the Levell made with an hollow Concave for the water to lye hid from the Wind and to come up in two Cups above the wood planted in the Levell and sights planted very Artificially thereto the water in each Cup holding his just proportion to both sights and this is a very good one but very troublesome to remove up and down and to make dispatch when one hath need And in this second form were Sir Edward Peto his Levells made very costly and the Sights of good value whose Ingenuity was very great and the Instrument very good and rich but a little troublesome to carry up and down but I rather chuse a plainer Piece which is very Portable and it is made to fold into another square Staff and so to carry like an Hunting-Pole my Staff is but five foot and an half long made of the best young seasoned Oak that can be got my Levell or the Barrell of it is but four foot and an half or five foot long which Barrell in the midst of it is planted into the top of my Staff thus Just upon the midst of my Barrell is a pair of Iron joynts curiously wrought into the very middest of my Barrell on the neather side of it and at the very over-over-end of my Staff and so much of the one part of my Staff and just half the length of my Barrell taken away with a moulding or rabating plain untill both joyned together with these joynts make one compleat Staff straight and formable onely about a quarter of an Inch taper upward from the bottom to the top that it may not be too top-heavy and the Sights are to be fixed unto both ends of the Levell Barrell that they stand firm and hold water and yet are very little or no annoyance either to Sight or Practise And in the portage of it it is a â—air straight Staff with a strong Pike in the bottom of the Staff and a step to set the foot or force it into the ground where there is no occasion to use it And in the Exercise of it being unfolded it is an headless Cross not much unlike the Surveyers cross Staff which when thou hast done thy work thou mayst fold it up again and walk as with an Hunting-Pole Any good Gun-smith will make the Iron-work and some Gun-smiths will make the Wooden-work also with direction but properly it belongeth to the Joyner The next is the Trenching-Plough or Coulter whose speciall use is to cut out the Trench on both sides with great expedition which is thus made Take a Piece of the best tough Willow about the bigness of a Spade-stayl somewhat strait onely at the neather end it must look upward with a neck like a foot which must run upon the ground and just above the neck must be an Iron or little Coulter about the strength of a Butchers Knife planted in the Stayl where the Stayl must be plated with Iron curiously let into the Wood on both sides through which as also the Wood the tange of the Coulter must come with a Cotter-hole in it above to cotter it close to the over-side of the Staff or rather have two Coulters one about an Inch and half longer and stronger than the other that so in soft deep ground thou mayst use the longest and in dry ground the shortest Whose use is when that thou hast cast out thy Trench and set thy Line thou mayst with this run along thy Line and cut out one side of thy Trench almost as fast as a man can fallow it and then set out thy other side and cut it out also but if thou studiest more exactness then in the foot of thy Staff and in the middle of thy foot plant a little Brazâ—n Wheel about four Inches high that so the foot may bear it self a little upon the Wheel which will occasion it to run more pleasantly but the Wheel must also be curiously planted into the foot with Plates and upon an Iron Axeltree wherwith thou mayst cut out a Pearch whilst some will be cutting out two yards and more true and certain and so also mayst thou use it speedily to cut out thy Turâ— overthwart thy Trench about eighteen inches or twenty inches abroad a fit proportion to be taken up or sometimes two foot broad for if thou wouldest take up all thy Turf as curiously cut square and pared up about three or four Inches thick all of one thickness just at the root of the grass as aforesaid of which thou maiest make exceeding great use which thou must preserve most choicely for therewith thou mayest cover thy bare places of Earth or any low places that thou wouldest raise up to a Levell and mayst have as good Grass upon it within half a year better than upon the other Lands For the taking up of which Turf thou must make a Spade on purpose with a bit looking up twice so much as our ordinary Spades do with a curious thin shoo looking up also whose bit must be exceeding well steeled and more broader at the point or neather end of the bit than at the over end of about half an inch and not above by no meanes which will take up the Turf all at one thickness just at the naturall height a man useth it as he stands to shovell Earth before him This Spade is admirable usefull to cleanse the bottom of Trenches for which use it were very necessary to have another an inch and half narrower than the former for lesser and narrower Trenches which Spades the broadest sort of them are more speedy and more easie for Banking and Levelling high places and great Ant-hills by far than other Common Spades are There is another Tool or two as usefull in these works and no less necessary and this is the Paring Spade or dividing Iron whose bit may be made all of Iron being a strong Iron Plate with a good strong Socket to put a straight tough Stale or Helve into it must be made just straight every way the Bit must be made twenty Inches long the two sides and neather end all well steeled the neather part of the bit a little bellied or square and the sides a little hollow or compassâ—d and the end and sides as sharp as they can be made for the especiall use of this is now and then to cut out a Trench in vallies and low places where thy Plough cannot come at it but principally to pare old Trenches after the first year whose Edges will grow so thick with Grass that thou canst not get thy water to pass currently and to dig it will break thy Trench cut it too thick but with this thou mayst cut it as with a Cutting Knife all along thy Trench or Line very fast and most compleat Thy Stail need not be so long as a naturall Spade-stail it must be kept clean and bright and it will work exceeding easie And thy ordinarâ— Spades also the better
well be too precise and better ploughs cannot be made than their Country affords and could better have been devised they would long since With hundreds more so childish as are not worth an Answer but these exceedingly stifle and choak Invention and will do my Readers Imitation of these rude Discoveries CHAP. XXIX The second Generall whereby I shall descend to the description of the severall Ploughes in use and shew you the defects in some and the Advantages others have and what Addition I can give both from my own Observations or otherwise to make up as compleat an easie Plough as my Experience will make out I Shall therefore confine my discourse to three or four sorts of ploughs First the Wheel-plough I mean the double wheeled plough 2. The single wheeled plough and the foot plough 3. The simple plain plough without wheel or foot 4. The Dutch Bastard or plain Dutch plough Many other sorts there are as some alter in their heads some in their Beams some in their Stilts c. and most in their Shares and all almost according to the Country of which they are of al which it were too endless to discourse but I onely name these because I conceive all these usefull in some sort of Land or other and a good husband had need be stored with two or three sorts of them at all times especially he that hath severall sorts of Lands of all which I shall say but little yet a word of each but I shall reserve the main of my discourse for those very particular branches of the plough that shall make out that I shall give ease therto And first as for the double wheeled plough commonly called the Wheel-ploug and is of most constant use in Hartfordshire and many up-Countries and is very usefull upon all flinty stony or hard gravell or any other hard Land whatsoever after it comes to be beyond its natural temper is an excellent good form a very usefull plow and very necessary that al great Corn-masters have one of these for strength that so he may not force his other plows which are made on purpose for lands in a Tillable cōdition so are made more light portable than these will bear to be but these will go and work well with a great strength when other ploughs will not to any purpose and because much addition of ease cannot be given to this plough which I shall not advise to but in the cases aforesaid when and where other ploughs cannot work these Lands being under an extreme And as to such extremes nor none else will any ordinary Rule hold that I may not work against the stream lest I swim alone I will only give you a short description with the draught or figure therof and as any addition may be given to the plough in any of its members it shall not be restrained from an application to this as wel as to any other This is usualy drawn with Horses or Oxen geered double two a breast and indeed so they draw the strongest but tread the Land the more but why they may not be put single in wet seasons or in dangerous times I know not This Wheel-plough is made of a strong clest Ash-beam about six foot long and is contrary to all other beams in the Compass of it the crook or compass wherof looketh upwards and the Land-handle thereof is placed at the great or neather end of the beam as other ploughs are for it is usually made with one handle and the plow-staff is instead of the Furrow-handle and is very long answerable to the length of the handle the length wherof I much approve and could wish it were observed in every plough whatsoever it tending much to the easie and certain holding of the plough The Sheath is made of the toughest youngest Ash and perfect dry that can be got and set with a very good mortess very much forward joynted exceeding true and close into the beam and driven up so exceeding hard with a bragget behind it to hold it from declining that it stands and will to its work in the strongest land whatsoever The Head is pitched as strongly at the neather end of the Sheath and Stilt as can be and pinned through both and the Share is pitched upon the Head at a very deep pitch and somewhat hanging that so the plough may goe much a shore because the holder usually goes two furrows off the plough wider on the near side the plough And as it is pitched deep near a full yard pitch so it is also very broad being near half a yard and that I conceive arises from the former Reason because of the mans going so far wide of his plough Their Shares are made exceeding narrow and very strong and runing out to a very exceeding long small point very well steeled and sometimes they add a Tush or Phin but they make it very narrow also and so it must needs be the hardness and stoniness of the land not admitting of it And the Coulter stands a little above the Share-point and not before it but rather behind it This Wheel-plough requires a great strength and the greater because of the great length they are made of which carrieth such a long and heavy weight of earth upon it that it adds exceedinly to the burthen of it which may be easily removed in some measure by contracting the plough into a shorter and somewhat narrower compass and taking off as much of the weight and load both of Wood and Iron as the strength of the work will bear upon which it is to be employed yet it being a very useful plough upon some lands at some seasons The Figure expect with the other ploughs There is another double Wheeled-plough it is called the Turn wrest plough which of all ploughs that ever I saw surpasseth for weight and clumsiness it is the most of use in Keut Picardy and Normandy and is called the Kentish plough with us The beam may be made of any wood for the bigness of it but Ash is best but the two handles are made of one forked peece of any wood and the beam tenanted into the Stlit below the Fork and so it runs down into the plough-head and is there tenanted and pinned into the head and as for the Sheath that is a good strong peece of dry Ash tenanted into the beam directly down right but looking forward at the neather end and fixed into the Head somewhat as other ploughs are but the Sheath far bigger downwards the plough-head is pitched at a very great depth or else at random for depth being carried with two Wheeles as the former but nothing like so neat nor easie and for bredth it is pitched just under the Beam upon a straight line and so it ought to be as you shall see anon As for any Shield or breast-board it hath none at all on either side the plough as all other have
but a little peece of wood set along the Sheath forward about five inches broad closing upon the Share just as if you would cut a Die in the midst from corner to corner and place the flat side to the Sheath and the edge forward which is their breast-board The Share is put upon the plough-head with a pan half round upward and flat downward and is or ought to be tushed a little on both sides as our ordinary ploughs are and so runs out to a sharp point They have one Wrest or two some one and no more but sometimes two which I should conceive alwaies and at all times best and this Wrest is to be put upon pins one in the Sheath standing just under the Breast board and the other unto a longer pin or round staff fixed into the bottom of the handle as wide as the furrow and this Wrest is no other but as a round stick about two foot long or rather a half rovnd one with two holes in it to put the aforesaid pins into and at every Lands end this Wrest must be turned on the other side so if they have two must they both be altered also and one placed two or three inches higher than the other and the highest is to be placed broader by an inch and half or two inches and sometimes three inches than the lowermost to cast the furrow cleanly over And for the Coulter that is also moveable in the Coulter hole it being made very wide at every Lands end to which purpose they have a strong ground Oak-plant about an inch and half over that is very tough and with that they will having two pins placed upon the top of the Beam one an equall distance from another and both equally distant from the Coulter wrest or writh the Coulter from one side to another and there hold it till they come to the lands end and there turn both Wrest and Coulter And thus you have a rude description of the Turnwrest or Kentish plough and the Figure you should have would it advantage my Reader half so much as it would cost the cutting but they are so common in Kent all the Countrey over and that so near London that I had rather when thou hast a mind invite thee thither to see the thing it self which will give thee better satisfaction than all the Figures can dot Yet thus much learn from hence that the Land that lyeth so upon the side of a hill as there is no plowing it upward and downward may very well be plowed with this plough and best of all and it is especially usefull hereto or it you have any flat levell peece where you would not have one furrow discovered this will do it also the formost Horse or Ox alway going in the furrow and the nearest alway upon the Land and alway double and I am consident it may be cast into a neater form and made to very good advantage the weightiness and ugliness of it I hate but the Turnwrest conceit I like which my occasions have not permitted me to experiment of which I shall say no more at present but that the Turnwrests to cast the furrow is very good and usefull for the two sorts of ground abovesaid I shall now come to the one wheeled Plough and of that I shall give you also somewhat a large accompt because it is an excellent good one and you may use it upon almost any sort of Lands which the Figure and description of the same which shall be drawn into that shape and form that will admit of more lightness and nimbleness than any of the former You may see the use and fashion of it too at Collonell Blunts near Greenwitch in Kent a Gentleman of great esteem and honour in his Country who hath made very many of them The main Plough-beam is very short about five foot long made of very good wood but small and light as may be to which is another false Beam added below the Coulter hole under the other and fixed to it by a staple drove up into the true Beam with a capping upon the false beam end or some other way the form whereof is not much materiall which false beame is that by which the plough is drawn and gives opportunity by a Standard put into the end of it bored full of holes and passing through the Master-beam to let the plough up and down to any gage of depth or shallowness whatsoever and indeed that beam is the guide of it The Sheath is pitched very forward from the beam into the mold of the Share whose Share-mold as I may call it is made as long as the Head should have been is of the same use as the plough-head is of is made of two smal slips not so heavy as the Head would be there being no head at all the Land-handle is put into the Share-mould with an iron pin and so is the plough-sheath also and there fixed fast with an iron pin and the Share forward made like anotheher Share and then just before the Breast-plate is a hole made through the Share and there is rivetted or else with an iron hook put into a long iron slipe which is made an inch or inch and half broad and so comes up to the beam just before the nose of the Shield board and so runs through it and is cottered upon the top of the Beam lying upon the Shield board and the Shield board is compassed a little hollow in the very breast and so from before the middle begins to whelm and wind towards the furrow and so winds more and more to the very end and this Breast-board is placed close upon the Share which is made with a long point and broad or narrow phin as the land requires and sometimes and any time any ordinary Pan de Share may bee used and placed upon a Head as other ploughs are either with a narrow point for gravell or stoniness or with a broader Phin and long sharp point for mixed sandy earthy Land as well as that fashioned Share and be of the same use as I conceive The Pitch of these Ploughs are about or above two foot in depth and about eight or nine inches in wideness This alway carefully observe that the uprighter you pitch your plough to goe the narrower and the more hanging the broader As for the depth I conceive it is not much materiall because it is born up from the false beam till it come to a true working pitch and in the false beam is planted an Iron Axeltree about one inch or a little more in bigness and about one foot long nine or ten inches before the end of the false beam and put in square into the beam that it may stick fast and at the other end of the Axeltree runs a wheel upon it about eighteen or twenty Inches or may be a little higher or lower as you please which guides the plough from that false beam that
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 but to 7 or 8 l. it loseth not so I have given thee a brief story wherein I would have been more large but having lost my observations upon it which I took when I was upon the very Lands and received full satisfaction in every particular and member or branch thereof but as yet it hath not fell under my own experience therfore I give the heads as I remember as they were delivered unto me upon the place though I have forgot many of them to incourage to the work The Saffron Country is on one side and â—ook of Essex and some part of Suffolk and at Saffron Walden and betwixt that and Cambridge is very much of it in their common fields and truly these Lands are but of a middle worth I have seen as rich land again in many parts of England but it is as I believe loamy ground and of a little saddish nature it will require to be laid dry and sound and the land it self must be very sound wholsom Land CHAP. XXXIX Treats of the Plantation of Liquorish at large I Proceed to another Nationall business in the Plantation whereof we exceed all Nations and that is Liquorish our English Liquorish as wee call it not yet wrote of by any that I could ever see is far beyond the Spanish small dry Liquorish or any other As for the use of it most of you know but as to the profit advaÌ„tage the mystery of Planting of it but few understand fewer practise but that I may be as open and full in the discovery of it as I can in this short discourse I have to make I shal under these two or three heads formalize what I intend to speak 1. Shall be 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 dryest that is possibly to be had of a very deep soyl you must dig and prepare your Land before you set and it must be digged three spades depth and two or three shovellings at the least laid as hollow light as may be you may have it digged out of naturall Land if it be very rich indeed that it will feed an Ox in a summer it is the best for eight pence a rod at London yea for seven pence and sometimes for six pence a rod forty rods make a rood which is a quarter of an Acre which comes to about 4 or 5 l. an acre this is the main charge of all for three year there is no more unless it be a little hoing which will off hand very fast I believe it will not cost above 20 s. an acre more all three yeares 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 more sometimes are not worth above 1 s. a hundred but if your Land be not fresh old Land or extraordinary rich as rich as your best gardens are it must be made so with soyles warm Manures horse-dung is excellent to be intrenched into the Earth it both warms and lightens it and makes it very fit for this service About London is very seruiceable Lands for it so is on any dry soyl whatever where it is rich enough deep Holland in Lincolnshire must needs be very good many of the Marshes that are sandy and warm most excellent that which bears this well wil also bear your Madder-weed that rich commodity I hear that Liquorish grows naturally at VVorsop in Nottinghamshire and about Pomphret in Yorkshire so also I heare your sparrow-grass grows naturally at Moulton within a few miles of Spauldwin in Lincolnshire and so I proceed to my third particular Which is the best experimented way of planting of it Having digged and prepared your Land and a little raked and evened the same you may proceed to the Planting of it therein you must indeavour the procuring of the best sets you can and from the best and largest sort of Liquorish The best sets are your Crown sets or heads got from the very top of the root a little shived down be carefull of this of very sound Land for how soon soever you come to the water your Liquorish will check and run not one inch further and having procured your sets your ground being cast into beds of 4 foot broad all along your plantation from one end to another by a long line you may lay down a set at every foot along the line which line may have knots or thirds at every foot if you be so exact and then a man come with a tool made a little flattish if you will or roundish of the breadth or bigness of a good pickfork stail about half a yard long with a crutch at the over end and sharp at the neather and that thrust into the ground it being made of wood or iron but if flat an iron one will do best and open the hole well and put in the set and close a little mould to it and so you may overrun an acre very quickly in the setting of it and if it should prove a very dry time you must water your sets wo or three daies at first untill you see they have recoved their withered and wanness and then the first year you may Plant your garden with Onions Reddishe or any sallet herb or any thing that roots not downward and I am confident it will 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 off in the taking up and sudden setting 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 post them away by horse back and get them into the ground as soon as possibly the delay of setting spoiles many thousand sets The seasons of planting is in the month of Feb. and March You may the secoud 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 season for which is in November and December then there runs from every master root a runner which runs along the over part of the ground which hath a little sprouts and roots or sciences which will yeeld excellent sets if they be cut 3 or four of them in every set which
which they are to be erected there to be discoursed and described and the common Engineers are very customarily used therto As to some good ingenious painfull Artist little can be added so that there remaines only that I advise to these two or three general directions First That you be very carefully observant of the power and way of the Seas working for although it is possible much Lands may be gained from the Sea yet it is not possible at all times to keep the same when it is gained therefore where-ever you see the Sea get or recover upon any Land be wary there rather study to stop the Sea there on the borders and to divert the force of it another way which will sometime more easily receive a check than at other times and places but if that be not stayable I should advise not to be too busy there but where the Sea loseth and Land increaseth there is a more probable opportunity and there I should rather pitch down my staff There is store of these Lands to be recovered so that I would not perswade any to streighten themselves with hazards and inconveniences when there is such a wide opportunity for the ingenious to improve both parts and purses on the borders of these Nations Secondly Be very carefull of placing your out-fals and water-gates in so convenient parts as may both be best for the firm draining of your Lands and for the firm founding of your Sluces and Water-gates both in relation to the Earth you plant them on and the force or strength of the water that lieth against them or accidentally through some fierce storm that may come upon them this hath been the overthrow of some gallant works and particular rules here cannot be discoursed but through so much tediousness as will tire thy patience which I must forbear Thirdly Be above measure studious about thy Imbankments that a foundation be so firmly laid to the bottom with such materialls as will hold out the triall therefore in every new work some triall would be made of all materials and therein thou must be steered by those the very place affords whether Stone Chalk Wood or Earth or all and the present experience upon the place will be a better Tutor than I can possibly for I much question whether the carriage of any of these far will answer the cost or hazards run therein Be sure your foundation be broad well ramm'd together and so raised with solid matter and workmanship a good height above the highest Tides and curiously turved or sodded on the Sea-side the better is your Turf the firmer is your work for if that it once begin to hole or break look to the main it is in danger and ever be sure your new works be made the highest because an overflowing upon an old work is not so dangerous as upon the new that it quickly and easily overthrows Lastly Be sure of ingenious and laborious workmen an idle slubberer will both deceive the work and Master study not so much cheap wages as to have your work well done for good wages carefull ingenious Overseers of the Labourers is an unvalued furtherance to the work some men have an excellent Genius that way will awe men more with their wise industrious oversight and skill in mens frame of Spirits and wise designing each man to his place and work that al of them shal be as members of the body co-adjutors to the whole one take it from another so as no work be done twice over nor one mans labour bear out another mans sloth but each be helpfull to another so as to advance the main I tell you this is a mystery and a man rightly qualified for this work is worth gold and very rarely to be found I have seen some Bayliffs intrusted herein stand telling a story while all his workmen have stood looking him in the face admiring him for his Rhetorick and this hath pleased him as well as their working many have an easie way of hindering work but few of furthering it and he is a rare man that can sort all his works so into each workmans hand as that it goes on to purpose confusion is through ignorance and sloth a good method or plat-form to advance each mans labour to the best furtherance of a work is difficult requires great ingenuity and laborious study I find it most difficult though I have had as large experience of it as most Englishmen yet cannot accomplish it but many times ran into confusion through mens rudeness and my want of each particular experience in each work the which I instance as a Rock for others to beware and prize and value a good Overseer whose countenance and conversation is such with workmen as will not onely awe and force them but his wise and loving demeanor will compel them to their utmost faithfulness a work in its geares will thrive exceedingly And so I have done at present with this particular till I have gained some more and new experiences and with this Chapter CHAP. X. The Tenth Chapter giveth directions to make and use certain Tooles or Instruments which shall much facilitate the Work ANd for thy further incouragement because Drayning and Trenching is found very chargable therfore in the third place I will discover certain Tooles or Instruments which shall make the work more facile and delightfull with which two workmen and indeed any Ingenious man many quickly attain a handiness and dexterousness therein that can well handle them And shall doe more than many common Labourers doe in one day with their ordinary Tooles and shall work more true and more suitable and commendable to the nature of this way of Improvement which Tooles are all very plain and simple without severall motions or divisions made onely for ease lightness and quickness not for Admiration or Confusion The first is a good Line about thirty two yards long made of the best Water-wrought Hemp and as big again as Whipcord upon a good Reel to wind it upon I prescribe this length because of drawing all Workes as near unto a strait Line as possible may be which length is of use in measuring your Work by the Pearch or Rod as you desire also and no more of this The second is a Water Levell about five foot long the longer the better but that it will be the far more unportatable but four foot an half wil do reasonable well which Instrument many have assayed and made some open with a Channel for the water to run all along upon a three inched Piece of Oak with sights placed at each end true to the water that is each sight of a just proportion from the waterâ— to direct the Levell but this lyeth so open to the Wind and is troublesome removing that it is not worth prescribing Others have used them of seven or eight foot long to be placed on two or three legs as the Surveyor placeth the plain Table
at first chop it may at next by the Root I had the last year a Field of an hundred Acres so thick over-runne that some Acres were as thick that one man could not do above half an Acre in a day I caused them to be spudded up by the Root which was done at two chops with my Spade I was not only freed of them the last Summer wholly but my whole ground is cleansed of them for this year and so I hope for ever I believe the charge thereof was near twenty shillings or thereabout A more certain way I know not For Goose Tansey or Hoar Tansey like Weed I must needs make Proclamation That he that can tell the destruction of it shall do a very acceptable service and for my self I should be very thankfull for the Communication thereof for I can say no more but this Never Plow your Land too long nor out of heart or strength by no means for this occasioneth it to grow more thick and fruitfully and also load your Land hard with Cattell in the Spring and when it doth grow high and strong Mow it down about the end of Midsummer Moon or in the dryest and hottest time of the Summer but the earlier the better and other means I can prescribe none other but in all your Plowings soyl it well with good Dung and lay it down rich and full of spirit I hope some man of Experience herein will help me For the destruction of Fearn I shall prescribe such poor means that thou wilt take offence thereat yet however Experience having proved the truth hereof I will prâ—scribe it viz. In the Spring so soon as it begins to grow up a little above the Grass while it is young and tender take a crooked Pole or piece of Wood about six foot long and let it câ—ook at one end like a Bow or come like a Sithe with which thon mayst strike off all the heads of the Fearn as low as thou canst to the very ground if thou please to make it with a little Edge thou mayst but it will do without And this course thou must take the second time also as soon as it begins to sprout and grow up again which may be within three Weeks after the first And thus having bruised and broken and cut off the head the second time thou shalt see such a destruction wrought as thou wilt admire the Reason I cannot possibly conceive other than this This breaking cutting or bruising of the Stalk doth give a kind of Check or Comptroul unto the Sap which is ascending that it causeth it again to recoyl into the Root and so suffocates and choaketh the life and spirit of it that it descends dowuward and dyeth in the Earth This I am from a very Ingenuous knowing Husband informed which not onely destroyes it the present year but for the time to come also who hath made a more large and full experience of the same than my self hath done But I believe if it prove a very wet Summer thou must not wholly expect the destruction of it But in some parts of the Nation where Fuell is very scarce it wil be thought to be Prejudice by many to destroy it especially upon Commons where they reserve it for Fuell on purpose and is a very great help to poor for Firing yet whether in those very places it be so good as an Acre of Grass I question but there are other parts where it is little worth some places not worth getting yet it is the ruin and destruction of all the Grass it groweth over for whose sakes I have spoke thus much and anâ—sure in most parts it a most pestilent weed CHAP. XIX Treates of the destruction of Goss Broom Brakes c. and how to Improve ordinary Lands by Planting Fruit and shews how to preserve Corn from Blasting and from Crows and Vermine and gives a Description of the Water Persian Wheel AS for your Goss Broom Braking c which in some places wehre Fuell is very scarce and the ground very bad to prescribe a Cure is little Advantage but where either Land is good natured Land or Broom and Goss of little value or else where men desire to Improve their Land to the utmost worth it can be raised to it would be worth entertainment But to give a perfect Cure thereof without considerable Cost bestowed upon it I know none The best means for that is to cut it in the hottest and dryest time of Summer when the Sap is drawn clean forth of the Root and many times this will destroy it But if thou wilt be a good Improver thou mayst destroy it utterly and treble the value of thy land in the doing of the same which is this When thou hast cut thy Broom thy Goss Ling or Braking it matters not at what season Then Plow thy Land and make a Fallow of it if thou please or otherwise take as many Crops as thou pleasest more or fewer all is one to this purpose so as thou be sure to Plow thy Roots up clean and then Manure thy Land with what Compost thou canst get for I believe if thy Land be made Rich and fruitfull with any sort of Soyl whatsoever it will in a great measure mend it But without doubt if thou either Marl it well or chalk it very well and afterward Muck it very well to mollifie and loosen and open the Earth or Lime it well or Mud it well and afterward Muck it over with good Cow or Horse Dung or any other good Soyl as House or street Muck it will not onely Improve it but destroy any of these offences or any other whatsoever that naturally ariseth from Barrenness or Coldness possibly once Manuring may not do it nor indeed canst thou expect so great an Improvement with so little cost because I reckon not that any charge or cost thou expendest whilst thou hast it under Tillage for that brings in thy charge again in thy Crop so not to be put upon this Accompt but that which thou bestowest upon thy last Crop for the last Crop I would advise thee to Manure to purpose and so soon as thy Crop is got Manure it again for it will also bring in thy charge in the Crop of Grass also and again whilst thy Land is young and tender for at this season will one load of Soyl do as much as two when thy Soard begins to grow Tough yea as much as three when it grows Mossy Rushy Filthy This is a most certain Conclusion which I have ever maintained and proved by Practice Ever to lay on Soyl that first Winte after Corning and at one good Soyling have raised an excellent sweet Soard the very first year full as good again as it was before upon the old Soard And this gallant Advancing-way shall certainly destroy both Bryars â—raking Fearn Gooâ—-Tansie also if an thing will do it Goss-Ling-Heath or any thing else
appears by the naturall growth of it in all Countries but for artificial planting I should advise to a middle mixed Land yea though it be but barren it thrives excellently upon as barren Lands as any are in England the coldest stiffest Clay is worst for all sorts of Woods your open loose Lands is best for any Woods or Fruits and the Oak takes not pleasure in your richest soils of all but I question not the wel prospering of it there two may be the cause why so little of it is found upon your richest Lands may be because the Land may or is put to a more profitable use for this I must needs acknowledge that in many parts where Land is rich and dear or lyeth near great Towns and letteth at great prizes the wood being in danger of stifling and spoiling by Wood-stealers the Land may turn to greater profit yet however where Land is good I should advise to some wood though planted here there a tree in hedg-rows where they may not prejudice the grass or shade the ground it wil be not onely an improvement in good measure of the Land by adding to the incom the fruit thereof as well as of the grass but an honor delight unto your self and Posterity The Oak-mast maketh fat fast flesh and long lasting Bacon and will feed Deer Sheep and Poultry exceeding well and profitably I have read of one Oak in Westphalia from the foot to the nearest bough one hundred thirty foot and twelve foot thick and of another ten yards thick which may possibly be but I am sure profit and honour sufficient will attend an ingenious plantation of any sorts of Wood. This is most renowned for Shipping or any the strongest and most enduring works or buildings or for the most curious Wainscot or indeed for any use whatever I shall be brief in all the rest because that much that I have said in the planting of this may be applied to the rest the Barque is of as great worth as of need and use The Beech is also a mast-tree and very usefull and profitable both in the Body Branches and fruit thereof The Body is very good Timber for the Joyners use and for the Husbandman for Axol-trees and for much Building and the bough for Firing and the Fruit for feeding Hogs and Deer and I know not whether for Poultry or Sheep but it makes meat sweet and delicate light of digestion but not so long lasting as Peas or Acorns It delights most in your warm Land it growes well upon gravelly Land and Lands very stony and in the Chiltern Countries and sandy ground and balks not the barrennest Land likes well and better the hill and mountains than the plain The Barque thereof is usefull for the floats of fishing-nets and pantofels for Winter and if you spoyl them of their Barque they die This wood groweth somewhat quicker than the Oak and is more inclined to some Countries than to others especially your wood-land parts The Elm groweth easily it is all heart if it be fallen in his season which is when the sap is fully and clearly down in the root betwixt November and February it takes great delight in ditch-banks and dry places they will grow thickest of any wood whatever and prosper and as I conceive the most advantagious planting them is in hedg-rows or in little Plumbs of themselves As for the Elm-seed I can say but little because I never made experience thereof onely it is affirmed that there is a male and a female of the Elm and that the male Elm beareth seeed and not the female which if it do then the seed when it is ripe may be sowed as other seeds are upon a bed by themselves and fine mould sifted and cast upon them and if they be dry they as other seeds must be watered and so sowed in little rows that a little trench be betwixt row and row that they may not root one into and upon another but so as that they may be taken up again with more ease to remove and transplant where you please You may get Sets of the very roots which sprout forth of it and set them and they wil grow and very many affirm that any Elm or a very chip when the sap is firm proud will grow unto a Set. But this I had from a Gentleman of credit as a speedy unfailing to raise Elm-sets or Plants which is dig round about a well-grown Elm a foot or more from the body unto many or most of the Master-roots and cleanse away all the earth and then cut the root almost quite through with an ax and so serve most of the roots and if you cut some full through you may and forth of both those ends of the root you cut or divide in sunder will come forth gallant sprouts or plants which you must take off with a little part of the root or a little chip thereof and plant it and it will assuredly grow to a good Tree The use and worth of the Elm is little inferiour to the former it is of absolute and singular use especially for water-works good for building where it may ly constantly dry or constantly wet but sometimes dry and sometimes wet it will not long endure It makes excellent plank and good board the best wood in England for Wheelwrights Nathes or Hubs for wheels and good for felly timber also In your second plantation or removall set them in very good order and be carefull of preserving them as a garden from shaking with wind or cattel or from biting or rubbing by all means Some write that in your second removall you may do best to tie some knots of some of the string or twist them like a garland and then set them and tread the mold down about the roots first annointed with Bullocks dung but my self having made thereof no experience cannot press it all I say is a small matter wil make out the experierce which I encourage to The Elm groweth to great worth hinders little ground delights in sound warm Land dry sandy gravelly or mixed Lands but it must have good store of mold by all means it doth not delight in cold moist clays nor spewing weeping Land One Acrs length with 1. or 2. rows of Elms upon a ditch bank at their full growth may be worth 20. or 30l it runneth up generally to the greatest height and length of any Wood in England The Ash is also a gallaut quick-thriving Wood but it takes not so much pleasure in a hard barren mountainous Land as the Oak or Beech do It will grow in good Land and in Land of any nature or temperature almost what 's ever it will thrive reasonable well upon a Boggy ground so the same be deep Trenched to the bottom and laid dry and sound It delights it self in dry sound Land and will grow very fast if it like the Land faster than any
it cannot sting or draw into the ground so is drawn at the end of that false beam either with Horse or Oxen with Cock or Clevies as you have occasion or do desire but because this plough cannot be fully discovered by the most familiar discourse but will require the Figure also I will here give ye it as near to the life as possibles That which is the Standard fastned in the lower beam and runs through the over to gage the plough is made near two foot high and in the over end is made two holes to put the Horse-raine throngh to come from the Horse head to the very plough handles to guide him to and fro and under them divers removing holes and one or two in the beam equall to those in the Standard and an Iron pin put through them both This plough neatly made and very small hath been drawn with one horse and held by one man and plowed one Acre a day at sowing time in a moyst season and as Collonell Blunt hath related to me he hath with six good horses six men and six ploughs plowed six Acres a day at sowing rime in light well wrought Land The Figure expect with his fellows CHAP. XXX Shall discover some generall faults that may be incident to all sorts of Ploughs and give you the description of the Dutch and Norfolk Ploughs I Shal now proceed in this place though not so Methodically as I should to discover the usuall faults of many ploughs of all sorts and most ploughs in England are tainted with some of them 1 When they are made too big both of Wood and Iron that is bigger than the work requires they are the heavier to be drawn carry the more weight with them and require the more strength to draw them A husbandman must have his severall ploughs if he will carry on his work comfortably 2 Fault may be in the roughness and ill compassendness of the Share as aforesaid and when a plough is made too thick in the very breast of this fault are many ploughs in some parts and though it help well in the sudden cast of the furrow and wil carry a great furrow with it yet it goes very sore of this fault are the plough in Holland in Lincolnshire which otherwise have a gallant cast of the Shield board as I ever saw which I have before at large described 3 Is the shortness of the handles by which a man cannot command his plough with that ease and truth as he might do if his handle had length and compass A short upwright handle exceedingly dislike a man having very little power to command the same when the plough is not truly held it never goes easie 4 The straitness of the Breast-board neither made nor drawn compass and croswinding for the cast of the furrow a very great fault to the Ploughs ease 5 The placing the Wrest even with the Breast-board and as long as it or near as long nay I have in some parts seen it longer It is as great a hindrance to the easie and true going of the plough as any I know and yet by very few discerned or reproved I say had I time I would give reasons enough to clear it that a good broad Wrest and five six or seven inches shorter than the Shield-board is best which being at the further end set even or a little under the breast-board and at the neather end where it is pinned either to land handle or otherwise it be set two inches narrower and under the Shield-board is both easie to the holder and to the cattle and a main advantage to the turn and strike of the furrow and especially the plough being made no broader behind than a just furrow breadth 6 And lastly the dulness of Irons and either not clouting at all or else uneven rough clouting and plating your ploughs is a considerable hindrance both to the ease and lasting of â—ste plough And these or any of them all are generalls and will hold let them be upon what plough they will or upon what Lands they wil or in what seasons soever and are greathindrances of the good of plough and Plowing And therefore what fashioned ploughs soever you make take heed of these Rocks and for what seasons soever you make them avoyd them all and then if thou wilt follow thine own Country fashion doe and God bless thee with it I say not that these are all the faults for there are many more particularly treated of also aforegoing but these are such as may be prevented in any common sort of ploughs whatever most of them In al sorts wil put such an advantage to the ploughs ease as with observing the foregoing directions also will be woth thy imitation In Norfolk and Suffolk are very good ploughs in many parts of the Country upon the sandy parts two horses one man will plow at ordinary seasons and almost any land of that sandy nature two Acres of a day many times one man with two horses hath plowed three Acres in one day They seldom go with above two horses and may with one horse and one man and if they plow any strong land that they are forced to put in three or four they set them double and have but one man to plough and drive Their ploughs are very small and light and little compassed all which are great advantages but the greatest is the Land which is a pure sand for the most part and very easie working land yet though this be the easiest yet we have in many hundred places of this Nation very sandy light land very earthy mouldy land a light mixed chissely land and abundance of Errable Land in very good Tilth where men usually go to plow with four horses or four oxen a horse and seldom less but many times more which might as wel if not better be done with two unless at seed time now and then two oxen and a horse or three horses and two men which is a wonderfull charge to the poor Husbandman the extremity of which charge were it but removed would be sufficient of it self to make him thrive and prosper I shall conclude this discourse with a relation I had froÌ„ a Norfolk Gentlman of very good worth and credit in that Country Upon the Marsh-lands bordering upon the Sea-coast a Gentleman set an hundred Acres to a man to plow he covenanted with him to find him horse and ploughs irons and meat for the horses and he was to find onely all mans labour and he allowed him eight horses for the work and for the mans labour that he was onely to find to plow this land the man covenanted to plow this Marsh-land which is a mixed earth we have many thousand Acres as easie plowing in England almost in al Countris for 5d. an Acre performed it he plowed his 8 acres a day he found but 3 men to the work he went to plow
with two Teems two horses and one man to one plough and two horses and one man together in the morning one man to shift them at noon and meat and gear them and then he brought in two Teem in the afternoon two horses in a Teem with the same men and so plowed as aforesaid his eight acres I saw the ground thus plowed the poor man got his three shilling and four pence for his men and himself that is ten-pence a day a man which is good wages in Norfolk It is a wonder that we should be so slothfull when some are so ingenious As for the Dutch plough I have also considered which exceedingly differs from our severall fashioned Ploughs therefore I shall not give you the large description thereof because as it is the pure Dutch plough it is only applyable to Fen ond Marsh-land where there is neither stone nor root nor hard place and the chiefest advantage it hath to east and expedition is in the breadth and sharpness of the share which is made about a foot and a half broad some more and sharp in the point and as thin in the phin as a knife and wrought most curious a good share being worth above twenty shillings which casts up a very grear broad Furrow very clean and easie as is possible out of which I have contracted as much there-from in the description of my Share as I can possibly allow to our uncertain changeable Land to advance the ease which many times alters the temper and strength twice or thrice in one land And then for the Coulter that is also especially applyable to the aforesaid Land but may be used upon any fair pure lay turf being old pasture And thus I have given you the description leave it to thy imitation a good one will cost a mark or fifteen shillings onely say you can hardly have a Smith in the country to work well upon it and far worse upon the share but as to the bastard Dutch which is somewhat nearer appliable to our Lands I have taken from it as much as it will afford me both in the cast of the Shield-board which is very good as also in all the other parts of it and do apply it to the plough hereafter described and shall ingeniously acknowledge I have some branch from every of these roots and from the Norfolk plough and one wheeled plough also from all which I find that the shorter and lesser any plough is made having its true pitch with its true cast on the Shield-board and short Wrest and sharp irons the far easier Of all which having so seriously considered made and tryed them almost every one upon severall sorts of Land and experimented them to the full with my own hands to my great expence shall descend unto my third General head for easing the plough CHAP. XXXI Thereby to demonstrate wherein the chief ease of the Plough consists with the easiest going Plough and the advantages gained thereby I Shall not with the least disparagement to any of them giving them their due praise and honor draw forth a description of the most easie-going Plough I can contract it to the least charge is possible having all these helps and lights and to add nothing thereto were a shame to an ingenious man I will therefore take a short beam deeper one way than another of a tough and dry young Ash betwixt five foot and six foot long rising in the Coulter-hole and strong there but thence declining both wayes for strength and so growing smaller wrought round and smooth my Sheath most exactly fitted into the beam and pitched pretty forward and driven up so close with a little lace or bragget put behind the Sheath into the beam and Sheath just butting at both ends when the Sheath is driven up which shall stand as a Buttress to support it and may be as serviceable as an Iron dog as many use my nearer Handle put upon a Tennant through the same and drawn close with two or three wooden pins and then both sheath and handle tennanted exceeding close into the head being about two foot long not standing upright nor level but beam-handle and sheath hanging from a perpendicular point one fifth or sixth part to the Land on the nearer hand my Furrow-handle with two good round staves planted on my Land-handle as wide in the ends as a man can hold them being very long and wel compassed and fairly wrought my share formerly described pitched true upon my head and drawn up with an iron bolt through head and pan into my beam and cottered up my share standing rather more hanging than the head doth so close and true as that water cannot pierce betwixt them either with a Coumb weelded on rightly compassed laid into my sheild-board placed as high as the earth works up and as smooth as may be to the end my breast not being too thick at the nose nor widening too suddenly and as soon as the earth comes to the middle my Shield-board to widen whelm or compass as if it would lie upon the furrow and so to widen and whelm more and more unto the very end or else a shiner planted upon my share most close wrought compassed and nayled to the sheild-board in the form before prescribed My Wrest a large hand breadth planted under my sheild-board bottom and narrower than it and rather yet narrower to the sheild-board end so that it retain the just and full breadth of my furrow and no broader it both goes easier and helps the cast of the furrow I desire it be well plated too but shorter by five or six inches than my sheild-board and by two inches than my Plough-head my whole Plough boarded up so close as no earth may get into it and plated very well and smooth in every wearing place whatsoevor As for the pitch both in breadth and depth that must be resolved both from the height you make your Plough if high in the chest your pitch must be the deeper about eleven or twelve inches or about ten or eleven and a half if to go single you must pitch it broader if to go double narrower Every common Plough-wright can help you here also understand what is here dirrcted my irons kept both hard and sharp in points and Phin and this plough being once well scoured and clean if it go not with as much ease as nature doth admit or Art hath hitherto discovered I will acknowledgemy mistake but what strength may draw it I shall not determine I have told you what hath doth draw the other ploughs before described and could you shew me all the Lands and all the temperatures at all seasons of those Lands I could easily demonstrate that but to me it is sâ—fficient if that I have both rationally and experimently discovered to thee the best plough easiest that I know or have read of in the world as I have cordially don and
given thee the product of my experience and from each removed the inconvenience and drawn out the quintessence as I am able If this plough be preserved from any earth cleaving at all to it bee as little in compass as any have the advantages of sharp irons and perfect true Workmanship as that it need no Wheel which is a weight and requires strength and is of no use but to guide the Pitch and this Pitch be made so true of it self as it will goe without it and the Wrest cut shorter which gives much ease and makes the plough go more certain and the furrow turn better and all these are as an addition to it I conceive and know less strength will draw it to which if you please you may add the Dutch Coulter it going somewhat easier and is best for the pure turf without stones but the other being kept as sharp is more certain and not subject to be cast out of the ground and will do exceeding well in wrought tillable land if you keepe it a little before the share that it may cut first and one thought wider also but never within the share 'T is true in irreguler extreme land either for stones roots or hardness I am at a loss and for that end advise to the double-wheeled plough which though it will be no otherwise advantaged to ease than as it is well and compleatly made yet it is for strength to supply extremities and cases of necessity without rule But thus much I will say that take or make me such a plough aforesaid described upon any of the aforsaid lands where the easiest and best ploughs are used which I could wish had bin before now discovered which would have saved me this labour and make tryall of it and as the land is lighter and easier so make the plough lighter and lesser and if it go not easier by a considerable part my judgement fails me I am sure these particulars considered and solidly put in practice throughout this Nation may very well save one third part of the charge and toyle of Horse and man nay in some parts I am confident neare one halfe and if to the best plough it will give but the least addition it is satisfaction enough to me but I very well know it wil save one horse in four and I believe one in three as most Countries use and one man in two All that I have said is but to the pitch and making the body of the plough I say againe if any contend for wheel or foot he need but give his plough a little deeper pitch and he may adde either thereunto as wel as to any other and please himself The description of it shal follow in the end of the 33 Chapter And if you object what shal guide the plough for depth and keep it from stinging in clay ground and how may you let it up and down as the nature of your land requires To which I answer that having both in your plough and plough-irons brought your plough to a true and perfect pitch it wil require but litle help herein yet hereby you may much answer your desire in two particulars 1 In your hindmost gears you may at your chain that is put upon your plough-cock or clevies which ought to be made short linked on purpose to take up or let down as you see occasion 2 Your hindmost or Fil-horse at the back-band which may be to take up or let down you may ease your self at plearsue and so I descend to the last General head CHAP. XXXII Containes the Applicatory part of Ploughs use wherein I shall endeavour to hold forth to what sort of Land and to what seasons or Tilths of Land each Plough is or may be most serviceable IN the description whereof I shall in generall say that when lands come to that extremity of hardness as the plough is forced beyond its gage or pitch of Truth and that nothing but force will overcome it then we must be content to lay by our hopes of ease and all our ploughs whatsoever that were made upon that account for it is concluded that all good Husbands will take their seasons which seasons are chiefly for all their Summers crops in Winter when the Land is moyst workable from November untill March and for all Winter crops the foundation of that work is to be laid in Winter as in the end of December and Ianuary to fallow as wee call it al our strong coarse lay Turf when wee may work it wel and clear it up to the bottom which being once wel ploughed in a right season it will work reasonable well in the hardest season the next plowing and so very well the next and so throughout when it is compleatly plowed at the first which first opportunity if it be overpassed by too much business or sloth or otherwise makes all the rest of our Tilths uncomfortable every common Husbandman knows these things And for this Tilth or season of plowing and these sorts of Lands especially being very rough hilly or banky your Wheeled-ploughs will not work but will be cast out by every hill for this use I shall advise you to the plain plough made a little stronger than ordinary with a true pitch both for breadth and depth and because both wheel and foot too will cast it out at every hill and some men cannot hold a plough without either and possibly thy land may be uncertain Land that is some clay and some sand and some mould each of which will alter the going of the plough therefore in this case let an iron foot be made with a sharp edge like a Coulter forward to the bottom of the shank the foot made flattish and very thin at both edges and a little stronger in the middle rising like a Place fish and no thicker and that will cut your hils before your Coulter and keep it out of the ground too from stinging or drawing into the clayes but yet a good Plough-holder with a good Plough will cast this away also in the roughest lands and meerly with this hinder chain backband of his hindmost horse take it up at pleasure and even play with it too in the strongest workable work when another shall moyl himself like a Beast as we say But to hasten when by a drought you are out of work then I say as afore that with strength your wheeled-plough will doe exceeding well and none like it your double wheeled one I mean and your single wheeled ploughs too being exceeding strongly made will tear up any reasonable ground but in regard the wheel goes but upon an Axeltree and that is fixed but in one end in the false beam end also it cannot be so strong as the other by far therefore I advise every good Husband to one of these the body of whose plough may be made to the same advantages heretofore prescribed As for the casting down a
land or plowing any flat land almost any plough wil doe well and so your broad-breasted ploughs will turn over a great furrow though your Shield-board have little compass but as to the setting up a Land or ridging it as most call it I would have a narrow brested plough with an exceeding whelming compassed Shield-board increasing both in the breast by small degrees and in the compass of the Shield-board with a very broad and short Wrest which adds one or two degrees of cast or compass to the Shield board for in this work you will most apparently see the ease and advantage thereof The Coulter having first done his office by going before and dividing out the furrow The Share his in cutting it up clear and raising it from the solid Land The breast of the Shield-board takes it and gives it a cast and turn that it is ready to fall The Wrest keeps its furrows breadth for the horses easie going and not suffer the furrow to drop short of its true place but least it should stand an edge The Heel or hinder end of the Shield-board comes being longer than the Wrest and standing as it were overlooking to see what it will leave and like a Ladies tryal gives the Furrow a sweep or a good check and bids it lye there in its proper place and not stand upon the edge And thus each member having done his office one taking it from another regularly must needs admit of the greatest ease A Saddle-tree is made of many peeces and some compass one way and some another but all to the true compass and easiness of the horse-back so a plough it might be made of fewer parts and lesser compass but that sewer will not give the true compass or cast of it and deliver his furrow upon the best advantage As for your ordinary seasons of plowing your Land being in good Tillage any well ordered and truly compassed plough will do you may help your self sufficiently in the making of your irons if you would have the edge of your lying furrow lye up higher which will yeeld most mould then set your Share-phin the shallower and set your plough the broader and hold it the more ashore the Plough-man going upon the Land and it will lay it with a sharp edge which is a gallant posture for almost any Land especially for the lay Turf beyond compare But if you would have you land lie most even and flat then set the Phin of your Share deeper or holding as some call it set your plough the narrower the holder alway alway going in the furrow and the Shield-board end will so humble it as you may lay it upon a levell this is best for land of which you will make a fallow or cut and burn the Turf or for land you intend to lay flat to grase If the furrow should be all at once turned at the very breast then it would go just as if you would put a Mold to root with her breech forward which plough I have seen but how the furrow would lie I know not nor well what strength to draw it but then there need neither be use of the hinder part of the Shield-board nor Wrest neither or if you would have it cast all in the Shield-board as some do that make no Wrest at all then it will either not clear up the furrow well set the furrow upon an edge or else the hinder end of the sheild board must whelm beyond all president or rule or if you would have it made so thin in the breast as to cut through like a knife and turn nothing till it come to the midst of the Shield-board and end of the Wrest and Shield-board then there it gives too sudden a check too and causeth the earth to choak and mouther upon the Breast board that it will not slip away with ease so that as I said before a medium in all each member doing its particular office preserves the health and comfort of the body These things and many more which might be ncessary I will forbear to speak to are accounted niceties among many the knowledge whereof hath cost me much and therefore am able to affirm that the very mystery of Ploughmanship lyeth upon the knowledge and practice of them and so I proceed to the double plough and the description thereof CHAP. XXXIII Holds forth a description of a double Plough carrying two Fuorows at once and both proportionable to a Furrow one ordinary plough shall carry With a plow that shall both plough and Harraw both at the same time and how to make a plough last a dozen years THe double plough shall be as plain as may be it shall consist of one long Beam of an ordinary length and another short one little above half the length of the other The first plough may be made up compleat in all the members thereof according to the last preceding description of the plain plough except the handles which may be very short only so long as may receive the Beam with the Land-handle and place the Shield-board on the furrow side which may be done without any but a round staff from the Beam to the Shield-board which handles excepted it is one compleat plough in all particulars The hinder end of the Beam is to be left a little stronger because of fastening the other beam firmly thereunto and then I proceed to the making of the hindermost Plough which must be made in all the members and branches like the other except the beam cutt off about three inches before the Coulter-hole and the handles of this at length and strength as an ordinary strong plough is made just according to the pattern of the plain plough Which being done and the handles upon the last plough you must set to the placing of it in his place which I discover thus the first plough standing in its working posture the other plough with is the handles to it to be affixed on the nearer side or left-hand one furrow breadth wider than the other just in the very same posture both for depth and breadth as the other doth and so held off from the first ploughs beam by alining or filling of wood just that substance as may continue it firm and fast to a just furrow and there drawn close and firm to that Master-beam with two small iron boults and a broad float or two of wood all which may be so keyed and cramped up that it may be as one solid beam and so move as the first moves either for height or depth which it must needs do and this I conceive may be best used with a plough-plough-foot to guide the depth of it unless you place a wheel to that foremost beam but not in a false beam because I have not experience of applying this doubleness to those deep pitched ploughs but in the end of that beam you may have as good a mortess as your beam
will bear which is the mortess for the foot and therein you may place a square good strong piece of tough Ash or rather of iron into which you may have your iron Axeltree with its square end sitted into three or four severall holes of it by which means you may set your plough at a working gage and there continue it and alter it as you see cause which plough thus marshalled you may well plow upon ordinary errable land that is in good tillage a double proportion and also upon fair clean lay Turf and this you may manage with two men and four good horses but not either upon stony land or rough land the description and discourse wherof I give not in as of any great advantage above the other plain plough but for variety sake and to provok others to the amendment and perfecting of this discovery yet I for present see not but it may be of excellent use expedition upon many lands in England and to say much more is needless in regard of what hath been before spoken and experience of a good ploughman will order it at pleasure And so I shall onely discover one other plough that will both plow and harrow of it self at one and the same time and it is used in severall places in Norfolk yet casting about with my self the advantages and disadvantages also and finding not how it will so well suit with our common wayes of Husbandry as to be a general advantage I shall say the less only tell you the manner of it It is a common light Plough as all theirs are and as little and light a Harrow which may contain three little Buls about five Tines in a bull which is made light also and fixed to the plough at the one end of the beam so that as the plough turns this turns also and as the plough turns one furrow the harrow harrows it over reaching two more furrows and so by the over-reaching it strikes two or three times in one place which is sufficient for the covering any corn whatsoever shal be sowen upon Norfolk lands but finding these two prejudices against it viz either this land must be sowed as the land is plowed so it will take up a mans time sowing an Acre when otherwise a man will sow nine or ten Acres in one day or else it must be sowed before plowing and then it must be plowed in and harrowed upon the top of it which falls not under my experience having known much land â—all far the heavier and more subject to bind and bury than if onely lightly covered with the plough and laid more open and now thou â—ast the story that such a thing is and may be done may thy own experience be the determiner of the matter but after the writing hereof having communicated thus much to a Gentleman of art and worth do find that another addition may be made thereto which is how to drop the corn corn by corn proportionably to that quantity I desire to sow upon an Acre which if by his assistance I can experimentally make out I fear not to give you plough and harrow and seedsman all at once and all to work with two horses and one man upon some lands and with three horses upon all of this nature al to be done almost within the same compass of time that you are upon the plowing of it it shall not require one hour in the day more which if I shal accomplish you shall save near three parts of your seed also and a considerable peece of labour too and not fail to have a better crop through the blessing of him that waters all than ordinary wise All which I hope to have brought into substantiall experience upon my own lands by the next edition and then expect the faithfull communication thereof One word more which would have come in more seasonable about the description of the plain plough and that is how to make a plough that may last many years ten or twelve or fifteen years yea I heard a workman affirm he would make one should last twenty years As for the manner of the plow it is sufficiently spoken to already all lyeth in two things one thing is the wood it is to be made of and the other is the workmanship of it The wood especiall of the Sheath and plough-head which is the materiall fundamentall peece in the Plough must be made of heart of Oak which to me at first seemed strange but upon a full debate of the matter I find that if it be young tough Oak wrought so exact true in the joynts as may be kept so close boarded up as that water cannot get into any of them and laid alway dry and so kept but while in working and every part of it well clouted plated with iron and drawn close in the throat from a hole in the Share through the Head part of the Breast-board with a through iron pin which is to be wrought somewhat bigger under the head that so it may somewhat strain the share to a more perfect closure and stronger sticking to the head and wel cottered up through the beam being bored with a long shanked Auger through al And al the rest of the wood to be young white tough Ash and wrought compleat and true in every joynt laid up when out of use both out of wind weather out of question a good plough may well serve a mans uncertain life and so having as I hope in some good measure supplied that deficiency in Husbandry Mr. Hartlips Legacy chargeth us withall in the fifth page of his Book and so proceed to the next peece of Improvement The Third Peece of Improvement treats of Welde Woade and Madder three rich commodities for the Dyars CHAP. XXXIIII Onely holds forth Welde or Would as some call it or more properly Dyars-weed IT being a rich Dyars commodity beareth a long narrow greenish yellow leaf and bringeth forth a yellow flower which runs to a small seed far smaller than a Mustard seed very thick set with seed Pliny calles it Luted but Virgyll calls it Lutum and in our English Welde or Dyars-Weed It flourisheth in Iune and Iuly it in many places growth of it self in and about villages and towns and is of a very great use and considering the easie charge of the raising of it and the badness of the land upon which it will grow is of incomparable advantage For first it will grow of very indifferent land not worth above ten groats or half a Crown per Acre yea as some affirm the veryest hilly barren chalky light land not worth twelve pence per Acre will carry it and bear it to very good purpose but unto so barren lands I shall not give incouragement unless where there is little or none better but as any indifferent land so it be of a very dry warm nature it will do very well
unto as much more it hath been sold from twenty pound the best Woad to thirty pound and back again from thirty pound and twenty six pound down to six pound a Tun. CHAP. XXXVI Which discovers the nature use and advantage of Madder ANd so I shall descend to my third Dyers commodity in relation to Dying or Colouring and that is to the story of Madder that colours the rich and best solid Red the which if I can so mannage as to bring it unto the same progress as Oad is brought unto in England I mean that whereas though very rarely it is now planted in some gardens and in some small plots of ground and doth amount unto a very great advantage to the Planter by the sets they sell forth and by the roots they draw to vent to the Apothecary and medicinably to others and yet so make a most excelling value of their Lands indeed beyond credence some have made as I have been most credibly informed after the rate of three hundred pounds an Acre in three years for so long it grows before it come unto peâ—fection and others that have sold it whole-sale a parcell together at the worst advantage after one hundred and sixty pounds per Acre and some have out of small plots in gardens made more than I have or will here affirm and however though I shall be so modest as to confess that much of your garden stuff may yeeld with the cost and labour that is continually applyed thereto as much or more than here is spoken of as I am confident I could name divers things which some preserve as rich Treasure in their brains and will not discover them yet this I shall affirm that this being a fundamentall fruit and such a one as that the plenty thereof will not much abate the market Our dying trade being supplyied herewith from beyond the Seas that the Erection of such a Plantation as may bring it forth wrought up and fitted to the dyars use and so be a supply to our selves within our selves I am confident is a design of incomparable good to the Common-Wealth especially it imploying so many hands as will be to bring it to perfection It is like to prove a staple commodity and will turn land to as great an advance as any seed or root that it is capeable to receive and need no more fear want of markets for the venting of it than wee need for wooll that staple commodity of the Nation And because the discovery thereof is a matter of so great Importance I shall spend a little more time in the discovery of the whole frame hereof And I shall proceed to the description of it There is bute on kind of Madder which is manured and set for use but there is many things like thereto as Goose-grass soft Cliver Ladies Bedshaw Woodroof and Croswort all which are like to Madder leaves and are thought to be a wild kinds thereof It hath long stalks or trayling branches dispersed upon the ground rough and full of joynts and every joint set with green rough leaves in manner of a Star The flowers grow at 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 in 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 daies and yet now in these times of freedom who pursues it For the making out a good Plantation hereof I must do these three or four things 1. Shew you what it comes of and 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 nationall and personall Although it bear a seed yet that seed comes not to perfection here it is therefore to be planted of the sets that are to be gotten from the Madder it self and they are 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 onely 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 Aprill yea as soon as they are sprung forth of the ground two or three inches long then you must be carefull you get sets rooted Every set having some suckors or spinies of root going out from 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 a warm and very deep soil and digged two or three spade graft depth and two shovellings also and raked and laid even and levell and then by streight lines trode out into long beds about four foot broad from one end of your work into the other and set about one foot asunder every way and if it be a dry spring they must be kept with watering untill they recover their fading wan condition you may begin to dig your ground in the beginning so all along Winter till the very day of setting and then you must keep it with weeding and hoing till it have got the mastership of the weeds and then it being a weed of it self wil destroy all other One rod of ground is worth seaven pence a rod diging or if very dry strong ground eight pence but six pence the best ground will require and you may sow some early sallet Herbs or Reddish or Onions or such things as will be ripe betimes among it the first year good weeding is the best preservative unto it and in your setting of them by a line one goes before and layeth every set in his place and another comes and with a broad dibble made for purpose thrust down deep and open a hole and put in the set and for the nourishing of it in case any dye you must plant new in the room of what decayes for the time of the growing of it untill it come to perfection is three yeares the first yeare you may take off some few sets here and there but that is somewhat dangerous but that year it must be kept with hoing a while also and then the second year you may take up sets as fast as you will and almost as many as you wil leaving but as you do in the croping of an Oak one bough for the drawing up the sap out of the root being so thick and strong in the ground that nothing will