such as you would be Ploughman Sir I wonder what you meane to talke still so idlie as though it were fit for me or any man to set our whole seasons when we haue laide all our soile and bestowed all our labour tillage and cost vpon the third part onely to the intent to make that so hartie and rich that by all reason common experience and Gods blessing it may yeeld as much and more increase than the whole would haue done Neither am I tied by any necessitie that I know of to set all my third part vnsesse I may doe it conuenientlie in all respects Note well for when I haue thus plowed my land and made it readie to set I may sowe thereof what I will if I lacke setters and it is likelie to beare three times as much being thus well handled as other poore barren land so misused for lacke of such good Husbandrie But now for setting of ten Acres of Wheate or Rie or other graine being the third part of most mens Season why should I not finde people enow to set them seeing you confesse that threescore laborers and twentie women and children will digge and set thirtie Acres in seuen weekes Why good sir if I be at the charge and can dresse my land with my Plough my selfe what haue I to doe with your threescore labourers that should haue been imployed in your digging I will spare them all for you seeing you will needes haue so many Acres digged for you might as well haue vnderstoode Master Plat the author of the first booke that he meant not to haue the whole number of euery mans season to be digged when he proposed that three Acres might beare as much as thirtie And although I am of your opinion this will seldome proue true in action yet cannot you nor the best Scholler in England disproue the principles that he grounds his proportion vpon for he addes diuers approued examples in practise to proue his arguments And for your twentie women and children poore people I am sorrie for the most of them may still want worke and liue a staruing kinde of miserable life for by your perswasions they should earne iust nothing and so none of the poore by this meanes set to worke in your Husbandrie Well yet I will propose lesse worke by the third part in my Husbandrie and so will haue but the third part of your women and children Note which being but seuen will set my ten Acres in seuen weekes whilest your threescore diggers and twentie women and children be digging and setting your thirtie Acres in the same time by your owne account and by Gods helpe if this third part of the land be imployed we shall haue worke sufficient for all our poore people and poore people enow for all our worke I will therefore spare you foure or fiue of those seuen poore people for a supplie to your companie least any should happen to faile in some hot skirmish and then I shall onely be troubled with some two or three of your poore people or some lame Souldier Prouision for lame and maimed Souldiers he will serue my turne though he want a legge or an arme and so let vs recken the charge of three poore women and children which will be hired for eighteene pence a day at most which is but nine shillings Charges of setting a weeke and for seuen weekes is three poundes three shillings for the wages of those poore people vnto whom I will ioyne our two plow-folkes for away goe our Teemes to rest and gather flesh against winter our Wiues will spare one of their maides and many of vs haue two or three children and our selues for ouer-seers of the worke all these are aboue nine persons for your seuen and all their charges is but three poundes three shillings more than ordinarie Ten Acres as soone plowed and set with seuen people as thirtie digged and set with soure score and so you see that two or three poore people at most with our owne familie shall be as well able to set our ten Acres in seuen weekes as your fourescore men women and children shall digge and set thirtie Acres in the very same time But if you thinke that Wheate or Rie will be set in the beginning of March in rich land as you say in your booke and truly I am of your opinion and the rather because you affirme that the best croppe of Corne that euer you saw was a sommer croppe of Wheate vpon a rich ground now it will be a great commoditie if we may stay to set our richest land vntill after Christide for by some meanes or other we may by that time make some of our land better than other and the nature of some land of it selfe is much better than other then will we set our poorest land first and begin about the middle of September or neere thereupon euery Countrie and place as the condition of the land requireth and so continue setting in the fairest weather vntill the middle of December or there abouts so then we shall haue some thirteene weeks at least before Christide and some seuen weekes after before March It is most certaine that this late setting or sowing being in very good ground is the best to auoide the Mildew and the smut Thus a poore Farmer may well set ten Acres in twentie weekes with his owne familie hauing wife and children as most haue and doe it all by leasure Scholler I must needes confesse that your experience Your mislike or writing will not hinder if it proue profitable hath taught you to say more in this matter than I conceiued of it before But yet seeing you looke for no more increase than sixe or eight quarters vpon an Acre it is not the admirable arte the first booke speakes of which made me mislike and write as I did for many men in diuers places haue had the like increase neither doe I yet perceiue how the charges of setting will be answered nor any matter worthie so great account as you make of it Ploughman What you see I know not or what the cause should be I cannot tell that so many men should be so blinde or so vnwilling to see how to doe themselues and their neighbours so much good but I feare me it is the iust punishment of God vpon vs the sinfull people of this good Land that we hauing so great plentie of all good things do consume with gluttonie and with drunkennesse so great blessings of God alreadie bestowed vpon vs A caueat for gluttons and drunkards and if we should by this meanes or any other expect a greater aboundance than yet we haue receiued it is to be feared that the Lord that seeth how wickedlie we would consume it will not permit such an vnthankfull people to receiue so exceeding great a benefit but euen by our owne frowardnes will quite ouerthrow it Take heede of murmuring and
A NEW INSTVCTION OF PLOWING AND SETTING OF CORNE HANDLED IN MANNER OF A DIALOGVE betweene a Ploughman and a Scholler Wherein is proued plainely that Plowing and Setting is much more profitable and lesse chargeable than Plowing and Sowing By EDVVARD MAXEY Gent. He that withdraweth the Corne the people will curse him but blessing shall be vpon the head of him that selleth Corne. Prou. 11.26 Imprinted at London by Felix Kyngston dwelling in Pater noster Rowe ouer against the signe of the Checker 1601. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVL SIR RICHARD MARTEN KNIGHT MASTER OF HER MAIESTIES MYNT ALDERMAN and twise Lord Maior of the Citie of London IT is well knowne right Worshipfull how great a benefactor and furtherer you haue been to many good workes and profitable to the Common-wealth for by your imployments the inhabitants of sundrie parts of England and Wales haue gained for many yeeres many thousand pounds yeerely How much then those poore are bound to praise God for you and such as further the like good works all wise men acquainted with your great charge and trauell can testifie which I thought worthy to be published and left in memorie for other ages yet to come to your great commendation and incouragement of others to follow your good example And now right Worshipfull calling to minde my former time spent in Husbandrie the most sweete and comfortable kind of life to all vertuous minds that Adams posteritie can enioy if it were not for the wickednes of seruants who discourage many industrious minds and seeing an vnskilfull Pamphlet called God speede the Plough to be so long vnanswered set foorth by some Nouice in Husbandrie as should appeare as well by his writing as that he saith in the same it is none of his profession which hath and may doe much hurt by disswading men from so profitable an imployment as the setting of Corne which when I considered and remembring that I had spent the most part of thirtie yeeres in Husbandrie I aduentured to publish this little Treatise for the instruction of those that will be perswaded to practise this kind of excellent and profitable worke which with my selfe I desire to be protected by your accustomed louing fauour towards me Yours to be commaunded EDVV. MAXEY TO THE CHRISTIAN READER WHereas there are two bookes written concerning the setting of Corne the first commending it the second disgracing it both of them discoursing so Schollerlike that the plaine Countrie Husband man cannot iudge which of them hath most skill for instruction in this kinde of Husbandrie and perceiuing that the second treatise called God speede the Plough hath disswaded great numbers from the practise of setting of Corne I was aduised and resolued to aduenture the publike censuring of this Instruction Wherein I desire to proue how much more casie and profitable Plowing and Setting will be in all places and that with lesse charge then either Plowing and Sowing or digging and Setting desiring to be freed from all suspition to contend for art or learning with any of the former writers And like a plaine Ploughman to shew my opinion what I thinke of the former contention betweene the Plowe and the spade in a word I iudge both these profitable instruments may right well be vsed in their proper places that the Plowe may keepe his place in the fields A little good counsel would haue saued all your labour in writing and mine in answering but I hope it will doe good to the great increase of Corne and the Spade in the Gardens for rootes hearbs and flowers necessarie for household prouision And I could haue wished you the Gentleman and author of the booke called God speede the Plowe had taken better counsell of some skilfull Husbandman before you had published a booke wherein you indeuour to correct and teach an Arte which you acknowledge is none of your profession to haue considered how easelie for the most part our English Nation are disswaded from good causes neither for the glorie of God or the honour and profit of their Prince and Countrie for though it be true that very fewe innouations in the Church or nouelties in a state are not alwaies and generallie good and profitable for all places and for all people yet these profitable inuentions speciallie in Husbandrie should rather be commended then disgraced vntill a manifest error in them be discouered and that by experience and proofe Againe you ought rather to haue remembred and well considered the lamentable case of the poore that liued in distresse in the late yeeres of dearth who notwithstanding the charitable orders taken by her Maiestie her honorable Counsell and other officers of the kingdome to the glorie of God and their high commendation yet was it well seene with the eyes of the trulie charitable that except the King of heauen and earth had relieued the poore people of this Land with Corne out of his storehouses in other Countries the poore and the rich also had been in hazard to haue perished by famine that might haue fallen vpon this sinfull people or by some wofull calamities inseparable companions of penurie and want And let euery indifferent man consider what huge quantities of Corne may yeerely be saued that now is cast away by Plowing and Sowing yet giue me leaue plainelie to giue you a proiect what this would come vnto Some writers of our time account but nine thousand sixe hundred and two and fiftie Parishes or thereabouts in England and suppose sixe hundred and two and fiftie of them to be in Cities and Townes vsing no Tyllage and so account but nine thousand Countrie Parishes and because the author of the booke called God speede the Plough writeth that if a Parish haue three thousand Acres of erable land which is about thirtie or fortie Ploughlands in a Parish therefore mistrusting his iudgement we will admit but ten Plowelands one Parish with another so nine thousand Parishes hath foure score and ten thousand Plow-lands and that if in euery Ploweland there may easely be saued yeerely ten or twelue quarters of Seede Corne that now is cast away which shall be directly proued it will amount to some nine or ten hundred thousand quarters of Graine that might euery yeere be saued in her Maiesties dominions I dare affirme so much be it more or lesse as would fetch hither the Indies Treasure out of Spaine and other Countries farre distant to the great honour and riches of our Prince and Countrie and especiallie the maintenance of our English Nauie with plentifull prouision also of victuals for Souldiers both by Sea and Land to their exceeding comfort and the terror of all forraine enemies And to conclude I wish that they whose hearts the Lord hath endewed with true wisedome and charitie to remember and consider well of this danger from which the Lord hath so lately deliuered vs and let vs all serue that God in the moderate vse of his creatures and not consume in riotous gluttonie
and drunkennes such great quantities of his blessings to the hurt of our bodies and soules the poore being readie to famish before our eyes So I commend thee good Christian Reader to Gods protection and this worke to the blessing of the Almightie The particular proofes of this good Husbandrie shall be seene in a dialogue betweene a Ploughman and a Scholler for the better instruction of plaine Countrie people E. M. A NEW INSTRVCTION OF PLOWING AND SETTING OF CORNE HANDLED IN manner of a Dialogue betweene a Ploughman and a Scholler Ploughman SEeing I am appoynted to defend the profitable arte of setting of Corne though in respect of learning very vnfit yet because I haue professed and practized Husbandrie for the most part of thirtie yeeres and that you the author of the booke called God speede the Plough say that husbandrie is no part of your profession I may hope to maintaine against you by way of argument in plaine Husbandrie that Plowing and Setting is much better and more profitable than either Plowing and Sowing or Digging and Setting Scholler I maruell that my booke doth so much offend you I thought to haue pleased you and all Ploughmen for so commending the olde fashion of Plowing and Sowing Ploughman Surely sir you haue no otherwise offended me than all other men that desire the good of their Countrie and be sorie to see the simple abused and discouraged by your meanes and how you please an other sort of wilfull men that will neither know what may be profitable for themselues nor haue any such heartie loue to their Countrie and poore neighbours as they ought to haue As for your booke howsoeuer you meant it serues to so little good purpose in my conceite that it was the chiefe cause that moued me to take this worke in hand to correct if it were possible the euill humors and preiudicate opinions against Corne-Setting that it hath planted in mens heads and hearts Scholler I am sorie that my booke should breede any euill humors in mens heads or hearts and I pray you what faults doe you finde in my booke Ploughman Sir there be faults too many which being the fruites of your idle houres as you say be not much to be marueiled at for seldome doth idlenes bring forth any profite in husbandrie And it is not my purpose to expostulate with you vpon all particular faults they are too many to trouble the reader with but you shall heare mine opinion like a man of my plaine profession I will tell you my minde what I doe thinke in this argument as well as I can To passe ouer other matters I will begin to defend our old fashion of Ploughes against your strange Plough that you say might be so made and handled that it may goe deeper by a foote more than ordinarie proportioning the strength of the Teeme and Plough together Note that the question betweene the olde fashion Ploughes and this strange Plough is but to proue the Plough apt to set Corne. Sir if you can deuise a Plough that will goe deeper in all grounds for you make no difference a foote more than ordinarie it were good you brought it forth for surely it is likely to proue an implement of great force to our English Husbandrie for with it you must be compelled to plowe land twentie inches deepe or thereabouts and yet I must confesse to my remembrance I neuer saw any Plough though drawne with ten oxen to goe aboue eight or ten inches ordinarilie and that with much a doe and I pray you how many Oxen or Horse will your Plough require to be drawne with for in some places if you make it goe we plaine countrie men will suspect you will Coniure and in many places the qualitie of the mould will not permit our ten inches much lesse your two and twentie Againe what vse I pray you shall the Common-wealth haue of such an implement where either it cannot goe vnles the diūell draw it or may not goe for the euill mould it will turne vp and so your Plough in that place doth more harme than your booke can doe good any where else Scholler Not so sir I will haue my Teeme and my Plough so made that it shall goe well of that depth in such grounds as I will chuse to set my Corne in Ploughman It may be possible if it please God to worke such wonders by your inuention but we the poorer sort of Husbandmen cannot make Ploughs and prouide Teemes of that value and qualitie neither haue we such change of Land as to make choyse of apt grounds to beare the weight of such Plowes Teemes but I doubt not by Gods helpe to plowe and dresse ten Acres of Land as well as you shall doe with your strange Plough or any man shal do with a spade except he digge it two spit deepe so burie the first spit with the second which wil be both extreme chargeable and impossible in most grounds and yet where he may digge but one spit there will remaine needes vnburied specially the Cooch which I neuer saw destroyed but with a sommer fallow or burning the land as the Deuonshire men doe the which killing of weedes howsoeuer it can be done is the chiefe cause that vpon extreame barren Land those countrie people haue good Corne which otherwise The destroying of weedes a chiefe poynt in Husbandry should haue little or none and I desire all good Husbands to consider how necessarie it is for them to destroy the weedes before they sowe or set their Corne that if possiblie they can they suffer not the weeds to sucke out the sappe of their grounds in the spring time and all sommer before they commit their seede to the ground indangering it with such enemies which they may doe in my opinion by one or two plowings more in their sommer fallow aboue ordinarie if the weedie condition of the Land or the season of the yeere doe require it Scholler Well sir admit you doe plowe your Land as well as the Spade can doe it as deepe as your Plough will goe yet as I say you cannot plowe it deepe enough nor lay it leuell and plaine for the setters to worke vpon Ploughman The Corne sowed aboue furrow often lieth not one inch deepe To this I answere first that I will plow it deepe enough for what should set my Corne to grow as well and much better being set in due proportion order when it hath as much hollow loose ground vnder him to spread roote and lie pleasantly in as your booke or the former appoynts or as our sowne Corne euer had since sowing was first vsed and that is but three or foure inches deepe and as farre as I know our english Corne rooteth not past two or three inches directly downwards So then if it roote downewards and spring vpwards but fiue or sixe inches at the most meruaile why you should thinke I should not plowe it
heart with their poore cattell and themselues I shall not onely thinke my labour happely bestowed in writing but all the poore people may thank God as much for the printing of it as for any booke set foorth in our time for a matter of this qualitie and which is of no small importance for the common-wealth of this land But yet I must not yeeld that plowing and sowing will be of like profit for the common-wealth as plowing and setting seeing the same will be done yet with much lesse charge comparing tenne acres of the best land set with other tenne as good sowed which I will prooue by example and tried experience and first it is wel knowne by often triall that lesse then halfe a bushel of very choise seede wheate will set as much land as three bushels will sowe So that whereas ten or twelue great Acres of land will require some three or foure quarters to sowe them the same land may be set with sixe or seuen bushels at the most for there will be faued some three quarters of the best seede Corne euery yeere which is now worth fortie shillings a quarter and commeth to sixe poundes and exceedeth the extraordinarie charge of setting aforesaid by much Fiue or sixe thousand quarters of Graine saued euery yeare by Corne setting all obiections answered and will amount to the sauing of some three hundred thousand quarters of the best Wheate and Rie growing in this Land and much more in Barlie Pease and Beanes and so of all sorts of graine I thinke it would saue aboue fiue or sixe hundred thousand quarters euery yeere in her Maiesties Dominions And yet giue mee leaue to tell you Gentleman that I dare confidently auow seeing both reason doth teach and experience doth proue that an Acre orderly set will yeeld more increase by some three quarters than an Acre sowne which increase at Haruest being added to the other three quarters saued at seede time commeth to some sixe quarters of Corne at fortie shillings a quarter twelue pound as it is now worth in many Countries which will defray the charges of setting double though your Plowmen follow their Teemes giue vs no help And yet this I must confesse that in time of great plentie when Corne is at a low price and where chargeable seruants or labourers dwell Chargeable seruants and ill workemen a great hinderance to all good Husbandire that will not serue or worke vnder fiue pound and a fustian doublet or in such places where their land and themselues are so rich with such times places and persons this poore booke or rather booke for the poore hath yet little to say vntil such time as they be brought to consider that after great plentie may follow as great scarsitie the wealthiest Corne-master and stoutest labourer or seruant may in time become like one of their poorest neighbours Great men in this and all ages haue been subiect to their fall Lasie vsurie a capitall enemie to all industrious husbandrie lewes onely did vse it in England about the raigne of King Richard the first anno 1189. Iob. 1.1 1. Pet. 4.7 Iob was accounted as rich in his time as the greatest Corne-master or the wealthiest Vsurer that liues in our time yet the Lord made an example of his seruant Iob to all posteritie albeit hee was an vpright and iust man one that feared God and eschued euil If vengeance begin at the house of God where shall the wicked and vngodly appeare I write not this against good minded men whom it hath pleased God to blesse with plentie of Corne and yet loue their brethren and poore neighbours some such good men no doubt haue been and yet are in England who may be accounted patterns for others to followe or patrons that is fathers to their Countrie by storing vp Corne in the time of plentie with purpose to bring it forth in scarcitie to sell it at a lower rate for the good of the poore Such good men no doubt are to be praised with gracious Ioseph The murmuring of the people prouoketh Gods wrath who by laying vp of Corne in the time of plenty preserued not only the whole kingdome of Aegypt but also the whole Church of God then visible on earth for which cause his industrie is recorded and commended for the instruction of all posteritie And by the way I wish all murmuring people to consider what it is to grudge and repine against Gods works and to be more aduised how they speake against good Magistrates and such good men as carefullie respect the publike weale of the Land Exod. 16.2 Numb 11.13 Furthermore that it may yet appeare more manifestly that plowing and setting of Corne is euery way much more profitable and lesse chargeable than plowing and sowing and that euerie Farmer may easilie set the third part of his land with his owne familie and two or three of the poorest people only at setting time whereby he may yet haue more leasure to practise and performe euerie complement that shall be likelie to further his increase let him Tyll but the third part of his land as of thirtie Acres ten and so whereas he was wont to giue his thirtie Acres vpon a sommer fallow some foure or fiue plowings as some grounds will require and as most good Husbands doe for thereby they doe kill the weedes which of all things I would all men should most speciallie regard So then thirtie Acres hauing at least foure plowings amounteth to an hundred and twentie daies worke at the least and ten Acres hauing fiue plowings euerie Acre which is but fiftie daies worke at the most so here is threescore and ten daies worke spared in your winter season for Wheate or Rie and as much for Barlie which being in all one hundred and twentie daies worke or there about is very neere the third part of the whole yeere spared for your Plowes and Teemes The third part of the yeere spared from plowing by setting of corne therefore forget not therein to forue God which I wish should be otherwise imployed to some good worke as no doubt but euerie good Husband will finde worke enough for them to do But yet let them bestowe some part of this time so well gained a little to serue God in prayer morning and euening either in their priuat families or with a diligent Minister they that dwel neere the Church one halfe houre in a morning or euening or both if they haue any thing to doe at Church with God or with their neighbours it will be a good meeting place if it be done to good purposes It is a small portion of so many daies spared and no doubt but God will the rather blesse the increase of such as will serue him according as he hath promised and as the Scripture saith Paul planteth Apollo watereth but it is the Lord no doubt that giueth the increase as well in temporall as in spirituall blessings Beware