because you may then the more conueniently tie bushes about them or other prouision to keepe them from cattle but the wild choke peare that is neuer grafted will make very good perry Also one other way to plant an Orchard may be done by planting of small crab-stockes in beds in some nurcery as aforesayd three foote asunder one way and one foote the other way the ground in the sayd beds being first trenched two foote deepe and the mould laid light and the stocke cut off halfe a foote aboue ground and the next yeare the same to be grafted close by the ground or at the most foure inches aboue the ground to the end that if the first grafting happen to faile it may be againe grafted the second time Howbeit some also do vse to graft fiue or sixe foote high and vppon great olde stockes the same is not greatly amisse howbeit the other way is farre better as I take it for that the siences so grafted fiue or sixe foote high are many times broken downe with foules lighting on them many times broken downe with the wind in the ioynt when they are 3. or 4. years old which is a great displeasure vnto the owner Aboue all things you must foresee that the ground of your nurcerie or orchard be not naturally ouer wet or moist It cannot lightly be too drie for that the rootes will naturally run downwards vntill they come vnto sufficient moisture but if the roote of anie plant be once set too deepe he cannot helpe himselfe it is against nature for the roote to grow vpwards but will rather grow mustie and die The third way to plant an Orchard is by setting of slips of trees of cider fruite which is the speediest readiest way in shortest time to haue store of such fruite But that kind of setting doth seldome prosper but onely in some few especiall kind of cider fruite As also an Orchard so planted will not continue aboue fortie or at the most fiftie yeares but it will decay againe In planting of an Orchard the greatest care is to be had that the ground be not too wet for that a tree planted in such ground cannot prosper or if it grow it will not beare other then spotted and cappard fruite either apple peare or plumme neither will it shoote out or grow in anie good sort If your ground be naturally wet it must be holpen with making of trenches betweene euerie row of trees so as the water may draine away at the least three foote deepe and whereas the ground is inclined to moisture you are to set your trees verie shallow as halfe a foot deepe and rather to raise a hillock of earth about your tree roote then to set your tree too deepe near the water And here note that euery ground hath an vpper crust of earth which by the natural heate of the Sun pleasantnesse of the ayre piercing the same is made more fruitfull then the residue of the earth is which vpper crust in some grounds is a foote some two foote and in some three foote deepe also in some grounds not aboue halfe a foote deepe And vnder the same vpper crust is either a hote chalke a drie sand a barren grauell or a cold lean clay or lome or such like It is therefore requisite that you set your yong tree in such sort as that the rootes thereof may run and spread in that vpper crust for that if you set him any deeper you spoile all In many places in a chalke ground where such crust as aforesayd is very shallow and not past halfe a foote deepe you shall see most of the rootes of the Elmes Ashes and other trees there growing to runne naturally euen three or foure inches aboue the earth which thing they do to shun the extreame heate of the chalke The like experience shall you also see in a wet or moorish ground a great part of the roote of great trees to run also aboue the ground for that they do naturally shunne the extreame wet and cold of such grounds The fattest fruitfullest ground is not best for fruite for that the trees growing in such ground will be very subiect to be eaten with cankers as also the fruite will be much wormeaten I suppose the best ground for an Orchard is a wheate ground or that which is as it were a mixture of clay and sand but in no wise inclined to wet or springs of water If you plant your trees twenty foote one way and thirty foote the other you may then very conueniently either plough broade ridges or mow your Orchard between euery ranke of trees and such plowing will also do good vnto the roots of the trees especially if you turne your ground vpward vnto the roots of your trees some three or four plowings together making your forrow in the middest betweene euery ranke of trees especially whereas the ground is inclined to wet It is also requisite that the place where you set your tree be digged wide and deepe to the end that the rootes may haue loose earth to run into by which meanes the roote spreading and increasing it will send out the more nourishment and strength into the top Also when you plant your young trees in your Orchard it is requisite to cut off all the top otherwise he will be in danger to die the next Sommer by reason the roote cannot the first yeare be able to giue nourishment vnto many boughes branches Many couet to haue their trees sixe or seuen foote high before they branch out in top but I haue found very great inconuenience in so doing for that when such trees come to beare fruite the bodies will not be able to sustaine the tops but that they will bend downe and often times breake in sunder with the weight of fruite but to braunch at some foure foote in height I take to be the best especially where commeth no cattell to crop them In my opinion there were no fruite to be compared vnto the Pippin if it were not so subiect vnto the canker as it is There be manie kinds of good apples howbeit will not beare past once in fiue or sixe yeares to anie purpose Some other kinds will beare euerie second yeare exceeding full Of both which sorts I haue diuers kinds howbeit cannot giue proper names to euerie of them The good bearing fruite is fittest for cider so it be also naturally moist and not drie Howbeit the peare maketh the more delicate drinke then the apple will do and I haue seene some perrie of that strength that it will warme the stomacke euen like white wine and tast as pleasantly And I am verily perswaded that a ground planted with wild peares otherwise called choke peares would be verie beneficiall vnto the owner for that such kind of fruite is fittest for perrie as also for the most part doth beare verie full euerie yeare and vntill your trees be of some ten or
twelue yeares growth you may take commoditie by ploughing or mowing your ground and grasing the same with horses and afterward by mowing and grasing the same with any other cattell especially if you set your trees twentie foote asunder one way and thirtie foote another way as aforesaid The Peare will prosper in a ground inclined to wet better then the apple will do There is a disease in trees which is called a canker wherevnto the pippin chiefly is greatly subiect and the same doth spoile manie trees I know no better remedie for the same then to cut it cleaue out in the winter time which oftentimes doth helpe the same so that the barke will againe ouergrow the sore and do well but if it haue once gone more then halfe about the tree it will hardly be euer recouered and for the most part the best and most delicate fruite is most subiect to this infirmitie It may be here expected I should treat of all kindes of grafting as to graft in the cleft in the leafe in the noch or otherwise but surely for apples peares or most kind of plummes I haue found to graft in the clift some foure inches aboue the ground to be the best Howbeit the Abricocke plumme the vine and such other as haue great store of pith they are fittest to be grafted in the leafe or eie as the call it The third way to graft in the noch the cyent must be in effect as great as the stocke and such grafts for the most part grow to be toppe heauie and therefore that kind of grafting to no great purpose in my opinion Some writers teach that apples may be grafted vpon the willow the Elme the Ash Alder and such others but a man had better be without such fruite-trees in his Orchard then to haue them for that they will haue a tast of the stocke that they are grafted on An apple is not good to be grafted but vpon the stocke of the wild apple or crab as likewise the peare and warden vpon the wild peare stocke If you graft a Peare or a Warden vppon a white thorne it will be finall hard cappard and spotted The Medler is good to be grafted vpon the white thorne The Quince is best to be planted of the wild siences that grow out of the root of other Quince trees and so likewise the Philbard The Chesnut and Walnut are to be set of Nuts and besides the commodity of the fruite do also become very good timber The Chesnut timber will outlast the heart of oke to lie either alwayes wet or alwayes drie or sometime wet and sometime drie The perry wil not last well aboue one yeare but the cider will last good two or three yeares FINIS Where to lay your sluce When to store your ponds Not good to handle fish in hot weather Rauening fish Fish not of the rauening kind A Breame long in growing and a great increaser The first yeare your fish will spawne exceedingly The nature of fish No water to run through a pond in the Sommer time How to order your fish at sewing time To preserue ouer many fry is a hinderance to the owner To feede Pikes with your superfluous fry The proportion of fish according to the greatnesse of your pond Causes why ponds shold lie drie euery other yeare What maketh sweete fish Great difference in goodnesse of pond fish The second sort of ponds How fish may be fed in such ponds The Tench good to be fed The great increase of fish Eeles and afterward Perches great deuourers of frie. Fish haue many enemies to destroy them How fish do breede The breeding of Eeles very vncertaine and vnknowne Eeles come from the brackish and sea water In the riuer of Seuerne I haue seene great store of these small Eele frie taken going against the streame when they are no greater then a wheate straw Eeles go against the streame and so doth most other fish in the spring time Fish couet to go downe the streame in the latter end of the Sommer Baites for euery seuerall fish Many opinions concerning breeding of fish A Breame very slow in growth Carpe Troughts may be kept in ponds Fish to be charily handled in the cariage The Carpe will abide most hardnesse Tenches and Eeles not to be caried with other fish A nurcery of plants and grafts An especiall note to be obserued Wet groūds vnfit for an Orchard An especiall matter to be noted in planting of any trees whatsoeuer Many men are at great charge◠in planting of Orchards and yet can haue no good fruite only by reason their trees are at the first set too deepe howbeit do not perceiue the reason thereof
chew not the cud do take more nutriture out of sodden corne then out of corne being raw so fishes being of nature more cold then other creatures take lesse nutriture of raw corne then any other creatures do And if you feede your fish with raw corne you shall find it come from them in their dung not halfe concocted whereby a great part of the feeding thereof is lost and doth not good It may be demaunded if it will quite the cost to haue fish in this sort fed Surely if corne be not excessiue deare it will beare the charges very well for that a small quantity of corne will suffice a great many of fish Howbeit the other way before mentioned with ponds with heads and to lie drie euery other yeare is lesse troublesome and will breede very excellent good sweete and fat fish so that they bee not ouerstored although they haue no feeding by hand The more that a pond lieth open vnto the Sunne the ayre and the winds the better it is for your fish The leaues of any kind of trees but especially of oke falling into any pond is noysome to the fish and so is the greene boughes of oke or any other wood except willow The haunt of cattell vnto any pond is verie good and nourishing to the fish especially of kine and oxen and chiefly when such cattell do feede where corne hath bene newly mown or reaped for that therewil then remaine in their dung much corne and seedes of grasse which the fishes being not of the rauening kind do feede on The fish that bee not of the rauening kind do feede little or nothing in the winter time but do lie either in holes in the bankes or in weedes in the bottome of the ponds to shun the extremitie of cold ayre The rauening kind do feede in the winter season although nothing so much as in the Sommer season Some will hold opinion that the Pike will not eate the Perch because of his sharpe finnes but I haue often times seene two or three small Perches in the belly of a Pike and likewise in the belly of an Eele And I haue likewise seene a Pike choked sometime with eating of a Perch when as he hath swallowed the Perch with the taile foremost But the Pike will not lightly meddle with the Perch if there be any store of other kind of feeding for him in the pond of other small fish It is also requisite that the Pike be helped so that he labour not ouer much in chasing of his pray before he take it as to haue the tailes of the small fish cut off when you throw them into the stew or small pond vnto your Pikes to the end they may with the more ease take them The Perch and Eele will feed of bloud of beasts as aforesayd and likewise of the small garbage of sheepe and such like being cut small and also of small frie of fish either dead or aliue THE PREFACE CONCERNING FRVITE IF the benefite arising vnto the common-wealth through the abundance of fruite were well weighed and pondered there would be lawes established for the increase and maintenance therof throughout this Realme Many countries as Gloccster-shire Hereford-shire Worcester-shire great part of Kent and Sussex are so replenished with fruite that it serueth the poorer sort not onely for foode a great part of the yeare but also for drinke the most part of the yeare I haue knowne in those countries many men that haue 12. or twenty persons vprising and downe lying in their houses that do not spend most yeares two quarters of malt for their drinke but onely cider and perry and also do yearely sell great quantitie And there is no doubt but in most countries in England there might be the like if men would generally plant fruite and notwithstanding take as great commoditie in effect by pasturing or earing of their ground as they now do But in many places the short estate that men haue in their holdings and the discommoditie they find in stealers do discourage them Howbeit if men would generally plant in their hedge-rowes balkes and other places it would be a very small matter to any one man although poore folke did now then take some part of the same Howbeit it were very necessary that some law were established to punish such offenders not so much in respect of the value of the thing as in that it discourageth men to set plant fruite and that respect were had to Moses Law viz. that so long as the same extendeth but to the filling of their bellies to expell hunger it is the more to be borne withall but if they shall also cary away to any value there is no reason but that it should be seuerely punished I am also perswaded that cider and perry is very wholesome for the bodies of naturall English people especially such as do labor and trauell It is also by experience found to be very good to furnish ships withall for long voyages by sea for that a small quantity thereof will relish and giue good taste vnto a great deale of water and very great commodity might arise to this Realme if we were able to spare mault to serue the Low countries withall or rather the same being made into beare for that our Themes water doth for that purpose passe any other water whatsoeuer which thing in time might be very commodious vnto our Prince in respect of custom likewise to the whole Realme in respect of maintenance of Nauigation by transporting the same besides other commodities not here to be spoken of CERTAINE EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING FRVITE AS FOLLOWETH FOR planting of any great quantity of fruite it is necessarie first to sow in some bed being before hand well trenched two foote deepe and the earth broken small and layd light but not dunged the kernels of apples crabs or pears The kernels of apples may be gotten in some good quantitie of such as make apple pies to sell in markets or market townes The keruels of crabs or peares are to be picked out of crabs that are stamped for veriuyce or peares ground or stamped for perry which kernels being sowne in such beds as aforesayd being kept from cropping of cattell or Coneys and also kept with weeding will in two yeares be ready to remoue and to be set in beds three foote asunder one way and a foote the other other way the body being cut off halfe a foote aboue the ground in which beds hauing stood one yeare they may then be grafted with what fruite you please a handfull aboue the ground is best grafting which beds being kept with weeding you may also commodiously plant strawberies vnder your grafts Within three or foure yeares after the grafting they will be ready to remoue into an Orchard where you may plant them to continue but if you meane to plant them in your hedge-rowes in your ground where cattle commeth they had need to be of sixe yeares growth after the grafting