and Benefit of Marl. 197 The best way of planting Trefoyl and Clover-grass 198 Of the Plantation of Hops and how Land is improved thereby 204 Of the Mystery of Saffron and the way of planting of it 216 Of the Plantation of Liquorish at large 220 How good a Commodity Hemp is with the manner of planting of it 224 The husbanding of Flax so as to make it come up as much of the Improvement as we can 227 A Discovery of Rape and Goal-seeds Husbandry 232 Of Woad or Wade the Land best for it the usage of it and the advantages thereby 238 The nature use and advantage of Madder 248 The young Gentlemans Heroick Exercise or the Perfection of Horsemanship drawn from the Nature Art and Practice of Riding 254 Of Correction 263 That Teaching is not fit for such Horses as Nature hath not framed fit to be taught 265 Of the English Bridle Saddle and bringing of the Horse to the Block the mounting and seat of the Rider and of the Execution of the action of teaching of the Art 266 Of the bound Leap and Yark 293 Of the Capriole and Cornetti 294 A true and brief way of planting and ordering of all sorts of Orchards either Apple Pear Plum or Cherry according to the Experience of the Author being never before Published 299 THE EPITOME OF THE Art of Husbandry With the ancient Terms thereof as they have been used in several Counties of England Together with the Chiefest Choicest and most Experimental Observations as well of former as also our Modern more Refined Writers in Rustical Affairs Of the diverse manner of Ploughs THere are several makings of Ploughs according to the diverse manner of Countries there are Ploughs of Iron of diverse fashions which is occasioned from the diversity of Grounds and Soyls Some are white Clay some red some gravel chilturn some sand some barren Earth some marled and in many places Heath-ground so that one sort of Plough will not serve in all places therefore it is necessary to have diverse manner of Ploughs In Sommerset-shire about Cicester the Sharre-beam that in many places is called the Plough-head is 4 or 5 foot long and it is broad and thin And that is because the Land is very tough so as to soak the Plough into the Earth if the Sharre-beam were not large broad and thin In Kent they have other manner of Ploughs some go with wheels as they do in diverse other manner of places and some will turn the Shell-bred at every Lands end and plough all one way In Buckingham-shire are Ploughs made of another manner and also other manner of Plough-Irons the which generally are good and likely to serve in many places and especially if the Plough-beam and Sharre-beam were four inches longer between the Sheath and Plough-tayl that the Shell-bred might come more slope for those Ploughs give out too suddenly and therefore they are the worse to draw In Leicester-shire Lanca-shire York-shire Cambridge-shire Lincoln-shire Norfolk and many other Countries the Ploughs are of divers makings But howsoever they are made they are well tempered and go well To know the Names of all parts of the Plough To inform those young Husbandmen that are ignorant of the several names of ploughs I shall express them as followeth The Plough-beam is the longer Tree above which is a little bend The Share-beam is the Tree underneath whereupon the Share is set The plough-sheth is a thin piece of dry wood made of Oak that is set fast in a Mortes to the ploughs beam and also into the Share-beam the which is the Kere or chief band of the plough The plough-tayl is that the Husbandman holdeth in his hand and in the hinder end of the plough-beam is put a long slit made in the same tayl and not set fast out that it may rise up and go down and it is pinned behind and the same plough-tayl is set fast in a Mortes in the hinder end of the Share-beam The plough-stilt is on the right side of the plough whereupon the Rest is set the Rest is a little piece of wood pinned fast upon the nether end of the stilt and to the Share-beam into the further end The Shelbred is a broad piece of wood fast pinned to the right side of the Sheth in the farther end and to the utter side of the stilt in the hinder end And the said Shelbred should come over the said Sheth and Senbred an inch and to go past the midst of the Share with a sharp edge to receive and turn the Earth when the Culter hath cut it There are two long stands in every plough in the hinder end set a slope between the plough-tayl and the stilt to hold out and keep the plough abroad in the hinder end the one is longer then the other The plough-foot is a little piece of wood which is crooked and set before in a Mortes in the plough-beam set fast with Wedges to drive up and down and it is a stay to order of what deepness the plough shall go The plough-ear is made of three pieces of Iron nailed fast to the right side of the plough-beam The meaner sort have a crooked sort of wood pinned fast to the plough beam The Share is a piece of Iron sharp before and broad behind a foot long made with a Socket to be set on the further end of the Share beam the Culter is a bent piece of Iron set in a Mortes in the midst of the plough-beam fastned with Wedges on every side and the back thereof is half an inch thick and more then three inches broad made sharp before to cut the Earth clean it must be well steeled which will cause the easier draught and the Irons for to last the longer The plough-wall is a piece of hard wood with a pin put through set in the plough-beam in an Augure hole Of the tempering of the Ploughs THe knowledge of the tempering of the Plough is very expedient and necessary for a Husbandman that he may plough and turn clean and make no Rest-balks A Rest-balk is where the Plough biteth at the point of the Culter or Share and cutteth not the ground clean to the Furrow that was lately ploughed but leaveth a little Ridge standing between the which breeds Thistles and other Weeds All these Ploughs should have all a like manner of tempering in the Irons Howsoever one may temper for one thing in two or three places as for deepness the foot is one the setting of the Culter is another and the third is at the Plough-tayl where are two Wedges that are called Slote-wedges the one is in the Slote above the Beam and the other is in the said Slote under the Plough-beam sometimes the Husbandman will set both above or both underneath but always let him take good heed and keep one general Rule That the hinder end of the Share-beam always touch the Earth that it may kill the Worms or else it goeth not truly The
again and then it will yield good store of Sets to spare which cannot be had any other way It must be taken up at Midsummer and then set as aforesaid And when that you have got your Saffron then you must set it a drying and that you must do make a Kilne of Clay not half so big as a Bee-hive and very like it will be made with a few little sticks and Clay and serve excellently well for this service A little fire of Charcoal will serve to dry it but it must be very carefully tended Three pound of wet Saffron will make one of dry An Acre of Land may bear fourteen or fifteen pounds of Saffron if very good but if seven or eight pounds it will do the work and one Acre of it will be managed with no great charge I do not believe it can come to 4 l. an Acre it hath been sold from 20 s. a pound to 5 l. a pound It is an excellent advantage and brings in at worst a saving bargain but it may possibly be worth 30 or 40 l. an Acre but if it come to 7 or 8 l. it loseth not The Saffron-Country is on one side and Nook of Essex and some part of Suffolk at Saffron-Walden and betwixt that and Cambridge hath very much of it in their Common-fields And truly these Lands are but of a middle worth I have seen as rich Lands again in many Parts of England but it is as I believe Loamy Ground and of a little saddest Nature It will require to be laid dry and sound and the Land it self must be very sound and wholesom Of the Plantation of Liquorish at large I Proceed to another National Commodity in the Plantation whereof we exceed all other Nations and that is Liquorish our English Liquorish as we call it being far beyond the Spanish Liquorish or any other The planting of it few understand and fewer practise That I may be open and full in the discovery of it I shall under two or three Heads formalize what I intend to express 1. To discover the best Land to bear it 2. The best way I can find practised to plant it 3. The profits and advantages of it The best Land to raise your Liquorish upon is your richest you can get or make your warmest you can find out the soundest and the dryest that is possibly to be had of a very deep soil you must dig and prepare your Land before you set and it must be digged three Spades deep and two or three shovelings at the least laid as hollow and as light as may be You must have it digg'd out of natural Land if it be very rich Land indeed that it will feed an Ox in a Summer it is the best for eight pence a Rod at London forty Rods make a Rood which is a quarter of an Acre which comes to about 4 or 5 l. an Acre and this is the main charge of all for three years there is no more unless it be a little hoing which rids off of the hands very fast I believe it will not cost above 20 s. an Acre more in all the three years both in setting and all the dressings of it besides the Sets and Land the Sets being doubly trebly worth your money Sets have been sold for 2 s. the hundred but if your Land be not fresh old Land or extraordinary rich and as rich as your best Gardens are it must be made so with Soils and warm Manures Horse-dung is excellent to be intrenched into the Earth it both warms and lightens it and makes it fit for this service About London are very serviceable Lands for it and so is any dry Soil whatsoever where it is rich enough and deep that which bears this well will also bear your Moulder Weed that rich Commodity Having digged and prepared your Land you may proceed to the planting of it and therein you must endeavour to get the best Sets you can and from the best and largest sorts of Liquorish The best Sets are your Crown-sets or heads got from the very top of the Root a little shived down be careful of this of very sound Land for how soon soever you come to water your Liquorish will check and run not one inch further and having procured your Sets your Ground being cast into Beds of four foot broad all along your Plantation from one end to another with a long Line you may lay down a Set at every foot along the Line which Line may have knots and threds at every foot if you will be so exact and then a man may come with a Tool made a little flattish or roundish of the bredth or bigness of a good Pickforks-tayl about half a yard long with a Crutch at the over-over-end and sharp at the nether and that thrust into the ground it being made of Wood or Itch but if flat an Iron will do best and open the hole well and put in the Set and close a little Mould to it and so you may over-run an Acre very quickly in the setting of it and if it should prove a very dry time you must water your Sets two or three days at the first until that you see that they have recovered their withered waneness and then the first year you may plant your Garden with Onions Radishes or any Sallet-herb or any thing that roots not downward and I am confident it would be better too because it will prevent some weeding and for the second it must be hoed and kept from Weeds too and a little the third but one thing be very curious of in the taking up and sudden setting of thy Sets as soon as took up set again but if you fetch from far then as soon as taken up put a little Mould and poste them away by Horse-back and get them into the ground as soon as possibly the delay of setting spoils many thousand Sets The seasons of planting is in the months of February and March you may the second year take some Sets from your own stock but be very curious thereof but the third year you may take what you please and in the taking of the Liquorish up the best seasons for which is November and December there will run from every Master-root a Runner which runs along the over-part of the ground which hath little Sprouts and Roots or Sciens which will yield excellent Sets if they be cut three or four of them in every Set which may be about four or five inches long which is also to be planted and is as good as the Crown-set also if it be any thing a moist time you may take slips from the leaf or branches and set them and then some of them will grow but they may be set betwixt the other to thicken lest they should fall The third Particular is the profit and advantage that may be made thereby which is very considerable but it is also subject to the ebbings and flowings of the Market
tempering to go broad or narrow is in the setting of the Culter and with the driving of the same Wedges fore-wedge and hind-wedge which should be made of dry wood also the setting on of his share helpeth well and is a cunning point of Husbandry which mendeth and pareth much ploughing it must lean much into the Furrow and the point must not stand too much up nor down nor too much into the Land nor into the Furrow Some Ploughs have a Band of Iron triangle-wise set there as the Plough-ear should be that hath three nickes on the further side and if the Husbandman will have his Plough to go a narrow Furrow as a side Furrow should be then he must set his Foot-team in the nick next to the Plough-beam and he will go an ordinary breadth he setteth it in the middle nick that is best for stirring and if he would go a broad Furrow he setteth it in the uttermost nick that is the best for following the which is a good way to keep the Brede sound tempered but it serveth not the deepness and some men have instead of the plough-Plough-foot a piece of Iron set upright in the further end of the Plough-beam they call it a Cock made with two or three nicks and and that serveth for deepness The Ploughs that go with Wheels have all a straight Beam and may be tempered in the Iron as the other are for the breadth but their most special temper is at the Bolster where the Pâ—ough-beam lyeth and that serveth for deepness and for breadth They are good on even Ground that lyeth light but they are far more costly then the other Ploughs And though these Ploughs be well tempered for one manner of Ground that temper will not serve for another manner of Ground but it must rest in the discretion of the Husbandman to know when it goeth well Necessary things that belong to a Plough Cart or Wain BEfore the Husbandman begins to plough he must have his Plough well ordered and his Plough-Iron his Oxen or Horses and all the Gere that belongeth to them that is to say Bows Yokes Lades Stickings Wrethyne Teams And before he doth lade his Corn he must have a Wain a Capiock or pair of Sleths Wain rope a Pitchfork This Wain is made of divers pieces that will require great reparation that is to say the Wheels which are made of Nathes Spokes Tresses and Dowles they must be well fettered with wood or Iron and if they are Iron-bound they are much the better although they are the dearer at the first yet at length the Husbandman shall find them better cheap for a pair of Wheels Iron-bound will wear out seven or eight pair of Wheels and go round and light after the Oxen or Horses to draw Howsoever on Moorish Grounds and soft the other Wheels are better because they are broader on the sole and will not go so deep They must have an Axletree clout with eight Wain clouts of Iron two Limpins of Iron in the Axletree end two Axle pins of Iron or else of tough hard wood The body of the Wain of Oak the Staves the nether Rathes the over Rathes Cross-somner the Keys and Py-staves And if he go with a Horse or a Mare to plough then must he have his Hombers or Collers Holmes whited Traises Swingleters and Tog Also a Cart made of Ash because it is light and like stuff to the Wain and also a Cart-Saddle Back-bands and Belly-bands and a Cart-ladder behind when the Husbandman shall carry any Corn or other Provision In many Countries there are Wains that have Cart-ladders both behind and before Also the Husbandman must have an Ax a Hatchet a Hedging-bill a Pin-auger a Rest-auger a Hail Spade and a Shovel many other things are belonging to Husbandmen which will be very costly therefore it will be necessary for him to make his Yokes Ox-bows Stoles and as many other things as he can of his Plough-gere Whether is better a Plough of Horses or a Plough of Oxen. IN some places a Horse-plough is better then an Ox-plough that is to say in every place where the Husbandman hath several pastures for the Horses may be teddered or tyed upon their Leys Balks or Hades whereas Oxen may not be kept and it is but in few places that they are used to be teddered And Horses will go faster then Oxen on even or light Ground and quicker in Carriages but they are far more costly to keep in Winter for they must have both Hay and Corn to eat and Straw for Litter they must be well shod on all four feet and the Gear that they draw with is more costly then that of Oxen and will last but for a short time The Oxen will eat straw and a little Hay the which is not half the cost that is required for Horses neither are they shod Therefore where the Husbandman hath several pastures to put his Oxen in when they come from their work there the Ox-plough is the better For an Ox must not endure his work to labour all day and then to be put to the Commons or else before the Herdmen all night without meat and to go to his labour in the morning But if he be put in good pasture all night he will labour lustily all the day Moreover Oxen will plough in tough Clay and hilly Ground where Horses will stand still If any Disease come to the Horse or the Horse grows old bruised or blind then he will be little worth and if any Disease come to an Ox that he grows old bruised or blind for a small matter he may be fatted and then he is mans meat and as good or better then ever he was whereas when the Horse dyes he is but Carrion Of Horses and Mares to draw A Husbandman cannot be without Horses or Mares or both and that more especially if he go with a Horse plough he must have both his Horses to draw and his Mares to bring Colts to uphold his stock the Mares must not bear Sacks or be ridden upon or go Journeys when they are with Fole and especially when they have gone with Fole twenty or twenty three weeks for then then there is great danger for if she be then ridden upon and set up hot she will cast her Fole which will prove a great loss to him that ownes her For she will labour and bear when she hath foaled and draw when she is with Foal as well as the Horse It is convenient for the Husbandman to know when his Mare should be horsed It is the common saying that she will take Horse within nine or ten days next after she hath foaled but I am not altogether of that opinion and if she so do she will not hold thereto for that Horse doth force and drive her to it but twenty days after is time enough to bring her to a Horse for otherwise she will not hold to it except she be very eager of horsing and
Blossoms and all chop them very small and then sethe them in a Pan of twenty Gallons with running Water till it begin to grow thick like a Jelly then let him take two pound of Sheep-suet melted and a pottle of old Piss and as much Brine made with Salt Let him put all into the said Pan and stir it about and then strain it thorow an old Cloth and put it into what Vessel he will And if his sheep be new clipped then let him make it luke-warm and then wash them therewith with a Sponge or a piece of an old Mantle or of a folding of such soft Cloth or Wool for spending too much of his Salve And at all times of the year he may use it as he shall have occasion Let him make wide sheds in the wool of the sheep and anoint them with it and it will heal the scab and kill the sheeps Lice neither will it hurt the Wool in the sale thereof And those that are washed will not be scabby again if they are well fed for that is the best Grease that the Shepherd can grease the sheep withal to grease him in the mouth with good meat which is a great preservation of sheep from rotting except there come Mildews for a sheep will chuse the best if he have plenty To grease Sheep IF any Sheep be leabed the Shepherd may perceive it by the biting rubbing or scratching with his Horn and most commonly the Wool will rise and be thin or bare in that place Then let the Shepherd take him and shed the Wool with his fingers there where the scab is and with his finger let him lay a little Tar thereupon and stroke it in length at the bottom of the Wool that it be not seen above and so let him shew the Wool and lay a little Tar thereupon till he have passed the sore and then it will go no further To belt Sheep IF any Sheep ray or be filled with Dung above the Tayl let the Shepherd take a pair of Shears and clip it away and let him cast dry Moulds thereupon and if it be in the heat of Summer it should be rubbed over with a little Tar to keep away the Flies It is necessary that a Shepherd have a Board set fast to the side of his little Fold to lay his sheep upon when he handleth them and a hole bored in the Board with an Augur and therein a grained stake of two foot long to be set fast to hang his Tar-box upon that it may not fall A Shepherd also should not go without his Dog his Sheep-hook and a pair of Shears and his Tar-box either with him or ready at his Sheepfold and he must teach his Dog to bark when he would have him to run and to leave running when he would have him or else he is no right Shepherd His Dog must he taught when he is a Whelp otherwise it will be hard to make an old Dog stoop or to be plyant To wash Sheep IN June is the time to shear Sheep and before that they are shorn they must be very well washed which as to the Owners sale of the Wool is a very profitable help and so to the Cloth-maker but let the Shepherd beware that he put not too many sheep into a Pen at one time neither at washing nor at shearing for fear of murthering or over-pressing of their fellow and that not any of them go away till that they are clean washed Let the Shepherd hold the sheep by the head in the water and let him hold it high enough to preserve from drowning To shear Sheep LEt the Owner give his Shearers a special charge to take heed of their shears lest they twitch the sheep and especially for pricking with the point of the shears and that the Shepherd be always ready with his Tar-box to salve them And let him be sure that they are well marked both Ear-mark and Pitch-mark and Robel-mark and let the Wool be well folded or wond with a Wool-wind by one that hath good skill therein the which shall very much advance the sale thereof How to draw out and separaete the bad Sheep from the good WHen the Shepherd hath shorn his sheep it will then be his best time to draw and separate them in divers manners the sheep that he will have fed by themselves the Ews by themselves and the Share-hogs and Theves by themselves the Lambs by themselves the Weathers and the Rams by themselves if he have so many pastures for them for the biggest will beat the weakest with his head And of every sort of sheep it may happen that there are some that like not but are weak those should be put in the fresh Grass by themselves and when that they are a little cured as he sees occasion he may sell them The often change of Grass is very wholesom and healthful for all manner of Cattel If a Sheep have the Mathes THe Shepherd may perceive this disease by the sheeps biting or frisking or shaking of the Tayl This distemper is most commonly moist and wet and if it be nigh unto the Tayl it is oftentimes green and filled with the sheeps dung and then the Shepherd must take a pair of shears and clip away the Wool bare to the skin let him take a handful of dry Moulds and cast them upon the wet to dry it and then wiâ—e the Moulds away and lay Tar there where the Mathes were and a little further Let the Shepherd thus look to them every day and cure them if there be occasion Of the Blindness of Sheep THere are some Sheep that will be blind for a season and yet mend again Let the Shepherd put a little Tar in his Eye this is the common Medicine that the Shepherds use Of the Worm in the Sheeps Foot and Help thereof THere are some Sheeps Feet that have Worms in them which makes them to halt Let the Shepherd take the sheep and look betwixt his Cleft and there is a little hole as much as a great Pins head wherein groweth five or six black hairs an inch long or more Let the Shepherd take a sharp-pointed Knife and slit the skin a quarter of an inch long about the hole and as much beneath and put his one hand in the hollow of the foot under the hinder Cleft let him set his Thumb above almost at the slit and thrust his finger underneath forward and with his other hand take the black hairs by the end or with the Knifes point and pull all the hairs by little and little and thrust after his other hand with his finger and his Thumb and there will come out a Worm like a piece of flesh nigh as much as a little finger And when it is out let him put a little Tar into the hole and it will quickly be cured Of the Blood and the timely Remedy of it THere is a sickness amongst Sheep which is called the Blood of which they
straw and so depart your Garden till March unless it be to bring in Dung. Lay on some in the Winter to comfort and warm the Roots your old Dung is best rather none then not rotten And in April help every hill with a handful or two of good Earth when the Hop is wond upon the Pole but in March you will find unless it hath been tilled all Weeds But if you have pulled down your hills and laid your Ground as it were level it will serve to maintain your hills for a long time but if you have not pulled down your hills your shall with your Ho as it were undermine them round till that you come near to the principal and take the upper or younger Roots in your hand discerning where the new Roots grow out of the old Sets but cut no Roots before the beginning of March or end of April The first year of dressing your Roots you must cut away all such as grew the year before within an inch of the same and every year after cut them as close to the old Roots Those that grow downward are not to be cut they are those that grow outward which will incumber your Garden The difference betwixt old and new easily appears You will find your old Sets not increased in length but a little in bigness and in few years all your Sets will be grown into one and by the colour also the main Root being red the other white But if this be not yearly done then they will not be perceived and if your Sets be small and placed in good Ground and the hill well maintained the new Roots will be greater then the old if they grow to wild Hops the stalk will wax red pull them down and plant new in their places As for the annual charge of the Hop-Garden after it is planted the dressing the Hills the Allies the hoing them the poling them and tying to the Poles and ordering the Hops is usually done for forty shillings an Acre together with pulling drying and bagging by the day And so I proceed to the drying of them which may be upon any ordinary Kilne with any Wood that is dry but not too old or else good sweet Rye-straw will do well but Charcoal best of all They must be laid about nine or ten inches thick and dryed a good while on that side and then turned upside down and dryed as much on the other side about twelve hours will dry a Kilne full which must be followed night and day then laid up in a close Room upon a heap together for a month if your Markets will give you way to frume and forgive again when the stalk begins to be brittle and the leaf also begins to rub then the Hop is dryed sufficiently but tread them not while they are hot it will tread them to dust and then either against Sturbridge-Fair or what other Markets you provide for you may bag them up close and hard either to 200 a Quarter And so I come to my next Particular to shew you the profit of them One Acre of good Hops may possibly be worth at a good Market forty fifty sixty pounds an Acre may bear eleven or twelve hundred weight possibly some have done more many ten but grant but eight hundred they may sometimes be worth not above one pound four shillings the hundred and some other times they have been worth twelve or fourteen pound a hundred and usually once in three years they bring money enough It is usually a very good Commodity and many times extraordinary and our Nation may ascribe unto it self to raise the best Hops of any other Nation There 's an old Saying Heresie and Bear Hopt into England in one year Of the Mystery of Saffron and the way of planting of it THere is another very rich Commodity wherein our Nation hath the Glory and yet it is a very Mystery to many Parts of it they know not whether such a thing grows in England and yet none such so good grows in the World beside that I have ever heard or read of and that is Saffron It is a most soveraign and wholesom thing and if it take right it is very advantagious and costly for price It hath its ebbings and its flowings as all other things have I shall briefly give you the story of it Good Land that is of the value of 20 l. an Acre being well husbanded tilled and fitted or worser Land being well manured and brought to perfect Tillage will serve the turn but the better the better for the work The season is about Midsummer when it is to be set that being the season when they usually take up or draw their Sets or Roots and old store when they may be had and no time else The Land being brought into perfect Tillage the best way is to make a Tool like a Ho in operation but as broad as six of them and with that they draw their Land into ranges open as it were a Furrow about two or three inches deep and there place their Sets or Roots of Saffron about two or three inches asunder which Roots are to be bought by the Strike sometimes dearer and sometimes cheaper and are very like to Onions an Onion about an inch and a half over and as soon as they have made one Furrow all along their Land from one end to another then they after that it is set begin in another and draw that which they raise next to cover this and so they make their Trench and cover the other they keep one depth as near as may be which Ranges or Furrows are not above three or four inches distance that so a Ho of two or three inches distance may go betwixt them to draw up the Weed which being set and covered it may come up that Summer but it dies again yet it lives all Winter and grows green like Chives or small Leeks And in the beginning of Summer it dyeth wholly as by the blade of it is as to appearance let one come and take a Ho and draw all over it and cleanse it very well and then will come up the Flower without the Leaf In September the Flower of it appears like Crocus that is blew and in the middle of it come up two or three Chives which grow upright together and the rest of the Flower spreads broad which Chives is the very Saffron which you may take betwixt your fingers and hold it and cast away all the rest of the Flower and reserve that only and so they pick it and they must pick it every morning early or else it returns back into the body of it to the Earth again until the next morning and so from one to another for a months space it will bear Saffron You must get as many Pickers as may overcome it before it strike in at the very nick in the morning It will grow to bear a Crop and then it must be taken up and planted new
perfection and others that have sold it by whole Sale a parcel together at the worst advantage to a hundred and sixty pounds an Acre and some have out of small Plots of Gardens made more then I have or will here affirm and however this being a fundamental Fruit and such a one as that the plenty thereof will not much abate the Market or dying Trade being supplyed herewith from beyond the Seas that the Erection of such a Plantation as may bring it forth wrought up and fitted to the Dyers use and so to be a supply to our selves within our selves It would be a good design to the Nation as it imploys so many hands to bring it to perfection It turns Land to as great an advantage as any Seed or Root that is capable to receive it and needs no more fear want of Markets for the venting of it than we need for Wool that Staple-Commodity of the Nation I shall proceed to the Description of it There is but one kind of Madder which is manured and set for use but there are many things like thereto as Goose-grass soft Cliver Ladies-Bedshaw Woodroof and Crosswort all which are like to Madder-leaves and are thought to be wild kinds thereof It hath long stalks or trailing branches dispersed upon the ground rough and full of joynts and every joynt set with green and rough Leaves in manner of a Star the flowers grow at the top of the branches of a faint yellow colour after which comes the seed round and green the Root creepeth far abroad within the upper Crust of the Earth intangling one Root into another and when it is green and fresh the Root is of a reddish colour it is small and tender but gathers and runs into the ground just like an Ivy along a House or Tree It is a Commodity of much value Patentees strove hard for it and Patents were gained about it in the late Kings days For the making out of a good Plantation I must observe these three things 1. Shew you what it comes of how to plant it and preserve it 2. How to get it and use it to bring it to saleable Madder 3. The benefit and advantage of it will be National and Personal Although it bear a seed yet that seed comes not to perfection it is therefore to be planted from the Sets that are to be got from the Madder it self and they are to be bought in many Gardens in London who keep up that Plantation for the advantage of selling their Sets and Roots Physically to the Apothecaries only all the skill is to distinguish of the goodness thereof And for the discovery thereof first know the season of getting or rather drawing them which is in March and April yea as soon as they are sprung forth of the ground two or three inches long then you must be careful to get Sets rooted every Set having some suckers or spinies of Root going out of them they must be slipped from the main Root and these Sets as soon as ever took up put into some Basket with a little Mould and posted to the place where they are to be set the sooner the better and then your Ground being very rich it cannot be too rich for this Commodity however it must be of a warm and a very deep Soil and digged two or three Spades graft depth and two shovellings also raked and laid even and level and then by straight Lines trod out into long Beds about one foot broad from one end of your Work unto the other and set about one foot asunder every way and if it be a dry Spring they must be kept with watering until they recover their fading wane condition You may begin to dig your Ground in the beginning and along all Winter till the very day of setting and then you must keep it with weed and hoing until it have got the mastership of the Weeds and then it being a Weed it self will destroy all others One Rod of Ground is worth seven pence a Rod digging or if very dry strong Ground eight pence but six pence the best You may sow some early Sallet-herbs as Radish or Onions of such things as will be ripe betimes among it The first year good weeding is the best preservative unto it and in your setting them by a little Line one goeth before and layeth every Set in his place and another comes and with a broad Dibble made for the purpose thrusts down a deep and open hole and puts in the Set and for the nourishing of it in case any dye you must plant new in the room of it for the time of the growing of it until that it come to perfection is three years The first year you may take off some few Sets here and there but that is somewhat dangerous for that year it must be kept with hoing a while also then the second year you may take up Sets as fast as you will and almost as many as you will leaving but as you do in the cropping of an Oak the bough for the drawing up of the sap out of the Root being so thick and strong in the ground that nothing will almost decay it If then you can get it for the use of the Drugsters and the Apothecaries and the Sets to plant again in the taking up of every Root there will be one runner which hath little buds on it which may be divided and cut into a fingers length each planted with one bud out of the ground set upright which makes very excellent good Sets one Runner will make many Sets but these Sets cannot be got up until the Madder be taken away And having thus preserved it until it come to a good Crop having curiously dryed it as you do your Hops to a just and perfect gage of drought There is a Mystery that is so pare off the husks that it may if it be possible as the Wheat is ground be flaked or flayed that it may go all one way which sort they call the Mull-Madder is little worth not above nine or ten shillings a hundred and then you must take out the second sort called the number O which is the middle Rind and is not worth so much as the third sort called the Crop-Madder by one sixth part and this Crop-Madder is the very heart and pith of it inclining to yellow this is lesser in quantity but little better in quality by far Sometimes the best Madder is worth 8 or 9 l. a hundred and the number O is worth 6 l. 6 s. 8 d. sometimes it is not worth above 4 or 5 l. a hundred Some Dyers use of this Commodity above an hundred pound a week a man Now as it is planted in Gardens unspeakable advantages are made thereby and should it hold a proportion when it comes to be made up and compleated to the Dyers it would prove the richest Commodity that I know sowed in England THE YOUNG GENTLEMANS Heroick Exercise OR THE Perfection of