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
teeth like to the eye teeth in a man apt to grind chew withall with which two neather iawes they grind their meate against a certaine flat bone in the roofe of their mouth or vpper part of their throte which is commonly called the stone in the Carpes head and is in steede of his vpper iaw and teeth and of many thought to be a remedy for excessiue bleeding at the nose for man The like is in the head of the Tench and Roch although by reason of the smalnesse it is not easie to be found Of the same nature also is the Barbill Cheuen Dace Bleke and riuer Roch although I haue not seene them vsually in any pond Howbeit they wil liue and wex in a pond especially the riuer Roch but not spawne vnlesse it haue great store of watea running through it continually neither will the Trought spawne in any standing poole but will liue and grow very fat and good if the pond be of any greatnesse as some fiue or sixe acres of ground or more and that he may haue good store of small fry to feede on and will also be very fat and good all the winter long by reason he doth not spawne as aforesayd The best fish in my opinion is Carpe Breame Tench and Perch howbeit if your pond be not aboue foure or fiue acres of ground a Breame will be fiue or sixe yeares at the least before it be of any bignesse to eate as also they will ouer-store any pond with fry which is a great hinderance to the growth of your bigger fish Hauing stored your pond as aforesayd you shall find that the first yeare your fish will spawne exceedingly Howbeit if any water run through your pond your fry will very hardly be kept in for that all the beginning of the sommer they will go away against the streame and in the latter end of the sommer they will go away with the streame if they be not with very good grates kept in and herein you are to vse very great diligence And therefore your pond being full of water it is good to conuey away the residue in some ditch along hard by the one side of your pond casting the banke of your ditch toward the pond the leuel of the water will direct you where to make your ditch so may your conuey away your superfluous water If any water runne through your pond especially in the Sommer time it will also make your fish leane with laboring against it as it is their nature to do and also in manner vnpossible to keepe in your frie. A pond being thus ordered and your fish therein feeding all the Sommer time it is requisite that about Hollantide next you sew your pond taking out all your fish the best and such as you meane to spend that winter to put into small ponds or stewes whereas with a dragge you may take them againe as you neede to spend them the other store-fish you may put into the like pond as aforesayd either new made or one that hath lien dry all the Sommer before Howbeit if you haue any great number of frie especially of Breame it were better to preserue but part of them and the residue to put into some stew or small pond with Pikes so shall you alwayes haue good Pikes and also your Carpe Breame and Tench will be very fat and good If your ponds be not ouerstored with fry your pond being sewed and your fish bestowed it is good to let that pond you last sewed to lie as drie as you can by any meanes all that winter and the next sommer vntill Michelmas and then to fill it with water of the first floud that happeneth about that time and sew your other pond betweene Michelmas and Hollantide vsing the same as is before rehearsed As for hauing any fish to spend in the Sommer time it is requisite to trust to your angle a bownet a tramell or such like by which meanes you shall seldome faile of some fish for your spending If you should keepe any Carpe Breame or Tench in stewes in the Sommer time they will wex leane vnlesse you do feede them with corne as barly sod pease or oates or any other kind of corne It may be heare expected I should set downe some proportion of number of fishes hauing regard to the greatnesse of your pond and the greatnesse of the fish Surely as the fertility of some soyle will nourish double the number of cattle that some others will do euen so of pondes if the soyle bee a fat clay or other good ground it will nourish double the number of fish that a leane barren heath ground or drie sand will do Howbeit the ordering of a pond in such sort as aforesayd and to lie dry euery other yeare will much mend any ground euery yeare especially if in the Sommer time when it lyeth dry cattell and especially sheepe may feede and lie therein as hereafter shall appeare by good reason Howbeit in an indifferent soile I suppose you may well keepe foure hundreth Carpe Breame or Tench for euery acre supposing your fish to be eight or ten inches in length and the greater your pond is the greater number in proportion it will keepe as for example a pond of foure acres will much better keepe 1600. fish then a pond of two acres will keepe eight hundreth of like fish for euery hundreth of such fish as aforesayd you may keepe halfe a hundreth Perches in the same pond after you are once sufficiently stored of frie and not before for that a Perch is a very great deuourer of frie especially of Carpe I haue seene in the belly of a small Perch sixteene or seuenteene small Carpe frie at once but hauing sufficient of frie they do good in a pond rather then otherwise and will themselues be very fat and good The Pike is in no wise to be admitted into your great ponds with your other fish he is so great a deuourer and will grow so fast hauing his fill of feeding that being but eight or ten inches in the beginning of Sommer he may be eighteene or twentie inches before Hollantide at what time he will eate more fish euery day then will suffise a man and will feede onelie of Carpe before anie other fish if there be Carpe frie in the pond Howbeit hauing two such ponds as aforesaid made with heads you shall euerie yeare haue sufficient store of reffuse frie to feede some good number of Pikes withall wherewith they will be made verie thicke sweete and well growne but not fatte vnlesse you haue some store of small Eeles wherewithall to feede them some moneth or sixe weekes before you take them to spend for that only that feeding vpon Eeles being cut in peeces so as they may stir in the water and yet not be able to escape awaie will make the Pikes verie fat The causes mouing to haue a pond lie but one
CERTAINE EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING FISH AND FRVITE Practised by IOHN TAVERNER Gentleman and by him published for the benefit of others ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed for William Ponsonby 1600. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR EDMOND ANDERSON KNIGHT LORD CHIEFE IVSTICE OF THE COMMON PLEAS RIGHT Honorable my good Lord it was my bap lately to light vpon a Book dedicated vnto your Lordship by one M. George Churchey intituled A new booke of good husbandrie and intreating of fishponds and ordering of the same which booke as it should seeme was first written in Latine by one Iames Dubrauius but translated into English by the industrie of the said Maister Churchey wherin his good meaning and trauell is greatly to be commended I thereby gathering that your Lordship tooke some delight in that practise being before that time minded to put in writing certaine experiments that my selfe had obserued concerning those matters did presently conclude with my selfe humbly to craue that the same may passe vnder your L. protection your vertues also deseruing that I should make choise herein of your Lordship before others as one vnto whom the whole commonweale of this Realme in general is greatly bounden for the great and painfull watchings care and trauell you take in administration of Iustice in your place and calling and therefore I in particular find my selfe willing if by any meanes I may to moue vnto your Lordship any delight or liking though neuer so litle And if your Lordship haue bene any practiser of these delights I meane making of fishponds or planting of fruite I doubt not but you shal in this litle Treatise find somewhat that you knew not before and thereby your delight that way augmented which if it so happen to be my expectation herein is most amplie satisfied Beseeching the Almightie to blesse preserue and keepe you and all yours with such felicitie as your heart desireth This 22. of Ian. 1600. You Lordships in all humblenes IOHN TAVERNER To the Reader GOOD Reader in seeking to shun that Monster Idlenes and hauing a desire by all honest meanes possible to benefit this my natiue countrie of England and finding my abilitie otherwise insufficient to performe the same I haue thought good to set downe some experiments that my selfe haue had concerning fish and fruite of which two things especially of fruite although many authors haue more learnedly written yet many of them being strangers inhabiting in Climates far differing from ours here in England doe also for the most part teach how such fruite as their countries bring forth are to be vsed of which kind of fruites here in England we haue litle or no vse As also concerning fish there are none that haue written in our vulgar tong to anie purpose that euer I haue seene sauing that one Maister Churchey hath procured to be translated into English a Treatise compiled by a stranger a Morauian as I take it Howbeit by reason the translator as it should seeme had no great experience in that matter he therfore that shall practise shall find great want in that booke to supplie his desires that way Notwithstanding the good indeuour of Maister Churchey is greatly to be commended neither is my meaning herein to say what may be said in these matters but onely what things my selfe haue obserued and practised And if I should set downe by way of preface the exceeding great benefit that might grow to this Realme by practising to haue aboundance of the two foresaid cōmodities the preface would grow to a greater volume then now the whole booke containeth And although I know that many men can say more then my self can do herein yet I also beleeue that most men know not so much for whose sake I haue compiled this litle treatise by which if they take either profit or honest pleasure I haue my desire Farewell CERTAINE EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING FISH AND FRVITE FIrst it is requisite to speake of ponds I meane such as be necessarie profitable and conuenient to be vsed with vs here in England not such in which the prodigall Romains vsed to spend their superfluous wealth and treasure rather for vaine ostentation then for any honest recreation of mind or profite vnto themselues or the common wealth whereunto I wold wish our countrey people in all their actions to haue chiefe regard It should seeme that many of the Romains imployed incredible wealth in making of ponds in which with sea water they kept diuerse kind of sea fish for delicacie and wantonnesse rather then profit for that such kind of ponds were onely made neare vnto the sea side wheras the like fish might more conueniently be taken in the sea it selfe I would rather wish the greatest store of our ponds to be made farre vp land in the inmost partes of the Realme vnto which places fish cannot well be brought from the sea to be eaten fresh whilest it is good and sweete The ponds I meane to speake of shall be of two sorts the one digged right downe into the ground by labour of man the other made with a head in a valley betweene two hils by swelling of the water ouer grassie ground not in former times couered with water Those that are digged right downe are for the most part but small and serue indeed to little vse vnlesse it be to keepe fish in for the winter time to spend as need requireth or to feede fish in otherwise of themselues they are not able to sustaine any number of fish in any good sort to increase in grouth or goodnesse of meate and therefore I meane not to speake much of such ponds But the other kind of pond made with a head being rightly ordered as hereafter is mentioned will giue great nourishment to fish without any feeding saue of it selfe It is therefore requisite for him that would haue good fish to haue two such ponds with heads so made as with their sluces he may lay them drie when he pleaseth and againe to fill them with water when he shall thinke good to the end that one of them may lie drie one yeare the other the next yeare The greatnesse of his ponds may be according to the aptnes of the place where he maketh them and to the cost he meaneth to bestow And that valley that hath not any sudden descent but descendeth by little little hauing also some littell rill or brooke running through it is fittest for this purpose by reason that in such places a man shall with least charges in making the head ouerflow greatest quantitie of ground The sayd ponds are to be made as followeth The making of a pond for fish Hauing a place conuenient viz. a valley betweene two hilles and some small brooke or rill running through the same you are to dig a channell or pond as it were from the one hill to the other ouerthwart the valley and with the earth that you take out of the same to make your head Alwayes making your head downe the streame
yeare with water and fish and the next yeare emptie and drie do hereafter ensue First by that meanes you shall auoide superfluous number of frie which greatly hinder the growth and goodnesse of your greater fish Secondly by that meanes you shall so proportion your pond that it shall neuer be ouerstored Thirdly by that meanes your water shall alwayes be excellent sweete by reason it ouerfloweth such ground as hath taken the sunne and ayre all the sommer before wherein also if cattell do feede or especially be fodered and lie their dung and stale together with the naturall force of the Sunne at the next Spring ouerflowing with water will breede an innumerable number of flies and bodes of diuerse kinds and sorts which in a faire sunshine day in March or Aprill you shall see in the water as thicke as motes in the Sunne of which bodes and flies the fish do feede exceedingly Also great store of seedes of weedes and grasse shedding that sommer that it lieth drie is a great feede to your fish the next Sommer after when it is ouerflowne with water The sayd bodes doe for the most part breede of the blowings and seede of diuerse kinds of flies and such like liuing creatures in the sommer when your pond lieth drie in the dung of cattell and otherwise and take life and being the neâ—t Spring time by the naturall heate of the Suune together with the moisture of the fat and pleasant water as aforeiaid for surely many and sundrie kinds of flies that flie about in the ayre in Sommer time do take life in the water ouerflowing such ground where they haue bene left by the blowings and feede of other flies And I haue often obserued and beheld in a sunshine day in shallow waters especially where any dung or fatte earth is therewith mingled I say I haue seene a young flie swimme in the water too and fro and in the end come to the vpper crust of the water and assay to flie vp howbeit not being perfitly ripe or fledge hath twice or thrice fallen downe againe into the water howbeit in the end receiuing perfection by the heate of the sunne and the pleasant fat water hath in the ende within some halfe houre after taken her flight and flied quite awaie into the ayre And of such young flies before they are able to flie awaie do fish feede exceedingly Fourthlie your fish shall euerie yeare haue feeding in proportion to their increasing in bignesse for it standeth with reason that Carpes or other fish of twelue inches long will require more feeding then so many of siâ—e inches long will do but chieflie by meanes aforesayd of sewing euerie yeare you shall haue oportunitie to be rid of the great increase of frie and your greater fish more sweete and fat then any other hath by farre Fish will liue in a manner in any pond and without any feeding or such other industrie as aforesayd but then they are forced to liue vppon the muddie earth and weedes that grow in such ponds and being so fedde they will eate and taste accordingly and there is as great difference in taste betweene fish that is kept as aforesaid and other fish that is kept in a standing pond without feeding or other industrie as is betweene the flesh of a Larke and the flesh of a Crow or Kite And I suppose that that is the cause that most men are out of loue with all pond fish because they neuer tasted of any good or well ordered pond fish That Sommer that your pond lieth drie as aforesaid if there happen to grow any sower or rancke weedes therein as many times there will it is good to cut them vp and being dried with the sunne to burne them so shall you haue sweete grasse or yong weeds come in their place that cattell will feede on and also the heate of the sunne shall much amend your ground Also trench out the water that it may lie as drie as may be possible and if you can plough it and haue Sommer corne therein as bucke or barley that Sommer that it lieth drie I thinke it very good I haue heard the common people in the fenne countries affirme and that very earnestly that their fishes do feede of ashes by reason that in a drie Sommer when much of their fenne grounds lie drie and are pastured with cattell then towards the winter time such ranke grasse sedge reedes or weedes as the cattell do leaue vneaten they will burne them with fire to the end that the next Sommer such old sedge reedes or weedes may not annoy the comming vp of young and better sedge reedes or grasse And the common people find by experience that after such a drie Sommer as aforesaid all the next Winter the water ouerflowing those grounds their fish will be exceeding fat and good and therefore say they surely the fish do feede vppon the ashes of the weeds and such like burnt as aforesaid But the truth is in such a drie Sommer as aforesaid the cattell then feeding in such grounds as then lie drie do bestow therein great quantitie of dung and stale wherein is bred great abundance of such bodes flies and wormes as aforesayd as also the naturall and liuelie heate of the Sunne piercing such grounds doth make the same pleasant and fat and to bring forth the next Sommer many hearbes and weedes the seedes of which do yeeld vnto fishes verie great foode and nourishment and not the barren drie ashes as afore is imagined He that cannot haue such ponds as aforesaid and hauing but some small mote or other horse-pond in his ground that standeth continuallie full of water may often times haue a dish of good fish if he will bestow some feeding of corne as sod barley or pease cheese-curds or bloud of beasts to throw into his pond in the sommer time for that fish being not of the rauening kind do then onelie feede But it behoueth to do it in such sort as he may be assured that the fish do eate it and that he be not beguiled with duckes geesse or such like He may therefore make a square thing of some two foote broade of Elme boords with ledges some three or foure inches deepe and therein sincke his corne with a line tied vnto the foure corners thereof so that he may pull it vp and let it downe when he pleaseth and after the fish haue once found the vse thereof you shall well perceiue they will haunt it Sweet graines in small proportion are also good but if they be once sower or mustie the fish will not feede on them and also they will stench your pond The Tench of all other fish will best like to be fed as aforesaid and will be very good sweete and fatte and next vnto him the Carpe It is with fish as it is with other creatures for like as one acre of ground will hardly feede one ore throughout the yeare to keepe him
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
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