a manner do spoyl With feeding so low and so long And therefore that Champain Field Doth seldom good Winter Corn yeeld By Cambridge a Town I do know Where many good husbands do dwel Whose losses by Lossels doth shew More here than is needfull to tell Determine at Court which they shall Performed is nothing at all The Champain robbeth at night And proleth and filcheth by day Himself and his Beasts out of sight Both spoyleth and maketh away Not onely thy Grass but thy Corn Both after and ye'er it be shorn Pease bolt with thy Pease he will have His houshold to feed and his Hog Now stealeth he now will he crave And now will he cozen and cog In Bridewell a number be stript Less worthy than Thief to be whipt Lord if you do take them what stirrs How hold they together like Burs For Commons these Commoners cry Inclosing they may not abide Yet some be not able to buy A Cow with a Calf by her side Nor lay not to live by their work But Theevishly loyter and lurk The Lord of the town is too Blame For these and for many faults moe For that he doth know of the same Yet lets them unpunished goe Such Lords ill Example do give Where Varlets and Drabs so may live What foot-paths are made and how broad Annoyance too much to be born VVith Horse and with Cattell what road Is made through every mans Corn VVhere Champains ruleth the rost There daily disorder is most There Sheep when they drive to wash How careless their Sheep they do guide The Farmer they leave in the lash With losses on every side Though any mans Corn they doe bite They will not allow him a mite VVhat Hunting and Hawking is there Corn looking for Sickle at hand Acts lawless to do without fear How yearly together they band More harm to another will do Than they would be done so unto More profit is quieter found Where Pastures in severall be Of one silly Acre of ground Than Champion maketh of there Again what a joy is it known When men may be bold with their own The tone is commended for grain Yet bread made of Beanes they do eat The tother for one loaf hath twain Of Meslin of Rye and of Wheat The Champion liveth full bare When Wood-land full merry do fare Tone giveth his Corn in a Dearth To Horse Sheep and Hogs e'ry day The other give Cattell warm barth And feeds them with straw and with Hay Corn spent of the tone so in vain The tother doth sell to his gain Tone barefoot and ragged doth go And ready in Winter to starve When tother yee see doth not so But have what is needfull to serve Tone paine in a Cottage doth take When tother trim Bowers doth make Tone layeth for Turf and for Sedge And hath his wonderfull suit When other in every hedge Hath plenty of Fuell and Fruit. Evill twenty times worser than these Inclosure quickly would ease In Wood-land the Poor men that have Scarce fully two Acres of Land More merrily live and do save Than tother with twenty in hand Yet pay they as much for the two As tother for twenty must do The Labourer comming from thence In Wood-land to work any where I warrant you goeth not hence To work any more again there If this same be true as it is Why gather they nothing of this The Poor at Inclosure do grudge Because of abuses that fall Lest some man should have too much And some again nothing at all If order might therein be found What were to the severall ground Consider well many Solid demonstrations of truth in these particulars he speakes very much Reason and as much Truth his observations are very good nor is it the single opinion of Mr Tusser and my self but of all that ever I yet saw or read of these sudjects of either good husbandry or the best way of Improvements of Lands but ever advised perswaded to this as ever you would study your own the Common-wealth but especially the good of your Posterity indeavour prosecute such an Enclosure that is not nor can appear to be any particular soules hindrance T is true I have met with one or two small Pieces as M. Spriggs and another whose name I remember not that write against depopulating Inclosure with whom I freely joyn and approve such as former oppressive times by the will and power of some cruell Lord either through his greatness or purchased favour a Court or in the Common Courts of England by his purse power could do any thing inclose depopulate destroy ruine all Tillage and convert all to pasture withont any other Improvement at all lay Levell many honest families to the ground dispeople a whole parish and send many soules a gooding a cursed horrible oppression which for my part I would it were Fellony by the Law which I think really is no better which hath brought men to conceive that because men did depopulate by Enclosure therefore it is now impossible to enclose without Depopulation but against Enclosure it self meerly to convert it from a generall promiscuous Common age to a division or distribution of every ones share and Interest therin to his own particular possession use and occupation to manage husbandry and Improve as he shall like best both for manner time and charge I never yet did see or read any to avouch the same but should be very willing to meet with such an Antagonist for whom I am prepared and will if God please to give opportunity in mild and loving way endeavour to convince him of his rash mistake but should any man take offence at Enclosure as of it self as I verily believe none doth yet at such a way or Method of Enclosure as is here held forth and discovered that provides as much for the raising and increase of Corn and all Grain as for supply of Pasture and Meadow and provides for all Interests their proportionable Advantages I hope very Doggs themselves will not move a Tongue And as for old writers so for new and late ones they all with one consent encourage to Enclosure Improvements some affirming that the great benefit of the Sheep their Wool that Staple Commodity of England doth Imploy more people by far on every Acre than by Corning which may possibly be so too but I am sure that in a way of Improvement which I hold forth it must needs more advantage the Common-Wealth than lying wast in common and unimproved And if thou peruse Mr. Hartlips book printed two year since wherein he handles it very demonstratively well worth thy reading will confirm the same And if thou wilt peruse learned Fuller in his holy state you shall see the Excellent advantages and Improvements may be made to all by an Enclosure without Depopulation in the sâ—â—â—nd book 13. Chapt. page 91. â— most Excellently handled and cleared Studie therfore the management of all thy estate to the
the Flaunders Husbandry but shall affirm that one acre after the Corn is cut the very next year if it be well Husbandryed and kind thick Claver may be worth twenty Marks or twelve pound and so downward as it degenerates weaker less worth In Brabant they speak of keeping four Cowes Winter and Summer some cut and laid up for fodder others cut and eaten green but I have credibly heard of some in England that upon about one Acre have kept four Coach horses and more al Summer long but if it keep but two Cowes it is advantage enough upon such Lands as never kept one But I conceive best for us untill we be come into a stock of Seed to mow the first Crop in the midst or end of May and lay that up for hay although it will go very near together yet if it grow not too strong it will be exceeding good and rich and feed any thing and reserve the next for Seed And if we can bring it up to perfect seed and it will but yeeld four bushels upon an acre it will amount to more than I speak of by far every bushel being wooth three or four pound a bushel and then the after math or eadish that year may put up three midling Runts upon an acre and feed them up all which layd together will make up an Improvement sufficient and yet this propety it hath also that after the three or four first years of Clovering it will so frame the earth that it will be very fit to Corn agaen which will be a very great advantage First to corn your Land which usuall yeelds a far better profit than grasing and sometimes a double profit and sometimes more near a treble profit and then to Clover it again which will afford a treble fouâ—fold yea 10 or 12 fold Advance if not more And so if you consider one Acre of land with the Claver and Husbandry thereof may stand you the first year in twenty five shilling the three other years not above ten shillings the Land being worth no more which may produce you yearly easily five six or eight pound per annum per Acre nay some will affirm ten or twelve pound or more then most of my Improvements promised are made good as in my Frontspiece is he 'd forth under this first Piece of Improvement CHAP. XXVII Speaks of the usage of St. Foyne and La-lucern I Proceed to the discovering of the use and advantage of St. Foyne a French Grass of which I mnst use plain dealing and not put my Reader upon improbable experiment as is my chiefest aym And as in some part of my former discourse I promised to bring down to our practice some Out-landish Experiments which were hinted at and discovered unto Mr. Hartlib by Letter to be a great deficiencie to us in our Improvements the non-practice thereof so I must and will hold forth no more than I can make proof of to the face of the world Therefore my self having not made a full Experiment thereof onely I have sowed of it this year shall give the relation of the manner of the Husbandry thereof and the fruit you may rationally expect and the Lands upon which it is to be sowen and so leave it and you to your own experience and Gods blessing I shall not trouble you with the description of it as an Herbalist because as in this so in no other is it my design to search out the nature of any Herb or Plant in it self but as it is most profitable or usefull for my main design The Improvement of Land St. Eoyn is a French Grass much sowed there upon their barren dry hasky Lands and sometimes in our Gardens hath a kind of it been much sowed called the French Honysuckel it is of one excellent property yeeldeth abundance of Milk and upon that account may be very advantagious to many parts of the Nation it groweth best as it is said upon the barrennest lands hilly and mountainous which I am induced to beleeve upon this score because it is rendred to be worth but nine or ten shillings an Acre which some would not think worth experimenting but if so and it will grow upon our worst land I am sure there is thousand thousands of Acres in England not worth one shilling an Acre and if that being sowen upon such land it will with one sowing advance it to that worth and so continue for divers years it is very well worth our imitation and practice it will raise betwixt a load and a half and two load of an Acre Besides it is rendred to have another excellent quality which is not to barrennize Land but to better or fatten it and after seven years growing it so roots large and many somwhat like Licorish that the Plowing up of them is a very good soyl and much fattens the Land for Corn it is excellent for soarding Land the first year a great advantage It hath been sowed in divers parts of England as in Cobham Park in Kent c. where it thrived very well upon chalkie dry banks The seed is first to be had out of France where it is sold for about three pence or a groat a pound but here it was sold very dear at nine pence ten pence or twelve pence a pound this yrar It is most like a Parsnip seed only a little browner in colour and somewhat rounder and fuller made like an Oyster it is very light and so many pounds go to a strike and it must be sowed far more in quantity than you doe the Claver seed because it is so great a seed for ever the smaller the seed the further it goeth I conceive for every pound of Claver you sow you had need sow two of this if not more but I leave it to your own experience you will easily find a fitting proportion upon the first tryall but the thicker the closer it grows and stocks the ground the better and destroyes other seed or weeds The manner of sowing it may be with Oats or Barly so much as grows up with the Barley may be cut with it and then preserved or else if it be very fruitfull it may be moed in the latter end of the year and then preserve it for mowing for six or seven years after for by that time it will have lost the spirit of it and be overcome by our English grasses and then be fitter to plow for Corn again But if men will be at charge the best way commended to me is this to prepare your Lands and make them fine as when you sow barley and then plow in these seeds as the great Gardeners do their Pease yet not altogether at so great a distance but yet let them make their ranges near a foot distance one betwixt another and the grass will flourish like Pease especially if they draw the plow throngh them once or twice that summer to destroy all the weeds but whereas
they are and the sharper and curiously kept the better will they rid off work by far and the more easie and delightfull to the Workman and not fur and clog with Earth which makes the work go off very heavily The Third Piece of Improvement shews how to Enclose without offence and prevent Depopulation that is most common Attendant and Appurtenant to Enclosure and how to make Severall all Arable Common Field Lands and also all Common Heaths Moores Forrests Wasts to every particular Interests and the Common-wealths great Advantage CHAP. XI The Eleventh Chapter Treateth of Improving Land by Pasture Reproves Depopulation proves excellent advantage by Enclosure and taketh away the usuall Scandals layd upon it THis Piece of Improvement will be the better carryed on if we could but prevent two great Rocks men are apt to dash upon and keep the Medium betwixt both The one is so Extreme for Pasturing and Grazing as he will destroy Tillage and raising of Corn so he may convert all to Sheep Wooll and Cattell though the contrary be of incomparable more advantage Credit and Glory The other all for Tillage and Plowing that he will toyl all his dayes himself and Family for nothing in and upon his common arable Field Land up early and down late drudge and moyl and wear out himself and Family rather than he will cast how he may Improve his Lands by Impasturing and Enclosing of it whereby he may raise more profit in Sheep Wools Cattell and far more Corn also if he please upon every Acre For the discovering a little these self deceivers to themselves I shall speak a word or two more large to each Extreme The first Extreme is partly through so deep an Affectation of Tillage and plowing in Common although it be to his perpetuall slavery and drudgery all his dayes he will not leave it and especially through a prejudice he hath taken against Enclosure through some mens depopulation and oppression and destruction of Tillage that he will not approve hereof upon any Tearmes but oppose with all the might and main he can what saith he Enclose depopulate destroy the poor no our fathers lived well upon their land without Enclosure kept good hospitality many servants and bred up many children and abhominated the thoughts thereof and so will wee prevent it if we can wee will toyl and moyl all our dayes and breed up our children to keep sheep horse or beast kick up their heeles upon a bank flit our horses and breed them up to take our inheritance of Thirty Forty or Fifty pounds by the year with which few can scarce bring both ends together by the yeares end as dayly experience shewes they not once considering the fruit of Idleness not the great Improvement of this honest equall Enclosure nor their childrens ruin for want of learning Trade or good breeding the least whereof is better or may be better to them than all their lands Witness thousands in England that prefer their children better with a little good breediug with little portion than they can or usually do with all their inheritance The second extreme is as like the former as can be and is so prejudiciall to the Common-Wealth and destructive to good husbandry and it ariseth out of base private humour of sloth and self-will and want of a wise Spirit of discerning in Improvements and because he seeth some men have abused 〈◊〉 Pasture-Land by over plowing and took out the Spirit and life thereof that it will not come to it self of many yeares which is an ill piece of providence indeed therefore he will not plow any old Pasture Land at all upon any tearmes or for any time no though his Land be so decayed and impoverished that that Land which would have maintained much cattell will not now maintain so much by one third part or a quartern as it did after the first through soarding and by reason either of the wet and cold year or the overpowring of the moss or Anthills or some other trash it puts not that proof into Cattell nor scarce half as it did at the first Soarding nay though it calls loud for plowing and will be much bettered and the Rent doubled yet he will not have it plowed come what will What saith he destroy my old Pasture my sheep-walkes and beggar my Land all the world shall not perswade him to that you may as soon perswade him not to eat good wholesome food because some men overcharged their stom acks by excesse herein because here and there an indiscreet man did wrong his Land by excessive plowing he will not use it at all not moderately though he may Mend or better it thereby No saith he I can raise a constant profit by my Wool and lamb my fat beef and mutton at an easie quiet way unto my self and family without much vexing or turmoyling which is a gallant way of living and I shall exceedingly advise and commend it too until the Land degenerate and calls out for plowing or the Common-wealth calls out for corning and will yeeld far better advance therby he takes more content in a Sheep-heard and his dogg and in his own will and ease than in greater advantage and as the other Extreme will hinder all Improvements he can by way of Enclosure under pretence of overthrowing Tillage though a man may till as much get far more Corn in Pasture than in Common if he will so will this out o◠as vain and senseless pretences hinder all Corning in pasture lest he should prejudice his Land for grazing although he may moderate corning and better his Land to grazing also so have I erected a Sea-mark upon both these Rocks that all men may take heed of dashing themselves thereon the Ingenious I am sure will never come near them But for satisfaction to the first extreme maintayned by that generation of strange men that oppose Enclosure yet see every day the Rents of those Lands Improved some doubled some more some less and the Land certainly advanced by it one Acre made worth three or four and after a while will bear more Corn without soyl for three or four year than divers Acres as it was before in Common that onely say Enclosure may as easily be made without depopulation as with it and to the other Extreme I am not ashamed maintain as a reproof to this Extreme that many ten thousand Acres of Land in England may yeeld a double profit divers yeares by plowing and afterwards yeeld as much rent as ever before and possibly much more Nay I 'll say observe my Directions punctually and I 'll make good the old Rent the very first year after Plowing and begin to enter upon it as soon as the Crop is reaped off and begin my year with Winter too which is accounted the worst advantage to the Tenant and so for Seven Ten or Twenty upon many sorts of Lands in England of the aforesaid Value But to stop the
use and benefit of Marl and giveth a President of the Improvement made by it MArl is also a very gallant thing I can say much for it far more than I resolve to speak to because others have spoken much therof though little to my especiall purposes It is commended of all men and very highly almost by every Writer that sayes any thing in point of Husbandry therefore I 'll say but little onely acquaint you with its nature and an experiment made of it and the severall Lands it is most natural for Advancement or Melioration to a little quicken the Practice where it is found and the Search for it where it is not yet discovered And for the nature of it it is also of a colder nature because it saddens the Land exceedingly and very heavy it is and will go downwards also but being so much of substance cannot easily bury so soon as Lime will and the description of it is not so much in Colour as some say as in the Purity uncompoundedness of it for in my Opinion be the Colour what it will if it be pure of it self that it will break into bits like a Die or but smooth like Lead without any Composition of Sand or Gravel some others of it if it will slack like Slate-stones and then if it wil purely slack after a showr of Rain question not the fruitfulness of it 'T is possible some Countries may yeeld severall Colours of Marl as it is affirmed of Kent wherein is found both Yellow Gray Blew and Red and the red is said to be the worst there which I will not here dispute because it never fell under mine own Experience in that Country yet I will say it holds not every where indeed the Blew and Gray are very Excellent and so also is the Red no less And whereas the common sign is said to be Slipperiness or Greasiness in which I will not contest but onely I say there is some as good Marl as is most this day in England which is not so but as it lyeth in the Mine is pure dry short if you water it you shal find it in slipperiness differ little from common Clayes The onely sign but the purest and truest sign as aforesaid is the incompoundness of it and if it slack also immediately after a showr and shortly after turn to dust after it is throughly dry again and doth not congeal and conglutinate like to tough Clay but dissolve fear not the Operation Adventure the Experimenting of it the fruit wil be answerable to thy hopes And now give me leave to tel thee a true relation of one Experiment of my own because I speak but little but my own Experiences upon an hard Inclosed Wood-land Farm I rented having some Land also in CoÌ„mon amongst the rest I had about fifteen or sixteen little short Lands or Buts lay all together in the Common Field All which said Lands were so gravelly of nature that there was but about two Inches thickness of Earth before you came to as perfect Gravell as any High-way yea so exceeding herein that in many places turned to Sinder like that the Smith casts forth of his fire as the corruption of his Iron Fire Coales congealed and also so hungry and barren of nature that before I converted it to Tillage little or nothing was made of it And to Graze it was not worth above two shillings an Acre and yâ—â— it was Resty and old Turf had lain long may be 〈◊〉 or twenty yeares And resolving to make an Experiment I searched for Marl found it where none had ever 〈◊〉 in mans memory nor within many Miles of it 〈◊〉 in an old strong Clay Pooll I conceived it lye the which Pool I was forced to cleanse being full of Mud that so I might make the better and greater fall of Marl at last and my Marl was perfect Red differing in nothing from Clay in colour but in the breaking into bits and ends like Dies not slippery as was discernable from Clay And because I would make an undeceivable Experiment of it which ever was my greatest Arrogancy I carried forth that Mud also to my Land and laid it upon two or three Lands as thick again as men use to lay on Soyl or Dung I also Mucked with the Cart two more exceeding well and as I remember Fold-Mucked two more Also I Marled three or four far thicker than I Mudded the other And one Land I neither Mucked Mudded Foulded or Marled nor laid any cost upon it at all yet Plowed them all alike brought them into good Tillage and Sowed them as I remember with Wheat and Rye mixed for the first year I reaped very good Corn upon my Cart-mucked Land and Fold-Mucked the best of all the best upon my Mudded Land the next and upon my Marled Land reasonable good not so good as the aforesaid sorts yeelded because Marl yeelds not forth his utmost strength the first year And upon that I laid nothing I reaped nothing not so much as Straw although I gave it the same seed and the same Tillage as the aforesaid Lands Whereby you may perceive the goodness of the Land which is bad enough indeed when it will bear no Corn at all for very little Land in England that is old and Resty and in good Tillage but wil bear some either Oates or Tares The next year I Sowed Barley upon all sorts of these Lands and upon my Marled Land was most gallant Corn and so was my Mudded Land my Mucked Land was the worst by far the Muck decaying and upon that I Soyled not I Sowed the second year with Oates and reaped nothing again that year also Then afterward I Marled that which before I had Mucked and that which had not Soyl laid upon it brought forth nothing the two years before which brought forth as gallant Corn as England yeelded And after three or four Crops my Mud decayed also and that I Marled again and had the same Fruit as aforesaid and for my Marled Land that I kept in Tillage nine years without any other addition of any Compost or Soyl at all and had as goodly Corn as grew and then I left the Land ever since with some small addition of Fold or Manure as they do the rest of their Lands that out-strips all the rest and is discernable from all the Lands to this day her in observe how it saddens Land this was Rye Land most naturally but it turned to Wheat Barley and Pease and as it is thus excellent for Corn so it is also very fruitfull and inriching to Grass-land provided you take heed of Extremes which most men are subject to run into which is not to Til it forth of heart for to Till it forth of heart is just as if you work an Ox off his legs a Horse off his stomack or a Man off his strength
so much by the Acre of many more years growth as this at the Eleventh year And for the effecting of this Design thou must take in two or three more particulars one is a strict Observation of the Season in Planting And then secondly your Demeanure towards it after Planted First The Seasons are as soon as the Leafe is faln the earlier the better fail not to be well prepared of Materials to begin with November and so thou mayst continue three months compleat untill the end of Ianuary and possibly some part of February but it is somewhat hazardous and may exceedingly fail thy Expectation And for the Moons Increasing or Declining matter it not at all nor any Season Wet or Dry Frost or Snow so thy Labourers can but work and be sure that what Sets be gathered one day may be sâ—t the next if possibly or next after And shouldst thou be occasioned by any hindrance to keep thy sets longer Unset be thou sure thou get their Roots into the ground well covered with good Mould untilâ— thou canst set them and be not drawn away to the contrary by any Workmans perswasion whatsoever for though the lying out of Mould of Unset do not kill them yet will it so backen them that thou mayst lose a full half years growth in them Secondly Thy Ground thus planted thou must be careful in the Weeding of it for I know no greater cause of this so great Advance than this The keeping of the Ground clean from Weeds and as mellow and open as possibly which will cause the Roots to shoot exceedingly and the Plant to grow abundantly thou must for the first second year prize it and dress it almost as a Garden And therefore be sure thou preserve it from any Beast Horse or Sheep biting it in the least measure should Cattell break in they would destroy one yeares growth in a moment As for Boggy Land much of it that is perfectly Drained to the bottom that is little worth will nourish a Plantation of Wood to good Advantage especially your Poplar and Willow and Alder your Ash will grow well also But therein you must observe to make your Dikes and Draines so deep that you may lay it compleatly dry you must goe under all your Bog to the cold spewing-Spring near a foot below that then what you plant upon the Bogs or Lands you may expect a wonderfull issue 'T is very common in four or five years that the Willow rises to gallant Hurdle-wood in five or six yeares to Abundance of Fire-wood and small Pole for Hops and other Uses One Acre of new Planted Willow upon some Land not worth two shillings an Acre may in Seven years be worth near about five pound in some parts an Acre and in some parts of this Nation more And I verily beleeve were all the Bog-Lands in England thus planted and Husbandred well after these Directions might raise Woood enough to maintain a great part of this Nation in Firing and for other sorts of Wood the well Ordering Nourishing it although in Lands so bad would produce a wonderfull profit far more than I will speak of And I suppose he is no ill Husband that can raise a bog to a double advance considering some of them are worse than nothing But when they are so exceeding Coarse and barren you cannot expect such Fruitfulness ordvance as from that Land that is of a fatter or better nature For certain all plants and Woods will do much better on better Land than on coarser and in case thou shouldst bestow Soyl or Manure on thy Land before thou Plant it it would be both Labour and Cost exceeding well bestowed and conduce much to the nourishing of a young Plantation Now shall follow a piece or Device how to thicken your Springs or Coppices where they grow thin or are decayed Which fully observed may doubly improve the same such a way is here projected as is little used in any Woods where I ever yet came and as unlikely also to any thing I have yet spoken unto which is no more but this at every Fall where thy Wood groweth thin take a goood straight Pole or sampler growing of Ash or Willow at the usuall growth of the Wood and Plash it down to the Ground about four or five Inches above the top of the Ground not cutting it wholly off and cut off the head of it and put the over end of the Pole after the head cut off a little into the Ground which thou mayst do by bending it in the midst like a Bow and so thrust it in and so fasten it down once or twice from the middle of it and upwards close to the Ground with a Hook or two and out thence where any branch would put forth standing will put forth lying and more and more grow up to Plants and Poles as the other Spring doth and so you may though it be uncapable of Sets or Planting with the Root lay over all your Vacant places and thicken your Woods where ever they are wanting And let me beg of thee thy credence here it is most certain I speak out of my own ExperieÌ„ce one of the gallantest Woods I know in England it is constantly used at every fall in some place or other of it the Wood is eighteen fals every fall eighteen years growth their very Faggots made at length of the Wood besides all their Pole-woods all their brush being faggoted into the Faggot were this year sold for one pound three shillings four pence a hundred forty Faggots make a Load it is worth about twenty five pounds an Acre every fall Study warmth all that possibly thou canst for any Plants are helped much in mounting aloft thereby therfore as I conceive they prosper worse upon your cold Clay which nourisheth the Tree little and hath no quickness nor life to quicken the growth therof but by toughness and coldness of the Earth the Sap is shut in and cannot get in to spread so frankly as it should and so instead of thriving of the Tree the moss prospereth more fruitfully than the Tree Your Elm Plants may be gotten of young sprouts growing forth of the Roots of the old Elm many thousands which being slipped and set will grow very fruitfully Your Sicamore is a very quick growing and thriving Wood especially if it be planted upon some warm sound and rich Land they will thrive wonderfully and rise to gallane shade excellent to make Walks Shaddow-bowers useful for in ward building where better is wanting for firing where wood grows scarce As for Sets of this nature if you go to any place where Sicamors grow and there in the beginning of the Spring you shall sind the Seeds chitted up and down as thick as possible which gather up and set them presently and you shall have your increase at large being planted curiously from any the least prejudice of
good cloath better for use then theirs Object You will presently say we want Work-men especially such as do it well Answ. To that I shall answer people wee have enough you will confesse it and some that can worke well too where is the fault then I being not a Tradesman can scarce tell you but onely will desire an answer to this question and then it may be I shall resolve you what hath made cloathing common among us and made Worke-men at it too but the very Trade of it the experimenting of it to purpose the carring it on with power and purse that by this meanes where ever it is planted there needs no work-folks they are ready to come from all parts where work may be had then that is supplyed It is true at the first setting up people are raw untaught and not very willing to learne and may be as ever it was in all new inventions or setting up new works you may suffer some losse and spoyle yet if this be backed with publike countenance and authority I feare not any suffering at all but if you should you are but in the condition of all honest publike ingenuous spirits And secondly I shall answer that nothing ever did or will come to perfection without great experiences constant practises and great scrutiny into the bowels of it and that will draw forth the mystery and that is the profit and glory of all Trade and Merchandise and then why we should not make fine cloath and almost any cloth of our Flax and raise our Flax to a great betterment too I know not I could name many things in England now are made as good with us as few yeares since wee could not but were made altogether a beyond seas and we supplyed from thence but grant wee raise not so pure a Flax then buy your Flax from the East or Best Countries endeavour the Trade of making your finer cloath thence and your courser from our own untill our Flax come up to theirs in goodnesse which I am confident will refine exceedingly both in the growth and workmanship of it however use all meanes as to preserve the Trade of cloathing Linning so far as our owne native Hempe and Flax will I have heard of most pure cloath some Gentlewomen have made of their own flax and Hemp. I shall now proceed to a briefe discription of the way of raising it As for the seed of it that is familiarly bought and sold in all places in the season but the best seed is your brightest which you may try by rubbing of it in your hand if it crumble with rubbing it is bad but if it still retain its substance and colour it is good The best land for it is your warme land your sandy or a little gravelly so it be very rich and of a deepe soyl will doe well as for your cold claies as some affirme to bee good for Hempe they exceedingly abuse the Reader it is as tender a seed as any I know and to make good my affirmation as to the land consider the land where the best Hempe of England grows which is upon the Fens and Marshes and especially in Holland in Lincolnshire where the land is very rich and very sandy and light but their morish land though rich is not good and yet the very best land they can picke there is but good enough for it yea that very land they are forced to dung and soyl exceedingly too after two or three crops or else it will not doe Nettleplots and Thistle-plots and land over growne wiâ—h the rankest weeds if well purged there-from will doe exceeding well for Hempe The quantity that is to be sowed upon our statute Acre is three strike or bushels and harrowed in with small harrowes the which after the land is made exceeding fine as the finest garden then in the beginning and middle of April is the time they sow it some sow it not till the end of April but if it be any thing a kindly year the earlier the better and so preserved exceeding choicely at first for feare of birds destroying of it as you see in many Countries but yet there where they sow so much they never value it bee carefull that cattel neither bite it nor lie upon it for though some say it matters not for being kept from Cattel so they may save the fencing of it yet I say if it be either bitten or else but a beast lyeth upon it after it is come up it will destroy it The season of getting of it is first about Lammas when a good part of it will be ripe it may be about one half that is a lighter Summer Hempe that beares no seede and the stalke growes white and ripe and most easily discernable which is about that season to be pulled forth and dryed and laid up for use or watered and wrought up as all hous-wives know which you must pul as neatly as you can from among the rest lest you break it for what you breake you utterly destroy and then you must let the other grow for seed untill it be ripe which wil be about Michaelmas or a little before may be a fortnight before when seed and stalke are both full ripe and you come to pull you bind up in bundles as much as a yard band will hold which is the legal measure but for your simple or Summer Hempe that is bound in lesser bundles as much as may be grasped with both your hands and when your Winter Hempe is pulled you must stocke it up or barne it any way to keep it dry and then in the season of the yeare or when you please thrash it and get out the seed and still preserve your Hempe till you set to the working of it which instead of breaking and tawing of it as they doe in most parts there they altogether pill it and no more and so sell it in the rough but I leave all at liberty for that whether to pill or dresse up by brake and Tewtaw As for the seed an Acre will beare is two or three quarter and it is there sold but usually about a mark a quarter sometime ten shillings and sometime less this yeare it was sold for twenty shillings a quarter if good great Hempe then store of seed else not but in many and most parts of the Nation it is sold for about four shilling a bushel Your fimbled Hempe is not worth above halfe so much as your other sometimes it is subject to weeds to carlock and muckel-weed which must be weeded but the best way to destroy them is to let you Hempe-land lie one yeare fallow I onely speake of Holland the cheapest place for it and the first fountain of it but generally throughout the Nation it is of far more worth and value The richer your land is the thinner the poorer the thicker you must sow One Acre of good Hempe may bee worth five six
Willow Planted on Boggy Lands may be worth How to thick Woods that grow too thiâ— A president of a wood thickned Elm plants Sicamore plants Land as well imployed by planting wood as any way A president of 50. years growth of Ash. Oak plants A president for Nurseries of Wood. How to plant for Timber Open loose land the best for any wood An Oak above 40 yards in Timber Another ten yards thicknes Beech wood the use and fruit The Elm described How to raise Elm-plants The use of the Elm. The description of the Ash. The use of the Ash. Season for the Ash its selling A president of Ash his growth and advantage The best sets c. The best time to remove Ash. Birch The Walnuts The use and advantage of it The Willow Osier his use and how planted The Lime tree Causes why the Reader digest not the Discourse The Autâ—ors promise to mend The author clear his endeavours are for publique good His book is but to draw thee to his chamber to tel thy fortune there Seed described Right seed is the best peece in the whole work Claver sowed but none came up The best is of our own growing I have heard of one that got above 2 bushels out of an Acre A new way of getting out the Clover forth of the husk Best time to sow Claver To know when t is full ripe When and how to get one the seed Yeelds much Milk and feeds fat Beef A great mistake about Claver Old land better for Claver than tillable How much seed soweâ—han Acre The lands most proper for the Clover A generall rule in Clavering The Annuall profit of Clover Grass Clover â—i's for corning and corning for clovering The description of St. Foyn The manner of sowing it La lucern Plough irons made very true The remedies of the ploughs abuses A description of the plain share The Coulter how best made The Dutch Coulter The best way for the tryall of a new plough Plough well clouted and irons sharp smooth kept Size your Horses or Oxen equal A good character of a good Plough-man Plough-beam Wheel plows described Plough-sheath Plough head The Turn-wrest plough The single wheel plough A president of land plowed for 5 s. an Acre plough and horses found The dutch coulter is appliable to any pure clean land The onely advantages for making the easiest going plough The description of the plain plough The benefit of a broad and short Wrest What ease and advantage this plough and the directions will afford The season of plowing for summer corn The season for plowing for winter corn A foot described as will go in hillaâ—ground A plow to cast down land A plow to set up land The particular use of many of the members of the wel regulated plough How to plow as it may yeild most mould How to plow as your lay your land most level How to set the double plough together The plough wiâ—h a harrow affixed Plough harrow seedsman and all in one ploughâ—o work all at one time The lasting plough that may endure many yeares Welde described The manner of sowing it at no cost How much soweth au acre When ripe How to use it What Improvement welde yeildeâ—h The best Land for Woad Pest known parts for Woad What price men will give for good Woad-land Woad prepares exceeding well for Corn The best Corn. How ploughed How much soweth an Acre What is costs an Acre weeding The joyce of the Woad must by carefully preserved Five or six Crops in one year of Woad Season for sowing VVoad When Woad is ripe The best Woad for use The way of seasonidg Woad How hot the Woad arise unâ—o in the couch The advantage of VVoâ—d what it yeelds an Acre The description of Madder The seasons of drawing the sets What ground is best and how to prepare it A rod of ground what worth setting At what distance and how to set them When to get sets of our own planting Madder planting formerly granâ—ee by Patent At Dedford by Greenwich is his Plantation Best Hop-land How a hop-garden should stand Best hop-sets and where to have them Signs of an unproveable hop How to make the hop-hills The very time to plant in The best manner of setting the sets How to pole them which poles are best Poles length The best sort of poling And spediest way And best season How to draw broken hop-poles How to lay the poles How to turne the hops to the pole One of the main things in the hop-yard is raising the hils At first suppress not one science How to heighten your hils When to break off the top of the hop bind When hops blow and bell and are ripe How to pull your hops Neatness about them is very good How to dress pruin the roots in Winter The charge of seâ—ting dressing hops How to dry hops The sign when they are dry enough The profits may be made of hops Best time for Saffron How to set Saffron Saffron as green as a leek all Winte How to pick Saffron How to dry Saffron The Saffron Country The best land for Liquorish The charge of workmanship Price of sets The place where best lands lye for this use How to set your Plants If dry water â—your sets Time of planting The Runuer yeelds good sets When taken up and when sold. The advantages thereof Best seed Time of sowing How much seed sowed upon an Acre When to cut it How to use it How much an Acre may bear The charge of an Acre A design to set all poore to workâ— and wel maintain them How to know the best hempseed Best hemp-land The quantity the time of sowing of it It must be fenced Times of getting it How much the statute requires in a bundle What seed is worth The best land for Hempe Fitâ—est flaex Land 3. l. given for slax Land The several persons that slax imployes How to raise the best flaxe Best flax seed An experiment of both sorts of seed The season for sowing flax The manner of watering of it The charge of the flax from the beginning till it come to the Market The flax and Hempe-trade not come to perfection What parts prove the improvements What Nurceries of young Trees may improve How land is improved to twentyfold by Orcharding One land may improve as wel as another Very much land may improve as well as that which is improved Object Answer 2. The natured lands upon which the chiefestfruits doe grow Answ. 3. Lands of the same nature may raise the same improvement Object The climate but a very smal hindrance Sloth and ignorance the greatest hindrance of improvement That Wines may be made in England feasibly Charges and hazards in gardening cuts the comb of its greatest hopes How Turnepâ— will help out the improvement though Markets fail How Turnep makes bread in a dear year How Hogs may be kept and fed with Turneps What Turnep seed sowes an Acre and how to order it throughout