whether it would not be more profitable if inclosed and that every man had all his own ground at his own disposing to make choyce of those grounds most fit for Corn and them to employ with less labor less cost and much more encrease for oftentimes it is seen that the Common-fields are very much impoverished by continual plowing especially in light sandy and gravelly grounds or in any other light ground where the soyl is but shallow And to such Land there must be a continual help by some kinde of compass or other else the Corn is thin and weak and bears a small humble-Bee-Ear with few grains therein so that the Husbandman hath very little encrease in such Common-field ground Besides such light ground in wet years doth produce tares and other weeds very destructive to the Corn all which would be avoyded if the Husbandman could make choyce of his ground to such uses as his experience shall finde it most fit for And then his inclosed Ground which now he is necessitated to keep for grazing and is oftentimes over-grown with Moss and other rubbish he would convert to Tillage which would for two or three Crops with little cost bear twice so much Corn as the Common-field-ground usually doth if so as I beleeve it will be granted by experienced Husbandmen then there will be a very great improvement by the inclosing of those Common-fields for if one Acre bear a double burthen then there is not onely saved the one half of the seed but also the one half of the work which would be the Husbandmans great gain for seed and work to an Acre of Ground is more then the Rent of four Acres of such ordinary barren Field-ground we now speak of comes to Again very much of such light ground in two or three years after plowing bears better grass then before it did when not broken up for such ground calls for the plough once in twelve or fourteen years and will return to the Owner not onely his seed which the Common-field Grounds come many years short of but also a good encrease all clean and without weeds Another benefit to the Husbandman would be that what remains after the Corn is taken off in Harvest would be so disposed of in such an orderly way either by grazing of Cattel or otherwise which to him would be more beneficial then in Common I have often seen at the end of Harvest that men through covetousness of having the first of the grass in the Common-fields have thrust in their Milch Cows and have thought they have gained much thereby in saving two or three days grass when as indeed they have lost five-fold more in their Cows milk then they have saved by the grass for their other Cattel Experience hath told many that the stubble and grass that is usually growing amongst the same is of a dry benty nature which so dryeth up the milk that it is seldom recovered at that time of the year though again put in better pasture the like you shall finde if you put your Cows in any Meadow presently after the mowing thereof Object But some will object That by inclosing much ground is taken up with hedges and ditches so what we get one way we lose another 60 60 SECT IIII. Of Commons in rich Lowe grounds FOr the second sort of Commons which are your rich Lowe grounds though very fruitful yet have I seen very little that might not be made more profitable to each mans particular that hath a right thereunto by enclosing For though it may be truly said of some part of this kinde of land that it bringeth forth as much now as by Art it can be forced unto yet I dare say it is not so orderly disposed of for the general good as it might be were it enclosed for although it hath neither Bush nor Bog Moss nor Furze so that the Cattel have all the fruit yet is not this in so orderly a way which Nature as well as Policie doth embrace as otherwise it might be For commonly all sorts of cattel are put on such grounds though all good grounds are not good for all sorts of cattel for some good grounds are good to feed cattel that are not good for Milch Cows I know many such grounds that if you put Milch Cows in them they will feed so fast that presently they become dry or yeeld very little milk Other grounds are good for horses and young beasts that are not good for sheep And if these rich grounds are kept till the grass have a good head yet there is usually such thrusting in at first that the grass is brought so short that horses and sheep must be put to a labour to live upon it so that if it were enclosed it might be so ordered Some for Meadowing and some for Pasture and other such uses as the several owners shall finde it most fit according to the several natures thereof I may compare the disorderly feeding in those Common grounds to an unskilful Master of a Ship that having his ship well victualled for a long voyage at his first going out is so prodigal thereof that much more then what may well serve is quickly wasted but if he meet with a cross winde as oftentimes it falls out then well if they can with small allowance keep themselves from starving which an orderly disposing with providence at the first would have prevented SECT V. Of Commons which are plain Upland grounds FOr the third sort of Commons which are plain Upland grounds such as the Downs in Hampshire Wiltshire and many other Western Counties which are more fit for Sheep then any other cattel of which there will not be such an extraordinary benefit by enclosing as by the other three sorts of Common next to be treated of And it is not my purpose to force arguments that have not apparent reason in them for should I do so I should transgress my own Law The work in hand is of a high nature and I know before it comes to application it will be well weighed by wise men and where the reasons given prove but a grain too light they shall be cast by and I am not over-confident of the success I know there are many that have set themselves against it I have long desired that some of more able parts then my self would have taken the discourse of this subject upon them and earnestly desire that the Reasons I here give with their own may be improved to the advantage of the Publike which in this is my aim If this doth but prepare the mindes of some Country-men who are Common proof and are now led more by Tradition then Reason who have no more to say for this then for their Religion It was thought well of by our fore-fathers and they were as wise then as you are now c. to a willingness when those that are in Authority and Trustees for their good shall do them good against their will
such works should maintain themselves by reason that such works have many Overseers and Directors that must be maintained by a Salary and something must be allowed to supply the defects of those weaker hands that cannot get sufficient for their own livelyhood and the advantage would be great to the Common-wealth if the labour in some serviceable commodittes would maintain but the one half of those idle persons that go wandring and now live by filching stealing roguing drabbing and beg from door to door I have many times offered to many of those idle persons both men and women six pence by the day to work they have answered they cannot live on it and as good play for nothing as work for nothing By which it may be gathered that they like drones never labouring do spend out of that which others labour for each of them six pence a day so that if there be but two hundred thousand of these idle persons in England and but the one halfe of them able to work there is a daily wast to the Common-wealth of two thousand five hundred pounds which amounts unto per annum nine hundred twelve thousand five hundred pounds a sum that would help well toward the maintaining of a gallant Army Now if but one halfe of this were got by their work and the other half supplied it would be a great saving to this Nation yearly If then you would reform these great evills inclose your Commons and down with those many thousands of blind Alehouses which are fit for nothing but to uphold drunkennesse idlenesse roguery whoredome and increase beggery and erect workhouses for this is one great meanes to make the poor rich and the rich yet more rich and were these many idle persons set to work it would not only be an inrichment of but a great honor to our Nation Ob. But here it will be objected that many of these Cottages are new erections and ought not by the Statute to be suffered or continned An. My answer is that you have either given way to the building of them for the ease of your Parish or out of a base fear of your Lord. The Parish sometimes wants habitation for their poor and then with consent of the Lord there is a new erection and for which there are very few Lords but contrary to Law do receive rent so that he careth not how many are erected Again many times the Lord gives way to erect without consent either of Free or Copyholder and if such are presented yet very seldome redressed The Statute doth as well say that the poor being admitted and continued a short time in the Parish they have a right of habitation within the Parish and must be provided for but such hath beene the cruelty of the former inclosers that not only those new Erections but old and new all together have been thrust our and Might hath herein as too often overcome right and thereby the poor inhabitants necessitated to seek their bread from door to door which doubtlesse hath been a crying sin and it is very like that those which have so done have had the curse of these poore fallen on them or their Families therefore my advice is that they all be provided for proportionably according to the number of their Families and then you may expect a blessing for the Lord hath said it Blessed are the mercifull And here cast thy bread on the waters and thou shalt find it after many daies ages to come shall blesse God that such mercy hath been shewen in our daies and that common curse shall be turned into a blessing to your childrens children for many Generations For the other three parts let the one fourth go to the Lord and the other three to the Free and Copyholders that have a right thereunto or rather let the Free and Copy holders have the whole and pay the Lord an easie quit rent for each acre that shall be enclosed But whosoever incloseth let him be strictly enjoyned that every twentieth acre besides hedges be planted with wood which may be so ordered that to such grounds it will be a great good and time may make it of much advantage to the Common-wealth especially where near navigable rivers for preserving of wood will not be the least advantage to this Nation Countrey men put it in practise what with your hedges and those dainty scattered little groves in which you will not only have a great delight but much profit for it will keep your ground warme and thereby make it more fruitfull it will be a good shelter both to your corn sheep and other cattell you may bedeck your hedges with pear-Pear-trees and Apple-trees in which you will find a great increase and take much pleasure Let the example of Worcester and Hereford shires invite you to this Again let the inclosers be enjoyned to leave good large high waies and so left to be by them maintained but as for those large Commons in Wales and here may be taken in Yorkshire Lancashire and other of those Northern Counties that do abound with Commons and ignorance I desire it may be considered if not requisite to a quiet in Government that learning be furthered and that by dividing those large Commons into five equall parts and that one fifth part thereof should be subdivided the one Moyety thereof to maintain a free Schoole in every Parish to teach the English letter which some poor honest man or woman would undertake for a very smal stipend between five or ten pounds per annum and all mens children should there be taught freely and if the Parishes lie neer and convenient then one School may serve two Parishes this would incourage the poor to send their children sometimes when they have little to do for them and thereby attain to some little learning which would tend much to the civilizing of them and all may acquire so much as may make them fit for a higher School The other Moyety of the fifth part may be well imployed for the maintenance of a Latine free Schoole and these to be so seated in the severall Counties that men need not send their children above five or six miles at farthest if so then poor men would be incouraged to send their children on Munday morning with a loaf and a cheese or what other provision they could afford and have them return home on Saturday night whereby they may look to them themselves not be at charges for others to do it this little part of those vast Commons thus imployed would not be lost but found to be of great advantage to their Posterity I am sure the present constitution of Schools is such as argues a deficiency in our young Government and I judge the education of youth is more influentiall than judged by many pretenders to skill in civill Government and there are notions of this subject which if applied after a few years each of them may be of a more conservative nature to
our home-peace then thousand armed men and as to proficiency in learning it is not the Genius of youth in generall but as now the estates of a few rich parents that force the uninclined child to seek knowledge not knowing that who ever is wise is born so and that learning is but the improvement of natural reason which is graduated according to the constitution The other four parts may be disposed of as before is advised But the carrying on of this work from first to last must be by that great authority of Parliament it is to be wished it might be done by these in present power that so this may be in the Catalogue of their other many good works for it will not be the least and that by commissioning some in each County men both discreet and honest a greater want then that of money so that with all indifferency they make the divident without partiality to each according to their severall interests their due proportion if this course be taken the successe will be good for God will give a blessing thereunto SECT X. Treating of the manner of inclosing Forrests and Chaces with some brief directions for planting and preserving Wood that so it may be a provision for our Navy to all Generations NOw for the enclosing of Forrests and Chaces a work of very great concernment and ought to be warily handled by the most able and wisest men those that have a right of Common in these yet have not such priviledges as those others that have a right to most of those Commons formerly spoken of and therefore are not to expect so large a proportion to their own particular For many of such who live within the Regard of the Forrests heretofore would have been glad to have parted with their right of Common upon condition they might have freely enjoyed the like priviledges as other men in their own particular land enclosed For besides their spoil in corn their pastures and mowing grasse may in some sort be said to be common for they must leave places on purpose in their hedges for the Deer to come in and when they were in and lodged they might not disturb them and fortheir Woods they may not fall any without license and many such like inconveniences But what is each mans particular right to the soil and what proportion ought to be allowed them I shal not prescribe but leave it to their wisdome who have a power to dispose of more or lesse to each man as they shall see good reason for I shall only speak to the manner of inclosing and disposing and in that I shal desire consideration might be had to the preserving of Timber for a constant and certain supply of the Navy As first to set apart so much ground as is most apt for Wood and most neer adjoyning to a navigable river not distant above three or four miles and of this ground so fit and convenient there may be found thirty thousand acres for that purpose as a great part of the Forrest of Dean neer Severn side some part of the new Forrest neer the Sea That which is most apt for Wood in the Forrest of Windsor neer the Thames much of Waltham Forrest and Enfield Chace many other places there be as convenient as these out of which may be preserved from sale so much as would for after ages be sufficient to build and maintain shipping if carefully kept to all Generations for this purpose let there be choice made of men skilfull industrious and faithful to whose care the charge of planting and preserving shall be committed Those who are employed for that purpose must first see that the grounds be wel fenced with pale or quick or rather both with a good Mâ—und and Dich that all sort of cattell may be kept out for if any cattell come in before the trees are growne so high as to be out of their reach there will be very much spoil made then let there be so many acres prepared by ploughing or digging as may be well compassed to plant that year and so yearly till all the ground be planted either by setting young sets or sowing of acornes but sowing of acornes is to be preferred before the other for they will sooner come to perfection and be both streight and tall besides these springing up thick may be removed the next year but then with them must be takâ—n up a good quantity of earth and little holes prepared for them or rather ploughed furrowes in the place to which you remove them when you thus first fit your ground with the plough raise it up in little ridges and then you may with a light plough make a furrow on each side the Ridge and if your Ridge be big enough let there be one furrow on the top thereof in these furrowes you may put your acorns indifferently thick but let your furrowes be two foot asunder that so you may with more safety goe between to weed or remove as you still shall have occasion These plants should be dressed by hoeing or kybing for two or three years that so the weeds may be killed and fresh earth put to the plants till of themselves they top the weeds or grasse but if you use the Hoe take heed you bruise not the plants for if you do they carry it with them till they come to be trees these may grow together to thirty years growth and so they will preserve each other from the winds if the wind have a ful stroak at them and they thin it will bend them and sometimes bruise them which many times is the cause of that in Timber which we call Cup or VVindshakes At thirty years let them be garbled taking the worst away by grubbing or cutting leaving the most kindly plants for Timber which wood so taken away may be sold or otherwise disposed of as the State shâ—l think fit this would be again done when they come to be of seventy or eighty years growth leaving still the most kindly for Timber each tree then should have ten foot of ground to spread it self in and so you may expect in each acre on this accompt four hundred and eighty trees if none miscarry so that after two hundred years if you reserve thirty thousand acres you may have one hundred and fifty acres yearly at a good full growth for your use which may be disposed of as the State shall stil see cause and when great trees are made use of it were good they were stocked up by the roots for if cut then the roots wil cumber the ground so that there cannot be a new planting till these roots are rotten which will be long or else there must be a stocking after the fall which will be far more chargeable then if they had been stocked at the first besides if you cut a tree down there 's great wast of Timber for the kirfe if it be a great tree is so deep that usually there 's
for against the wills of many it must be or else it never will be by Commissioning such as they shall think fit in each County for the work if so then my labour will not be lost I endeavour no more the enclosing of Commons then where the enclosing may redound to the Common Good And therefore I say no more but this to those that have an interest in such Commons which are of the nature of this third sort That enclosing by good Quick-fences would keep the ground warm and it would be a good shelter in a storm and what ground soever of it is subject to Moss the Plough once or twice in twenty yeers would better it and those that have had experience will tell you that change of feeding cattel will make the ground more fruitful As for example that ground you usually keep for your Pasture if you graze it but one or two yeers with sheep it shall be far more fruitful for milk two or three yeers after Again oftentimes we see dainty Springs that run stealing thorow some pleasant bottoms which if enclosed would be of very great use either for raising of Corn Pasturage for Cattel or pleasant Groves SECT VI. Of Commons which are apt for Wood and over-spread with Bushes FOr this fourth sort of Common to wit Wood-ground if enclosed the improvement would be very great for now there is little wood little grass very few sheep no corn so that five acres of this land now doth not produce so much fruit as one acre would do if enclosed for now the ground is so over-spread with bushes that there is little else but a shady fowre grass which is of no other use but for the breed of young beasts and horses and those there bred are of small growth And as for the wood it is seldom that any young plant steals thorow the midst of a bush so escapes the cattels nipping and if it doth escape the mouth of cattel and come to some growth yet it is then as seldom seen that it escapes the indeed violent hands of men for usually if it come thus far it must suffer a remove either to the fire or to the hedge or to some other such like uses But if it haply escapes all these yet it is still liable to such lopping and topping that it cometh to be but a knotty pollard and at last after it hath long cumbred the ground it serves for no more at best but for a doted log to lie behinde the fire And as for the young cattel that are there bred their feed is so much upon Hazel Oak or Hawthorn-bushes that their teeth are worn to stumps before they come to be four yeers old And if some sheep are in the winter put there for shelter and that when deep snow is they may feed on the bushes yet they leave there hanging much of their fine wool for a requital of their safety Now were these Commons enclosed it would much redound to the benefit of the Commonwealth and to every of those in particular that have a right therein for many Commons of this nature are very good grounds and there may be found good pastures for the rearing or feeding of sheep and all other sorts of cattel so that the same quantity of land which in such Commons will now maintain but twenty cattel and those of small bone would then maintain one hundred of very large growth There may in many places thereof be had goodly Meadows and other parts may be fit for Corn and some other parts thereof not so fit for any of the last mentioned uses yet very apt for wood and would produce very gallant trees which in a few yeers will be precious in this Nation if some speedy course be not taken for the preservation of timber SECT VII Commons cumbred with Thorns Briers Heath Moss c. THe fifth sort of Commons which are cumbred with thorns briers furzes fern heath moss and such like unprofitable fruit the soil thereof is in many places so pestilent both to cattel and sheep by reason of those many Gaules Moorish Bogs and câ—nkered Puddles or Lakes that it it occasions many diseases as the Mountain-evil the Giddy the Rot c. Nay there is such an unkindliness in many of these grounds that it hath an influence on the very bodies of men that inhabit those parts all which might be made both healthful and fruitful were they enclosed and great increase would accrue thereby of all sorts of cattel sheep corn and wood to every man both poor and rich that hath his particular interest therein and so be both honourable and beneficial to the Commonwealth in general I dare say that many of you that have your enclosures neer those vast Commons which are mountainous and bleak can say that your now-enclosed grounds would be much more fruitful were those Commons enclosed also for it is often seen that those cutting windes that have their free passage the row many vast Commons and also the thick mists that are occasioned by those rotten boggie grounds causeth much unkindliness both in corn and grass for in the time of your corn-blowing you say those bleak windes blow the blossoms off the ear before it be ripe so that the grain in the ear is small and horny and will yeeld but very little flour especially in the top and bottom thereof And in harvest these windes have oftentimes such a clear passage without any interposition of hedges or trees that the ripest and best corn is blown forth before it comes to the Sickle Again look on your Commons with an indifferent judgement and tell me if you have not seen much of it of which you can say that that piece which now bears little else but Moss and rubbish matter were it enclosed would bear excellent Corn. And do you not look on another piece of Moorish ground that now bears little but Peny-grass or by some called Liver-grass which kills many thousands of your sheep yeer by yeer and you finde the very form and colour of it in their Livers and can say that the sheeps feeding on such ground kills them and can also say that much of that ground were it enclosed and drained would be worth ten or twenty shillings the acre by the yeer which now is worth less then nothing for that it breeds the Rot and many other diseases in your sheep to their great mortality and no little loss to the Commonwealth And I pray tell me if you can of any man that ever went about to better such ground thus in Common by expending five shillings thereon though so much would better the ground five pounds twice told for my part I can hear of none and knew I any such I would here name and commend him for a good Common-wealths man In this the Proverb is good That that which is every man's is no man's for no man takes care for the bettering of Commons I dare say had they
five or six foot of square Timber lost being hewed into chips which would be saved if stocked up and sawed close to the root if you cleave this great root and make it into Charcoale it will pay the charge the hole in the ground out of which the great root is taken must be levelled with the plough or otherwise filled up for if you set any plant again in that place it seldome ever cometh to be a kindly tree the old tree by her many great roots having sucked from the earth that which was most fit for nourishment therefore it should be often ploughed before it will be fit to plant again and if it were sowed with corn a yeare or two after before it be again planted it would be much better These brief directions I thought fit to insert for the help of those not experienced skilfull if it should happen such should be called to this work Ob. But it will be objected that this way will be very chargeable to the Common-wealth and long before any profit will come to the same thereby An. I answer it is naturall for man to labour for posterity his children being truly said to be his more living parts and it is God that giveth man that providence had not God inclined mans heart to this disposition we had had but little Timber to build Ships with at this time It is said of the Indians in China that the great Grandfather prepares the earth that our fine China dishes are made of for the great Grandchild to reap the benefit of it two hundred years after and surely if they do this for the inriching of a particular we ought to do much more for a generall safety and it 's better begun once then never some will say that 's never long which comes at last Another objection is that we have many Plantations as New-England and others out of which we have very good and plenty of Timber and we can have this brought at a cheaper rate then we can bring our own now growing to our Docks or Wharfes I answer for bringing Timber to the Wharfes or Docks when you fetch it ten or fifteen miles from a navigable river it cannot be expected to come at a cheape rate but if this course be taken to plant neer navigable rivers it cannot be reasonably imagined that it should be cheaper farther fetched then neer at hand And to trust to foreign plantations for our Timber I hope it will be the wisdome of the State to do otherwise then rely on uncertainties deficiency If we should have difference with other Nations their work would be to cut off our supplies which our own practise teacheth if we besiege a Town or Castle we presently inquire after their chief supply and can we but cut off their conduit pipes we know the place wil be quickly ours it 's good and sure work to have our supplies within our selves and if the enemies should once find that we were defective in Timber for shipping it would be a greater incouragement to them than if we were in want of money to pay our souldiers for the affection of man can supply this want but nothing can the other And it 's the wisdome of a State in all things of great concernment to take the safest way and not put themselves upon uncertainties if possible it may be otherwise if it be but in so small a matter as bringing the Records from the Tower to Westminster although they may probably come safely by water for twelve pence yet it is accounted prudence to have them carried by Land though it usually costs three or four shillings Ob. It is farther objected that if our Plantations fail yet our trade will fetch both Timber and Ships at all times as the Hollanders now do that have no Timber growing for it 's usually said that though trade be sick it will never die An. To these I answer it is not good to adventure a sicknesse when we may be sure of a continuated health the best use of sicknesse is that we may see there 's a great happinesse in health and those that have been in some desperate disease will take care to prevent the falling into it again and the disease of sicknesse in trade may be such as that it may seize not only on the humours but on the very spirits of a Common-wealth in which though those guided by sense cannot discerne yet those of reason find it to be of a more deadly nature then the former thereby we may be made as unable to help our selves as the Shechemites were The story is famous of that almost universall league at Cambray by Pope Julius the second and most of the Princes of Europe against poor Venice whom because emulated which may be our case by all the Neighbour Nations they would have destroyed her as at once and so had done had she not most subtilly complemented with the Emperor bowed to the Pope strained her self to nothing that she might have but a being in the world If such a league as this be within two yeares of this time it will teach us such a one may be in future ages The Hollanders indeed have been a provident people and have their stores before hand and have kept peace with those from whom they have had their greatest supply of Timber but there 's no such thing intailed on them that they shall alwaies have trade and safety time may come that they may have as much need of friends hereafter as formerly they had need of us it is good wisdome to keep old friends for such friendship is not easily found however they have prospered all have not done so and though we know that want makes a man wise yet I never heard of that desire that had want for it's object There is a possibility of wanting provisions for shipping when only by trade it is to be obtained from other Countries there is a certainty we may be provided for by our own at home it is good to chuse the surest way I wish that Old and New-England may prosper together but sure I am if the Timber in New-England be once wasted neere the Sea side it will be more hard for them to bring it out of the main Land to the Sea then for Old-England that hath it adjoyning to some navigable river if not to the Sea it self And as for the goodnesse of it if we can speak by experience it is well yet I have not heard of any better then Old-England affords I therefore conclude and believe it will be most sure and safe to preserve and improve our owne Native commodities But in case this be not approved of and all the Forrest Lands must be sold as some do report then I humbly beg leave to propose another way for the preserving of Timber which before sale may be provided for First let there be an accompt taken of all the Timber of what kind soever now growing in the Forrests and