Cudgels Coals and Springes to catch birds and it makes one of the best Coals once us'd for Gun-powder being very fine and Light till they found Alder to be more fit There is no Wood which purifies Wine sooner than the Chipps of Hasel Also for VVith's and Bands upon which I remember Pliny thinks it a pretty Speculation that a Wood should be stronger to bind withal being bruis'd and divided then when whole and entire lastly for Riding Switches and Divinatory Rods for the detecting and finding out of Minerals at least if that Tradition be no imposture But the most signal Honour it was ever employ'd in and which might deservedly exalt this humble and common Plant above all the Trees of the Wood is that of Hurdles not for that it is generally us'd for the Folding of our Innocent Sheep an Emblem of the Church but for making the Walks of one of the first Christian Oratories in the World and particularly in this Island that venerable and Sacred Fabric at Glastenbury founded by S. Joseph of Arimathea which is storied to have been first compos'd but of a few small Hasel-Rods interwoven about certain Stakes driven into the ground and Walls of this kind in stead of Laths and Punchions superinduc'd with a course Mortar made of Loam and Straw does to this day inclose divers humble Cottages Sheads and Out-Houses in the Countrey and 't is strong and lasting for such purposes whole or Cleft and I have seen ample enclosures of Courts and Gardens so secur'd 6. There is a compendious expedient for the thickning of Copses which are too transparant by laying of a Sampler or Pole of an Hasel Ash Poplar c. of twenty or thirty foot in length the head a little lopp'd into the ground giving it a Chop near the foot to make it succumb this fastned to the earth with a hook or two and cover'd with some fresh mould at a competent depth as Gardeners lay their Carnations will produce a world of Suckers thicken and furnish a Copse speedily But I am now come to the VVater-side let us next consider the Aquatic CHAP. XVIII Of the Poplar Aspen and Abele 1. POpulus I begin this second Class according to our former distribution with the Poplar of which there are several kinds White Black c. which in Candy 't is reported bears seed besides the Aspen The white is the most ordinary with us to be rais'd in abundance by every set or slip Fence the ground as far as any old Poplar roots extend they will furnish you with suckers innumerable to be slipp'd from their mothers and transplanted the very first year You shall need no other Nursery When they are young their leaves are somewhat broader and rounder then when they grow aged In moist and boggie places they will flourish wonderfully so the ground be not spewing but especially near the margins and banks of Rivers Populus in fluviis and in low sweet and fertile grounds Also trunchions of seven or eight foot long thrust two foot into the earth a hole being made with a sharp hard stake fill'd with water and then with fine earth pressed in and close about them when once rooted may be cut at six inches above ground and thus placed at a yard distant they will immediately furnish a kind of Copse But in case you plant them of rooted trees or smaller sets fix them not so deep for though we bury the trunchions thus profound yet is the root which they strike commonly but shallow They will make prodigious shoots in 15 or 16 years but then the heads must by no means be diminish'd but the lower branches may yet not too far up the foot would also be cleansed every second year This for the White The Black Poplar is frequently pollar'd when as big as ones arm eight or nine foot from the ground as they trim them in Italy for their Vines to serpent on and those they poll or head every second year sparing the middle streight and thrivingest shoot and at the third year cut him also 2. The shade of this tree is esteemed very wholesome in Summer and the leaves good for cattel which must be stripp'd from the cut boughs before they are faggotted This to be done in the decrease of October and reserv'd in bundles for the winter fodder The wood of white Poplar is sought of the Sculptor and they saw both sorts into boards which where they lie dry continue a long time Of this material they also made Shields of defence in Sword and Buckler days Dioscorides writes that the bark chopt small and sow'd in rills well and richly manur'd and watered will produce a plentiful crop of Mushrums It is to be noted that those Fungi which spring from the putrid stumps of this tree are not venomous as of all or most other trees they are being gathered after the first Autumnal rains 3. They have a Poplar in Virginia of a very peculiar shap'd leaf as if the point of it were cut off which grows very well with the curious amongst us to a considerable stature I conceive it was first brought over by John Tradescant under the name of the Tulip-tree but is not that I find taken notice of in any of our Herbals I wish we had more of them 4. The Aspen onely which is that kind of Libica or white Poplar bearing a smaller and more tremulous leaf thrusts down a more searching foot and in this likewise differs that he takes it ill to have his head cut off Pliny would have short trunchions couched two foot in the ground but first two days dried at one foot and half distance and then moulded over 5. There is something a finer sort of white Poplar which the Dutch call Abele and we have much transported out of Holland these are also best propagated of slips from the roots the least of which will take and may in March at three or four years growth be transplanted 6. In Flanders not in France as a late Author pretends they have large Nurseries of them which first they plant at one foot distance the mould light and moist by no means clayie in which though they may shoot up tall yet for want of root they never spread for as I said they must be interr'd pretty deep not above three inches above ground and kept clean by pruning them to the middle shoot for the first two years and so till the third or fourth When you transplant place them at eight ten or twelve foot intervall They will likewise grow of layers and even of cuttings in very moist places In three years they will come to an incredible altitude in twelve be as big as your middle and in eighteen or twenty arrive to full perfection A specimen of this advance we have had of an Abele tree at Sion which being lopp'd in Febr. 1651 did by the end of October 52 produce branches as big as a mans wrist and 17 foot in length
treated of these sort of Trees that I could not suffer it to pass over without a particular remark so as the noble Poet with pardon for receding from so venerable Authority might be mistaken when he delivers this observation as universal to the prejudice of Sowing and raising Woods from their Rudiments Trees which from scattered Seeds to spring are made Come slowly on for our Grand-childrens shade Nam quae seminibus jactis se sustulit arbos Tarda venit seris factura nepotibus umbram Geor. l. 2. And indeed I know divers are of this opinion and possibly in some luckier Soils and where extraordinary care is had in Transplanting and removing cumbrances c. There may be reason for it But I affirm it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for the most part and find I have the suffrage of another no inelegant Poet if not in a full assent to my Assertion yet in the choyce of my procedure for their perfection Though Suckers which the Stock repaire Will with thâ—ck Branches crowd the empty Aire Or the Ground-Oak transplanted boughs may shoot Yet no such Grov's do's with my fancy suit As what from Acorns set on even rows In open fields at their due distance grows What though your Ground long time must fallow ly And Seâ—dling-Oakes yield but a slow supply No walks else can be for like beauty prais'd For certain 't is that Plants from Acorns rais'd As to the Center deeper fivers spread So to the Zenith more advance their head Be it that Plants for natural moysture pine And as expos'd at Change of Soile decline Or that the Acorn with its native mould Do's thrive and spread and firme alliance hold Quamvis ipsa de stirpe parentis Pullulet tenues tollat se quercus in auras Aut mutata solo ramis exultet opacis Forma tamen nemoris non sit mihi gratior ulla Quam quod per campos posito de semine crevit Et quamquam sit agro praelongum tempus inerti Durcendum ac tardae surgant de semine quercus His tamen his longe veniunt felicius umbrae Nam certum est de glande satas radicibus imis Altius in terram per se descendere plantas Majoresque adeo in coelum profundere ramos Seu quod dediscant mutatam semina matrem Dgen remque ferant alieno ex ubere prolem Sive quod ipsa â—bi cognatae inolescere terrae Glans primo melius paulatim assuevit ab ortu Rapinus Hort. l. 2. CHAP. I. Of the Soile and of Seed 1. HEre for Methods sake something it were expedient to premise concerning the Soile and indeed I do acknowledge to have observ'd so vast a difference in the Improvement of Woods by that of the Ground that it is at no hand to be neglected But this being more than Transitorily touch'd in each Chapter of the ensuing Discourse I shall not need to assign it any apart when I have affirm'd in General that most Timber-Trees grow and prosper well in any tollerable Land which will produce Corn or Rye and which is not in excesse Stony in which neverthelesse there are some Trees delight or altogether Clay which few or none do naturally affect And yet the Oak is seen to prosper in it for its toughnesse preferr'd before any other by many Workmen though of all Soyls the Cow-pasture do certainly exceed be it for what purpose soever of planting Wood. Rather therefore we should take notice how many great Witts and ingenious Persons who have leasure and faculty are in pain for Improvements of their Heaths and barren Hills cold and starving places which causes them to be neglected and despair'd of whilest they flatter their hopes and vain expectations with fructifying liquors Chymical Menstrues and such vast conceptions in the mean time that one may shew them as Heathy and Hope-less grounds and barren Hills as any in England that do now bear or lately have born Woods Groves and Copses which yield the Owners more wealth than the richest and most opulent Wheat-Lands And if it be objected that 't is so long a day before these Plantations can afford that gain The Brabant Nurseries and divers home-plantations of Industrious Persons are sufficient to convince the gain-sayer And when by this Husbandry a few Acorns shall have peopl'd the Neighboring Regions with young Stocks and Trees the residue will become Groves and Copses of infinite delight and satisfaction to the Planters Besides we daily see what Course Lands will bear these Stocks suppose them Oaks Wall-nutts Chess-nutts Pines Firr Ash Wild-Pears Crabbs c. and some of them as for instance the Peare and the Firr or Pine strike their Roots through the roughest and most impenetrable Rocks and clefts of Stone it self and others require not any rich or pingued but very moderate Soile especially if committed to it in Seeds which allyes them to their Mother and Nurse without renitency or regrett And then considering what assistances a little Care in easing and stirring of the ground about them for a few years does afford them What cannot a strong Plow a Winter mellowing and summer heats incorporated with the pregnant Turfe or a slight assistance of Lime performe even in the most unnatural and obstinate Soile And in such places where anciently Woods have grown but are now unkind to them the fault is to be reformed by this Care and chiefly by a Sedulous extirpation of the old remainders of Roots and latent Stumps which by their mustiness and other pernicious qualities sowre the ground and poyson the Conception And herewith let me put in this note that even the Soile it self does frequently discover and point best to the particular Species though some are for all places alike but I shall say no more of these particulars at this time because the rest is sprinkl'd over this whole Work in their due places Wherefore we hasten to the following Title namely the choyce and ordering of the Seeds 2. Chuse your Seed of that which is perfectly mature ponderous and sound commonly that which is easily shaken from the boughs or gathered about November immediately upon its spontaneous fall or taken from the tops and summities of the fairest and soundest Trees is best and does for the most part direct to the proper season of interring c. According to Institution For Nature her self who all created first Invented sowing and the wild Plants nurs't When Mast and Berries from the Trees did drop Succeeded under by a numerous Crop Nam specimen sationis insitionis origo Ipsa fuit rerum primum natura creatrix Arboribus quoniam baccae glandesque caducae Tempestiva dabant pullorum examina subter c. Lucret. l. 5. Yet this is to be consider'd that if the place you sow in be too cold for an Autumnal semination your Acorns Mast and other Seeds may be prepared for the Vernal by being barrel'd or potted up in moist Sand or Earth stratum S.S. during
distinguish'd by his fullness of leaves which tarnish and becoming yellow at the fall do commonly clothe it all the Winter the Roots growing very deep and stragling The Author of Britannia Baconica speaks of an Oak in Lanhadron Park in Cornwall which bears constantly leaves speckl'd with White and of another call'd the Painted-Oak which I only mention here that the variety may be compar'd by some ingenious person thereabouts as well as the truth of the fatal prae-admonition of Oaks bearing strange leaves 3. It is in the mean time the propagation of this large spreading Oak which is especially recommended for the excellency of the Timber and that his Majesties Forests were well and plentifully stor'd with them because they require room and space to amplifie and expand themselves and would therefore be planted at more remote distances and free from all encumbrances And this upon consideration how slowly a full-grown Oak mounts upwards and how speedily they spread and dilate themselves to all quarters by dressing and due culture so as above forty years advance is to be gain'd by this only Industry And if thus his Majesties Forests and Chases were stor'd viz. with this spreading Tree at handsom Intervals by which Grazing might be improv'd for the feeding of Deer and Cattel under them for such was the old Saltus benignly visited with the gleams of the Sun and adorn'd with the distant Landskips appearing through the glades and frequent Vallies betwixt Whose rows the azure Skie is seen immix'd With Hillocks Vales and Fields as now wee see Distinguish'd in a sweet variety Such places which wild Apple-trees throughout Adorn and happy Shrubs grow all about Caerula distingâ—ens inter plaga currere posset Per tumulos convalles camposque profusa Vt nunc esse vides vario distincta lepôre Omnia quae pomis intersita dulcibus ornant Arbustisque tenent felicibus obsita circum Lucret. l. 5. As the Poet describes his Olive-groves Nothing could be more ravishing for so we might also sprinkle Fruit-trees amongst them of which hereafter for Sider and many singular uses and should find such goodly Plantations the boast of our Rangers and Forests infinitely preferrable to any thing we have yet beheld rude and neglected as they are I say when his Majesty shall proceed as he hath design'd to animate this laudable pride into fashon Forests and Woods as well as Fields and Inclosures will present us with another face than now they do And here I cannot but applaud the worthy Industry of old Sir Harbotle Grimstone who I am told from a very small Nursery of Acorns which he sow'd in the neglected corners of his ground did draw forth such numbers of Oaks of competent growth as being planted about his Fields in even and uniform rows about one hundred foot from the Hedges bush'd and well water'd till they had sufficiently fix'd themselves did wonderfully improve both the beauty and the value of his Demeasnes But I proceed 4. Both these kinds would be taken up very young and Transplanted about October some yet for these hardy and late springing Trees defer it till the Winter be well over but the Earth had need be moyst and though they will grow tolerably in most grounds yet do they generally affect the sound black deep and fast mould rather warm than over wet and cold and a little rising for this produces the firmest Timber though my L. Bacon prefer that which grows in the moister grounds for Ship timber as the most tough and less subject to rift but let us hear Pliny This is a general Rule saith he What Trees soever they be which grow tolerably either on Hills or Vallies arise to greater stature and spread more amply in the lower ground But the Timber is far better and of a finer grain which grows upon the Mountains excepting only Apple and Pear trees And in the 39 cap. lib. 16. The Timber of those Trees which grow in moist and shady places is not so good as that which comes from a more expos'd situation nor is it so close substantial and durable upon which he much prefers the Timber growing in Tuscany before that towards the Venetian side and upper part of the Gulph And that Timber so growing was in greatest esteem long before Pliny we have the spear of Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a Tree so expos'd and Dydimus gives the reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For that being continually weather-beaten they become hardier and tougher The result of all is that upon occasion of special Timber there is a very great and considerable difference so as some Oaken Timber proves manifestly weaker more spungie and sooner decaying than other The like may be affirm'd of Ash and other kinds and generally speaking the close-grain'd is the stoutest and most permanent But of this let the industrious consult that whole tenth Chapter in the second Book of Vitruvius where he expresly treats of this Argument De Abiete supernate infernate cum Apennini descriptione Where we note concerning Oak that it neither prospers in very hot nor excessive cold Countries and therefore there is little good of it to be found in Africa or indeed the lower and most southern parts of Italy for the Venetians have excellent Timber nor in Denmark or Norway comparable to ours it chiefly affecting a temperate Climate and where they grow naturally in abundance 't is a promising marke of it If I were to make choice of the place or the Tree it should be such as grows in the best Cow-pasture or up-land Meadow where the mould is rich and sweet Suffolk affords an admirable instance and in such places you may also Transplant large Trees with extraordinary success And therefore it were not amiss to bore and search the ground where you intend to plant or sow before you fall to work since Earth too shallow or rockie is not so proper for this Timber the Roots fix not kindly and though for a time they may seem to flourish yet they will dwindle 5. But to discourage none Oaks prosper exceedingly even in gravel and moist Clays which most other Trees abhor yea even the coldest Clay grounds that will hardly graze But these Trees will frequently make Stands as they encounter variety of footing and sometimes proceed again vigorously as they either penetrate beyond or out-grow their obstructions and meet better Earth which is of that consequence that I dare boldly affirm more than an hundred years advance is clearly gain'd by Soil and Husbandry I have yet read that there grow Oaks some of which have contain'd ten loads apiece out of the very Walls of Silcester in Hantshire which seem to strike root in the very Stones and even in our renouned Forest of Dean it self some goodly Oaks have been noted to grow upon Ground which has been as it were a Rock of antient Cinders buried there many ages since It is indeed observ'd that Oaks
which grow in rough stony grounds and obstinate clays are long before they come to any considerable stature for such places and all sort of Clay is held but a step-mother to Trees but in time they afford the most excellent Timber having stood long and got good rooting The same may we affirm of the lightest sands which produces a smoother-grain'd Timber of all other the most useful for the Joyner but that which grows in Gravell is subject to be Frow as they term it and brittle What improvement the stirring of the ground about the roots of Oaks is to the Trees I have already hinted and yet in Copses where they stand warm and so thickn'd with the under wood as this culture cannot be practis'd they prove in time to be goodly Trees I have of late tried the Graffing of Oaks but as yet with slender successe Ruellius indeed affirms it will take the Pears and other Fruit and if we may credit the Poet The sturdy Oak do's Golden Apples bear Aurea durae Mala feraut quercus Ecl. 8. And under Elmes swine do the Mast devour Glandemque sues fregere sub Vlmo Geor. Which I conceive to be the more probable for that the Sap of the Oak is of an unkind tincture to most Trees But for this Improvement I would rather advise Inoculation as the ordinary Elm upon the Witch-Hasel for those large leaves we shall anon mention and which are so familiar in France 6. That the Transplanting of young Oaks gains them ten years Advance some happy persons have affirmed from this belief if in a former Impression I have desir'd to be excused and produc't my Reasons for it I shall not persist against any sober mans Experience and therefore leave this Article to their choice since as the Butchers phrase is change of Pasture makes fat Calves and so Transplantations of these hard wood-trees when young may possibly by an happy hand in fit season and other circumstances of Soil Sun and Room for growth be an improvement But as for those who advise us to plant Oaks of too great a stature they hardly make any considerable progresse in an Age and therefore I cannot encourage it unlesse the ground be extraordinarily qualified Yet if any be desirous to make trial of it let their Stems be of the smoothest and tenderest Bark for that is ever an indication of youth as well as the paucity of their Circles which in disbranching and cutting the head off at five or six foot height a thing by the way which the French usually spare when they Transplant this Tree may before you stir their Roots serve for the more certain Guide and then plant them immediately with as much Earth as will adhere to them in the place destin'd for their station abating only the tap roots which is that down right and stubby part of the Roots which all Trees rais'd of Seeds do universally produce and quickning some of the rest with a sharp knife but sparing the Fibrous which are the main Suckers and Mouths of all Trees spread them in the foss or pit which hath been prepar'd to receive them I say in the foss unlesse you will rather trench the whole Field which is incomparably the best and infinitely to be preferr'd before narrow pits and holes as the manner is in case you plant any number considerable the Earth being hereby made loose easier and penetrable for the Roots about which you are to cast that Mould which in opening of the Trench you took from the Surface and purposely laid apart because it is sweet mellow and better impregnated But in this Work be circumspect never to inter your Stem deeper than you found it standing for profound buryings very frequently destroys a Tree though an Errour seldom observed If therefore the Roots be sufficiently cover'd to keep the Body steady and erect it is enough and the not minding of this trifling Circumstance does very much deceive our ordinary Wood-men For most Roots covet the Air though that of the Quercus urbana least of any for like the Aesculus How much to heaven her towring head ascends So much towards hell her piercing root extends Quòd quantum vertice ad auras Aethereas tantum radicem Tartara tendit Geo. 2. And the perfection of that does almost as much concern the prosperity of a Tree as of Man himself since Homo is but Arbor inversa which prompts me to this curious but important Advertisement That the Position be likewise sedulously observed 7. For the Southern parts being more dilated and the pores expos'd as evidently appears in their Horizontal Sections by the constant Excentricity of their Hyperbolical Circles being now on the sudden and at such a season converted to the North does sterve and destroy more Trees how carefull soever men have been in ordering the Roots and preparing the Ground than any other Accident whatsoever neglect of staking and defending from Cattle excepted the importance whereof caused the best of Poets and most experienc'd in this Argument giving advice concerning this Article to add The Card'nal poynts upon the Bark they signe And as before it stood in the same line Place to warm south or the obverted polo Such force has custome in each tender soule Quinetiam Coeli regionem in cortice signant Vt quo quaeque modo steterit quâ parte calores Austrinos tulerit quae terga obverterit axi Restituant Adeo in teneris consuescero multum est Geor. li. 1. Which Monition though Pliny and some others think good to neglect or esteem indifferent I can confirm from frequent losses of my own and by particular trials having sometimes Transplanted great trees at Mid-somer with successe the Earth adhearing to the Roots and miscarried in others where this Circumstance only was omitted To observe therefore the Coast and side of the stock especially of Fruit-trees is not such a trifle as by some pretended For if the Air be as much the Mother or Nurse as Water and Earth as more than probable it is such blossoming Plants as court the motion of the Meridian Sun do as 't were evidently point out the advantage they receive by their position by the clearnesse politure and comparative splendor of the South side And the frequent mossinesse of most Trees on the opposite side does sufficiently note the unkindnesse of that Aspect and which is most evident in the bark of Oaks white and smooth The Trees growing more kindly on the South side of an Hill than those which are expos'd to the North with an hard dark rougher and more mossie Integument as I can now demonstrate in a prodigious coat of it investing some Pyracanths which I have removed to a Northern dripping shade I have seen writes a worthy Friend to me on this occasion whole Hedge-rows of Apples and Pears that quite perished after that shelter was removed The good Husbands expected the contrary and that the Fruit should improve as freed from the predations of the Hedge
11. Some advise that in planting of Oaks c. four or five be suffer'd to stand very neer to one another and then to leave the most prosperous when they find the rest to disturb his growth but I conceive it were better to plant them at such distances as they may least incommode one another For Timber-trees I would have none neerer then forty foot where they stand closest especially of the spreading kind 12. Lastly Trees of ordinary stature Transplanted being first well water'd must be sufficiently staked and Bush'd about with thorns or with some thing better to protect them from the concussions of the Winds and from the casual rubbing and poysonous brutting of Cattle and Sheep the oylinesse of whose Wooll is also very noxious to them till being well grown and fixed which by seven years will be to some competent degree they shall be able to withstand all accidental invasions but the Axe for I am now come to their Pruning and Cutting in which work the Seasons are of main importance 13. Therefore if you would propagate Trees for Timber cut not off their heads at all nor be too busie with lopping but if you desire Shade and Fuel or bearing of Mast alone lop off their tops sear and unthriving Branches only If you intend an out-right felling expect till November for this praemature cutting down of Trees before the Sap is perfectly at rest will be to your exceeding prejudice by reason of the Worm which will certainly breed in the Timber which is felled before that period But in case you cut only for the Chimney you need not be so punctual as to the time yet for the benefit of what you let stand observe the Moons increase The Reason of these differences is because this is the best reason for the growth of the Tree which you do not fell the other for the durablenesse of the Timber which you do Now that which is to be burnt is not so material for lasting as the growth of the Tree is considerable for the Timber But of these particulars more at large in Cap. 30. 14. The very stumps of Oak especially that part which is dry and above ground being well grubb'd is many times worth the pains and charge for sundry rare and hard works and where Timber is dear I could name some who abandoning this to workmen for their pains only when they perceiv'd the great advantage repented of their Bargain and undertaking it themselves were gainers above half I wish only for the expedition of this knotty work some effectual Engine were devised such as I have been told a worthy Person of this Nation made use of by which he was able with one man to perform more than with twelve Oxen and surely there might be much done by fastning of Iron hooks and fangs about one Root to extract another the hoock chayn'd to some portable Screw or Winch I say such an invention might effect wonders not only for the extirpation of Roots but the prostrating of huge Trees That small Engine which by some is cal'd the German-devil reform'd after this manner and duely applied might be very expedient for this purpose and therefore we have exhibited the following figure and submit it to improvement A The hand that keeps the Rope b close upon the Cylinder c which is moved by a Pinnion of three or four teeth d which moves a larger Iron Wheel f. e the Handle put upon the Spindle of the Pinnion to turne it withall The whole Frame is let into a bigger piece of Wood viz. h being about four foot in length and one in breadth and the other end of the Roller or Cylinder is sustein'd by a lesser block of Wood i g the Plate which holds the Wheel and Pinnion in the larger block Note That the Cylinder may be made of good tough Iron about four inches in diameter and fourteen or sixteen inches in length and the tooth'd Wheel f of the like stuff and of a thicknesse proportionable But this is to be practis'd only where you design a final extirpation for some have drawn suckers even from an old stub root but they certainly perish by the Moss which invades them and are very subject to grow rotten Pliny speaks of one Root which took up an intire Acre of Ground and Theophrastus describes the Lycean Platanus to have spread an hundred foot if so the Argument may hold good for their growth after the Tree is come to its period They made Cups of the Roots of Oak heretofore and such a curiosity Athenaeus tells us was carv'd by Thericleus himself and there is a way so to tinge Oak after long burying and soaking in Water which gives it a wonderfull politure as that it has frequently been taken for a course Ebony 15. There is not in nature a thing more obnoxious to deceit then the buying of Trees standing upon the reputation of their Appearance to the eye unlesse the Chapman be extraordinarily judicious so various are their hidden and conceal'd Infirmities till they be fell'd and sawn out so as if to any thing applicable certainly there is nothing which does more perfectly confirm it then the most flourishing out-side of Trees Fonti nulla fides A Timber-tree is a Merchant Adventurer you shall never know what he is worth till he be dead 16. Oaks are in some places where the soil is specially qualified ready to be cut for Cops in fourteen years and sooner I compute from the first semination though it be told as an instance of high encouragement and as indeed it merits that a Lady in Northamptonshire sowed Acorns and liv'd to cut the Trees produc'd from them twice in two and twenty years and both as well grown as most are in sixteen or eighteen This yet is certain that Acorns set in Hedg-rows have in thirty years born a stem of a foot diametre Generally Copps-wood should be cut close and at such Intervals as the growth requires which being seldom constant depends much on the places and the kinds the mould and the air and for which there are extant particular Statutes to direct us of all which more at large hereafter Oak for Tan-bark may be fell'd from April to the last of June by a Statute in the 1 Jacobi 17. To enumerate now the incomparable Vses of this Wood were needlesse But so precious was the esteem of it that of Old there was an express Law amongst the Twelve Tables concerning the very gathering of the Acorns though they should be found fallâ—n into another mans Ground The Land and the Sea do sufficiently speak for the improvement of this excellent material Houses and Ships Cities and Navies are built with it and there is a kind of it so tough and extreamly compact that our sharpest Tools will hardly enter it and scarcely the very Fire it self in which it consumes but slowly as seeming to partake of a ferruginous and mettallin shining nature proper for sundry robust Uses It is doubtlesse
over them and watering them when need requires Being risen an inch above ground refreshed and preserved from the scraping of Birds and Poultry comfort the tender seedlings by a second siefting of more sine earth to establish them thus keep them clean weeded for the first two years or till being of fitting stature to remove you may thin and Transplant them in the same manner as you were directed for young Oaks only they shall nâ—t need above one cutting where they grow lesse regular and hopeful But because this is an Experiment of some curiosity obnoxious to many casualties and that the producing them from the Mother-roots of greater Trees is very facile and expeditious besides the numbers which are to be found in the Hedge-rows and Woods of all plantable sizes I rather advise our Forester to furnish himself from those places 3. The Suckers which I speak of are produced in abundance from the Roots whence being dextrously separated after the Earth has been well loosned and planted about the end of October they will grow very well Nay the stubs onely which are left in the ground after a felling being fenced in as far as the Roots extend will furnish you with plenty which may be transplanted from the first year or two successively by slipping them from the Roots which will continually supply you for many years after that the body of the Mother-tree has been cut down And from hence probably is sprung that I fear mistake of Salmasius and others where they write of the growing of their Chips I suppose having some of the Bark on scattered in hewing of their Timber the Errour proceeding from this that after an Elm-tree has been fell'd the numerous Suckers which shoot from the remainders of the latent Roots seem to be produced from this dispersion of the Chips Let this yet be more accurately examined for I pronounce nothing Magisterially since it is so confidently reported 4. I have known Stakes sharpned at the ends for other purposes take root familiarly in moist grounds and become Trees and divers have essay'd with extraordinary success the trunchions of the Boughs and Arms of Elms cut to the scantling of a mans arm about an ell in length These must be chopp'd on each side opposite and laid into trenches about half a foot deep covered about two or three fingers deep with good mould The season for this work is towards the exit of January or early in February if the Frosts impede not and after the first year you may cut or saw the trunchions off in as many places as you find cause and as the shoots and rooted Sprouts will direct you for transplantation Another expedient for the propagation of Elms is this let trenches be sunk at a good distance viz. twenty or thirty yards from such Trees as stand in Hedge-rows and in such order as you desire your Elms should grow where these gutters are many young Elms will spring from the small roots of the adjoyning Trees divide after one year the shoots from their Mother-roots which you may dextrously do with a sharp spade These transplanted will prove good Trees without any damage to their Progenitors Or do thus Lop a young Elm the lop being about three years growth do it in the latter end of March when the Sap begins to creep up into the Boughs and the Buds ready to break out cut the Boughs into lengths of four foot slanting leaving the knot where the bud seems to put forth in the middle Interr these short pieces in trenches of three or four inches deep and in good mouâ—d well trodden and they will infallibly produce you a Crop for even the smallest Suckers of Elms will grow being set when the Sap is newly stirring in them There is yet a fourth way no lesse expeditious and frequently confirmed with excellent successe Bare some of the Master-roots of a vigorous Tree within a foot of the Trunk or thereabouts and with your Ax make several Chops putting a small stone into every clest to hinder their closure and give accesse to the wet then cover them with three or four inch thick of Earth and thus they will send forth Suckers in abundance I assure you one single Elm thus well ordered is a fair Nursery which after two or three years you may separate and plant in the Vlmarium or place designed for them and which if it be in Plumps as they call them within ten or twelve foot of each other or in Hedge-rows it will be the better For the Elm is a Tree of Consort Sociable and so affecting to grow in Company that the very best which I have ever seen do almost touch one another This also protects them from the Winds and causes them to shoot of an extraordinary height so as in little more than forty years they even arrive to a load of Timber provided they be sedulously and carefully cultivated and the Soil propitious For an Elm does not thrive so well in the Forest as where it may enjoy scope for the Roots to dilate and spread at the sides as in Hedge-rows and Avenues where they have the Air likewise free 5. There is besides these sorts we have named one of a more Scabrous harsh leaf but very large which becomes an huge Tree and is distinguished by the name of the Witch-hazel in our Statute Books as serving formerly to make long Bowes of but the Timber is not so good as the first more vulgar but the Bark at time of year will serve to make a course bast-rope with 6. Of all the Trees which grow in our Woods there is none which does better suffer the Transplantation then the Elm for you may remove a tree of twenty years growth with undoubted successe It is an Experiment I have made in a Tree almost as big more as my waste but then you must totally disbranch him leaving onely the Summit intire and being careful to take him up with as much Earth as you can refresh him with abundance of water This is an excellent and expeditious way for great Persons to plant the Accesses of their Houses with for being disposed at sixteen or eighteen foot interval they will in a few years bear goodly heads and thrive to admiration Some that are very cautious emplaster the wounded head of such over-grown Elms with a mixture of clay and horse-dung bound about them with a wisp of Hay or fine Moss and I do not reprove it provided they take care to temper it well so as the Vermine nestle not in it But for more ordinary plantations younger Trees which have their bark smooth and tender about the scantling of your leg and their heads trimm'd at five or six foot height are to be preferr'd before all other Cato would have none of these sorts of Trees to be removed till they are five or six fingers in diameter others think they cannot take them too young but experience the best Mistriss tells us that you can hardly plant
for which celerity we may recommend them to such late builders as seat their houses in naked and unsheltered places and that would put a guise of Antiquity upon any new Inclosure since by these whilest a man is in a voyage of no long continuance his house and lands may be so covered as to be hardly known at his return But as they thus increase in bulk their value as the Italian Poplar has taught us advances likewise which after the first seven years is annually worth twelve pence more So as the Dutch look upon a plantation of these trees as an ample portion for a daughter and none of the least effects of their good Husbandry which truly may very well be allow'd if that calculation hold which the Knight has asserted who began his plantation not long since about Richmond that 30 lib. being laid out in these plants would render at the least ten thousand pounds in eighteen years every tree affording thirty plants and every of them thirty more after each seven years improving twelve pence in growth till they arrived to their acme 7. The Black Poplar grows rarely with us it is a stronger and taller tree then the White the leaves more dark and not so ample Divers stately ones of these I remember about the banks of Po in Italy which river being the old Eridanus so celebrated by the Poets in which the temerarious Phaeton is said to have been precipitated doubtless gave argument to that fiction of his sad Sisters Metamorphosis into these trees but for the Amber of their pretious tears I could hear of no such matter whiles passing down that River towards Ferrara I diverted my self with this story of the ingenious Poet. I am told there is a Mountain Poplar much propagated in Germany about Vienna and in Bohemia of which some trees have yielded Planks of a yard in breadth 8. The best use of the Poplar and Abele which are all of them hospitable trees for any thing thrives under their shades is for Walks and Avenues about Grounds which are situated low and near the water till coming to be very old they are apt to grow knurry and out of proportion The timber is incomparable for all sorts of white wooden vessels as Trays Bowls and other Turners ware and of especial use for the Bellows-maker because it is almost of the nature of Cork though not very solid yet very close also for wooden heels c. Vitruvius l. 2. de materia caedenda reckons it among the Building Timbers quae maximè in aedificiis sunt idoneae Likewise to make Carts because it is exceeding light for Vine and Hop-props and divers viminious works The loppings in January are for the fire and therefore such as have proper Grounds may with ease and in short time store themselves for a considerable family where fuel is dear but the truth is it burns untowardly and rather moulders away than maintains any solid heat Of the twigs with the leaves on are made Brooms The Brya or Catkins attract the Bees as do also the leaves especially of the black more tenacious of the Melâ—dews then most other Forest-trees the Oak excepted Of the Aspen our Wood-men make Hoops Fire-wood and Coals c. The juice of Poplar leaves drop'd into the ears asswages the pain and the buds contus'd and mix'd with Hony is a good Collyrium for the eyes CHAP. XIX Of the Alder. 1. ALnus the Alder is of all other the most faithful lover of watery and boggie places and those most despis'd weeping parts or water-galls of Forests crassisque paludibus Alni They are propagated of Trunchions and will come of seeds for so they raise them in Flanders and make wonderful profit of the plantations like the Poplar or of Roots which I prefer being set as big as the small of ones leg and in length about two foot whereof one would be plunged in the mud This profound fixing of Aquatick trees being to preserve them steddy and from the concussions of the winds and violence of waters in their liquid and slippery foundations They may be placed at four or five foot distance and when they have struck root you may cut them which will cause them to spring in clumps and to shoot out into many useful Poles But if you plant smaller Sets cut them not till they are arriv'd to some competent bigness and that in a proper season which is for all the Aquatics not till Winter be well advanc'd in regard of their pithy substance Therefore such as you shall have occasion to make use of before that period ought to be well-grown and fellâ—d with the earliest and in the first quarter of the increasing Moon that so the successive shoot receive no prejudice But there is yet another way of planting Alders after the Jersey manner and as I receiv'd it from a most ingenious Gentleman of that Country which is by taking trunchions of two or three foot long at the beginning of Winter and to bind them in faggots and place the ends of them in water 'till towards the Spring by which season they will have contracted a swelling spire or knurr about that part which being set does like the Gennet-moil Apple never fail of growing and striking root There is a black sort more affected to Woods and drier grounds 2. There are a sort of Husbands who take excessive pains in stubbing up their Alders where ever they meet them in the boggie places of their grounds with the same indignation as one would exstirpate the most pernicious of Weeds and when they have finished know not how to convert their best lands to more profit then this â—eeming despicable plant might lead them to were it rightly understood Besides the shadow of this tree does feed and nourish the very grass which grows under it and being set and well plashed is an excellent defence to the banks of Rivers so as I wonder it is not more practis'd about the Thames to fortifie and prevent the mouldring of the walls and the violent weather they are exposed to 3. You may cut Aquatic-trees every third or fourth year and some more frequently as I shall shew you hereafter They should also be abated within half a foot of the principal head to prevent the perishing of the main Stock and besides to accelerate their sprouting In setting the Trunchions it were not amisse to prepare them a little after they are fitted to the size by laying them a while in water this is also practicable in Willows c. 4. Of old they made Boats of the greater parts of this Tree and excepting Noah's Ark the first Vessels we read of were made of this VVood. When hollow Alders first the Waters tri'd Tunc alnos primum fluvii sensêre cavatas Georg. 1. And down the rapid Poe light Aldars glide Nec non torrentem undam levis innatat alnus Missa Pado 2. And as then so now are over-grown Alders frequently sought after for such
many thorny plums which are best for grain colour and glosse afford comparable for divers curious Vses with any we have enumerated The Black-Cherry-Wood grows sometimes to that bulke as is fit to make stooles with Cabinets Tables especially the redder sort which will polish well also Pipes and Musical Instruments the very bark employ'd for Bee-Hyves But of this I am to render a more ample Accompt in the Appendix to this Discourse I would farther recommend the more frequent planting and propagation of Fir Pine-trees and some other beneficial Materials both for Ornament and profit especially since we find by experience they thrive so well where they are cultivated for Curiosity only CHAP. XXII Of the Fir Pine Pinaster Pitch-tree c. 1. ABies Pinus Pinaster Picea c. are all of them easily rais'd of the Kernels and Nuts which may be gotten out of their Cones and Clogs by exposing them a little before the fire or in warm water till they begin to gape and are ready to deliver themselves of their numerous burthen 2. There are of the Fir two principal species the Male which is the bigger Tree most beautiful and tapering and of a harder wood the Female which is much the softer and whiter Though Whitenesse be not the best character that which knowing Workemen call the Dram and that comes to us from Bergen Swinsound Mosse Longlound Dranton c. long strait clear and of a yellow more Cedrie colour is esteemed much before the White for flooring and wainscot For Masts c. Those of Prusia which we call Spruse and Norway especially from Gottenberg are the best unlesse we had more commerce of them from our Plantations in New-England which are preferrable to any of them In the Scottish High-lands are Trees of wonderful altitude though not altogether so tall thick and fine as the former which grow upon places so unaccessable and far from the Sea that as one says they seem to be planted of God on purpose for Nurseries of Seed and monitors to our Industry reserved with other Blessings to be discover'd in our days amongst the new-invented Improvements of Husbandry not known to our Southern people of this Nation c. Did we consider the pains they take to bring them out of the Alps we should lesse stick at the difficulty of transporting them from the utmost parts of Scotland To the former sorts we may add the Esterund Firs Tonsberry Fredrick-stad Hellerone Holmstrand Landifer Stavenger Lawrwat c. They may be sown in beds or cases at any time during March and when they peep carefully defended with Furzes or the like fence from the rapacious birds which are very apt to pull them up by taking hold of that little infecund part of the seed which they commonly bear upon their tops The Beds wherein you sow them had need be shelter'd from the Southern Aspects with some skreen of Reed or thick hedge Sow them in shallow rills not above half-inch-deep and cover them with fine light mould Being risen a finger in height establish their weak stalks by siefting some more earth about them especially the Pines which being more top-heavy are more apt to swag When they are of two or three years growth you may transplant them where you please and when they have gotten good root they will make prodigious shoots but not for the three or four first years comparatively They will grow both in moyst or barren Gravel and poor ground so it be not over sandy and light but before sowing I mean here for large designes turn it up a foot deep sowing or setting your Seeds an hand distance and riddle Earth upon them In five or six weeks they will peep When you transplant water them well before and cut the clod out about the root as you do Melons out of the Hot-bed which knead close to them like an Egg Thus they may be sent safely many miles but the top must neither be bruised much lesse cut which would dwarfe it for ever 3. The best time to transplant were in the beginning of April they would thrive mainly in a stiff hungry Clay but by no means in over light or rich Soyle Fill the holes therefore with such barren Earth if your ground be improper of it self and if the Clay be too stiff and untractable with a little sand removing with as much Earth about the roots as is possible though the Fir will better endure a naked transplantation than the Pine You may likewise sow in such earth about February they will make a shoot the very first year of an Inch next an handful the third year three foot and thence forward above a yard annually A Northern Gentleman who has oblig'd me with this processe upon his great Experience assures me that there are trees planted in Northumberland which are in few years grown to the magnitude of Ship-masts and from all has been sayd deduces these Incouragements 1. The facility of their propagation 2. The nature of their growth which is to affect places where nothing else will thrive 3. Their uniformity and beauty 4. Their perpetual Verdure 5. Their sweetnesse 6. Their Fruitfulness affording seed gum fuel and timber of all other woods the most useful and easy to work c. All which highly recommend it as an excellent Improvement of Husbandry fit to be enjoyn'd by some solemn Edict to the Inhabitants of this our Island that we may have masts and those other materials of our own growth 4. The Pine of which are reckon'd no lesse then ten several sorts preferring the Domestic or Sative for the fuller growth is likewise of both Sexes whereof the Male growing lower hath its wood more knotty and rude than the Female They would be gather'd in June before they gape yet having hung two years for there will be always some ripe and some green on the same Tree preserve them in their nuts in Sand as you treat Akorns c. 'till the season invite and then set or sow them in Ground which is cultivated like the Fir in most respects only you may bury the Nuts a little deeper By a friend of mine they were rolled in a fine compost made of Sheeps-dung and scatter'd in February and this way never fail'd Fir and Pine they came to be above Inch high by May and a Spanish Author tels us that macerated five days in a childs urine and three days in water is of wonderful effect This were an expeditious processe for great Plantations unless you would rather set the Pine as they do Pease but at wider distances that when there is occasion of removal they might be taken up with earth and all I say taken up and not remov'd by Evulsion because they are of all other Trees the most obnoxious to miscarry without this caution and therefore it were much better where the Nuts might be commodiously set and defended never to remove them at all it gives this Tree so considerable a check The safest course
shall resolve to accomplish he will leave such an everlasting Obligation on his People and raise such a Monument to his fame as the Ages for a thousand years to come shall have cause to celebrate his precious Memory and his Royal Successors to emulate his Virtue For thus besides the future expectations it would in present be no deduction from his Majesties Treasure but some increase and fall in time to be a fair and worthy Accession to it whiles this kind of propriety would be the most likely expedient to civilize those wild and poor Bordurers and to secure the vast and spreading heart of the Forest which with all this Indulgence would be ample enough for a Princely Demeasnes And if the difficulty be to find out who knows or acknowledges what are the Bordures this Article were worthy and becoming of as serious an Inquisition as the Legislative Power of the whole Nation can contrive 5. The Sum of all is get the Bordures well Tenanted by long Terms and easie Rents and this will invite and encourage Takers whilst the middle most secure and interiour parts would be a Royal portion Let his Majesty therefore admit of any willing Adventurers in this vast Circle for such Enclosures in the Precincts and rather of more than of few though an hundred or two should joyn together for any Enclosure of five hundred Acres more or lesse that multitudes being thus engaged the consideration might procure and facilitate a full discovery of latter Encroachments and fortifie the recovery by favourable Rents Improvements and Reversions by Copy-hold or what other Tenures and Services his Majesty shall please to accept of 6. Now for the Planting of Woods in such places which is the main Design of this whole Treatise the Hills and rough Grounds will do well but they are the rich fat Vales and flats which do best deserve the charge of walls such as that spot affords and the Haw-thorn well plash'd single or double is a better and more natural fence than unmorter'd walls could our industry arrive to the making of such as we have describ'd Besides they are lasting and profitable and then one might allow sufficient Bordure for a Mound of any thicknesse which may be the first charge and well supported and rewarded by the culture of the Land thus enclosed 7. For Example suppose a man would take in 500 Acres of good Land let the Mounds be of the wildest ground as fittest for wood Two hedges with their Vallations and Trenches will be requisite in all the Round viz. one next to the Enclosure the other about the Thicket to fence it from Cattle This between the two hedges of whatsoever breadth is fittest for Plantation In these Hedges might be tryed the Plantation of Stocks in the intervals all manner of wood-seeds sown after competent Plowings as Acorns Mast Fir Pine Nuts c. the first year chasing away the Birds because of the Fir and Pine Seeds for reasons given the second year loosning the ground and thinning the supernumeraries c. this is the most frugal way Or by another Method the waste places of Forests and Woods which by through experience is known and tried might be perfectly clensed and then allowing two or three Plowings well rooted stocks be set cut and trimm'd as is requisite and that the Timber-trees may be excellent those afterwards Copsed and the choicest stocks kept shreaded If an Enclosure be sow'd the Seeds may be as was directed of all the species not forgetting the best Pines Fir c. whiles the yearly removal of very incumbrances onely will repay the Workmen who sell the Quick or reserve it to store other Enclosures and soften the circumjacent grounds to the very great improvement of what remains 8. And how if in such fencing-works we did sometimes imitate what Quintus Curtius lib. 6. has Recorded of the Mardorum gens near to the Confines of Hyrcania who did by the close Planting of Trees alone upon the Bordures give so strange a check to the Power of that great Conqueror Alexander They were a barbarous People indeed but in this worthy our imitation and the Work so handsomly and particularly describ'd that I shall not grieve to recite it Arbores densae sunt de industria consitae quarum teneros adhuc ramos manu flectunt quos intortos rursus inserunt terrae Inde velut ex alia radice laetiores virent trunci hos qua natura fert adolescere non sinunt quippe alium alii quasi nexu conserunt qui ubi multa fronde vestiti sunt operiunt terram Itaque occulti ramorum velut laquei perpetuá sepe iter claudunt c. The Trees saith he were Planted so near and thick together of purpose that when the boughs were yet young and flexible bent and wreath'd within one another their Tops were bowed into the earth as we submerge our Layers whence taking fresh roots they shot up new stems which not being permitted to grow as of themselves they would have done they so knit and perplex'd one within another that vvhen they vvere clad vvith leaves they even cover'd the ground and enclosed the whole Country with a kind of living net and impenetrable hedge as the Historian continues the description and this is not unlike what I am told is frequently practis'd in divers places of Devon where the Oaks being planted very neer the foot of those high Mounds by which they separate their Lands so Root themselves into the Bank that when it fails and crumbles down the Fense continues still maintain'd by them with exceeding profit Such works as these would become a Cato or Varro indeed one that were Pater Patriae non sibi soli natus born for Posterity but we are commonly of another mould fruges consumere nati 9. A fair advance for speedy growth and noble Trees especially for Walks and Avenues may be assuredly expected from the Graffing of young Oaks and Elms with the best of their kinds and where the goodliest of these last are growing the ground would be plow'd and finely raked in the season when the Scales fall that the showres and dews fastning the Seed where the wind drives it it may take Root and hasten as it will to a sudden Tree especially if seasonable shreading be appli'd which has sometimes made them arrive to the height of Twelve foot by the first three years after vvhich they grovv a main And if such vvere planted as near to one another as in the Examples vve have alledg'd it is almost incredible vvhat a paling they vvould be to our most expos'd Plantations mounting up their vvooden walls to the clouds And indeed the shelving and natural declivity of the Ground more or lesse to our unkind Aspects and bleak Winds does best direct to the thickning of these protections and the benefit of that soon appear and recompence our industry in the smoothnesse and integrity of the Plantations so defended 10. That great care be had of the
would have none Transplanted less than five fingers in diametre But I have shew'd why we are not to attend so long for such as we raise of Seedlings In the interim if these directions appear too busie or operose or that the Plantation you intend be very ample a more compendious Method will be the confused sowing of Acorns c. in Furrows two foot asunder covered at three fingers depth and so for three years cleansed and the first Winter cover'd with fearn without any farther culture unless you Transplant them but as I shewed before in Nurseries they would be cut an inch from the Ground and then let stand till March the second year when it shall be sufficient to disbranch them to one only shoot whether you suffer them to stand or remove them elsewhere But to make an Essay what Seed is most agreeable to the Soil you may by the thriving of a promiscuous Semination make a judgement of What each Soil bears and what it does refuse Quid quaque ferat regio quid quaque recuset Transplanting those which you find least agreeing with the place or else by Copsing the starvlings in the places where they are new sown cause them sometimes to overtake even their untouch'd contemporaries 7. But here some may inquire what distances I would generally assign to Transplanted Trees To this somewhat is said in the ensuing Periods and as occasion offers though the promiscuous rising of them in Forest-Work wild and natural is to us I acknowledge more pleasing than all the studied accuracy in ranging of them unless it be where they conduct and lead us to Avenues and are planted for Vistas as the Italians term is in which case the proportion of the Breadth and Length of the Walks c. should govern as well as the Nature of the Tree with this only note That such Trees as are rather apt to spread than mount as the Oak Beech Wall-nutt c. be dispos'd at wider intervals than the other and such as grow best in Consort as the Elm Ash Lime-tree Sycomore Firr Pine c. Regard is likewise to be had to the quality of the Soil for this work V.G. If Trees that affect cold and moist grounds be planted in hot and dry places then set them at closer Order but Trees which love scorching and dry Grounds at farther distance The like rule may also guide in situations expos'd to impetuous Winds and other accidents which may serve for general Rules in this piece of Tacties 8. To leave nothing omitted which may contribute to the stability of our Transplanted Trees something is to be premis'd concerning their staking and securing from external injuries especially from Winds and Cattel against both which such as are planted in Copses and for ample Woods are sufficiently defended by the Mounds and their closer order especially if they rise of Seed But where they are expos'd in single rows as in Walks and Avenues the most effectual course is to empale them with three good quarter stakes of competent length set in triangle and made fast to one another by short pieces above and beneath in which a few Brambles being stuck secure it abundantly without that choking or fretting to which Trees are obnoxious that are only single Staked and Bushed as the vulgar manner is Nor is the charge of this so considerable as the great advantage accounting for the frequent reparations which the other will require Where Cattel do not come I find a good piece of Rope tyed fast about the neck of Trees upon a wisp of straw to preserve it from galing and the other end tightly strein'd to a hook or peg in the ground as the Shrouds in Ships are fastned to the Masts sufficiently stablishes my Trees against the Western blasts without more trouble for the Winds of other quarters seldom infest us But these Cords had need be well pitch't to preserve them from wett and so they will last many Years I cannot in the mean time conceal what a noble Person has assur'd me that in his goodly Plantations of Trees in Scotland where they are continually expos'd to much greater and more impetuous Winds than we are usually acquainted with he never stakes any of his Trees but upon all disasters of this kind causes only his Servants to redress and set them up again as oft as they happen to be overthrown which he has affirm'd to me thrives better with them than with those which he has staked and that at last they strike root so fast as nothing but the Axe is able to prostrate them and there is good reason for it in my opinion whilst these concussions of the Roots loosning the mould not only make room for their more easie insinuations but likewise opens and prepares it to receive and impart the better nourishment It is in another place I suggest that Transplanted Pines and Firrs for want of their penetrating Tap roots are hardly consistent against these Gusts after they are grown high especially where they are set close and in Tufts which betraies them to the greater disadvantage And therefore such Trees do best in Walks and at competent distances where they escape tolerably well Such therefore as we design for Woods of them should be sow'd and never remov'd but of this hereafter I now proceed to particulars CHAP. III. Of the Oak 1. RObur the Oak I have sometimes consider'd it very seriously what should move Pliny to make a whole Chapter of one only Line which is less then the Argument alone of most of the rest in his huge Volumn but the weightiness of the Matter does worthily excuse him who is not wont to spare his Words or his Reader Glandiferi maximè generis omnes quibus honos apud Romanos perpetuus Mast-bearing-trees were principally those which the Romans held in chiefest repute lib. 6. cap. 3. And in the following where he treats of Chaplets and the dignity of the Civic Coronet it might be compos'd of the Leaves or Branches of any Oak provided it were a bearing Tree and had Acorns upon it It is for the esteem which these wise and glorious people had of this Tree above all others that I will first begin with the Oak 2. The Oak is of four kinds two of which are most common with us for we shall say little of the Cerris goodly to look on but for little else the Quercus urbana which grows more up-right and being clean and lighter is fittest for Timber And the Robur or Quercus Sylvestris taking Robur for the general name at least as contradistinct from the rest which is of an hard black grain bearing a smaller Acorn and affecting to spread in branches and to put forth his Roots more above ground and therefore in the planting to be allow'd a greater distance viz. from twenty five to forty foot nay sometimes as many yards whereas the other shooting up more erect will be contented with fifteen This kind is farther to be
an Elm too big There are who pare away the Root within two fingers of the stem and quite cut off the Head but I cannot commend this extream severity no more than I do the strewing of Oats in the pit which fermenting with the moisture and frequent wateringâ— is believed much to accelerate the putting forth of the Roots not considering that for want of air they corrupt and grow musty which more frequently suffocates the Roots and endangers the whole Tree 7. I have affirmed how patient this Tree is of Transplantation not onely for that I observe so few of them to grow wild in England and where it may not be suspected but they or their predecessors have been planted by some industrious hand but for that those incomparable Walkes and Vistas of them both at Aranivez Casa del Campo Madrid the Escurial and other places of delight belonging to the King and Grandees of Spain are planted with such as they report Philip the second caused to be brought out of England before which as that most Honourable Person the Earl of Sandwich now his Majesties Ambassador Extraordinary at that Court writes to me it does not appear there were any of those Trees in all Spain In that Princely Seat it is that double rowes of them are planted in many places for a league together in length and some of them fourty yards high which are kept stript up to the very top branch which must needs render a most glorious and agreeable effect no Tree whatsoever becoming long Walks and Avenues comparably to this Majestick plant But hear it as sweetly advised as described An Elm for graceful verdure bushy bough A lofty top and a firm rind allow Plant Elm in borders on the Grasse-plots list Branches of Elm into thick Arbours twist A Gallery of Elm draw to the end That Eyes can reach or a breath'd race extend Vt viror est ulmo laetus ramique comantes Arduus alta petens levi cortice truncus Vlmum adhibe ordinibus quoties fundenda per hortum Sunt serie spatia ingenti texendaque totis Aestivos contra soles umbracula campis Vna alias inter texendis aptior ulmus Marginibus spatiorum exornandoque vireto Seque adeo series plano super aequore tendat Vlmorum tractu longo quantum ipsa tuentum Lumina vel gressus valeant lustrare sequentum Rapinus 8. The Elm delights in a sound sweet and fertile Land something more inclined to moisture and where good pasture is produced though it will also prosper in the gravelly provided there be a competent depth of mould and be refreshed with Springs in defect of which being planted on the very surface of the ground the swarth par'd first away and the earth stirred a foot deep or more they will undoubtedly succeed but in this trial let the Roots be handsomly spread and covered a foot or more in height and above all firmly staked This is practicable also for other Trees where the Soil is over moist or unkind For as the Elm does not thrive in too dry sandy or hot grounds no more will it abide the cold and spungy but in places that are competently fertile or a little elevated from these annoyances as we see in the Mounds and castings up of Ditches upon whose banks the Female sort does more naturally delight though it seems to be so much more addicted to some places than to others that I have frequently doubted whether it be a pure Indigene or translatitious and not onely because I have hardly ever known any considerable Woods of them besides some few Nurseries neer Cambridge planted I suppose for store but almost continually in Tufts Hedg-rowes and Mounds and that Shropshire and several other Counties have rarely any growing in many miles together 9. The Elm is by reason of its aspiring and tapering growth unlesse it be topped to enlarge the Branches and make them spread low the least offensive to Corn and Pasture grounds to both which and the Cattel they afford a benign shade defence and agreeable Ornament 10. It would be planted as shallow as might be for as we noted deep interring of Roots is amongst the Catholick mistakes and of this the greatest to which Trees are obnoxious Let new planted Elms be kept moist by frequent refreshings upon some half-rotten Fern or Litter laid about the foot of the stem the earth a little stirred and depressed for the better reception and retention of the Water 11. Lastly your Plantation must above all things be carefully preserved from Cattel and the concussions of impetuous Winds till they are out of reach of the one and sturdy enough to encounter the other 12. When you lop the side-boughs of an Elm which may be about January for the Fire and more frequently if you desire to have them tall or that you would form them into Hedges for so they may be kept plashed and thickned to the highest twig affording both a magnificent and august defence against the Winds and Sun I say when you trim them be careful to indulge the tops for they protect the body of your Trees from the wet which alwayes invades those parts first and will in time perish them to the very heart so as Elms beginning thus to decay are not long prosperous Sir Hugh Plat relates as from an expert Carpenter that the boughs and branches of an Elm should be left a foot long next the trunk when they are lop'd but this is to my certain observation a very great mistake either in the Relator or Authour for I have noted many Elms so disbranched that the remaining stubs grew immediately hollow and were as so many Conduits or Pipes to hold and convey the Rain to the very body and heart of the Tree 13. There is a Cloyster of the right French Elm in the little Garden neer to her Majesties the Queen Mothers Chappel at Somerset-house which were I suppose planted there by the industry of the F.F. Capuchines that will perfectly direct you to the incomparable use of this noble Tree for shade and delight into whatever figure you will accustom them I have my self procured some of them from Paris but they were so abused in the Transportation that they all perished save one which now flourishes with me I have also heard of graffing Elms to a great improvement of their heads Virgil tells us they will joyn in Marriage with the Oak and they would both be tryed and that with the more probable successe for such lignous kinds if you graff under the Earth upon or neer the very Root it self which is likely to entertain the Cyon better than when more exposed till it be well fixt and have made some considerable progresse 14. When you would Fell let the Sap be perfectly in repose as 't is commonly about November or December after the frost hath well nipp'd them I have already alleadged my reason for it and I am told that both Oak and Elm so cut the very
Water every time it Raines This sinking into the pores as was before hinted is compell'd to divert its course as it passes through the Body of the Tree where-ever it encounters the knot of any of those Branches which were cut off from the stem because their Roots not onely deeply penetrate towards the heart but are likewise of themselves very hard and impervious and the frequent obliquity of this Course of the subsiding moisture by reason of these obstructions is as may be conceived the cause of those curious works which we find remarkable in this and other woods whose Branches grow thick from the Stem We have shewed how by Culture and stripping up it arrives to a goodly Tree and surely there were some of them of large bulk and noble Shades that Virgil should choose it for the Court of his Evander one of his Worthiest Princes in his best of Poems sitting in his Maple-Throne and when he brings Aeneas into the Royal Cottage he makes him this memorable Complement Greater sayes great Cowley than ever was yet spoken at the Escurial the Louvre or Whitehall This humble Roof this Rustique Court said he Receiv'd Alcides crown'd with Victorie Scorn not great Guest the steps where he has trod But contemn Wealth and imitate a God Haec inquit limina Victor Alcides CHAP. XII Of the Sycomor 1. THE Sycomor falsely so called is our Acer majus one of the Maples and is much more in reputation for its shade than it deserves for the leaves which fall early like those of the Ash turn to Mucilage and putrefie with the first moisture of the season so as they contaminate and mar our Walks and are therefore by my consent to be banish'd from all curious Gardens and Avenues 2. There is in Germany a better sort of Sycomor then ours wherewith they make Saddle trees and divers other things of use our own is excellent for Trenchers Cart and Plow-timber being light tough and not much inferiour to Ash it self and if the trees be very tall and handsome are the more tolerable for distant Walks especially where other better trees prosper not so well or where a sudden shade is expected CHAP. XIII Of the Horn-beam 1. OStrys the Horn-beam in Latine ignorantly the Carpinus is planted of Sets though it may likewise be raised from the Seeds which being mature in August should be sown in October but the more expeditious way is by Sets of about an inch diametre and cut within half a foot of the earth thus it will advance to a considerable Tree The places it chiefly desires to grow in are in cold hills and in the barren and most expos'd parts of woods 2. Amongst other uses which it serves for as Mill-cogs c. for which it excells either Yew or Crab Yoak-timber whence of old 't was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heads of Beetles Stocks and Handles of Tools It is likewise for the Turners use excellent Good Fire-wood where it burns like a candle and was of old so employ'd Carpinus taedas fissa facésque dabit For all which purposes its extreme toughness and whiteness commends it to the Husbandman Being planted in small Fosses or Trenches at half a foot intervall and in the single row it makes the noblest and the stateliest Hedges for long Walks in Gardens or Parks of any Tree whatsoever whose leaves are deciduos and forsake their Branches in Winter because it grows tall and so sturdy as not to be wronged by the Winds Besides it will furnish to the very foot of the Stem and flourishes with a glossie and polish'd verdure which is exceeding delightful of long continuance and of all other the harder Woods the speediest Grower maintaining a slender upright stem which does not come to be bare and sticky in many years That admirable Espalier-hedge in the long middle-walk of Luxembourg Garden at Paris than which there is nothing more graceful is planted of this Tree and so is that Cradle or Close walk with that perplext Canopy which covers the seat in his Majesties Garden at Hampton-Court These Hedges are tonsile but where they are maintain'd to fifteen or twenty foot height which is very frequent in the places before mention'd they are to be cut and kept in order with a Sythe of four foot long and very little falcated this is fix'd on a long sneed or streight handle and does wonderfully expedite the trimming of these and the like Hedges 3. They very frequently plant a Clump of these Trees before the Entries of most of the great Towns in Germany to which they apply Timber-Frames for convenience and the People to sit and solace in Scamozzi the Architect sayes that in his time he found one whose Branches extended seventy foot in breadth This was at Vuimfen neer the Necker belonging to the Duke of Witemberg But that which I find planted before the Gates of Strasburgh is a Platanus and a Lime tree growing hard by one another in which is erected a Pergolo eight foot from the ground of fifty foot wide having ten Arches of twelve foot height all shaded with their folige and there is besides this an Over-grown Oak which has an Arbour in it of 60 foot diameter hear we Rapinus describe the use of our Horn-beam for these and other Elegancies In Walkes the Horn-beam stands or in a Maze Through thousand self-entangling Labyrinths strays So clasp the Branches lopp'd on either side As though an Alley did two Walls divide This Beauty found Order did next adorne The Boughs into a thousand figures shorne Which pleasing Objects wearinesse betray'd Your feet into a Wildernesse convey'd Nor better Leaf on twining Arbor spread Against the scorching Sun to shield your head In tractus longos facilis tibi Carpinus ibit Mille per errores indeprehensosque recessus Et molles tendens secto seu pariete ramos Praebebit viridem diverso e margine scenam Primus honos illi quondam post aditus ord◠est Attonsaeque coma formis quaesita voluptas Innumeris fartoque viae obliquoque recessu In tractus acta est longos opaca vireta Quinetiam egregiae tendens umbracula frondis Temperat ardentes ramis ingentibus aestus CHAP. XIV Of the Lime-Tree TIlia the Lime-Tree or Linden is of two kinds the Male which some allow to be but a finer sort of Elm is harder fuller of knots and of a redder colour but producing neither Flower nor Seed as does the Female whose Blossom is very odoriferous perfuming the Air The Wood is likewise thicker of small pith and not obnoxious to the VVorm so as it seems Theophrastus de Pl. l. 3. c. 10. said true that though they were of both Sexes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. yet they totally differ'd as to their form We send commonly for this Tree into Flanders and Holland to our excessive cost whiles our own Woods do in some places spontaneously produce them and though of somewhat a smaller leaf yet
Buildings as lye continually under water where it will harden like a very stone whereas being kept in any unconstant temper it Rots immediately because its natural humidity is of so near affinity with its adventitious as Scaliger assigns the cause Vitruvius tells us that the Morasses about Ravenna in Italy were pil'd with this Timber to superstruct upon and highly commends it I find also they us'd it under that famous Bridge at Venice the Rialto which passes over the Gran-Canal bearing a vast weight 5. The Poles of Alder are as useful as those of Willows but the Coals far exceed them especially for Gun-powder The wood is likewise useful for Piles Pumps Hop-poles Water-pipes Troughs Sluces small Trays and Trenchers Wooden-heels the bark is precious to Dyers and some Tanners and Leather-dressers make use of it and with it and the Fruits in stead of Galls they make Ink. The fresh Leaves alone applied to the naked soal of the Foot infinitely refresh the surbated Traveller and the swelling bunches which are now and then found in the old Trees afford the Inlayer pieces curiously chambletted and very hard c. but the Fagots better for the Fire than for the draining of Grounds by placing them as the guise is in the Trenches which old rubbish of Flints Stones and the like grosse materials does infinitely exceed because it is for ever preserves the Drains hollow and being a little moulded over will produce good grass without any detriment to the ground but this is a secret not yet well understood and would merit an expresse Paragraph were it here seasonable jam nos inter opacas Musa vocat Salices CHAP. XX. Of the Withy Sally Ozier and Willow 1. SAlix since Cato has attributed the third place to the Salictum preferring it even next to the very Ortyard and what one would wonder at before even the Olive Meadow or Corn-field it self for Salictum tertio loco nempe post vineam c. and that we find it so easily rais'd of so great and universal Vse I have thought good to be the more particular in my Discourse upon them especially since so much of that which shall Publish concerning them is deriv'd from the long Experience of a most Learned and ingenious Person from whom I acknowledge to have receiv'd many of these hints Not to perplex the Reader with the various names Greek Gallic Sabinic Amerine Vitex c. better distinguish'd by their growth and bark and by Latine Authors all comprehended under that of Salices and our English Books reckon them promiscuously thus The Common-white Willow the Black and the Hard-black the Rose of Cambridge the Black-Withy the Round-long Sallow the longest Sallow the Lesser-broad-leav'd Willow Silver Sallow Vpright broad-Willow Repent broad-leaf'd the Red-stone the Lesser Willow the Strait-Dwarf the Creeper the Black-low-Willow the Willow-bay and the Ozier I begin with the Withy 2. The Withy is a reasonable large Tree and fit to be planted on high Banks because they extend their Roots deeper then either Salleys or Willows For this reason you shall Plant them at ten or twenty foot distance and though they grow the slowest of all the Twiggie Trees yet do they recompence it with the larger crop the wood being tough and the Twigs fit to bind strongly the very peelings of the branches being useful to bind Arbor-poling and in Topiary works Vineyards Espalier-fruit and the like There are two principal sorts of these Withies the hoary and the red Withy which is the Greek toughest and fittest to bind whiles the Twigs are flexible and tender 3. Sallyes grow much faster if they are Planted within reach of water or in a very Moorish ground or flat plain and where the Soil is by reason of extraordinary moisture unfit for Arable or Meadow for in these cases it is an extraordinary improvement In a word where Birch and Alder will thrive Before you Plant them it is found best to turn the ground with a Spade especially if you design them for a flat We have three sorts of Sallyes amongst us which is one more than the Antients challeng'd who name onely the Black and White which was their Nitellina the vulgar which proves best in dryer Banks and the hopping-Sallyes which require a moister Soil growing with incredible celerity And a third kind of a different colour from the other two having the twigs reddish the Leaf not so long and of a more dusky green more brittle whilst it is growing in twigs and more tough when arriv'd to a competent size All of them useful for the Thatcher 4. Of these the hopping-Sallyes are in greatest esteem being of a clearer terse grain and requiring a more succulent Soil best planted a foot deep and a foot and half above ground though some will allow but a foot for then every branch will prove excellent for future setlings After three years growth being cropped the second and third the first years increase will be 'twixt eight and twelve foot long generally the third years growth strong enough to make Rakes and Pike-staves and the fourth for M. Blithes's trenâ—hing Plow and other like Vtensils of the Husbandman 5. If ye Plant them at full height as some do at four years growth setting them five or six foot length to avoid the biting of Cattel they will be lesse useful for streight staves and for setlings and make lesse speed in their growth yet this also is a considerable improvement 6. These would require to be Planted at least five foot distance some set them as much more and in the Quincunx order If they affect the Soil the Leaf will come large half as broad as a Man's hand and of a more vivid green alwayes larger the first year than afterwards Some Plant them sloping and cross-wise like a Hedge but this impedes their wonderful growth and though Pliny seems to commend it teaching us how to excorticate some places of each set for the sooner production of shoots it is but a deceitful Fence neither fit to keep out Swine nor Sheep and being set too near inclining to one another they soon destroy each other 7. The worst Sallyes may be planted so neer yet as to be instead of Stakes in a Hedge and then their Tops will supply their dwarfishnesse and to prevent Hedge-breakers many do thus Plant them because they cannot easily be pull'd up after once they have struck root 8. If some be permitted to wear their Tops five or six years their Palms will be very ample and yield the first and most plentiful relief to Bees even before our Abricots Blossom The hopping-Sallys open and yield their Palms before other Sallys and when they are blown which is about the exit of May or sometimes June the Palms or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frugiperdae as Homer terms them for their extream levity are four inches long and full of a fine lanuginous Cotton A poor Body might in an hours space gather a pound or two of
it rots them and therefore never choose to set them so deep as to sent it and at three or four foot distance 21. The Season for Planting is January and all February though some not till mid February at two foot square but Cattel being excessively liquorish of their leaves and tender buds some talk of a graffing them out of reach upon Sallys and by this to advance their sprouting but as the work would consume time so have I never seen it succeed 22. Some do also Plant Oziers in their Eights like Quick-sets thick and neer the water keep them not more than half a foot above ground but then they must be diligently cleans'd from Moss Slab and Ouze and frequently prun'd especially the smaller spires to form single shoots at least that few or none grow double These they head every second year about September the Autumnal cuttings being best for use But generally 23. You may cut VVithies Sallys and VVillows at any mild and gentle season between leaf and leaf even in VVinter but the most congruous time both to Plant and to cut them is Crescente Lunâ Vere circa calendas Martias that is about the new Moon and first open weather of the early Spring 24. It is in France upon the Loire where these Eights as we call them and Plantations of Oziers and VVithies are perfectly understood and both there and in divers other Countries beyond Seas they raise them of the Seeds contain'd in their Juli or Catkins which they sow in Furrows or shallow Trenches and it springs up like Corn in the blade and come to be so tender and delicate that they frequently mow them with a Scyth This we have attempted in England too even in the place where I live but the obstinate and unmerciful Weed did so confound them that it was impossible to keep them clean with any ordinary Industry and so they were given over It seems either weeds grow not so fast in other Countries or that the People which I rather think are more patient and laborious The Ozier is of that Emolument that in some places I have heard twenty-pounds has been given for one Acre ten is in this part an usual price and doubtlesse it is far preferrable to the best Corn-land not onely for that it needs but once Planting but because it yields a constant Crop and revenue to the Worlds end and is therefore in esteem of knowing Persons valu'd in Purchase accordingly consider'd likewise how easily 't is renew'd when a Plant now and then fails by but pricking in a twig of the next at hand when you visie to cut them We have in this Parish where I dwell improv'd Land from lesse than one pound to neer ten pounds the Acre And when we shall reflect upon the infinite quantities of them we yearly bring out of France and Flanders to supply the extraordinary expence of Basket-work c. for the Fruiterers Lime-burners Gardners Coopers Packers up of all sorts of Ware and for general Carriage which seldom last above a Journey or two I greatly admire Gentlemen do no more think of employing their moist grounds especially where Tides near fresh Rivers are reciprocal in Planting and propagating Oziers To omit nothing of the Culture of this useful Ozier Pliny would have the place to be prepar'd by trenching it a foot and half deep and in that to fix the sets or cuttings of the same length at six foot interval These if the sets be large will come immediately to be Trees which after the first three years are to be abated within two foot of the ground Then in April he advises to dig about them Of these they formerly made Vine-props and one Acre hath been known to yield Props sufficient to serve a Vineyard of twenty five Acres 25. John Tradescant brought a small Ozier from S. Omers in Flanders which makes incomparable Net-work◠not much inferiour to the Indian twig or bent-work◠which we have seen but if we had them in greater abundance we should haply want the Artificers who could imploy them 26. Our common Salix or Willow is of two kinds the white and the black The white is also of two sorts the one of a yellowish the other of a browner Bark The black Willow is Planted of stakes of three years growth taken from the head of an old Tree before it begins to sprout Set them of six foot high and ten distant Those Woody sorts of VVillow delight in Meads and Ditch-sides rather dry then over wet for so they last longest yet the black sort and the reddish do sometimes well in more boggie grounds and would be Planted of Stakes as big as on 's Leg cut as the other at the length of five or six foot and fix'd a foot or more into the earth the hole made with an Oken-stake and beetle or with an Iron crow some use a long Augur so as not to be forced in with too great violence But first the Trunchions should be a little slop'd at both extreams and the biggest planted downwards To this if they are soak'd in water two or three dayes after they have been siz'd for length and the twigs cut off ere you plant them it will be the better Let this be done in February the mould as well clos'd to them as possible and treated as was taught in the Poplar If you Plant for a kind of VVood or Coppse for such I have seen set them at six foot distance or nearer in the Quincunx and be careful to take away all Suckers from them at three years end You may abate the head half a foot from the Trunk viz. three or four of the lustiest Shoots and the rest cut close and bare them yearly that the three or four you left may enjoy all the Sap and so those which were spared will be gallant Pearches within two years Arms of four years growth will yield substantial sets to be Planted at eight or ten foot distance and for the first three years well defended from the Cattel who infinitely delight in their leaves green or wither'd Thus a Willow may continue twenty or five and twenty years with good profit to the industrious Planter being headed every four or five years some have been known to shoot no lesse then twelve foot in one year after which the old rotten Dotards may be fell'd and easily suppli'd But if you have ground fit for whole Coppses of this wood cast it into double Dikes making every foss near three foot wide two and half in depth then leaving four foot at least of ground for the earth because in such Plantations the moisture should be below the Roots that they may rather see than feel the Water and two Tables of Sets on each side plant the Ridges of these Banks with but one single Table longer and bigger than the Collateral viz. three four five or six foot high and distant from each other about two yards These banks being carefully kept weeded
for the first two years till the Plants have vanquish'd the Grasse and not cut till the third then lop them traverse and not obliquely at one foot from the ground or somewhat more and he will head to admiration But such which are cut at three foot height are most durable as least soft and aquatic They may also be Graffed 'twixt the Bark or budded and then they become so beautifull as to be fit for some kind of delightful Walks and this I wish were practis'd among such as are seated in low and Marshy places not so friendly to other Trees Every Acre at eleven or twelve years growth may yield you near an hundred Load of Wood Cut them in the Spring for dressing but in the Fall for Timber and Fuel I have been inform'd that a Gentleman in Essex has lopp'd no lesse than 2000 yearly all of his own planting It is far the sweetest of all our English Fuel provided it be sound and dry and emitting little Smoke is the fittest for Ladies Chambers and all those Woods and Twiggs would be cut either to Plant Work with or Burn in the dryest time of the day 27. There is a sort of Willow of a slender and long Leaf resembling the smaller Ozier but rising to a Tree as big as the Sally full of knots and of a very brittle spray onely here rehears'd to acknowledge the variety 28. There is likewise the Garden-willow which produces a sweet and beautiful flower fit to be admitted into our Hortulan ornaments and may be set for partitions of squares but they have no affinity with other There is also in Shropshire another very odoriferous kind 29. What most of the former enumerated kinds differ from the Sallys is indeed not much considerable they being generally uâ—eful for the same purposes as Boxes such as Apothecaries and Goldsmiths use for Cart-Saddle-trees yea Gun-stocks and Half-Pikes Harrows Shooe-makers Lasts Heels Clogs for Pattens Forks Rakes especially the Tooths which should be wedg'd with Oak but let them not be cut for this when the Sap is stirring because they will shrink Pearches Hop-poles Ricing of Kidny-beans and for Supporters to Vines when our English Vineyards come more in request Also for Hurdles Sieves Lattices for the Turner Kyele-pins great Town-Topps for Platters little Cashes and Vessels especially to preserve Verjuices in the best of any Pailes are also made of cleft Willow Dorsers Fruit-baskets Canns Hives for Bees Trenchers Trays and for polishing and whetting Table-Knives the Butler will find it above any Wood or Whet-stone also for Coals and Bavin not forgetting the fresh boughs which of all the Trees in nature yield the most chast and coolest Shade in the hottest season of the day and this Umbrage so wholesome that Physicians prescribe it to Feaverish persons permitting them to be plac'd even about their Beds as a safe and comfortable refrigerium The wood being preserv'd dry will dure a very long time but that which is found wholly putrifi'd and reduc'd to a loamy earth in the hollow trunks of superannuated Trees is of all other the fittest to be mingl'd with fine mould for the raising our choicest Flowers such as Anemonies Ranunculus's Auriculas and the like What would we more low Broom and Sallys wild Or feed the Flock or Shepheards shade or Field Hedges about or do us Hony yield Quid majora sequâ—r Salices humilesque genista Aut illae pecori frondem aut pastoribus umbram Sufficiunt sepemque satis pabula melli Georg. 2. 30. Now by all these Plantations of the Aquatic Trees it is evident the Lords of Moorish Commons and unprofitable Wasts may learn some Improvement and the neighbour Bees be gratified and many Tools of Husbandry become much cheaper I conclude with the Learned Stephanus's note upon these kind of Trees after he has enumerated the universal benefit of the Salictum Nullius enim tutior reditus minorisve impendii aut tempestatis securior CHAP. XXI Of Fences Quick-sets c. 1. OUr main Plantation is now finish'd and our Forest adorn'd with a just variety But what is yet all this labour but losse of time and irreparable expence unlesse our young and as yet tender Plants be sufficiently guarded from all external injuries for as old Tusser If Cattel or Cony may enter to Crop Young Oak is in danger of losing his Cop. But with something a more polish'd stile though to the same purpose the best of Poets Plash Fences thy Plantation round about And whilst yet Young be sure keep Cattell out Severest Winters scorching Sun infest And Sheep Goats Bullocks all young Plants molest Yet neither Cold nor the hoar rigid Frost Nor Heat reflecting from the Rocky Coast Like Cattel Trees and tender Shoots consound When with invenom'd Teeth the twigs they wound Texendae sepes etiam pecus omne tenendum est Praecipuè dum frons tenera imprudensque laborum Cui super indignas hyemes solemque potentem Sylvestres Vri assiduè capreaeque sequaces Illudunt Pascuntur Oves avidaeque juvenâ—ae Frigora nec tantum cana concreta pruina Aut gravis incumbens scopulis arentibus astas Quantum illi nocuere greges durique venenum Dentis admorso signata in stirpe cicatrix Georg. 2. 2. For the reason that so many complain of the improsperous condition of their Wood-lands and Plantations of this kind proceeds from this neglect though Sheep excepted there is no employment whatsoever incident to the Farmer which requires less expence to gratifie their expectations One diligent and skilful Man will govern five hundred Acres But if through any accident a Beast shall break into his Masters Field or the wicked Hunters make a Gap for his Dogs and Horses what a clamor is there made for the disturbance of a years Crop at most in a little Corn whiles abandoning his young Woods all this time and perhaps many years to the venomous bitings and treading of Cattel and other like injuries for want of due care the detriment is many times irreparable Young Trees once cropp'd hardly ever recovering It is the bane of all our most hopeful Timber 3. But shall I provoke you by an instance A Kins-man of mine has a Wood of more than 60 years standing it was before he purchas'd it expos'd and abandon'd to the Cattel for divers years some of the outward skirts were nothing save shrubs and miserable starvlings yet still the place had a disposition to grow woody but by this neglect continually suppress'd The industrious Gentleman has Fenced in some Acres of this and cut all close to the ground it is come in eight or nine years to be better worth than the Wood of sixty and will in time prove most incomparable Timber whiles the other part so many years advanc'd shall never recover and all this from no other cause than preserving it fenc'd Judge then by this how our Woods come to be so decried Are five hundred Sheep worthy the care of a Shepherd and
Husband-men are perfectly skil'd in it 10. The Roots of an Old Thorne is excellent both for Boxes and Combs and is curiously and naturally wrought I have read that they made ribs to some small Boates or Vessels with the White-Thorn The Black-Crab rightly season'd and treated is famous for Walking-staves and if over-grown us'd in Mill-work Here we owe due Elogy to the Industry of that honourable Person my Lord Ashley who has taught us to make such Enclosures of Crab-stocks onely planted close to one another as there is nothing more impregnable and becoming or you may sowe Sider-kernels in a rill and fence it for a while with a double dry Hedge not onely for a suddain and beautiful but a very profitable Inclosure because amongst other benefits they will yield you Sider-fruit in abundance But in Devonshire they build two walls with their stones setting them edge-ways two and then one between and so as it rises fill the intervall or Cofer with Earth the breadth and height as you please and continuing the stone-work and filling and as you work beating in the stones flat to the sides which causes them to stick everlastingly This is absolutely the neatest most saving and profitable Fencing imaginable where slaty stones are in any abundance and it becomes not onely the most secure to the Lands but the best for Cattel to lye warme under the Walls when other Hedges be they never so thick admit of some cold winds in Winter time that the leaves are of Upon these Banks they plant not onely Quick sets but even Timber-Trees which exceedingly thrive being out of all danger 11. The Pyracanth Paliurus and like pretioser sorts of Thorne might easily be propagated into plenty sufficient to store even these vulgar Vses were Men industrious and then how beautiful and sweet would the environs of our Fields be for there are none of the spinous shrubs more hardy nor fitter for our defence Thus might Berberies now and then be also inserted among our hedges which with the Hips Haws and Cornel-berries do well in light lands and would rather be planted to the South than North or West as usually we observe them 13. Some as we noted mingle their very hedges with Oaklings Ash and Fruit trees sown or planted and 't is a laudable improvement though others do rather recommend to us Sets of all one sort and will not so much as admit of the Black-Thorne to be mingled with the White because of their unequal progress and indeed Timber-trees set in the Hedge though contemporaries with it do frequently wear it out and therefore I should rather incourage such Plantations to be at some Yards neer the Verges than perpendicularly in them 14. In Cornwall they secure their Lands and Woods with high Mounds and on them they plant Acorns whose roots bind in the looser mould and so form a double and most durable Fence incircling the Fields with a Coronet of Trees They do likewise and that with great commendation make hedges of our Genista Spinosa prickly Furzes of which they have a taller sort such as the French imploy for the same purpose in Bretaigne where they are incomparable husbands 15. It is to be sown which is best or planted of the roots in a furrow If sown weeded till it be strong both Tonsile and to be diligently clip'd which will render it very thick an excellent and beautiful hedge Otherwise permitted to grow at large 't will yield very good Fagot It is likewise admirable Covert for wilde-fowle and will be made to grow even in moyst as well as dry places The young and tender tops of Furzes being a little bruis'd and given to a lean sickly Horse will strangely recover and plump him Thus in some places they sow in barren grounds when they lay them down the last crop with this seed and so let them remain till they break them up again and during that interim reap considerable advantage Would you believe writes a worthy Correspondent of mine that in Herefordshire famous for plenty of wood their Thickets of Furzes viz. the vulgar should yield them more profit then a like quantity of the best Wheat land of England for such is theirs if this be question'd the Scene is within a mile of Hereford and proved by anniversary experience in the Lands as I take it of a Gentleman who is now one of the Burgesses for that City And in Devonshire the seat of the best Husbands in the World they sow on their worst Land well plow'd the seeds of the rankest Furzes which in four or five years becomes a rich Wood no provender as we say makes Horses so hardy as the young tops of these Furzes no other Wood so thick nor more excellent Fuel and for some purposes also yielding them a kind of Timber to their more humble buildings and a great refuge for Fowl and other Game I am assur'd in Bretaigne 't is sometimes sown no lesse then twelve yards thick for a speedy profitable and impenetrable Mound If we imitated this husbandry in the barren places of Surrey and other parts of this Nation we might exceedingly spare our woods and I have bought the best sort of French seed at the shops in London It seems that in the more Eastern parts of Germany and especially in Poland this vulgar trifle and even our common Broom is so rare that they have desired the seeds of them out of England and preserve them with extraordinary care in their best Gardens this I learn out of our Johnsons Herbal by which we may consider that what is reputed a curse and a cumber in some places is esteem'd the ornament and blessing of another But we shall not need go so far for this since both Beech and Birch are almost as great strangers in many parts of this Nation particularly Northampton and Oxfordshire 15. This puts me in mind of the Broom another improvement for Barren grounds and saver of more substantial Fuel It may be sown English or what is more sweet and beautiful the Spanish with equal success In the Western parts of France and Cornwall it grows with us to an incredible height however our Poet give it the epithete of humilis and so it seems they had it of old as appears by Gratius his Genistae Altinates with which as he affirms they us'd to make staves for their Spears and hunting Darts 16. Lastly a considerable Fence may be made of the Elder set of reasonable lusty trunchions much like the Willow and as I have seen them maintain'd laid with great curiosity and far excelling those extravagant plantations of them about London where the lops are permitted to grow without due and skilful laying There is a sort of Elder which has hardly any Pith this makes exceeding stout Fences and the Timber very useful for Cogs of Mills Butchers Skewers and such tough employments Old trees do in time become firm and close up the hollowness to an almost invisible pith
But if the Medicinal properties of the Leaves Bark Berries c. were throughly known I cannot tell what our Country-man could aile for which he might not fetch a Remedy from every Hedge either for Sicknesse or Wound The inner Barke of Elder or in season the Buds boyld in Water-grewel for a Break-fast has effected wonders in the Feaver and the decoction is admirable to asswage Inflammations and tetrous humors and especially the Scorbut But an Extract or Therica may be compos'd of the Berries which is not onely efficacious to erradicate this Epidemical inconvenience and greatly to assist Longaevity for famous is the story of Naeander but is a kind of Catholicon against all Infirmities whatever The Water of the leaves and Berries are approved in the Dropsy every part of the Tree is useful The Oyntment made with the young buds and leaves in May with Butter is most soveraine for Aches shrunk sinnues c. And lesse than this could I not say with the leave of the charitable Physitian to gratifie our poor Wood-man and yet when I have say'd all this I do by no means commend the sent of it which is very noxious to the Ayre and therefore though I do not undertake that all things which sweeten the Ayre are salubrious nor all ill savors pernicious yet as not for its beauty so neither for its smell would I plant Elder or much Box neer my Habitation The Elder does likewise produce a certain green Fly almost invisible which is exceedingly troublesome and whose sting is plainly venomous smarts vehemently and gathers a fiery rednesse where it ataques 19. There is a Shrub call'd the Spindle-Tree Evonymus or Fusanum commonly growing in our Hedges which bears a very hard wood of which they sometimes made Bowes for Viols and the Inlayer us'd it for its colour and Instrument-makers for Toothing of Organs and Virginal-keys Tooth-pickers c. What we else do with it I know not save that according with its name abroad they make spindles with it Here might come in or be nam'd at least the Wild-Cornel good to make Mill-Cogs Pestles Bobins for Bonelace c. Lastly the Viburnum or Way-faring tree growing also plentifully in every corner makes the most plyant and best bands to Fagot with 20. The American Yucca is a hardier plant then we take it to be for it will suffer our sharpest Winter as I have seen by experience without that trouble and care of setting it in Cases in our Conservatories for hyemation such as have beheld it in Flower which is not indeed till it be of some age must needs admire the beauty of it and it being easily multiplied why should it not make one of the best and most ornamental Fences in the world for our Gardens with its natural palisados as well as the more tender and impatient of moisture the Aloes does for their Vineyards in Languedoc c. but We believe nothing improvable save what our Grand fathers taught us Finally let trial likewise be made of that Thorn mention'd by Cap. Liggon in his History of Barbados whether it would not be made grow amongst us and prove as convenient for fences as there the Seeds or Sets transported to us with due care And thus having accomplish'd what by your Commands I had to offer concerning the propagation of the more Solid Material and useful Trees as well the Dry as Aquatical and to the best of my talent fenc'd our Plantation in I should here conclude and set a bound likewise to my Discourse by making an Apologie for the many errours and impertinencies of it did not the zeal and ambition of this Illustrious Society to promote and improve all Attempts which may concern the Publick utility or Ornament perswade Me that what I am adding for the farther encouragement to the planting of some other useful though less Vulgar Trees will at least obtain your pardon if it miss of your Approbation 21. To discourse in this stile of all such Fruit-trees as would prove of greatest emolument to the whole Nation were to design a just Volume and there are directions already so many and so accurately deliver'd and publish'd but which cannot be affirm'd of any of the former Classes of Forest-trees and other remarkes at the least to my poor knowledge and research that it would be needless to Repeat 22. I do only wish upon the prospect and meditation of the universal Benefit that every person whatsoever worth ten pounds per annum within his Majesties Dominions were by some indispensable Statute oblig'd to plant his Hedg-rows with the best and most useful kinds of them especially in such places of the Nation as being the more in-land Counties and remote from the Seas and Navigable Rivers might the better be excus'd from the planting of Timber to the proportion of those who are more happily and commodiously situated for the transportation of it 22. Undoubtedly if this course were taken effectually a very considerable part both of the Meat and Drink which is spent to our prejudice might be saved by the Country-people even out of the Hedges and Mounds which would afford them not only the pleasure and profit of their delicious Fruit but such abundance of Sider and Perry as should suffice them to drink of one of the most wholesom and excellent Beverages in the World Old Gerard did long since alledg us an example worthy to be pursu'd I have seen saith he speaking of Apple-Trees lib. 3. cap. 101. in the Pastures and Hedg-rows about the Grounds of a Worshipful Gentleman dwelling two miles from Hereford call'd Mr. Roger Bodnome so many Trees of all sorts that the Servants drink for the most part no other drink but that which is made of Apples The quantity is such that by the report of the Gentleman himself the Parson hath for Tythe many Hogs-heads of Sider The Hogs are fed with the fallings of them which are so many that they make choice of those Apples they do eat who will not taste of any but of the best An Example doubtless to be followed of Gentlemen that have Land and Living but Envy saith The Poor will break down our Hedges and we shall have the least part of the Fruit but forward in the Name of God Graff Set Plant and nourish up Trees in every corner of your Ground the labour is small the cost is nothing the commodity is great your selves shall have plenty the poor shall have somewhat in time of want to relieve their necessity and God shall reward your good minds and diligence Thus far honest Gerard. And in truth with how small a charge and infinite pleasure this were to be effected every one that is Patron of a little Nursery can easily calculate But by this Expedient many thousands of Acres sow'd now yearly with Barley might be cultivated for Wheat or converted into Pasture to the increase of Corn and Cattel Besides the Timber which the Pear-tree Black-Cherry afford and
of all were to set the Nuts in an Earthen-pot and in frosty weather shewing it a little to the fire the intire Clod will come out with them which are to be reserved and set in the naked Earth in convenient and fit holes so soon as the thaw is universal Some commend the strewing a few Oats at the bottom of the fosses or pits in which you transplant the naked roots for a great promotement of their taking and that it will cause them to shoot more in one year than in three but to this I have already spoken 5. I am assur'd by a person most worthy of credit that in the Territory of Alzey a Country in Germany where they were miserably distressed for Wood which they had so destroy'd as that they were reduced to make use of Straw for their best Fuel a very large Tract being newly plowed but the Warrs surprizing them not suffer'd to sow there sprung up the next year a whole Forest of Pine-trees of which sort of Wood there was none at all within lesse then fourscore miles so as 't is verily conjectur'd by some they might be wafted thither from the Country of Westrasia which is the neerest part to that where they grow If this be true we are no more to wonder how when our Oak-woods are grubb'd up Beech and Trees of other kinds have frequently succeeded them What some impetuous Winds have done in this nature I could produce instances almost miraculous I shall say nothing of the opinion of our Master Varro and the learned Theophrastus who were both of a faith that the seeds of Plants drop'd out of the Air Pliny in his 16. Book Chap. 33. upon discourse of the Cretan Cypress attributes much to the indoles and nature of the soil virtue of the Climate and Impressions of the Air And indeed it is very strange what is affirm'd of that Pitchy-rain reported to have fallen about Cyrene the year 430. U. C. after which in a short time sprung up a whole wood of the Trees of Laserpitium producing a precious Gum not much inferiour to Benzoin if at least the story be warrantable But of these Aerial irradiations various conceptions and aequivocal productions without seed c. upon another occasion if life and leisure permit me to finish what has been long under the hand and file to gratifie our Horticultores this present Treatise being but an imperfect limb of that more ample Work 6. In transplanting of these Coniferous Trees which are generally Resinaceous viz. Fir Pine Larix Cedar and which have but thin and single Roots you must never diminish their heads nor be at all busie with their roots which pierce deep and is all their foundation unless you find any of them bruised or much broken therefore such down-right Roots as you may be forc'd to cut off it were safe to sear with an hot Iron and prevent the danger of bleeding to which they are obnoxious even to destruction though unseen and unheeded Neither may you disbranch them but with great caution as about March or before or else in September and then 't is best to prune up the side branches close to the Trunk cutting off all that are above a year old if you suffer them too long they grow too big and the cicatrice will be more apt to spend the Tree in gumme upon which accident I advise you to rub over their wounds with a mixture of Cow-dung the neglect of this cost me dear so apt are they to spend their Gum. Some advise us to break the shells of Pines to facilitate their delivery and I have essay'd it but to my losse Nature does obstetricate and do that office of her self when it is the proper season neither does this preparation at all prevent those which are so buried whiles their hard Integuments protect them both from rotting and the Vermine 7. The domestic Pine grows very well with us both in Mountains and Plains but the Pinaster or wilder of which are four sorts best for Walks because it grows tall and proud maintaining their Branches at the sides which the Pine does lesse frequently 8. The Fir grows tallest being planted reasonable close together but suffers nothing to thrive under them The Pine not so Inhospitable for by Plinies good leave it may be sown with any Tree all things growing well under its shade and excellent in Woods hence Claudian The friendly Pine the mighty Oke invites Et comitem quercum Pinus amica trahit 9. They both affect the cold high and rockie grounds Abies in montibus altis yet will grow in better but not in over rich and pinguid The worst Land in Wales bears as I am told large Pine and the Fir according to his aspiring nature loves also the Mountain more than the Valley but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It cannot endure the Shade as Theophrastus observes de Pl. l. 4. c. 1. But this is not rigidly true for they will grow in Consort till they even shade and darken one another and will also descend from the Hills and succeed very well being desirous of plentiful waterings till they arrive to some competent stature and therefore they do not prosper so well in an over sandy and hungry Soil or gravel as in the very entrails of the Rocks which afford more drink to the Roots that penetrate into their meanders and winding recesses But though they require this refreshing at first yet do they perfectly abhor all stercoration nor will they much endure to have the earth open'd about their Roots for Ablaqueation or be disturb'd This is also to be understood of Cypress A Fir for the first half dozen years seems to stand or at least make no considerable advance but it is when throughly rooted that it comes away miraculously That Honourable Knight Sir Norton Knatchbull whose delicious Plantation of Pines and Firs I beheld with great satisfaction having assur'd me that a Fir-tree of his raising did shoot no lesse than sixty foot in height in little more than twenty years is a pregnant instance as of the speedy growing of that material so of all the encouragement I have already given for the more frequent cultivating this ornamental useful and profitable Tree 10. The Picea is another sort of Pine and to be cultivated like it the cold grounds which these Plants most affect though it be hard to discover Yet sometimes Pitch-trees and the noxious Yew Or the dark Ivy will dire Symptomes shew Piceae tantum taxique nocentes Interdum aut ederae pandunt Vestigia nigrae Georg. 2. And therefore I am not satisfied why it might not prosper in some tollerable degree in England as well as in Germany Russia the Colder Tracts and abundantly in France It grows on the Alpes among the Pine but neither so tall nor so upright and produces a Gum almost as white and firm as Frankincense But it is the Larix another sort of Pine that yields the Venetian Turpentine 11. There is also the
Piceaster a wilder sort out of which the greatest store of Pitch is boyl'd The Teda likewise which is a sort abounding in Dalmatia more unctious and more patient of the warmer situations and so inflamable that it will slit into Candles and therefore some will by no means admit it to be of a different Species but a metamorphosis of over-grown fattinesse to which the most Judicious incline 12. The Bodies of these being cut or burnt down to the ground will emit frequent Suckers from the Roots but so will neither the Pine nor Fir But the Fir may be propagated of Layers which I divulge as a considerable Secret that has been essay'd with successe 13. That all these especially the Fir and Pine will prosper well with us is more than probable because it is a kind of Demonstration that they did heretofore grow plentifully in Cumberland Cheshire Stafford and Lancashire if the multitudes of these Trees to this day found intire and buried under the Earth though suppos'd to have been or'ethrown and cover'd so ever since the universal Deluge be indeed of this Species That incomparable Naturalist the Learned Dr. Merreâ—t in his Pinax speaks of several places of this Nation where subterraneous Trees are found as namely in Cornwal ad finem terrae in agris Flints in Penbrok-shire towards the shore where they so abound ut totum littus says the Doctor tanquam Sylva caedua apparet in Cheshire also as we said Cumberland and Anglesey and several of our Euro-boreal tracts and are called Noahs-Ark By Chatnesse in Lancashire says Cambden the low Mossie ground was no very long time since carried away by an impetuous flood and in that place now lies a low irriguous Vale where many prostrate Trees have been digged out These Trees were some think carried away in times past by some accident of Innundation or by Waters undermining the ground till their own weight and the Winds bow'd them down and overwhelm'd in the Mud For 't is observ'd that these Trees are no where found but in Boggie places but that the burning of these Trees so very bright should be an Argument they were Fir is not necessary since the Bitumineous quality of such Earth may have imparted it to them and Cambden denies them to be fir-trees suggesting the Querie Whether there may not possibly grow Trees even under the Ground as well as other things There are in Cumberland on the Sea-shore Trees sometimes discover'd at Low-water and at other times that lye buried in the Sand and in other Mossie places of that Shire 't is reported the People frequently dig up the Bodies of vast Trees without Boughs and that by direction of the Deaw alone in Summer for they observe it never lyes upon that part under which those Trees are interr'd These particulars I find noted by the Ingenious Authour of the Britannia Baconica But we shall enquire farther concerning these Subterranean Productions anon and whether the Earth as well as the Water have not the vertue of strange Transmutations These Trees are found in Moors by poking with Staves of three or four foot length shod with Iron 14. In Scotland as we noted there is a most beautiful sort of Fir growing upon the Mountains of which from the late Marquiss of Argyle I had sent me some seeds which I have sown with tolerable successe and I preferr them before any other because they grow both very erect and fixing themselves stoutly need little or no support And there neer Loughbrun 'twixt the Lough and an Hill they grow in such quantity that from the spontaneous Fall Ruine and Decay of the Trees lying crosse one another to a Man's height partly cover'd with Mosse and partly Earth and Grasse which rots fills up and grows again a considerable Hill has in processe of time been raised to almost their very tops which being an Accident of singular remark I thought fit to mention 15. For the many and almost universal use of these Trees both Sea and Land will plead The useful Pine for Ships dant utile Lignum Navigiis Pines Georg. 2. Hence Papinius 6. Thebaid calls it audax abies They make our best Mast Sheathing Scaffold-poles c. heretofore the whole Vessel It is pretty saith Pliny to consider that those Trees which are so much sought after for Shipping should most delight in the highest of Mountains as if it fled from the Sea on purpose and were afraid to descend into the Waters With Fir we likewise make all intestine works as Wainscot Floors Pales Balks Laths Boxes Bellies for all Musical Instruments in general nay the Ribs and Sides of that enormous Stratagem the so famous Trojan Horse may be thought to be built of this Material and if the Poet mistake not The Ribs with Deal they fit Sectáque intexunt Abiete costas Aen. 2. It is exceeding smooth to polish on and therefore does well under Gilding work and takes black equal with the Pear-tree Both Fir and especially Pine succeed well in Carving as for Capitols Festoons nay Statues especially being Gilded because of the easinesse of the Grain to work and take the Tool every way and he that shall examine it nearly will find that famous Image of the B. Virgin at Loretto reported to be Carved by the hands of S. Luke to be made of Fir as the grain easily discovers it The Torulus as Vitruvius calls it and heart of Deal kept dry rejecting the Albumen and white is everlasting nor does there any Wood so well agree with the glew as it or so easie to be wrought It is also excellent for Beams and other Timber-work in Houses being both light and exceedingly strong and therefore of very good use for Barrs and bolts of Doors as well as for Doors themselves by reason of a natural Spring which it has not easily violated You shall find that of old they made Carts and Coaches of it For Scaffolding also there is none comparable to it and I am sure we find it an extraordinary saver of Oak where it may be had at reasonable price I will not complain what an incredible mass of ready Money is yearly exported into the Northern Countreys for this sole Commodity which might all be saved were we industrious at home Likewise from Fir we have the most of our Pot-Ashes Of Fir are made our Torch or Funebral-staves nay and of old Spears of it if we may credit Virgil's Amazonian Combate She prest A long Fir Spear through his exposed Breast Cujus apertum Adversi longâ transverberat abiete pectus Aen. 11. Lastly the very Chips or Shavings of Deal-boards are of other use than to kindle Fires alone Thomas Bartholinus in his Medicina Danorum Dissert 7. c. where he disclaims the use of Hops in Beer as pernicious and malignant and from several instances how apt it is to produce and usher in Infections nay Plagues c. would substitute in its place the Shavings of Deal-boards as he affirms to give a grateful
odor to the Drink and how soverain those resinous woods the Tops of Fir and Pines are against the Scorbut we generally find It is in the same Chapter that he commends also Wormwood Marrubium Chamelaeagnum Sage Tamarisc and almost any thing rather than Hopps The Pine or Picea buried in the Earth never decay From the latter transudes a very bright and pellucid Gum hence we have likewise Rosin also of the Pine are made Boxes and Barrels for dry Goods yea and it is cloven into Shingles for the covering of Houses in some places also Hoops for Wine-Vessels especially of the easily flexible Wild-Pine not to forget the Kernels this Tree being alwayes furnish'd with Cones some ripe others green of such admirable use in Emulsion and the Tooth-pickers for which even the very leaves are commended In sum they are Plantations which exceedingly improve the Air by their oderiferous and balsamical emissions and for ornament create a perpetual Spring where they are plentifully propagated And if it could be proved that the Almugim-trees Recorded 1 Reg. 10.12 and whereof Pillars for that famous Temple and the Royal Palace Harps and Psalteries c. were made were of this sort of Wood as some doubt not to assert we should esteem it at another rate yet we know Josephus affirms they were a kind of Pine-tree though somewhat resembling the Fig-tree wood to appearance as of a most lustrious Candor In the 2 Chron. 2.8 there is mention of Almug-trees to grow in Lebanon and if so methinks it should rather be a kind of Cedar yet we find Firr also in the same period for we have seen a whiter sort of it even very white as well as red though some affirm it to be but the Sap of it so our Cabinet-makers call it I say their were both Fir and Pine-trees also growing upon those Mountains Mr. Purchas informs us that Dr. Dee Writ a laborious Treatise almost wholly of this Subject but I could never have the good hap to see it wherein as Commissioner for Solomon's Timber and like a Learned Architect and Planter he has summon'd a Jury of twelve sorts of Trees namely 1. the Fir 2. Box 3. Cedar 4. Cypresse 5. Ebony 6. Ash 7. Juniper 8. Larch 9. Olive 10. Pine 11. Oke and 12. Sandal-trees to examine which of them were this Almugim and at last seems to concur with Josephus in favour of Pine or Fir who possibly from some antient Record or fragment of the Wood it self might learn something of it and 't is believ'd that it was some material both odoriferous to the Sent and beautiful to the Eye and of fittest temper to refract Sounds besides its serviceablenesse for Building all which Properties are in the best sort of Pine or Thyina as Pliny calls it or perhaps some other rare Wood of which the Eastern Indias are doubtlesse the best provided and yet I find that these vast beams which sustain'd the Roof of S. Peter's Church at Rome laid as reported by Constantine the Great were made of the Pitch tree and have lasted from Anno 336. down to our dayes above 1300. years 16. But now whiles I am reciting the Vses of these beneficial Trees Mr. Winthorp presents the Royal Society with the Process of making the Tar and Pitch in New-England which we thus abbreviate Tar is made out of that sort of Pine-tree from which natually Turpentine extilleth and which at its first flowing out is liquid and clear but being hardned by the Air either on the Tree or where-ever it falls is not much unlike the Burgundy Pitch and we call them Pitch pines out of which this gummy substance transudes They grow upon the most barren Plains on Rocks also and Hills rising amongst those Plains where several are found blown dovvn that have lain so many Ages as that the vvhole Bodies Branches and Roots of the Trees being perished some certain knots onely of the Boughs have been left remaining intire these knots are that part vvhere the bough is joyn'd to the body of the Tree lying at the same distance and posture as they grevv upon the Tree for its vvhole length The Bodies of some of these Trees are not corrupted through age but quite consum'd and reduc'd to ashes by the annual burnings of the Indians when they set their grounds on fire which yet has it seems no power over these hard knots beyond a black scorching although being laid on heaps they are apt enough to burn It is of these knots they make their Tar in New-England and the Countrey adjacent whiles they are well impregnated with that Terebinthine and Resinous â—atter which like a Balsam preserves them so long from putrifaction The rest of the Tree does indeed contain the like Terebinthine Sap as appears upon any slight incision of bark on the stem or boughs by a small crystaline pearl which will sweat out but this for being more watery and undigested by reason of the porosity of the Wood which exposes it to the impressions of the Air and Wet renders the Tree more obnoxious especially if it lye prostrate with the bark on which is a receptacle for a certain Intercutaneous Worm that accelerates its decay They are the knots then alone which the Tar-makers amass in heaps carrying them in Carts to some convenient place not far off where finding Clay or Loam fit for their turn they lay an Hearth of such ordinary stone as they have at hand This they build to such an height from the level of the ground that a Vessel may stand a little lower then the Hearth to receive the Tar as it runs out But first the Hearth is made wide according to the quantity of knots to be set at once and that with a very smooth floor of Clay yet somewhat descending or dripping from the extream parts to the middle and thence towards one of the sides where a gullet is left for the Tar to run out at The Hearth thus finish'd they pile the knots one upon another after the very same manner as our Colliers do their wood for Char-coal and of a height proportionable to the breadth of the Hearth and then cover them over with a coat of loam or clay which is best or in defect of those with the best and most tenacious Earth the place will afford leaving onely a small spiracle at the top whereat to put the fire in and making some little holes round about at several heights for the admission of so much air as is requisite to keep it burning and to regulate the fire by opening and stopping them at pleasure The processe is almost the the same with that of making Charâ—coal as will appear in due place for when it is well on fire that middle hole is also stopp'd and the rest of the Registers so govern'd as the knots may keep burning and not be suffocated with too much smoak whiles all being now through heated the Tar runs down to the Hearth together with some of the
it then of any other Tree Notwithstanding we have in this Countrey of ours no less then three sorts which are all of them easily propagated and prosper very well if they are rightly ordered and therefore I shall not omit to disclose one secret as well to confute a popular Errour as for the Instruction of our Gard'ners 6. The Tradition is That the Cypress being a Symbol of Mortality they should say of the contrary is never to be cut for fear of killing it This makes them to impale and wind them about like so many Aegyptian Mummies by which means the inward parts of the Tree being heated for want of Air and Refreshment it never arrives to any perfection but is exceedingly troublesome and chargeable to maintain whereas indeed there is not a more tonsile and governable Plant in nature For the Cypress may be cut to the very Roots and yet spring afresh And this we find was the husbandry in the Isle of Aenaria where they us'd to fell it for Copse For the Cypress being rais'd from the Nursery of Seeds sown in September or rather March and within two years after transplanted should at two years standing more have the master stem of the middle shaft cut off some hand-breadth below the summit the sides and smaller sprigs shorn into a conique or pyramidal form and so kept clipp'd from April to September as oft as there is occasion and by this Regiment they will grow furnish'd to the foot and become the most beautiful Trees in the world without binding or stake still remembring to abate the middle stem and to bring up the collateral branches in its stead to what altitude you please but when I speak of shortning the middle shoot I do not intend the dwarfing of it and therefore it must be done discreetly so as it may not over-hastily advance till the foot thereof be perfectly furnished But there is likewise another no lesse commendable expedient to dresse this Tree with all the former advantages if sparing the shaft altogether you diligently cut away all the forked branches reserving onely such as radiate directly from the body which being shorn and clipt in due season will render the Tree very beautiful and though more subject to obey the shaking winds yet the natural spring of it does immediately redress it without the least discomposure and this is a secret worth the learning of Gard'ners who subject themselves to the trouble of stakes and binding which is very inconvenient Thus likewise may you form them into Hedges and Topiary works or by sowing the Seeds in a shallow furrow and plucking up the Supernumeraries where they come too close and thick For in this work it shall suffice to leave them within a foot of each other and when they are risen about a yard in height which may be to the half of your Palisado cut off their tops as you are taught and keep the sides clippâ—d that they ascend but by degrees and thicken at the bottom as they climbe Thus they will present you in half a dozen or eight years with incomparable hedges preferable to all others whatsoever because they are perpetually green and able to resist the Winds better then any which I know the Holly only excepted which indeed has no peer 7. When I say Winds I mean their fiercest gusts not their cold For though it be said Brumáque illaesa Cupressus and that indeed no frost impeaches them for they grow even on the snowy tops of Ida yet our cruel Eastern winds do sometimes mortally invade them which have been late clipp'd seldom the untouch'd or that were dressed in the Spring only The effects of the late March and April Winds in the years 1663. and 1665. accompanied with cruel Frosts and cold blasts for the space of more then two months night and day did not amongst neer a thousand Cypresses growing in my Garden kill above three or four which for being very late cut to the quick that is the latter end of October were raw of their wounds took cold and gangreen'd some few others which were a little smitten towards the tops might have escaped all their blemishes had my Gard'ner capp'd them but with a wisp of hay or straw as in my absence I commanded As for the frost of those Winters then which I believe there was never known a more cruel and deadly piercing since England had a name it did not touch a Cypress of mine till it joyn'd forces with that destructive Wind Therefore for caution clip not your Cypresses late in Autumn and cloath them if young against these winds for the frosts they only discolour them but seldom or never hurt them as by long experience I have found 8. If you affect to see your Cypress in Standard and grow wild which may in time come to be of a large substance fit for the most immortal of Timber plant of the reputed Male sort it is a Tree which will prosper wonderfully and where the ground is hot and gravelly though as we say'd he be nothing so beautiful and it is of this that the Venetians make their greatest profit 9. There is likewise the Tarentine Cypress so much celebrated by Cato I do not mean our Savine which some erroneously take for it though there be a Berry-bearing Savine much resembling the Cypress which comes to prove a gallant upright Tree fit for the Standard Both that and the Milesian are worthy our culture 10. I have already shew'd how this Tree is to be rais'd from the seed but there was another Method amongst the Ancients who as I told you were wont to make great Plantations of them for their Timber I have practis'd it my self and therefore describe it 11. If you receive your seed in the Nuts which uses to be gather'd thrise a year but seldom ripening with us expose them to the Sun till they gape or neer a gentle fire or put them in warme water by which means the seeds will be easily shaken out for if you have them open before they do not yield you half their crop About the beginning of April or before if the weather be showery prepare an even Bed which being made of fine earth clap down with your Spade as Gard'ners do for Purselain-seed of old they roll'd it with some Stone or Cylinder Upon this strew your seeds pretty thick then sieft over them some more mould somewhat better than half an inch in height keep them duly watered after Sun-set unless the season do it for you and after one years growth for they will be an inch high in little more than a Moneth you may transplant them where you please In watering them I give you this caution which may also serve you for most tender and delicate seeds that you deaw them rather with a broom or spergatory then hazard the beating them out with the common watering-pot and when they are well come up be but sparing of water Be sure likewise that you clense
by nature almost eternal 15. Thus I read that in the Temple of Apollo at Vtica there was found Timber of near two thousand years old and in Sagunti of Spain a Beam in a certain Oratory consecrated to Diana which had been brought from Zant two hundred years before the Destruction of Troy 16. And here I cannot omit my Wishes that since this precious material may be had at such tollerable rates as certainly it might from Cape Florida the Bermudas and other parts of the West Indias I say I cannot but suggest that our more Wealthy Citizens of London now Building might be encourag'd to use of it in their Shops at least for Shelves Comptoires Chests Tables Wainscot c. It might be done with moderate Expense especially in some small proportions and in Faneering as they term it and mouldings since beside the everlastingnesse of the wood not obnoxious to the Worms and which would also be a means to preserve cloth and other Ware from Moths and corruption it would likewise be a Cure to reform the Malignity and corrosivenesse of the Air and even preserve the whole City as if it stood amongst the Spices of the happy Arabia or the prospects of Mount Libanus Note that the Cedar is of so dry a nature that it will not well endure to be fastned with Nails from which it usually shrinks and therefore pinns of the same wood are better 17. The Sittim mention'd in holy Writ is believ'd to have been a kind of Cedar of which the most precious Vtensils were formed so that when they said a thing was cedro digna the meaning was worthy of eternity CHAP. XXV Of the Cork Ilex Alaternus Phyllyrea Granad Lentisc Myrtle Jasmine c. 1. THe Cork Suber of which there are two sorts and divers more in the Indias one of a narrower lesse jagged leaf and perenneal the other of a broader falling in Winter grows in the coldest parts of Biscany in the North of New-England in the South-West of France especially the second Species fittest for our Climate and in all sorts of ground dry Heaths Stony and Rockie-Mountains so as the Roots will run even above the Earth where they have little to cover them all which considered methinks we should not despair We have said where they grow plentifully in France but by Pliny Nat. Hist l. 16. c. 8. it should seem they were since transplanted thither for he affirms there were none either there or in Italy in his time But I exceedingly wonder that Carolus Stephanus and Crusius should write so peremptorily that there were none in Italy where I my self have travell'd through vast Woods of them about Pisa Aquin and in divers tracts between Rome and the Kingdom of Naples The Spanish Cork is a species of the Enzina differing chiefly in the Leaf which is not so prickly and in the bark which is frequently four or five inches thick The manner of decortication whereof is once in two or three years to strip it in a dry season otherwise the intercutaneous moisture indangers the Tree when the bark is off they unwarp it before the fire and presse it even and that with weights upon the convex part and so it continues being cold 2. The uses of Cork is well known amongst us both at Sea and Land for its resisting both Water and Air The Fisher-men who deal in Nets and all who deal with Liquors cannot be without it Antient Persons prefer it before Leather for the soles of their Shooes being light dry and resisting moisture whence the Germans name it Pantoffel-holts Slipper-wood perhaps from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for I find it first applied to that purpose by the Grecian Ladies whence they were call'd light-footed I know not whether the Epithite do still belong to that Sex but from them its likely the Venetian Dames took it up for their monstrous Choppines affecting or usurping an artificial eminency above Men which Nature has denied them Of one of the sorts of Cork are made pretty Cups and other Vessels esteem'd good to drink out of for Hectical persons The Aegyptians made their Coffins of it which being lin'd with a râ—sinous composition preserv'd their Dead incorrupt The poor People in Spain lay broad Planks of it by their Beds-side to tread on as great Persons use Turkie and Persian Carpets to defend them from the floor and sometimes they line or Wainscot the Walls and inside of their Houses built of Stone with this Bark which renders them very warm and corrects the moisture of the Air Also they employ it for Bee-Hives and to double the insides of their Contemplores and leather Cases wherein they put Flasquera's with Snow to refrigerate their Wine This Tree has beneath the Cortex or Cork two other Coats or Libri of which one is reddish which they strip from the bole when 't is fell'd onely and this bears good price with the Tanner The rest of the wood is very good firing and applicable to many other uses of Building Palisade work c. 3. Ilex major glandifera or great Scarlet Oak thrives manifestly with us witnesse His Majesties Privy Garden at White-Hall where once flourish'd a goodly Tree of more than fourscore years growth though there be now but a sickly Impe of it remaining 4. By what I have touch'd in the Chapter of the Elms concerning the peregrination of that Tree into Spain where even in Plinie's time there were none and where now they are in great abundance why should we not more generally endeavour to propagate the Ilex amongst us I mean that Baccifera which the Spaniards call the Enzina and of which they have such Woods and profitable Plantations They are an hardy sort of Tree and familiarly rais'd from the Acorn if we could have them sound and well put up in Earth or Sand as I have found by experience 5. The wood of these Ilex's is serviceable for many uses as stocks of Tools Mallet-heads Mall-balls Chairs Axeltrees Wedges Beetles Pins and above all for Palisadoes us'd in Fortifications Besides it affords so good fuel that it supplies all Spain almost with the best and most lasting of Charcoales in vast abundance Of the first kind is made the Paynten Lac extracted from the berries to speak nothing of that noble Confection Alkermes The Acorns of the first yield excellent nourishment for Rustics sweet and little if at all inferiour to the Chesse-nut and this and not the Fagus was doubtlesse the true Esculas of the Antients the Food of the Golden Age. The wood of the Enzina when old is curiously chambletted and embroidered with Natural vermiculations as if it were painted 6. The Alaternus which we have lately receiv'd from the hottest parts of Languedoc and that is equal with the heat of almost any Countrey in Europe thrives with us in England as if it were an Indigene and Natural 7. I have had the honour to be the
first who brought it into Vse and reputation in this Kingdom for the most beautiful and useful of Hedges and Verdure in the vvorld the swiftnesse of the growth consider'd and propagated it from Cornwall even to Cumberland The seed grovvs ripe vvith us in August and the hony-breathing blossomes afford an early and mervellous relief to the Bees 8. All the Phillyrea's are yet more hardy vvhich makes me vvonder to find the Angustifolia planted in Cases and so charâ—ly set into the Stoves amongst the Oranges and Lemmons vvhen by long experience I have found it equal our Holly in suffering the extreamest rigours of our cruellest Frosts and Winds vvhich is doubtlesse of all our English Trees the most insensible and stout 9. They are both Alaternus and this raised of the Seeds though those of the Phillyrea vvill be long under ground and being transplanted for Espalier hedges or Standards are to be govern'd by the Shears as oft as there is occasion The Alaternus vvill be up in one Month after it is sovvn Plant it out at tvvo years grovvth and clip it after rain in the Spring before it grovvs sticky and vvhiles the shoots are tender thus vvill it form an hedge though planted but in single rows and at two foot distance of a yard in thicknesse twenty foot high if you desire it and furnish'd to the bottom But for an hedge of this altitude it would require the friendship of some Wall or a Frame of lusty Poles to secure against the Winds one of the most delicious objects in nature But if we could have store of the Phillyrea folio leviter serrato of which I have rais'd some very fine Plants from the Seeds we might fear no weather and the verdure is incomparable 10. The Culture of the Granade of which are three sorts does little differ from that of the Alaternus of which we might raise considerable Hedges on all our Southern Aspects They have supported that most unmerciful Winter in sixty three without any artifice and if they yield us their flowers for our pains of well pruning and Recision for they must diligently be purged of their wood it is a glorious recompence I plant them in my Hedge-rows even amongst the Quick but to have them thrive you must loosen the Earth at Roots and inrich it both Spring and Autumn leaving but a few woody branches There is no Tree so Adulterous as this Shrub and best by Layers Approach and Inarching as they call it and thence 't is said to marry with Lawrells Damson Ash Almond Mulberry Citron c. too many I fear to hold If you will plant them in Gardens to best advantage keep them to one Stem and inrich the mould with Hogs dung well consum'd which they greatly delight in 11. The vulgar Italian wild Myrtil though not indeed the most fragrant grows high and supports all weathers I know of one near fifty years old which has been continually expos'd unlesse it be that in some exceeding sharp Seasons a little dry straw has been thrown upon it and where they are smitten being cut down near the ground they put forth and recover again which many times they do not in Pots and Cases where the Roots are very obnoxious to perish with mouldiness The shelter of a few Mats and Straw secur'd very great Trees both leaf and colour in perfection this last Winter also which were planted abroad whiles those that were carried into the Conserve were most of them lost Myrtils may be rais'd of Seeds but with great caution and they seldom prove hardy nor is it worth the time being so abundantly encreased of Layers 12. Lentiscus the Lentisc a very beautiful ever-green will thrive abroad with us with a little care and shelter amongst other expos'd Shrubs and may be propagated of Suckers and Layers and the like may be done by the Olive though it bear no other Fruit than the perennial verdure of the leaves Of the Lentisc are made the best Tooth-pickers in the world and the Mastic or Gum is of excellent use especially for the Teeth and Gums 13. I might to these add Lignum vitae the Aethiopic Seseli Halimus Latifolius Laurus Tinus Celastâ—us c. fittest for the Shrubby part and under-furniture of our ever green Groves and near our Gardens of Pleasure But 14. I produce not these particulars and other amoena vireta already mention'd as signifying any thing to Timber the main design of this Treatise though I read of some Myrtils so tall as to make Spear shafts but to exemplifie in what may be farther added to Ornament and Pleasure by a cheap and most agreeable industry The Berries of Myrtil were us'd of old in stead of Peper 15. The common white and yellow Jasmine would flower plentifully in our Woods and as hardy as any of the Periclimena How it is propagated by submersion or layers every Gard'ner skills and if it were as much imploy'd for Nose gays c. with us as it is in France and Italy they might make money enough of the Flowers One sorry Tree in Paris where they abound has been worth to a poor Woman near twenty shillings in a year CHAP. XXVI Of the Acacia Arbutus Bays Box Yew Holly Juniper and Laurel-trees 1. THe French have lately brought in the Virginian Acacia which exceedingly adorns their Walks The Tree is hardy against all the invasions of our sharpest seasons but our high Winds which by reason of its brittle nature it does not so well resist and the Roots which insinuate and run like liquorize under ground are apt to emaciate the Soil and therefore haply not so commendable in our Gardens as they would be agreeable for variety of Walks and shade They thrive well in his Majesties new Plantation in St. James's Park 2. But why do we thus neglect the Arbutus and make that such a rarity which grows so common and so naturally in Ireland It is indeed with some difficulty rais'd from the Seeds but it may be propagated from the Layers grows to a goodly Tree is patient of our severest Weather and may be contriv'd into most beautiful Hedges Virgil reports it will inoculate with the Nut and I find Bauhinus commends the Coals for Gold-smiths works and the Poet Arbutean Harrows and the mystic Van. Arbuteae crates mystica Vannus Jacchi Georg. 1. 3. Bays are encreas'd both of their Suckers and Seeds which should be dropping-ripe ere gather'd Pliny has a particular process for the ordering of the Seeds and it is not to be rejected Which is the gathering the Berries in January and spreading them till their sweat be over then he puts them in dung and sows them As for the steeping in Wine Water does altogether as well others wash the seeds from their mucilage by breaking and bruising the glutinous berries then sow them in March by scores in a heap and indeed so they will come up in clusters but nothing
so well nor fit for transplantation as where they are interr'd with a competent scattering so as you would furrow Pease Both this way and by setting them apart which I most commend I have rais'd multitudes and that in the Berries without any farther preparation onely for the first two years they would be defended from the piercing winds which frequently destroy them and yet the scorching of their tender leaves ought not make you despair for many of them will recover beyond expectation 4. This aromatic Tree greatly loves the Shade yet thrives best in our hottest gravel having once pass'd those first difficulties Age and Culture about the Roots wonderfully augment its growth so as I have seen Trees near thirty foot high of them and almost two foot diameter They are fit also both for Arbour and Palisade-work so the Gard'ner understand when to prune and keep it from growing two woody 5. The Box which we begin to proscribe our Gardens and indeed Bees are no friend to it should not yet be banish'd from our care because the excellency of the wood does commute for the unagreeablenesse of its smell therefore let us furnish our cold and barren Hills and declivities with this useful Shrub I mean the taller sort for I meddle not here with the dwarf and more tonsile It will increase abundantly of slips set in March 6. The Turner Ingraver Carver Mathematical-Instrument Comb and Pipe-makers Si buxos inflare juvat Virg. give great prizes for it by weight as well as measure and by the seasoning and divers manner of cutting vigorous insolations politure and grinding the Roots of this Tree as of even our common and neglected Thorne do furnish the Inlayer and Cabinet-makers with pieces rarely undulated and full of variety Also of Box are made Wheels or Shivers as our Ship-Carpenters call them and Pinns for Blocks and Pullies Pegs for Musical Instruments Nut-crackers VVeavers Shuttles Hollar-sticks Bump-sticks and Dressers for the Shooe-maker Rulers Rolling-pins Pestles Mall-balls Beetles Topps Tables Chess-men Skrews male and female Bobins for Bone-lace Spoons nay the stoutest Axle-trees but above all Box-Combs bear no small part In the Militia of the Female Art They tye the Links which hold our Gallants fast And spread the Nets to which fond Lovers hast Non ultima belli Arma Puellaris Laquâ—os haec nectit Amantûm Et venatricis disponit retia Formae Couleii Pl. l. 6 7. The Chymical oyl of this wood has done the feats of the best Guajacum though in greater quantity for the Cure of Venereal Diseases as one of the most expert Physicians in Europe has confess'd 8. Since the use of Bows is laid aside amongst us the propagation of the Eugh-tree of which we have two sorts and other places reckon more as the Arcadian black and red the yellow of Ida infinitely esteem'd of old is likewise quite forborn but the neglect of it is to be deplor'd seeing that besides the rarity of it in Italy and France where but little of it grows the barrenest grounds and coldest of our Mountains for Aquilonem frigora taxi might be profitably replenish'd with them I say profitably for besides the use of the wood for Bows Ityraeos taxi torquentur in arcus for which the close and more deeply dy'd is best The foremention'd Artists in Box most gladly imploy it And for the Cogs of Mills Posts to be set in moist grounds and everlasting Axle-trees there is none to be compar'd with it likewise for the bodies of Lutes Theorbas Bowles VVheels and Pinns for Pullys yea and for Tankards to drink out of whatever Pliny report concerning its Shade and the stories of the Air about Thasus the Fate of Cativulcus mention'd by Caesar and the ill report which the Fruit has vulgarly obtain'd in France Spain and Arcadia But How are poor Trees abus'd Quà m multa Arborihus tribuuntur crimina falsa 9. The Toxic quality was certainly in the Liquor which those good Fellows tippl'd out of those Bottles not in the nature of the wood which yet he affirms is cur'd of that Venenous quality by driving a brazen-wedge into the Body of it This I have never tri'd but that of the Shade and Fruit I have frequently without any deadly or noxious effects so that I am of opinion that Tree which Sestius calls Smilax and our Historian thinks to be our Eugh was some other wood and yet I acknowledge that it is esteem'd noxious to Cattel when 't is in the Seeds or newly sprouting 10. This Tree is easily produc'd of the Seeds wash'd and cleans'd from their mucilage and buried in the ground like Haws It will commonly be the second VVinter ere they peep and then they rise with their caps on their heads Being three years old you may transplant them and form them into Standards Knobs VValks Hedges c. in all which works they succeed marvellous well and are worth our patience for their perennial verdure and durablenesse 11. He that in winter should behold some of our highest Hills in Surrey clad with whole Woods of these two last sort of Trees for divers Miles in circuit as in those delicious Groves of them belonging to the Honourable my noble Friend Sir Adam Brown of Bech-worth-Castle from Box-hill and neer our famous Mole or Swallow might without the least violence to his Imagination easily phansie himself transported into some new or enchanted Country for if any spot of England 'T is here Eternall Spring and Summer all the year Hîc ver perpetuum atque alienis mensibus aestas 12. But above all the natural Greens which inrich our home-born store there is none certainly to be compar'd to the Agrifolium or Acuifolium rather our Holly insomuch as I have often wonder'd at our curiosity after forreign Plants and expensive difficulties to the neglect of the culture of this vulgar but incomparable tree whether we will propagate it for Vse and Defence or for sight and Ornament A Hedge of Holly Thieves that would invade Repulses like a growing Palizade Whose numerous leaves such Orient Greens invest As in deep Winter do the Spring a rest Mala furta hominum densis mucronibus axcens Securum defendit in expugnabilis Hortûm Exornátque simul toto spectabilis anno Et numero viridifoliorum luce nitentum Couleii Pl. l. 6. 13. Is there under Heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the kind than an impregnable Hedge of one hundred and sixty foot in length seven foot high and five in diameter which I can shew in my poor Gardens at any time of the year glitt'ring with its arm'd and vernish'd leaves the taller Standards at orderly distances blushing with their natural Coral It mocks at the rudest assaults of the Weather Beasts or Hedge-breakers Et illum nemo impunè lacessit It is with us of two eminent kinds the prickly and smoother leav'd or as some term it the Free-holly not unwelcome when tender to Sheep and other Cattel
Scaliger his Antagonist speaks of ad Gambrae fluvium Mathiolus speaks of a Tree growing in the Island of Cyprus which contain'd 130 foot high sound Timber And upon Mount Aetna in Sicily is a place call'd by them the Ire Castayne from three Chesnut-Trees there standing where in the cavity of one yet remaining a considerable Flock of Sheep is commonly folded Kerchers words are these as seen by himself Et quod forsan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videri possit ostendit mihi viae dux unius Castaneae Corticem tantae amplitudinis ut inta eam integer pecorum grex à pastoribus tanquam in Caula commodissima noctu includeretur China Illust p. 185. And what may we conceive of those Trees in the Indias one of whose Nuts hardly one man is able to carry and which are so vast as they depend not like other Fruit by a Stalke from the boughs but are produc'd out of the very body and stem of the Tree and are sufficient to feed twenty persons at a meale We read of a certain Fig in the Caribby Islands which emits such large buttresses that great Planks for Tables and Flooring are cleft out of them without the least prejudice to the Tree and that one of these do easily shelter 200 men under them Strabo I remember Geog. l. 15. talkes of fifty Horsmen under a Tree in India his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of another that shaded five stadia at once and in another place of a Pine about Ida which held 24 foot diameter and of a monstrous height But this and all we have hitherto produc'd is nothing to what I find mention'd in the late Chineze History as 't is set forth upon occasion of the Dutch Embassy where they tell us of a certain Tree call'd Ciennich or the Tree of a thousand years in the Province of Suchu neer the City Kien which is so prodigiously large as to shrow'd 200 Sheep under one onely branch of it without being so much as perceiv'd by those who approch it And to conclude with yet a greater wonder of another in the Province of Chekiang whose amplitude is so stupendiously vast as fourescore persons can hardly embrace not to omit the strange and incredible bulk of some Oaks standing lately in Westphalia whereof one serv'd both for a Castle and Fort and another there which contain'd in height 130 foot and as some report 30 foot diameter I have read of a Table of Walnut-tree to be seen at Saint Nicholas's in Lorraine which held 25 foot broad all of a piece and of competent length and thicknesse rarely flek'd and watered Scamozzi the Architect reports he saw it Such a monster that might be under which the Emperor Fred. the third held his magnificent Feast 1472. For in this resention we will endeavour to give a taste of more fresh observations and to compare our modern Timber with the Ancient and that not only abroad but without travelling into forreign Countries for these wonders 8. What goodly Trees were of old ador'd and consecrated by the Dryads I leave to conjecture from the stories of our ancient Britains who had they left Records of their prodigies in this kind would doubtlesse have furnish'd us with examples as remarkable for the growth and stature of Trees as any which we have deduc'd from the Writers of forreign places since the remains of what are yet in being notwithstanding the havock which has universally been made and the little care to improve our woods may stand in fair competition with any thing that Antiquity can produce 9. There is somewhere in Wales an Inscription extant cut into the wood of an old Beam thus SEXAGINTA PEDES FVERANT IN STIPITE NOSTRO EXCEPTA COMA QVAE SPECIOSA FVIT This must needs have been a noble Tree but not without later parallels for to instance in the several species and speak first of the bulks of some immense Trees there was standing an old and decay'd Chessnut at Fraiting in Essex whose very stump did yield thirty sizable load of Logs I could produce you another of the same kind in Glocestershire which contains within the bowels of it a pretty wain-scotted Room inlighten'd with windows and furnish'd with seats c. to answer the Lician Platanus lately mention'd 10. But whilest I am on this period see what a Tilia that most learn'd and obliging person D. Brown of Norwich describes to me in a Letter just now receiv'd An extraordinary large and stately Tilia Linden or Lime-tree there groweth at Depeham in Norfolk ten miles from Norwich whose measure is this The compass in the least part of the Trunk or body about two yards from the ground is at least eight yards and half about the root nigh the earth sixteen yards about half a yard above that neer twelve yards in circuit The height to the uppermost boughs about thirty yards which surmounts the famous Tilia of Zurich in Switzerland and uncertain it is whether in any Tilicetum or Lime-walk abroad it be considerably exceeded Yet was the first motive I had to view it not so much the largenesse of the Tree as the general opinion that no man could ever name it but I found it to be a Tilia faemina and if the distinction of Bauhinus be admitted from the greater and lesser leaf a Tilia Platyphyllos or Latifolia some leaves being three inches broad but to distinguish it from others in the Country I call'd it Tilia Colossaea Depehamensis Thus the Doctor A Poplar-tree not much inferior to this he informs me grew lately at Harlingly Thetford at Sir William Gawdies gate blown down by that terrible Hurrocan about four years since 11. I am told of a very Withy-tree to be seen somewhere in Barkshire which is increased to a most stupendious bulk But these for arriving hastily to their Acme and period and generally not so considerable for their use I pass to the Ash Elm Oak c. There were of the first of these divers which measur'd in length one hundred and thirty two foot sold lately in Essex and in the Manor of Horton to go no farther than the Parish of Ebsham in Surrey belonging to my Brother Richard Evelyn Esq there are Elms now standing in good numbers which will bear almost three foot square for more then forty foot in height which is in my judgement a very extraordinary matter They grow in a moist Gravel and in the Hedge-rows Not to insist upon Beech which are frequently very large there are Oaks of forty foot high and five foot diameter yet flourishing in divers old Parks of our Nobility and Gentry A large and goodly Oak there is at Reedham in Sir Richard Berneys Park of Norfolk which I am inform'd was valu'd at forty pounds the Timber and twelve pounds the lopping wood 12. Nor are we to over-pass those memorable Trees which so lately flourished in Dennington Park neer Newberry amongst which three were most remarkable from the ingenious
cleave as what is hewen nor that which is squar'd as what is round and therefore where use is to be made of huge and massie Columns let them be boared through from end to end it is an excellent preservative from splitting and not un-philosophical though to cure this accident the rubbing them over with a wax-cloth is good Painters Putty c. or before it be converted the smearing the timber over with Cow-dung which prevents the effects both of Sun and Air upon it if of necessity it must lye expos'd But besides the former remedies I find this for the closing of the chops and clefts of Green-timber to anoint and supple it with the fat of powder'd beef-broth with which it must be well soak'd the chasm's fill'd with spunges dipt into it this to be twice done over Some Carpenters make use of grease and saw-dust mingled but the first is so good a way sayes my Authour that I have seen Wind-shock-timber so exquisitely closed as not to be discerned where the defects were This must be us'd when the timber is green 6. We spake before of Squaring and I would now recommend the Quartering of such trees as will allow useful and competent Scantlings to be of much more durablenesse and effect for strength than where as custome is and for want of observation whole Beams and Timbers are apply'd in Ships or Houses with slab and all about them upon false suppositions of strength beyond these Quarters For there is in all trees an evident Interstice or separation between the heart and the rest of the body which renders it much more obnoxious to decay and miscarry than when they are treated and converted as I have describ'd it and it would likewise save a world of Materials in the Building of great Ships where so much excellent timber is hew'd away to spoyl were it more in practise Finally 7. I must not omit to take notice of the coating of timber in Work us'd by the Hollanders for the preservation of their Gates Port-cullis's Draw-bridges Sluces and other huge beams and Contignations of timber expos'd to the Sun and perpetual injuries of the Weather by a certain mixture of Pitch and Tar upon which they strew small pieces of Cockle and other shells beaten almost to powder and mingled with Sea-sand or the Scales of Iron beaten small and siefted which incrusts and arms it after an incredible manner against all these assaults and foreign invaders But if this should be deem'd more obnoxious to Fireing I have heard that a Wash made of Alume has wonderfully protected it against the assaults even of that devouring Element and that so a wooden Tower or Fort at the Piraeum an Athenian Port was defended by Archelaus a Commander of Mithridates from the great Sylla 8. Timbers that you have occasion to lay in Morter or which is in any part contiguous to Lime as Doors Window-Cases Ground-sils and the extremities of Beams c. should be cap'd with molten Pitch which will be a marvellous preserver of it from the burning and destructive effects of the Lime and in defect of Pitch Loam or Clay will prove a tollerable defence 9. For all uses that Timber is esteem'd the best which is the most pondrous and which lying long makes deepest impression in the Earth or in the Water being floated also what is without knots yet firm and free from sap which is that fatty whiter and softer part call'd by the Antients Alburnum which you are diligently to hew away here we have much adoe about the Porulus of the Fir and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by both Vitruvius and Theophrastus which I passe over You shall perceive some which has a spiral convolution of the veins but it is a vice proceeding from the severity of unseasonable Winters and defect of good nutriment 10. My Lord Bacon Exp. 658. recommends for tryal of a sound or knotty piece of Timber to cause one to speak at one of the Extreams to his Companion listning at the other for if it be knotty the sound sayes he will come abrupt 11. Moreover it is expedient that you know which is the Grain and which are the Veins in Timber whence the term fluviari arborem because of the difficulty of working against it Those therefore be the veins which grow largest and are softer for the benefit of Cleaving and Hewing that the Grain or Pectines which runs in waves and makes the divers and beautiful chamfers which some woods abound in to admiration The Grain of Beech runs two contrary wayes and is therefore to be wrought accordingly 12. Here it may be fitly enquir'd whether of all the sorts we have enumerated the old or the younger Trees do yield the fairest Colour pleasant Grain and Glosse for Wainscot Cabinets Boxes Gun-stocks c. and what kind of Pear and Plum-tree give the deepest Red and approaches nearest in beauty to Brasil 'T is affirm'd the Old-Oake Old Walnut and young-Ash are best for most uses black and thorny Plum-tree is of the deepest Oriency but whether these belong to the Forest I am not yet satisfied and therefore have assigned them no Chapter apart 13. I would also add something concerning what VVoods are observed to be most sonorous for Musical Instruments We as yet detect few but the German Fir which is a species of Maple for the Rimms of Viols and the choicest and finest grain'd Fir for the Bellyes The finger-boards Back and Ribbs I have seen of Eugh Pear-tree c. But Pipes Recorders and wind-Instruments are made both of hard and soft woods I had lately an Organ with a set of Oaken-pipes which were the most sweet and mellow that were ever heard It was a very old Instrument and formerly I think belonging to the Duke of Norfolk 14. For the place of growth that Timber is esteem'd best which grows most in the Sun and on a dry and hale ground for those trees which suck and drink little are most hard robust and longest liv'd instances of Sobriety The Climate contributes much to its quality and the Northern situation is preferred to the rest of the quarters so as that which grew in Tuscany was of old thought better than that of the Venetian side and trees of the wilder kind and barren than the over much cultivated and great bearers but of this already 15. To omit nothing Authours have sum'd up the natures of timber as the hardest Ebeny Box Larch Lotus Terebinth Cornus Eugh c. which are best to receive politure and for this Lin-seed or the sweeter Nut oyl does the effect best Pliny gives us the Receipt with a decoction of VValnut-shales and certain wild pears Next to these Oak for Ships and Houses or more minutely the Oak for the Keel the Robur for the Prow VValnut the Stern Elm the Pump Furnerus l. 1. c. 22. conceives the Ark to have been built of several woods Cornel Holly c. for Pins Wedges c. Chessnut Horn-beam Poplar c.
any usual Building these are the legal Proportions and which Builders ought not to vary from Summers or Girders from F. 14 18 20 23 26 to F. 16 20 23 26 28 In length must be in their Square In. 11 13 14 16 17 In. 8 9 10 12 14 Joysts of Feet 11½ 10½ In length must be in their Square Inch 8 7 6 Inch 3 3 3 Binding Joysts Trimming from F. 7 to F. 11½ In length must be in their Square 6 7 8 5 5 5 Wall-plates and Beams of any length from 15 foot may have in their square Inch 7 10 8 Inch 5 6 6 Purlynes from F. 15 18½ to F. 18½ 21½ In length must have in their square 9 12 8 9 Principal Rafters cut Taper from F. 12½ 14½ 18½ 21½ 24½ to F. 14½ 18½ 21½ 24½ 26½ In length must have in their square on one side In. 8 9 10 12 9 to In. 5 7 8 9 9 on the other side 6 7 8 9 single Rafters in length from 6½ to 9½ F. 6½ 0 9½ must have in their squ 5-3½ 5 4 Principal Dischargers of any length from Foot 10 upward must have in their square Inch 13 16 Inch 12 13 But Carpenters also work by Square which is 10 foot in Framing and Erecting the Carcase as they call it of any Timber Edifice which is valued according to the goodnesse and choyce of the Materials and curiosity in Framing especially Roofs and Stayre-cases which are of most charges And here might also something be added concerning the manner of framing the Carcases of Buildings as of Floors pitch of Roofs the length of Hips and Sleepers together with the names of all those several Timbers used in Fabrics totally consisting of Wood but I find it done to my hand and Publish'd some years since at the end of a late Translation of the first Book of Palladio to which I refer the Reader And to accomplish our Artist in Timber with the utmost which that material is capable of to the Study and Contemplation of that stupendious Roof which now lies over the ever renowned Sheldonean Theater at the Vniversity of Oxford being the sole Work and Contrivement of that my most Honoured Friend Dr. Chr. Wren now worthily dignified with the Superintendency of his Majesties Buildings 20. We did in Chap. 21. mention certain Subterranean Trees which Mr. Cambden supposes grew altogether under the ground And truly it did appear a very Paradox to me till I both saw and diligently examin'd that piece Plank Stone or both shall I name it of Lignum fossile taken out of a certain Quarry thereof at Aqua Sparta not far from Rome and sent to the most incomparably learned Sir George Ent by that obliging Virtuoso Cavalier dal Pozzo He that shall examine the hardnesse and feel the ponderousnesse of it sinking in water c. will easily take it for a stone but he that shall behold its grain so exquisitely undulated and varied together with its colour manner of hewing chips and other most perfect resemblances will never scruple to pronounce it arrant wood Signor Stelluti an Italian has publish'd a whole Treatise expresly to describe this great Curiosity And there has been brought to our notice a certain relation of an Elm growing in Bark-shire neer Farringdon which being cut towards the Root was there plainly Petrified the like as I once my self remember to have seen in another Tree which grew quite through a Rock near the Sepulchre of Agrippina the Mother of that Monster Nero at the Baia by Naples which appear'd to be all Stone and trickling down in drops of Water if I forget not But whiles others have Philosophiz'd according to their manner upon these extraordinary Concretions see what the most industrious and knowing Mr. Hook Curator of this Royal Society has with no lesse Reason but more succinctnesse observ'd from a late Microscopical Examen of another piece of petrifid wood the Description and Ingenuity whereof cannot but gratifie the Curious who will by this Instance not onely be instructed how to make Inquiries upon the like occasions but see also with what accuratenesse the Society constantly proceeds in all their Indagations and Experiments and with what Candor they relate and communicate them 21. It resembl'd wood in that First all the parts of the petrifi'd substance seem'd not at all dislocated or alter'd from their natural position whiles they were wood but the whole piece retain'd the exact shape of wood having many of the conspicuous pores of wood still remaining pores and shewing a manifest difference visible enough between the grain of the wood and that of the bark especially when any side of it was cut smooth and polite for then it appeared to have a very lovely grain like that of some curious close wood Next it resembled wood in that all the smaller and if so I may call those which are onely to be seen by a good glasse microscopical pores of it appear both when the substance is cut and polish'd transversly and parallel to the pores perfectly like the Microscopical pores of several kinds of wood retaining both the shape and position of such pores It was differing from wood First in weight being to common water as 3¼ to 1. whereas there are few of our English woods that when dry are found to be full as heavy as water Secondly in hardnesse being very near as hard as a flint and in some places of it also resembling the grain of a flint it would very readily cut Glass and would not without difficulty especially in some parts of it be scratch'd by a black hard flint it would also as readily strike fire against a Steel as also against a flint Thirdly in the closenesse of it for though all the microscopical pores of the wood were very conspicuous in one position yet by altering that position of the polish'd surface to the light it also was manifest that those pores appear'd darker than the rest of the body onely because they were fill'd up with a more dusky substance and not because they were hollow Fourthly in that it would not burn in the fire nay though I kept it a good while red-hot in the flame of a Lamp very intensly cast on it by a blast through a small pipe yet it seemed not at all to have diminish'd its extension but onely I found it to have chang'd its colour and to have put on a more dark and dusky brown hue Nor could I perceive that those parts which seem'd to have been wood at first were any thing wasted but the parts appear'd as solid and close as before It was farther observable also that as it did not consume like wood so neither did it crack and fly like a flint or such like hard stone nor was it long before it appeared red-hot Fiftly in its dissolublenesse for putting some drops of distilled Vinegar upon the stone I found it presently to yield very many bubbles just like those which
may be observed in spirit of Vinegar when it corrodes Coral though I guess many of those bubbles proceeded from the small parcels of Air which were driven out of the pores of this petrifi'd substance by the insmuating liquid menstruum Sixtly in its Rigidnesse and friability being not at all flexible but brittle like a flint insomuch that with one knock of a Hammer I broke off a small piece of it and with the same Hammer quickly beat it to pretty fine powder upon an Anvil Seventhly it seem'd also very differing from wood to the touch feeling more cold then wood usually does and much like other close Stones and Minerals The Reasons of all which Phaenomena seem to be That this petrifi'd wood having lain in some place where it was well soaked with petrifying water that is such a water as is well impregnated with stony and earthy particles did by degrees separate by straining and filtration or perhaps by praecipitation co-haesion or coagulation abundance of stony particles from that permeating water which stony particles having by means of the fluid Vehicle convey'd themselves not onely into the microscopical pores and perfectly stop'd up them but also into the pores which may perhaps be even in that part of the wood which through the microscope appears most solid do thereby so augment the weight of the wood as to make it above three times heavier than water and perhaps six times as heavy as it was when wood next they hereby so lock up and fetter the parts of the wood that the fire cannot easily make them fly away but the action of the fire upon them is onely able to char those parts as it were like as a piece of wood if it be closed very fast up in Clay and kept a good while red hot in the fire will by the heat of the fire be char'd and not consum'd which may perhaps be the reason why the petrifi'd substance appear'd of a blackish brown colour after it had been burnt By this intrusion of the petrifiâ—'d particles it also becomes hard and friable for the smaller pores of the wood being perfectly stuffed up with these stony particles the particles of the wood have few or no pores in which they can reside and consequently no flexion or yielding can be caus'd in such a substance The remaining particles likewise of the wood among the stony particles may keep them from cracking and flying as they do in a flint 22. The casual finding of Subterraneous-Trees has been the occasion of this curious Digression Now it were a strange Paradox to affirm that the Timber under the ground should to a great degree equal the value of that which grows above the Ground seeing though it be far lesse yet it is far Richer the Roots of the vilest Shrub being better for its toughnesse and for Ornaments and delicate uses much more preferrable than the Heart of the fairest and soundest Tree And many Hills and other waste-places that have in late and former Ages been stately Groves and Woods have yet this Treasure remaining and perchance sound and unperish'd and commonly as we observ'd an hinderance to other Plantations Engines therefore and Expedients for the more easily extracting these Cumbrances and making riddance upon such Occasions besides those we have produc'd would be excogitated and enquir'd after for the dispatch of this difficult Work 23. Finally for the use of our Chimneys and maintenance of fire the plenty of wood for fuel rather than the quality is to be looked after and yet there are some greatly to be preferr'd before others as harder longer-lasting better heating and chearfully burning for which we have commended the Ash c. in the foregoing Paragraphs and to which I pretend not here to add much for the avoiding repetitions though even an History of the best way of Charing would not mis-become this Discourse But something more is to be said sure concerning the felling of Fuel-wood Note therefore that you first begin with the under-wood Some conceive between Martle-mas and Holy-Rood but generally with Oaks as soon as 't will strip but not after May and for Ashes 'twixt Michael-mas and Candle-mas and so fell'd as that the Cattel may have the browsing of it for in Winter they will not onely eat the tender twiggs but even the very Mosse but fell no more in a day than they can Eat for this purpose This done kid or bavin them and pitch them upon their ends to preserve them from rotting Thus the Vnder-wood being dispos'd of the rest will prosper the better and besides it otherwise does but rot upon the Earth and destroy that which would spring If you head or top for the fire 't is not amiss to begin three or four foot above the Timber if it be considerable but in case they are onely shaken-Trees and Hedge-rows strip them even to thirty foot high because they are usually full of boughs and 't were good to top such as you perceive to wither at the tops a competent way beneath to prevent their sicknesse downwards which will else certainly ensue whereas by this means even dying Trees may be preserved many years to good emolument though they never advance taller and being thus frequently shred they will produce more than if suffered to stand and decay This is a profitable note for such as have old doating or any wayes infirm Woods In other Fellings some advise never to commence the disbranching from the top for though the incumbency of the very boughs upon the next cause them to fall off the easier yet it endangers the splicing of the next which is very prejudicial and therefore advise the beginng at the nearest And in Cutting for fuel you may as at the top so at the sides cut a foot or more from the Body but never when you shred Timber-Trees We have said how dangerous it is to cut for wood when the Sap is up it is a mark of improvident Husbands besides it will never burn well though abundance be congested Lastly remember that East and North-winds are unkind to the succeeding Shoots Now for directions in Stacking of which we have said something in Chap. of Copses ever set the lowest course an end the second that on the sides and ends viz. sides and ends outward the third thwart the other on the side and so the rest till all are placd spending the up-most first Thus we have endeavoured to prescribe the best directions we could learn concerning this necessary Subject And in this penury of that dear Commodity and to incite all ingenious persons studious of the benefit of their Countrey to think of wayes how our Woods may be preserved by all manner of Arts which may prolong the lasting of our fuel I would give the best encouragements Those that shall seriously consider the intollerable misery of the poor Cauchi the then Inhabitants of the Low Countries describ'd by Pliny lib 16. cap. 1. how opulent soever their late Industry has
Member of this Society for which the Wood-monger has little cause to brag since he never durst come at him or challenge his Money for the Commodity he bought because he durst not stand to the measure At Hall near Foy there is a Fagot which consists but of one piece of Wood naturally grown in that form with a band wrapped about it and parted at the ends into four sticks one of which is subdivided into two others It was carefully preserved many years by an Earl of Devonshire and looked on as portending the fate of his Posterity which is since indeed come into the hands of four Cornish Gentlemen one of whose Estates is likewise divided 'twixt two Heirs This we have out of Cambden and I here note for the Extravagancy of the thing though as to the verity of such Portents from Trees c. I do not find upon enquiry which I have diligently made of my Lord Brereton that there is any certainty of the rising of those Logs in the Lake belonging to that Noble Person so as still to premonish the Death of the Heir of that Family how confidently soever reported Sometimes it has happn'd but the Tradition is not constant To this Classe may be referred what is affirmed concerning the fatal Prediction of Oakes bearing strange leaves which may be enquired of 29. But I will now describe to you the Mystery of Charing whereof something was but touch'd in the Processe of extracting Tar out of the Pines as I receiv'd it from a most industrious person and so conclude the Chapter There is made of Char coal usually three sorts viz. one for the Iron-works a second for Gun-powder and a third for London and the Court besides Small-coals of which we shall also speak in its due place We will begin with that sort which is us'd for the Iron-works because the rest are made much after the same manner and with very little difference The best Wood for this is good Oak cut into lengths of three foot as they size it for the Stack This is better than the Cord-wood though of a large measure and much us'd in Essex The Wood cut and set in Stacks ready for the Coaling chuse out some level place in the Copse the most free from stubs c. to make the Hearth on In the midst of this area drive down a stake for your Centre and with a pole having a ring fasten'd to one of the extreams or else with a Cord put over the Centre describe a Circumference from twenty or more feet semidiameter according to the quantity of your Wood design'd for Coaling which being neer may conveniently be Chared in that Hearth and which at one time may be 12 16 20 24 even to 30 stack If 12 therefore be the quantity you will Coal a Circle whose diameter is 24 foot will suffice for the Hearth If 20 stack a diameter of 32 foot If 30 40 foot and so proportionably Having thus marked out the ground with Mattocks Haws and fit Instruments bare it of the Turf and of all other combustible stuff whatsoever which you are to rake up towards the Peripherie or out-side of the Circumference for an use to be afterwards made of it plaining and levelling the ground within the Circle This done the Wood is to be brought from the nearest parts where it is stack'd in Wheel-barrows and first the smallest of it plac'd at the utmost limit or very margin of the Hearth where it is to be set long-wayes as it lay in the stack the biggest of the Wood pitch or set up on end round about against the small-wood and all this within the circle till you come within five or six foot of the Centre at which distance you shall begin to set the Wood in a Triangular form as in the following Print a till it come to be three foot high Against this again place your greater Wood almost perpendicular reducing it from the triangular to a circular form till being come within a yard of the Centre you may Pile the Wood long-wayes as it lay in the Stack being careful that the ends of the Wood do not touch the Pole which must now be erected in the Centre nine foot in height that so there may remain a round hole which is to be form'd in working up the Stack wood for a Tunnel and the more commodious firing of the pit as they call it though not very properly This provided for go on to Pile and set your Wood upright to the other as before till having gain'd a yard more you lay it long-wayes again as was shew'd And thus continue the Work still enterchanging the position of the Wood till the whole Area of the Hearth and Circle be fill'd and pil'd up at the least eight foot high and so drawn in by degrees in Piling that it resemble the form of a copped brown Houshold-loaf filling all inequalities with the smaller Trunchions till it lye very close and be perfectly and evenly shaped This done take straw haume or ferne and lay it on the out-side of the bottome of the heap or wood to keep the next cover from falling amongst the sticks Upon this put on the Turf and cast on the dust and Rubbish which was grubb'd and raked up at the making of the Hearth and reserved near the circle of it with this cover the whole heap of Wood to the very top of the Pit or Tunnel to a reasonable and competent thicknesse beaten close and even that so the fire may not vent but in the places where you intend it and if in preparing the Hearth at first there did not rise sufficient Turf and Rubbish for this Work supply it from some convenient place near to your heap There be who cover this again with a sandy or finer mould which if it close well need not be above an inch or two thick This done provide a Screene by making light hurdles with slit rods and straw of a compent thicknesse to keep off the Wind and broad and high enough to defend an opposite side to the very top of your Pit being eight or nine foot and so as to be easily remov'd as need shall require for the luing of your pit When now all is in this posture and the Wood well rang'd and clos'd as has been directed set fire to your heap But first you must provide you of a Ladder to ascend the top of your Pit this they usually make of a curved Tiller fit to apply to the convex shape of the Heap and cut it full of notches for the more commodious setting their Feet whiles they govern the Fire above therefore now they pull up and take away the Stake which was erected at the centre to guid the building of the Pile and cavity of the Tunnel This done put in a quantity of Char-coals about a peck and let them fall to the bottom of the Hearth upon them cast in coals that are fully kindled and when those which were first
that pierce the sky Soft Linden smooth-rind Beech unmarried Bays The brittle Hasel Ash whose spears we praise Unknotty Fir the solace shading Planes Rough Chessnuts Maple Fleet with different granes Stream-bordering Willow Lotus loving takes Tuffe Box whom never sappy spring forsakes The slender Tamarisk with Trees that bear A purple Fig nor Myrtles absent were The wanton Ivie wreath'd in amorous twines Vines bearing grapes and Elms supporting Vines Straight Service-Trees Trees dropping Pitch fruit-red Arbutus these the rest accompanied With limber Palmes of Victory the prize And upright Pine whose leaves like bristles rise Priz'd by the Mother of the Gods Sandys non chaonis abfuit arbor Non nemus Heliadum non frondibus aesculus altis Nec Tilâ—ae molles nec Fagus innuba Laurus Et Coryli fragiles Fraxinus utilis hastis Enodisque Abies curvataque glandibus Ilex Et Platanus genialis Acerque coloribus impar Amnicolaeque simul Salices aquatica Lotos Perpetuóque virens Buxus tenuesque Myricae Et bicolor Myrtus baccis caerula Ficus Vos quoque flexi-pedes Hederae venistis unâ— Pampineae Vites amictae Vitibus Vlmi OrnÃque Piceae Pomoque onerata rubeuti Arbutus lentae victoris praemia Palmae Et succincta comas hâ—rsutaqae vertice Pinus Grata Deum matri c. Met. 10. as the incomparable Poet goes on and is imitated by our divine Spencer where he brings his gentle Knight into a shady Grove praising the Trees so straight and high The sailing Pine the Cedar proud and tall The Vine-prop Elm the Poplar never dry The builder Oak sole King of Forests all The Aspine good for Staves the Cypress funeral The Laurel meede of mighty Conquerours And Poets sage The Fir that weepeth still The Willow worn of forlorn Paramours The Eugh obedient to the benders will The Birch for Shafts the Sallow for the Mill The Myrrhe sweet bleeding in the bitter wound The War-like Beech the Ash for nothing ill The fruitful Olive and the Platane round The Carver Holm the Maple seldom inward sound Canto 1â— And in this Symphony might the noble Tasso bear likewise his part but that these are sufficient tria sunt omnia 37. For we have already spoken of that modern Art of Tapping Trees in the Spring by which doubtlesse some excellent and specific Medicines may be attained as from the Birch for the Stone from Elms and Elder against Feavers so from the Vine the Oak and even the very Bramble c. besides the wholesom and pleasant Drinks Spirits c. that may possibly be educed out of them all which we leave to the Industrious satisfying our selves that we have been among the first who have hinted and Publish'd the wayes of performing it What now remains concerns onely some general Precepts and Directions applicable to most of that we have formerly touched together with a Brief of what farther Laws have been enacted for the Improvement and preservation of Woods and which having dispatch'd shall with a short Paraenesis touching the present ordering and disposing of his Majesties Plantations for the future benefit of the Nation put an end to this rustick Discourse CHAP. XXXII Aphorisms or certain general Precepts of use to the foregoing Chapters 1. TRy all sorts of Seeds and by their thriving you shall best discern what are the most proper kinds for Grounds Quippe solo natura subest and of these design the main of your Plantation 2. Keep your newly sown seeds continually fresh and in the shade as much as may be till they peep 3. All curious Seeds and Plants are diligently to be weeded till they are strong enough to over-drop or suppresse them And you shall carefully haw half-dig and stir up the earth about their Roots during the first three years especially in the Vernal and Autumnal Aequinoxes This work to be done in a moist season for the first year to prevent the dust and the suffocating of the tender buds but afterwards in the more dry weather 4. Plants rais'd from seed shall be thinn'd where they come up too thick and none so fit as you thus draw to be transplanted into Hedge-rowes especially where ground is precious 5. In transplanting omit not the placing of your Trees towards their accustom'd Aspect 6. Remove the softest wood to the moistest grounds Divisae arboribus partiae 7. Begin to Transplant Forest-trees when the leaves fall after Michaelmasse you may adventure when they are tarnish'd and grow yellow It is lost time to commence later and for the most part of your Trees early Transplanters seldom repent for sometimes a tedious band of Frost prevents the whole season and the baldness of the Tree is a note of deceipt for some Oaks and most Beeches preserve their dead leaves till new ones push them off 8. Set deeper in the lighter grounds than in the strong but shallowest in Clay five inches is sufficient for the dryest and one or two for the moist provided you establish them against winds 9. Plant forth in warm and moist seasons the Air tranquil and serene the wind westerly but never whiles it actually freezes Raines or in Misty Weather for it moulds and infects the Roots 10. What you gather and draw out of VVoods plant immediately for their Roots are very apt to be mortified by the winds and cold air 11. Trees produc'd from Seeds must have the Tap-roots abated the VVallnut-tree and some others excepted and yet if Planted meerly for the Fruit some affirm it may be adventur'd on with successe and the bruised parts cut away but sparing the fibrous for they are the principal feeders and those who clense them too much are punish'd for the mistake 12. In Spring rub off some of the collateral Buds to check the exuberancy of Sap in the branches till the Roots be well establish'd 13. Transplant no more then you well Fence for that neglected Tree-culture comes to nothing Therefore all young set Trees should be defended from the winds and Sun especially the East and North till their Roots are fixed that is till you perceive them shoot and the not exactly observing of this Article is cause of the perishing of the most tender Plantations for it is the invasion of these two assailants which does more mischief to our new set and lesse hardy Trees then the most severe and durable Frosts of a whole VVinter 14. The properest Soil and most natural apply to distinct species Nec verò terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt Yet we find by experience that most of our Forest-Trees grow well enough in the coursest Lands provided there be a competent depth of mould For albeit most of our wild Plants covet to run just under the surface yet where there is not sufficient depth to cool them and entertain the Moisture and Influences they are neither lasting nor prosperous 15. VVood well Planted will grow in Moorish Boggy Heathy and the stoniest grounds Only the white and blew clay which is commonly
the best Pasture is the worst for wood and such good Timber as we find in any of these Oakâ— excepted is of an excessive age requiring thrice the time to arrive at their stature 16. If the season require it all new Plantations are to be plied with waterings which is better pour'd into a circle at some distance from the Roots which should continually be bared of Grasse and if the water be rich or impregnated the shoots will soon discover it for the Liquor being percolated through a quantity of earth will carry the nitrous virtue of the soil with it by no means therefore water at the stem because it washes the mould from the Root comes too crude and endangers their rotting But 17. For the cooling and refreshing Tree-roots the congesting of Pot-sheards Flints or Pibbâ—es near the foot of the stem is preferable to all other and so the Poet Lime-stones or squallid Shells that may the Rain Vapors and gliding moisture entertain Aut lapidem bibulum aut squallenteis infode conchas Inter enim labentur aquae tenuÃsque subibit Halitus Georg. 2. But remember you remove them after a competent time else the Vermine Snails and Insects which they produce and shelter will gnaw and greatly injure their Bark 18. Young Plants will be strangled with Corn Oates Pease or Hemp or any rankly growing Grain if a competent circle and distance be not left as of near a yard or so of the Stem this is a useful remark 19. Cut no Trees especially having an eminent Pith in them being young and tender too when either heat or cold are in extreams nor in very wet or snowy weather and in this work it is profitable to discharge all Trees of unthriving broken wind-shaken browse and such as our Law terms Cablicia and to take them off to the quick ne pars sincera trahatur And for Ever-greens especially such as are tender prune them not after Planting till they do Radicare that is by some little fresh shoot discover that they have taken I will Conclude with the Tecnical names or dissimiler parts of Trees as I find them enumerated by the Industrious and Learned Dr. Merett Scapus Truncus Cortex Liber Malicorium Matrix Medulla Cor Pecten Circuli Surculi Rami Sarmenta Ramusculi Spadix Vimen Virgultum Cremium Vitilia Talea Scobs Termes Turiones Frondes Cachryas Nucamentum Julus Catulus Comae The Species Frutex Suffrutex c. all which I leave to be put into good and proper English by those who shall once oblige our Nation with a full and absolutely compleat Dictionary as yet a great desiderate amongst us To this I shall add the Time and Season of the flourishing of Trees computing from the entrie of each Month as the figures denote that is from March where the Doctor begings inclusively March Acer 3. i from March to May viz. one Month sic de coeteris Populus 2. Quercus 5. Sorbus 2. Vlmus 2. April Alnus 2. Betula 2. Castanea 4. Euonymus 2. Fagus 2. Fraxinus 2. Nux-Juglans 3. Salix 2. Sambucus 2. May Cornus 2. Genista 4. Juniperus Morus 2. Tilia 4. June Aquifolium 2. July Arbutus 2. Feb. Buxus 2. Many more usefull Observations are to be collected and added to these from the diligent experience of Planters CHAP. XXXIII Of the Laws and Statutes for the Preservation and Improvement of Woods c. 1. 'T Is not to be passed by that the very first Law we find which was ever promulg'd was concerning Trees and that Laws themselves were first Written upon them or Tables compos'd of them and after that Establishment in Paradise the next we meet withal are as Antient as Moses you may find the Statute at large in Deut. c. 20. v. 19 20. Which though they chiefly tended to Fruit-Trees even in an Enemies Countrey yet you will find a case of necessity onely alledg'd for the permission to destroy any other 2. To Summe up briefly the Lawes and Civil Constitutions of great Antiquity by which Servius informs us 't was no lesse than Capital alienas arbores incidere the Lex Aquilia and those of the xii Tabb mention'd by Paulus Cajus Julianus and others of that Robe repeated divers more It was by those Sacred Constitutions provided that none might so much as Plant Trees on the Confines of his Neighbours Ground but he was to leave a space of at the least five foot for the smallest Tree that they might not injure him with their shadow Si Arbor in Vicini agrum impenderit eam sublucato c. and if for all this any hung over farther 't was to be strip'd up fifteen foot And this Law Baldwinus Olderdorpius and Hotoman recites out of Vlpian L. 1. F. de Arb. Caedend where we have the Praetors Interdict express'd and the impendent Wood adjudged to appertain to him whose field or fence was thereby damnified Nay the Wise Solon prescribed Ordinances for the very distances of Trees as the divine Plato did against stealing of fruit and violating of Plantations And the interdiction de Glande legenda runs thus in Vlpian AIT PRAETOR GLANDEM QVAE EX ILLIVS AGRO IN TVVM CADIT QVO MINVS ILLI TERTIO QVOQVE DIE LEGERE AVFERRE LICEAT VIM FIERI VETO And yet though by the Praetors permission he might come every third day to gather it up without Trespasse his Neighbour was to share of the Mast which so fell into his Ground and this Chapter is well supplied by Pliny l. 16. c. 5. and Cajus upon the Place interprets Glandem to signifie not the Acorns of the Oak alone but all sorts of fruit whatsoever l. 136. F. de Verb. Signif L. Vnis ff de Glande leg as by usage of the Greeks amongst whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports all kind of Trees Moreover no Trees might be Planted neer Publique Aquae-ducts least the Roots should insinuate into and displace the Stones Nor on the very margent of Navigable Rivers lest the Boats and other Vessels passing to and fro should be hindred and therefore such impediments were call'd Retae quia Naves retinent sayes the Gloss and because the falling of the leaves corrupted the Water So nor within such a distance of High ways which also our own Laws prohibit that they might dry the better and lesse cumber the Traveller Trees that obstructed the Foundation of Houses were to be fell'd Bartol L. 1. doct c. de Interdict Vlp. in L. priore ff de Arborum caedend Trees spreading their Roots in neighbour-ground to be in common See Cujas and Paulus in L. Arb. ff de Communi dividend where more of the Alienation of Trees fell'd and not standing but with the Funds as also of the Vse-fruit of Trees and the difference 'twixt Arbores Grandes and Cremiales or Ceduae of all which Vlpian Baâ—dus Alciat with the Lawes to govern the Conlucatores and Sublucatores and Pruners vide Pan. s c. Sent. l. 5. Festus c. for we passe over
Devenere locos latos amoena vireta Fortunatorum Nemorum Sedesque beatas Such a prospect he gives us of his Elysium and therefore wise and great Persons had alwayes these sweet opportunities of Recesse their Domos Sylvae as we reed 2 Reg. 7.2 which were thence called Houses of Royal Refreshment or as the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not much unlike the Lodges in divers of our Noble-mens Parks and Forest-Walks which minds me of his choice in another Poem In lofty Towers let Pallas take her rest Whilst shady Groves ' boue all things please us best Pallas quas condidit arces Ipsa colat nobis placeant ante omnia Sylvae Eclog. 2. And for the same reason Mecoenas Chose the broad Oak Maluit umbrosam Quercum and as Horace bespeaks them Me the cool Woods above the rest advance Where the rough Satyrs with the light Nymphs dance Me gelidum nemus Nympharumque leves cum Satyris Chori Secernunt populo and Virgil again Our sweet Thalia loves nor does she scorn To haunt umbragious Groves Nostra nec â—rubuit Sylvas habitare Thalia or as thus expressed by Petrarch The Muse her self injoys Best in the Woods verse flies the City noyse Sylva placet Musis urbs est inimica Poetis So true is that of yet a better Poet of our own As well might Corn as Verse in Cities grow In vain the thanklesse Glebe we Plow and Sow Against th' unnatural Soil in vain we strive 'T is not a ground in which these Plants will thrive Conley When it seems they will bear nothing but Nettles and Thorns of Satyrs and as Juvenal sayes by Indignation too and therefore almost all the Poets except those who were not able to eat Bread without the Bounty of Great men that is without what they could get by flattering them which was Homer's and Pindar's case have not onely withdrawn themselves from the Vices and Vanities of the great World into the innocent felicities of Gardens and Groves and Retirednesse but have also commended and adorned nothing so much in their never-dying Poems Here then is the true Parnassus Castalia and the Muses and at every call in a Grove of Venerable Oaks methinks I hear the answer of an hundred old Druyds and the Bards of our inspired Ancestors Innumerable are the Testimonies I might produce in behalf of Groves and Woods out of the Poets Virgil Gratius Ovid Horace Claudian Statius Silius and others of latter times especially the divine Petrarch were I minded to swell this Charming Subject beyond the limits of a Chapter I think onely to take notice that Theatrical Representations such as were those of the Ionian call'd Andria the Scenes of Pastorals and the like innocent Rural Entertainments were of old adorn'd and trimm'd up è ramis frondibus cum racemis corymbis and frequently represented in Groves as the Learned Scaliger shews And here the most beloved of Apollo rooted his coy Mistris and the noblest Raptures have been conceiv'd in the Walks and shades of Trees and Poets have composed Verses which have animated men to Heroic and glorious Actions here Orators as we shewed have made their Panegyrics Historians grave Relations and the Profound Philosophers lov'd here to passe their lives in repose and Contemplation and the frugal Repasts mollesque sub arbore somni were the natural and chast delights of our Fore-Fathers 12. Nor were Groves thus onely frequented by the great Scholars and the great Wits but by the greatest Statesmen and Politians also and the Athenians were wont to Consult of their gravest matters and Publick Concernments in them Famous for these Assemblies were the Ceraunian and at Rome the Lucus Petilinus the Farentinus and others in which there was held that renowned Parliament after the Defeat of the Gaules by M. Popilio For 't was supposed that in places so Sacred they would Faithfully and Religiously observe what was Concluded amongst them In such green Palaces the first Kings reign'd Slept in their Shades and Angels entertain'd With such old Counsellors they did advise And by frequenting Sacred Groves grew Wise Free from th' impediments of Light and Noyse Man thus retir'd his nobler thoughts imploys Mr. Wallet As our excellent Poet has describ'd it and amongst other weighty matters they treated of Matches for their Children and the Young people made Love in the cooler Shades and ingrav'd their Mistris's Names upon the Bark tituli aereis literis insculpti as Pliny speaks of that Antient Vatican Ilex and Euripides in Hippolyto where he shews us how they made the incision whisper their soft Complaints like that of Aristaenetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and wish that it had but a Soul and a Voyce to tell Cydippe the fair Cydippe how she was belov'd And doubtlesse this Character was Antienter than that in Paper let us hear the Amorous Poet leaving his young Couple thus Courting each other My name on Bark engraven by your fair hand Oenone there cut by your knife does stand And with the Stock my Name alike do's grow Be 't so and my advancing honour show Incisae servant a te mea nomina fagi Et Legor Oenone falce notata tua Et quantum trunci tantum mea nomina crescunt Crescite in titulos surgite ritè meos Ovid. Ep. which doubtlesse he learnt of Maro describing the unfortunate Gallus There on the tender bark to carve my Love And as they grow so shall my hopes improve Ogilby tenerisque meos incidere amores Arboribus Crescentillae crescetis amores Eclog. 10. and these pretty Monuments of Courtship I find were much used on the Cherry-tree the Wild one I suppose which has a very smooth Rind as the witty Calfurnius Repeat thy words on Cherry-bark I 'll take And that red skin my Table-book will make Dic age nam Cerasi tua cortice verba notabâ— Et decisa feram rutilanti carmina libro I omit Olympius Nemesianus and others for we have dwelt too long on this trifle but we will now change the Scene as the Aegyptians did the mirth of their Guests when they serv'd in a Scull to make them more serious For 13. Amongst other Uses of Groves I read that some Nations were wont to hang not Malefactors onely but their departed Friends and those whom they most esteemed upon Trees as so much nearer to Heaven and dedicated to God believing it far more honourable than to be buried in the Earth and that some affected to repose rather in these Woody places Propertius seems to bespeak The Gods forbid my Bones in the high-Road Should lye by every wandring vulgar trod Thus buried Lovers are to scorn expos'd My Tomb in some by Arbor be inclos'd Di faciant mea ne terrâ locet ossa frequenti Quâ facit assiduo tramite vulgus iter Post mortem tumuli sic infamantur amantum Me tegat arboreâ devia terra comâ The same is affirmed of other Septentrional People
excellent Musky Pear was brought into the best Orchards of France from a Forest in Bretainy where it grew wild and was but of late taken notice of But now to the deep Reason we lately threatned We have by an Experiment found some neer affinity between the Kernel of the Apple and the heart or interiour of the Stock For I saw says Dr. Beale an old rotten Kernel-Tree bearing a delicate Summer-fruit yielding store of smooth Cider 't is call'd the French-Kernel-Tree and is also a Dwarf as is the Red-strake and examining divers Kernels many years successively of that hollow and decayed Tree I found them always very small of growth and empty meer skins of Kernels not unlike to the emasculated Scrotum of an Eunuch another younger Tree issuing from the sounder part of a Root of the same old Tree had full and entire Kernels And from some such Observation might the production of Berberies c. without Stones be happily attempted an Instrument fitted to take out the marrow or pith of the Branches as the same D r Beale perform'd it for from the numerical Bush of that Fruit he found some Branches produce Berberies that had no stones others which had and in searching for the cause of the effect perceived that the pith or heart was taken from the radicat or main Branches as the other was full of pith and consequently the fruit in perfection of all which he writes me word he made several tryals on other fruit but left the place before he could see the event But he adds These many years almost twenty I have yearly tri'd Kernels in Beds of clean Earth Pots and Pans and by the very leaves as they appear'd in first springing for one moneth I could discern how far my Essays had civiliz'd 'em The Wilder had shorter stiffer brown or fox-colour'd leaves The more ingenuous had more tender more spreading leaves and approaching the lighter verdure of the Berbery leaf when it first appears He adds Some Apples are call'd Rose-Apples Rosemary-Apples Gillyflower-Apples Orange-Apples with several other adjuncts denominating them from what Reason I know not But if we intended to try such infusions upon the Kernels as should endeavour to alter their kinds we should not approve of the bedabbling them with such infusions for over moisture would rather enervate than strengthen them but rather prepare the Earth the year before with such insuccations and then hinder it from producing any Weeds till ready for the Kernels and then in dewy times and more frequently when our Climate were surcharg'd with rain cover the Beds and Pots with the small leaves of Rosemary Gillyflowers or other oderiferous Blossomes and repeat it often to the end the dews may meteorize and emit their finer Spirits c. Or if any shall please to be so-liberal of their Salts and Calcinations of peculiar Virtues though possibly the Essay may indanger their seeds yet the mixture of such Salts finely reduc'd and strewed discreetly on their Beds may be a more probable means than those Liquid Infusions which have hitherto been so confidently boasted For thus also we are in this Age of ours provided of more vigorous Ingredients for trials than were known to the Ancients Finally From what has been deduc'd from the Wilding of several parts it may manifestly appear how much more congeneal some soil is than other to yield the best Cider-fruit from the Kernel and the hazzle ground or quicker mould much better than the more obstinate clay or ranker earth In hot Gravelly-Grounds where almost no sort of Fruit will grow Pears will thrive and a Friend of mine assures me of One that clave a Rock and filling it with a little good Earth planted a Pear-tree therein which prosper'd exceedingly I add this that none may go hence without encouragement CHAP. II. Of Stocks THe former thus establish'd after all humours and varieties have been sufficiently wearied we shall find the Wilding to be the hardiest and most proper Stock for the most delicate Fruit This confirm'd by Varro lib. 1. cap. 40. In quamcunque arborem inseras c. and 't is with reason However they do in Hereford-shire both in practice and opinion limit this Rule and to preserve the gust of any delicate Apple as of the Pear-main Quince-Apple Stockin c. rather graff upon a Gennet-Moyle or Cydoddin-Stock as there call'd than a Crab-stock but then indeed they conclude the Tree lasts not so long and 't is observ'd That Apples are better tasted from a clean light land c. than from stiffer clay or the more pinguid and luxurious soil whence we may expect some assistance from the civility of the Stock which is a kind of prepared Soil or foundation to the Graff even as our very Transplantations into better ground is likewise a kind of Graffing Thus in like manner our Master Varro loco citato concerning Pears Si in Pyrum Sylvaticam c. The Wild-stock does enliven the dull and phlegmatic Apple and the Stock of a Gennet-Moyle sweeten and improve an Apple that seems over-tart as the Pome-roy or some Greening c. or may rather seem to abate at least some Apple over-tart and severe Your Crab-stock would be planted about October at thirty two Foot distance and not graffed till the third Spring after or at least not before the second But if your design be for Orchard only and where they are to abide an interval of sixteen Foot shall suffice for the Dwarfish kind or in the Grounds where the Red-strake or other Fruit-trees are of small bulk provided the ground be yearly turn'd up with the Spade and the distance quadrupled where the Plough has priviledge this being the most expedite for such as have no Nursery ground CHAP. III. Of Graffs and Insitions MAke choice of your Graffs from a constant and well-bearing Branch And as the Stock hath a more verdant rind and is capable to yield more plenty of juice so let the Graff have more Eyes or Buds Ordinarily three or four Eyes are sufficient to give issue to the Sap but as well in Apples and Pears as in Vines those Graffs or Cions are preferr'd in which the buds are not too far asunder or distant from the foot thereof and such a number of buds usually determining the length of the Graff there may divers Cions be made of one Branch where you cannot procure plenty of them for severals As to the success of graffing the main point is to joyn the inward rind of the Cion to the inward rind of the Stock so that the sap of the One may there meet with the sap of the Other and these parts should be joyn'd closely but not too forceably that being the best and most infallible way by which most of the quick and juicy parts are mutually united especially towards the bottom If the Stock be so big as to endanger the pinching of your Graff when the wedge is drawn out of the cleft let the inner side of the Graff
to the very Red-strake and before the Bromsbury-Crab but upon more mature consideration the very Criticks themselves now Recant as being too effeminate and soft for a judicious Palate The Red-strake then amongst these accurate Tasters hath obtained the absolute praeeminence of all other Cider-fruit especially in Hereford-shire as being the richest and most vinous Liquor and now with the more earnestness commended to our practice for its celerity in becoming an Orchard being ordinarily as full of Fruit at ten years growth as other Trees are at twenty the Pepin or Pearmain at thirty And lastly from that no contemptible quality That though the smiles of it intice even on the Tree as being indeed better than most other Table-fruits whilst hanging yet it needs no Priapus for Protector since as beautiful as 't is it has no such temptation to the Tast 'till it be either baked or converted into Cider The same may be affirmed also of the Broms-bery-Crab Bareland-Pear and many other Wildings who are no less at their Self-defence yet the Gennet-Moyle at due maturity has both a gentle and agreeable relish their unagreeableness to the Palate as else-where noted proceeding only from the separation the juice makes from the Pulp which even Children do remedy by contusing them on their sharpned Elbows which if throughly weigh'd seems to dispute if not overthrow some Hypotheses of Fermentation In sum The Red-strake will at three years graffing give you fair hopes and last almost an hundred years if from sundry mens Experience of more than 60 years we may divine and that it agree with the Soyl. And the Gennet-Moyles hasten to an Orchard for Cider without trouble of Art or Graffing But note That this Tree is very apt to contract a bur-knot near its Trunk where it begins to divide and being cut off under that boss commonly grows if so set and becomes speedily a Tree except it encounter an extraordinary dry Summer the first year to give it check And though the knack of graffing be so obvious yet this more appearing facility does so please the lazy Clowns that in some places they neither have nor desire any other Orchards and how this humour prevails you may perceive by the hasty progress of our Kentish Codlin in most parts of England But this hasty growth and maturity of the Tree is by another Instance confirm'd to us from that worthy Gent. Mr. Blount of Orleton who writes me word that some of the rejected Spray or Prunings of the Gennet-Moyle taken by chance to rice a Plot of Pease though stuck into the Earth but at April put forth root grew blossom'd and bore Apples the same year But to advance again our Red-strake even above the Pepin and the rest besides the celerity of the improvement and constant burthen consider we the most incredible product since we may expect from each Apple more than double the quantity so as in the same Orchard under the same culture thirty Red-strake Trees shall at ten years graffing yield more Cider than a hundred of those Pepins and surmount them in proportion during their period at least sixty or seventy years So that granting the Cider of the Golden-Pepin should excel which with some is precarious yet 't is in no wise proper for a Cider-Orchard according to our general design not by half so soon bearing nor so constantly nor in that quantity nor fulness or security Concerning Perry the Horse-Pear and Bare-land-Pear are reputed of the best as bearing almost their weight of spriteful and vinous Liquor The Experienced prefer the tawny or ruddy sort as the colour of all other most proper for Perry They will grow in common-fields gravelly wild and stony ground to that largeness as one only Tree has been usually known to make three or four Hogsheads That of Bosbury and some others are so tart and harsh that there is nothing more safe from plunder when even a Swine will not take them in his mouth But thus likewise would the abundance preserve these Fruits as we see it does in Normandy CHAP. V. Of the Place and Order WE do seriously prefer a very wild Orchard as mainly intended for the publick utility and to our purpose of obliging the People as with a speedy Plantation yielding store for Cider Upon this it is that we do so frequently inculcate how well they thrive upon Arable whilst the continuing it so accelerates the growth in almost half the time And if the Arable can be so levell'd as commonly we see it for Barly-land then without detriment it may assume the Ornament of Cyrus and flourish in the Quincunx If it be shallow Land or must be rais'd with high Ridges then 't is necessary to have more regard of planting on the tops of those eminencies and to excuse the unavoydable breach of the decussis as my Lord Verulam excuseth the defect of our humane phansies in the Constellations which obey the Omnipotent order rather than ours Add to this the rigour of the Royal Society which approves more of plainness and usefulness than of niceness and curiosity whiles many putting themselves to the vast charge of levelling their grounds oftentimes make them but the worse since where the places are full of gastly inequalities there may be planted some sorts of Cider-fruit which is apt by the great burden to be press'd down to the ground and there whiles it hides Irregularities to bear much better and abundantly beyond belief for so have been seen many such recumbent Pear-trees bear each of them two three yea even to six or more Hogsheads yearly And for this Cider whiles we prefer some sorts of Wildings which do not tempt the palate of a Thief by the caution we shall not provoke any man to repent his charge from the necessity of richer and more reserv'd Enclosures Though we have frequently seen divers Orchards successfully planted on very poor Arable and even in stony Gleab gravel and clay and that pretty high on the sides and declivities of Hills where it only bears very short grass like to the most ordinary Common not worth the charge of Tillage And yet even there the Tenants and Confiners sometimes enclose it for the Fruit and find their reward though not equally to such Orchards as are planted on better ground and in the Vallies Hence we suggest That if there be no Statute for it 't were to be wished there were a Law which should allow endeavours of this nature out of the Common-field to enclose for these Encouragements since both the Publick and the Poor whatever the clamour is are advantaged by such Enclosures as Tusser in his old Rhimes and all indifferent observers apprehend with good reason True indeed it is That all Land is not fit for Orcharding so as even where to form just Inclosures being either too shallow and dry or too wet and sterving But this saith the judicious M r Buckland we may aver That there are few Parishes or Hamlets in
England where there are not some fat and deep Headlands capable of Rows of Trees and that as hath been said the raised Banks of all Inclosures generally by the advantage of the depth fatness and health of their Mould yield ready opportunity for planting yea and in many Countrys multitudes of Crab-stocks fit to be graffed in which latter saith he I have frequently observed very goodly Fruit-bearing Trees when in the same soil Trees in Orchards have been poor and worth nothing To conclude If the soil be very bad and unkind any other Fruit which it may more freely yield without requiring much depth and less Sun may be planted instead of Apples CHAP. VI. Of Transplanting and Distance THe most proper season for Transplanting is before the hard Frosts of Winter surprize you and that is a competent while before Christmas And the main point is to see that the Roots be larger than the Head and the more ways that extends the better and firmer If the Stock seems able to stand on its own three or four legs as we may call 'em and then after settlement some stones be heaped or laid about it as it were gently wedging it fast and safe from Winds which stones may after the second or third year be removed it will salve from the main danger For if the Roots be much shaken the first Spring it will hardly recover it You may transplant a Fruit-Tree almost at any tolerable season of the Year especially if you apprehend it may be spent before you have finish'd your work having many to remove Thus let your Trees be taken up about Allhallontide or as soon as the leaf begins to fall then having trimm'd and quickned the Roots set them in a Pit forty fifty or a hundred together yet so as they may be covered with mould and kept very fresh By the Spring they will be found well cured of their wounds and so ready to strike root and put forth that being Transplanted where they are to stand they will take suddenly and seldom fail whereas being thus cut at Spring they recover with greater hazard The very Roots of Trees planted in the ground and buried within a quarter of an Inch or little more of the level of the Bed will sprout and grow to be very good Stocks This and the other being Experiments of our own we thought convenient to mention By the oft removal of a Wild-stock cutting the ends of the Roots and dis-branching somewhat of the Head at every change of place it will greatly abate of its natural wildness and in time bring forth more civil and ingenuous Fruit Thus Gillyflowers do by oft removals and at full-Moon especially increase and multiply the leaves Plant not too deep for the over-turf is always richer than the next Mould How material it is to keep the coast or side of the Stock as well in Fruit-trees as in Forest we have sufficiently discuss'd nor is the Negative to be prov'd For the distance in Fields they may be set from thirty two to sixty Foot so as not to hinder the Plough nor the benefit of manure and soil but in hedg-rows as much nearer as you please Sun and Air considered CHAP. VII Of the Fencing SEeing a Cider-Orchard is but a wild Plantation best in Arable well enclos'd from Beasts and yet better on the Tops Ridges and natural Inequalities though with some loss of Order as we shew'd one of the greatest discouragements is the preserving of our Trees being planted the raising of them so familiar We have in our Sylva treated in particular of this as of one of the most material obstacles wherein yet we did purposely omit one Expedient which came then to our hands from the very Industrious Mr. Buckland to the Learned Dr. Beal You shall have it in his own words This of Fencing single Trees useth to be done by Rails at great charges or by Hedges and Bushes which every other year must be renew'd and the materials not to be had in all places neither I therefore prefer and commend to you the ensuing form of Planting and Fencing which is more cheap and easie and which hath other Advantages in it and not commonly known I never saw it but once and that imperfectly perform'd but have practis'd it my self with success Take it thus Set your Tree on the Green-swarth or five or six inches under it if the soil be very healthy if moist or weeping half a foot above it then cut a Trench round that Tree two foot or more in the cleare from it Lay a rank of the Turfs with the grass outward upon the inner side of the Trench towards your Plant and then a second rank upon the former and so a third and fourth all orderly plac'd as in a Fortification and leaning towards the Tree after the form of a Pyramide or larger Hop-hill Always as you place a row of Turfs in compass you must fill up the inner part of the Circle with the loose Earth of the second spit which you dig out of your Trench and which is to be two foot and half wide or more as you desire to mount the hillock which by this means you will have rais'd about your Plant near three foot in heighth At the point it needs not be above two foot or eighteen inches diametre where you may leave the Earth in form of a Dish to convey the Rain towards the body of the Tree and upon the top of this hillock prick up five or six small Briars or Thorns binding them lightly to the body of the Plant and you have finish'd the work The commodities of this kind of Planting are First Neither Swine nor Sheep nor any other sort of Cattel can annoy your Trees Secondly You may adventure to set the smaller Plants being thus raised and secur'd from the reach of Cattel Thirdly Your Trees faston in the Hillock against violence of Winds without Stakes to fret and canker them Fourthly If the soil be wet it is hereby made healthy Fifthly If very dry the hillock defends from the outward heat Sixthly It prevents the Couch-grass which for the first years insensibly robs most plants in sandy grounds apt to graze And Lastly The grazing bank will recompence the nigardly Farmer for the waste of his Ditch which otherwise he will sorely bethink In the second or third year by what time your Roots spread the Trench if the Ground be moist or Seasons wet will be neer fill'd up again by the treading of Cattel for it need not be cleansed but then you must renew your Thorns Yet if the Planter be curious I should advise a casting of some small quantity of rich Mould into the bottom of the Trench the second year which may improve the growth and invite the Roots to spread In this manner of Planting where the soil is not rich the exact Planter should add a little quantity to each Root of Earth from a frequented High-way or Yard where Cattel are kept
Blasts and Frosts of the Spring I might add that some of these and especially such Pears as yield the best Perry will best escape the hand of the Thief and may be trusted in the open field 38. By the first second and fourth of these Reasons I must exclude the Gennet-Moyle from a right Cider fruit it being dry and very apt to take frosty blasts yet it is no Table-fruit but properly a baking fruit as the ruddy colour from the Oven shews 39. I said that the right Cider-fruit generally called Musts and deserving the Latine name Mustum is of divers kinds and I have need to note more expresly that there is a Red-strak'd Must as I have often seen but not generally known that is quite differing from the famous Red-strake being much less somewhat oblong and like some of the white Musts in shape and full of a very good winy liquor I could willingly name the persons and place where the distinct kinds are best known it was first shewed me by John Nash of Ashperton in Herefordshire and for some years they did in some places distinguish a Red-strake as yielding a richer Red-strak'd Cider of a more fulvous or ruddy colour but this difference as far as I could find is but a choice of a better insolated or ruddy fruit of the best kind as taken from the South part of the Tree or from a soil that renders them richer But my Lord Scudamore's is safely of the best sort and M. Whingate of the Grange in Dimoc and some of King's-capel do best know these and other differences Straked-Must right Red-strake Red-Redstrake c. 40. The greenish Must formerly called in the Language of the Country the Green-fillet when the Liquor is of a kindly ripeness retains a greeness equal to the Rhenish-glass which I note for them that conceive no Cider to be fit for use till it be of the colour of old Sack 41. To direct a little more caution for enquiry of the right Red-strake I should give notice that some Moneths ago M. Philips of Mountague in Somersetshire shewed me a very fair large Red-strake Apple that by smell and sight seemed to me and to another of Herefordshire then with me to be the best Red strake but when we did cut it and taste it we both denied it to be right the other with much more confidence than my self but M. Philips making Cider of it this week invited me to it assuring that already it equals or resembles High-country-wines It had not such plenty of juice as our Red strakes with us and it had more of the pleasantness of Table-fruit which might be occasioned for ought I know by the purer and quicker soil This Apple is here call'd Meriot-Ysnot and great store of them are at Meriot a Village not far distant Possibly this Meriot may prove to be the Red-strake of Somerset-shire when they shall please to try it apart with equal diligence and constancy as they do in Hereford-shire This fruit is of a very lovely hue and by some conceived to be of Affinity to the Red-Jersey-Apple which is reported to tinge so deeply In truth there can hardly be a deeper Purple than is our right Herefordshire Red-strake having a few streaks towards the Eye of a dark colour or Orange-tawny intermingled But 't is no wonder if an Apple should change its Name in travelling so far beyond the Severn when even in this Country most sorts of Apples and especially Cider-fruit loseth the Name in the next Village 42. I may now ask why we should talk of other Cider-fruit or Perry if the best Red-strake have all the aforesaid pre-eminencies of richer and more winy liquor by half sooner an Orchard more constantly bearing c. An Orchard of Red-strakes is commonly as full of fruit at ten years as other Cider-fruit at twenty years or as the Pepin and Pearmain at thirty or thereabout 43. To this may be Answered that all soils bear not Apples and to some soils other Apples may be more kind and if we be driven to Perry much we may say both in behalf of the Perry and of the Pear of the fruit and of the Tree It is the goodlier Tree for a Grove to shelter a house and walks from Summers heat and Winters cold Winds and far more lasting the pleasantest Cider-pear of a known name amongst them is the Horse-pear And it is much argued whether the White-horse-pear or the Red-horse-pear be the better where both are best within two Miles they differ in judgment The Pear bears almost its weight of sprightful winy Liquor and I always preferred the tawny or ruddy Horse-pear and generally that colour in all Pears that are proper for Perry 44. I rejected Palladius against the durableness of Perry his words are Hyeme durat sed prima acescit aestate Tit. 25. Febr. possibly so of common Pears and in hotter Countries but from good Cellars I have tasted a very brisk lively and winy liquor of these Horse-pears during the end of Summer and a Bosbury-pear I have named and often tried which without bottleing in common Hogsheads of vulgar and indifferent Cellars proves as well pleasanter as richer the second year and yet also better the third year A very honest worthy and witty Gentleman of that neighbourhood would engage to me that in good Cellars and in careful custody it passeth any account of decay and may be heightned to a kind of Aqua-vitae I take the information worthy the stile of our modern improvements The Pear-tree grows in common fields and wild stony ground to the largeness of bearing one two three or four Hogsheads each year 45. This Bosbury-tree and such generally that bear the most lasting Liquor and winy is of such unsufferable taste that hungry Swine will not smell to it or if hunger tempt them to taste at first crush they shake it out of their mouths I say not this of the Horse-pear and the Clowns call other Pears of best Liquor Choak-pears and will offer money to such as dare adventure to taste them for their sport and their mouths will be more stupified than at the root of Wake-robin 46. A row of Crab-trees will give an improvement to any kind of Perry and since Pears and Crabs may be of as many kinds as there are kernels or different kinds or mixtures of soils in a general Character I would prefer the largest and fullest of all austere juices 47. M. Lill of Mark-hill aged about 90 years ever observed this Rule to graff no wild Pear-tree till he saw the fruit if it proved large juicy and brisk it failed not of good Liquor But I see cause to say that to graff a young tree with a riper graff and known excellency is a sure gain and hastens the return 48. M. Speke last high Sheriff of Somersetshire shewed me in his Park some store of Crab-trees of such huge Bulk that in this fertile year he offered a wager that they would yield one or two
world In Jersey 't is a general observation as I hear That the more of red any Apple hath in its rind the more proper it is for this use Paleface't-Apples they exclude as much as may be from their Cider-Vat 'T is with us an observation That no sweet-Apple that hath a tough rind is bad for Cider 12. If you boil your Cider special care is to be had That you put it into the furnace immediately from the Wring otherwise if it be let stand iâ— Vats or Vessels two or three days after the pressure the best and most spirituous part will ascend and vapour away when the fire is put under it and the longer the boiling continues the less of goodness or virtue will be left remaining in the Cider My Distillations sufficiently instruct me That the same Liquor which after fermentation hath pass'd upon it yields a plentiful quantity of spirit drawn off unfermented yields nothing at all of spirit And upon the same account it is undoubtedly certain That Cider boil'd immediately from the Wring hath its spirits comprest and drawn into a narrower compass which are for the most part wash'd and evaporated by late unseasonable boiling CONCERNING CIDER By Doctor SMITH THE best time to grind the Apples is immediately from the Tree so soon as they are throughly ripe for so they will yield the greater quantity of Liquor the Cider will drink the better and last longer than if the Apples were hoarded For Cider made of hoarded Apples will always retain an unpleasing taste of the Apples especially if they contract any rottenness The Cider that is ground in a Stone-case is generally accused to taste unpleasantly of the Rinds Stems and Kernels of the Apples which it will not if ground in a Case of Wood which doth not bruise them so much So soon as the Cider is made put it into the Vessel leaving it about the space of one Gallon empty and presently stop it up very close This way is observed to keep it longer and to preserve its spirits better than the usual way of filling the Vessel quite full and keeping it open till it hath done fermenting Cider put into a new Vessel will often taste of the Wood if it be pierced early but the same stopped up again and reserved till the latter end of the year will free it self of that taste If the Cider be sharp and thick it will recover it self again But if sharp and clear it will not About March or when the Cider begins to sparkle in the glass before it be too fine is the best time to bottle it Cider will be much longer in clearing in a mild and moist then in a cold and dry Winter To every Hogshead of Cider designed for two years keeping it is requisite to add about March the first year a quart of Wheat unground The best Fruit with us in Glocester-shire for the first years Cider are the Red-strake the White and Red Must-apple the sweet and sour Pepin and the Harvey-apple Pearmains alone make but a small liquor and hardly clearing of it self but mixed either with sweet or sour Pepins it becomes very brisk and clear Must-apple-cider though the first made is always the last ripe by reason that most of the pulp of the Apple passeth the strainer in pressing and makes it exceeding thick The Cider of the Bromsbury-Crab and Fox-whelp is not fit for drinking till the second year but then very good The Cider of the Bromsbury-Crab yields a far greater proportion of spirits in the distillation than any of the others Crabs and Pears mixed make a very pleasing Liquor and much sooner ripe than Pears alone OF CIDER By Capt. SYLAS TAYLOR HErefordshire affords several sorts of Cider-apples as the two sorts of Red strakes the Gennet-moyle the Summer-violet or Fillet and the Winter-fillet with many other sorts which are used only to make Cider Of which some use each sort simply and others mix many sorts together This County is very well stored with other sorts of Apples as Pepins Pearmains c. of which there is much Cider made but not to be compared to the Cider drawn from the Cider-apples among which the Red-strakes bear the Bell a Fruit in it self scarce edible yet the juice being pressed out is immediately pleasant in taste without any thing of that restringency which it had when incorporated with the meat or flesh of the Apple It is many times three Months before it comes to its clearness and six Months before it comes to a ripeness fit for drinking yet I have tasted of it three years old very pleasant though dangerously strong The colour of it when fine is of a sparkling yellow like Canary of a good full body and oyly The taste like the Flavour or perfume of excellent Peaches very grateful to the Palate and Stomach Gennet-moyles make a Cider of a smaller body than the former yet very pleasant and will last a year It is a good eating pleasant sharp fruit when ripe and the best Tart-apple as the Red-strake also before its ripeness The Tree grows with certain knotty extuberancies upon the branches and boughs below which knot we cut off boughs the thickness of a mans wrist and place the knot in the ground which makes the root and this is done to raise this fruit but very rarely by graffing Of Fillets of both sorts viz. Summer and Winter I have made Cider of that proportionate taste and strength that I have dâ—ceived several experienced Palates with whom simply it hath passed for White-Wine and dashing it with Red-Wine it hath passed for Claret and mingled with the Syrupe of Rasp'yes it makes an excellent womans wine The fruit is not so good as the Gennet-moyle to eat The Winter-fillet makes a lasting Cider and the Summer-fillet an early Cider but both very strong and the Apples mixt together make a good Cider These Apples yield a liquor more grateful to my Palate and so esteem'd of in Herefordshire by the greater Ciderists than any made of Pepins and Pearmains of which sorts we have very good in that Country and those also both Summer and Winter of both sorts and of which I have drank the Cider but prefer the other Grounds separated only with a Hedge and Ditch by reason of the difference of Soils have given a great alteration to the Cider notwithstanding the Trees have been graffed with equal care the same Graffs and lastly the same care taken in the making of the Cider This as to the Red-strake I have not observ'd the same niceness in any other fruit for Gennet-moyles and Fillets thrive very well over all Herefordshire The Red-strake delights most in a fat soil Hamlacy is a rich intermixt soil of Red-fat-clay and Sand and Kings-capel a low hot sandy ground both well defended from noxious Winds and both very famous for the Red-strake-cider There is a Pear in Hereford and Worcester-shires which is called Bareland-pear which makes a very good Cider I call it