of Constitution to make use of the hotter Composts if hot to prescribe the cold For instance in a few of the most useful only Fruit-Trees do generally thrive with the soil of Neats and Hogs most Flowers with that of Sheep but especially Roots Peter Hondius tells us in his Book intitl'd Dapes inempt as that by the sole application of Sheeps-Dung he produc'd a Reddish-Root in his Garden as big as half a mans middle which being hung up for some time in a Butchers shop people took for an Hog Apples affect a pretty rich soil with a dash of Loam but they will bear even in Clay well soil'd and mix'd with Chalk especially the more winter fruit and in Chalk alone for some years but they produce though sweet not so large Fruit But both Apples and Pears have a better relish in Grounds that are not over-moist and where they may stand warm and the last will prosper well enough where the soil is mixt with gravel and has an harder bottom Cherries Summer and stone-Stone-Fruit such as have their Roots like thrumbs desire a fine light Mould Sand or Gravel with Chalk and good Compost unless it be very course and stony in which case it would be well soil'd and the pit you plant in fill'd with rich Mould as far as the Roots likely use to extend before they reach the Gravel so as to make good spread and this to be renew'd every third or fourth year and for this reason it is profitable sometimes to bait steril Grounds by laying your Composts at reasonable intervals thereby to tempt and allure the Roots towards it and keep them from wandring which they will be subject to do in search of fresh nourishment For to bear constantly well and much Fruit-trees must have frequent laetations Nor are we to judge that what is excellent Ground for one sort is so for another since that which is perfectly good for Corn is not so for all Fruit Trees and slender straw will be fed and brought up with a great deal less substance and virtue than what will serve to furnish the stem bulk and head of a fertile and spreading Tree Vines than which there is no Plant more sensibly retains the different qualities of Earth or whose juice is of more variety rejoyces in light but vigorous Mould rather Sandish and inclining to dry than either fat luxurious or moist Lime temper'd with Blood exceedingly recreates it after the first accidental heats are pass'd over The Fig-tree though affected to dry Grounds is no lover of stercoration yet in some Countries they apply Oyl-Olive and Doves-dung to cause them to bear early fruit but omitting the Oyl if the Dung be mingl'd with Lime and Ashes it is not to be reprov'd Artichokes thrive exceedingly with Sheeps-dung which apply'd to the Roots make them produce very great heads Melons Asparagus and most hasty growers participate evidently of the Soil and therefore we have already shew'd how new and heady dung contaminates and this is amongst other the reason why in the more Southern Countries where they are planted in the natural and unforc'd Mould they are so racy and superiour in tast and flavour to ours I should therefore recommend the use of Sheeps-dung well reduc'd or rather the ashes of burnt straw and the hotter dungs calcin'd for some tryals to reform it or as they do in Italy mingle Dust and Earth manur'd with Sheeps-soil and wood-ashes if after all we have said the cause of our application of Composts and Dungs to these raâ—â— and choice productions be â— prevent the rains only for otherwise too rich Soils impair the most delicious Fruits rather than improve them and Grapes and other Fruits are sooner ripened which stand near the High-wayes much beaten by passengers than by all that you can lay to the Roots or spread on the Ground for that purpose the Dust investing both the Tree and Fruit with a kind of refin'd soil mellow'd with the dews and gentle showers which fall from Heaven To give some instances Roots as we have shew'd desire deep Ground Fruit-trees not so which should never go deeper than the usual penetrations of the Sun for no farther is the Mould benign Besides that they but too propensely sink of themselves especially Bulbs of Flowers whose fibers freeing their bottoms draw them down and then they change their artificial and accidental beauty and as we call it degenerate but Trees will grow and thrive if planted on the very surface with little covering of Mould so it be oft refresh'd and establish'd against the wind Besides we find that even the goodliest Fruit as well as some Timber-Trees have many times the hardest footings with reasonable depth of Earth So little does it import to have it profound and therefore in soft and deeper Sands they thrive nothing so well as on Chalk and Gravel so long as the root can be kept from descending in which case you should as we shew'd bait the Ground towards the surface and keep the roots from gadding too far from the stem for the lower roots are frequently starv'd by the upper which devour the nourishment before it arrive at them To give some other profitable instances of this nature In Transplanting Trees beginning early and when the Earth is most tractable endeavour to make your Mould as connatural to that of the place or nursery from whence you remove them as you can 'T is not therefore material it should be so much richer but where Imp-Gardens are poor the tender Plant like a Child starv'd at Nurse does seldom thrive where ever you set them and therefore they should have fair and spreading roots and be well fed what ever some pretend For other rarer shrubs and Plants the Orange Herrera tells us thrives well with the ashes of burnt Gourds and leaves and needs not change of Mould even in the Case above twice a year and that towards the surface but Amomum Plinii is a strange waster of Earth and should continually be inrich'd and planted as it were all in dung so the Myrtil and Pomegranat whilst the Red-rose Capers Sampier and other Shrubs and Plants thrive better in Gravel and rubbish Sage with ashes and so Porselan with dust and sweepings Rue affects the dry Mould Lettice the moister Flowers for the most part detest the Dunghill but if any that of Sheep or Neat mixt with Loam and light Earth Tulips delight in change and rather in poor than rich Mould yea sharp and hungry to preserve their variegations But because 't is sometimes troublesome to transplant them yearly place a layer of short stable littier a foot beneath your Mould and you will find they may remain unremov'd for some years without prejudice The Iris loves the dry beds Crocus a mixt rich and light soil Carnations would have a Loamy Earth qualified if too stiff with Sea-sand and Sheeps dung if too poor with richer Mould so the Peöny Anemony Ranunculus and other Flowers but then lay it at
to shew how pregnant most Earths would become were these indispositions cured and that those seminal rudiments wherever latent were free to move and exert their virtue by taking off these Chains and Weights which fetter and depress them It is verily almost a miracle to see how the same Land without any other Manure or Culture will bring forth and even luxuriate and that the bare raking and combing only of a bed of Earth now one way then another as to the regions of Heaven and polar Aspects may diversifie the annual production which is a secret worthy to be confidered I am only to caution our labourer as to the present work that he do not stir the ground in over-wet and slabby weather that the Sulcus or Trench be made to run from North to South and that if there be occasion for opening of a fresh piece of Earth for present use he dig not above one Spit-deep which will be sufficient to cover the roots of any plantable Fruit or other Tree otherwise not to disturb it again 'till the March following when if he please and that the ground seem to require an hastier maturation there may be a Crop of Beans Pease or Turneps sown upon it which will mellow it exceedingly and destroy the noxious Weeds after which with a slight repastination one may plant or sow any thing in it freely especially Roots which will thrive bravely and so will Trees provided you plant them not too deep but endeavour to make them spread and take in the succulent virtue of the upper Mould and therefore too deep trenching is not always profitable unless it be for Esculent Roots such as Carrots Parsneps Beets and the like since Trees especially Fruit would be tempted even by baits to run shallow such as penetrate deep commonly spending more in Wood and Leaves than in the burden for which we plant them There is only this caution due that you never plant your Roots where the stiff and churlish ground is likely to be within reach of them for though it be neither necessary nor convenient they should penetrate deep it is yet of high importance they should dilate and spread which they will never do in obstinate and inhospitable land but revert back towards the milder and better natured Mould which crumples the roots and perverts their posture to their exceeding dammage And to this infirmity our rare Exotic Plants and Shrubs are most obnoxious confined as they are to their Wooden Cases and Testaceous Prisons and therefore require to be frequently trimm'd and supplyed with fresh and succulent Mould to entertain the Fibers which else you will find to mat in unexplicable intanglements and adhere to the sides of the Vessel where they dry or corrupt Having said thus much of the Natural I should now come to Artificial helps by application of Dungs and Composts and indeed stude ut magnum sterquilinium habeas was old and good advice but for that there be who affirm any Culture of the Earth preferrable to Dung even things so slight as the haume of Peas and Lupines or any other Pulse for when I speak of Dungs I mean those excrementitious and sordid materials which we commonly heap up and lay upon our Grounds I beg your patience to suspend a while my stirring that less pleasant mixture and 'till it be well air'd and fit for use proceed a little farther on our former subject and try what aid we may yet expect from more kind and benign means before we come to the gross and violent For besides that such compost at least so prepared as it ought to be is not every where nor always to be had in quantities to confide in Dungs and Ordure is not so safe and of that importance to our Husbandman Hesiod as some are made believe since if we shall look back into the best experience of elder days we shall find they had very little or no use at all of stercoration I know some there be who attribute this neglect to the natural fertility of the Country that 't is the busie nurse of Vermine and nauseous accidents but waving these without intending to desert the aid of Soil in place and time I proceed with what I call more natural helps namely as we have shewed by opening stirring and ventilating the Earth and sometimes its contrary by coverture shade rest and forbearance for a season as we daily see it practised in our worn-out and exhausted layfields which enjoy their Sabbaths 'T is certain that for our Gardens of Pleasure the fairest beauties of the Parterre require rather a fine quick friable and well-wrought Mould than a rank or richly dunged I shall here then begin with an experiment I have been taught by a learned Person of this illustrious Body from whom I have long D. Beale since received the choicest documents upon this and many curious subjects And first That amongst the mechanical aids wherein stercoration has no hand that of pulverizing the Earth by contusion and breaking it with Plow or Spade is of admirable effect to dispose it for the reception of all the natural impregnations we have been discoursing upon as constant and undenyable I think will be evinced For the Earth especially if fresh has a certain magnetism in it by which it attracts the Salt power or virtue call it either which gives it life and is the Logic of all the labour and stir we keep about it to sustain us all dungings and other sordid temperings being but the vicars succedaneous to this improvement which of all other makes its return of Fruit or whatsoever else it bears without imparting any of those ill and pernicious qualities which we sensibly discover from forced grounds and that not only in the Plants which they produce but in the very Animals which they feed and nourish I know Laurembergius somewhere denys this and that Animals in preparing Chyle transmute alter and insume what is only their proper aliment rejecting all that is superfluous but as our Early Asparagus Cauly-flowers and divers roots manifestly refute it so does the taste of the flesh and milk of Cattel and especially Fowle that feed on the wild Garlick Fenny-grass and other rank and putrid things not here to insist on their sweet and delicate relish upon their change of Food and more odoriferous pasture But to the experiment Take of the most barren Earth you can find drain'd if you please of all its Nitrous Salts and masculine parts reduce it to a fine powder which may be done even in large proportion by a rude Engine letting fall a kind of hammer or beetle at the motion of a wheel let this pulveriz'd Earth and for the time uncessantly agitated be expos'd for a Summer and a Winter to the vicissitudes and changes of the seasons and influences of Heaven By this labour and rest from Vegetation you will find it will have obtain'd such a generous and masculine pregnancy within that period as to
great advantage as we may see in divers places among the Downs of Suffex But it has a peculiar virtue above all this to improve other Lands as we shall come to shew I forbear to speak particularly of Fullers-Earth Tobacco-Clay and thâ— several fictile Clays because they are not so universal and serviceable to the Plow and Spade much less of Terra Lemnia Chia Melita Hetruria and the rest of the Sigillatae nor of the Bolus's Rubrics and Okers Figuline Stiptic Smegmatic c. as they are diversly qualified for several uses Medical and Mechanical but content my self with those I have already enumerated Now besides the Description and Characters we have given of these several Moulds and Earths as they reside in their several Beds and Couches there are divers other Indications by which we may discover their qualities and perfections as amongst other a most infallible one is its disposition to melt and crumble into fine morsels not turn to Mud and Mortar upon the descent of gentle showers how hard soever it seem before and if in stirring it rise rather in granules than massy Clods If excavating a Pit the Mould you exhaust more than fill it again Virgil tells us 't is good Augury upon which Laurembergius affirms that at Wittemberg in Germany where the Mould lies so close as it does not replenish the foss out of which it has been dug the Corn which is sown in that Country soon degenerates into Rye and what is still more remarkable that the Rye sown in Thuringia where the Earth is less compacted reverts after three Crops to be Wheat again My Lord Bacon directs to the observation of the Rain-bow where its extremity seems to rest as pointing to a more roscid and fertile Mould but this I conceive may be very fallacious it having two horns or bases which are ever opposite But the situation and declivity of the place is commonly a `more certain mark as what lyes under a Southern or South-East rising-ground But this is also eligible according to the purposes you would employ it for some Plants affecting hotter other colder exposures some delight to dwell on the Hills others in the Vallies and closer Seats and some again are indifferent to either but generally speaking most of them chuse the warm and more benign and the bottoms are universally fertile being the recipients of what the showers bring down to them from the Hills and more elevated parts Another infallible indication is the nature and floridness of the Plants which officiously it produces as where Thistles spontaneously thrive where the Oak grows tall and spreading and as the Plant is of kind so to prognostic for what Tillage Layer or other use the ground is proper Time Straw-berries Betony c. direct to Wood Camomile to a Mould disposed for Corn and I add to Hortulan furniture Burnet to Pasture Mallows to Roots and the like as my Lord Verulam and others observe On the contrary some ground there is so cold as naturally brings forth nothing but Gorse and Broom Holly Yew Juniper Ivy Box c. which may happily direct us to the planting of Pine Firs the Phillyreas Spanish Broom and other perennial verdures in such places Mosâ— Rushes WildTansy Sedge Flags Ferne Yarrow and where Plants appear wither'd or blasted shrubby and curl'd which are the effects of immoderate wet heat and cold interchangeably are natural auguries of a cursed Soil Thus as by the Plant we may conjecture of the Mould so by the Mould may we guess at the Plant The more herbaceous and tender springing from the gentle Bed the course and rougher Plants from the rude and churlish And as some Earths appear to be totally barren and some though not altogether so unfruitful yet wanting salacity to conceive vigour to produce and sensibly eluding all our pains so there is other which is perpetually pregnant and this is likewise a good prognostic Upon these and such like hints in proposals of transplanting Spices and other exotic rarities from either Indies the curious should be studious to procure of the natural Mould in which they grow and this might be effected to good proportion by the balasting of Ships either to plant or nourish them in from the Seed till they were of age and had gained some stability of roots and stem and become acquainted with the Genius of our Climate or for Essays of Mixtures to compose the like By the goodness richness hungriness and tincture of the Water straining through grounds and by the weight and sluggishness of it compared with the lighter conjecture also may be made as in part we have shewed To conclude there are almost none of our Senses but may of right pretend to give their verdict here and first By the Odour or Smell containing as my Lord Verulam affirms the juice of Vegetables already as it were concocted and prepared so as after long drowths upon the first rains good and natural Mould will emit a most agreeable scent and in some places as Alonso Barba a considerable Spanish Author testifies approaching the most ravishing perfumes as on the contrary if the ground be disposed to any Mineral or other ill quality sending forth Arsenical and very noxious steams as we find from our Marshes and fenny-Fenny-grounds By the Taste and that with good reason all Earths abounding more or less in their peculiar Salts as well as Plants some sweet and more grateful others bitter mordacious or astringent some flat and insipid all of them to be detected by percolation of untainted Water through them though there be who affirm that the best Earth like the best Water and Oyl has neither Odour nor Taste By the Touch if it be tenera fatty detersive and slippery or more asperous gritty porous and fryable likewise if it stick to the fingers like Bird-lime or melt and dissolve on the tongue like Butter Furthermore good and excellent Earth should be of the same constitution and not of contrary as soft and hard churlish and mild moist and dry not too unctuous nor too lean but resoluble and of a just and procreative temper combining into a light and easily crumbling Mould yet consistent and apt to be wrought and kneaded such as having a modicum of Loam naturally rising with it to entertain the moisture does neither defile the Fingers nor cleave much to the Spade which easily enters it and such as is usually found under the turf of Pasture-Grounds upon which Cattel have been long fed and foddered In a word that is the best Earth to all Senses which is blackish cuts like Butter sticks not obstinately but is short light breaking into small Clods is sweet will be temper'd without crusting or chapping in dry weather or as we say becoming Mortar in wet Lastly by the Sight from all the Instances of Colour and other visible Indications For the common opinion is though long since exploded by Columella that all hot and choleric grounds are red or brown cold and dry
and accurate gathering of Stones from off those Grounds which lie almost cover'd with them rather impoverishes than improves it especially where Corn is sown by exposing it to Heat and Cold. Certain it is that where they are not too gross and plentiful a moderate interspersion of the smaller Gravel preserves the Earth both warm and loose and from too suddain exhalation whilst the over-fine grain or too nice a sisting makes it apt to constipate and grow stiff upon wetting so as the tender Seedlings can hardly issue through and this is a document for ignorant Gardiners who when they have a fine Flower think they can never make the ground fine enough about them Chalky Grounds come next to be consider'd and they should be treated like Gravel Sand and Stony if harsh but if of the melting kind 't is apt to mix with all the sorts of moulds and being of it self so husbanded composes a kind of natural Soil fit for most uses sought for and of admirable effect in dry Grounds Here now of Course something we are to speak concerning Calcinations all reducings of Stone into ashes being of excellent use where Lime is upon any occasion proper and indeed all our Composts and Dungings serve but to this end namely so to qualifie and mix the Soil as may artificially answer to the varieties of the natural Earth or such a Constitution of it as the skilful Husbandman requires As for Instance since all fertility is the result of mixture contrary in quality if it want due heat to apply additions of a fiery nature and therefore 't were profitable if in the using Lime with Turse and Smarth it were laid alternatively Turse on Lime and Lime on Turse in heaps for six months by which means it will become so mellow and rich in nitrous Salts as to dissolve and run like Ashes and carry a much more cherishing Vigour than if amassed in greater quantity and so by a too violent application burn out and exhaust the vegetative vertue which it should preserve There is by the way this caution to be us'd in burning of Earth that tho what is torrified into blackness will exceedingly fructifie yet if it proceed to adustion beyond that degree it consumes the Niter which is the principle would be preserved as we shall come to shew when we speak of Salts which we are the most carefully to keep intire in all our animal or other Composts If once the nitrous spirit be quite mortifi'd the Earth produces nothing till being long expos'd it have attracted a fresh supply to give it life and prepare it for conception For otherwise all moderate burnings yea and even sometimes to appearance immoderate as that of Rose-trees Reeds and some other which makes them bear and come the better is excellent manure as we see it in Straw and Stubble enrich'd as they are with Salts and if the very Earth be roasted with the fire it solves obstructions laxes the Pores renders them attractive of the Influences and to cherish with its warmth and the more simple and unmixt the Ashes be in relation to what the Ground produces it is the better For as Weeds bring Weeds so the Ashes of Fruits and Berries being burnt dispose to bring forth the same so as no treatment of the seminal rudiments whatsoever seems totally of power to annihilate their vertue so strict is the Union of the parts from whence their Form does result The Calcination then of Earth alone not onely disposes it to produce great variety but if it be intense increses the very weight of the Mould whether from a certain magnetisme which it thereby contracts which fortifies it to draw the proper aliment more powerfully or upon what other account let the curious examine I come next to Marle of excellent use to fix light Sand and dry Grounds some are for the White and Grey others the Blew and Red which I think the best according as 't is more or less apt to resolve after wetting but neither of them discovering their vertue for the first year It does incomparably on Pastures some on Arable a good Coat of Compost suitable to the land being first spread where you will lay it If your Marle be very unctuous and rich apply it less copiously the too thick covering is the worst extream nor is it alwayes to be us'd without allay and mixture with other proper Soil for some Marle is more Sandy and gritty than other and should be qualified with a Contrary Give lean and emaciated Earth a covering of the fattest Marle hot and dry to the cold and moist And this is also to be observ'd in the applications of all other Composts and Medications Marsh and Churlish Earth will be Civiliz'd by the rigour and discipline of two Winters bis frigora is the old method to make the stubborn Clod relent and with the mixture of a little Sand if it be too close of Body it will become excellent Mould Clay is of all other a curst Stepdame to almost all Vegetation as having few or no Meatus's for the percolation of the alimental showers or expansion of the Roots whether it be the Voracious Hungry Weeping or Cold sort In these cases Laxatives are to be prescrib'd such as Sand Saw-dust with Marle or Chalk and continual vexing it with the Spade or Plow but above all with Sea-Sand where it may be procur'd and the burning of the Ground to ashes and all that it bears the more the better for by no less severity will this ill-natur'd Mould be subdu'd Rotten wood and the bottom of bavine-stacks is good ingredient to this manure and if it be a cold and wet sort strewings of soot is good if very stiff rubbish of brick limestone and such trash may properly be laid at the bottom and on the upper part composts of dung for otherwise no limings which being sleckt is raw and cold may at any hand be applyed especially the hungry sort which as also most kinds of Marsh-earth is subject to chasm and gape in dry seasons to prevent which a discreet mixture of ashes and sand is us'd for if it be in excess it over-heats the latter I do not reckon Loames among the Clays though it seem to be but a succulent kind of Argilla imparting a natural ligament to the Earth where you mix it especially the more friable and is therefore of all other the most excellent mean between extreams fastening and uniting that which is too loose cooling that which is hot and gently entertaining the moisture The Flower-Garden cannot be without a mixture of it nor well any fruit especially the best Cider Apples so it be accompanied with a lighter soil To summ up all we have said concerning Natural Improvements by mixtures of Earth with Earth rather than Dungs let us hear my Lord Bacon He reckons up Marle Chalk Sea-sand mould upon mould pond-earth with Chalk and the several blendings and tempering of them among all which Marle we find
hardly any pains will make them fruitfull Such are Minerals and Metalic Soils devouring clays light and ashysands so again are putrid and fungous others though fruitfull producing only venemous Plants Hemlock and the deadly Aconitum and some though wholesom ground may be poison'd with unskilfull or malicious mixtures and with damps and Arsenical vapours which sometimes though natural are but accidental and for a season as when after extraordinary drouths and stagnant air the Earth hath not been seasonably open'd refresh'd and ventilated Moreover Ground is sometimes barren and becomes unfruitful by the vicinity of other Plants sucking and distracting the juice of the Earth from one to another For thus we see the Reed and Fern will not be made to dwell together Hemlock and Rue are said to be inimicous the Almond and the Palm which are seldom fruitful but in Conjugation and perhaps there are Effluvia or certain inconspicuous steams of dusty seeds which not only impregnate places where never grew any before but issue likewise from one to another as in our Junipers and Cypress I observe flowering about April which are Trees of Consort and thrive not well alone The Ficus never keeps her fruit so well as when planted with the Caprific By what irradiations the Myrtil thrives so with the Fig the Vine affects the Elme and Olive which is at Antipathy with the Oake and imparts also such a bitterness to the Mould as kills Lettuce and other subnascent Plants is hard to say and why some affect to live in crowds others in solitude But that Firrs Pines Cedars Elmes and divers other Trees aspire and grow so tall in society may be as from other causes so from their not over-glutting themselves with nourishment for Compost is not their delight which inclines them rather to shoot upwards than expand and spread Lastly by shade Ground is render'd barren and by the dripping of umbragious trees To these Air and Sun may be soon restor'd by removing of the skreens which intercept them and yet all shade is not unpropitious where the Soil and Climate are benign as well as that which casts the umbrage and of this we have a notable instance somewhere amongst the Astomori even in Africa where the soil and the air are reported to be so genial that the Olive is said to grow under the Date-tree the Fig under the Olive under the Fig-tree the Granade under that the Vine under the Vine a crop of Corn and at the feet of the Corn a certain pulse none of them impeded by the more than reduplicated shades But there are some we must confess amongst us which are not so propitious Trees of all sorts though the perennial Greens least breath as much after the air as the soil and do not thrive without it nor except it be wholesom But to return to barren Earths which are either out of heart by being spent or from the nature of the soil in both which the Plants which they produce though never so unprosperous run hastily to seed or make an offer they are to be restored by the Plow the Spade and the Rake by stirring and repose appositions and mixtures of Earth Calcinations and Composts and above all by the eye of the Master and dust of his feet as the Italian Proverb has it For after this Process and innumerable other Tryals mixtures of things being endless all other sorts of Earths and imperfect Moulds may be treated and meliorated namely if it be too hard and close to mollifie and relax it if too loose to give it ligature and binding if too light ballast if too meagre to fasten and impinguate it if too rich and luxurious emaciate and bring it down if too moist apply exsiccatives if too cold fermenting Composts if excessive hot to cool and refresh it for thus as we said Earths should be married together like Male and Female as if they had Sexes for being of so many several complexions they should be well confider'd and match'd accordingly and for this you see what choice I have presented you of Sand Ashes Chalk Lime Marle mixture of Mould Calcinations Air Sun Dew Rain Frosts and Snows Trenching Drilling Watering Infusions and finally of Animal Stercorations and other composts which is the next and last part of this I fear over-tedious Discourse Since indeed it is not sufficient to find out even the best and most grateful Mould in nature so as to relie for ever upon the same performance without supplys of all sorts stirring and repose constant dressing and after all we have said artificial laetations likewise to encourage and maintain it in vigour We proceed then in the next place to what farther advancement we may expect from Stercoration and manuring the ground by Composts and to discover the qualities which may be latent in their several ferments and how to apply them by a skilfull and philosophical hand without which they do alwayes more hurt than good and therefore first we will enumerate their several kinds and next inquire what it is we chiefly seek for and expect from them and lastly how to treat them so as may render them fitting for our service From Animals we have the Soil of Horses and beasts of burden Neats Sheep Goats Hogs Pigeons Poultry and Fenny-fowle We have also Flesh Fat Blood Hair Feathers Vrine shavings of Horn Hoofs Leather Skins Fish Garbage Snail-mud c. From Vegetables as of nearest affinity we have Vine-cuttings Stalks fall'n Leaves Marc of the Wine and Cider-presses Lees of Wine Oyl rotten Fruit Gourds Weeds Fern Haulme Stubble rotten Wood Saw-dust refuse of the Tan-pit Sea-woad Linnen Clowts and Old Rags also Brine Pickle Ashes Soot and of things promiscuous Washing of Dishes Bucks Barrels Soap-suds Slime and Scouring of Ponds and High-wayes Dust Sweepings In summ whatsoever is apt to rot and consume in any competent time and is either salt unctuous or fatty To which let me add impregnating Rains and Dews cold and dry Winters with store of Snow which I reckon equal to the richest Manures impregnated as they are with Celestial Nitre But with all these Auxiliaries we are not yet to imagine that any of them are therefore profitable and good because they retain an heady scent are hot moist rotten and slippery fat or unctuous and the like which are all qualities that alone and of themselves effect little till they are corrected and prepar'd but for that amongst these materials we detect the causes of fertility more eminently than in other substances partly from their fixed salts or some virtue contain'd in them or rather drawn from without and imparted to the exhausted and defective Earth and that by such a process as by converting them into a Chyle as it were it facilitates their being insum'd assimilated and made apt to pass into nourishment promoting vegetation This obtain'd the next thing is how skilfully to apply what we have prepar'd and this indeed is a difficulty worthy the heads as well as
and abated you may use it at the spring without addition But if you desire something that is exquisite macerate it well rotted in the Lees of Wine stale Vrine and a little Brimstone beaten very fine to mingle with your Earth for one of the richest Composts Then is this only to be noted that as the effect of this Dung is suddain so it lasts not long and therefore must be the oftner renewed The flesh of Carrion and dead Animals being as I think my Lord Bacon tell us prepar'd already by so many curious Elaborations of its juices is highly effectual but it should be very well consum'd and ventilated till it have quite lost its intolerable smell and therefore never apply'd too crude Blood is excellent almost with any Soil where Fruit is planted especially the Mural to improve the blood of the Grape of great advantage being somewhat diluted and pour'd about the Roots Vrine for being highly spiritous and sharp had need be well corrected and then being mingl'd with other Composts to allay its acrimonious salt it hardly has its equal Hair Horn-shavings Bones Skins Leather c. are deeply to be buried and so as not to touch but lie about the Roots These with Rags course Wooll and Pitch-Marks improve the Earth as being full of volatile salts And Fish is likewise spread to great advantage of Grounds where 't is to be had in plenty and for being quickly consum'd may soonest be apply'd We come to Vegetables The Marc and pressings of the Grape are good Compost and so is the Lees of Wine mingled with the Mould It is of singular comfort to the Roots of Orange-trees and Case-Plants and if you sift a little brick-dust with it and bury it near the Roots of Rose-Mary it will thrive wonderfully It may be a laudable Compost for moist grounds where that Plant so unwillingly grows The Leaves of Trees are profitable for their own Fruit and natural being well rotted and not musty The Peach-leaf hurtfull to Cattel is excellent for the Tree from which it falls and the Walnut-leaf noxious to the grass is helpfull to the Tree Saw-dust Rotten wood found in the hollow of decay'd Trees under the stacks and where Trees grow thick together as in great and old Woods but especially that which is taken out of an inveterate Willow-Tree is preferable to any other for the raising of Seedlings of choice Plants mix'd as it should be with a little Loam Lime-rubbish and Mould as we have taught This and the rest should be well ventilated and is of great effect to loosen and mellow ground Wood-ashes rich and impregnate with salts are fit for wet Ground without mixture and in pasture excellent not sifted-on over thick It likewise kills the Worm but in Earth which is subject to over-heat and chap much Ashes and burning Composts do but increase the feavor and therefore contrary remedies are to be sought such as Neats and Swines Dung but not so when Lands are naturally or accidentally cold Wherefore we should endeavour by all means to detect as far as we are able the quality predominant both of the Earth we would improve and the Composts we apply and not throw them on promiscuously upon every thing without considering of what temper and constitution they be for Grounds are as nice as our Bodies and as obnoxious to infirmities upon every defect and excess and therefore it requires skill and no little study to be able rightly to marshal this Materia Medica as I may call it of Composts the virtue of which does sometimes lie very hidden at least if that be true which Sir Hugh Plat affirms that what we all this while seek after is indeed altogether invisible to humane eyes and to be discern'd only by the eyes intellectual because 't is vail'd and clad under so many different bodies whereof some are more ponderous such as Marle Chalk the Dung of Beasts c. some more light as their Flesh Bones Hair c. and some yet lighter as Grain and generous Seeds for in such as have Virtue to multiply their own Species that Spirit is invested with a very thin and curious integument as in effect is apparent in the Blood and Flesh of Animals so much more powerfull for the inriching of Land than their Dung and Excrements this industrious man computing it to no less than twenty times and to the same advance above this Hair Wooll and calcin'd Bones c. and as to the courser Soils that the Dung of Pigeons and Poultry does as far exceed that of Beafts which feed on gross Vegetables and tells us it has been found upon experience that one load of any sort of Seed contains as much Virtue as ten load of ordinary Dung and therefore 't is advisable that upon all removals of Corn-ricks Hay-stacks c. the Husband-man reserve all he can of the bottom offal and shakings and to mingle it with Chimney-soot and Blood and with that to reduce it into the consistence of a paste To this add as much dry'd Neats Dung temper'd with Vrine and made up in cakes as big as houshold loaves and after all is well dry'd in the shade crumble them to dust to be sifted or sprinkl'd on the ground for a very considerable improvement Of like effect is Earth blended with Malt-dust or putrified and decay'd Corn reduc'd to Meal so is the dust of old Fur-bushes in Devonshire call'd Dress but this last should not be taken in Seed-time lest it infect the Ground with a Plant not easily extirpable Lastly The Mud of Ponds and stagnant waters of ditches shovl'd up and well air'd is best apply'd to Roots of Trees but especially the dust of unstony high-wayes where the drift of Cattel and much passage is Let it be carried off from March to November for it being already a kind of refined Soil continually stirr'd and ventilated there is no Compost preferrable to it for any use It is prepar'd in the highest degree and will need no wintering but may be us'd immediately and so may straw haulm and other littiere trampl'd on in dirty streets after it is a while rotted and mingled Thus with no little industry are found out the several kinds of Composts and materials of improvement and what is the most genuine and true medicament of every Soil for Arable Pasture or Garden I do not say all or as if there were no more for what if indeed there should be as many sorts of Composts as there are of Ferments or Salts and as many sorts of Salts as there be of Vegetables or any other putrifiable matter The more there be the greater ought to be our industry and skill to be able to distinguish them and to know how and when rightly to apply them Nor is it sufficient to consider the nature of the Earth Mould and several Composts but of the very Plants themselves for the application of what you administer be it for Food or Medicine as if they be cold
the bottom such as you take from the last years Hot-bed giving it a surface of under-turf which has been foder'd on sweet and air'd In this to plant your Roots but so as not to touch the Soil but rather let it lie about the Pasture-Earth in which your Bulbs should alwayes be planted For all dung'd Earths canker the roots of Flowers whilst their fibers reaching the heartier Mould draw from it without danger But if you would indeed be provided of excellent Earth to plant most Flowers in lay turf of pasture-Pasture-ground in heaps for two Winters till it be perfectly consum'd This is also admirable for Tuberous roots and indeed all up-land-mould whether Sandy or Loamy may be made perfectly good with Neats-dung laid on the surface about Michaelmas for one year that it may wash kindly in then in September after pare this turff off as thin as you can and for the first foot depth of Earth you have bedding for Bulbs and Tuberous Roots superiour to any other Another proper mixture much in esteem with our Gardners is hollow Willow Earth a fourth part sifted from the grosser sticks with almost an equal portion of Sheeps-dung Lauremberg says Goats is better with a little natural Mould and indeed this is excellent to raise any seedlings of Flowers but for the more minute and delicate such as Cypress Mulberie the Samera of Elme and the like prepare a Mould almost of powder gently refresh'd with a dewie sperge or brush not with the watring-pot which plainly gluts it Auricula Anemonies c. should be raised in the Willowmould describ'd above but planted forth where Neats-dung and Loam is sifted among the pasture Earth The Pine and bigger kernels make great advance by being coated with dung which being grown to great Trees abhor it Touching change of Crop something has been said already and Pease degenerate betimes at least in two or three years be the Land never so good so 't is observ'd that most Plants long standing in the same bed impair both the Ground and themselves especially Sorel To Conclude for a general good Garden-soil take the natural under-turff if it be not too stiff add to it a quarter part of Neat or Sheeps-dung perfectly consum'd one bushel of sleek'd lime to each load of Mould with some sweet though rotten Wood-pile or Willow-Earth mix it well together and you have a choice composition for all your rare Exotics Oranges and Case-shrubs remembring to place the sprag of rotten bavins hampers or baskets to keep the Mould loose with Lime-stone Brick-bats Shells and other rubbish at the bottom that the water may pass freely and not rot the fibers And therefore be careful never to make your Cases close below but rather so barr'd as to be able to keep the course materials from dropping through whilst auger-holes though never so thick boards are apt to be stop'd up and then your roots do certainly rot and your trees grow sick The same is to be observ'd in Pots and that you place them about an inch from ground that they may freely drain and as freely receive refreshing But I must not quit these curiosities to speak of the cooler Composts till I have describ'd the best Hot-bed that I know of Dig a Pit or Fosse hot-beddepth four foot is sufficient and of what figure and dimension you think will best entertain your furniture for it if it be twenty foot in length and ten foot broad I think it competent Line the sides with a wall of brick and half thick fill this pit with fresh soil from the stable trodden as other hot-beds are but without any Mould at the surface In this place Woodden-Cases made like Coffins but not contracted at the extreams nor lidded of what length and breadth you think best but not above a foot in depth let these be Dove-tail'd with woodden handles at each end to lift in and out and lastly boar'd full of auger-holes at the bottoms Your Cases thus fitted fill them with proper Mould such as you would sow Melon-seeds in or any other rare Seed and thus place them in your bed of dung The heat will pass kindly through the perforations and continue a cherishing warmth five times as long as by the common way of Hot-bed and prevent you the trouble of making new and fresh for the whole process of the Melon or what other of choicer Plants require more than one removal The heat of this bed continues eight or ten weeks without need of repairing and if it should 't is but casting in some fresh-made soil and littier beneath and about your Cases of which some you may glaze Cheveron-wise at the top and with spiracles or casements to refresh and give them Air and Sun at pleasure And these Beds where you cannot conveniently sink them for want of depth because of water you may build above ground as well and you may or may not extend a Tent over it to keep out Rain Wind and Sun according as you find occasion But thus have you a neat and useful hot-bed as I have been taught to make it by the Right Honourable the late Lord Vicount Mordant at Parsons-Green whose industry and knowledge in all hortulan Elegancies requires honourable mention And now at last I am come to set down the several wayes of preparing Composts of Dungs and those other ingredients we have mention'd and begin with the rudest as that which best accommodates to the grosser part of Husbandry which yet requires a special maturation and so descend to the more refin'd And these I distinguish into the moist the dry and the liquid for Irrigation But first here by the way greatly to be reproved is the heaping of a deal of indigested soil and other trash expos'd as commonly we find it to the heat of the Sun continual rains and drying winds as it lies in the wide field without the least coverture or shade by which means all the virtue is drawn forth and carried away leaving little more than a dry and inspid congestion of Caput Mortuum and perhaps a florid green Circle or Fairy-Dance at the bottom which the impregnated rains have inrich'd with what it has wash'd from the heap wherefore to prevent this and make one load of our prepared Soil worth ten of it Cut a square or oblong pit of thirty or forty foot in length at the least four foot in depth and ten foot over or of what dimensions you think will suffice to furnish you with store Let one of the sides or edges be made so sloping as to receive a Cart or Wheel-barrow to load and unload easily let the bottom and sides also be so well pav'd or laid with a bed of small Chalk Clay or the like that it may be capable of retaining water like a Cistern If to this you can commodiously direct any channels or gutters from your Stable and other sinks about the house it will be much the better The Pit thus prepar'd and under covert