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
be much Dryer and lesse participate of the loathsome quality of the dung You shall never suffer any small new shoot or string to draw away the Sap from your leading plant but nip it off immediately unlesse it be that your fruit lies naked and too much exposed and that it stand in need of any leaves to accelerate its growth preserve it in temper Transplanting The second Method of Transplanting Melons is to make neer the end of summer trenches of about 2 foot deep and four foot large as they do in Anjou leaving a square of three foot between each of them to cast the mould upon which you must form into a ridge somewhat round in form of an Asses-back by which name the French call them Then you shall fill the trench with good dung and very rotten earth scoarings of ditches which has laine two or three years mellowing in the raines and frosts Season Then in March when the Winter has sufficiently ripened the foresaid earth you shall stir and mingle that which lyes in the ridge with the ditch-scouring adding to it new dung well consumed and so fill up your trenches with this mixture and let it be kept well weeded till the season that you transplant your Melons on it as I have before instructed you Transplaâ—ting There is yet a third fashion a great deale more easy then this and which I have found as succesfull as any of the former two and which hath afforded me store of excellent and high tasted Melons every year but attribute the principall cause of it to the goodnesse of my soil which is Sandy but richly improv'd by a long cultivation There is no more difficulty in the business then to give the ground three or four dressings before and after Winter and at the time of Transplanting to make pits in the middle of the beds which you must fill with a bushell of the mould and halfe dung of an old hot-bed and in this to set your plants after the manner I have taught you Waâ—ring There are a world of curiosities in transplanting of Melons some place them in vessells of earth pierced full of holes and filled with excellent mould and so change their beds when they are over chilled others in baskets of the same shape and some again are so nice about them as would weary the most laborious Gardiner Gaâ—hering If during the excessive heats you perceive that your Melons suffer for want of refrâ—shment and scald as they term it it will be good to to afford a watring to exery root but this only in case of extream necessity and very rarely To kâ—ow when your Melon is fit to be gather'd you shall perceive him to be ripe when the stalke seemâ— as if it would part from the fruit when they begin to gild and grow Yellow underneath when the small shoot which is at the same knot withers and when approching to the fruit you be saluted with an agreable odor But such as are accustom'd and frequent the Melonieres judge it by the eye observing only the change of their colour and the intercostal yellowness which is a sufficient index of their maturity Those Melons which are full of Embrodery and Characters are commonly twelve or fifteen dayes a fashioning e're they be perfectly ripe The Morins grow yellow some days before they be fit to gather For their gathering let it be according as they turne If to be conveyed far off you shall gather him instantly upon his first change of colour for they will finish their ripening by the way But if he be spent immediately gather them thrrough-ripe putting them into a bucket of Water drawn new out of the well and let them refresh themselves there as you would treat bottles of Wine since comming newly from the Melonieres they are sun-heated and nothing so quick and agreable to be eaten Others which you must gather as fast as they ripen may be layd upon a board in some coole place and spent according to their maturity You shall remember to leave the joynt which holds to the stalk of every Melon with two or three leaves for ornaments and be carefull not to break off the stalk least the Melon languish as a cask of Wine unbunged and loose the richnesse of its gust Visiâ—iâ—d and 〈◊〉 You must not think it much to visit your Meloniere at the least four times a day when your Melons begin to ripen lest they passe their prime and lose of their tempting becoming lank and flashy Choice To choose a perfect good Melon it must neither be too green nor over-ripe let him be well nourished and have a thick short stalk that he proceed of a Vigorous plant not forced with too great heat Weighty in the hand firme to the touch dry and of a Vermilion hue within Lastly that it have the flavor of that pitchy mixture wherewith seamen dresse their cordage Seeds Remember to reserve the seeds of all such Mellons as you found to be excellent and the most early as before I advertis'd you preserve them carefully taking those which lodged at the sunny side they are better at two or three years old then at one Cowcumbers Cowcumbers are sown and raised upon the same bed and at the same time with Melons having before imbibed the seeds in either cow or breast milk There are of white and green which they call Parroquets You shall forbear to gather some of your fairest whitest longest and earliest fruit but leave them for seed letting them ripen upon their own Stalks as long as the plant continues which will be till the first frosts As for the Parroquets they may all be spent since the seeds of the white Cowcumbers do sufficiently degenerate into them They are transplanted also as Melons are both in beds and in open ground but they must be exceedingly watered to make them produce abundantly The vines and superfluous shoots must be guelded the false flowers which will never knot into fruit are to be nipped off The first colds bring the Mildew upon them which is when the leaves become white and mealy a signe that they are neer their destruction Gather them according to your spending for they will grow bigger every day but withall harder and the seeds more compacted renders the fruit less agreeable to the tast They are then in perfection a little before they begin to grow yellow Pumpeons Pumpeons are raised also upon the hot-bed and are removed like the former but for the most part upon plain ground being placed in some spacious part of your Garden because their shoots and tendrells straggle a great way before they knot into fruit Transplanting When you transplant them make their pits wide enough asunder twelve foot or there about and lay two bushells of rich soyle to every plant because of the strength of the plant Water them abundantly Gaâ—hering The time of gathering them is in their perfect maturity which is about August nor do they spoyl at all by lying
upon the earth but become daily riper by it When the first cold begins to come gather them in a Morning and heape them one upon another that they may drie in the sun and afterwards carry them into some temperate Roome upon boards where let them ly without touching one another above all preserve them from the frost for that will immediately perish them If you have plenty and abound you may put it into your ordinary House-hold bread or that of your owne table But first you must boyle it after the same manner as you prepare it to Fry only a little more tender then drain the water from it and wet your flower with this mash and so make your bread It wil be of better colour and better relish being a little Dow and is very wholesome for those who stand in need of refreshment There is a small kind of Pumpeon which knots into fruit neer the foot without trailing and bears abundantly they must be guelded leaving none but the fairest Poitirons Potirons white and coloured Priest-capps Spanish trumpets Gourds and the like are to be order'd as you doe Pumpeons with this only difference that some of them would be stalked and not suffered to ramp upon the ground Seed The seeds of these as also of pumpeons are to be saved as you spend their fruite but it must be carefully cleansed and dried in the air and secured from mice which devour these seeds as well as those of Melons and cowcumbers SECT II. Of Artichocks Chardons and Asparagus Artichokes THe Artichock is one of the most excellent Fruits of the Kitchen Garden and recommended not only for its goodnesse and the divers manners of cooking it but also for that the fruit contiuues in Season a long time Of these there are two sorts the Violet and the Green The Slips which grow by the sides of the old Stubs serve for Plants which you must set in very good ground deep dunged and dressed with two or three manures Planting When the Frosts are entirely past in April you shall plant the Slips having separated them from the Stem with as much root as you can that they may take the more easily and if they be strong enough they will bear Heads the Autumn following You shall plant them four or five foot distant one from another according to the goodnesse of the Soil for if it be light and sandy you may plant them closer if it be a strong ground at a greater distance to give scope to the leaves which with the fruit wil come fairer and bring forth more double ones They shall need no other Culture before Winter then to be dress'd and weeded sometimes You shall cover them in Winter to preserve them from the Frost and to do this they order them after divers manners some cutting all the Plants within a foot of the ground and gathering up the rest of the leaves as they do to blanch Succory think it sufficient to make it up in form of a Mole-hill leaving out at the top the extreams of the leaves about two fingers deep to keep the Plant from suffocating and then covering them with long dung preserve them thus from the Frosts and hinder the rain from rotting them Others make trenches 'twixt two ranges and cast the earth in long bankes upon the plants covering them within two fingers of the topps as I shewed you above And there be some which onely put long dung about the plants and so they passe the winter very well All these severall fashions are good and every man a bounds with his particular reason Earâ—hâ—ng Onely be not over eaâ—ly in earthing them least they grow rotten but be sure that the great frosts doe not prevent and surprise you if you have many to govern If you desire to have fruit in Autumne you need onely cut the Stemm of such as have borne fruit in the spring to hinder them from a second shoot And in Autumn these lusty Stocks will not faile of bearing very faire heads provided that you dresse and dig about them well and water them in their necessitie taking away the Slips which grow to their sides and which draw all the substance from the plants The Winter spent you shall uncover your Artichockes by little and little not at once least the cold ayr spoyl them being yet tender and but newly out of their warm beds and therefore let it be done at three times with a four dayes interval each time at the last whereof you shall dresse dig about and â—rim them very well discharging them from most of their small slips not leaving above three of the strongest to each foot for bearers Chard To procure the Chard of the Artichocks which is that which growes from the rootes of old plants you shall make use of the old stemmes which you do not account of For it will be fit to renew your whole plantation of Artichocks every five-year because the plant impoverishes the earth and produces but small fruite Slips The first fruites gathered you shall pare the plant within halfe a foot of the ground and cut off the Stemm as low as you can possible and thus you will have lusty slips which grown about a yard high you shall bind up with a wreath of long straw but not too close and then inviron them with dung to blanch them Thus you may leave them till the great frosts before you gather them and then reserve them for your use in some Cellar or other place lesse cold Gatheâ—ing But it is best to gather them from time to time as you spend them beginning wâ—th the largest and sparing the rest which will soon be ready having now all the nourishment of the plant Spanish Chardon The Spanish Chardons are not so dilicate to govern as those of the Artichocke nor produce they chards so sweet and tender they are to be tyed up after the same manner to make them white They spring of seeds and are transplanted in slips The flowers of these chardons which are little violet colour'd beards being dryed in the Ayr will serve to turne milk withall and make it curdle like rennett The Spanyard and Languedociens use it for that purpose Asparagus Asparagus are to be raised of seeds in a bed a part the ground prepared before with divers diggings and well dunged at the end of two years you may take up the rootes and transplant them To lodg them well you must make trenches four foot large and two in depth leaving an intervall of four foot wide 'twixt the trenches to cast the mould on which you take out of them and make them very levell at bottom the earth cast in round banks on both sides bestow a good dressing upon the bottoms of your trenches mixing the mould with fine rich dung which you must lay very even in all places This done plant your Asparagus by line at three foot distance placeing two rootes together You may range the first at the very edg
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
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
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
grain is so exceeding smal and when it is sowne you shall cover it no otherwise then by clapping the bed with the back of your spade This done water it immediately that you make no holes in the bed thus it will come up speedily provided that you ply it with refreshments at the beginning Transplanting To be master of excellent seed you must transplant it and thus you will produce goodly stalksâ— to Pickle and serve to put in your winter Salads and in Pottage Seed You shall perceive the graine to be ripe when it lookes very black and then you shall pull up the plant and lay it upon a Sheet to wither and dry in the sun But at night carry it in the same sheet into the house and the next day expose it again continuing so to do till it be all perfectly ripe then rub it 'twixt your hands and poure it into another sheet to dry throughly before you box it up You shall set your plants a drying again for some dayes after and they will furnish you with more seed which could not be gotten out the first time You shall finde that new seed is nothing so good to sowe as that which is two three or four years old Spinach Of Spinach there are three sorts The large which has not the leafe so pointed and prickly as the smaller and the Pale which makes up the third Soweing Season It would be sowne in the beginning of Autumn that it may gather some streugth before winter If you perceive that it springs too fast you may cut for pottage and to make tarts it will be a great deall tenderer then in Lent when it is chiefly eaten The manner of soweing of it is on beds in small rills four lines in a bed When it is up keep it neatly weeded and extirpate all such stragling plants as you shall find out of their files Seed Reserve a corner of your Bed for the seed cutting off al the rest as you have occasion At Lent pull up the plant quite for the use of the Kitchin cutting away only the roots The seed is of two sorts the prickly and the smooth and round which produces the pale coloured and most delicate SECT VI. Of Beanes Peas and other Pulse Beanes THere are three sorts of great Beanes Those which we call at Paris Marsh-Beans which grow very large flat and of a pale colour Of others there are many lesser kinds like the first but a little rounder And some there are lesse yet than these and wholly different from the first being almost exactly round of a gray or a little reddish-coulour And these are such as they give to Horses and which they grind for divers purposes I shall here only treate how the great ones are to be ordered leaving the small as of small consequence and shall shew you how different mens opinions are for the time and manner of soweing them Sowing Some sowe them about Advent and hold that they shall have of the first ready to eat Others stay till Candlemasse and some will have the frosts first past every man hath his particular reasons because say they the Flea devoures their tops when they are in Flower For my own particular who alwayes love to be sure I stay till after the frosts are past and I build my reason upon this That the season is all in all not that I would disswade any from soweing in Advent or in February but I would advise you to be sparing and to reserve the greatest quantity for the spring since it being necessary to sowe them in the best ground and the lowest you have it would be scarce fit to dig at those two seasons being more retentive of water then the lighter grounds Choyce Before you sowe them make choice of the most healthy and best condition'd then steep them a day or two in water wherein dung has been imbibed this will cause them to flourish exceedingly and advance their growth above ten or twelve dayes and besides they 'l not remainâ— so long in the earth before they come up will greatly prevent the danger of wormes and being throughly soaked in the foresayd liquor will participate of its good quality which is to make them produce great abundance Ground For their soweing the ground ought to be dug and prepared before winter and cleansed of weeds then with the houe make a furrow upon the side whereof and not at the bottome drop your beans a little above halfe a foot asunder then open another trench and with the earth which comes out of that cover your first then a third placing your beans as on the first and so continuing every second furrow to drop the beans be careful to make your trenches as direct as you can that you may the better houe weed and crop them without breaking their stalks when you pass between them There are others who after they have well dug and dressed their ground tread it out into quarters and plant their beans with a Dibber but I most of all affect the first because it makes the ground looser about them Houing Whilst they are growing and that the weeds are ready to choke them you shall houe and cleanse them carefully without doing them any harm and when they are pretty strong you shall observe that the Flies and Gnats will even cover the tops of their spindles lighting upon the tenderest part of them which with your knife you may crop off and so carry away both the tops and the insects casting your cuttings into a Bushel and afterward burn them or bury them in your dunghil pit or in some other place distant from your beans lest they return back again Gathering Some of these Beds you must destine to be eaten young and green and not gather the Pods amongst the whole Crop and when you have quite plundered a Plant cut the stalk close to the ground that it may shoot up another which will produce its fruit in the latter season Seed For seed let them drie upon the stalks till both the Pods and they are grown black then in the heat of day pull them up and thrash them out gently with a Flail fanning them out at your leasure Hame Burn not the Hame which they afford though it makes excellent ashes but cast it amongst your Soyl and let it rot there for it will greatly improve it nay if you would make your ground exceeding rich sowe beans in it and when they begin to lose their blossoms dig them in all together earth and beans without minding your losse for this sort of Soyl is a wonderful improvement of your land There are a great kinde of Beans which are of a red-brown colour but they are nothing so delicious as the pale Haricots The small Haricot or Kidney beans are of two sorts white and coloured amongst which there are also some white but they are lesse and rounder then the great white ones Sowing To commence with the great you shall sowe them
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
also planted of slips and roots split from the old stock Fenell Sweet-Fenell and Anis which are plants to be sown and governed without much difficulty are not to be forgotten in your Garden Satisfie your self therefore with these few instructions which I have given of odiriferous plants The apprehensions I have of swelling our Volume has caused me to passe them so lightly over There now only remains to conclude this Treatise the addition of some Plants and Shrubs which bear fruit highly necessary to accomplish your Garden Stâ—awberies Strawberries are of four kinds The White the Large Red the Capprons and the small red wild Strawberry Planâ— Concerning these last sort which are the small you need not put your self to the trouble of cultivateing them if you dwell neer the Woods where they abound for the Children of every Village will bring them to you for a very small reward And in case you be far from these pretty Sweets you may furnish some small carpets of them on the sides of some of your Alleys without other care or pains then to plant them sending for such as are in little sods from the places which naturally produce them or else you may sowe them by casting the water wherein you wash the strawberies before you eat them upon the foresaid Beds 〈◊〉 For the great white straberies the red and Câ—aprons you shall plant in Borders four ranges in a border or Low-bed which must have a path between of a foot and half at least The best plants are such as you take from the strings which they make during all the Summer and to put three plants in every hole which you shall make with the dibber Season The best season is to plant them in August when their strings are lusty and have taken roots by their joynts forming a small plant at every knot Proping To order them well you must dresse weed and loosen the mould about them very dilligently and to have fair and clear Fruit you shall stick a small prop to every plant to which you shall bind their stalks with a straw and by this means besides that your fruit will prove much fairer Snails Toads Frogs and other noxious animals will forsakâ—â— them for want of covertures which they would not do if the whole plant lay upon the ground where they fail not to eat agoâ—dpart of them ever attayning the fairest 〈◊〉 When your Strawberies shoot their strings you must castrate them and leave them none but such as you reserve to â—urnish you with plants Renâ—wing And you shall every year renew some of your 〈…〉 such as are above four of five years old as beginning then to impair of their goodnesse and vertue Dressing It will be convenient to strew them over with some Melon-bed dung a little before the great frosts which will much improve them cutting off all their leaves as I taught you concerning Sorrell Soyl. The Soyl which they most affect is rather a sandy then a stiff and therefore you shall make choyce of that part in your Garden for them which most approaches this mixture Strawberries in Autumn If you desire to have strawberries in Autumn you shall only cut off the first blossomes which they put forth and hinder their fructifying they will not fail of blowing anew afterwards and produce their fruit in the latter season Raspis Râ—spis are of two Colours the White and the Red You must plant 〈◊〉 which you may split off into many from a good stemm They are to be planted four fingers distant from one another in an open trench as deep as your spade-bit as I have described it in my discourse of a Nursery whither I referr you for more brevity Pâ—uning Besides the former labours they will only require that you free them of their dead wood and clear them of the suckers which they shoot up in the paths between their ranges But if you perceive that notwithstanding all this they spring too fast as to endanger their choaking you shall succor them by pruning off the new sets and sparing the old as the most ingenuous and fruitfull Goosberâ—ies Of Gooseberries there are two kindes the great-large and the small white ones which are thorny and full of prickles Others Red White and Perled without Prickles which in Normandy they call Gâ—delles They are all of them to be Planted and governed like Raspis and therefore I proceed no farther Champignon Choyce Champignons and all other kinds resembling them to which the Italians give the common Apellative of Fongi we distingush in our language naming some of them Mushroms of the Woods which rests and are very large And are such as grow by the borders and skirts of great For-Mushroms of the Meadews and sweet Pastures which are such as grow frequently where the Cattell feeds and seldom flourish till after the first fogs of Autumn are past These last are those which I Esteem the best of all as well because of their beauties and whitenesse above as for their Vermillion beneath add to this their agreeable sent which are wanting in the other The Garden Mushroms which are ordinarily grow upon the beds and those which do not appear before the beginning of May hid under the mosse in the woods from whence they seem to derive their name of Moush or Mousserons Bed Mushram Dressing Of all these species there is only the Bed-mushrums which you can produce in your Garden and to effect this you must prepare a bed of Mules or Asses soil covering it over four fingers thick with short and rich dung and when the great heat of the bed is qualified you must cast upon it all the parings and falls of such Mushrums as have been dressed in your Kichen together with the Water wherein they were washed as also such as are old and wormeaten and a bed thus prepared will produce you very good and in short space The same bed may serve you two or three years and will much assist you in making another Production If you poure of this water upon your Melon beds they may likewise furnish you with some But I had almost forgotten to inform you that there are certain stones which being placed in the dunghill have the vertue to produce them in a little time and that there are some curioâ—s persons which have of these stones to whose better experience I recommend you Morrilleâ— Concerning Morilles and Truffs the first whereof is a certain delicate red Mushrum and the other an incomparable kind of round ruâ—â—et excressence which grows in drie ground without any stalk leafe or fibers to it and therefore used to be found out by a hog kept and trained up in the mysterie there are but very few places which do naturally produce them Conclusion And thus I presume to have sufficiently instructed you in all things which are necessary to be cultivated in Gardens at the least what is commonly eaten and in request in our Parisien France Other Provinces have other plants the spoyls