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
for Improvement by Liming and by all the Subsequent Compositions All old Resty Land that hath not been Tilled of late although it be coarse of it own nature and yeeld little Fruit yet by Plowing according to former directions all Advantages observed for three or four Crops which I fear not but the heart and strength thereof will bear it out without Prejudice I have known Six or Seven Crops taken of Land not worth above five shillings or six shillings an Acre and it very little the worse as generally all the Wood-Lands are apt to run to Moss and Fearn Goss and Broom and to be so extremely over-run therwith that it bears nothing else and if they be not tilled according to that ancient Principle all Husban-men retain every ten or fifteen years they will runn into these Extremes so far as that they will be of little use so all other Lands of a better nature subject to these Extremes no better way can possibly be than Moderate Tillage according to the former rules prescribed And in thy Tillage are these special Opportunities to Improve it either by Liming Marling Sanding Earthing Mudding Snayl-codding Mucking Chalking Pidgeons-Dung Hens-Dung Hogs-Dung or by any other means as some by Rags some by coarse Wool by Pitch Markes and Tarry Stuff any Oyly Stuff Salt and many things more yea indeed any thing almost that hath any Liquidness Foulness Saltness or good Moysture in it is very naturall Inrichment to almost any sort of Land all which as to all sorts of Land they are of an exceeding Mellorating nature and of these more particularly And first for Liming it is of most excellent use yea so great that whole Countries and many Countles that were naturally as Barren as any in this Nation had formerly within less than half an Age supply with Corn out of the Fieldon Corn-Country and now is and long hath been ready to supply them and doth and hath brought their Land into such a Posture for bearing all sorts of Corn that upon Land not worth above one or two shillings an Acre they will raise well Husbanded with Lime as good Wheat Barley and White and Gray Pease as England yeelds yea they wil take a parcell of Land from off a Lingy Heath or Common not worth the having nay many will not have it to Husbandry it and will raise most gallant Corn that naturally is so Barren worth five or six pound an Acre And though some object it is good for the Father but bad for the Son I answer so are all Extremes whatsoever that is to Plow it after Liming so long as is either any spirit left in the Lime or heart in the Land or it will bear any sort of Corn or Grain it will ruin it for Posterity But if that after Liming men would but study Moderation in their Tillage anid not because the Land yeelds such abundance of Corn Plow or Till it so long as it will carry Corn no nor so long as it will carry good Corn But if men would after good Liming take three four or five Crops and then lay down their Lands to Graze it would not be the least prejudice or if upon the laying of it down men would but indifferently Manure it or else upon the last Crop you intend to Sow Dung it well before Sowing and lay it down upon the Rye or Wheat Stubble it would produce a sweet Turf and I am confident prove excellent Pasture as good again as it was before but if after it is layd down you would Manure it once again a little Manure now will produce more fruit than as much more upon the old Soard it would be warrished for ever Many men have had ten Crops of gallant Corn after one substantiall Liming some more upon very reasonable Land of about six shillings eight pence an Acre some Land worth a little more but more Land less worth and some upon Land not worth above one or two shillings an Acre have got many gallant Crops upon a Liming as aforesaid some men have had and received so much profit upon their Lands upon once Liming as hath payd the purchase of their Lands I my self had great Advance thereby yet I lived twenty miles from Lime and fetched it so far by Wagon to lay upon my Lands and so not capable to make like Advantage as other Borderers The Land naturall and suitable for Lime is your light and sandy Land and mixed sound Earth so also is your Gravell but not so good and your wet and cold Gravell is the worst except your cold hungry Clay which is worst of all but all mixed Lands whatever are very good As for your Lime it is not of a hot burning nature as most men conceive and do strongly believe and many have wrote 't is true it is of a wasting burning and consuming nature before or in the slacking or melting of it and may be possibly in the meal or spirit of it but in the use of it and working it into and with the Land and Earth and in the production of the fruit it seems appeares to be Coldest and most sadning of Land of any Soyl whatsoever and that for these Reasons 1. Because of it self it is a heavy and weighty substance and sinkes deep and loseth it self sooner than any Soyl whatsoever if you be not very carefull in the keeping of it up and rasing of it you will lose it before you are aware of it or can suspect it 2. Because it so alters your lightest Ry Land that though it be naturally Sandy and Gravelly that it never before would bear any thing but Ry or Oates yet by one good Liming it will be reduced to bear as good Lammas or Red straw Wheat with Barley and Pease as your strong clay Land 3. Were it of so hot a nature then it would have the best operation upon your coldest wettest spewing Land upon which it hath none and all Experience shews the contrary As I remember about twelve or fourteen quarters of Lime will very wel Lime an Acre you may also over-Lime it as well as under-Lime it Also a mixture of Lime Manure and Soyl together is very excellent especially for a few Crops and so lay down to Graze I conceive is best but by any means Till not long for I say it is possible the Land may yeeld Corn being so exceedingly in Tillage and so well wrought as long almost as any Earth is left in it I have seen many parts Tilled so long as there hath been little lest but small Stones Flints and Pebles A mad Cmstome fly from it your Lime will sink downwards exceedingly use all means possible to keep it as much aloft as you can else you lose it and the benefit of it and remember it whatever you forget and then you may plow and work your Land as you do with any other Soyl. CHAP. XXI Sheweth the nature
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
plainly shewes that the Rush cannot grow the water being taken from the root for it is not the moystness upon the surface of the Land for then every rain should encrease the Rush but it is that which lyeth at the Root which drained away at bottom leaves it naked and barren of relief But suppose it should breed some few and the Mareblab too which is a sign thy Land begins to fâ—tten then take thy whole Stream or a good considerable stream and bring upon that place and overflow it as it afore directed in the Third and Fourth Chapter in December and Ianuary if it take them not away I will doe it for thee Floating Land will as certainly destroy the Rush the Flagg and Mareblab being well drayned again as work the least Improvement and no Land richer than Watered Meades Thou wilt say many men have made great Experiments this way and done great works and cast up all again Either the profits would not answer the charge or else it would hinder some other Lands advance another way or else could not bring their Land to their desired Improvement or else do so little as was not worth their labour I had hoped that I had laid down such undenyable grounds and experiences as would have removed all those Objections but sith they are made have patience and I will return a particular answer to each clause of the Objection 1. I say were all this true as possibly it may in some men and in some parts yet be not discouraged because of what I have said and the Experiences made are also obvious and iâ— the view of them thou shalt see more advantage made than is heâ—â— affirmed 2. And secondly to confirm thy Objection I say We had some Mountebancks abroad that have held out specious pretences of wonders as many Engineers have done in drawing Water or drayning Lead-Mines Tin or Cole-Mines and to that purpose have projected Engines with double treble and fourfold Motions conceiving and affirming every Work or Motion would multiply the ease in raising the water but not considering that certainly it must multiply the weight and burthen thereof and also put such an Impossibilitie unto Tackles Geares and Wheeles for holding that all would flie in sunder at the very first motion and continually one thing or other out of order and snap in sunder as fast as amended because of the great strength is required to move the same mistake me not I do not here reprove the use of Engine Work a good Engineer is a gallant and most usefull Instrument in a Common-wealth and they have principles most able to make the best Husbands and Improvers I onely warn you of Imposters Engines are most necessary and easeth all our burthens and all our pondrous massie substances are or may be lightned thereby and a good Engineer in these dayes hath taught us the usefulness of them little lesse necessary than our very wel-being but those few Instruments here held forth are plain and simple and my Projections nothing but Country Experiments that I fear the plainess of them will be no less offensive they being onely to give a moderate ease and speed to so toylsome and costly lobours 3. I answer thirdly that many have made some Experiments but those I conceive have neither been full Experiments in all particulars nor Regular according to the particular directions here given And so may as well spoil all as he that takes all or most of the Ingredients in a Medicine and applies it to the Disease prescribed but either he misseth in the Composition or else in the Application or else if he be right in all he may fail for want of patience to wait the issue but casts all away as worth nothing and claps in with another Receit and so is able to give no positive resolution what the effect thereof might be Therefore I say as before I have said Trace me along in all particulars and fail in none of them and if the issue fail challenge the Author as a deceiver 4. And that I may answer the full charge I say take my counsell for the severall Tooles proposed and I question not that in most ordinary Works the charges shall not be any proportion to the profit But say an Acre of Land should cost thee forty shillings the fitting and preparing of it as possibly some may it may lye so irregularly 't is then as possible in two or three yeares time the same may be made worth forty shillings per annum yea more many other Acres thou maist work to as good an advantage for twenty shiâ—lings some for ten shillings some for five shillings and some less I could give the particular Experiments for them all were it more necessary than brevity which I so much affect and resolve And for prejudicing other Lands as many strongly object it is almost as if one Hive of Bees should prosper more in one Garden than twenty would the contrary Experience constantly manifesteth and so I have done with this improvement And for improving so little as it is not worth the labour that is as frivolous also Many score thousands of Acres in England are under this Capacity and may be reduced to a twenty or thirty fold improvement yea in some parts of the Kingdom some hundreds of Acres together may be wonderfully advanced this way to a proportionable Advantage and with less charge proportionably than a few There is also much Boggy and Miry Land that may be reduced to advancement and such capacity as some may lye under may be improved twenty fold or more And as for coarse Fen and Marsh Lands upon both Fresh and Salt waters there have been such gallant notable Atchievements by many Accurate and Ingenious Spirits to whom the Nation oweth high Acknowledgements and whose works and experimenuts I do admire and honour to whom I desire to be a Pupil Yet notwithstanding their Discoveries and their works cut forth throughout the Nation and left to Idle Practitioners and Slothfull impatient Slubberers who have not onely done it by the halfes but stifled many a gallant plotted Opportunity of a far greater Advance than it hath produced And so possibly in many parts of the Nation there may be great Reparations of these Ruins and a certain Reducement to high Advantage As also some Addition possibly to their Modell or some increase to their Beginnings which is acknowledged far easier than the first Projection and shall be discoursed at the latter end of this Chapter The last way of Improvement of these sorts of Lands prejudiced by water is a way appliable to every other sort of Land whatever which lye under that Opportunity or Capacity which is cutting straight the water-courses of little Brooks and Streames that run many times in spirall lines and sometimes circularly as they would make the figure 8. and so lose as much more excellent Land as
him to be Capable of Hospitality of which he is to be a Lover far better able to give than to receive and to Administer to others than to be administred unto by way of Charity And as for the great depopulation in the Nation that hath devoured poor Tenant overthrow Corning and good Husbandry and in some parts Minister and all and yet persist by keeping their Land from Tillage when it wants it when Country the Landlords profit the Markets the Labourer Poor and Land it self and all calls for it is no less than grand oppression As also for other places where no maintainance is assigned for the Minister but the people starve for want of bread and where those great Impropriations are that devour all the Profits and have all to a short-coat Vicaridge How these things should be mended is infinitely beyond my Sphere how Ministers should be raised maintenance and all Interest preserved I know not only I shall pray the wise God to direct our highest Counsells in regulating these distractions for it is far beyond my shallow capacity how to advise And for the Free-holder Farmer or Tenant I question not the Free-holders offence for he having his proportion I know it will be doubled and more to his advantage And for the Tenant let him also share in some Advancement either let him injoy it at an easie rate that look whatsoever Bargain he hath in common by the year he may have a better upon the Enclosure or else let him take a Lease for Lives or Yeares that as he enjoyes the worst upon the first Inclosure so he may have the best also having a good Tâ—rm of time therein and then I hope he will not wrangle neither for I am sure he need neither Moyl nor Cark as he did before but manage his business with more ease sweet content and advance of profit And for the Land-Lord or Lord I shall not much bespeak his favour or Approbation for he will beleeve me without Demonstration that there will be a visible and considerable advance fall upon him onely crave his patience that he 'll not be offended that I seem and but seem so to do to project to give away his Right as to the Poor which in Common is their own whether by Right Custome for I speak of no other in this place but such as have right of Common and so they may require so much by Law but to encourage them and to remove offence and scandall I advise it And when all these particulars concerned in their severall Rights are satisfied we shall do well and yet the great Block and Prejudice is yet to be removed which is the destruction of Corn and Tillage which I promised to clear which followes here First I indeavour before Enclosure that either by ingagements so firm and surely made by all parties concerned in it as they may fall under Law to be recovered Or else by a particular State Law enacted to this end so to ingage all men in this new Inclosure to allot or cast out one third part or thereabout at least of all their Lands constantly for Tillage or what more at any time they please One third part for Meadow And another third part for Pasture or feeding Land which third part for Tillage if my conceptions fail not First with the help of all that Soyl that the Hay of the other third part will raise in maintaining all the Cattell in Winter that they Pastured in summer upon the other third part which I conceive may be as many more and also Secondly by that advantage there will be sometime Plowing on Pasture and resting Another whereby fresh Land and Reitey for some years will bear more Corn without Manure than it did before with it and indeed also after some yeares of resting may stand in need of Plowing and possibly may advance the Land by it as I am sure they will all our Wood-land coarser Lands whatsoever that are either subject to the Moss or Rush or Ant-hills whatever it will do to better Thirdly well knowing that without question one Acre of well Manured and Husbandryed Land will yeeld more fruit than two or three otherwise A principle undeniable Fourthly consider the vast advantage there will be by Husbandring a little well I say it is clear some one Acre manured plowed and husâ—andred in season and unto that height of Richness the Land and seed sowed doth require may and doth usually bear as much Corn as two or three ill husbandred as aforesaid Then ballance the Business and weigh but the advantage One Acre beareth the fruit of three the two Acres are preserved to graze the seed and all other charges of two Acres is preserved to help the Markets The Husbandry and Plowing and sowing of two Acres is also saved Oh consider it and neither be such Enemies to the State nor of your selves and Common-wealth so great Abusers of Ingenuity and Good Husbandry so great Traducers When men have their Lands enclosed and at their own command I fear not but most men will covet to Husbandry every Acre so well as it may yeeld forth the utmost fruit it is possibly able to produce having the rest at their own Command also to imploy to another Advantage Which done half the Land in England thus managed would yeeld more than all that now is under Tillage This Poor Piece by the by observed and practised would make good the Improvement promised consider it well and be convinced or reply Fifthly if you consider that all your Common Fields were never under Tillage neither As great part Sâ—ades and Hade wayes and a great part Meadow and much and many Balkes between each Land and many High wayes and some commune of Pastures and Leayes left for keeping Beasts or Sheep upon all which will contain one third part as I conceive if not near half in some places not under Tillage but wast Lands Certainly I conclude there may be as much Corn go by Ingenuity upon this lesser quantity of Ground and much more being inclosed than upon it all in Common And that there cannot be any destruction of Tillage upon all theâ—e Wasts and Grazed parts which ever lay to Grass and no Tillage was upon them so that I must clearly conceive were one third pâ—rt upon all Enclosure allotted out or covenanted to be kept constantly in Tillage though I advise not to keep the same third part alway in Tillage but sometimes one part and sometimes another all making up one just third part would raise as much Corn as all did in Common And lastly Enclosure cannot destroy Tillage the Staff of the Country because it ever yeelds most profit nor will nor need all be converted to Pasturage Cain and Abel were born and planted together and ordained to live together and if there were any danger of one destroying the other Tillage is likelyer to destroy Pasturage because Cain slew Abel
but without a fear the Ploughman and the Sheepheard may do best together in a Common-wealth CHAP. XIII Sheweth the Excellency of Tillage and the great Profit thereof and the great Advance is made out of severall Enclosed Countries beyond Champain as also the great Improvement of Heaths Moores and Forrests which will dismiss those needless feares of overthrowing Tillage NOw Tillage yeeldeth the greatest profit to Land-Lord or Occupier study especially the Good Husband to convert thy Land to the best Profit And that is held and maintained by all men to be by Tillage else why do men give double Rents to Till and Plow above what they do to Graze and if thou art not yet satisfied consider but the Wood-Lands who before Enclosure were wont to be releeved by the Fieldon with Corn of all sorts And now are grown as gallant Corn Countries as be in England as the Western parts of Warwickshire and the Northern parts of Worcestershire Staffordshire Shropshire Darbyshire Yorkshire and all the Countries thereabouts and all the Chalk Countries both South and West-ward Also consider the Chiltern Countries and you shall find that were it al Inclosed men would Plow little or no whit less than now they do because nothing else nor no way else would yeeld the like advance Consider Hartfordshirex Esse Kent Surry Sussex Barkshire Hampshire Wiltshire Somersetshire and all the rest All which not onely raise Corn for themselves but to supply that great City that Spends as much as all those Countreyes and far more And yet no parts of England set at greater Rates or makes greater Advantages by Grazing and yet the greatest part thereof upon Tillage and Corning And what Country not almost though Inclosed yeelds the greatest profit by the Abundance of Corn produced But if all that I have said be not enough I have enough I am sure before I have done As for your Heathes Moores and Forrest Lands I shall onely speak thus much That vast and Incredulous are their Capacities of Improvement in generall referring the particular wayes of Improvement of every sort and differing natured Land as they fall in the fourth or sixt Piece of Improvement to avoid prolixity because the very same Ingredients Compositions and Directions are suitably and naturally appliable to these Lands as to those to which they are prescribed Therefore I onely say that all Interests in these Commons or Rights of Common Pasture upon any of these Lands may without Prejudice to any particular Interest be advantaged and much Improvement made to the Publique I speak not to inright the Usurpers of right wrongfully maintained or Oppressors of any other mens Rights I desire that Right might onely run in its proper Chanell First in generall by the same Method of Enclosing held forth in this third generall Piece of Improvement touching Common Field-Lands if thereto before Enclosure you do but add the Method or Drought of first casting out your Lands and plotting them into such Plots and Formes so that where there is or may be a Capacity of bringing thy Land under any good Stream or Land-flood be sure to cast it for Meadowing having drawn one Master Level floating course throughout they whole Plot of Enclosure which may also serve as thy first division and to carry thy water along also to flow thy Meadowing thou shalt make all under it fit that thou mayst not lose that Opportunity now at first which after divisions made cannot be had of so great an Improvement at so small a Rate now at thy first contrivance thou mayst cast it under and then cast out all thy Lauds accorto the most suitableness of them all to such Improvements they lye under and then to the Conveniencies of each mans Right and Interest and the greatest Advancement upon these Inclosures will be two The first giving all Ingenuous men a Capacity to Plow and Till what they please thereof which will raise a double or treble Advantage as to Grazing and a Tenfold greater Advance as to Common of Pasture which to some is worth nothing at all because of their remoteness to others but little because of some great Oppressor nearely and neatly seated upon the Commons that drives others from it and to none what it may be as by right when he may use all his Parts Purse and Experiences of Husbandry at his own pleasure by improving it And it is and never was otherwise seen that men would ever joyn together in one body to use their utmost to improve any of these Lands to the best Advantage for though Common of Pasture is mens own Inheritance and every man not knowing his Lot or Portion how rarely will they ever joyn or agree therein although they are all perswaded of a probable great Advancement yet one sayes I shall not have so great an Advantage by it as my neighbour and another he believes it will be good for present but it will not last and an another sayes he hath no reason to bear so great a proportion of Charge though he have as much Land yet he 's not capable of so great an Improvement and another saith I could be well content to help on any publique work if others would but for me to bestow cost and improve my Land or commons for others that will bestow none to eat and bite up my cost much discourageth him and indeed there is some Reason for his backwardness and a thousand Excuses and Cavils there must be which though a wise man may easily answer yet never convince their Judgements for it hath ever been so since their dayes and their Fore-fathers were as wise as they and they cannot be satisfied let it alone and weeâ—l take the present profit it yeelds and there is an end of their Improvement And here I 'll give you a President which though it might as to the nature of it have come in more seasonably in the discourse about common Field Land yet here it is very naturall also both as to the end I bring it for and for the discovering a Capacity of a vast Improvement both upon it self and upon all other Lands of that nature There are many hundred if not thousands of Acres of Lands near Dunstable in a Valley under Puddle or Chalk-Hills just under the bottome of the Hills an eminent place known well to most which I believe runs both wayes far but on both sides the Rode-way to Coventry and VVestchester the Land lyeth with a little Brook or stream running through it All which Lands if you observe them above half the year ly full of water if not under water and I believe it is worth about five shillings an Acre I am sure abundance of it is not worth three shillings and some not worth two shillings an Acre which if my Judgement fail not may easily be drained and laid so sound and wholsome which were but that done as it should be or but according to the second Piece of
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
for making Leaps instruments to catch fish in The Osier is quick of growing very profitable in its use you may plant them where the Sea ebbs and flows and covers them all over for that they have but time now then to lye dry they will prosper no less there than else-where you may maintain some standers here and there of two or three yeares groath to make big splents or supporters for your great work The Lime Tree is also newly discovered as useful in our English plantations but it groweth to be of great credit among our Gentry It thriveth exceeding well upon midling land makes a fine flourishing Tree and being headed and set in walks in roes makes a very gallant shady walk they begin to be much planted about London Surrey Kent Essex c. It carrieth a very fair smooth leaf somewhat like the Beech Tree And as for the fruit of them and the manner of planting them I shal say no more but leave each man to his own experience tryall til I have further experimented them and shall say that they are most probably exceeding profitable and what hath been said of other Woods for the manner of planting may in a great measure be applyed to this So I have done for present Which particulars if thou hast seriously perused although thou hast passed many thing offensive possibly which hath been the Authors desire justly to Administer And if any thing unjustly have offended he is very sorry and hopes and verily beleeves it either ariseth from want of a clear Representation of his meaning in more Significant Termes or Artificiall Language to the Readers mis-understanding of the Authors Sense or mis-conceiving of his way of of Practice which I beleeve upon a second unprejudiced Consideration wil more clearly represent it self unto him As for the curiosity in its composure or Exact Method in the handling bear with the want thereof thou must expect no better from a Treatise of this nature Rudely digested out of Confused principles Notions from Experiences most of them Compleated but some in present practice which when throvghly Experimented If these weak Discoveries find acceptance with thee and shall appear with the least Advantage to the Common Good if God be pleased to give opportunity he may present thee with a second part to the same Tune wherin he hopes to Compleat or make up the whole part of practicall Husbandry or give thee in a whole new Plantation of old England As also something may be Digested after the uttermost Improvement made upon thy Lands how to make the best Improvvement of thy Stock to greatest advantage it is possibly able to yeeld thee and the Nation or what else shal fall into Experience in the interim as fit for Publique covery under the nature of Improvement Thy loving acceptance hereof and practice therein will undoubtedly Command And though I have in some things been too Tedious which I could not well avoid yet I hope I have dealt truly with thee I am sure in my own Experiences I can make good unto the Eye what I have presented to thy Ear and what I have also seen as other mens I have Represented them in Truth as near as my abilities were able to judge of them or I able to receive their information Therfore I have acquainted thee where thou mayst discover Truth in all And if I have taken any thing up by bare information it may fail in some circumstances but I hope and do in good measure know it doth not nor shall not fail in the substance thereof and if I shall here but make good or clearly hold out a double Improvement it will be worth acceptance to me it hath beeen worthy Respect and ImitioÌ„ when I could but advance any Land one half or third part by any Information but if I have made out clearly to the Nation the severall opportunities of such vast improvements that there is such Lands and such Capacities to advance them as I have held forth in my Title page have also as truly shewed that they have been done already and may be done for future with the severall Wayes Rules dnd Means for their accomplishments that also at so rationall easie and familiar cost and charges and principally and chiefly by the poor Mans labour who cryes for it and must have it I hope I shall not be accomted or at least not Scandalized as a projector but as a poor and faithfull Servant to his Generation Farewell THE SECOND PART OF Englands Improvement NOw I shall proceed to the Second part of my Discourse according to my promse and shall therein endeavour the most clear and can did discoveries of six more Peeces of Improvement all of theÌ„ the most advantagious for the Improvement of Land of all sorts and under all capacities have yet ever been discovered some whereof and very many I yet never read one word of nor so far as I can find out or hear have yet ever been published unless you please to take that for a Discovery which is by a Subintelligitur as I conceive Mr. Speed that superlative Improver and some such others to whom can they make good but one quarter of what they affirm they neither can want Money Clothes nor Scholars I know some of the succeeding particulars are the deep mysteries he will impart for composition how he came by many of them too but that they are many of them of his own experience or to that advance he speaks of I affirm the contrary and much fear the news he tels us too good to be true The man I know and have conversed with him and have known him some late years and while his Books were private and conveyed into Noble and Gentlemens hands particularly by himself and his own Agents I could bear it and suffer wiser than my self to be fooled because I was not wise enough as to beware of him but now they come to be sold in the Stationer shops and spread abroad the Country to deceive and beguile the Nation I cannot forbear He tels us his discoveries are â—methodically distributed and so they are just as if you should put a man to his choic whether if a man would give another as willingly two hundred pounds as one and would give him the two hundred pounds first too whether he would chuse the one hundred pounds So after he hath first told us of a certainty to raise two thousond pounds per annum with less than two hundred pounds stock which I wonder who will refuse and close with another of his offers which is with five hundred pounds stock to raise a thousand pounds per annum which of the two is more probable yet less desireable than the former but both of them to be effected with money Yet me-thinks I could hearken to his fourth particular which is to discover a way without charge whereby an industrious man of a reasonable capacity and
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