborator frequently incorporate mingle and unite the Arms and Branches of some young and flexible Trees which grow in consort and neer to one another by entring them into their mutual barks with a convenient insition This especially about Fields and Hedge-rows for Fence and Ornament also by bowing and bending of others especially Oak and Ash into various flexures curbs and postures oblig'd to ply themselves into different Modes which may be done by humbling and binding them down with tough bands and wit hs or hooks rather cut Skrew-wise or slightly hagled and indented with a knife and so skrewed into the ground till the tenor of the sap and custom of being so constrain'd did render them apt to grow so of themselves without power of redressing This course would wonderfully accommodate Materials for Knee-timber and Shipping the Wheel-wright and other uses conform it to their Moulds and save infinite labour and abbreviate the work of hewing and waste adeo in teneris consuescere multum est the Poet it seems knew it well and for what purposes When in the woods with mighty force they bow The Elme and shape it to a crooked plow Continuò in Sylvis magna vi flexa domatur In burim curvi formam accipit Vlmus aratri Geo. 1. so as it even half made it to their hands CHAP. XXX Of the Age Stature and Felling of Trees 1. IT is not till a Tree is arriv'd to his perfect Age and full vigor that the Lord of the Forest should consult or determine concerning a Felling For there is certainly in Trees as in all things else a time of Increment or growth a Status or season when they are at best which is also that of Felling and a decrement or period when they decay To the first of these they proceed with more or less velocity as they consist of more strict and compacted particles or are of a slighter and more laxed contexture by which they receive a speedier or slower defluction of Aliment This is apparent in Box and Willow the one of a harder the other of a more tender substance But as they proceed so they likewise continue By the state of Trees I would signifie their utmost effort growth and maturity which are all of them different as to time and kind yet do not I intend by this any period or instant in which they do not continually either Improve or Decay the end of one being still the beginning of the other but farther than which their Natures do not extend but immediately though to our senses imperceptibly through some infirmity to which all things sublunary be obnoxious dwindle and impair either through Age defect of Nourishment by sicknesse and decay of principal parts but especially and more inevitably when violently invaded by mortal and incurable Infirmities or by what other extinction of their native heat substraction or obstruction of Air and Moisture which making all motions whatsoever to cease and determine is the cause of their final destruction 2. Our honest Countrey-man to whose Experience we have been obliged for something I have lately Animadverted concerning the Pruning of Trees does in another Chapter of the same Treatise speak of the Age of Trees The Discourse is both learned rational and full of encouragement For he does not scruple to affirm That even some Fruit-Trees may possibly arrive to a thousand years of Age and if so Fruit-Trees whose continual bearing does so much impair and shorten their lives as we see it does their form and beauty How much longer might we reasonably imagine some hardy and slow-growing Forest-trees may probably last I remember Pliny tells us of some Oaks growing in his time in the Hercynian Forest which were thought coâ—evous with the World it self their roots had even raised Mountains and where they encounter'd swell'd into goodly Arches like the Gates of a City But our more modern Author's calculation for Fruit-trees I suppose he means Pears Apples c. his allowance is three hundred years for growth as much for their stand as he terms it and three hundred for their Decay which does in the total amount to no lesse than nine hundred years This conjecture is deduc'd from Apple-Trees growing in his Orchard which having known for fourty years and upon diligent enquiry of sundry aged Persons of eighty years and more who remembred them Trees all their time he finds by comparing their growth with others of that kind to be far short in bigness and perfection viz. by more then two parts of three yea albeit those other Trees have been much hindered in their stature through ill government and mis-ordering 3. To establish this he assembles many Arguments from the age of Animals whose state and decay double the time of their increase by the same proportion If then saith he those fraile Creatures whose bodies are nothing in a manner but a tender rottennesse may live to that age I see not but a Tree of a solid substance not damnified by heat or cold capable of and subject to any kind of ordering or dressing feeding naturally and from the beginning disburthen'd of all superfluities eased of and of his own accord avoiding the causes that may annoy him should double the life of other Creatures by very many years He proceeds What else are Trees in comparison with the Earth but as hairs to the body of Man And it is certain that without some distemper or forcible cause the hairs dure with the body and are esteem'd excrements but from their superfluous growth So as he resolves upon good Reason that fruit-Fruit-trees well ordered may live a thousand years and bear Fruit and the longer the more the greater and the better for which an Instance also in Dr. Beale's Herefordshire Orchards pag. 21 22. because his vigour is proud and stronger when his years are many Thus shall you see old Trees put forth their Buds and Blossoms both sooner and more plentifully than young Trees by much And I sensibly perceive saith he my young Trees to enlarge their Fruit as they grow greater c. And if Fruit-Trees continue to this Age how many Ages is it to be supposed strong and huge Timber-Trees will last whose massie bodies require the years of divers Methusela's before they determine their days whos 's Sap is strong and bitter whose Bark is hard and thick and their substance solid and stiff all which are defences of health and long life Their strength withstands all forceable Winds their Sap of that quality is not subject to Worms and tainting their Bark receives seldom or never by casualty any wound and not only so but he is free from Removals which are the death of millions of Trees whereas the Fruit-tree in comparison is little and frequently blown down his Sap sweet
coming to their Estates and as soon as they get Children they would seriously think of this Work of Propagation also For I observe there is no part of Husbandry which men commonly more Fail in neglect and have cause to repent of than that they did not begin Planting betimes without which they can expect neither Fruit Ornament or Delight from their Labours Men seldom Plant Trees till they begin to be Wise that is till they grow Old and find by Experience the Prudence and Necessity of it My next Advice is that they do not easily commit themselves to the Dictates of their ignorant Hinds and Servants who are generally speaking more fit to Learn than to Instruct Male agitur cum Domino quem Villicus docet was an Observation of old Cato's and 't was Ischomachus who told Socrates discoursing one day upon a like subject That it was far easier to Make than to Find a good Husband-man I have often prov'd it so in Gardeners and I believe it will hold in most of our Countrey Employments We are to exact Labour not Conduct and Reason from the greatest part of them and the business of Planting is an Art or Science for so Varro has solemnly defin'd it and that exceedingly wide of Truth which it seems many in his time accounted of it facillimam esse nec ullius acuminis Rusticationem an easie and insipid Study It was the simple Culture onely with so much difficulty retriv'd from the late confusion of an intestine and bloody War like Ours and now put in Reputation again which made the noble Poet write How hard it was Low Subjects with illustrious words to grace Verbis ea vincere magnum Quam sit angustis hanc addere rebus honorem Georg. 3. Seeing as the Orator does himself expresse it Nihil est homine libero dignius there is nothing more becoming and worthy of a Gentleman It was indeed a plain man a Potter by Trade but let no body despise him because a Potter Agathocles and a King was of that Craft who in my Opinion has given us the true reason why Husbandry and particularly Planting is no more improv'd in this Age of ours especially where Persons are Lords and Owners of much Land The truth is sayes he when men have acquired any considerable Fortune by their good Husbandry and experience forgetting that the greatest Patriarchs Princes their Sons and Daughters belong'd to the Plough and the Flock they account it a shame to breed up their Children in the same Calling in which they themselves were educated but presently design them for Gentlemen They must forsooth have a Coat of Arms and live upon their Estates So as by that time his Beard grows he begins to be asham'd of his Father and would be ready to defie him that should upon any occasion mind him of his honest Extraction And if it chance that the good-man have other Children to provide for This must be the Darling be bred at School and the Vniversity whilst the rest must to Plow with the Father c. This is the Cause says my Authour that our Lands are so ill Cultivated Every body will subsist upon their own Revenue and take their Pleasure whilst they Resign their Estates to be manag'd by the most Ignorant which are the Children whom they leave at home or the Hinds to whom they commit them When as in truth and in reason the more Learning the better Philosophers and the greater Abilities they possesse the more and the better are they qualified to Cultivate and improve their Estates Methinks this is well and rationally argued And now you have in part what I had to produce in extenuation of this my Adventure that Animated with a Command and Assisted by divers Worthy Persons whose Names I am prone to celebrate with all just Respects I have presumed to cast in my Symbol and which with the rest that are to follow may I hope be in some degree serviceable to him who e're the happy Person be which shall oblige the World with that compleat Systeme of Agriculture which as yet seems a desiderate and wanting to its perfection It is I assure you what is one of the Principal Designs of the ROYAL SOCIETY not in this Particular only but through all the Liberal and more useful Arts and for which in the estimation of all equal Judges it will merit the greatest of Encouragements that so at last what the Learned Columella has wittily reproach'd and complain'd of as a defect in that Age of his concerning Agriculture in general and is applicable here may attain its desired Remedy and Consummation in This of Ours Sola enim Res Rustica quae sine dubitatione proxima quasi consanguinea Sapientiae est tam discentibus eget quam magistris Adhuc in Scholis Rhetorum Geometrarum Musicorumque Vel quod magis mirandum est contemptissimorum vitiorum officinas gulosius condiendi cibos luxuriosius sercula struendi capitumque capillorum concinnatores non solum esse audivi sed ipse vidi Agricolationis neque Doctores qui se profiterentur neque Discipulos cognovi But this I leave for our Gallants to Interpret and should now apply my self to the Directive Part which I am all this while bespeaking if after what I have said in the several Paragraphs of the ensuing Discourse upon the Argument of Wood and which in this Second Edition coming Abroad with innumerable Improvements to at the least a full-half Augmented and that with such Advantages as I am not afraid to pronounce it almost altogether a New-Work so furnish'd as I hope shall neither reproach the Author or repent the Reader it might not seem superfluous to have praemised any thing here for the Encouragement of so becoming an Industry There are divers Learned and judicious Men who have praeceded Me in this Argument as many at least as have undertaken to Write and Compile vast Herbals and Theaters of Plants of which we have some of our own Country-men who have I dare boldly affirm it surpass'd any if not all the Forriners that are extant In Those it is you meet with the Description of the several Plants by Discourses Figures Names Places of Growth time of Flourishing and their Medicinal Virtues which may supply any deficiency of mine as to those Particulars if the forbearing that Repetition should by any be imputed for a defect though it were indeed none of my designe I say these things are long since performed to our hands But there is none of these that I at least know of and are come to my perusal who have taken any considerable pains how to Direct and Encourage us in the Culture of Forest-Trees the grand defect of this Nation besides some small sprinklings to be met withal in Gervas Markham Old Tusser and the Country-Farm long since Translated out of French and by no means suitable to our clime and Country Neither have any
over them and watering them when need requires Being risen an inch above ground refreshed and preserved from the scraping of Birds and Poultry comfort the tender seedlings by a second siefting of more sine earth to establish them thus keep them clean weeded for the first two years or till being of fitting stature to remove you may thin and Transplant them in the same manner as you were directed for young Oaks only they shall nâ—t need above one cutting where they grow lesse regular and hopeful But because this is an Experiment of some curiosity obnoxious to many casualties and that the producing them from the Mother-roots of greater Trees is very facile and expeditious besides the numbers which are to be found in the Hedge-rows and Woods of all plantable sizes I rather advise our Forester to furnish himself from those places 3. The Suckers which I speak of are produced in abundance from the Roots whence being dextrously separated after the Earth has been well loosned and planted about the end of October they will grow very well Nay the stubs onely which are left in the ground after a felling being fenced in as far as the Roots extend will furnish you with plenty which may be transplanted from the first year or two successively by slipping them from the Roots which will continually supply you for many years after that the body of the Mother-tree has been cut down And from hence probably is sprung that I fear mistake of Salmasius and others where they write of the growing of their Chips I suppose having some of the Bark on scattered in hewing of their Timber the Errour proceeding from this that after an Elm-tree has been fell'd the numerous Suckers which shoot from the remainders of the latent Roots seem to be produced from this dispersion of the Chips Let this yet be more accurately examined for I pronounce nothing Magisterially since it is so confidently reported 4. I have known Stakes sharpned at the ends for other purposes take root familiarly in moist grounds and become Trees and divers have essay'd with extraordinary success the trunchions of the Boughs and Arms of Elms cut to the scantling of a mans arm about an ell in length These must be chopp'd on each side opposite and laid into trenches about half a foot deep covered about two or three fingers deep with good mould The season for this work is towards the exit of January or early in February if the Frosts impede not and after the first year you may cut or saw the trunchions off in as many places as you find cause and as the shoots and rooted Sprouts will direct you for transplantation Another expedient for the propagation of Elms is this let trenches be sunk at a good distance viz. twenty or thirty yards from such Trees as stand in Hedge-rows and in such order as you desire your Elms should grow where these gutters are many young Elms will spring from the small roots of the adjoyning Trees divide after one year the shoots from their Mother-roots which you may dextrously do with a sharp spade These transplanted will prove good Trees without any damage to their Progenitors Or do thus Lop a young Elm the lop being about three years growth do it in the latter end of March when the Sap begins to creep up into the Boughs and the Buds ready to break out cut the Boughs into lengths of four foot slanting leaving the knot where the bud seems to put forth in the middle Interr these short pieces in trenches of three or four inches deep and in good mouâ—d well trodden and they will infallibly produce you a Crop for even the smallest Suckers of Elms will grow being set when the Sap is newly stirring in them There is yet a fourth way no lesse expeditious and frequently confirmed with excellent successe Bare some of the Master-roots of a vigorous Tree within a foot of the Trunk or thereabouts and with your Ax make several Chops putting a small stone into every clest to hinder their closure and give accesse to the wet then cover them with three or four inch thick of Earth and thus they will send forth Suckers in abundance I assure you one single Elm thus well ordered is a fair Nursery which after two or three years you may separate and plant in the Vlmarium or place designed for them and which if it be in Plumps as they call them within ten or twelve foot of each other or in Hedge-rows it will be the better For the Elm is a Tree of Consort Sociable and so affecting to grow in Company that the very best which I have ever seen do almost touch one another This also protects them from the Winds and causes them to shoot of an extraordinary height so as in little more than forty years they even arrive to a load of Timber provided they be sedulously and carefully cultivated and the Soil propitious For an Elm does not thrive so well in the Forest as where it may enjoy scope for the Roots to dilate and spread at the sides as in Hedge-rows and Avenues where they have the Air likewise free 5. There is besides these sorts we have named one of a more Scabrous harsh leaf but very large which becomes an huge Tree and is distinguished by the name of the Witch-hazel in our Statute Books as serving formerly to make long Bowes of but the Timber is not so good as the first more vulgar but the Bark at time of year will serve to make a course bast-rope with 6. Of all the Trees which grow in our Woods there is none which does better suffer the Transplantation then the Elm for you may remove a tree of twenty years growth with undoubted successe It is an Experiment I have made in a Tree almost as big more as my waste but then you must totally disbranch him leaving onely the Summit intire and being careful to take him up with as much Earth as you can refresh him with abundance of water This is an excellent and expeditious way for great Persons to plant the Accesses of their Houses with for being disposed at sixteen or eighteen foot interval they will in a few years bear goodly heads and thrive to admiration Some that are very cautious emplaster the wounded head of such over-grown Elms with a mixture of clay and horse-dung bound about them with a wisp of Hay or fine Moss and I do not reprove it provided they take care to temper it well so as the Vermine nestle not in it But for more ordinary plantations younger Trees which have their bark smooth and tender about the scantling of your leg and their heads trimm'd at five or six foot height are to be preferr'd before all other Cato would have none of these sorts of Trees to be removed till they are five or six fingers in diameter others think they cannot take them too young but experience the best Mistriss tells us that you can hardly plant
that sort so elegantly undulated and crisped into variety of curles It were a most laudable attempt if some would enquire out and try the planting of such sorts as are not Indigenes amongst us such as is especially the German Aire and that of Virginia not yet cultivated here but an excellent Tree And if this were extended to other Timber and exotic Trees likewise it would prove of extraordinary benefit and Ornament to the Publick and were worthy even of the Royal Care They are all produced of the Keys like the Ash and like to it affect a sound and a dry mould growing both in Woods and Hedge-rows especially in the latter which if rather hilly then low affords the fairest Timber By shreding up the boughs to a head I have caused it to shoot to a wonderful height in a little time but if you would lop it for the fire let it be done in January The timber is far superiour to Beech for all uses of the Turner who seeks it for Dishes Cups Trays Trenchers c. as the Joyner for Tables Inlayings and for the delicateness of the grain when the knurs and nodosities are rarely diapred which does much advance its price Also for the lightness under the name Ayer imploy'd often by those who make Musical Instruments But there is a larger sort which we call the Sycomor 2. But the description of this lesser Maple and the ancient value of it is worth the citing Acer operum elegantiâ subtilitate Cedro secundum plura ejus genera Album quod praecipui candoris vocatur Gallicum In Transpadana Italia tránsque Alpes nascens Alterum genus crispo macularum discursu qui cùm excellentior fuit à similitudine caudae pavonum nomen accepit The Maple says Pliny for the elegancy and fineness of the wood is next to the very Cedar it self There are several kinds of it especially the White which is wonderfully beautiful this is call'd the French Maple and grows on that part of Italy that is on the other side of Po beyond the Alpes The other has a curl'd grain so curiously maculated that from a neer resemblance it was usually cal'd the Peacocks-tayl c. He goes on to commend that of Istria and that growing on the Mountains for the best But in the next chapter Pulcherrimum vero est Bruscum multóque excellentius etiamnum Mollusculum tuber utrumque arboris ejus Bruscum intortiùs crispum Mollusculum simplicius sparsum Et si magnitudinem mensarum caperet haud dubiè praeferretur Cedro nunc intrà pugillares lectorúmque silicios aut laminas c. è Brusco fiunt mensae nigrescentes c. Plin. l. 16. c. 15 16. The Bruscum or Knur is wonderfully fair but the Molluscum is counted most precious both of them Knobs and swellings out of the Tree The Bruscum is more intricately crisp'd the Molluscum not so much and had we Trees large enough to saw into Planks for Tables 't would be preferr'd before Cedar or Citron for so some Copies read it but now they use it onely for small Table-books and with its thin boards to Wainscot Bed-Testers with c. The Bruscum is of a blackish kind with which they make Tables Thus far Pliny And such spotted Tables were the famous Tigrin and Pantherine Curiosities of not so call'd from being supported with figures carved like those Beasts as some conceive and was in use even in our Grandfathers dayes but from its natural Spots and maculations such a Table was that of Cicero's which cost him 10000. Sesterces that of King Juba sold for 15000. and another which I read of valu'd at 140000 H.S. which at about 3 d. sterling arives to a pretty Summ and yet that of the Mauritanian Ptolomie was far richer containing four Foot and an half diameter three Inches thick which is reported to have been sold for its weight in Gold Of that value they were and so madly luxurious the age that when they at any time reproach'd their Wives for their wanton Expensivenesse in Pearl and other rich trifles they were wont to retort and turn the Tables upon their Husbands The Knot of the Timber was the most esteem'd and is said to be much resembled by the Female Cypress we have now I am almost perswaded as beautiful Planks of some Wallnut-trees neer the Root and of Eugh Ivy Rose-wood and Olive I have seen incomparable pieces but the great Art was in the Seasoning and Politure for which last the rubbing with a Mans hand who came warm out of the Bath was accounted better then any Cloth as Pliny reports Some there be who contend this Citern was a part neer the Root of the Cedar which as they describe that is very Oriental and Oderiferous but most of the Learned favour the Citern and that it grew not far from our Tangier about the foot of Mount Atlas when haply some industrious Person might procure of it from the Moors and I have not forgotten to put his Excellency my Lord H. Howard in mind of it who will have all the opportunities of satisfying our Curiosity that by comparing it with those elegant Woods both our own Countreys and the Indies furnish we might pronounce something in the Controversie Here I think good to add what honest Palissy Philosophises after his plain manner about the reason of those pretty undulations and chamfers which we so frequently find in diverse Woods which he takes to be the descent as well as ascent of Moisture For what else sayes he becomes of that water which we often encounter in the Cavities when many branches divaricate and spread themselves at the tops of great Trees especially Pollards unlesse according to its natural appetite it sink into the very Body of the Stem through the Pores For example in the Wall-nut you shall find when 't is old that the Wood is admirably figur'd and as it were marbl'd and therefore much more esteemed by the Joyners Cabinet-makers c. then the Young which is paler of Colour and without any notable Grain as they call it For the Rain distilling along the Branches when many of them break out into clusters from the stem sinks in and is the Cause of these marks since we find it exceedingly full of pores Do but Plane off a thin chip or sliver from one of these old Trees and interposing it 'twixt your Eye and the Light you shall observe it to be full of innumerable holes much more perspicuous and ample by the application of a good Microscope But above all notable for these extravagant Damaskings and Characters is the Maple and 't is notorious that this Tree is very full of Branches from the Root to its very Summit by reason that it produces no considerable Fruit These Arms being frequently cut the Head is more surcharged with them which spreading like so many Raies from a Center form that hollownesse at the top of the Stem whence they shoot capable of containing a good quantity of
Water every time it Raines This sinking into the pores as was before hinted is compell'd to divert its course as it passes through the Body of the Tree where-ever it encounters the knot of any of those Branches which were cut off from the stem because their Roots not onely deeply penetrate towards the heart but are likewise of themselves very hard and impervious and the frequent obliquity of this Course of the subsiding moisture by reason of these obstructions is as may be conceived the cause of those curious works which we find remarkable in this and other woods whose Branches grow thick from the Stem We have shewed how by Culture and stripping up it arrives to a goodly Tree and surely there were some of them of large bulk and noble Shades that Virgil should choose it for the Court of his Evander one of his Worthiest Princes in his best of Poems sitting in his Maple-Throne and when he brings Aeneas into the Royal Cottage he makes him this memorable Complement Greater sayes great Cowley than ever was yet spoken at the Escurial the Louvre or Whitehall This humble Roof this Rustique Court said he Receiv'd Alcides crown'd with Victorie Scorn not great Guest the steps where he has trod But contemn Wealth and imitate a God Haec inquit limina Victor Alcides CHAP. XII Of the Sycomor 1. THE Sycomor falsely so called is our Acer majus one of the Maples and is much more in reputation for its shade than it deserves for the leaves which fall early like those of the Ash turn to Mucilage and putrefie with the first moisture of the season so as they contaminate and mar our Walks and are therefore by my consent to be banish'd from all curious Gardens and Avenues 2. There is in Germany a better sort of Sycomor then ours wherewith they make Saddle trees and divers other things of use our own is excellent for Trenchers Cart and Plow-timber being light tough and not much inferiour to Ash it self and if the trees be very tall and handsome are the more tolerable for distant Walks especially where other better trees prosper not so well or where a sudden shade is expected CHAP. XIII Of the Horn-beam 1. OStrys the Horn-beam in Latine ignorantly the Carpinus is planted of Sets though it may likewise be raised from the Seeds which being mature in August should be sown in October but the more expeditious way is by Sets of about an inch diametre and cut within half a foot of the earth thus it will advance to a considerable Tree The places it chiefly desires to grow in are in cold hills and in the barren and most expos'd parts of woods 2. Amongst other uses which it serves for as Mill-cogs c. for which it excells either Yew or Crab Yoak-timber whence of old 't was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heads of Beetles Stocks and Handles of Tools It is likewise for the Turners use excellent Good Fire-wood where it burns like a candle and was of old so employ'd Carpinus taedas fissa facésque dabit For all which purposes its extreme toughness and whiteness commends it to the Husbandman Being planted in small Fosses or Trenches at half a foot intervall and in the single row it makes the noblest and the stateliest Hedges for long Walks in Gardens or Parks of any Tree whatsoever whose leaves are deciduos and forsake their Branches in Winter because it grows tall and so sturdy as not to be wronged by the Winds Besides it will furnish to the very foot of the Stem and flourishes with a glossie and polish'd verdure which is exceeding delightful of long continuance and of all other the harder Woods the speediest Grower maintaining a slender upright stem which does not come to be bare and sticky in many years That admirable Espalier-hedge in the long middle-walk of Luxembourg Garden at Paris than which there is nothing more graceful is planted of this Tree and so is that Cradle or Close walk with that perplext Canopy which covers the seat in his Majesties Garden at Hampton-Court These Hedges are tonsile but where they are maintain'd to fifteen or twenty foot height which is very frequent in the places before mention'd they are to be cut and kept in order with a Sythe of four foot long and very little falcated this is fix'd on a long sneed or streight handle and does wonderfully expedite the trimming of these and the like Hedges 3. They very frequently plant a Clump of these Trees before the Entries of most of the great Towns in Germany to which they apply Timber-Frames for convenience and the People to sit and solace in Scamozzi the Architect sayes that in his time he found one whose Branches extended seventy foot in breadth This was at Vuimfen neer the Necker belonging to the Duke of Witemberg But that which I find planted before the Gates of Strasburgh is a Platanus and a Lime tree growing hard by one another in which is erected a Pergolo eight foot from the ground of fifty foot wide having ten Arches of twelve foot height all shaded with their folige and there is besides this an Over-grown Oak which has an Arbour in it of 60 foot diameter hear we Rapinus describe the use of our Horn-beam for these and other Elegancies In Walkes the Horn-beam stands or in a Maze Through thousand self-entangling Labyrinths strays So clasp the Branches lopp'd on either side As though an Alley did two Walls divide This Beauty found Order did next adorne The Boughs into a thousand figures shorne Which pleasing Objects wearinesse betray'd Your feet into a Wildernesse convey'd Nor better Leaf on twining Arbor spread Against the scorching Sun to shield your head In tractus longos facilis tibi Carpinus ibit Mille per errores indeprehensosque recessus Et molles tendens secto seu pariete ramos Praebebit viridem diverso e margine scenam Primus honos illi quondam post aditus ord◠est Attonsaeque coma formis quaesita voluptas Innumeris fartoque viae obliquoque recessu In tractus acta est longos opaca vireta Quinetiam egregiae tendens umbracula frondis Temperat ardentes ramis ingentibus aestus CHAP. XIV Of the Lime-Tree TIlia the Lime-Tree or Linden is of two kinds the Male which some allow to be but a finer sort of Elm is harder fuller of knots and of a redder colour but producing neither Flower nor Seed as does the Female whose Blossom is very odoriferous perfuming the Air The Wood is likewise thicker of small pith and not obnoxious to the VVorm so as it seems Theophrastus de Pl. l. 3. c. 10. said true that though they were of both Sexes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. yet they totally differ'd as to their form We send commonly for this Tree into Flanders and Holland to our excessive cost whiles our own Woods do in some places spontaneously produce them and though of somewhat a smaller leaf yet
adorning for the benefit of Planters and such as delight themselves in those innocent Rusticities I will onely by way of Corolarie hint some particulars for satisfaction of the Curious and especially that we may in some sort gratifie those earnest suggestions and Queries of the most obliging Publisher of the Philosophical Transactions to whose indefatigable pains the Learned World is infinitely engag'd In compliance therefore to his Queries Monday Octob. 19. 1668. Numb 40. p. 797 821 c. these Generals are submitted That in such Trials as my Friend essai'd he has not yet encountred with any Sap but what is very clear and sweet especially that of the Sycomor which has a dulcoration as if mixed with Sugar and that it runs one of the earliest That the Maple distill'd when quite reseinded from the Body and even whilst he yet held it in his hand That the Sycomor ran at the Root which some dayes before yielded no Sap from his branches the Experiment made at the end of March But the accurate knowledge of the nature of Sap and its periodic Motions and properties in several Trees should be observed by some at entire leisure to attend it daily and almost continually and will require more than any one persons industry can afford For it must be enquir'd concerning every tree its age soyl scituation c. the variety of its ascending Sap depending on it and then of its Sap ascending in the branches and Roots descending in cut branches descending from Root and not from branches the Seasons and difference of time in which those Accidents happen c. He likewise thinks the best expedient to procure store of Liquor is to cut the Trees almost quite through all the Circles on both sides the Pith leaving only the outmost Circle and the barks on the North or North-East side unpierced and this hole the larger it is bored the more plentifully 't will distill which if it be under and through a large Arm neer the Ground it is effected with greatest advantage and will need neither stone nor Chip to keep it open nor Spigot to direct it to the Recipient Thus it will in a short time afford Liquor sufficient to Brew with and in some of these sweet Saps one Bushel of Mault will afford as good Ale as four in ordinary Waters even in March it self in others as good as two Bushels for this prefering the Sycomor before any other But to preserve it in best condition for brewing till you are stor'd with a sufficient quantity it is advis'd that what first runs be insolated till the remainder be prepar'd to prevent its growing sowre But it may also be fermented alone by such as have the Secret To the Curious these Essayes are recommended That it be immediately stopp'd up in bottles in which it is gathered the Corks well wax'd and expos'd to the Sun till as was said sufficient quantity be run then let so much Rye-bread toasted very dry but not burnt be put into it as will serve to set it a working and when it begins to ferment take it out and Bottle it immediately If you add a few Cloves c. to steep in it 't will certainly keep the year about 'T is a wonder how speedily it extracts the tast and tincture of the spice Mr. Boyle proposes a sulphurous fume to the bottles Spirit of Wine may haply not onely preserve but advance the Vertues of Saps and Infusions of Raisins are obvious and without decoction best which does but spend the more delicate parts Note that the Sap of the Birch will make excellent Meade 5. To these Observations that of the Weight and Vertue of the several Juices would be both useful and Curious As whether that which proceeds from the bark or between that and the Wood be of the same nature with that which is suppos'd to spring from the pores of the woody Circles and whether it rise in like quantity upon comparing the incisures All which may be try'd first attempting through the bark and saving that apart and then perforating into the Wood to the thicknesse of the bark or more with a like separation of what distills The period also of its current would be calculated as how much proceeds from the bark in one hour how much from the Wood or Body of the Tree and thus every hour still a deeper incision with a good large Augre till the Tree be quite perforated Then by making a second hole within the first fitted with a lesser pipe the interior heart-sap may be drawn apart and examin'd by Weight Quantity Colour Distillation c. And if no difference perceptible be detected the presumption will be greater that the difference of heart and Sap in Timber is not from the Saps plenty or penury but the Season and then possibly the very season of squaring as well as Felling of Timber may be considerable to the preservation of it 6. The notice likewise of the Saps rising more plentifully and constantly in the Sun than Shade more in the Day than Night more in the Roots than Branch more Southward than Northward c. may yield many useful Observations As for Planting to set thicker or thinner si coetera sint paria namely the nature of the Tree Soyl c. and not to shade over much the Roots of those Trees whose stems we desire should mount c. That in transplanting Trees we turn the best and largest Roots towards the South and consequently the most ample and spreading part of the head correspondent to the Roots For if there be a strong Root on that Quarter and but a feeble attraction in the Branches this may not alwayes counterpoise the weak Roots on the North-side damnified by the too puissant attraction of over large Branches this may also suggest a cause why Trees flourish more on the South-side and have their Integument and Coates thicker on those aspects annually with divers other useful speculations if in the mean time they seem not rather to be puntillos over nice for a plain Forester 7. To shew our Reader yet that these are no novel Experiments we are to know that a large Tract of the World almost altogether subsist on these Treen Liquors Especially that of the Date which being grown to about seven or eight foot in height they wound as we have taught for the Sap which they call Toddy a very famous Drink in the East-Indias This Tree increasing every year about a foot near the opposite part of the first Incisure they pierce again changing the Receiver and so still by opposite wounds and Notches they yearly draw forth the Liquor till it arrive to near thirty foot upward and of these they have ample Groves and Plantations which they set at seven or eight foot distance But then they use to percolate what they extract through a Stratum made of the Rind of the Tree well contus'd and beaten before which preparation it is not safe to Drink it and 't is observ'd
it will be very difficult if not altogether impossible to recover our selves from a softnesse and vanity which will in time not onely effeminate but undo the Nation 23. But to Crown all I will conclude with the Laurel which by the Vse we commonly put it to seems as if it had been only destin'd for Hedges and to cover bare Walls whereas being planted upright and kept to the Standard by cutting away the collateral Branches and maintaining one stem it will rise to a very considerable Tree and for the first twenty years resembling the most beautiful headed Orange in shape and verdure arrive in time to emulate even some of our lusty Timber-trees so as I dare pronounce the Laurel to be one of the most proper and ornamental Trees for Walks and Avenues of any growing 24. Pity it is they are so abus'd in the Hedges where the lower Branches growing stickie and dry by reason of their frequent and unseasonable cutting with the genius of the Tree which is to spend much in wood they never succeed after the first six or seven years but are to be new planted again or abated to the very Roots for a fresh shote 25. But would you yet improve the Standard which I celebrate to greater and more speedy exaltation bud your Laurel on the Black-Cherry stock to what height you please if at least the report be true which I had from an ocular testimony and am now making an essay of because I am more then somewhat doubtful of such Allyances though something like it in Palladius speaks it not so impossible A Cherry Grast on Laurel-stock does stain The Virgin Fruit in a deep double grain Inseritur lauro Cerasus partúque coacto Tingit adoptivus virginis ora pudor 26. They are rais'd of the Seeds or Berries with extraordinary facility or propagated by Layers Taleae and cuttings where-ever there is shade and moisture I find little concerning the Mechanical uses of the Laurel but than its Attributes of old there was nothing more glorious and magnificent For From Laurel chew'd the Pythian Priestess rose Events of future Actions to disclose Laurel Triumphant Generals did wear And Laurel Heralds in their hands did bear Poets ambitious of unfading praise Phoebus the Muses all are crown'd with Bays And Vertue to her sons the Prize does name Symbol of Glory and immortal Fame Tu sacros Phoebi tripodas ta Sidera sentis Et casus aperis rerum praesaga futuros Te juâ—at armorum strepitus clangorque Tubarum Perque acies medias saevique periculà belli Accendis bellantum animos te Cynthius ipse Te Musae Vatesque sacri optavâ—re Coronam Ipsa suis Virtus te spem proponit alumnis Tantùm servatus valuit pudor bona famu Rapinus I have now finish'd my Planting A word or two concerning their Preservation and the Cure of their Infirmities CHAP. XXVII Of the Infirmities of Trees THe Diseases of Trees are various according to the Rustick Rhyme The Calf the Wind-shoc and the Knot The Canker Scab Scurf Sap and Rot. Affecting the several parts These invade the Roots Weeds Suckers Fern Wet Mice Moles Winds c. to these may be added Siderations and even Plagues Tumors Distortions Lacrimations Tophi Goutes Carbuncles Vlcers Crudities Fungosities Gangreens and an Army more whereof some are hardly discernable yet Enemies which not foreseen makes many a bargain of standing-wood though seemingly fair very costly ware 1. Weeds are to be diligently pull'd up by hand after Rain whiles your Seedlings are very young and till they come to be able to kill them with shade and over-dripping And then are you for the obstinate to use the Haw Fork and Spade to extirpate Dog-grass Bear-bind c. 2. Suckers shall be duly eradicated and with a sharp spade dexterously separated from the Mother-roots and Transplanted in convenient places for propagation as the Season requires 3. Fern is best destroy'd by striking off the Tops as Tarquin did the heads of the Poppies This done with a good wand or cudgel at the decrease in the Spring and now and then in Summer kills it in a year or two beyond the vulgar way of Mowing or burning which rather encreases than diminishes it 4. Over-much Wet is to be drain'd by Trenches where it infests the Roots of such kinds as require drier ground But if a drip do fret into the body of a Tree by the head which will certainly decay it cutting first the place smooth stop and cover it with loam and hay till a new bark succeed These infest the Bark Bark-bound Teredo or Worm Conys Moss Ivy c. 5. The Bark-bound are to be released by drawing your knife rind-deep from the Root as far as you can conveniently and if the gaping be much filling the rift with a little Cow-dung do this on each side and at Spring February or March also cutting off some branches is profitable especially such as are blasted or lightning-struck 6. The Teredo Cossi and other Worms lying between the Body and the Bark poyson that passage to the great prejudice of some Trees but the holes being once found they are to be taken out with a light Incision and the Wood-pecker and other Birds often pitching upon the stem as you may observe them and knocking with their bils is a mark that the Tree is infected at least between the Bark 7. Conies and Hares by barking the Trees in hard Winters spoil very many tender Plantations Next to the utter destroying them there is nothing better then to anoint that part which is within their reach with stercus humanum tempered with a little Water or Vrine and lightly brushed on this renewed after every great Rain But a cleanlier than this and yet which Conies and even Cattel most abhor is to water or sprinkle them with Tanners Liquor viz. That which they use for dressing their hides 8. Moss is to be rubb'd and scrap'd off with some fit instrument of Wood which may not excorticate the Tree or with a piece of Hair-cloth after a sobbing Rain But the most infallible Art of Emuscation is taking away the cause which is superfluous moisture in clayie and spewing grounds 9. Ivy is destroy'd by diging up the Roots and loosning its hold And yet even Ivy it self the destruction of many fair Trees if very old and where it has long invested its support if taken off does frequently kill the Tree by a too suddain exposure to the un-accustom'd cold Of the Roots of Ivy which with small Industry may be made a beautiful Standard are made curiously polish'd and fleck'd cups and boxes and even Tables of great value Missleto and other Excrescences to be cut and broken off But the Fungi which prognosticate a fault in the Liver and Entrails of Trees as we may call it is remedied by Abrasion Friction Interlucation and exposure to the Sun 10. The Bodies of Trees are visited with Canker Hollowness Hornets Earwigs Snails c. 11. The
Wind-shock is a bruise and shiver throughout the Tree though not constantly visible yet leading the Warp from smooth renting caused by over-powerful Winds when young and perhaps by subtil Lightnings The best prevention is shelter choyce of place for the Plantation frequent shreading whilst they are yet in their youth 12. Cankers caused by some stroak or galling are to be cut out to the quick the scars emplaistred with Tar mingled with Oil and over that a thin spreading of loam or else with clay and Horse-dung but best with hogs-dung alone bound to it in a rag or by laying Wood-ashes Nettles or Fern to the roots c. But if the Gangreen be within it must be cured by nitrous sulphureous and drying applications and by no means by any thing of an unctious nature which is exitial to Trees Tar as was said onely excepted which I have experimentally known to preserve Trees from the envenom'd teeth of Goats and other injuries the intire stem smar'd over without the least prejudice to my no small admiration 13. Hollowness is contracted when by reason of the ignorant or careless lopping of a Tree the wet is suffer'd to fall perpendicularly upon a part especially the Head In this case if there be sufficient sound wood cut it to the quick and close to the body and cap the hollow part with a Tarpaulin or fill it with good stiff loam and fine hay mingled This is one of the worst of Evils and to which the Elm is most obnoxious 14. Hornets and Wasps c. by breeding in the hollowness of Trees infect them and are therefore to be destroy'd by stopping up their entrances with Tar and Goos-dung or by conveying the fumes of brimstone into their Cells 15. Earwigs and Snails do seldom infest Forest-trees but those which are Fruit-bearers and are destroy'd by enticing them into sweet waters and by picking the Snails off betimes in the Morning and rainy Evenings I advise you to visite your Cypresse-Trees on the first Rains in April you shall sometimes find them cover'd with young snailes no bigger than small pease Lastly Branches Buds and Leaves extreamly suffer from the Blasts Jaundies and Caterpillars Rooks c. 16. The blasted parts of Trees are to be cut away to the quick and to prevent it smoak them in suspicious weather by burning moist straw with the wind or rather the dry and superfluous cuttings of Aromatic plants such as Rosemary Lavender Juniper Bays c. I use to whip and chastise my Cypresses with a wand after their Winter-burnings 'till all the mortified and scorch'd parts flie off in dust as long almost as any will fall and observe that they recover and spring the better Mice Moles and Pismires cause the Jaundies in Trees known by the discolour of the Leaves and Buds 17. The Moles may be taken in Traps and kill'd as every Wood-man knows It is certain that they are driven from their haunts by Garlick for a time and other heady smels buried in their passages 18. Mice with Traps or by sinking some Vessel almost level with the surface of the ground the Vessel half full of Water upon which let there be strew'd some hulls or chaff of Oates also with Bane 19. Destroy Pismires with scalding water and disturbing their hills or rubbing the stem with Cow-dung or a decoction of Tithy-male washing the infested parts and this will insinuate and chase them quite out of the chinks and crevices without prejudice to the Tree and is a good prevention of other Infirmities 20. Caterpillars by cutting off their webs from the twigs before the end of February and burning them the sooner the better If they be already hatched wash them off with Water in which some of the Caterpillars themselves and Garlick have been bruised or the juyce of Rue or choak and dry them with smoak of Galbanum Shooe-soles Hair and some affirm that planting the Pionie neer them is a certain remedy but there is no remedy so facile as the burning them oft with small wisps of dry straw which in a moment rids you 21. Rooks do in time by pinching off the buds and tops of Trees for their Nests cause many Trees and Groves to decay But if Cattel break in before the time conclamatum est especially Goats whose mouths and breath is poyson to Trees they never thrive well after and Varro affirms if they but lick the Olive tree they become immediately barren 22. Another touch at the Winds For though they cannot properly be said to be Infirmities of Trees yet they are amongst the principal causes that render Trees infirme I know no surer protection against them than as we said to shelter and stake them whilst they are young 'till they have well establish'd Roots And with this caution that in case any goodly Trees which you would desire especially to preserve and redress chance to be prostrated by some impetuous and extraordinary storme you be not over hasty to carry him away or despair of him but first let me perswade you to poll him close and so let him lye some time for by this means many vast Trees have rais'd themselves by the vigour onely of the remaining Roots without any other assistance so as people have pronounc'd it Miraculous as I could tell you by several Instances besides what Theophrastus relates c. 19. of that huge Platanus which rise in one Night in his observation and the like I find hapn'd in more than one Tree neer Bononia in Italy An. 1657. when of late a turbulent Gust had almost quite irradicated a very large Tract of huge Poplars belonging to the Marchioness Elephantucca Spada that universally erected themselves again after they were beheaded as they lay even prostrate What says the Naturalist Prostratas restitui plerunque quadam terrae cicatrice reviviscere vulgare est 'T is familiar says Plinie in the Platanus which are very obnoxious to the Winds by reason of the thicknesse of their branches which being cut off and discharged restore themselves This also frequently happens in Wall-nuts Olive-trees and several others as he affirms l. 16. c. 31. These amongst many others are the Infirmities to which Forest-Trees are subject whilst they are standing and when they are fell'd to the Worm especially if cut before the Sap be perfectly at rest But to prevent or cure it in the Timber I recommend this Secret as the most approv'd 23. Let common yellow Sulphur be put into a cucurbit-glasse upon which pour so much of the strongest Aqua fortis as may cover it three fingers deep Distil this to dryness which is done by two or three Rectifications Let the Sulphur remaining in the bottom being of a blackish or sad red colour be laid on a Marble or put into a Glass where it will easily dissolve into Oil With this anoint what is either infected or to be preserved of Timber It is a great and excellent Arcanum for tinging the Wood with no unpleasant colour by no Art to be
Matrix and Heart deforming the whole Tree with many ugly botches which shorten its life and utterly marre the Timber I know Sir H. Platt tells us the Elm should be so lopp'd but he says it not of his own Experience as I do 3. By this Animadversion alone it were easie for an ingenious man to understand how Trees are to be govern'd which is in a word by cutting clean smooth and close making the stroke upward and with a sharp Bill so as the weight of an untractable bough do not splice and carry the bark with it which is both dangerous and unsightly The Oak will suffer it self to be made a Pollard that is to have its Head quite cut off but the Elm so treated will perish to the foot and certainly become hollow at last if it scape with life 4. The proper Season for this work is for old Trees earlier for young later as a little after the change in January or February some say in December Then shave their locks and cut their branchy tresse Severely now luxuriant boughs represse Tunc stringe comas tunc brachia tonde Tunc deâ—ique dura Exerce Imperia ramos compesce fluenteis Georg. 2. But this ought not to be too much in young Fruit-tres after they once come to form a handsom head in which period you should but onely pare them over about March to cover the stock the sooner if the Tree be very choice To the aged this is plainly a renewing of their Youth and an extraordinary refreshment if taken in time and that their Armes be not suffer'd to grow too great and large Besides for Interlucation exuberant branches spissae nemorum comae where the boughs grow too thick and are cumbersome to let in the Sun and Air this is of great importance and so is the sedulous taking away of Suckers Water-boughs Fretters c. And for the benefit of tall Timber the due stripping up the branches and rubbing of the buds to the heights you require Yet some do totally forbear the Oak especially if aged observing that they much exceed in growth such as are prun'd and in truth such Trees as we would leave for shade and ornament should be seldom cut but the browse-wood cherish'd and preserv'd as low towards the Ground as may be for a more venerable and solemn shade and therefore I did much prefer the walk of Elms at S. James's Park as it lately grew branchy intermingling their reverend tresses before the present trimming them up so high especially since I fear the remedy comes too late to save their decay if the amputations of such over-grown parts as have been cut off should not rather accelerate it by exposing their large and many wounds to the injuries of the weather which will indanger the rotting of them beyond all that can be apply'd by Tar or otherwise to protect them I do rather conceive their Infirmities to proceed from what has not long since been abated of their large spreading Branches to accommodate with the Mall as any one may conjecture by the great impression which the wet has already made in those incurable scarrs that being now multiplied must needs the sooner impair them The roots having likewise infinitely suffer'd by many disturbances about them In all events this VValk might have enjoy'd its goodly Canopy with all their branchy furniture for some Ages to come since 't is hardly one that first they were planted But his Majestie will have providently and nobly supplied this defect by their successors of Lime-trees which will sooner accomplish their perfection 5. Divers other precepts of this nature I could here enumerate had not the great experience faithful and accurate description how this necessary work is to be perform'd set down by our Country-man honest Lawson Orchard cap. 11. prevented all that the most Inquisitive can suggest The particulars are so ingenious and highly material that you will not be displeas'd to read them in his own style All ages saith he by Rules and experience do consent to a pruning and lopping of Trees Yet have not any that I know described unto us except in dark and general words what or which are those superfluous boughs which we must take away and that is the most chief and most needful point to be known in lopping And we may well assure our selves as in all other Arts so in this there is a vantage and dexterity by skill an habit by practice out of experience in the performance hereof for the profit of mankind Yet do I not know let me speak it with patience of our cunning Arborists any thing within the compasse of humane affairs so necessary and so little regarded not onely in Orchards but also in all other Timber-trees where or whatsoever Now to our purpose How many Forests and Woods wherein you shall have for one lively thriving Tree four nay sometimes twenty four evil thriving rotten and dying Trees even whiles they live and instead of Trees thousands of bushes and shrubs what rottennesse what hollownesse what dead arms wither'd tops curtail'd trunks what loads of Mosse drouping boughs and dying branches shall you see every where and those that in this sort are in a manner all unprofitable boughs canker'd armes crooked little and short boals What an infinite number of Bushes Shrubs and Skrags of Hasels Thornes and other unprofitable wood which might be brought by dressing to become great and goodly Trees Consider now the Cause The lesser Wood hath been spoil'd with careless unskilfull and untimely slowing and much also of the great Wood. The greater Trees at the first rising have fill'd and overladen themselves with a number of wasteful boughs and suckers which have not onely drawn the sap from the boal but also have made it knotty and themselves and the boal mossie for want of dressing whereas if in the prime of growth they had been taken away close all but one top and clean by the bulk the strength of all the sap should have gone to the bulk and so he would have recovered and cover'd his knots and have put forth a fair long and streight body for Timber profitable huge great of bulk and of infinite last If all Timber-trees were such will some say how should we have crooked wood for Wheels Coorbs c Answ Dresse all you can and there will be enough crooked for those uses More than this in most places they grow so thick that neither themselves nor earth nor any thing under or neer them can thrive nor Sun nor Rain nor Air can do them nor any thing neer or under them any profit or comfort I see a number of Hags where out of one root you shall see three or four nay more such is mens unskillful greedinesse who desiring many have none good pretty Oaks or Ashes streight and tall because the root at the first shoot gives sap amain But if one onely of them might be suffer'd to grow and that well and cleanly prun'd all to
growing wider and deeper as the body of the Tree grows bigger and mouldering away on the out side Though it cannot appear by reason of the continual decay of it upon the account aforesaid yet it is probable the bark of a Tree hath had successively as many Integuments as the wood and that it doth grow by acquisition of a new one yearly on the inside as the wood doth on the out-side so that the chief way and conveyance of nourishment to both the wood and the bark is between them both The least bud appearing on the body of a Tree doth as it were make perforation through the several Integuments to the middle or very neer which part is as it were a Root of the bough into the body of the Tree and after becomes a knot more hard then the other wood And when it is larger manifestly shewing it self also to consist of several Integuments by the circles appearing in it as in the body more hard probably because streightned in room for growth as appears by its distending buckling as it were the Integuments of the wood about it so implicating them the more whence a knotty piece of wood is so much harder to cleave It is probable that a Cience or Bud upon Graffing or Inoculating doth as it were Root it self into the stock in the same manner as the branches by producing a kind of knot Thus far the accurate Doctor 21. To which permit me to add onely in reference to the Circles we have been speaking of what another curious Inquirer suggests to us namely That they are caus'd by the Pores of the wood through which the Sap ascends in the same manner as betwen the Wood and the Bark and that in some Trees the bark adheres to the wood as the Integuments of Wood cleave to one another and may be separated from each other as the bark from the outward-most and being thus parted will be found on their out-sides to represent the Colour of the outer-most contiguous to the bark and on the inner sides to hold the Colour of the inner side of the bark and all to have a deeper or lighter hue on their inner-side as the Bark is on that part more or less tinged which tincture is suppos'd to proceed from the ascendent Sap. Moreover by cutting the branch the ascending Sap may be examin'd as well as the Circles It is probable the more frequent the Circles the larger and more copiously the liquor will ascend into it the fewer the sooner descend from it That a Branch of three Circles cut off at Spring the Sap ascending will be found at Michaelmasse ensuing cut again in the same branch or another of equal bignesse to have one more than it had at Spring and either at Spring or Fall to carry a Circle of Pricks next the bark at other seasons a circle of wood onely next it But here the Comparison must be made with distinction for some Trees do probably shoot new tops yearly till a certain period and not after and some have perhaps their Circles in their branches decreased from their Bodies to the extreamity of the branch in such Oeconomy and Order that for instance an Apple-tree shoot of this year has one Circle of Pricks or wood less than the Graft of two years growth and that of two years growth may the next year have one Circle more than it had the last year but this onely till that Branch shoot no more Grafts and then 't is doubtful whether the outmost twig obtain any more Circles or remain at a stay onely nourished not augmented in the Circles It would also be inquir'd whether the Circles of Pricks increase not till Midsummer and after and the Circles of Wood from thence to the following Spring But this may suffice unlesse I should subjoyn 22. The vegetative motion of Plants with the diagrams of the Jesuite Kercher where he discourses of their stupendious Magnetisms c. could there any thing material be added to what has already been so ingeniously inquir'd into therefore let us proceed to their Felling 23. It should be in this status vigour and perfection of Trees that a Felling should be celebrated since whiles our Woods are growing it is pity and indeed too soon and when they are decaying too late I do not pretend that a man who has occasion for Timber is obliged to attend so many ages ere he fell his Trees but I do by this infer how highly necessary it were that men should perpetually be Planting that so posterity might have Trees fit for their service of competent that is of a middle growth and age which it is impossible they should have if we thus continue to destroy our Woods without this providential Planting in their stead and felling what we do cut down with great discretion and regard of the future 24. Such therefore as we shall perceive to decay are first to be pick'd out for the Ax and then those which are in their state or approaching to it but the very thriving and manifestly improving indulg'd as much as possible But to explore the goodness and sincerity of a standing-Tree is not the easiest thing in the world we shall anon have occasion to mention my L. Bacon's Experiment to detect the hollownesse of Timber But there is doubtlesse none more infallible than the boring it with a middling Piercer made Auger fashion and by frequent pulling out and examining what substance comes along with it as those who bore the Earth to explore what Minerals the place is impregn'd with and as sound Cheeses are tasted Some again there are who by digging a little about the Roots will pronounce shrewdly concerning the state of a Tree and if they find him perish'd at the top for Trees dye upward as Men do from the feet be sure the cause lies deep for 't is ever a mark of great decay in the Roots There is also a swelling Vein which discovers it self eminently above the rest of the stem though like the rest invested with barks and which frequently circles about and embraces the tree like a branch of Ivy which is an infallible indication of Hollownesse and hypocrisie within 25. The time of the year for this destructive work is not usually till about the end of April at which season the bark does commonly rise freely though the opinions and practise of men have been very different Vitruvius is for an Autumnal fall others advise December and January Cato was of opinion trees should have first born their fruit or at least not till full ripe which agrees with that of the Architect And though Timber unbarked be indeed more obnoxious to the Worm and to contract somewhat a darker hue which is the reason so many have commended the season when it will most freely strip yet were this to be rather consider'd for such trees as one would leave round and unsquar'd since we find the wild Oak and many other sorts fell'd over late and
that pierce the sky Soft Linden smooth-rind Beech unmarried Bays The brittle Hasel Ash whose spears we praise Unknotty Fir the solace shading Planes Rough Chessnuts Maple Fleet with different granes Stream-bordering Willow Lotus loving takes Tuffe Box whom never sappy spring forsakes The slender Tamarisk with Trees that bear A purple Fig nor Myrtles absent were The wanton Ivie wreath'd in amorous twines Vines bearing grapes and Elms supporting Vines Straight Service-Trees Trees dropping Pitch fruit-red Arbutus these the rest accompanied With limber Palmes of Victory the prize And upright Pine whose leaves like bristles rise Priz'd by the Mother of the Gods Sandys non chaonis abfuit arbor Non nemus Heliadum non frondibus aesculus altis Nec Tilâ—ae molles nec Fagus innuba Laurus Et Coryli fragiles Fraxinus utilis hastis Enodisque Abies curvataque glandibus Ilex Et Platanus genialis Acerque coloribus impar Amnicolaeque simul Salices aquatica Lotos Perpetuóque virens Buxus tenuesque Myricae Et bicolor Myrtus baccis caerula Ficus Vos quoque flexi-pedes Hederae venistis unâ— Pampineae Vites amictae Vitibus Vlmi OrnÃque Piceae Pomoque onerata rubeuti Arbutus lentae victoris praemia Palmae Et succincta comas hâ—rsutaqae vertice Pinus Grata Deum matri c. Met. 10. as the incomparable Poet goes on and is imitated by our divine Spencer where he brings his gentle Knight into a shady Grove praising the Trees so straight and high The sailing Pine the Cedar proud and tall The Vine-prop Elm the Poplar never dry The builder Oak sole King of Forests all The Aspine good for Staves the Cypress funeral The Laurel meede of mighty Conquerours And Poets sage The Fir that weepeth still The Willow worn of forlorn Paramours The Eugh obedient to the benders will The Birch for Shafts the Sallow for the Mill The Myrrhe sweet bleeding in the bitter wound The War-like Beech the Ash for nothing ill The fruitful Olive and the Platane round The Carver Holm the Maple seldom inward sound Canto 1â— And in this Symphony might the noble Tasso bear likewise his part but that these are sufficient tria sunt omnia 37. For we have already spoken of that modern Art of Tapping Trees in the Spring by which doubtlesse some excellent and specific Medicines may be attained as from the Birch for the Stone from Elms and Elder against Feavers so from the Vine the Oak and even the very Bramble c. besides the wholesom and pleasant Drinks Spirits c. that may possibly be educed out of them all which we leave to the Industrious satisfying our selves that we have been among the first who have hinted and Publish'd the wayes of performing it What now remains concerns onely some general Precepts and Directions applicable to most of that we have formerly touched together with a Brief of what farther Laws have been enacted for the Improvement and preservation of Woods and which having dispatch'd shall with a short Paraenesis touching the present ordering and disposing of his Majesties Plantations for the future benefit of the Nation put an end to this rustick Discourse CHAP. XXXII Aphorisms or certain general Precepts of use to the foregoing Chapters 1. TRy all sorts of Seeds and by their thriving you shall best discern what are the most proper kinds for Grounds Quippe solo natura subest and of these design the main of your Plantation 2. Keep your newly sown seeds continually fresh and in the shade as much as may be till they peep 3. All curious Seeds and Plants are diligently to be weeded till they are strong enough to over-drop or suppresse them And you shall carefully haw half-dig and stir up the earth about their Roots during the first three years especially in the Vernal and Autumnal Aequinoxes This work to be done in a moist season for the first year to prevent the dust and the suffocating of the tender buds but afterwards in the more dry weather 4. Plants rais'd from seed shall be thinn'd where they come up too thick and none so fit as you thus draw to be transplanted into Hedge-rowes especially where ground is precious 5. In transplanting omit not the placing of your Trees towards their accustom'd Aspect 6. Remove the softest wood to the moistest grounds Divisae arboribus partiae 7. Begin to Transplant Forest-trees when the leaves fall after Michaelmasse you may adventure when they are tarnish'd and grow yellow It is lost time to commence later and for the most part of your Trees early Transplanters seldom repent for sometimes a tedious band of Frost prevents the whole season and the baldness of the Tree is a note of deceipt for some Oaks and most Beeches preserve their dead leaves till new ones push them off 8. Set deeper in the lighter grounds than in the strong but shallowest in Clay five inches is sufficient for the dryest and one or two for the moist provided you establish them against winds 9. Plant forth in warm and moist seasons the Air tranquil and serene the wind westerly but never whiles it actually freezes Raines or in Misty Weather for it moulds and infects the Roots 10. What you gather and draw out of VVoods plant immediately for their Roots are very apt to be mortified by the winds and cold air 11. Trees produc'd from Seeds must have the Tap-roots abated the VVallnut-tree and some others excepted and yet if Planted meerly for the Fruit some affirm it may be adventur'd on with successe and the bruised parts cut away but sparing the fibrous for they are the principal feeders and those who clense them too much are punish'd for the mistake 12. In Spring rub off some of the collateral Buds to check the exuberancy of Sap in the branches till the Roots be well establish'd 13. Transplant no more then you well Fence for that neglected Tree-culture comes to nothing Therefore all young set Trees should be defended from the winds and Sun especially the East and North till their Roots are fixed that is till you perceive them shoot and the not exactly observing of this Article is cause of the perishing of the most tender Plantations for it is the invasion of these two assailants which does more mischief to our new set and lesse hardy Trees then the most severe and durable Frosts of a whole VVinter 14. The properest Soil and most natural apply to distinct species Nec verò terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt Yet we find by experience that most of our Forest-Trees grow well enough in the coursest Lands provided there be a competent depth of mould For albeit most of our wild Plants covet to run just under the surface yet where there is not sufficient depth to cool them and entertain the Moisture and Influences they are neither lasting nor prosperous 15. VVood well Planted will grow in Moorish Boggy Heathy and the stoniest grounds Only the white and blew clay which is commonly
by Chr. Cilicus de Bello Dithmarsico l. 1. We have already mention'd Rebeccah and read of Kings themselves that honoured such places with their Sepulchres What else should be the meaning of 1 Chro. 10.12 when the valiant men of Jabesh interr'd the Bones of Saul and Jonathan under the Oke Famous was the Hyrnethian Caemeterie where Daiphon lay Ariadnes Tomb was in the Amathusian Grove in Crete now Candie For they believed that the Spirits and Ghosts of Men delighted to expatiate and appear in such solemn places as the Learned Grotius notes from Theophylact speaking of the Daemons upon Mat. 8 20. for which cause Plato gave permission that Trees might be Planted over Graves to obumbrate and refresh them Our Blessed Saviour chose the Garden sometimes for his Oratory and dying for the place of his Sepulchre and we do avouch for many weighty causes that there are none more fit to bury our Dead in than in our Gardens and Groves where our Beds may be decked with verdant and fragrant Flowers Trees and Perennial Plants the most natural and instructive Hieroglyphics of our expected Resurrection and Immortality besides what they might conduce to the Meditation of the living and the taking off our Cogitations from dwelling too intently upon more vain and sensual Objects that Custom of Burying in Churches and near about them especially in great and populous Cities being both a Novel Presumption undecent and very unhealthful 14. To make this Discourse the more absolute we shall add a short recital of the most famous Groves which we find Celebrated in Histories and those besides many already mention'd were such as being Consecrated both to Gods and Men bore their Names Amongst these are reckoned the Sacred to Minerva Isis Latona Cybele Osiris Aesculapius Diana and especially the Aricinian in which there was a goodly Temple erected placed in the midst of an Iland with a vast Lake about it a Mount and a Grotto adorn'd with Statues and irrigated with plentiful Streams and this was that renouned Recesse of Numa where he so frequently conversed with his Aegeria as did Minos in the Cave of Jupiter and by whose pretended Inspirations they gain'd the deceived People and made them receive what Lawes he pleas'd to impose upon them To these we may joyn the Groves of Vulcan Venus and the little Cupid Mars Bellona Bacchus Sylvanus the Muses and that neer Helicon from the same Numa their great Patron and hence had they their Name Camoenae In this was the noble Statue of Eupheme Nurse to those Poetical Ladies but so the Feranian and even Mons Parnassus were thick shaded with Trees Nor may we omit the more impure Lupercal Groves Sacred or Prophan'd rather yet most famous for their affording shelter and foster to Romulus and his Brother Rhemus That of Vulcan was usually guarded by Dogs like the Town of S. Malos in Bretaigne The Pinea Sylva appertain'd to the Mother of the Gods as we find in Virgil. Venus had several Groves in Aegypt and in the Gnidian Island where once stood those famous Statues cut by Praxiteles another in Pontus where if you 'll believe it hung up the Golden Fleece for the bold Adventurer Nor was the Watry-King Neptune without his Groves the Helicean in Greece was his So Ceres and Proserpine Pluto Vesta Castor and Pollux had such shady Places Consecrated to them add to these the Lebadian Arfinoan Paphian Senonian and such as were in general dedicated to all the Gods The Gods have dwelt in Groves Habitarunt dii quoque Sylvaâ— And these were as it were Pantheons To the memory of famous Men and Heros were Consecrated the Achillean Aglauran and those to Bellerophon Hector Alexander and to others who disdained not to derive their Names from Trees and Forests as Sylvius the Posthumus of Aeneas divers of the Albanian Princes and great Persons Stolon Laura Daphnis c. And a certain Custom there was for the Parents to Plant a Tree at the Birth of an Heir or Son presaging by the growth and thriving of the Tree the prosperity of the Child Thus we read in the life of Virgil and how far his Natalitial Poplar had out-strip'd the rest of its Contemporaries And the reason doubtlesse of all this was the general repute of the Sanctity of those Places for no sooner does the Poët speak of a Grove but immediately some Consecration follows as believing that out of those shady Profundities some Deity must needs emerge Quo possis viso dicere Numen inest so as Tacitus speaking of the Germans sayes Lucos Nemora consecrant Deorumque nominibus appellant secretum illud quod solâ reverentiâ vident and the Consecration of these Nemorous places we find in Quintus Curtius and in what Paulus Diaconus de Lege relates of the Longobards where the Rites are expresse allur'd as 't is likely by the gloominesse of the Shade procerity and altitude of the Stem floridnesse of the leaves and other accidents not capable of Philosophising on the Physical Causes which they deem'd supernatural and plainly divine so as to use the words of Prudentius Here all Religion paid whose dark Recesse A sacred awe does on their mind impresse To their Wild Gods Quos penes omne sacrum est quicquid formidâ— tremâ—uduâ—â— Suaserit horrificos quos prodigialia cogunâ— Monstra Deos L. 2. Cout Sym. And this deification of their Trees and amongst other things for their Age and perennial viridity sayes Diodorus might spring from the manifold use which they afforded and happly had been taught them by the Gods or rather by some God-like persons whom for their worth and the publick benefit they esteemed so and that divers of them were voyc'd to have been Metamorphoz'd from Men into Trees and again out of Trees into Men as the Arcadians gloried in their Birth when Out of the teeming Bark of Oakes men burst Géusque virûm truncis rupto robore nati which perhaps they fancied by seeing men creep sometimes out of their Cavities in which they often lodg'd and secur'd themselves For in th' Earths non-age under Heavens new frame They stricter liv'd who from Oaks rupture came Stapylton Quippe aliter tunc orbe novo coelòque recenti Vivebant homines qui rupto robore nati c. Juven l. 2. S. 6. Or as the sweet Papinius Fame goes that thou brake forth from the hard rind When the new earth with the first feet was sign'd Fields yet nor Houses doleful pangs reliev'd But shady Ash the numerous births receiv'd And the green Babe drop'd from the pregnant Elm Whom strange amazement first did over-whelm At break of day and when the gloomy night Ravish'd the Sun from their pursuing sight Gave it for lost Nemorum vos stirpe rigenâ—i Fama satos cum prima pedum vestigia tellus Admirata tulit nondum arva domúsque ferebant Cruda puerperia ac populos umbrosa creavit Fraxinus foetâ viridis puer excidit Orno Hi Lucis stupuisse vices
But a Wise and a Thinking Man can need none of these Topics in every Hedge and every Field they are before him and yet we do not admire them because they are Common and obvious Thus we fall into the just reproach given by one of the Philosophers introduc'd by the Oratour to those who slighted what they saw every-day because they every-day saw them Quasi Novitas nos magis quà m magnitudo rerum debeat ad exquirendas causas excitare As if Novelty onely should be of more force to ingage our enquiry into the Causes of Things than the Worth and Magnitude of the Things themselves Resonate montes Laudationem SYLVA Et omne Lignum ejus FINIS POMONA OR AN APPENDIX CONCERNING fruit-FRUIT-TREES In relation to CIDER The Making and several ways of Ordering it VIRG. Eclog. ix Carpent tua Poma nepotes LONDON Printed by John Martyn and James Allestry Printers to the Royal Society MDCLXX To the Right Honourable THOMAS Earl of SOVTHAMPTON Lord HIGH TREASURER OF ENGLAND c. My Lord IF great Examples did not support it the dignity and greatness of your Person would soon have given cheque to this presumption But since Emperours and Kings have not only gratefully accepted Works of this nature but honor'd them likewise with their own sacred hands that Name of yours which ought indeed never to appear but on Instruments of State and fronts of Marble consecrating your Wisdom and Vertues to Eternity will be no way lessen'd by giving Patronage to these appendant Rusticities It is from the Protection and Cherishment of such as your Lordship is that these Endeavours of ours may hope one day to succeed and be prosperous The noblest and most useful Structures have laid their Foundations in the Earth if that prove firm here and firm I pronounce it to be if your Lordship favour it We shall go on and flourish I speak now in relation to the Royal Society not my self who am but a Servant of it only and a Pioner in the Works But be its fate what it will Your Lordship who is a Builder and a lover of all Magnificences cannot be displeas'd at these agreeable Accessories of Planting and of Gard'ning But my Lord I pretend by it yet some farther service to the State than that of meerly profit if in contributing to your divertisement I provide for the Publick health which is so precious and necessary to it in your excellent Person Vouchsafe POMONA your Lordships hand to kiss and the humble Presenter of these Papers the honour of being esteem'd My Lord Your most humble and most obedient Servant J. EVELYN POMONA Or An APPENDIX Concerning FRUIT-TREES In relation to CIDER The Making and several ways of Ordering it THE PREFACE SAt Quercus was the Proverb and it is now time to walk out of the Woods into the Fields a little and to consider what Advancement may be there likewise made by the planting of FRUIT-TREES For after the Earth is duly cultivated and pregnant with a Crop of Grain it is only by the Furniture of such Trees as bear Fruit that it becomes capable of any farther Improvement If then by discovering how this may best be effected I can but raise a worthy emulation in our Country-men this addition of noble Ornament as well as of Wealth and Pleasure Food and Wine may I presume obtain some grateful admittance amongst all Promoters of Industry But before I proceed I must and do ingenuously acknowledge that I present my Reader here with very little of my own save the pains of collecting and digesting a few dispers'd Notes but such as are to me exceedingly precious which I have receiv'd some from worthy and most experienc'd Friends of mine and others from the well-furnish'd Registers and Cimelia of the ROYAL SOCIETY Especially those Aphorisms and Treatises relating to the History of Cider which by express commands they have been pleas'd to injoyn I should publish with my Sylva It is little more than an Age since Hops rather a Medical than Alimental Vegetable transmuted our wholesome Ale into Beer which doubtless much alter'd our Constitutions That one Ingredient by some not unworthily suspected preserving Drink indeed and so by custom made agreeable yet repaying the pleasure with tormenting Diseases and a shorter life may deservedly abate our fondness to it especially if with this be consider'd likewise the casualties in planting it as seldom succeeding more than once in three years yet requiring constant charge and culture Besides that it is none of the least devourers of young Timber And what if a like care or indeed one quarter of it were for the future converted to the propagation of Fruit-trees in all parts of this Nation as it is already in some for the benefit of Cider one Shire alone within twenty miles compass making no less yearly than Fifty thousand Hogsheads the commutation would I perswade my self rob us of no great Advantage but present us with one of the most delicious and wholesom Beverages in the World It was by the plain Industry of one Harris a Fruiterer to King Henry the Eighth that the Fields and Environs of about thirty Towns in Kent only were planted with Fruit to the universal benefit and general Improvement of that County to this day as by the noble example of my Lord Scudamor and of some other publick-spirited Gentlemen in those parts all Herefordshire is become in a manner but one intire Orchard And when his Majesty shall once be pleas'd to command the Planting but of some Acres for the best Cider-fruit at every of his Royal Mansions amongst other of his most laudable Magnificences Noblemen wealthy Purchasers and Citizens will doubtless follow the Example till the preference of Cider wholesom and more natural Drinks do quite vanquish Hopps and banish all other Drogues of that nature But this Improvement say some would be generally obstructed by the Tenant and High-shoon-men who are all for the present profit their expectations seldom holding out above a year or two at most To this 't is answer'd That therefore should the Lord of the Mannour not only encourage the Work by his own Example and by the Applause of such Tenants as can be courted to delight in these kinds of Improvements but should also oblige them by Covenants to plant certain Proportions of them and to preserve them being planted To fortifie this profitable Design It were farther to be desir'd that if already there be not effectual provision for it which wants only due execution and quickning an Act of Parliament might be procur'd for the Setting but of two or three Trees in every Acre of Land that shall hereafter be enclosed under the Forfeiture of Six-pence per Tree for some publick and charitable Work to be levy'd on the Defaulters To what an innumerable multitude would this in few years insensibly mount affording infinite proportions and variety of Fruit throughout the Nation which now takes a Potion for a refreshment
Blasts and Frosts of the Spring I might add that some of these and especially such Pears as yield the best Perry will best escape the hand of the Thief and may be trusted in the open field 38. By the first second and fourth of these Reasons I must exclude the Gennet-Moyle from a right Cider fruit it being dry and very apt to take frosty blasts yet it is no Table-fruit but properly a baking fruit as the ruddy colour from the Oven shews 39. I said that the right Cider-fruit generally called Musts and deserving the Latine name Mustum is of divers kinds and I have need to note more expresly that there is a Red-strak'd Must as I have often seen but not generally known that is quite differing from the famous Red-strake being much less somewhat oblong and like some of the white Musts in shape and full of a very good winy liquor I could willingly name the persons and place where the distinct kinds are best known it was first shewed me by John Nash of Ashperton in Herefordshire and for some years they did in some places distinguish a Red-strake as yielding a richer Red-strak'd Cider of a more fulvous or ruddy colour but this difference as far as I could find is but a choice of a better insolated or ruddy fruit of the best kind as taken from the South part of the Tree or from a soil that renders them richer But my Lord Scudamore's is safely of the best sort and M. Whingate of the Grange in Dimoc and some of King's-capel do best know these and other differences Straked-Must right Red-strake Red-Redstrake c. 40. The greenish Must formerly called in the Language of the Country the Green-fillet when the Liquor is of a kindly ripeness retains a greeness equal to the Rhenish-glass which I note for them that conceive no Cider to be fit for use till it be of the colour of old Sack 41. To direct a little more caution for enquiry of the right Red-strake I should give notice that some Moneths ago M. Philips of Mountague in Somersetshire shewed me a very fair large Red-strake Apple that by smell and sight seemed to me and to another of Herefordshire then with me to be the best Red strake but when we did cut it and taste it we both denied it to be right the other with much more confidence than my self but M. Philips making Cider of it this week invited me to it assuring that already it equals or resembles High-country-wines It had not such plenty of juice as our Red strakes with us and it had more of the pleasantness of Table-fruit which might be occasioned for ought I know by the purer and quicker soil This Apple is here call'd Meriot-Ysnot and great store of them are at Meriot a Village not far distant Possibly this Meriot may prove to be the Red-strake of Somerset-shire when they shall please to try it apart with equal diligence and constancy as they do in Hereford-shire This fruit is of a very lovely hue and by some conceived to be of Affinity to the Red-Jersey-Apple which is reported to tinge so deeply In truth there can hardly be a deeper Purple than is our right Herefordshire Red-strake having a few streaks towards the Eye of a dark colour or Orange-tawny intermingled But 't is no wonder if an Apple should change its Name in travelling so far beyond the Severn when even in this Country most sorts of Apples and especially Cider-fruit loseth the Name in the next Village 42. I may now ask why we should talk of other Cider-fruit or Perry if the best Red-strake have all the aforesaid pre-eminencies of richer and more winy liquor by half sooner an Orchard more constantly bearing c. An Orchard of Red-strakes is commonly as full of fruit at ten years as other Cider-fruit at twenty years or as the Pepin and Pearmain at thirty or thereabout 43. To this may be Answered that all soils bear not Apples and to some soils other Apples may be more kind and if we be driven to Perry much we may say both in behalf of the Perry and of the Pear of the fruit and of the Tree It is the goodlier Tree for a Grove to shelter a house and walks from Summers heat and Winters cold Winds and far more lasting the pleasantest Cider-pear of a known name amongst them is the Horse-pear And it is much argued whether the White-horse-pear or the Red-horse-pear be the better where both are best within two Miles they differ in judgment The Pear bears almost its weight of sprightful winy Liquor and I always preferred the tawny or ruddy Horse-pear and generally that colour in all Pears that are proper for Perry 44. I rejected Palladius against the durableness of Perry his words are Hyeme durat sed prima acescit aestate Tit. 25. Febr. possibly so of common Pears and in hotter Countries but from good Cellars I have tasted a very brisk lively and winy liquor of these Horse-pears during the end of Summer and a Bosbury-pear I have named and often tried which without bottleing in common Hogsheads of vulgar and indifferent Cellars proves as well pleasanter as richer the second year and yet also better the third year A very honest worthy and witty Gentleman of that neighbourhood would engage to me that in good Cellars and in careful custody it passeth any account of decay and may be heightned to a kind of Aqua-vitae I take the information worthy the stile of our modern improvements The Pear-tree grows in common fields and wild stony ground to the largeness of bearing one two three or four Hogsheads each year 45. This Bosbury-tree and such generally that bear the most lasting Liquor and winy is of such unsufferable taste that hungry Swine will not smell to it or if hunger tempt them to taste at first crush they shake it out of their mouths I say not this of the Horse-pear and the Clowns call other Pears of best Liquor Choak-pears and will offer money to such as dare adventure to taste them for their sport and their mouths will be more stupified than at the root of Wake-robin 46. A row of Crab-trees will give an improvement to any kind of Perry and since Pears and Crabs may be of as many kinds as there are kernels or different kinds or mixtures of soils in a general Character I would prefer the largest and fullest of all austere juices 47. M. Lill of Mark-hill aged about 90 years ever observed this Rule to graff no wild Pear-tree till he saw the fruit if it proved large juicy and brisk it failed not of good Liquor But I see cause to say that to graff a young tree with a riper graff and known excellency is a sure gain and hastens the return 48. M. Speke last high Sheriff of Somersetshire shewed me in his Park some store of Crab-trees of such huge Bulk that in this fertile year he offered a wager that they would yield one or two