yeers growth be worth five or six pounds yet a good fruit-tree within fourty yeers will yeeld the same profit four or five times double which is far beyond the benefit arising of the best Timber-trees in England And moreover trees for timber may have the woods to grow in and such convenient places in fields and rows as may be no annoyance or hinderance to the fruit-trees of this plantation It is a folly manifestly plain To be pound-foolish penny-wise in gain Object 7 These plantations in arable grounds and common fields will both hinder the Plough and by their shadow destroy and hinder corn Answ. If indeed they should be planted in the middest of plowed lands something might be said against it But in all common fields for corn there lie land-divisions and baulks or meers which though but narrow yet are sufficient and apt to bear trees as being the best ground if they be planted upon them And at thirty yards distance in length and about thirty yards in breadth one from another likewise they will be no hinderance at all to the Plough nor yet to the growth and increase of corn for at such a distance the Sun and winde will have such power on every side that they will disperse their beams and air without any let and in case when these trees are grown large and great they may hinder a peck of corn a tree yet will they recompense that losse twenty-fold in their fruit and fewell to the owners besides a good husband may keep up his trees so by pruning as that no damage at all may be susteined by them Object 8 But fielding grounds which lie in parcels are often so intermixed that sometimes ten several persons may have severall proprieties in five acres of land and therefore how can trees be planted either at an equall distance of 30 yards or who shall plant them or receive their fruits or fuel being so many and diverse proprieters Answ If men were without reason this might make an objection but reasonable men wil conclude that mears or balks in their length may be planted at 30 yards distance without difficulty and that such small parcels will fall likewise about 30 yards distance in breadth not much under or over which will make no difference and such trees as are to be planted upon partable Mears may by Law be appointed to be charged in their plantation and fencing and divided in their benefits equally between such owners as have a community therein Object 9 But this Designe if once it come to perfection will undo many families who live by Brewing and Malting Answ The light of nature will teach us that a common and publike good is to be preferred to all private profit as the saying is A publique good doth many wayes outvie All private good and self-utilitie Besides the multiplicity of men practising Brewing and Malting is but rather a bane then a benefit to this Common-wealth ministring occasion to thousands of blinde and unnecessary Tipling-houses whereby drunkennesse disorder and dangerous plots are fomented and nourished to the great dishonour of God and disturbance of the State and Common-wealth so that it were to be wished that every private family in this whole Nation were so provided that there might not be any further occasion to expend so much corn in Malt or so much money and precious time in Ale-houses and drink which would cause every pious heart rather to rejoyce with thanksgiving then to repine with murmuring for the disappointing of self-ends and advantages when the publique Good should be so greatly advanced Instructions concerning this Designe Although planting doth chiefly depend upon the blessing and providence of God without which no benefit can be expected yet God who ordaineth the end appointeth also the means conducible thereunto not that men should rest in the means appointed but that they waiting upon God in the use of meanes should expect his blessing thereupon of his grace and mercy according to the saying Rest not in meanes use meanes Gods gifts to gain God gives the end and meanes his ends t' attain Therefore we have thought good to set down for the help of such as are unskilfull in the noble Art of Planting such necessary Instructions and Directions touching this Designe as by experience have been found usefull and commodious for our Countrey of England letting go those unprofitable conclusions wherewith many have filled their books of this Art of Planting taken for the most part out of the writings and experiments of other Nations as Italy France and Spain c. which being of far different Climates from our Nation however they may be usefull and effectuall unto others are indeed altogether uselesse and in-effectuall unto us in England for Each land the like alike will never yield Clime alters much in Garden Orchard field Leave France to French and Spain to Spanish Sun What England may is best to think upon Instructions concerning wilde Sets and Stocks to plant and graft upon For the increase and store of wilde Sets and Stocks to plant and to graft upon It is very requisite That every man according to the proportion of his occupation have some yard or inclosure for his wilde Sets and Stocks which may serve him as a continual Nursery to plant and supply all his other Grounds and Plantations Let this Inclosure or Nursery be well and strongly fenced so as no cattel may hurt it for a beast will do more mischief in a night unto the Nursery then it will recover in seven years after The Nursery would not be of the richest and fattest ground but rather inclinable to leannesse that so the wilde Sets and Stocks being transplanted may be removed from a mean to a better from a lean to a fatter soyl otherwise they will not prosper At the first let this Nursery be well digged and as much as may be made cleer of all noisome weeds especially of Spearegrasse by harrowing raking and sowing Turneps the year before or covering that all over with brakes otherwise the weeds willl much hinder the growth and increase of the plants or Sets To replenish this Nursery in the best way is to sowe that all over with the goods or stamping of crabs apples pears and kernels of Quince about Alhollon-tide or in November or at such time as you make your Verjuice Sydar or Perry and then to riddle good earth all over to cover them a finger thick or to rake them in which is not so good and so covering them with thorns to expect their Spring in February March and April when the covering is to be taken away from them Chuse the best and greatest walnuts as the Welsh nut French nut c. and set them all about your Nursery without the plants some three or four foot distance or they may be set altogether upon beds by themselves For three years after the Nursery be thus replenished be carefull to keep it very clean from weeds
and smell as the French wine and indeed so are many places unto this day in our land called Vineyards as at Elie in Cambridgeshire of which remaines upon Record these old Rimes Quatuor sunt Eliae lanterna capella Mariae Et Molendinum nec non dans Vinea vinum In English thus Four things of Elie Town much spoken are The leaden lanthorn Maries Chappel rare The mighty Mill-hill in the Minster-field And fruitfull Vineyards which sweet wine do yield And if our England be so able and apt for wine much more is it able and apt for these ordinary and wholesome fruits Besides such an Universall Plantation will both yield great store of fuel to burn and wood for many occasions the Apple Peare and Walnut-trees being all of them good Joyners timber fit to make chaires stools tables and many other house-Utensils and also it will much warm the Countrey by so many thousands of trees planted in open and waste grounds to the great comfort both of man and beast And as concerning this work it is very feasable and easie the banks and quickrowes may be set as well with good fruit-trees at a convenient distance as with thorn hasel harbow or brier besides how many usefull stocks of crab and wilding are to be taken from the roots of such as grow in rowes and to be found in woods which being transplanted and grafted will be as good fruit-trees and last longer then such as are reared up from seeds or kernels The delight and pleasure which by this will arise will not be small in a little while when one may behold the waste and wilde places all abounding with fruitfull trees like the Garden of God keeping their order and distance each one offering the weary traveller some little collation to quench his thirst and refresh his spirits inviting him to rest under their shadow and to taste of their delicates and to spare his purse which is a benefit well known in the Western Counties of this our England To these might be added the benefit of the Walnut for oil the delight and comfort of all these for conserves and preserves both for sicknesse and health and their use in a Famine when all other fruits of the earth do fail whereof the Nation of France hath had good triall who had starved in some Famines had it not been for their Chesnuts Walnuts Apples and Pears these being far better food in a famine then asses heads doves dung or old leather which some have been constrained to eat to preserve life yea sometimes the flesh of dead men and their own children Objections against this designe Object 1 But here it may be some men wil object that these are but vain and trifling things not worthy a law or injunction for so noble a Nation as this is To which the answer is easie that our slothfulnes is the more and improvidence the more to be condemned that so noble a Nation should need a goad and spur to put them on to the improving of such trifling things which are of such necessity profit facility and delight as these things which every diligent and prudent provident husband should endevour after continually of themselves Object 2 But it will be a hard and difficult matter to get so many plants as may supply the Proportion throughout the whole Nation We answer the slothfull man saith there is a lion in the way and if men were as willing as they might be the woods and hedgerows would afford stocks not a few to graft upon besides there are not wanting commendable Planters and Arborists in this Nation whose nurseries will afford at very low rates many thousand of wilde stocks fitting to be removed and improved for this businesse Object 3 Yea but there is such rudenesse and ravening in the common people of England that all would come to nought Answ. True as our scarcity of these fruits are in every place so it is and so it will be but plenty yields satiety and content and the western Countries can witnesse this to be otherwise besides good laws and good execution of them will prevent all such like mischiefs Object 4 But it will be a great while before this Designe come to perfection Answ. Yet if a beginning be not made there can be no hope of any perfection and if men begin well the work will go on the better for the saying is He that begins with heart and great good will Hath got the half of that he would fulfill Besides he is the most unworthy of his own life who is like the Bear lives onely to suck his own claws and will not provide for posterity as well as himself For Man is not born unto himself alone But to his after race when he is gone Object 5 But the Commons and Wastes cannot wel be planted Answ. If not all of them yet the most of them will bear forth these trees and we see the most barren places to bring forth the thorn oak and ash-trees and why not these also which are not so hard to grow as some of them besides such directions may be given as may be very advantagious for their rooting and growth in such barren places as afterward shall be shewed Object 6 But these trees being planted in hedge-rows amongst other trees of greater growth and top will never prosper and come to perfection and so much labour will be lost Answ. These trees being prudently set and providently husbanded in banks and hedge-rows will thrive the best of all and prove most fruitfull for if the grounds be cold and wet then to set them in banks and rows will be far better then to set them abroad the banks being the driest places for planting And if the grounds be dry and sandy then the banks are the best as being least hurtful to the roots of trees and gaining moisture unto them by the ditches when any do fall whereby they are refreshed and preserved And for other trees which may overtop them if every honest and good member in this our Common-wealth could as easily remove his wicked and bad neighbour as the Husbandman can remove such trees from his plantation there would not be a bad neighbour in England And how much a good fruit-tree will exceed in profit any other tree of what kinde soever may easily be gathered by this computation Suppose one load of wood in twenty yeers may be cut from any husband or powling and it must be a good one which will yeeld so much in such a time which load of wood may be worth nine or ten shillings yet a good fruit-tree by Gods blessing will yeeld as much fruit in one yeer as will countervail that profit for some good fruit-trees have been known to yeeld eight nine or ten coombs of good fruit in one yeer which at four pence the bushell will come to more then the best tree for wood will yeeld in twenty yeers And suppose an Oak after 300
occupation may be perfected with a penalty to be inflicted for the neglect and that every year may be proportioned in order to the whole with a penalty likewise That in every Town there may be ordeined two Officers called Fruterers or Woodwards or such like name specially to be chosen every year and authorized to see the said proportions to be planted and carefully preserved And to have power to levie the penalties upon the defaulters and to employ the same to some publick use That the High Constables in every hundred do take account of the said two Officers in every Town belonging to their division and to present them to some Superiour Court that so there may be no collusion or deceit in the businesse And that the said High Constables and Fruterers or Woodwards be fineable and punishable if they neglect to do their duties That if any evil-disposed person be found to destroy any of the planted Trees or to cut mangle or break them or to pull up or carry away their fencings when they are young trees and require fencing that then he be severely punished by corporall or pecuniary Mulct or both as being an enemy to a publike and common good That the said Fruterers or Woodwards in every respective towne may have power as the Surveyers of the high-wayes so to call out and appoint certain common dayes to work in dressing pruning moulding mossing trimming the said trees which dayes are to be in the moneths of October November for mossing and pruning those moneths being the moistest and the Winter frost following thereupon will seare the wounds so that the Cut parts are not subject to put out Syens whereby the body and fruit are decayed And in January and February for moulding the trees and to set fines upon such as make default and leavy the same to some publique use That all Trees already planted be accounted into the proportion and that as any trees do die or decay or grow barren care be taken that others may be planted in their stead and that within a limited time upon some penalty to be levied by the Woodwards or Fruiterers That when those lands which are in particular occupation be fully planted like care be taken by a common work in the common dayes to be appointed for the planting of all Wastes and Commons every thirty yards a tree and by thirty yards all over till they be throughly planted That the Commons and Wastes be planted and fenced at the publique charge of every Town to which they do belong and that all such fines as are levied upon the transgressors in this project be imployed to the publique work and use That the fruits and benefits arising of the Plantations upon the Commons and Wastes be given to the poor necessitous people of every Town unto which they do belong And that by the discretion of the Fruiterers or Woodwards they be yearly distributed accordingly Reasons for this designe As touching the reasons for this design they are very many whereof I onely propound some for satisfaction to all men First the wholesomenesse of these fruits are such as may challenge every mans estimation of them and diligence to obtein them Apples are good for hot stomacks for all inflammations tempering melancholy humours good for diverse diseases as the Strangury Plurisie c. Peares are cold and binding good for hot swellings do help the lask and bloody flux and being made into drink do warm the stomack and cause good digestion The Walnut is an ingredient in Antidotes against the plague and biting of venomous beasts whose kernels made into a milke cooleth and comforteth the languishing sick body So Quinces do strengthen the stomack stay vomiting and stop the flux and are good for many other things The benefits which from such a generall Plantation will arise to this Nation is very much As First by this means there may be a great Improvement of Land without any losse of other fruits which it usually yieldeth as of Grasse Corn of all sorts or any other thing and so men may receive a double gain first of those fruits upon the ground and secondly of such fruits as growing upon the trees the land beareth as it were by the by There will be a great plenty of wholesome food added where little or none of that Nature was before for besides every family may have of these fruits enough for all uses in food so also may thereby be obteined a good and wholesome drink from the juice of the Apples and Peares as in the Counties of Worcester and Glocester is very exemplary in that particular to their profit and plenty By this means much Corn especially of Barley may be saved which is spent out in Malt and may serve for food in the time of want and other Corn by that means become more reasonable in prices And likewise much expense in Wines may by reason of the Perry and Syder which in all parts may be made be spared and which kinde of drink being once accustomed will be as proper and wholsome for our English bodies as French wines if not more A generall Plantation as aforesaid will make wonderfull plenty as may be gathered by a supposition probable as this Suppose 20 trees of Apples and Peares be planted and well fenced upon a tenement of 5 li. per annum once in seven years they may by Gods blessing bring forth halfe a bushel of good fruit apiece and in 10 years a bushel a tree in 13 years two bushels and so forth what a plenty will this make in so small an Occupation And besides it will yield great plenty yea abundance to the poor who shall yearly receive from the common Plantations of the Commons and Wastes so much good fruit as that they cannot be destitute all the year And if to buy yet in such a generall Plantation good fruit will not cost above 4 d. or 6 d. the bushel which now will cost 12 d. or 16 d. if not more in many places which kinde of provisions the poor preferre before better food as the story goeth The poor mans childe invited was to dine With flesh of Oxen sheep and fatted swine Far better chear then he at home could finde And yet this childe to stay had little minde You have quoth he no Apple froise nor pie Stew'd Pears with bread and milk Walnuts by This generall Plantation is very requisite seeing so many places are wholly destitute of all fruit and yet both the ground and Clymate throughout this whole Island able and apt to yield of fruit great plenty Cambden saith that they are whining and slothfull husbandmen who complain of the barrennesse of the earth in England and doth confidently affirm that it proceedeth rather of the inhabitants idlenesse then any distemper and indisposition of the air that this our England affords no wine and that it hath heretofore had Vineyards which yielded wine well nigh as good in taste