unto as much more it hath been sold from twenty pound the best Woad to thirty pound and back again from thirty pound and twenty six pound down to six pound a Tun. CHAP. XXXVI Which discovers the nature use and advantage of Madder ANd so I shall descend to my third Dyers commodity in relation to Dying or Colouring and that is to the story of Madder that colours the rich and best solid Red the which if I can so mannage as to bring it unto the same progress as Oad is brought unto in England I mean that whereas though very rarely it is now planted in some gardens and in some small plots of ground and doth amount unto a very great advantage to the Planter by the sets they sell forth and by the roots they draw to vent to the Apothecary and medicinably to others and yet so make a most excelling value of their Lands indeed beyond credence some have made as I have been most credibly informed after the rate of three hundred pounds an Acre in three years for so long it grows before it come unto peâ—fection and others that have sold it whole-sale a parcell together at the worst advantage after one hundred and sixty pounds per Acre and some have out of small plots in gardens made more than I have or will here affirm and however though I shall be so modest as to confess that much of your garden stuff may yeeld with the cost and labour that is continually applyed thereto as much or more than here is spoken of as I am confident I could name divers things which some preserve as rich Treasure in their brains and will not discover them yet this I shall affirm that this being a fundamentall fruit and such a one as that the plenty thereof will not much abate the market Our dying trade being supplyied herewith from beyond the Seas that the Erection of such a Plantation as may bring it forth wrought up and fitted to the dyars use and so be a supply to our selves within our selves I am confident is a design of incomparable good to the Common-Wealth especially it imploying so many hands as will be to bring it to perfection It is like to prove a staple commodity and will turn land to as great an advance as any seed or root that it is capeable to receive and need no more fear want of markets for the venting of it than wee need for wooll that staple commodity of the Nation And because the discovery thereof is a matter of so great Importance I shall spend a little more time in the discovery of the whole frame hereof And I shall proceed to the description of it There is bute on kind of Madder which is manured and set for use but there is many things like thereto as Goose-grass soft Cliver Ladies Bedshaw Woodroof and Croswort all which are like to Madder leaves and are thought to be a wild kinds thereof It hath long stalks or trayling branches dispersed upon the ground rough and full of joynts and every joint set with green rough leaves in manner of a Star The flowers grow at top of the branches of a faint yellow colour after which comes the seed round and green The root creepeth far abroad within the upper crust of the Earth intangling one root into another and when it is green and fresh the root is of a reddish colour it is small and tender but gathers and runs in the ground just like an Ivy along a House or Tree It is a commodity of much value Patentees strove hard for it and Patents were gained about it in the late Kings daies and yet now in these times of freedom who pursues it For the making out a good Plantation hereof I must do these three or four things 1. Shew you what it comes of and how to plant it and preserve it 2. How to get it and use it to bring it to saleable Madder 3. The benefit and advantage nationall and personall Although it bear a seed yet that seed comes not to perfection here it is therefore to be planted of the sets that are to be gotten from the Madder it self and they are be bought in many gardens in London who keep up that Plantation for the advantage of selling their sets and roots Physically to the Apothecaries onely all the skill is to distinguish of the goodness thereof And for the discovery thereof first know the season of getting or rather drawing them which is in March and Aprill yea as soon as they are sprung forth of the ground two or three inches long then you must be carefull you get sets rooted Every set having some suckors or spinies of root going out from them they must be slipped from the main root and these sets as soon as ever took up put into some basket with a little mould and posted to the place where they are to be set the sooner the better and then your ground being very rich it cannot be too rich for this commodity however it must be a warm and very deep soil and digged two or three spade graft depth and two shovellings also and raked and laid even and levell and then by streight lines trode out into long beds about four foot broad from one end of your work into the other and set about one foot asunder every way and if it be a dry spring they must be kept with watering untill they recover their fading wan condition you may begin to dig your ground in the beginning so all along Winter till the very day of setting and then you must keep it with weeding and hoing till it have got the mastership of the weeds and then it being a weed of it self wil destroy all other One rod of ground is worth seaven pence a rod diging or if very dry strong ground eight pence but six pence the best ground will require and you may sow some early sallet Herbs or Reddish or Onions or such things as will be ripe betimes among it the first year good weeding is the best preservative unto it and in your setting of them by a line one goes before and layeth every set in his place and another comes and with a broad dibble made for purpose thrust down deep and open a hole and put in the set and for the nourishing of it in case any dye you must plant new in the room of what decayes for the time of the growing of it untill it come to perfection is three yeares the first yeare you may take off some few sets here and there but that is somewhat dangerous but that year it must be kept with hoing a while also and then the second year you may take up sets as fast as you will and almost as many as you wil leaving but as you do in the croping of an Oak one bough for the drawing up the sap out of the root being so thick and strong in the ground that nothing will
many hils and hill sides good Woad-ground when the bottom ground will doeno service but your chifest is your home-corse or lesser ground lying near and bordering about the towns Your best and naturallest parts of England for Woad are some part of Worcestershire and Warwickshire Southward Oxfordshire Gloucestershire Northamptonshire Leicestershire some part of Rutland Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire and some other places here and there all these parts have some admirable Woad-land in them But when it is a quick commodity as now it is dull they will find as much more land as now they will and then more indifferent dry sound warm land will serve but very dry and sound it must be and worth about twenty shillings an Acre to grase at least or else it will not bee worth the Woading And to plow to sow Woad it may be worth as much more as to grase yea somewhat more if it be extraordinary rich soyl and trading good but now as the seasons are and trading stands they will now make great orts of land and not bid any money for that which in good trading times they would have gone fifty miles to have took at great rates And wheras some write that it undoeth the land I answer as I judge in my own breast that in regard it is so often cut and groweth so thick and is so often weeding that it must needs do so as I beleeve al Corn doth draw forth some of the spirit therof but no more than other Grain would if it could be so oft cut up to grow again But it is the confidence of many Woad-men that will maintain against any man that it betters the land and mends it but to that I cannot accord neither but thus much I doe say it prepares the Land exceedingly for corn and doth a bate of the strength and superrichness or rankness thereof which corn would not wel endure for I maintain still that the richest Land is not best to corn for though the one may ouer-burthen and be so rank yet the other may bear as much to the strike and for goodness your middle Land beareth the bell away for corn in my opinion Very much may be spoke to this particular but I must shorten and will as much as may be and acquaint you with the use thereof And herein I must do these three or four things 1. Shew you how the Land must be prepared and sowed 2. Shew you how it must be ordered when the leaf must be cut and how ordered after cutting 3. And lastly how it must be tempered and seasoned to make the best Woad for use and profit but before I proceed I must inform my Reader that this commodity can not be played withall as you may doe with Liquorish and Saffron c. to make experiments of a little parcell but a man must of necessity set forth and forward so much stock and Land and seed as may keep one Mill or two at work to make it into perfect Woad It is the doing of a great quantity and carrying on a great stock that makes this work and will carry it on to profit and credit Some have as much underhand and will work six or eight Mills The charge of it is exceeding great in the mannagement of it and as well it payeth for all charges as any commodity I know of that is of old experience The ground must be old Land as aforesaid and a tender Turf and must be exceeding choicely plowed if very hilly they must be cast and well cast that that you cast forth lie not high to raise the furrow they usually plow outward or cast all their Lands at the first Plowing and having broke the ground with a Harrow then they sow it and sow about four bushels or strikes of an acre which done then cover it and harrow it very well and fine and pick of al the Clots Turvees and stones and lay in the hollow places of the ridge on heapes as is the usuall custom but now I should rather if there be no other reason than I conceive chuse to take a little Cart with one horse and as the boyes or children pick them up cast them into the Cart and carry them into some flank or hollow place and lay them down to rot or else mend some barren place because they lose a good considerable part of Land and so of Oad too which otherwise might be as good as the rest and is now worth nothing the Land that is lost is very considerable in regard it is so goood of it self and the stock so good and rich that is sowed upon it that all even ground had need be regained that possibly may be And so I descend to the second particular 2. Which is to shew how it is to be husbandried and when the leaf must be cut and how used and how oft c. After the Land is sowed and it begins to come up as soon as any weed appears it must be weedded yea may be twice weeded or more if it require before it be ready to cut but if it be speciall good and come thick and cover the ground well it will ask the less weeding to them that are exercised in this service and have their work and work folks at command they will have it weeded for eight pence an acre and sometime less as soon as the leaf is come to its full growth which will be sometime sooner sometime later as the year is dryer or moister more fruitfull or less which when you perceive at the full ripeness set to cutting of it As soon as ever it is cut you Mills being prepared and great broad fleakes so many as may receive one Crop prepared and planted upon galleries or stories made with poles Fir alder or other wood whatsoever your Mill is usually known a large Wheel both in height and bredth and weigh doth the best it is a double wheel and the Tooth or ribs that cut the Woad are placed from one side of the Wheel to the other very thick wrought sharp and keen at the Edge and as soon as the Woad is cut and comes out of the field it is to be put into the Mill and ground one kilnfull after another as fast as may be the joyce of the leaf must be preserved in it and not lost by any means and when it is ground it is to be made in balls round about the bigness of a ball without any composition at all and then presently laid one by one upon the fleakes to dry and as soon as dryed which will be sooner or later as the season is they are to be taken down and laid together and more put in their places but because all Circumstances will be too tedious to discourse the work is a common work and very many wel versed therein I will rather advise my Reader to get a workman from the Woad-works which can carry it on artificially
land laid dry and warm will bare the most weightiest Hops A barren morish wet soyl is not natural to the Hops delight but if this be laid very dry and made very rich with dung and soyl it may do reasonable well It will be best to stand warm if may be preserved from North East wind rather by hils than trees as near your house as may be that Land you determine for your Hop-garden lay as levell as square as ye can possible and if it be rough and stiff it will do well to be sowed with Hemp Beans or Turnips before but in what state soever it be till it in the beginning of Winter with plough or spade this not onely the year before but every year so long as you use it the more pains and cost you bestow the more profit and the nearer you resemble the Flemming in his hopping And for your Sets those are your Roots taken from your old hils roots go to a garden ordarly kept where the Hops are of a good kind all yearly cut and where the hils are raised very high for there the roots will be greatest buy choice Sets they may cost six pence a hundred and sometimes have them for taking up leaving things orderly and their hill well dressed You must chuse the biggest roots you can find such as are three or four inches about and the Set nine or ten inches long and have three joynts in a root Take heed of Wild-hops they are onely discerned by the fruit and stalks The unkindly Hop that likes not his ground soyl or keeper comes up green and small in stalk thick and rough in leaves like nettles much bitten with a black fly but it destroyes not the Hop but hurteth it somewhat and so you have the first particular 2 The manner of planting as soon as your roots are got either set them speedily or lay them in some puddle or bury them in earth but leave them not in water above four and twenty hours Then begin to direct your hils with a line tyed with knots or threads thereto the due distance had need to be 8 foot betwixt because then you make the fewer and bigget hils the sun comes about them the poles reach not one another and so it may be plowed yearly otherwise it must be digged some say seven foot and others say six foot as our late accustomed manner is and I am confident there is most advantage by thin planting but that I leave to each experience Your hole under the knot of your line had need be a foot square and deep then if you can have the wind South or West it is best if not go on having made many holes matter not the wind be sure to take the moneth of April for the work and take two or three of your roots as a great old Gardiner affirms which by this will yeeld green Sciences or whit buds and will have small beards growing out and joyn your sets together even in the tops and set them altogether bolt upright and there hold them in their place till you have filled the hole with good mould set low but just as the tops may be level with the ground and then after they must be covered two inches thick with fine mould be carefull you set not that end downward which before grew upward which you know by the bud growing upward and let no part of the dead stalk remaine upon the uppermost joynt thereof then press down the earth hard to the roots some will set them every one at a corner of the hole under the line which I rather encline to because they have room and stand round but if you plant late have green Springs upon them then be careful of not covering the Spring but to set more plants lest some should fail and in a bigger hole and round about the same set 8 some say ten or more which is thought tedious but I will make a tryal thereof it being the latest experimented in our dayes now at this time you need make no hills at all there as aforesaid Poultery must be preserved from scratting the Goose especially Now for poling if your distance be 3 yards or 8 foot then 4 poles are repuired else three wil serve but I encline to 6 or 7 foot distance and 4 poles and as many this year as any Alder poles are very good taper and rough and sutable to the Hops desire but you must take such as the Country will afford The time of cutting your poles is in December or November and then dress them and pile them up dry if you leave some twigs it will not do amiss For length 15 foot is a good length except your ground be very rich or your hills exceeding heightned or if they grow too thick your poles need to be the longer The Hop never stocketh kindly untill it reach higher than the pole and returneth a yard or two for whilst it is climbing the branches that grow out of the principal stalk grow little or nothing Your poles be strong 9 inches about the bottom they stand faster 150 poles make a load which may be worth a little more than ordinary wood a few wil supply the standing stock in setting your poles lay all to each hill you intend to set which speeds the work When your Hops appear as you discern where your principal root stands then set to poling having a orow of Iron to make entrance for the pole but if you stay longer then you will be more subject either by ramming or making holes to bruise the root or else they will not so easily catch the pole without flying Your foot of the pole must be set a foot and half deep and within 2 or three inches of the principal root but if your land be rocky then you must help your self by making your hill higher to strengthen your poles for which you must stay the longer too lest you bury your Sciences Your poles of each hill lean them rather outward one from another and then with a rammer ram them outward and not inward If a pole should break you take away the broken pole ty the top of those hops to the top of a new pole then winding it with the sun a turn or two set it in the hole but if you can take a stake and ty it too without wresting the wiers of it may do well to peece but if broken at the neather end shove the pole in again and if your poles break in the pulling up or will not be drawn by reason of drought or hardness you may make a pair of pinsors of 4 foot long with an iron runing hook upon them with a block laid under upon the top of the hil so coleweigh up your pole the mouth whereof made hollow And for laying up your poles the usual way is to ty two two
together in the top being set in 6 opposite hils so raise a little earth betwixt the hils as if they were but three hils and lay some hopbands upon the 3 hils under your hop-poles and so draw your tops nearer together or further off as you see cause When your hops are grown two foot high bind up with a rush or grass your binds to the poles as doth not of it self winding them as oft about the poles as you can wind them according to the course of the sun but not when the dew is upon them your rushes lying in the sun wil toughē And now you must begin to make your hils and for that purpose get a strong ho of a good broad bit cut or ho up all the grass in the borders between your hils therwith make your hils with a little of your mould with them but not with strong weeds the more your hils are raised the better the larger stronger grows your root bigger will be your fruit and from this time you must be painful in your garden and ever and anon till the time of gathering in raising your hils and clearing your ground from weeds In the first year suppress not one science suffer them all to climb up the poles should you bury the springs of any one of your roots it would dy so that the more poles are required to nourish the spring But after the first year you must not suffer above two or three stalks to grow up to one pole but pul down and bury all the rest Yet you may let them grow four or five foot long and then chuse out the best for use As soon as your pole is set you may make a circle how broad your hil shal be then hollow it that it may receive the moysture not long after proceed to the building of your hils And where you began or where your Hops are highest there begin again and pare again lay them to your Hops but lay the out-circle highest to receive moysture be alway paring up and laying it to the heap and with some mould untill the heap coms to be near a yard high but the first year make it not too high as you pass through your garden have a forked wand in your hand to help the hops that hang not right Now these hils must the next year be pulled down dressed again every year Some when their hop bind is 11 or 12 foot break off the tops which is better than they that have their poles so long as the hop runs but if that your hop by the midst of Iuly attain not to the top of your pole then break off the top of the same hop for then the rest of the time wil nourish the branches which otherwise wil lose al it being no advātage in running up to the stock or increase of the hop Now we come to the gathering of thē about Margarets day hops blow and at Lammas they bell but when your hops begin to change colour is a little before Michaelmas but long before som wil turn change grow ripe which howsoever the best way wil be to pul them not suffer thē to shed they are called Midsummer hops let them not grow til the other be ripe as soon as the seed of the rest begins to change then get pullers amain as many as you can taking a fair season note you were better to gather thē too early thā too late Therfore for neatness sake pul down four hils standing together in the midst of your garden cut the roots pare the same plot level throw water on it tread it sweep it and make it far wherein the hops must lie to be picked Then begin cut the stalks close by the tops of the hils cut thē asunder that grow one into another with a long sharp hook with a fork take them down you may make the fork hook one apt instrument with which you may shove off al from the pole carry it to the place But I have seen of late they carry pole all to the place and pick them off the pole strait fine poles is best for this way but cut no more stalks thā you can carry away in the space of one hour aforehand for either sun or rain will offend when they are off the pole you must all stand round the floor and speedily strip them in baskets for it is not hurtfull though some smaller leaves fall among them And clear your floor twice a day sweep it if the weather be unlike to be fair they may be carried into the house in blankets but use no linnen it will stain to purpose And if you pull them upon poles then lay them upon forked stakes dispatch thē be careful of wet lest they shed their seed which is the marrow of them When you have leisure take up your poles and pile them carry out your straw so depart your garden till March unless it be to bring in dung And for the advancement of your Hop-garden get dung into your gardē lay on some in winter for to comfort warm the roots your hills pulled down let your roots lye bare all winter season your old dung is best rather none than not rotten And in April help every hil with a handful or two of good earth when the hop is wound about the pole but in March you will find unless it hath been tilled all weeds but if you have pulled down your hils and layd your ground as it were level it will serve to maintain your hils for ever but if you have not pulled down your hils you should with your ho as it were undermine them round til you come near the principall and take the upper or younger roots in your hand and discerning where the new roots grow out of the old sets of which be careful but spare not the other but in the first year uncover no more thā the tops of the old Sets but cut no roots before the end of March or beginning of April The first year of dressing your roots you must cut away al such as grew the year before within one inch of the same every year after cut thē as close to the old roots those that grow downward are not to be cut they be those that grow outward which wil incumber your Gardē the difference between old new easily appears you wil find your old sets not increased in length but a little in bigness and in few years all your sets will be grown into one by the colour also the main root being red the other white but if this be not early done then they wil not be perceived if your Sets be small and placed in good ground the hill well maintained the new roots will be greater than the old if they grow to
wild hops the stalk will wax red pul it down plant new in their places As for the annuall charge of the Hop-garden after it is planted the dressing the hills the alleys the hoing them the poling and tying to the poles and ordeing the hops is usually done for 40. s. an Acre pulling drying and bagging by the day And so I shall proceed to the drying of them which may be done upon any ordinary kiln with any wood that is dry but not too old or else good sweet Rie straw will do wel but charcoal best of all They must be laid about 9 or 10 inches thick and dried a good while on that fide then turned upside down dried as much on the other side About 12 hours wil dry a kiln full which must be followed night and day then laid up in a close room upon a heap together for a month if your markets will give way to frume and forgive again When the stalk begins to be brittle the leaf also begins to rub then the hop is dryed sufficiently but tread them not while they are hot it wil tread thē to dust thē either against Sturbridge Fair or what other markets thou providest for thou mayst bag them up as close hard as is possible either to 200 or 200 a quarter in a bag as thou pleasest but the usuall bag is 200 a quarter And so I come to my third particular to shew you the profits advantages that are to be gained therby One acre of good hops may possibly be worth at a good market 40 50 or 60 pound An acre may bear 11 or 12 hundred weight possibly some have done more many ten but grant but eight hundred they are sometimes worth not above 1. l. 4. s. the hundred and some other times they have been worth 12 or 14. l. a hundred and usually once in three years they bring money enough It is an excellent commodity if curiously well husbandried I know in cōmon waies of opping a Gentleman hath made of two Acres and a rod 180. l. in one year the same ground hath after it hath been improved let for 50 l. per an to a Hop-master nay I beleeve I could easily presidēt you with 100. l. that hath bin made of one Acre may be more It is usually a very good commodity many times extraordinary and our nation may ascribe it unto it self to raise the best Hops of any other Nation The constant charge of a Hopgarden is usually known men order and dress thē at a rate by the Acre all the year And this very way I fear not to make out my Improvements promised CHAP. XXXVIII Treats of the mystery of Saffron and way of Planting of it THere is another very rich cōmodity wherin our nation hath the glory yet is a ver◠mystery to many parts of it they know not whether such a thing grows in England yet none such so good grows in the world beside that I have ever read of that is Saffron Now Saffron is a very soveraign and wholsom thing if it take right it is a very great advantage for price it hath its ebbings its flowings as almost all things have yet I would fain give encouragement to this Improvement also I shall briefly give you the story of it Good land that is of the value of 20. s. an Acre being well husbandryed tilled fitted or worser land being well manured brought to perfect tillage wil serve the turn but the better the better for the work The season is about Midsummer which it is to be set that being the season they usually take up or draw their sets or roots and old store when they may be had no time else The land being brought into perfect Tillage the best way is to make a tool like a ho in operation but as broad as six of thē it may be 15 or 18 Inches broad with that they draw their land into ranges open as it were a furrow about 2 or 3 inches deep there place their sets or roots of Saffron about 2 or 3 inches asunder which roots are to be bought by the strike sometimes dearer sometimes cheaper and are very like an Onion a little Onion about an inch and a half over and as soon as they have made one furrow all along their land from one end to another then they after that is set begin another and draw that which they raise next to cover this and so as they make their trench so they cover the other they keep one even depth as near as may be which ranges or furrows are not above three or four inches distance that so a hoe of two or three incnches may go betwixt them to draw up the weed which being set and covered it may come up that summer but it dies again yet it lives al winter grows green like Chives or small Leeks and in the begining of summer it dieth wholly the blade of it as to appearance that so one may come take a hoe draw all over it and cleanse it very purely and then will come up the flower without the leaf and in September the flower of it appears like Crocus that is blew and in the middle of it comes up two or three chives which grow upright together the rest of the flower spreads broad which chives that is the very Saffron no maore which you may take betwixt your fingers and hold it and cast away all the rest of the flower and reserve that onely and so they pick it and they must pick it every morning early or else it returns back into the body of it to the earth againe untill next morning and so from one to another for a months space will it bear Saffron you must get as many pickers as may overcome it before it strike in again at the very nick in the morning It will grow to bear 2 crops and then it must be taken up planted new again and then it will yeeld good store of sets to spare which cannot be had no other way it must be taken up at Midsummer and then set as aforesaid And when you have got your Saffron then you must set a drying of it and thus you must do make a kiln of clay not half so big as a Bee hive and very like it will be made with a few little sticks and clay and serve excellent well for this service a little small fire of charcole will serve to dry it and it must be carefully tended also Three pounds of wet Saffron wil make one of dry Saffron An Acre of Land may bear 14. or 15 l. of Saffron if very good but if but 7 or 8 l. it will do the work And one Acre of it wil be mannaged with no great charge I do not beleive it can come to 4 l. an