two ranges are sufficient for each Bed But be careful to keep them weeded and dug as often as they require it till the leaves cover the ground and are able to choke the weeds that grow under them If you make Pits in the places where you remove them aud bestow some good Soil as I described in Melons and Cucumbers they will the better answer your expectations for they will produce much fairer heads Cabbage Watring All sorts of Cabbages whatever they be must be carefully watred at first for a few dayes after their planting that they may take the better root which you shall then perceive when their leaves begin to erect and flag no longer upon the ground Sowing All kindes of Cabbages are to be sown upon the Melon bed whilst the heat remains that they may cheq and spring the sooner sowe them therefore very thin in travers lines cross your Melon bed In April you shall sowe fresh upon the same bed and place where your Melons and Cucumbers stood Birds Now forasmuch as the Birds are extreamly greedy to devour their seeds as soon as they peep because they bear the husk of it upon the tops of their leaves I will teach you how you may preserve them Some spread a Net over the Beds sustaining it half a foot above the surface others stick little Mills made of Cards such as Children in play run against the winde with and some make them with thin Chips of Firre such as the Comfit makers boxes are made withall tying to the tree or Pole which bears it some Feathers or thing that continually trembles this will extremely affright the Birds in the day time and the Mice in the night for the least breath of winde will set them a whirling and prevent the mischief Wormes There breeds besides in these beds a winged Insect and Palmer worms which gnaw your seeds and sprouts To destroy these Enemies you should place some small vessels as beâ—r glasses and the like sinking them about three fingers deeper then the surface of the bed and filling them with water within two fingers of the brim and in these they will fall and drown themselves as they make their subterranean passages Large sided cabbages The large sided Cabbages shall not be sowne till May because they are so tender and if they be strong enough to be removed by the begining of Iuly they will head in Autumn To my Gusto there is no sort of Cabbage comparable to them for they are speedily boyled and are so delicate that the very grossest part of them melts in ones mouth If you eat broth made of them Fasting with but a little bread in it they will gently loosen the belly and besides what ever quantity of them you eat they will never offend you Briefly t is a sort of Cabbage that I can never sufficiently commend that I may encourage you to furnish your Garden with them rather then with many of the rest VVhite cabbage Of the White headed Cabbage those which come out of Flanders are the fairest and of these one of the heads produced in a rich mould hath weighed above fourty pounds Those of Aubervilliers are very free and a delicate meate There is another sort of Cabbage streaked with red veines the stalk whereof is of a purple colour when you plant it and they seem to me the most naturall of all the rest for they pome close to the ground and shoot but few leaves before they are headed growing so extreamly close that they are almost flat at top Red cabbage The red Cabbage should likewise have a little place in your Garden for its use in certain diseases Pefumed cabbage There is yet another sort of Cabbage that cast a strong musky Perfume but bear small heads yet are to be prized for their excellent odor The pale tender Cabbages are not to be sown till August that they may be removed a little before the Winter where they may grow and furnish you all the winter long and especially during the greater Frosts which do but soften mellow and render them excellent meat They plant also all those Italian kindes of which the Pancaliers are most in esteem by reason of their perfum'd relish Planting To plant all these sorts of Cabbages the ground deeply trenched and well dunged beneath you shall tread it out into beds of four foot large and within a foot of the margent you shall make a small trench four fingers in depth and of half a foot large angular at the bottome like a Plough-Furrow new turned up In this Trench towards the Evening of a fair day you shall make holes with a Setting stick and so plant your Cabbages sinking them to the neck of the very tenderest leaves having before pared off their Tops Place them at a convenient distance according to their bignesse and spreading then give them diligent Waterings which you shall pour into these furrowes only since it would be but superfluous to water the whole bed A man may transplant them confusedly in whole quarters especially the paler sort for the frosts but it is neither so commodious as in beds for the ease of watring them nor for the distinction of their species Be carefull to take away all the dead leaves of your Cabbages as well that they may looke handsomely as to avoid the ill sents which proceed from their corruption which breeds and invites the Vermine Snaile Frogs and Toads and the like which greatly endamage the Plants Seed When their heads and pomes are formed if you perceive any of them ready to run to seede draw the plant half out of the ground or tread down the Stem till the cabbage inclines to one side this will much impead its seeding and you may mark those Cabbages to be first spent For the seeds reserve of your best Cabbages transplanting them in some warm place free from the Winter winds during the greater frosts and covering them with Earthen Pots and warm soyl over the pots But when the weather is mild you may sometimes shew them the ayr and reinvigorate them with the sun being carefull to cover them again in the evening least the frost surprise them Others you shall preserve in the house hanging them up by their rootes about a fourtnight that so all the water that lurks amongst the leaves may drop out which would otherwise rot them That season past bury them in ground half way the stalk ranging them so neer as they may touch each other For those which arive to no head you need only remove them or leave them in the places where they stand they will endure the Winter well enough and run to seed betimes When the seed is ripe which you will know by the drinesse of the swads which will then open of themselves you shall gently pull up the Plant drawing it by the stalks and lay them aslope at the foot of your Hedges or Walls to dry and perfect their maturity but it wâ—ll not be amisse to
ordered for if you desire them very fair transparent clean and long you must when you sowe your Melons in some part of the Bed whilst it yet remains warm make holes as deep as your finger three inches distant from each other In every of these holes drop in two Radish seeds and covering them with a little sand leave the rest of the hole open thus they will grow to the whole length of your finger higher then otherwise they would have done and not put forth any leaves till after they are come up above the level of the Bed When your Melons are transplanted you may sowe them upon their bed and in other open ground by even lines Seed Let the first sown run to seed and gather them when you first perceive their Swads below to open and shead then lay them to ripen and drie along your Hedges as I instructed you before The best seed which we have comes from the Gardens about Amiens where amongst their low grounds they raise that which is excellent At their first coming up they appear like the wilde but after the fourth or sixth leaf they grow very lusty provided they be well watered Turneps There are several sorts of Turneps which I shall not particularize I shall onely affirme that the lesser are the best and most agreeable to the tast the other being soft flashy and insipid Season You may sowe them at two seasons at spring and in the beginning of August All the difficulty is in taking the right time for if the weather prove wet the seed will burst and not sprout at all If too dry it will not come up and therefore if you perceive your first season to faile you shall give them a second digging or howing and sowe anew Vermine So soon as they come up and have two or four leaves if the weather be very dry the Ticquet or winged wormes and the flea will fall upon them and devoure them and all your paines therefore as I said if you see your first to have failed you must begin again To be excellent they must not remain above six-weekes in the ground least they become worm-eaten withered ill meat and full of strings Housing Houseâ—hem â—hem in Winter in your Cellar or some other place where they may be exempt from the frost and without any other trouble save laying them in heaps or bunches Seed For the seed reserve the biggest longest and brightest roots which you shal plant in the ground at spring and draw forth again when you perceive the pods to open then set them a drying and afterwards rub out the seed upon a sheet expos'd the remainder of the day to the sun to exhaust their moysture then having well cleansed it reserve it in some temperate place Parsly We will range Parsly also among the roots though its leafe be the most in esteem and used in severall dishes serving oftentimes instead of Pepper and spice Season When the frosts are past you shal sowe the greater and lesser sort of Parsly the Pennach't and the curled in ground deeply dug and well â—oyled that it may produce long and goodly roots Sow your seed upon your beds in each four lines the mould made very fine and well raked You may sow Leeks over them chopping them gently in with the rake only when all is clear cover the whole bed about two fingers thick with some dung of the old bed as wel to amend the ground as to preserve the seeds from being beaten out with the raine your watring and from bursting Dressing Now â—ince Parsly-seed lyes a moneth in the ground before it comes up the leeks will have time enough to spring and be sufficiently strong to be removed and when you pull them up for this purpose it will serve as a second dressing and weeding to your parsly and when by this means they are grown you may thin them where you perceive the plants come up too thick which will very much improve them You may cut the leaves when ever you have need without the least detriment to the plant rootes Leave the roots in the ground for your use because they daily grow bigger and that even all the winter long however you 'l do well to take as many up as you conceive you may need least when the earth is hard frozen you can procure none in case of necessity Seed For the seed let one end of your bed stand unpulled up till it is all ripe which you must set a drying as you did the others Skirret The Skirret comes of seed and of plants but the best and fairest of plants and of these those which they bring from Troyes in Champagne are most esteemed To plant them you must in spring the ground well dug and dressed make four small rills on each bed two fingers deep then make holes with the dibber at half inch distance setting in every hole two or three young Slips which you may take from the old plants being carefull to water them at the beginning Spending Draw them out of the ground according as you spend them the rest which you leave will grow bigger and in their season produce their â—eed Rampions Rampions though it be a plant very agreeable to the tast and which they have severall wayes of dressing Yet I will not spend time in teaching you how to order them since they grow wild in sufficient quantity and are not worth the trouble ofrâ—aising Jerusalem Artichocks Ierusalem Artichocks are round roots which come all in knots and are eaten in Lent like the bottomes of other Artichocks they need no great ordering and if they be planted in good ground they will flowrish exceedingly Seed They are raised of seed and planted in roots bearing flowers like a small Heliotrope in which there growes a world of seed Danger The Physitians say that the use of them is prejudiciall to the health and that they are therefore to be banished from good Tables SECT V. Of all sorts of Pot-hearbs Pot-herbs Beet-leeks WE will begin with the white Beet or Leeks as being the greatest of all the Pot-hearbs and of which there is more spent then of any of the rest The white Beet or Beet-Card for so some will call it in imitation of the Picards who really merit the honour to be esteemd the best and most curious Gardiners for herbs before any other of all the Provinces of France Be it that theâ—r soyle and climate produce more or that they are more industrious Their Hearbs are a great deal more fair and large then in other places Season I have seen of those amongst them that have been of eight inches Circumference or little lesse and in length proportionable to their thickness is to be sown at Spring when the Frosts are quite gone Transplanting You may make use of your Hedge-borders for this purpose and when they come to have six leaves you shall transplant them in ground that has been deeply trenched the Autumn before and lain mellowing all
sand in your Cellar as you do other Roots but first it ought to be almost white of it self The root is very much esteemed which has made me dubious whether I should not have placed it amongst them but I concluded it most properly reserved with the curled Succory in respect of their conformity as well in growing as in producing its seeds Sorreâ—l Of Sorrel we have very many kindes the Great the Lazy c. for as much as one leaf is sufficient for Pottage being so prodigiously large that they have some leaves seven inches broad and fifteen or eighteen long It is a sort which has been transported out of the Low-Countryes and I have had of the first A second kinde is another large Sorrel resembling Patience A third produces no seed but is propagated from the small side-leaves which it shoots when it begins to spread in the ground A fourth is the Small Sorrel which we have had so long in use A fift is the round-leaved Sorrel large and small which also does not seed but is to be raised of the little strings with which it o'respreads the ground and by little tendrels which grow about the plant and which you may take up in tuffts to furnish your beds withall A sixt is the Wild sorrel frequently found upon the up-lands and therefore not worth the paines to plant in gardens Lastly there is a seventh sort which bears a small traingular leafe called Alleluja it is very delicate and agreeable by reason of its acidity like the other sorrel for tast but excellent in pottage Farces and Sallades as being endowed with the same qualities and rellish of the other sorrels Soweing You may sow all those sorts which produce seed after the frosts in narrow rills four in a bed but be diligent to weed it lest it be overgrown when it is a little strong thin it a little that it may the better prosper and if you please you may furnish other beds with what you take away Transplanting But it is the best way if you would transplant it it to gather of the strongest and at the beginning of Autumn or spring make borders a part They doe well either way continue long in perfection even till ten or twelve years But then it will be fit to remove it because the ground will be weary of being alwayes burthened with the same plant and delights in diversity besides the rootes crowding and pressing one another cannot finde sufficient substance to nourish and entertain them Dressing They must be dug at least thrice a year which should be at the entry of the hard frosts you must shake some Melon bed dung upon them The Soyl of Poultry is excellent and makes it wonderfully flourish At this second digging you shall extirpate what ever you finde grow scatring out of range by the sheading of seed and geuld them also about cutting off all the leaves and stalks neer the ground before you cover them with the dung Seed The seed is easily gatherd from such as bear it for it runs up at Midd-Summer and when you see it ripe cut off the stalkes close to ground afterwards being dryed it soon quits the pouches cleanse it well and preserve it for use Patience Patience must be ordered like Sorrel The plant is not so delicious to the Palate however one would have a bed of it that your Garden may be compleat Borrage The Vertues of Borrage recommends it to your Garden though it impaire the colour of your Pottage darkning it a little The flowers of it are a very agreeable service to garnish the meate pottages Sallades and other dishes since by reason of their sweetnesse they may be eaten without any disgust Soweing It is to be sowâ—e in the spring like other herbs and may be left in the ground their hardy Roâ—ts supporting the hardest frosts sprouting a fresh in the Spring The Gardiners of Paris pull up the whole plant and sowe it many times in the year to have it alwayes tender For the ordering of it it is sufficient that it be gently houed and weeded Seed For the seed let the fairest plants run and when they are full ripe on the stalke gather and save it Buglosse Buglosse is to be govern'd like borrage and therefore I will spend no more time upon it Chervill Chervill besides what I told you before that you should sowe it upon Beds to compose swaller Salades at the end of Winter It will be good to sowe new from moneth to moneth though it be but little that you may still have it fresh and more tender then that which is old sowne The borders of your Wall-fruit and hedges may serve for this effect forasmuch as it cannot prejudice your Trees being so small and requiring so little substance for its growth and the small time of its Sojourne in a place Seed You shall let one end of your bed run to graine which will amply suffice to furnish you let it ripen well upon the stalke then pull it up or cut it and dry it perfectly before you reserve it There is another sort of Spanish Chervill which is called Mirrhis Odorata whose leafe much resembles Hemlock But very agreeable to the tast having a perfume like the green Anis and much pleasanter being a little chewed At the spring when it makes a shoot from its old stalke they cover it with small dung and then with hot soyl over to choke it that it may be fit for Salads It is infinitely to be preferred before Allisanders or the Sceleri of Italy Sowing You shall sowe it in spring in some place by it self and till it be come up do nothing to it besides cleansing it of weeds as they spring up it being some times a whole year under ground Seed The seed you shall gather in its season and order it as you do the rest Allisanders Allisanders are to be ordered as I now shewed you in Spanish Chervill only the seed of it does not ly so long hid and that it is not to be eaten till it be buryed under the dung or covered with pots like Succory Sceleri Italian Sceleri shall be treated after the same manner the shoot or stalke is that which is the most excellent in the plant because it is so delicate and tender Soweing These three last plants are not to be sowne every year but preserve themselves in the ground during Winter without prejudice Purslaine Of Purslaines I finde four sorts the greene and White and the Golden lately brought us from the Ilands of St. Christopher which is the most delicate of all the rest and lastly the small wild Purslain which the ground spontaneously produces and is therefore least esteemed Soweing It is to be sowne at spring upon the bed and all Summer long to have alwayes that which is tender bur first you must dig the earth well and throughly dresse it sprinkle your seed as thin as you can which is the more difficult to do because the
bends and wrests the trunck by reason of its weighty head which renders its top heavy and hinders the body of the tree of its growth because the sap speedily Passing upwards to the new shoots makes no halt by the way as it would doe if some of the young branches were left Nipping There is a season when to nip the bud and stop the trees whilst the sap is up and the buds which may in this case be taken away are such as most deforme the tree but you must ever spare those which will be fruit And to distinguish them one from the other such as have but one leafe apendant produce wood only whereas those which are fruitfull are plentifully furnished with leaves Pruning You may also prune off those yong shoots which are too exuberant and that may draw too much sap from the tree to the prejudice of the rest of the branches where therefore you observe this you shall stop them at the third or fourth knot and after it hath put forth its Sap. They use also to prune in Augustspring as well to impeach its unhandsome spreading as that it may ripen before Winter and not starve the branches below which must of necessity be cut off in February If you desire to make a plantation of great trees in an Orchard by themselves you must of necessity Graft them upon Freestocks and not upon the quince that is to say Pears and the Apples upon the Apples of Paradise for otherwise they will never become of any stature but will be low and shrubbie Distance You may Plant your Apple trees 30 foot distant and your Pears Plum-trees and other fruits 24 Forme and be carefull that you plant them in the quincunx that is in lines which mutually cut at right angles In such a plot of ground you may safely sow some seeds and pulse which will occasion you to open and stirr the ground for I advise you above all things not to permit any wild herbs or weeds in your Orchard rather restraine your self to a smaller circuit of ground which you may manage well then to undertake a larger and neglect it for want of dressing Great Orchards are admired but the smaller better cultivated and you shall receive more profit from a small spot well husbanded then from a large plantation which is neglected SECTION V. Concerning Graffs and the best directions how to choose them Graffing THere is a great deale of dificulty in the well choosing of Grafts for upon that does depend their earely bearing there being some which produce no fruit in ten or twelve years The best Grafts are those which grow upon the strongest and master branch of a tree which is wont to be a good bearer and such a one as does promise a plentiful burden that year and is thick of buds for hence it is that your young grafted trees have fruit from the second or third year and sometimes from the very first Whereas on the contrary if you take a graft from a young tree which has not as yet borne fruit that which you shall propagate from such a tree will not bear a long time after â—noculating The graffe or bud for the Scutcheon ought to be gathered in the moneth of August at the decrease and immediatly grafted or for a more certain rule without such notice of the Moon observe when your wild-stock and Free are in the Prime of their sap for the Escutcheon is allwaies fit enough but the wild-stock does frequently fail of being disposed to receive it for want of sap as it commonly happens in an extreame drie Summer where they shoot not at all or very little in the Agust-spring And therfore if you have many trees to graft loose no time and be sure to begin early Season You shall know whether your wilde-stock be in the vigour of his Sap by two indications The one is by making incision and lancing the bark with a Pen-knife and lifting it up if it quit the wood there is Sap sufficent but if it will not move readily you must attend till it ascend for it will else be but labour in vain and prejudice your Tree The other is when at the extremities of the branches of the wilde stock you see the leaves of the new Sap appear white and pallid it is a Symptome that the tree is in case and fit to graffe Choyce A Graffe for the Scutcheon shall be chosen from a Shoot or Syen of that year mature and very fair for there are many which are thin and meagre at the points and upon such you shall hardly finde one or two buds that are good gather it neer to the Shoot of the precedent year cutting the upmost point in case you may not take off the Scutcheons and cut away also all the leaves to a Moyety of the stalk And the reason why I oblige you to cut off the top of the Graffe and its leaves so far is because if you spare them they will wither and so drie all the graffe that it will not be possible to separate the Escutcheon from the wood and besides all the leaves are worth nothing Time If you defer your graffing till the morrow or some dayes after they are gathered you shall dip their ends in some vessel the water not above two inches deep till such time as you intend to graffe them but if you will graff them on the same day you need onely keep them fresh in some Cabbage leaves or moyst linnen clout Cleft Graffs for the Cleft are to be gathered in the wain of the Moon in Ianuary to the increase of it in February and so continuing from Moon to Moon till you perceive that the Sap being too strong in the Stock separates the Rinde from the wood Choyce To choose a Graff well for the Cleft my opinion is that it should have of the wood of the two saps of the precedent year whereof the oldest will best accommodate with the Cleft and the other will shoot and bud best though I do not utterly reprove the graffing of the wood though but of one year but the tree will not bear fruit so soon You shall gather your Graffs at the top of the fairest branches as I have formerly said and you shall leave three fingers length of the first Sap or old wood that you may cut your graffe with the greater case To conserve them till you graffe it is sufficient to cover them by bundles half wayes in the earth their kindes distinguished least if you should mingle them and should graffe of two sorts upon the same same tree you be constrained to cut one of them off since two several kindes of fruit do never agree well upon the same Stem the one hindring the other from arriving to its perfection by robbing it of the Sap. SECT VI. The manner how to graffe I Have never observed above four several necessary manners of graffing and from which you may hope for an assured success the
how you should better and improve your Garden at lesse charge and this I esteem sufficient for the raising of all sorts of pot herbs and pulse â—owing The winter intirely past you shall sow your Red Beets either upon Beds making holes with the setting stick fourteen or fifteen inches asunder and dropping 3 seeds into every hole or confusedly to be transplanted those which are not transplanted be subject to grow forked but those which you thus remove grow ordinarily longer and fairer because you will be sure to choose the likeliest plants Removing In removing the plants you shall practise the same rule that I shewed in Cabbages excepting only that you cut not off the tops Housing A little before the frosts you shall draw them out of the ground and lay them in the house burying their Rootes in the Sand to the neck of the Plant and ranging them one by another somewhat shelving and thus another bed of sand and another of Beets continuing this order to the last After this manner they will keep very fresh spending them as you have occasion and as they stand and not drawing any of them out of the middle or sides for choyce Seed For the Seed you shall reserve of the best and fairest Roots which you shall bury as you did the rest to replant in the Spring in some voyd place neer the borders of your fruit-hedges because there you may stop its growth which the windes would overthrow by reason of its overlopping and poize unlesse it be sustained except that you had rather place them in some Bed where you must support them with strong stakes for the purpose The Grain ripe pull up the Planâ—s and tye them to your Pole-hedg that they may dry and ripen with the more facility then rub it out gently 'twixt your hands and be sure to dry it well to preserve it from becoming musty Carrots Carrots and Parsneps are to be governed like Beets but are much more hardy and easily endure the Winter without prejudice till the Spring when they run up to seed and are then not to be eaten and therefore you shall draw your provisions in the Winter and preserve them for your spending as you did the Beets Season There are Carrots of three colours yellow white and red The first of these is the most delicate for the Pot or Inter-mess If you would have those that be very tender in May as the Picards and those of Amiens have them who put them in their Pottage instead of hearbs you must soyl the ground and prepare it by good dressing before Summer In August you shall sowe at the decrease of the Moon They will spring before Winter and when you cleanse them from weeds you must thin them where you finde they grow confusedly since you need not transplant them as you do your Beets Seed For the Seed chuse the very prime and longest Roots lay them all Winter in the Cellar and set them in the ground again at the Spring as you do Beets that they may run to seed and in case you leave any in the grouâ—d they will easily passe the winter without rotting and come to seed in their season but it is best to draw them out as I said that you may cull the best for propagation a Rule to be well observed in all sorts of Plants if you be ambitious to have the best Salsifix Garden Salsifix is of two sorts the common is of a Violet colour the other is yellow This is the Salsifix of Spain which they call Scorsonera they are different as well in leaf as in flower For the Violet have their leaf like the small five rib'd Plantine and those of the Yellow are much larger It is but very lately that we have had this Scorsonera in France and I think my self to be one of the first 'T is a Plant aboundantly more delicious then the common Salsifix and has preheminence above all other Roots that it does not lye in the ground as other roots which become stringy and endure but a year Leave these as long as you please in the Earth they will dayly grow bigger and are fit to eat at all seasons though it yearly run up to Seed Dressing 'T is good to scrape off the brown crusty part of the Rinde from whence they derive their name Scorfonera and to let them soak a while in fair water before you boyl them because they cast forth a little Bitternesse which they will else retain and that the common Salsifix is free of which being simply washed are boyled and the Skin peeled off afterward Season There are two seasons of sowing in the Spring and when the Flower is past letting the seed flye away for the more uniformity they are sown in Lines upon Beds four rankes on a bed When they blowe you must Raile about your bed with stakes and poles like a pole hedg for fear the wind breake their stalks and fling them downe to the great prejudice of your seed But the common salsifix does flower before the Spanish Seed To gather the seed you must be sure to visit your salsifix four or five times a day for it will vanish and flie away like the down or Gossemeere of Dandelyon and therefore you must be watchfull to gather all the beards and taking them with the tops of your fingers pluck out the seed as soon as ever you perceive their heads to grow downy which you shall put into some earthen pot which must stand ready neer the bed that you may not be troubled to carry it in and out so often covering it with a tyle to keep out the raine c. Radishes There are three sorts of Radishes The Horse-Radish the Black-Radish and the Small ordinary eating radish Horse-radishes The Horse-radish is a grosse kinde of food very common in Limoges amongst the poorer people who diversly accommodate them by boyling frying and eating them with oyle having first cut them in slices and soaked them in water to take away their rankness You may sowe them all Ialy even to three lines that in case the first crops do not prosper the other may They affect a sandy ground well soyled and turned up two or three times and so they will come very fair there are some that are as big as a twopeny loafe You must draw them out of the ground before the frosts and conserve them in a warme place as you do your Turneps Seed For their seed you need only leave the fairest in the ground which will passe the Winter well enough and produce you their seed in their season but the most certain way is to transplant some of the biggest as soon as the hard Frosts are past The Black Radish is little worth but they are raised as the smaller are Small raddish Sowing The Small Radish or little Rabbon may be sown at every decrease of the Moon from the time you begin your hot Melon-Bed to the very end of October They are several wayes
the Winter Before you remove them soyl the ground very well and then giving it another digging turn the dung into the bottom then taking them out of your Nursery beds cut off their tops and transplant them in quarters two ranges in a Bed and a yard distant making a small Trench or Line as I shewed before concerning removing of Cabbages which I forbear to repeat to avoid prolixity If you would have them abound in fair Cards you must keep them well hou'd Weeded and watred when you perceive they need it Gathering You must not cut them when you gather but pull them off from the plant drawing them a little aside and so you shall not injure the stalk but rather improve those which remain a little time will repair its loss Plant not those for Cards which you shall finde green for they degenerate Sowing You may sowe them all the Summer that you may have for the Pot and to farce such as are tender also at the end of August which you may let stand all the winter as a Nursery and transplant at Spring which will furnish you with Leeks very early red Beets There is a Red Beet if you desire to have of them for Curiosity rather then for use because they produce but small Cards which being boyled lose much of their tincture becoming pale which renders them lesse agreeable to the Palat and to the Eye then the white Seed For the Seed leave growing of the whitest and largest without cropping any of their leaves which you shall support with a good stake lest its weight overthrow it to the prejudice of the Seeds which would then rot in lieu of ripening Two Plants are sufficient to store you amply which you shall pull up in fair weather when by the yellownesse of the colour you shall judge it to be ripe and lay a drying afterwards rub out the seeds with your hands upon some cloth and cleansing it from the husks give it a second drying lest it become musty for being of a spongy substance as the Red Beets are it will continue a long time moyst Orache There is another sort of Beets which is called Oracke very agreeable to the taste it is excellent in Pottage and carryes its own Butter in it self it is raised as the former is excepting only that you may plant it neerer and needs no transplanting 't is sufficient that it be weeded and houed when there is cause Succory There are several kindes of Garden Succories different in leaf and bignessâ— but resembling in taste and which are to be ordered alike Season Sow it in the Spring upon the borders when it has 6 leaves replant it in rich ground about 18 inches distance paring them at the tops When they are grown so large as to cover the ground tye them up as I instructed you before where I treated of Rom Lettuce not to bind them up by handfuls as they grow promiscuously but the strongest forwardest at first letting the other fortifie I remit you thitherto avoâ—d repetition It is in the second Section Art Lettuce where you will also finde the manner of whiting it under earthen Pots Blanching There is yet another fashion of Blanching it In the great heats when instead of heading you perceive it would run to seed hollow the earth at one side of the Plant and couch it down without violating any of the leaves and so cover it leaving out only the tops and extremity of the leaves and thus it will become white in a little time and be hindred from running to seed Those who are very curious bind the leaves gently before they interre them to keep out the Grit from entring between them which is very troublesome to wash out when you would dresse it Remember to couch them all at one side one upon another as they grew being planted beginning with that which is neerest the end of the Bed and continuing to lay them the second upon the first and the third upon the second till you have finished all the ranges I finde likewise two other manners of blanching them for the Wintâ—r The first is at the first frosts That you â—ye them after the ordinary way and then at the end of eight or ten dayes plucking them up couch them in the bed where you raised them from seeds making a small trench cross the Bed the height of your plant which will be about eight inches beginning at one end In this you shall range your plants side by side so as they may gently touch and a little shelving this done cover them with small rotten dung of the same bed Then make another Furrow for a second range in which order lay your plants as before continuing this order til you have finish'd and last of all cover the whole bed four fingers thick with hot soyl fresh drawn out of the Stable and in a short time they will be blanched If you will afterwards cover the Bed with some Mats placed aâ—lant like the ridge of a house to preserve them from the rain they will last a very long time without rotting When you would have any of them for use begin at the last which you buried and taking them as they come draw them out of the range and break off what you finde rotten upon the place or that which has contracted any blacknesse from the dung before you put it into your Basket for the Kitchen Housing A second manner of preserving it is to interre it as before in Furrows of Sand in the Cellar placing the root upmost lest the Sand run in between the leaves and you finde it in the Dish when they serve it You need not here bestow any Dung upon them it is sufficient that the Sand cover the Plant four fingers high and when you take it out for use before you dresse it shake it well the Root upmost that all the Sand may fall out from the leaves Take them likewise as they happen to lye in the Ranges There is a kinde of Succory which hardens of it self without binding which is a small sort but very much prized for its excellence Seed For the Seed leave of the fairest Plants growing and particularly such as you perceive would whiten of themselves and head without tying Let it well mature though it a little over ripen since it is not subject to scatter and fall out as many others are On the contrary when being exceedingly dryed you shall lay it upon the Barn-floor you shall have much adoe to fetch out the Seeds from the heads though you thrash it with a Flail Endive Of Endive or wilde Succory some of it bears a blew Flower others a white it is to be governed like the Garden but with lesse difficulty for you need only sowe it in a small Rill weeding houing and thinning it in due season Blanching Housing To blanch it cover it only with reasonable warm dung and drawing it out at the first appearance of Frost keep it under
A Hertochs fecit The French GARDINER INSTRUCTING How to Cultivate all sorts of FRUIT-TREES AND HERBS for the GARDEN TOGETHER With directions to dry and conserve them in their Natural Three times printed in France and once in Holland An accomplished Piece First written by R. D. C. D. W. B. D. N. And now Transplanted into English by PHILOCEPOS LONDON Printed by I. C. for Iohn Crooke at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard 1658. TO My most Honour'd and Worthy Friend THOMAS HENSHAW Esquire Sir I Have at length obey'd your Commands only I wish the Instance had bin more considerable though I cannot but much approve of the designe and of your election in this particular work which is certainly the best that is exstant upon this Subject notwithstanding the plenty which these late years have furnish'd us withal I shall forbear to publish the accident which made you engage me upon this Traduction because I have long since had inclinations and a design of communicating some other things of this nature from my own experience and especially concerning the Ornaments of Gardens c. Because what respects the Soyle the Situation and the planting is here performed to my hand with so muâ—h ingenuity as that I conceive there can very little be added to render it a piece absolute and without reproach In order to this my purpose was to introduce the least known though not the least delicious appendices to Gardens and such as are not the Names only but the Descriptions Plots Materials and wayes of contriving the Ground for Parterrs Grotts Fountains the proporâ—ions of Walks Perspectives Rocks Aviaries Vivaries Apiaries Pots Conservatories Piscina's Groves Crypta's Cabinets Eccho's Statues and other ornaments of a Vigna c. without which the best Garden is without life and very defective Together with a Treatise of Flowers and Ever-greens especially the Palisades and Contr-Espaliers of Alaternus which most incomparable Verdure together with the right culture of it for beauty and fence I might glory to have been the first propagator in England This I say I intended to have published for the benefit or divertisement of our Country had not some other things unexpectedly intervened which as yet hinder the birth and maturity of that Embryo Be pleased Sir to accept the productions of your own Commands as a Lover of Gardens you did promote it as a Lover of you I have translated it And in the mean time that the Great ones are busied about Governing the World which is but a Wildernesse let us call to minde the Rescript of Dioclesian to those who would perswade him to re-assume the Empire For it is impossible that he who is a true Virtuoso and has attain'd to the felicity of being a good Gardener should give jealousie to the State where he lives This is not Advice to you who know so well how to cultivate both your self and your Garden But because it is the only way to enjoy a Garden and to preserve its Reputation Sir I am Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant J. E. TO THE READER I Advertise the Reader that what I have couched in four Sections at the end of this Volume under the Name of an Appendix is but a part of the third Treatise in the Original there remaining three Chapters more concerning Preserving of fruits with Sugar which I have therefore expresly omitted because it is a Mysterie that I am little acquainted withall and that I am assured by a Lady who is a person of quality and curious in that Art that there is nothing of extraordinary amongst them but what the fair Sex do infinitely exceed whenever they please to divertise themselves in that sweet employment There is also another Book of the same Author intituled Les delices de la Campagne or the Delights of the Countrey being as a second Part of this wherein you are taught to prepare and dresse whatsoever either the Earth or the Water do produce Dedicated to the good Housewives There you are instructed to make all sorts of French Bread and the whole Mysterie of the Pastry Wines and all sorts of drinks To accommodate all manner of roots good to eat cocking of Flesh and Fish together with precepts how the Major Domo is to order the services and treat persons of quality at a Feast a la mode de France which such as affect more then I and do not understand in the Original may procure to be interpreted but by some better hand then he that did the French Cook which being as I am informed an excellent Book of its kinde is miserably abused for want of Skill in the Kitchin If any man think it an employment fit for the Translator of this former part it will become him to know that though I have some experience in the Garden and more divertisement yet I have none in the Shambles and that what I here present him was to gratifie a noble Friend who had only that empire over me as to make me quit some more serious Employments for a few dayes in obedincâ— to his command Farewell THE French Gardiner The first Treatise SECTION I. Of the Place of the Earth and mould of the Garden together with the means to recover and meliorate ill ground Site ALL those who have written concerning the husbandry of the Countrey have accompanied it with so many insupportable difficulties about the disposition of the Edifices and other parts appertaining to the Demesnes that it were altogether impossible to accommodate a place sutable to their prescription forasmuch as the Situations never perfectly correspond to their desires and therefore I shall by no means oblige you to the particular Site of your Garden you shall make use of the places as you finde them if already they are laid out or else you shall with good advice prepare a new one in some part that lyes most convenient to your Mansion Soile Touching the Ground if you meet with that which is good it will be to your great advantage and much lessen your expence but it is very rarely to be found where the land doth not require a great deale of labour for many times the surface of the ground shall be good which being opened the depth of a spade-bit onely will be found all clay underneath which is a more pernicious mould for Trees then the very Gravell it self since in Gravell the rootes may yet encounter some smal veynes for their passage in searching the moysture beneath from whence to draw nourishment but the Clayie which is a sort of earth wherewithall the Bakers of Paris do make the hearths of their Ovens is like a board so thick and hard that the roots cannot Peirce it and in the extraordinary heats of Sommer it hinders the moysture which is below that it can by no means penetrate in so much as the Trees and other plants become so extreamely drie that instead of advancing their growth they altogether languish and in concâ—usion perish Dressing
For redresse of this defect there is onely one expedient and that is by hollowing and breaking up the ground 3 or 4 foot deep beginning with a trench 4 or 5 foot large the whole length of the place that you will thus open casting the several moulds all upon one side and thus when your trench is voyded and emptied to the depth which you desire you shall cast in long dung of the Marc or husks of the wine-presse or Cider and fearne which if you can commodiously procure is of all other composts the best leaves of trees even to the rotten sticks and mungy stuffe to be found under old wood piles mosse and such like Trash in fine whatever you can procure with the most ease and least charge for all the design in this stirring the ground is onely to keep it hollow that so the moysture beneath may invigorate the Trees and plants during the excessive drouths You shall therefore lay it halfe a foot thick at the bottome of your Trench and afterwards dig a second of the same proportion casting the mould which lies uppermost and which is ever the best upon the dung and so making this Second trench as deep as the former you shall fill your first trench and the mould which you found undermost shall now lye on the top thus continuing your Trenches till you have finished the whole piece Peradventure you may object that the earth which you take from beneath will be barren I confesse with you that for the first year the goodnesse of it will not appear but when with that little amendment which you bestow upon it it shall be mellow'd by the rains and frosts of one Winter it shall produce abundantly more then what before lay above which being exhausted and worn out through the long usage hath certainly lost a great part of its vertue Neither are all Seasons proper for this Labour because during the great heats This earth is so extreamely hard and bound that neither Crow nor Pick-axe can enter it The Winter is then the most convenient season of all other for as much as the Autumn raines having well moystned the earth it is dug with the more facility and besides the rain the snow and the frosts which are frequent in that season contribute much to the work nor are Labourers being at that time lesse imployed so chargable as when they work in the Vineyards and during August when they are hardly to be procured for money As concerning the bottom where you encounter with Gravell you shall husband it as we have allready described by breaking it and the stones that are mingl'd in the ground shall be carried out of the Garden But in case the gravell lie not very thick and that when it is broken up you arrive at sand or to another smaller loose gravell it shall suffice that it be broken up without flinging out of the trench since the Trees will shoot sufficient rootes amongst this smaller graâ—vell by reason of the moysture which the duug lying above them will coutribute You must remember to lay excellent dung half consumed at the bottome of such Trenches out of which you have cast the gravell to the end that the rain and all other refreshings may the more easily passe through it especially if it be of the huskes of the presse fearne and the like such as we have already mentioned You will object I suppose that to trench and dresse a whole Garden in this manner is to engage one into an extraordinary expence I grant it indeed but it is once for all and the emolument which will result from one such Labour will recompence the charge an hundred fold since the Trees will be more beautifull without mosse or galls and without comparison produce their Fruits abundantly more faire then those which are planted in a ground which is not thus dressed Artichocks Leekes and other rootes grow there to a monstrous bignesse briefly you will finde your self so extreamely satisfied perceiving the difference to what your Garden produced before it was thus loosened that you will have no cause to regret your expences However if you would be yet more thrifty I shall instruct you how by another expedient you may amend your Garden with lesse charge but withall as the expence will not be so great so neither will the product be so faire Of this I purpose to treate hereafter in the planting of pole-hedges and the Kitchen-garden Many that are curious do extreamely exceed all this for they passe all their Earth through a Hurdle to cleer it from the stones which is done by placing the Hurdle or Cive upon the margent of the Trench and so shoveling the mould to the top of the Cive the earth passes and the stones rolle to the foot of the Cive which are afterwards carried forth of the Garden The forme of this Cive is a frame joyned together two Inches thick six-foot high and five foot in breadth which shall have two crosse quarters within the height of the same bignesse of the frame and all the four crosse peices shall be equally bâ—ared about the bignesse of those sticks which the Chandlers use to make their Candles on these holes must be a fingers thicknesse distant one from another and in them you shall fit sticks of Dog-wood because it is tough and very hard when it is dry and which will endure longer without breaking then any other Note that both the top and the bottome of your frame must be pierced quite through that when any of the sticks are broken you may put new ones in their places fastning them with small wedges at the extreames SECT II. Of Espaliers or Wal-fruit and of single pole-hedges and shruls Wall-fruit â—edges WAl-fruits being the principal ornament of Gardens it is most reasonable that we should assigne them the most eminent place and give a full description of them as being indeed the subject upon which I determine chiefly to discourse in this first Treatise By Espalier we mean those Trees with which the Wals of Gardens be adorned and furnished To bring this to perfection you must make a Large trench as I have described it before If the ground be of Clay you are to husband it as hath bin spoken of Clay and if of a rocky nature as of rocky But you shall leave one foot of Earth unbroken next to the wal for fear least you indanger the foundation and after having layed a bed of Dung of halfe a foot thick at the bottome of your trench you shall cast thereupon of the very best mould which came forth of the Trench to the thicknesse of a foot This done you shall marke out the places where you design to plant your Trees which shall be at a reasonable distance That of twelve foot to me seems the most convenient but this at your owne discretion I shall oblige you to no Law every man hath his particular fancy but my opinion is that if they are planted
small stock one would not leave them so long as upon a great tree Thus prepared you shall open the Stock with a small wedge made of some tough wood such as Box Ebony or the like striking it in gently and then lodge your graffe at the edge of your Stock sinking it down as far as the new wood and place it so that the parts through which the Sap has intercourse which is mutual 'twixt the wood and the bark do exactly correspond Having thus lodged your Graffe you may place a second on the other end of the Cleft alway remembring to put two Graffs into every Cleft provided that you can so place them that they be not contiguous for by this means they will sooner recover their stock then if there were but one because the Sap ascends equally on both sides and preserves the back side of the rinde from withering as we have already said After this you shall cover what remains of the Cleft 'twixt the two Graffs with a little of the thinnest and most tender Bark joyning it accurately to keep the water from entering in then you shall make the Hood with fine earth and Hay some cover the hood with mosses and with two short Willow-rinds laid ' thwart one another bind them on with an Ozyer to the foot of the Stock to maintain them the more fresh and preserve them from the water When you graffe upon great Trees you shall choose the smoothest and most even branches to place your Graffs upon if they be very big you may lodge four upon it making the Cleft in forme of a Crosse yet without touching the Pith of the tree the remanent branches which you do not graffe must be sawed off within half an inch of the Stem and then paring away the wood which the saw may have grated you shall swathe it about with Loam till the Bark have healed the wound to guard it from the scorching of the Summer and the frost of the winter which would exceedingly prejudice it by penetrating to the very heart of the tree It will be good to apply some stayes to the branches which are graffed to strengthen the young shoots and secure them from the windes till the second year be past and that they are well established and if you finde any that grows disorderly you shall cut it off as also if they come too thick and choke one another by this means giving free Air to the tree Upon your small wilde stocks which will support but a single graffe you shall cut the hinder part where you might place a second to the very heart of the stock slanting it in like that part of a Pipe which is applied to the nether Lip this will greatly contribute to its recovery And When you graffe small stocks which have not strength enough to fasten their graffs you shall assist them by binding them about with some tender twig of an Ozier Now albeit I did oblige you to choose a graffe with the old wood yet I would not have you to cast away that which is but of one Sap nor the cuttings of those where you took the graffes of the two Saps because they are excellent however they produce their fruit something later then the oher nor do they bear so great a burthen and therefore unless it be in case of necessity I would only use those which are of two saps Crown Graffing in the Crown or 'twixt the wood and the bark is never practised save upon old trees whose rinde being very tough can indure the wedg without splitting and which will not suffer the cleaving by reason of the thicknesse of the bark but with much difficulty and besides it is a great hazard if it takes To graffe in the Crown having sawed your tree at the place where you would graffe it and pared away the raggednesse which the saw hath left to the quick especially about the Bark you shall cut and sharpen your graffe but on one side then strâ—ke in a small Iron wedge 'twixt the wood and the rinde and so taking out the wedge set in your graffe rinde to rinde and wood to wood to the full depth that it is sharpned Thus you may place as many as you please about the Trunk provided that their number do not split off and cleave the Bark Approch To graffe by Approch it is very easy For you have only to take two young branches one of the free and graffed and the other of the wilde stock without separating them from their Stems and then paring away about four fingers breadth of bark and wood till you approch neer to the pith and so marry them together as dextrously as 't is possible tying them about with raw Hemp from one end of the Cut to the other and so let them remain for two Saps then after a moneth or six weeks are expired if you perceive the wood to swell and that the Ligature incommode them you shall cut it upon the wilde stock with one gash of your Knife as we taught you before on the Scutcheon At the beginning of Winter you may cut and sever the natural tree from its stock and cut away the head of the stock within two inches of its graffe and thus these two twigs concorporating it will receive tâ—e nourishment of the wilde stock Râ—member to cover the wounds of them both with the Wax which I shall hereafter instruct you how to make You shall not cast those twigs into the fire which you cut off from the Quince which you graffed in the Cleft for you may reserve the cuttings which will strike root the first year and must be set in your Nursery to be graffed when they are ready and what you prune off from the Qâ—ince trees during Winter will be very good for this purpose The Prunings of the Pomme de Parradis which they call the Scion will also take in Layers Cuttings Layers All sorts of Cuttings are to be planted in a small Trench such as we described in the Nursery which may be about the breadth and depth of a sâ—ade-bit but first strip off the leaves and cut them slanâ—ing at the great ends in form of a Does foot and so you shall lay them at the bottom of your Trench very thick one by anâ—ther because there will many of them die and let their small ends appear above ground and so cover them and fill the Trench pressing it well down upon the Cutting that the Ayr do not enter and when you dress them cleanse them only with a haw that the weeds do not choke them and it will suffice Then cut off the tops of your Layers all of an evennesse within three fingers of the ground and that especially when you perceive the Sap to be rising which you shall finde by the verdure of their Buds which never shoot when the Scion begins to take root You may not cut or stop the first years Shoots fearing lest they put forth their Buds beneath at
the cause proceed from corrupted Water you must divert it with a trench Moles To take the Moles some place a Butter-Pot crosse their passage sinking it two fingers lower then the tract by which meanes they often fall in and perish Others use a pipe of wood of about two foot long and the bore as big as your wrist In this trunk is a small tongue of tin or thin plate of Iron within four fingers of either end which is fastned to the trunk with a wyer a little slanting at the bottom towards the middle of the pipe that so the Mole entring in and thrusting the tongue can neither get out at one end or other You must place this trunke exactly in the Moles passage Some to make them quit an obstinate haunt make a small hoop of elder which they six halfe a foot into the ground But the most infallible way is to watch them in the Morning and Evening when they worke in their Hills and to fling them dextrously out with the spade If you take any alive put them in an empty butterpott for they report that they will invite others by their cry who running through the same passage fall into the same pot and so are caught They are destroyed likewise with Mole-graines which is a set of sharp Iron points skrewed upon a staffe which struck upon the hill when the mole is working does certainly pierce him through amaze or kill as you shall finde if you dig immediatly after it Mice Field-nice are best taken by making them a small hutt of ferne or straw like the cover or hack of a Bee-hive placing under it some vessell full of Water filled within 4 fingers of the brim and cover it with some husks of Oats to hide the water which will soon tempt them to wallow in 't and â—earch for the grain and so drown themselves It is good also to put some Wheat-ears or of oates which may hang near the middle of the vessell without touching it for the mice striving to come at the corne will fall into the water Or you may Poyson them with Arsenick or Ratts-bane the powder of it mingled with grease but you may by this means endanger your Catts which finding and eating the dead mice will not long survive them Worms The Worme getts sometimes between the barke and body of a tree if you can discover whereabout they lie you may soon draw them out without making any great incision There is also another kind of small worme which they call the Nip-bud which breeds at the very poynt of young shoots and kills all their tops but these are easily destroyed for cutting the branch to the quick you shall be sure to find them There is a Green-worme which devoures the young shoots as fast as they grow and those are very hard to un-nestle unless you daub them with quick-lime newly quinched which you may easily do with a small Painters brush Ants. Ants and Pismires will forsake their haunt if you incompasse the stemme four fingers breadth with a circle or roule of Wooll newly plucked from a Sheeps belly or if you anoint it with tarre But there is an other expedient more cleanly and not so difficult which is to make little boxes of cards or Pastboard pierced full of holes with a bodkin every box having a baite of the powder of Arsenick mingled with a little hony these boxes must be hung upon the tree and this wil certainly destroy them but you must be carefull that you do not make the holes so large that a Bee may enter least they poison themselves also A Glasse-bottle with a little hony in it or that has had any other sweet liquor in it fastned to the Tree will attract all the Ants which you may stop and kill them by washing the bottle with a little hot water then carrying it to its place again rinced with a little sweet Syrup you will by this meanes intirely destroy them Snails Shell-sâ—ailes you may easily gather from behinde the leaves which grow neerest to the fruit which they begun to eat the night before For yor shall find some fruit half devoured in one night insomuch as one would think it the work of some Stotes Field-rats or Nut-mouse whereas indeed they are nothing but the snailes which in great numbers devonr as much as one of those animals You should never pluck off the fruit which the Snails or other Vermine have begun for as long as they last they will not touch any of the rest The Black Snails without shell are easily gathered for they cleave to the leaves and feed upon them Woodlice Earwigs As for Wood-lyce Earwigs Martinets and the smaller insects which likewise infest Trees you shall place Hoâ—fs of Bullocks Sheep or Hogs upon short stakes fixed in the Ground or upon the Ozyers which fasten your Palisades and wall-fruit and this Chase will employ two men from Morning break who must take them gently but speedily off and shake them into a kettle of scalding water which they are to carry with them or the other may bruise such as are likely to escape with some instrument of wood Cater-pillars Caterpillars are easily gathered off during all the Winter taking away the Packets which cleave about the Branches and burning them but if you neglect this till they are disclos'd you will not be able to destroy them without much difficulty but in case you have not prevented it be diligent to take them whilst they are yet young when either through the coldnesse of the Night or some Humidity they are assembled together in heaps for otherwise when the Sun is hot and that it is high day they will have over-spread your Trees And the destruction of these Vermine is so absolutely necessary that you shall quit all manner work to accomplish it for a Garden anoy'd with this plague but one year only shall resent it more then three years after And now we will shut up this Treatise with the Receipt which I promised to give you of the Composition to cover your Graffs The composition to hood your Grafs Take then half a pound of new Wax as much Burgundy Pitch two ounces of ordinary Turpentine melt all these Ingredients in a new earthen Pot glazed sufficiently stirring it then let it cool at least twelve hours then break it into pieces and hold them in warm water half an hour where you must work it with your hands till it become very pliable Or you may dip any Clouts in this Composition and afterwards cut them out into Plasters fitted to the wounds of your Trees which will lesse waste your store and not take up so much of your Composition as if you applyed it in morsels and you may make use of this Cerecloth to cover the Clefts of your Trees which gape between a Stock that hath two Graffs and secure it from the rain and you may winde it about the Hoods before you daub them with Loam and Hay and this will
of the trench for that when you dig up the Allyes you may in time reduce them to a foot and a half wide casting the earth upon the quarters and then cutting above a foot large on either side of your aspargus where the earth was heaped up your plants will shoot innumerable roots at the sides of the Alleys You shall plant a third range in the midst between the two which we have named It will be expedient to place them in Crosse squares that the rootes being at a convenient distance they may extend themselves through all the bed Some curious persons put rammshorns at the bottome of the trench hold for certaine that they have a kind of Sympathie with Asparagus which makes them prosper the better but I refer it to the experienced Dressing They will need dressing but three times a year The first when the Arsparagus have done growing The second at the beginning of Winter and the last a little before they begin to peep At every one of these dressings you shall something fill and advance your beds about four fingers high with the earth of your Allyes and over all this spread about two fingers thick of old dung Three years you must forbear to cut that the plant may be strong not stubbed for otherwise they will prove but small And if you spare them yet four or five years longer you will have them come as big as leeks after which time you may cut uncessantly leaving the least to bear seed and that the plant may fortifie During these four-years observing to give them the severall dressings as I have declared your bed will fill and your paths discharged of their mould you may dig them up and lay some rich dung underneath You know that the plants of Asparagus spring up and grow perpetually and therefore when the mould of your Alleyes is all spent upon the beds you must of necessity bring earth to supply them laying it upon the bed in shape like the lid of a truncke otherwise they will remaine naked and perish Cutting When you cut your Asparagus remove a little of the earth from about them lest you wound the others which are ready to peep and then cut them as low as you can conveniently but take heed that you do not offend those that lye hid for so much will your detriment be and it will stump your plant Such as you perceive to produce onely small ones you shall spare that they may grow bigger permitting those which spring up about the end of the season in every bed to run to seede and this will exceedingly repayr the hurt which you may have done to your plants in reaping their fruit SECT III. Of Cabbages and Lettuce of all sorts Cabbage THere are so many severall sorts of Cabbages that you shall hardly resolve to have them all in your Garden for they would employ too great a part of your ground and therefore it will be best to make choyce of such as are most agreable to your tast and that are the most delicate and easiest to boyle since the ground which produces them the water which boyles them renders them either more or lesse excellent Seed We have seede brought us out of Italy and we have some in France those of Italy are the Coleflower those of Rome Verona and Milan The Bosse the long Cabbage of Genoa the curled and others In France we have the ordinary headed Cabbage of severall sorts and some that do not head at all and therefore I think it necessary to treat here particularly of them all as briefly as I can Coleflowers I will begin with Coleflowers as as the most precious Seed They bring the seede to us out of Italy and the Italians receive it from Candia and other Levantine parts not but that we gather as good in Italy and France also but it dos not produce so large a head and is subject to degenerate into the bosse cabbages and Naâ—ets and therefore it were better to furnish one self out of the levant either by some friend or other correspondent at Rome The Linnen Drapers and Millaners of Paris can give you the best directions in this affaire which traffick in those places Linnen Lace and Gloves To discover the goodnesse of the seed which is the newest it ought to be of a lively colour full of oyle exactly round neither shrivled small or dried which are all indications of its age but of a broun hue not of a bright red which shews that it never ripened kindly upon the stalke Sowing Being thus provided with good seede sow it as they do in Italy or France The Italians sow it in cases and shallow tubes in the full moon of August It comes speedily up and will be very strong before Winter when the Frosts come remove them into your Cellar or Garden-house till the Spring and that the Frosts are gone and then transplant them into good mould thus you shall have white very fair heads and well conditioned before the great heats of Sommer surprize them The Italians stay not so long as till their heads have attained their utmost growth but pull them up before and lay them in the Cellar interring all their roots and stalks to the very head ranging them side by side and shelving where they finish their heads and will keep a long time whereas if they left them abroad in the ground the heats would cause them run to seed The French are satisfyed to have them by the end of Autumn keeping them to eat in the Winter not but that being early raised they have some which head about Iuly but the rest grow hard and tough by reason of the extream heat and improve nothing for want of moysture producing but small and trifling Heads and most commonly none at all And therefore I counsel you to sowe but a few upon your first Bed in the Meloniere thinly sowing them thinly in liâ—es four fingers asunder and covering them with the mould Two or three ridges shall abundantly suffice your store Towards the end of April when your Melons are off from their beds and transplanted you may renew your sowing of Coleflowers as you were taught before these will head in Autumn and must be preserved from the Frosts to be spent during the Winter Removing You must stay before you remove them till the leaves are as large as the Ralme of your hand that they may be strong Pare away the tops of them and earth them up to the very necks that is so deep that the top leaves appear not above three fingers out of the ground or to be more intelligible you shall interre them to the last and upmost knot Moreover you must hollow little Basins of about half a foot Diameter and four fingers deep at the foot of each stalk that the moysture may passe directly to the Root when you water them it being unprofitably employed elsewhere Transplanting The just distance in transplanting is three foot asunder
Field for since they do not branch much they never choak Soweing They may be sown in two fashions either in ground newly dug and which has one dressing before wet winter or under furrow that is to say by sowing them upon the field before you Plough and then in making the furrows the peas slide in and are coverd with earth by the culter Pidgeons This kind of husbandry is practised for two respects the one to lodg them coldly when the earth is too light and the other to preserve them from the Pigeons for those which are onely harrow'd in upon the superficies they scrape out like Poultry and so devour the greatest part of your seed Houing There is also another method of soweing peas in use amongst those of Picardy They have a kind of flat â—hou like those which the Vignerons use about Paris where the Vines grow in a pale moyst soyl or in a sandy This Instrument is very like their hou's when they have done with them being too much worn at the sides these they round to a point in the middle or to make it more intelligible they do very much resemble the culter of a Plough and use it after the same fashion as they plow the furrows that is without ridges or pathes save only upon the Lands where it is divided 'twixt neighbour and neighbour With these upon newly dug ground cleansed of weeds and well dress'd they make a rill or trâ—nch going backward and drawing the earth which separates it self on both sides And in these furrows they sowe their Pease at a reasonable distance and then beginning a second rill the Houe covers that which was sown before And so the third the second till they have finish'd the whole Plot. This manner of Husbandry is very expedite and commodious for their cleansing without danger of treading upon them when they are grown In this manner they sowe like-wise all sorts of Beans Radishes Sorrel Leeks and divers other hearbs some deeper then other according to the nature and strength of the seed Moâ—ethly peas Monethly Pease so called because they last almost the whole Year continually flourishing must be sown in some place of your Garden well defended from the cold winâ—les that you may have Fruit betimes Câ—â—ting They need no other curiosity about ordering then other Pease only that they would be speedâ—ly cut being green leaving none of them to drie and as you perceive that any thing springs from them of which you have no hope it should produce Cods to cut it off Watâ—ing You must have a great care to water them especially during August and to shelter them with pannels of Reeds or Mattresses during the excessive heats to preserve them from the scorching Sun Lupines Lupins or Taulpins so called because the Mole flyes the place where they are sowen are a flat kinde of Pease round like a bruised Pistol bullet Slave-peas In the Gallyes they call them Slave-peas because they are their chief sustenance They are bitter of tast and must be a long time soaked before they be boyled They proceed from pods fastned to the stalk like beanes and are very full In Spain they sowe whole fields of them for their Cattell Soweing They must be sown in furrows four fingers distant and four files in a bed and will prosper well enough in ordinary ground Lentills Lentils should be sown at the same season as peas in ground newly dug but if it were prepared the winter before they will be a great deal fairer Mould They affect Sandy mould and are to be gathered being ripe and may be bound in swaths Thus you may leave them in the barns as long as you please unthrashed because they are not so obnoxious to the mice not to be worme-eaten as other peas which are continually gnawn as long as they remain in their cods Thrashing and therefore they must be thrashed out as soon as possible you can for which reason some bringing them out of the Field in a fair day thrash them in the very Street upon some Spacious place expos'd to the Sun which dos much contribute to their loosning Housing For there is a great deal of trouble in housing them and besides they will Sweat as many other graines do and Soften their Cods which makes them difficult to beat out Notwithstanding you may House the Gray Peas to give your Horses in the Hâ—me which will whet their appetite and much restore them if they be fallen in their flesh SECT VII Of Onions Garlick Chibols Leeks Odoriferous Plants and other Conveniences of a Garden not comprehended in the Precedent Chapters Onions ONions are of three Colours the White the Pale and the Purple-Red I say of three Colours for I do not conceive them to be of three different Species because they are so alike in taste but I referre their qualities to the judgement of the Botanists oweing Besides your sowing of Onions with Parsly as I shewed you before you shall sowe others upon a Bed apart and when it is grown as big as a Hens quill you may transplant it in lines with a Dibber that you may have them very fair If you leave any upon the Bed where you sowed it 't will diminish and rise out of the ground at the Season sooner then that which you removed Seeding During the great Heat of Summer it would run to seed which you must prevent by treading upon the Spindle which will stop its carreer and make the Onion the fairer Drying Housing When you finde them out of the ground and that the leaf is become very drie as it uses to be in August then you shall take them quite out of the earth searching with your Spade for every small head letting them dry upon the Bed and afterward lay them up in some temperate place and an ayr rather dâ—ie then moyst Seed For the seed you shall choose â—he fairest and biggest that you reserved and when the Frosts are past plant them in Ground very well soyled and clear from stones which is the mould thy best affect For this you may make use of the houe rilling the bed where you would set them not long-wayes but a thwart and deep enough then lay them in the bottom of the rills half a foot distant and cover them by drawing the second trench and thus a third and a fourth continuing the order till your bed be finished When it is in seed 't is very Subject to be overthrown by the wind by reason of its weight and the weaknesse of thâ— spindle which being easily bent or broken fals with the head to the ground which rots the seed instead of ripening it and therefore to remedy this you shall rail the bed a-about as I directed you concerning Salsifix or else stake them from space to space to which you shall tie them up by four or five spindles together bending them gently to the props if it be possible without breaking them The stalks drie and the head discovering the
seed gives testimony of its maturity and therefore you shall draw them up and having cut off all their spindles you shall lay the heads a drying upon some cloath seperating that which falls out of it self upon the cloath as the best conditioned afterwards when it all is perfectly drie rub the heads in your hands and getting out as much as you can with patience and much drying If you do not immediately rub it out bind up the heads in bunches and hang them up in your house because they will both keep and augment in good nesse taking them only as you have occasion There is so great deceit in buying this seed that I would advise you to use none but which is of your own growth unlesse you have some intimate friend that will send you that which is excellent to renew your store for some Merchants sell it old and so it can never prosper or else they scald it to make it swell To discover that which is good put a little into a Porrenger of water and let it infuse upon the hot Embers and if it be good it will begin to Check and speer if it do not its worth nothing Chibol Chibolls of all sorts from the greatest to the English-Cives are to be planted in Cloves four or five together to make a tuft in distance according to their bignesse they requiring no other care then to be weeded and cleansed and if you will a little dunged before the winter Thus you may let them continue in their bed as long as you please the plant continually improving by Off-sâ—ts which it will produce in abundance Transplanting However it will be good at every three or four years end to take it up and plant it in another place forasmuch as the ground is weary of bearing perpetually but one sort and loses that quality which is most proper to the plant rendring it languid and weak if it dwell on it too long Garlick â— Garlick is to be orderd like Onions Planting the best season is to plant it at the end of February The time of bruising it to make the spindles knot is about St. Peters in Iune and to pull it out of the ground at St. Peters in August according to â—he old Gardiners Adage Sow at St. Peters the first crop Your Garlick at St. Peters stop And at St. Peters take it up Pulling Housing When you have amassed them together you shall let them dry in heaps upon the bed and then in the cool of the morning bind them up with their own leaves by Dozens and there let them passe the Day in the hot sun before you carrie them in hanging it to the beames of the Sieling to keep it drie Eschalots or as the French call them Appeties being a species 'twixt an oniamd Garlick and add a rare relish to a sawce neither so rank as the one nor so flat as the other are to be orderd like Chibolls Planting planting the little Cloves to make them greater and in the moneth of August you shall pull as many of them out of the ground as you desire to reserve and hang them up as you did the Garlick Leeks Blanching Leeks are to be planted like Onions and transplanted in files with the dibber as deep as may be that you may have a great deale of White-stalke nor should you fill the Trench till a little after and that they be well grown this will augmeut their blanching But besides this there is another way and that is when they have done growing to lay them in the rill one upon another leaving only the very extremities of their leaves out of ground and thus what is covered will become white and this does much lengthen the plant one such Leek being as good as two others Seeds For the seed reserve of the fairest and longest to Transplant in the Spring and when they are run up environ them with supporters and Palisades as you doe Onions to preserve their heads from falling to the ground When they are ripe cut them off â—rie and reserve them in bunches or otherwise as you did the Onions Herbs Odiâ—â—sant Sweet and Odoriferant Herbs and what other you ought principaly to furnish your Garden withall as are proper for Salades and for the service of the Kitchen omitting the rest at your own pleasuure such as are Southen-wood Hysope Cassidonia â—aulme Camomile Rue and others We will here discourse of such only as you ought of necessity be provided Salad For Salads Balm Tarragon Sampier Garden-Cresses Corne-Sallet Pimpinell Trippe-Madame are such as we do ordinarily use together with those which I have described in the foregoing Sections that salad being most agreeable which is composed with the greatest variety of Herbs Some of these Herbs are to be sown and others to be planted in roots and though they all for the most part bear seed yet none so effectually as the rooted plants Corne salad Pimpinel Cresse Those which you are to sowe are the Corne-Salad Pimpinel and Cresses the rest are to be planted in rootsâ— all of them passe the Winter in the ground without prejudice And you may leave them as long as you please in the Beds where you sowed and planted them without any farther trouble then to weed them and now and then dig up and cleanse the paths least the weeds ocome them The rest which you gather for the Kitchen are Thyme Savory Marjoram and Sage of both sorts and Râ—semary all which plants are easy to be raised and sufficiently furnish you Licoris We will not omit Licoris to gratifie such as make use of it in their Pâ—isans but if you plant it in your Garden Place it in some quarter where it may not prejudice it for if it like the ground it will Sâ—ring and goe a great deal deeper then the very Couch or Dog-Grasse and put you to a world of difficulty to come at it in case you should resolve to extirpaâ—e it intirely There grows as good in all places of France as any that they transport out of Spain Plantinâ— To furnish your self with this take rooted plants and lay them half a foot in ground it will need no other labour to make it thrive but to preserve it well weeded and clensed by stirring up the earth Time Thyme is both sown and planted One Thyme tuft wil afford many slips which you may set with the setting-stick as you doe all sorts of cuttings Savory Savory is every year to be sown and therefore be carefull to reserve the seeds and the Hearb also being dried to serve in divers seasonings Marioram Of Marjoram there is the sweet and the Pot-Marjoram The first sort is very tâ—nder in Winter and therefore the Seeds thereoff should be carefully preserved to sowe of it every year The Winter or Pot-Marjoram which is a bigger kind may be perpetuated where you please Sage Garden and Bastard-Sage grows well of slips or branches cleft off with Roots from the main Stemms Rosemary Rosemary is