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
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
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
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
fasten them with some small twig of an Ozyer for fear the Winde fling them down and disperse a great deale of the Seeds Season of sowing In August you shall sowe Cabbages to head upon some bed by it self there to passe the Winter as in a Nursery till the Spring when you must plant them forth in the manner I have already taught and by this means you will have headed Cabbages betimes especially provided that you be careful in well ordering them Insects There are several little Animals which gnaw and indammage Cabbages as well whilst they are yet young and tender as when they be arrived to bigger growth as a certain green hopping Flie Snails Ants the great Flea c. The best expedient I finde to destroy these Insects is the frequent watering which chaces them away or kills them For during the great heats you shall see your Cabbages dwindle and pine away every day importun'd by these Animals At the full of the moon every Moneth if the weather be fair it is good to sowe your Cabbages that you may prevent the disorders which these Devourers bring upon them and you may do it without expence by sowing them upon the borders under your Fruit Trees which you must frequently dig and besides the waterings which you must bestow upon your young Plants will wonderfully improve your Trees There are a curious sort of Cabbages which bear many heads upon the same stalk but they are not so delicate as the other When yoâ— have cut off the heads of your Cabbages if you will not extirpate the Trunk they will produce small small sets which the Italians call Broccoli the French des Broques and are ordinarily eaten in Lent in Pease-Pottage and Intermesses at the best Tables Letice There are almost as many sorts of Lettuce as there be of Cabbages and therefore I have ranged them together in the same chapter For such as harden and grow into heads we have the Cabbage-Lettuce and a sort that beares divers heads upon the same stalk The Cockle Lettuce the Genoa Roman and the curled lettuce which pome like Succory Others that grow not so close as a sort of curled lettuce and severall other species Others which must be bound to render them white such as the Oake-leafed the Royal and Roman Sowing Lettuce may be sown all the year long Winter excepted for from the time that you begin to sow them upon your first Bed as I have describ'd it in the Article of Melons to the very end of October you may raise them Transplanting To make them pome and head like a Cabbage you shall need onely to transplant them half a foot or little more distant and this you may do upon the borders under your Hedges Trees and Palisades without employing any other quarter of your Garden During the excessive heat of the year it will be difficult to make them head unlesse you water them plentifully because the Season prompts them to run to seed Those of Genoa are to be preferred before all others by reason of their bignesse and for that they will endure the Winter above ground being transplanted or you may make use of them in Pottage and for that they furnish you with heads from the very end of April For such as do not come to head at all you need only sow them and as they spring to thin them that is extirpate the supperfluous that those which remain may have sufficient soope to spread some transplant them but it is lost labour the Plant being so easily raised Roman lettuce Heading The Lettice-Royall would be removed at a foot or more distance and when you perceive that the plants have covered all the ground then in some fair day and when the morning dew is vanish't you shall tie them in two or three several places one above another which you may do with any long straw or raw-hemp and this at severall times viz. not promiseuously as they stand but choosing the fairest plants first to give roome and ayr to the more feeble and by this means they will last you the longer The first being blanched and ready before the other are fit to bind Blanching If you would blanch them with more expedition you shall cover every plant with a small earthen Pot fashioned like a Gold-Smiths Crusible and then lay some hot soyl upon them and thus they will quickly become white Seed Lettuce-seed is very easily gathered because the great heats cause it to spring sooner up then one would have it especially the earliest sowne Pull them therefore up as soone as you perceive that above halfe of their flowers are past and lay them a ripening against your hedges and in ten or twelve dayes they will be drie enough to rub out their seed betwixt your hands which being clensed from the husks and ordure preserve each kind by it selfe SECT IV. Of Roots Roots Parsenp THe Red Beet or Roman Parsnep as the greatest shall have the preheminence in this Chapter They should be placed in excellent ground well soyl'd and trenched that they may produce long and fair roots not forked for if they do not encounter a bottom to their liking they spread indeed at head but have always a hole in the middle which being very profound renders them tough and full of Fibers to the great detriment of their colour which makes them despised And therefore if to avoid the expence you do not trench your Garden you must of necessity bestow two diggings one upon another as I shall here teach you a diminutive only of trenching You must dig a Furrow all the length of your Bed a full foot deep and two foot large casting the earth all at one side then dig another course in the same trench as deep as possible you can without casting out the mould afterwards fling in excellent Dung fat and rich which must lye about four fingers thick and for this the Soyl of Cows and Sheep newly made after fothering time is past is the best When this is done dig a second trench casting the first mould upon this Compost and lay dung upon that likewise then dig the next and cast Soyl upon that as you did upon the first and so continue this till you have trenched the whole Bed Your last Furrow will be but a single depth for which you may consider of three expedients and take that which best pleases you and which will cost you least to fill or else you may fetch the earth which you took out of the first trench and fill it up even setting your Level on or leaving it void to cast your weeds into where they will consume and become good soyl reserving so much earth as will serve to make the Area of the bed even at every dressing which you give it This manner of good husbandry is what I would have described before in the first section of the former Treatise when I spake of trenching the ground when I promised to shew
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
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
in some Bed apart four ranges in a Bed that you may the more commodiously stick them then if they were sown confusedly some of these also you shall destine to be eaten green leaving the rest till they are dryer and for Seed When you gather them be careful not to break their Stalks that they may bear till it be withered to the very root Painted beanes The painted and coloured Beans which are a lesser sort are commonly sown in the open ground newly dug and raked over without any further care then what you take of such seeds as are sown abroad in the Fields unlesse it be that eight or ten dayes after they are come up you houe them a little and then touch them no more till they shoot forth their strings which is about the beginning of Iuly which you must cut off that the Pods may the better prosper which are below the stalks and to prevent that in catching one to another by over branching they be not thrown down and so perish those which grow beneath instead of ripening them Soyle This kinde of Bean doth not require so strong a mould as the Marsh Beans do but rather a sandy Sowing They would be sown at the beginning of May and pulled up as the plants drie threshing them forth as I spake before of Marsh-beanes for if you gather them greener you will be much troubled to finde a convenient place to drie them they being so cumbersome if you have plenty White streaked beanâ—s As for the white which are riced seeing they clime to the very top of the boughs and continue long bearing you shall do well to gather those Pods which you finde drie since they doe not ripen together and to prevent two inconveniences the first whereof is that being past their maturity the pod will open of it self in the heat of the day and so lose out their beanes and the second that in case there fall any considerable raines the skin of the pods being over soaked will cleave to the beanes with a certain inseparable glue which it produces indamaging the beanes by a musty finnow which bespots them and makes them very ill-â—avoured to the sight and worse to the taste and besides you will be constrained to shail them out by hand to the great losse of time You should separate and draw out all such as you finde black mixed with black and white forasmuch as they also become black and in boyling darken and tinge the liquor Red beanâ— But the Red are to be esteemed above all the rest because of their delicatenesse much surpassing the white though they are most accounted of at Paris Peas Of Pease there are found several Species very much different viz. The Hot-spurs or Hasties the Dwarf the great White Pease the Black-ey'd Pease great and small Green the Crown'd Pease and those without Skins of two sorts the Cicâ—es with and without Skins Monethly Pease the Grey Pease and the Lupines Of all which I think it not amisse to particularise in brief their maner of ordering though there be no great difficulty in the plant yet for your better instruction Soweing There are three manners of soweing Peas In Beds or quarters making four or five ranges in each according to the kinds which you will sowe In heaps or clusters and in confusion Hot-spurrs Hot-spurrs and Hasties would be sowne from Candlemas or a little after the great frosts Soyl. Sandy ground is that which they most delight in to come early and if the place be something high and lie expos'd to the South-sun it will exceedingly advance them of which we have the experience about Charenton and St. Maur neer Paris from whence we have them very early and all the secret is in often houing them which doth wonderfully advance them Soweing If you sow them in furrows and lines you will finde it very commodious when you come to dresse them because you will finde room enough to stand and come at them between the files without indamaging the shoots and when they are growe to range them one upon another for the more convenient houing them which should be often reterated and gather the cods with more â—ase when they are ripe without hurting the plants Setting If you sowe them in heapes plant them with the Setting-stick or dibber a full foot distance and put six or eight Peas in every hole they will come up and grow without Cumbring the ground if you have the leasure to hou and dresse them sufficiently As for those which you sowe confusedly upon the ground newly dug or in furrows after the Plough they will not require so much attendance because they spread and display themselves on both sides and cannot be hou'd above once without great hazard of spoyling many of them with your feet Great pease Bushing All sorts of great Pease as the White Green Crown'd those without Skin and the Cichâ—s would be sown in quarters and small rills four ranges in a Bed for the more commodious bushing them in two ranks every rank serving to support two of Pease and the greater kinde your Pease are of the stronger and higher must your Bushes be because they climb to the very top producing Cods at every joynt especially the greater kinde of those without skins whose Cods grow eared and are very weighty shooting their braches at every joynt from the foot every of which doth oftentimes bear as many Cods as the Master stalk of the others This is a sort of Pease which you ought much to esteem for its deliciousnesse and they may be eaten green with as much pleasure as Radishes These are called Holland Pease and were not long since a great rarity Mould If you would have very fair Pease you must sowe them in rich mould and geld them when they are grown about four foot high but the mischief is that being sown in a strong ground they do not boyl so well as those which are produced in a light sandy which is the only proper ground which they require to bâ—rightly condition'd Distance You must not set your quarter of Pease so bushed as that they may intertwine and intangle each other but leave a void Bed betwixt two to give ayr to your Plants lest otherwise they suffocate and rot at the bottom Beds You may employ these interposed beds by sowing any other sort of roots heretofore described and which will wonderfully thrive by reason of the refreshment which they will receive from the Shade of the higher peas Gray peas You shall also set a part some particular beds to be eaten green and cause the cods to be gatherd by some carefull person who may have the patience to take them off handsomly or else cut them from their stalks without injuring them that thus relieving the plant from all it affords they may the longer continue Small peas For the smaller sort of peas as the White Green Gray Hasties Dwarf and black-ey'd you may sowe them after the Plough in open
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