continuance thereof For if your Ale may endure a fortnight your Beere through the benefit of the Hop shall continue a Moneth and what grace it yeeldeth to the tast all men may judge that have sence in their mouthes and if the controversie be betwixt Beere and Ale which of them two shall have the place of preheminence it sufficeth for the glory and commendation of the Beere that here in our owne country Ale giveth place unto it and that most part of our Countrymen doe abhorre and abandon Ale as a lothsome drinke whereas in other Nations Beere is of great estimation and of strangers entertained as their moist choice and delicate drinke Finally that Ale which is most delicate and of best account boroweth the Hoppe as without the which it wanteth his chiefe grace and best verdure These things considered you may proceed to the making of your Garden wherein you are yet to have counsell for the laying out thereof for the due season and the right trade to cut and set Hoppe rootes what choice ye shall make of them what charge you shall be at for them you are yet also to learn the time when and the way how to prepare your ground and to make it able to entertaine and nourish them to frame your hills to maintaine them and to pull them downe to cut to fashion to erect to pull up and to preserve your Poales to gather to dry and to pack your Hops with many other circumstances necessarily appertaining hereunto Finally ye must be taught the reformation of many enormities and abuses which are received in most places for good rules the which God willing I will set forth truly according to the notes of experience although not learnedly after the Rules of Rhetoricke Of the preparation of a Hoppe Garden YOu must lay forth the ground which you determine to imploy this way in as levell square and uniforme wise as you may If your ground be grassie rough or stiffe it should be first â—owne with Hempe or Beanes which naturally maketh the ground mellow destroyeth weeds and neverthelesse leaveth the same in good season for this purpose But in what plight or state soever your ground be tyll it in the beginning of Winter with the Plough if it be great or with the Spade if it be small and this doe not onely the yeare before you plant it but also every yeare after even so long as you meane to receive the uttermost commodity of your Garden assuring your selfe that the more paines you take and the more cost you bestow hereupon the more you do double your profite and the nearer you resemble the trade of the Flemming Howbeit in some cases these paines may be spared that is to say where the mould is not deepe and the hill made both good and great in this case I say the hills being pulled downe the earth contained in them will cover the whole Garden and all the weeds growing therein and the same shall with helpe of dung maintaine your hills for ever The time to cut and set Hoppe Rootes IN the end of March or in the beginning of Aprill repaire to some good Garden orderly kept as wherein the Hops are all of a good kind all yearely cut and wherein all the Hills are raised very high for there the rootes will be greatest then compound with the owner or keeper thereof for choice rootes which in some places will cost sixe pence an hundreth but commonly they shall be given unto you so as you cut them your selfe and leave every hill orderly and fully dressed but what order you shall use herein I will hereafter shew Rules for the choyce and preparation of Rootes ANd now you must choose the biggest roots you can find that is to say such as are in bignesse three or foure inches about And let every roote which you shall provide to set be nine or tenne inches long Let there be contained in every such Roote three joynts Let all your rootes be but the Springs of the yeare last past You must have great regard that you cumber not your Garden with wild Hops the which are not to be discerned from the good by the rootes but either by the fruit or by the stalke Of the good Hoppe THe good and the kindly Hoppe beareth a great and a greene stalke a large a hard and a greene bell it appeareth out of the ground naked without leaves untill it be halfe a foote long Of the unkindly Hoppe THe Hoppe that likes not his entertainment namely his seate his ground his keeper his dung or the manner of his setting c. commeth up greene and small in stalke thicke and rough in leaves very like unto a Nettle which will be commonly devoured or much bitten with a little blacke flye who also will doe harme unto good Hops where the Garden standeth bleake or the Hop springeth rath but be not discomforted herewith for the heate of the Summer will reforme this matter and the latter springs will be little annoyed with this Flye who though she leave the leafe as full of holes as a Net yet she seldome proceedeth to the utter destruction of the Hoppe Of the wilde Hoppe OF the wild Hop the fruit is either altogether seed or else loose and red light bells the stalke is red howbeit herein the difference betweene the good and the bad Hop is not to be discerned untill the stalke be two or three yards high for at their first comming up the one as well as the other appeareth red and the best Hoppe is then the reddest Provide your rootes therefore where you are before-hand assured of their goodnesse Of setting of Hoppe Rootes HAving made your provision of rootes in this wise returne therewith to your Garden speedily and either set them immediately or lay them in some Puddle neare thereunto or bury them in the ground untill conveniency of winde weather and leisure the want whereof may sometimes prevent good expedition shall serve Provided alwayes that you leave them not in water or puddle above xxiiii houres but in the earth you may leave them as long as the time of setting endureth that is to say till the middest of Aprill Your Garden being dressed as before I advise you it shall be easie for you to direct your hills aright and that in equall distance with a Poale or rather with a line that will not stretch tying thereupon short threds or placing in it pinnes according to the proportion of space which you meane to leave betweene your hills whereof if one be placed out of order it shall blemish and hurt a great part of your Garden The distance of the Hills IF your Garden be one Acre in bignesse and lye square leave betweene every hole three yards or eight foot at the least in space as well that the hills may be made the greater and that the Hops of one Pole reach not to another as also that the Sunne may the more freely and universally
Otherwise the Hops will grow from one Pole to another and so over-shadow your Garden the fault thereof being especially to be imputed to the nearenesse of the hills Therefore chiefly you must measure your Poles by the goodnesse of your ground The Hoppe never stocketh kindly untill it reach higher then the Pole and returne from it a yard or two for whilest it tendeth clyming upward the branches which grow out of the principall stalke wherein consisteth the abundance of encrease grow little or nothing Let the quantity of your Poles be great that is to say nine or tenne inches about the lower end so shall they endure the longer and withstand the wind the better To describe the price of Poles or what it will cost you to furnish a Garden containing oâ—e Acre of ground it were a hard matter because the place altereth the price of Wood. But in a Wayne you may carry a hundreth and fifty Poles and 〈◊〉 small cause why a load of these should be much dearer then 〈◊〉 of any other Wood. After the first yeare Poles will be nothing chargeable unto you for you may either picke them out of your owne provision of Fuell or buy them of your Neighbours that have no occasion to apply them this way For the yearely supply of two loades of Poles will maintaine one Acre continually Your rotten and broken Poles will doe you good service for the kindling of your fiers in the Oste whereupon you should dry your Hops and they should be preserved chiefly for that purpose At Poppering where both scarcity and experience hath taught them to make carefull provision hereof they doe commonly at the East and North side of their Gardens set and preserve Alders wherewith they continually maintaine them Before you set up your Poles lay them all alongst your Garden betweene every row of hills by three or foure together I meane beside every Hill so many Poles as you determine to set thereon so shall you make the more speed in your worke Of the erection of Poles You must set every Pole a foot and a halfe deepe and within two or three inches at the most of the principall roote If your ground be rockie and shallow tarry the longer before you set up your Poles so as your Hops may be growne two or three foote high that you may adventure to make a hill or banke at every pole to stay and uphold the same without burying any of the younger Springs which may afterward be covered with lesse danger and annoyance of the principall roote Let the Poles of every hill leane a little outward one from another Of Ramming of Poles THen with a peece of wood as big below as the great end of one of your Poles ramme the earth that lyeth at the outside of the Pole thereunto but meddle not within the compasse of your Poles as they are placed lost you spoile the Springs Of Reparation of Poles IF any of the Poles chance to breake in many peeces when the Hop is growne up undoe and pull away the same broken Pole and tye the top of those Hops to the top of a new pole then winding it a turne or two about according to the course of the Sunne set it in the hole or besides the hole where the broken Pole stood but some being loth to take so much paines turne it about the other Poles that stand upon the same hill and so leave it But if it be not broken above the middest the best way is to set a new Pole or stalke beside the broken pole to the same which may uphold the said broken pole and preserve the Hop If the pole be onely broken at the nether end you may shove the said pole againe into the hill and so leave it Of pulling up Poles ANd because when the hills are made great and raised high you can neither easily pull up any nor possible pull up all your poles except you breake them c. especially if the wether or the ground be dry or else the Poles old or small J thought good to shew you an Instrument wherewith you shall pull them up without disease to your selfe destruction to your poles or expence of your money the charge being only foureteene or fifteen pound of Iron wherewith the Smith shall make you a paire of tongs or rather you may call them a paire of pinsers of the fashion here set downe the which may also be made with wood if you thiake good The way to make the Instrument wherewith to pull up the Hoppe Poles THey must be one yard in length whereof sixe or seaven inches may be allowed for the mouth or lower end of them which serveth to claspe or catch hold on the Pole the same nether end should be the strongest part thereof and the mouth somewhat hollow in the middest and there also bending downeward whereby the extreame point may rise a little upward Vpon the upper edges of the inside thereof the Smith should hacke or raise a few small teeth whereby your toole may take the surer hold upon the Pole He must also fasten upon every side of this Instrument a ryding hooke the which may claspe and stay both sides together when they have caught hold on the pole The manner of pulling up the Hoppe Poles YOu shall lay a little square block upon the top of the hill and the better to remove the same from hill to hill you may thrust therein a pinne Upon the same blocke you may rest your pinsers when they have clasped the very lowest part of your Pole and then holding the upper part of each side in your hands the hooke being clasped and pulled up hard towards youâ— you shall easily weigh up your Poles Of the preservation of Poles ANd although we are not yet come to the laying up of Poles I am bold herein as I began too late so to make an end too quickly because J would touch the whole matter of Poles together laying them by themselves I meane comprehending under one title the businesse appertaining unto them For the preservation and better continuance of Poles some make houses of purpose and lay them up therein Some set them upright to a Tree and over them make a penthouse of boughes or boords Some lay a great heape of Hopstalkes upon the ground and upon them a great heape of Poles and upon the Poles againe lay another heape of stalkes c. These men doe hereby expresse no great experience although by their diligence they signifie a good desire You shall need to doe no more but thus At the ends or sides of your Garden take three Poles standing upon three hills placed directly one by another and three like Poles upon three other hills of the next row right over against them constraine them to meet together by two and two in the tops and so hold them till one with a forked wand may put three Withes like unto three Broome bands which may be made of the
stalkes of Hops upon each couple of the said sixe Poles so shall the same sixe Poles being so bound by two and two together stand like the roofe or rafters of an house To keepe the Poles that shall lye nethermost from rotting by the moystnesse of the ground within the compasse of your said sixe hills underneath the Poles that you have fastened together in the tops raise three little bankes crosse or thwart from hill to hill as though you would make your sixe hills to be but three Vpon those bankes lay a few Hopstalkes and upon them your Poles observing that one stand at one end of the roome and another at the other end ordering the matter so as the tops of the Poles lye not all one way but may be equally and orderly devided otherwise one end of the roome would be full before the other whereas now they shall lye even and sharpe above like an Haystacke or the ridge of an house and sufficiently defend themselves from the weather If you thinke that you have not Poles enough to fill the roome pull downe the Wit hs or bands lower and your roome will be lesse and this doe before you lay in your Poles Of tying of Hoppes to the Poles VVHen your Hops are growne about one or two foote high bind up with a Rush or a Grasse such as decline from the Poles winding them as often about the same Poles as you can and directing them alwayes according to the course of the Sunne but if your leisure may serue to doe it at any other time of the day doe it not in the morning when the dew remaineth upon them If you lay soft greene Rushes abroad in the dew and the Sunne within two or three dayes they will be lythie tough and handsome for this purpose of tying which may not be fore-stowed for it is most certaine that the Hop that lyeth long upon the ground before he be tyed to the Pole prospereth nothing so well as it which sooner attaineth thereunto Of Hilling and Hills NOw you must begin to make your Hills and for the better doing thereof you must prepare a toole of Iron fashioned somewhat like to a Coopers Addes but not so much bowing neither so narrow at the head and therefore likest to the nether part of a shovell the powle whereof must be made with a round hole to receive a helve like to the helve of a Mattock and in the powle also a naile hole must be made to fasten it to the helve This helve should bow somewhat like to a Sithe or to the steale of a Sithe and it must be little more then a yard long Some thinke it impertinent and not necessary to make hills the first yeare partly because their distrust of this yeares profite quallifieth their diligence in this behalfe and partly for that they thinke that the principall roote prospereth best when there be no new rootes of them forced and maintained But experience confuteth both these conjectures for by industry the first yeares profit will be great and thereby also the principall sets much amended as their prosperity in the second yeare will plainely declare But in this worke you must be both painefull and curious as wherein consisteth the hope of your gaines and the successe of your worke For the greater in quantity you make your hills the more in number you shall have of your Hops and the fewer weeds you shall have on your ground the more Hops you shall have upon your Poles In consideration whereof I say your labour must be continuall from this time almost till the time of gathering in raising your hills and clearing ground from weeds In the first yeare that you plant your Hop garden suppresse not one science but suffer them all to clime up to the Poles for if you should bury or cover all the springs of any one of your three rootes which you did lately set the roote thereof perisheth and perhaps out of some one roote there will not proceed above one or two springs which being buried that roote I say dyeth and therefore the more poles are at this time requisite After the first yeare you must not suffer above two or three stalkes at the most to grow up to one Pole but put downe and bury all the rest Howbeit you may let them all grow till they be foure or five foot high at the least whereby you shall make the better choice of them which you meane to attaine whereby also the principall roote will be the better c. Some suffer their Hops to clime up to the tops of the Poles and then make the hills at one instant in such quantity as they meane to leave them which is neither the best nor the second way But if for expedition you be driven hereunto begin sooner that is to say when the Hops be foure or five foot long and afterwards if leisure shall serve refresh them againe with more earth But to make them well and as they ought to be made you must immediately after your poles are set make a little banke or circle round about the outside of them as a mention how wide your hill shall be and as a receptacle to retaine and keepe moisture whereof there cannot lightly come too much so it come from above Jf your Garden be great by that time that you have made an end of these circles or bankes it will be time to proceed further towards the building up of your hills Now therefore returne againe to the place where you began or else where you see the Hops highest and with your toole pare off the uppermost earth from the Allies or spaces betweene the hills and lay the same in your Hops upon and within the circle that you made before alwayes leaving the same highest of any part of the hill and so passe through your Garden againe and againe till you have raised your hills by little and little to so great a quantity as is before declared and looke how high your hill is so long are your new rootes and the greater your new rootes or springs be the more larger and better your Hops will be Great and overgrowne weeds should not be laid upon the hills as to raise them to their due quantity but when with diligence and expedition you passe through your Garden continually paring away each greene thing assoone as it appeareth you shall doe well with the same and the uppermost mould of your Garden together to maintaine and encrease the substance of your hills even till they be almost a yard high In the first yeare nake not your hill too rath least in the doing thereof you oppresse some of those springs which would otherwise have appeared out of the ground It shall not be amisse now and then to passe through your Garden having in each hand a forked wand directing aright such Hops as decline from the poles but some in stead of the said forked wands use to stand upon a stoole and
than unrotten dung about the dressing of your Hops but omit not to bring into your Garden dung that may there be preserved till it be good or needfull to be used When and where to lay Dung ABout the end of Aprill if your ground be not rich enough you must helpe every hill with a handfull or two of good earth not when you cut your rootes for then it will rather doe harme then good but when the Hop is wound about the Pole then should you doe it The order for reforming your Ground IM March you shall returne to your Garden and find it replenished with weedes except by tillage c. you have prevented that matter already It must as well therefore as because the earth may be more fine rich and easie to be delivered unto the hills be digged over or plowed except in the case mentioned The order of cutting Hoppe-rootes VVHen you pull downe your hills which if you have not already done you must now of necessity goe about to doe you should with your Garden toole undermine them round about till you come neere to the principall roots and then take the upper or younger rootes in your hand and shake of the earth which eâ—rth being againe removed away with your said toole you shall discerne where the new rootes grow out of the old Sets In the doing hereof be carefull that you spoyle not the old Sets as for the other roots which are to be cut awâ—y you shall not need to spare them to the delay of your work except such as you meane to set Take heed that you uncover not any more then the tops of the old sets in the first yeare of cutting At what time soever you pull downe your hills cut not your rootes before the end of March or in the begyâ—ning of Aprill and then remember the wind In the first yeare I meane at the first time of cutting and dressing of your rootes you must with a â—â—â—rpe knife cut away all such rootes or springs as grew the yeare before out of your sets within one inch of the same Every yeare after you must cut them as close as you can to the old rootes even as you see an Oâ—â—eâ—s head cut There groweth out of the old sets certaine Rootes right downwards not joynted at all which serve onely for the nourishing and comfort of those sets or principall rootes which are not to be cut off There be other like unto them growing outward at the sides of the sets If these be not met withall and cut asunder they will encumber your whole Garden Because it may seeme hard to discerne the old sets from the new Springs I thought good to advertise you how easie a thing it is to see the difference thereof for first you shall be sure to find your Sets where you did set them nothing increased in length but somewhat in bignesse inlarged and in few yeares all your Sets will be growne into one so as by the quantity that thing shall plainely appeare and lastly the difference is seene by the colour the old roote being red the other white but if the hills be not yearely pulled downe and the rootes yearely cut then indeed the old sets shall not be perceived from the other rootes If your Sets be small and placed in good ground and the hill well maintained the new rootes will be greater then the old If there grow in any hill a wild Hop or whensoever the stalke waxeth red or when the Hop in any wise decayeth pull up every roote in that hill and set new in their places at the usuall time of cutting and setting or if you list you may doe it when you gather Hops with the rootes which you cut away when you make your picking place Of divers mens follies MAny men seeing the springs so forward as they will be by this time are loth to loose the advantage thereof and more unwilling to cut away so many goodly Rootes but they that are timerous in this behalfe take pitty upon their own profit and are like unto them that refraine to lay dung upon their Corne land because they would not betray it with so uncleanly a thing And some that take upon them great skill herein thinke that for the first yeare they may be left unhilled and uncut c. deceiving themselves with this conceit that then the Sets prosper best within the ground when they send least of their nature and state out of the ground In this respect also they pull away or suppresse all such Springs as soone as they appeare which grow more and besides them which they meane to assigne to each Pole as though when a mans fingers were cut off his hand would grow the greater Indeed if there be no hill maintained then the more Springs are suffered to grow from out of the principall roote the more burden and punishment it will be to the same But when the Springs are maintained with a hill so much as remaineth within the same is converted into rootes which rather adde then take away any state from the principall roote in consideration hereof the suppressing of the Springs may not be too rath for whatsoever opinion be hereof received the many Springs never hurt the principall roote if the hills be well maintained but it is the cumbring and shadowing of one to another that worketh the annoyance When you have cut your Hops you must cover them as you were taught in the title of Setting and proceeding according to the order already set downe Of Disorders and Maintainers thereof SOme there be that despise good order being deceived with a shew of increase which sometime appeareth in a disordered ground to them I say and say it truely that the same is a bad and a small increase in respect of the other I say also that although disorderly doings at the first may have a countenance of good successe yet in few yeares the same and all hope thereof will certainely decay Some other there be that despise good order satisfying themselves with this that they have sufficiently to serve their owne turne without all these troubles and surely it were pitty that these should be troubled with any great abundance that in contempt of their owne profite and of the Common-wealth neglect such a benefit proferred unto them Of an Oste NOw have I shewed unto you the perfect Platforme of a Hop-Garden out of the which J led you for a time and brought you in againe when time required and there would I leave you about your businesse were it not to shew you by description such an Oste as they dry their Hops upon at Poppering with the order thereof c. Which for the small charges and trouble in drying for the speedy and well drying and for the handsome and easie doing thereof may be a profitable patterne and a necessary instruction for as many as have or shall have to doe herein Of the severall Roomes for an Oste FIrst a
mean to buy in seven or eight places and to search at each place whether the Hops be of like goodnesse Such places as you shall feele with your hand to be softer then the rest you should specially cut where perhaps you shall find Hops of another kind elder or worse then the rest The reformation of a Garden of wild Hops TO reforme a Garden where the Hops be wild the work is tedious and none other way remaineth but to digge over the same with a Spade so deepe as you may search out and throw out every roote and piece of roote that may be found in or neare thereunto and then to plant according to the order before declared The reformation of a disordered Garden TO repaire a ruinous Garden which through ignorance was disorderly set and through sloth suffered to over-run and decay where neverthelesse the Hops remaine of a good kind though somewhat empaired as needs they must be by this meanes the very best way were to doe as to the wild Hoppe The second way is to forget that it is disordered at all imagining that all were well and to set your Poles in such order and so farre asunder as is prescribed in that title alwayes directing them right with a line so as a stranger beholding them may suppose that your Garden is kept after the best manner then lead unto each Pole two or three stalkes which you shall find nearest thereunto and there erect a hill which you may ever after cut and dresse according to the rules before declared and so by continuall digging paring and diligence you shall at leisute bring it to some reasonable perfection If your Garden be very much matted with rootes so as it be too tedious to digge set your Poles as you are already taught and bring into your Garden and lay neare to every such place where you meane to make a hill one Cart lode of good earth with the which after your Hops are tyed to your Poles begin to make your hill and proceed as in the title of Hills alwayes cutting downe such Hops or weeds as grow betweene the said hills If your rootes be set orderly and your hills made accordingly and yet left undressed by the space of two or three yeares it will be very hard I say to discerne the Sets from the other later rootes neverthelesse if your geound be good you may yet reforme the inconvenience thereof namely by pulling downe the hill and cutting away all the rootes contained therein even with the face or upper part of the earth searching also each side and digging yet lower and round about the roote which remaineth and to take away from the same all such rootes as appeare out thereof Needlesse curiosities used by the unskilfull TO water your Garden as to make the rootes grow the better it were more tedious then needfull for the hilling thereof serveth for that purpose and there is time of growing sufficient for them betwixt the middest of Aprill and August and yet it never hurteth but rather doth good if it be before the hill be made To plucke of the leaves to the end that the Hops may prosper the better is also needlesse and to no purpose and rather hindereth then helpeth the growth of the Hops for they are hereby deprived of that garment which Nature hath necessarily provided for them and clothed them with To flaw the Poles thereby to prolong their continuance is more then needeth to be done in this behalfe for it is too tedious to your selfe and hurtfull to your Hop and little availeth to the purpose afore-said To burne the nether part or great end of your Poles as some doe to the end they should last or endure the longer as also endure the longer is also an unnecessary trouble onely Willow Poles you may so use to keepe them from growing So is it to weed the Hills with the hand whereas the same weeds shall be buried by the raising of the Hill FJNJS The expert Gardener OR A Treatise containing certaine necessary secret and ordinary knowledges in Grafting and Gardening with divers proper new Plots for the Garden Also sundry expert Directions to know the time and season when to sow and replant all manner of Seeds With divers remedies to destroy Snails Canker-wormes Moths Garden-Fleas Earth-wormes Moles and other Vermine Faithfully collected out of sundry Dutch and French Authors LONDON Printed by Richard Herne 1640. Certaine common Instructions how the Stumpe must be chosen whereupon you will graffe or plant EVery diligent Housholder who will plant should use thereto a convenient place to the end that the wilde beast chaw not nor paire the Plants or if they be yong wholly eat in pieces which to avoid is needfull to be in a towne or closed Orchard where there is not too much shadow but a sweet ground well muckt tilled and turned Every Plant will have foure things First moistnesse so that the seeds or stumpe bee moist or green Secondly a convenient place which hath such earth as will lightly be rubbed to ponder and that Sun may come to it for where there is filthy lome a lean ground or sandy dry burnt or salt ground there is nothing good to be planted to have any continuance neverthelesse where the ground is lean there you must give more dung in a fat ground not so much Take heed the ground be not too moist nor too dry and muck the trees with hogs dung Thirdly a mediate water or nourishing moystnesse therefore be those Orchards best which are scituated between two waters for those that are placed by a water side remaine still yong and fruitfull and have commonly the bark smoother and thinner than the others And those trees are more fruitfull than others which are planted in a valley or in the lower part of a deepe hill for from those hills may come to them nourishment and moistnesse and the ground which is so scituated is very fruitfull But he that cannot get for his trees such a ground must with all diligence seeke to bring to his trees a little spring or pond of which the trees may sometimes finde some reviving and if you may not have any of those and have a garden who by it self is naught the trees will grow with thicke roots which hindereth the growing of them and drieth them at length Fourthly The aire is required which must be agreeable to them and of complexion to beare for there be some trees that doe prosper in all aires to wit apple and peare cherry and plum-trees Some will have a cold aire to wit Chessenut trees some a very warme aire as the palme and pepper trees therefore they be rare with us That plant which hath these foure things shall prosper and if they want one or more of these foure things they wil decay and their prospering perish At what time trees ought to be planted and set ALL kind of trees may be planted transported and cut in March but it is
better to turn them in October for then the frost hurteth them not so much as at other times for learned men say that in dry townes and warm countries they plant in October or November and that in moist townes and cold vallies they plant in February or March in none other time may you plant or graffe When you will plant or set againe wild stumps if there be any thing broken at the root cut it off Euery plant must be set two foot one from another or at the least one foot especially when they should beare strong fruits likewise when thou wilt set strong seeds as nuts almonds and peaches When a man will plant two stumps so must they be of two yeare old except the uine These things you must understand of those plants or stumps which are planted with roots How the stumps and plants must be prepared and dressed which you will plant THe plant or sprout you must cut round about so that you leave the very end of it and put it then into an hole but if the stump be great cut it clean off and then put only the undermost part into a hole long or short as you will but if you find two stumps growne together you may cut the lesser away And above all things you must take heed that the sprout grow upright and if it will not you must constraine it and tie it to a sticke Here follow certaine instructions how the trees must be kept and how you must labour them SOme trees will have a fat ground as Figge trees and Mulberrie trees and some leane ground but all trees be in that point equall that they will have in the top dry ground and in the bottome moist earth 2 In harvest you must uncover the roots of the trees so deep that they may partly be seene and lay dung upon them which dung must be dissolved of raine in the ground that it may come to the roots which mucking giveth good increase to the roots 3 If the ground wherein the trees stand bee too sandy then mixe among it faire and new lome and if it be too lomy then mixe amongst it sand in place of mucke the which you must not only doe hard by the tree but also foure or fiue foot off from it round about the tree according as the tree is in bignes or that the roots are large and great Such diligence giueth to the trees great help for their nourishment and strength is thereby renewed Hereafter you shall understand whereby to know the fruitfull soile 4 In the fat ground the stumps whereupon you wil graf must be left long but in lean ground short 5 The plants of trees from their youth till three yeres must not be cut nor shred but they may bee transported and if they be too weak you may pricke sticks next unto them 6 Diligent regard must be taken that no sprouts spring out of the stump which might take the nourishment from the tree sprouts and those boughes which spring from the root of the tree at the first planting 7 When thou perceiuest the yong trees to waxe weake then uncover the roots and put other fresh ground to them 8 If the ground be neither too soft nor too hard then may you chuse all kind of stumps in February for to plant when the green juice is dispersed in the bark but when the ground is too hard then the swet holes or pores of the root doe remaine closed and stopped so that they cannot draw to them their nourishment such hardnes of the ground or earth hindereth the aire and moistnes which commeth from beneath upward for it cannot be pearsed of the sofr sprouts with the small heat which is beneath therfore you must come to help them with a spade for with a plough you will neuer come to an end because of the root 9 There is great diligence to bee taken for preseruing of the trees when they begin to grow great to scrape from the barke all rudenesse which is don when you take from them all superfluitie sprouts which come out of the tree You may cut them in February 10 It is good for the trees to mucke them often and moderatively to water their roots Also to cleaue the roots and lay stones into them to the end they may revive againe of the drinesse which they have suffered or of the barrennes of the ground or when the young planted trees for the great heat will perish Also when immoderate heat is then you must help them with turning of the ground and with watering but the water wherewith you should water them must not be altogether fresh nor cold or newly drawne out of the spring but out of a ditch pond or well or any other foule ditch water or with spring water which hath stood long in the sunne or put a little dung in the water and stirre it once or twice well about and the water wil be fat wherwith water your trees You may also keep them with shadowes and straw from the heat or else put in great heat fat green herbs at the stump tempred with loame some anoint the stumpe toward the South or Mid-day with chalke some with oile or with any other ointment that cooleth 11 When you would transpose a plant or have wilde stumps digged out to plant again then mark the part which standeth towards the South of mid-day and put it so againe when you graffe it How to keep plants stumps or trees from the wilde beasts that they hurt them not WHere the path of the beast is free and remedilesse there must be put poles and with thornes the same yong trees must be inclosed That the Deeres spoile them not TAke the pisse of a Deere and anoint the Tree therewith That the Hares do not hurt them SPet in thy hand and anoint the sprouts therewith and no Hare will hurt them Here follow some instructions of graffing FIrst you must know that imping graffing and setting is all one thing The imping sprous must be young and new with great bodies and many eies for where many and great buds be that is a token that is of a strong fruit 2 The imping sprouts must be broken off at the sun rising although that those of the other side broken off grow likewise yet those of the other side are most naturall and temperate of heat Some country clownes beleeve that if you in cutting the sprouts turn them upside downe that they will never grow right but be crooked 3 All graffing and imping is don by putting one into another by a fast binding that the little sprout may spread his boughs to the stump or tree wherein it is graffed that so it may become one tree 4 Ouer yong imps which are so weake that they will breake before they be put into the earth or into the stump are naught and therefore they may not be imped or set 5 When you impe upon a house or fruit tree the fruit will
no raine winde or wormes may hurt it This helpeth much to keep the moistnes in which commeth from the root that it cannot breake out but nourisheth the better the new plant but when the stumps are great they bee cleaved after two waies The first is that you cut or cleave the tree with a knife at one side only even to the heart and that you graft into it but one sprout The other is that you cleave it all over and that you prick or graft on every side one sprout or one alone and leave the other side without When the stumpe is but a little bigger then the sprout must necessarily be cloven in two and you must graft but one sprout into it as is said in the beginning This cleaving may be done in February March and Aprill then it is good to cut them before they be greene for to keepe them the better under the ground in cold or moist places The third way of grafting THis sort of grafting is very subtill witty and ready and is done as followeth Go to a smooth apple or peare tree in April when the trees get liquor and seeke a branch which hath greene eies and see that the same be lesse than your little finger and teare it from the tree and where you see that the greene sprouts will come off there cut them off wholly and clense the middle thereof that the little red at the wood may turne about and draw it not off untill you come unto another good peare or apple tree and seeke there another branch of the same bignesse that the other was and cut it off and take from it likewise the red as far as you will put them againe and looke where the branches join that they may well sit together upon the top and tie the same place gently and well with a little barke behinde and before that the water may not hurt them in the first yeare it bringeth forth leaves and branches in the second floures which you may break off for the sprout is yet too tender so that it may beare no fruit and in the third yeare it bringeth floures and fruit and by this meanes you may graft divers kinds of pears and apples vpon one tree I have likewise set such sprouts upon wilde stumps and they have prospered The fourth way of grafting is HOw buds are transported and bound upon another tree like as a plaister is tied to a mans body this sort of grafting is called in Latine Emplastrum Wee read of such a sort of grafting which is called in Latine Abducellum and it is much like unto this sort wherefore we will only speake of it being done after this sort When you see upon a great fruitfull bough a bud which will prosper without doubt and wouldst faine plant it upon another tree take a sharp knife and lift the bark up two fingers bredth that the bud be not hurt then go to another tree upon the which you will graft and put into a convenient place a like hole into the barke and put the same bud with the bark into it and tie it with dung or with a clout which hath lien in a dunghill over the cut that it may be kept from the outward damage of weather and for an especiall nourishment and keeping of the inner juice then cut off the branches round about it that the mother may the better nourish the new son within twenty daies after take away the band so that you see that the strange bud hath prospered and joined himselfe with the tree This may be done in March when the bark commeth easily from the tree Also in April May and Iune and yet she prospereth both before and after a time when you may conveniently find such buds This sort of planting prospereth best in a willow tree or such like which is pierced through and is done after this sort The fifth way When you pierce a willow stick with a sharp piercer see that betweene every hole be left the space of one foot and prick therein branches a little scraped and put the sticke into a ditch so that the branches stand upright one part of the sticke remaining over the earth and within a yeare after take it out of the ditch and cut the stick asunder so find you the branches full of roots and put euery one into a hole in the ground and 't is fit the holes were stopped with lome or with waxe Some do take in March a fresh Beech tree which is of a mans thicknesse and pierce him ouerthwart with maine and great holes and small holes till unto the lowermost barke or quite through then take sprouts or boughes which be as big and small that they may fit into the holes and when you will put them into the Beech stump you must scrape the uppermost barke off untill the greene and no further then the bough must remaine into the beech the sprouts must stand a foot or somwhat lesse asunder then keep your beech stump with the sprouts in a fresh ground and skant a foot deep you must first maime the sprouts that they may not flourish then the next March ensuing dig it out with the sprouts and cut it asunder with a saw and every block which is cut off with his branch you must set in a fresh ground and so they will bring forth the fruit the same yeare The sixth Way This way teacheth how to graffe that they may bring forth fruit the first yere which do as follows Pare an old stumpe of what kind soever it be the uppermost bark till to the lower green barke a span long or somewhat lesse which doe in harvest in the wane of the Moone and anoint it with Oxe dung and earth and tie it with barke and after in March when trees are transposed from one place to another then cut the same branch from the tree and put it into the ground and it wil bring fruit the same yere I have seene that one hath prickt sticks on Alhallow eve in the earth and hath pulled them out again upon Christmas eve and put boughes in the holes and they have prospered and come out The 〈…〉 that the fruit bee without 〈…〉 spâ—â—ut graffe it into a great stump 〈…〉 thickeâ— and lower part of the sprout then take the upper or thinner end o the sprout and cut it alâ—o fit to be graffed and turne it downeward and â—raffe it into the said stump and when the sprout of both sides prospereth cut it in the midst asunder so that which is grown right upward with the tree the fruit of it hath stones but that which was the top of the sprout that groweth contrary brings forth fruit without stones And if so be the turnâ—â— sprout prosper you must break off the other to the end that the turned sprout doe not perish which you may try aâ—â—er this sort for oftentimes it commeth and prospeâ—eth and many times it is perished and spoiled How Cherries
are to bee graffed that they may come without stones WIll you make that Cherries grow without stones pare a little Cherry tree of one yere old at the stump and cleave it asunder from the top to the root which do in May and make an Iron fit to â—raw the heart or marow from both sides of the tree then tie it fast â—â—â—â—ther and anoint 〈…〉 H◠〈…〉 PLant a Vâ—â—e tree next unto a Ch◠〈…〉 when it groweth â—igh then pierce a◠〈…〉 Cherry tree right above it that the ho◠〈…〉 than the Vine is thick and pare the upâ—â—â— barâ— of the Vine branch till unto the greene 〈…〉 must go through the tree looke well to it tha◠〈◊〉 branch of the Vine bee not bruised and well anointed You must not suffer any sprouts to come out oâ— the vine from the ground up but unto the tree only that which commeth out of the other side let that same grow and bring fruit Then the next March following if the Vine prosper and grow fast into the tree then cut the Vine from the tree off and anoint the place with diligence and it will bring fruit How a grape of a Vine may be brought into a glasse WIll you make that a grape grow into a narrow glasse take the glasse before the grape cast her bloud or while she is little and put her into the glasse and she will ripen in the glasse To graffe Medlers on a Peare tree IF you graffe a branch of a Medler upon a Peare tree the Medlers will be sweet and durable so that you may keep them longer than otherwise How apples or other fruits may be made red IF you will graft upon a wild stump put the sprouts in Pikes bloud and then graft them and the fruit will be red Otherwise Take an apple branch and graft it upon an alder stump and the apples will be red Likewise if you graft them upon cherry trees Of the Quince tree THe Quince tree commeth not of any grafting but you must plucke him out by the roots and plant him againe into a good ground or earth Otherwise The Quince tree requireth a dry sweet ground and he prospereth therein How to make that Quinces become great TAke a branch of a Quince tree when it hath cast his bloud where a Quince groweth at and put it into a pot and set it into the ground and let the Quince grow in it and it will be very great And if you will shew some cunning therewith cause to bee made a pot which hath a mans face in the bottome of it or any other picture whatsoever and when the quinces have blossomed then bow the branch and put the quince into the pot and she wil grow very bigge in the shape of a man which may also be done in pompons mellons cucumbers and other earthly fruits The conclusion of graffing OVt of all the forewritten causes gentle reader is evidently shewne that although every planting or grafting be better from like to like and from kinde to kind yet neverthelesse it agreeth also with contrary kinds as now is said wherefore he that will exercise and use the same and try divers kindes he may see and make many wonders What â—oy and fruit commeth of trees The first THe first is that you plant divers many kinds for every housholder who hath care to his nourishment with all diligence causeth oftentimes such trees to be brought from forrein countries The second The second is when the trees bee planted and set orderly and pleasantly they give no small pleasure to a man therefore every one should cut his trees orderly and he that cannot should procure other men to do it which know how to do it The third is of well smelling and spited fruit Cleave a tree asunder or a branch of a fruitfull tree to the heart or pith and cut a piece out of it and put therein poudred spices or what spice soever you will or what colour you will desire and tie a barke hard about it and anoint it with lome and oxe dung and the fruit will get both the sauour and colour according to the spice you have put in it How sower fruits be made sweet WHich tree beareth sower fruits in the same pierce a hole a foot or somwhat lesse above the root and fill that with honey and stop the hole with a haw-thorne branch and the fruit will bee sweet How trees ought to be kept when they wax old WHen trees lose their strength and vertue for age the branches break off for the weight of the fruit or when they wax barren for lack of moisture that they beare not fruit every yeare but scant every other or third yeare you must cut some of his heavy branches which he can little nourish which is done to the end hee might keep some moistnesse to himselfe for his nourishment for else the moistnesse would go all into his branches Wheteby you may mark whether you must give them or take away from them branches according to their nourishment and as the earth where shee standeth can abide that is you must leave them so much as will nourish them and no more which if you doe not the trees will bring so little fruit that your labour will not be recompensed Which cutting of trees may be done from the beginning of November till to the end of March in warme countries But it is more naturall to be done from the time that the leaves fall till the time that they begin to grow greene againe except where the frost is very great and sharp How trees must be kept from divers sicknesses and first how to keep them from the Canker WHen the Canker commeth in any tree he becommeth barren and dry for it mounteth from the stumps into the top and when it taketh a peare or apple tree the bark will be black and barren thereabouts which must be cut off with a knife to the fresh wood and then the place must be anointed with Oxe dung and tied with barke so that neither wind nor rain may hurt it Against worms which must be driven out of the tree IT happeneth oftentimes that thâ— superfluities of moistnesse in the trees breaketh out like as sometimes to a man or beast betweene the flesh and skinâ— and when that beginneth to rot wormes grow out of it which takes his strength away wherfore mark When the barke of a tree at any time swels cut it presently open that the poison may runne out and if you find already wormes in it draw them out with a little yron hooke How the wormes are to be killed if they bee already growne into the tree IF you will kill the worms which grow in the tree take pepper lawrell and incense and mingle all well together with good wine and pierce a hole into the tree downeward to the pith or heart of the tree and poure this mixture into it and stop it with a hawthorne and the wormes will