unto as much more it hath been sold from twenty pound the best Woad to thirty pound and back again from thirty pound and twenty six pound down to six pound a Tun. CHAP. XXXVI Which discovers the nature use and advantage of Madder ANd so I shall descend to my third Dyers commodity in relation to Dying or Colouring and that is to the story of Madder that colours the rich and best solid Red the which if I can so mannage as to bring it unto the same progress as Oad is brought unto in England I mean that whereas though very rarely it is now planted in some gardens and in some small plots of ground and doth amount unto a very great advantage to the Planter by the sets they sell forth and by the roots they draw to vent to the Apothecary and medicinably to others and yet so make a most excelling value of their Lands indeed beyond credence some have made as I have been most credibly informed after the rate of three hundred pounds an Acre in three years for so long it grows before it come unto peâ—fection and others that have sold it whole-sale a parcell together at the worst advantage after one hundred and sixty pounds per Acre and some have out of small plots in gardens made more than I have or will here affirm and however though I shall be so modest as to confess that much of your garden stuff may yeeld with the cost and labour that is continually applyed thereto as much or more than here is spoken of as I am confident I could name divers things which some preserve as rich Treasure in their brains and will not discover them yet this I shall affirm that this being a fundamentall fruit and such a one as that the plenty thereof will not much abate the market Our dying trade being supplyied herewith from beyond the Seas that the Erection of such a Plantation as may bring it forth wrought up and fitted to the dyars use and so be a supply to our selves within our selves I am confident is a design of incomparable good to the Common-Wealth especially it imploying so many hands as will be to bring it to perfection It is like to prove a staple commodity and will turn land to as great an advance as any seed or root that it is capeable to receive and need no more fear want of markets for the venting of it than wee need for wooll that staple commodity of the Nation And because the discovery thereof is a matter of so great Importance I shall spend a little more time in the discovery of the whole frame hereof And I shall proceed to the description of it There is bute on kind of Madder which is manured and set for use but there is many things like thereto as Goose-grass soft Cliver Ladies Bedshaw Woodroof and Croswort all which are like to Madder leaves and are thought to be a wild kinds thereof It hath long stalks or trayling branches dispersed upon the ground rough and full of joynts and every joint set with green rough leaves in manner of a Star The flowers grow at top of the branches of a faint yellow colour after which comes the seed round and green The root creepeth far abroad within the upper crust of the Earth intangling one root into another and when it is green and fresh the root is of a reddish colour it is small and tender but gathers and runs in the ground just like an Ivy along a House or Tree It is a commodity of much value Patentees strove hard for it and Patents were gained about it in the late Kings daies and yet now in these times of freedom who pursues it For the making out a good Plantation hereof I must do these three or four things 1. Shew you what it comes of and how to plant it and preserve it 2. How to get it and use it to bring it to saleable Madder 3. The benefit and advantage nationall and personall Although it bear a seed yet that seed comes not to perfection here it is therefore to be planted of the sets that are to be gotten from the Madder it self and they are be bought in many gardens in London who keep up that Plantation for the advantage of selling their sets and roots Physically to the Apothecaries onely all the skill is to distinguish of the goodness thereof And for the discovery thereof first know the season of getting or rather drawing them which is in March and Aprill yea as soon as they are sprung forth of the ground two or three inches long then you must be carefull you get sets rooted Every set having some suckors or spinies of root going out from them they must be slipped from the main root and these sets as soon as ever took up put into some basket with a little mould and posted to the place where they are to be set the sooner the better and then your ground being very rich it cannot be too rich for this commodity however it must be a warm and very deep soil and digged two or three spade graft depth and two shovellings also and raked and laid even and levell and then by streight lines trode out into long beds about four foot broad from one end of your work into the other and set about one foot asunder every way and if it be a dry spring they must be kept with watering untill they recover their fading wan condition you may begin to dig your ground in the beginning so all along Winter till the very day of setting and then you must keep it with weeding and hoing till it have got the mastership of the weeds and then it being a weed of it self wil destroy all other One rod of ground is worth seaven pence a rod diging or if very dry strong ground eight pence but six pence the best ground will require and you may sow some early sallet Herbs or Reddish or Onions or such things as will be ripe betimes among it the first year good weeding is the best preservative unto it and in your setting of them by a line one goes before and layeth every set in his place and another comes and with a broad dibble made for purpose thrust down deep and open a hole and put in the set and for the nourishing of it in case any dye you must plant new in the room of what decayes for the time of the growing of it untill it come to perfection is three yeares the first yeare you may take off some few sets here and there but that is somewhat dangerous but that year it must be kept with hoing a while also and then the second year you may take up sets as fast as you will and almost as many as you wil leaving but as you do in the croping of an Oak one bough for the drawing up the sap out of the root being so thick and strong in the ground that nothing will
land laid dry and warm will bare the most weightiest Hops A barren morish wet soyl is not natural to the Hops delight but if this be laid very dry and made very rich with dung and soyl it may do reasonable well It will be best to stand warm if may be preserved from North East wind rather by hils than trees as near your house as may be that Land you determine for your Hop-garden lay as levell as square as ye can possible and if it be rough and stiff it will do well to be sowed with Hemp Beans or Turnips before but in what state soever it be till it in the beginning of Winter with plough or spade this not onely the year before but every year so long as you use it the more pains and cost you bestow the more profit and the nearer you resemble the Flemming in his hopping And for your Sets those are your Roots taken from your old hils roots go to a garden ordarly kept where the Hops are of a good kind all yearly cut and where the hils are raised very high for there the roots will be greatest buy choice Sets they may cost six pence a hundred and sometimes have them for taking up leaving things orderly and their hill well dressed You must chuse the biggest roots you can find such as are three or four inches about and the Set nine or ten inches long and have three joynts in a root Take heed of Wild-hops they are onely discerned by the fruit and stalks The unkindly Hop that likes not his ground soyl or keeper comes up green and small in stalk thick and rough in leaves like nettles much bitten with a black fly but it destroyes not the Hop but hurteth it somewhat and so you have the first particular 2 The manner of planting as soon as your roots are got either set them speedily or lay them in some puddle or bury them in earth but leave them not in water above four and twenty hours Then begin to direct your hils with a line tyed with knots or threads thereto the due distance had need to be 8 foot betwixt because then you make the fewer and bigget hils the sun comes about them the poles reach not one another and so it may be plowed yearly otherwise it must be digged some say seven foot and others say six foot as our late accustomed manner is and I am confident there is most advantage by thin planting but that I leave to each experience Your hole under the knot of your line had need be a foot square and deep then if you can have the wind South or West it is best if not go on having made many holes matter not the wind be sure to take the moneth of April for the work and take two or three of your roots as a great old Gardiner affirms which by this will yeeld green Sciences or whit buds and will have small beards growing out and joyn your sets together even in the tops and set them altogether bolt upright and there hold them in their place till you have filled the hole with good mould set low but just as the tops may be level with the ground and then after they must be covered two inches thick with fine mould be carefull you set not that end downward which before grew upward which you know by the bud growing upward and let no part of the dead stalk remaine upon the uppermost joynt thereof then press down the earth hard to the roots some will set them every one at a corner of the hole under the line which I rather encline to because they have room and stand round but if you plant late have green Springs upon them then be careful of not covering the Spring but to set more plants lest some should fail and in a bigger hole and round about the same set 8 some say ten or more which is thought tedious but I will make a tryal thereof it being the latest experimented in our dayes now at this time you need make no hills at all there as aforesaid Poultery must be preserved from scratting the Goose especially Now for poling if your distance be 3 yards or 8 foot then 4 poles are repuired else three wil serve but I encline to 6 or 7 foot distance and 4 poles and as many this year as any Alder poles are very good taper and rough and sutable to the Hops desire but you must take such as the Country will afford The time of cutting your poles is in December or November and then dress them and pile them up dry if you leave some twigs it will not do amiss For length 15 foot is a good length except your ground be very rich or your hills exceeding heightned or if they grow too thick your poles need to be the longer The Hop never stocketh kindly untill it reach higher than the pole and returneth a yard or two for whilst it is climbing the branches that grow out of the principal stalk grow little or nothing Your poles be strong 9 inches about the bottom they stand faster 150 poles make a load which may be worth a little more than ordinary wood a few wil supply the standing stock in setting your poles lay all to each hill you intend to set which speeds the work When your Hops appear as you discern where your principal root stands then set to poling having a orow of Iron to make entrance for the pole but if you stay longer then you will be more subject either by ramming or making holes to bruise the root or else they will not so easily catch the pole without flying Your foot of the pole must be set a foot and half deep and within 2 or three inches of the principal root but if your land be rocky then you must help your self by making your hill higher to strengthen your poles for which you must stay the longer too lest you bury your Sciences Your poles of each hill lean them rather outward one from another and then with a rammer ram them outward and not inward If a pole should break you take away the broken pole ty the top of those hops to the top of a new pole then winding it with the sun a turn or two set it in the hole but if you can take a stake and ty it too without wresting the wiers of it may do well to peece but if broken at the neather end shove the pole in again and if your poles break in the pulling up or will not be drawn by reason of drought or hardness you may make a pair of pinsors of 4 foot long with an iron runing hook upon them with a block laid under upon the top of the hil so coleweigh up your pole the mouth whereof made hollow And for laying up your poles the usual way is to ty two two
Traps of severall Sorts of all which I commend the Pot-trap set in a Bank or Hedg-sow which wisely Set and Planted at all times but especially in the naturall Season of Bucking time about March will destroy them insensibly Onely one thing more punctually observed in the time of breeding will make such a Rout among them which thy self or any ingenuous man may do as is not credible one Spring at or about March one Moal-catcher and his boy in about ten dayes time in a ground of ninety Acres being just laid down from Tillage took me as was verily conceived three bushell of old and young they were not to be numbred most of them being young and naked and this he onely did by casting up their nests which are alwaies built in a great heap of a double bigness to the rest most easily discerned and then immediatly the old ones would come to look their young which he would snap up presently also Yet I desire to speak a word by way of Incouragement to the Ingenuous Husbandman not to suffer so great Dishonour to Husbandry nor so great Prejudice to his Profit as to suffer were it possible one to remain either in Tillage Mead or Pasture and if thou have any Opportunity of Water to be brought over any part of thy Land it will drive them out and destroy them so far as thou canst lead it after them that thou needest not be in any measure troubled with them in thy Meadows CHAP. XVIII And for the Ant-hills more pestilent and Offensive than the former in some Sorts of Lands THere is but a little Addition that I can make to what I spake before of Ant hils destruction But to quicken thee thereto I shall be more large being this is the most proper place I demand what is the reason that infinite great Pastures all over the Nation are so over-run with them Unless men Accompt them Vertuous Indeed some have said they Increase the Land in quantity so they may say with shame for so they do but apparently Decrease it in quality Worth Fruitfulness half some mens Land covered over with them and what is the fruit of them They bear plenty of wild Time Mous-ear Phins Moss and Shar-grase you shall seldom see a Sheep or Beast bite them unless for hunger and then if a Sheep or Beast be cast among them many times destroyed by them I would have these men as are so far in love with them but he intreated to spend a little time to see how his cattell Pasture upon them in the winter and how they burn and scorch in Summer but make experience of three or four Acres banking the fruit thereof never conclude a demonstration by Opinion when experience may so easily resolve the question For Curing of them I shall onely direct the old Piece of banking them but in a more unusuall way and somwhat more speedily than formerly yet make a banking Iron or Spade made very thin or smooth on purpose a little more compass or comming than your ordinary Spades are deeper bitted also A Spade that worketh smooth clean will further this doubly and then begin with the crown or top of thy Hills and so divide thy over Turf into five or six parts and take down the coat or over turf to the very bottom of it the Turf being cut as thinne as possibly thou canst so thou be sure to go under the Roots of the Grass else it will not Soard so thick nor speedily and so turn it down round about the Coar which taken out and cast about thy Land so deep that when thy Turf is turned down even just as thou tookest it up even so lay it down every Turf in its place that the whole compass of the Hill may be rather lower than the Surface of the Ground and but a very little neither yet lower it must be because else the Ant will return more readily again And secondly because then it will receive more naturally the Water or Moysture which will occasion a more speedy Soarding and prevent the Pismires return for the Moysture will not be endured by the old Inhabitants And this done in the proper season which is in the end of November December Ianuary and beginning of February which seasons if thou fail as good neglect them wholly for thy Earth will neither have benefit of the Frost to mould it whereby it will be spread with ease and have some of the Winters rain to settle it into the Ground nor the Turf have fitting time to sodder and work together before the dry weather comes to parch it and loosen it again and so maist lose a great part of that Summers profit which otherwise thou maist receive And if thy Land be clean and and free from Moss Rush and other pelf this will be a sufficient cure as to reducing the Hilliness to Plainess and thy Land to an exceeding good Improvement and so herein I have no more to say unless thy Land be over-run with the aforesaid filth but what is the Burden of my Song and is the onely and sure Cure of most of the Maladies that occasioneth Barrenness which is prescribed as a soveraign Remedy viz. Plowing according to former directions destroyes them all brings meat in the mouth with it takes away the Fins and the Mous-ear the wild Time and Shar-grass if used with Moderation and so I have done with this As for the Sow-Thistle the chief and onely Annoyance of all Thistles as for other Thistles I scarce know how to rank them amongst those grand Corrupters because the opinion of most men are that they are most certain symptomes of good Land as usually they are so are Nettles Hemlocks Mallowe c. and yet I had rather they were all destroyed than remain upon my Lands but because they are of less offence aud we have greater Prejudices than these I 'll let them pass but for the Sow-thistle it is of so great offence that it destroyes all the Grass it covers which is many times a foot round and also so easie to be destroyed that I shall put the Grazier or Farmer upon no other charge or trouble but onely take a little Paddle-staff as a walking-staff and give each one a chop at the Root as he passeth by them which will be rather a Recreation to an active man than a burthen and thus every day a few as they grow in bigness will in few dayes destroy them all Or else a Shepherd or Keeper of the ground as he walks among his Cattell may easily keep them under as he goes about his daily business But since I have found out a more certain way which will destroy them at once spudding up which being done as soon as the Thistle begins to spread but they must be done as it were up by or under the Root which lyeth very overly and if it be not cut
at first chop it may at next by the Root I had the last year a Field of an hundred Acres so thick over-runne that some Acres were as thick that one man could not do above half an Acre in a day I caused them to be spudded up by the Root which was done at two chops with my Spade I was not only freed of them the last Summer wholly but my whole ground is cleansed of them for this year and so I hope for ever I believe the charge thereof was near twenty shillings or thereabout A more certain way I know not For Goose Tansey or Hoar Tansey like Weed I must needs make Proclamation That he that can tell the destruction of it shall do a very acceptable service and for my self I should be very thankfull for the Communication thereof for I can say no more but this Never Plow your Land too long nor out of heart or strength by no means for this occasioneth it to grow more thick and fruitfully and also load your Land hard with Cattell in the Spring and when it doth grow high and strong Mow it down about the end of Midsummer Moon or in the dryest and hottest time of the Summer but the earlier the better and other means I can prescribe none other but in all your Plowings soyl it well with good Dung and lay it down rich and full of spirit I hope some man of Experience herein will help me For the destruction of Fearn I shall prescribe such poor means that thou wilt take offence thereat yet however Experience having proved the truth hereof I will prâ—scribe it viz. In the Spring so soon as it begins to grow up a little above the Grass while it is young and tender take a crooked Pole or piece of Wood about six foot long and let it câ—ook at one end like a Bow or come like a Sithe with which thon mayst strike off all the heads of the Fearn as low as thou canst to the very ground if thou please to make it with a little Edge thou mayst but it will do without And this course thou must take the second time also as soon as it begins to sprout and grow up again which may be within three Weeks after the first And thus having bruised and broken and cut off the head the second time thou shalt see such a destruction wrought as thou wilt admire the Reason I cannot possibly conceive other than this This breaking cutting or bruising of the Stalk doth give a kind of Check or Comptroul unto the Sap which is ascending that it causeth it again to recoyl into the Root and so suffocates and choaketh the life and spirit of it that it descends dowuward and dyeth in the Earth This I am from a very Ingenuous knowing Husband informed which not onely destroyes it the present year but for the time to come also who hath made a more large and full experience of the same than my self hath done But I believe if it prove a very wet Summer thou must not wholly expect the destruction of it But in some parts of the Nation where Fuell is very scarce it wil be thought to be Prejudice by many to destroy it especially upon Commons where they reserve it for Fuell on purpose and is a very great help to poor for Firing yet whether in those very places it be so good as an Acre of Grass I question but there are other parts where it is little worth some places not worth getting yet it is the ruin and destruction of all the Grass it groweth over for whose sakes I have spoke thus much and anâ—sure in most parts it a most pestilent weed CHAP. XIX Treates of the destruction of Goss Broom Brakes c. and how to Improve ordinary Lands by Planting Fruit and shews how to preserve Corn from Blasting and from Crows and Vermine and gives a Description of the Water Persian Wheel AS for your Goss Broom Braking c which in some places wehre Fuell is very scarce and the ground very bad to prescribe a Cure is little Advantage but where either Land is good natured Land or Broom and Goss of little value or else where men desire to Improve their Land to the utmost worth it can be raised to it would be worth entertainment But to give a perfect Cure thereof without considerable Cost bestowed upon it I know none The best means for that is to cut it in the hottest and dryest time of Summer when the Sap is drawn clean forth of the Root and many times this will destroy it But if thou wilt be a good Improver thou mayst destroy it utterly and treble the value of thy land in the doing of the same which is this When thou hast cut thy Broom thy Goss Ling or Braking it matters not at what season Then Plow thy Land and make a Fallow of it if thou please or otherwise take as many Crops as thou pleasest more or fewer all is one to this purpose so as thou be sure to Plow thy Roots up clean and then Manure thy Land with what Compost thou canst get for I believe if thy Land be made Rich and fruitfull with any sort of Soyl whatsoever it will in a great measure mend it But without doubt if thou either Marl it well or chalk it very well and afterward Muck it very well to mollifie and loosen and open the Earth or Lime it well or Mud it well and afterward Muck it over with good Cow or Horse Dung or any other good Soyl as House or street Muck it will not onely Improve it but destroy any of these offences or any other whatsoever that naturally ariseth from Barrenness or Coldness possibly once Manuring may not do it nor indeed canst thou expect so great an Improvement with so little cost because I reckon not that any charge or cost thou expendest whilst thou hast it under Tillage for that brings in thy charge again in thy Crop so not to be put upon this Accompt but that which thou bestowest upon thy last Crop for the last Crop I would advise thee to Manure to purpose and so soon as thy Crop is got Manure it again for it will also bring in thy charge in the Crop of Grass also and again whilst thy Land is young and tender for at this season will one load of Soyl do as much as two when thy Soard begins to grow Tough yea as much as three when it grows Mossy Rushy Filthy This is a most certain Conclusion which I have ever maintained and proved by Practice Ever to lay on Soyl that first Winte after Corning and at one good Soyling have raised an excellent sweet Soard the very first year full as good again as it was before upon the old Soard And this gallant Advancing-way shall certainly destroy both Bryars â—raking Fearn Gooâ—-Tansie also if an thing will do it Goss-Ling-Heath or any thing else
so much by the Acre of many more years growth as this at the Eleventh year And for the effecting of this Design thou must take in two or three more particulars one is a strict Observation of the Season in Planting And then secondly your Demeanure towards it after Planted First The Seasons are as soon as the Leafe is faln the earlier the better fail not to be well prepared of Materials to begin with November and so thou mayst continue three months compleat untill the end of Ianuary and possibly some part of February but it is somewhat hazardous and may exceedingly fail thy Expectation And for the Moons Increasing or Declining matter it not at all nor any Season Wet or Dry Frost or Snow so thy Labourers can but work and be sure that what Sets be gathered one day may be sâ—t the next if possibly or next after And shouldst thou be occasioned by any hindrance to keep thy sets longer Unset be thou sure thou get their Roots into the ground well covered with good Mould untilâ— thou canst set them and be not drawn away to the contrary by any Workmans perswasion whatsoever for though the lying out of Mould of Unset do not kill them yet will it so backen them that thou mayst lose a full half years growth in them Secondly Thy Ground thus planted thou must be careful in the Weeding of it for I know no greater cause of this so great Advance than this The keeping of the Ground clean from Weeds and as mellow and open as possibly which will cause the Roots to shoot exceedingly and the Plant to grow abundantly thou must for the first second year prize it and dress it almost as a Garden And therefore be sure thou preserve it from any Beast Horse or Sheep biting it in the least measure should Cattell break in they would destroy one yeares growth in a moment As for Boggy Land much of it that is perfectly Drained to the bottom that is little worth will nourish a Plantation of Wood to good Advantage especially your Poplar and Willow and Alder your Ash will grow well also But therein you must observe to make your Dikes and Draines so deep that you may lay it compleatly dry you must goe under all your Bog to the cold spewing-Spring near a foot below that then what you plant upon the Bogs or Lands you may expect a wonderfull issue 'T is very common in four or five years that the Willow rises to gallant Hurdle-wood in five or six yeares to Abundance of Fire-wood and small Pole for Hops and other Uses One Acre of new Planted Willow upon some Land not worth two shillings an Acre may in Seven years be worth near about five pound in some parts an Acre and in some parts of this Nation more And I verily beleeve were all the Bog-Lands in England thus planted and Husbandred well after these Directions might raise Woood enough to maintain a great part of this Nation in Firing and for other sorts of Wood the well Ordering Nourishing it although in Lands so bad would produce a wonderfull profit far more than I will speak of And I suppose he is no ill Husband that can raise a bog to a double advance considering some of them are worse than nothing But when they are so exceeding Coarse and barren you cannot expect such Fruitfulness ordvance as from that Land that is of a fatter or better nature For certain all plants and Woods will do much better on better Land than on coarser and in case thou shouldst bestow Soyl or Manure on thy Land before thou Plant it it would be both Labour and Cost exceeding well bestowed and conduce much to the nourishing of a young Plantation Now shall follow a piece or Device how to thicken your Springs or Coppices where they grow thin or are decayed Which fully observed may doubly improve the same such a way is here projected as is little used in any Woods where I ever yet came and as unlikely also to any thing I have yet spoken unto which is no more but this at every Fall where thy Wood groweth thin take a goood straight Pole or sampler growing of Ash or Willow at the usuall growth of the Wood and Plash it down to the Ground about four or five Inches above the top of the Ground not cutting it wholly off and cut off the head of it and put the over end of the Pole after the head cut off a little into the Ground which thou mayst do by bending it in the midst like a Bow and so thrust it in and so fasten it down once or twice from the middle of it and upwards close to the Ground with a Hook or two and out thence where any branch would put forth standing will put forth lying and more and more grow up to Plants and Poles as the other Spring doth and so you may though it be uncapable of Sets or Planting with the Root lay over all your Vacant places and thicken your Woods where ever they are wanting And let me beg of thee thy credence here it is most certain I speak out of my own ExperieÌ„ce one of the gallantest Woods I know in England it is constantly used at every fall in some place or other of it the Wood is eighteen fals every fall eighteen years growth their very Faggots made at length of the Wood besides all their Pole-woods all their brush being faggoted into the Faggot were this year sold for one pound three shillings four pence a hundred forty Faggots make a Load it is worth about twenty five pounds an Acre every fall Study warmth all that possibly thou canst for any Plants are helped much in mounting aloft thereby therfore as I conceive they prosper worse upon your cold Clay which nourisheth the Tree little and hath no quickness nor life to quicken the growth therof but by toughness and coldness of the Earth the Sap is shut in and cannot get in to spread so frankly as it should and so instead of thriving of the Tree the moss prospereth more fruitfully than the Tree Your Elm Plants may be gotten of young sprouts growing forth of the Roots of the old Elm many thousands which being slipped and set will grow very fruitfully Your Sicamore is a very quick growing and thriving Wood especially if it be planted upon some warm sound and rich Land they will thrive wonderfully and rise to gallane shade excellent to make Walks Shaddow-bowers useful for in ward building where better is wanting for firing where wood grows scarce As for Sets of this nature if you go to any place where Sicamors grow and there in the beginning of the Spring you shall sind the Seeds chitted up and down as thick as possible which gather up and set them presently and you shall have your increase at large being planted curiously from any the least prejudice of
appears by the naturall growth of it in all Countries but for artificial planting I should advise to a middle mixed Land yea though it be but barren it thrives excellently upon as barren Lands as any are in England the coldest stiffest Clay is worst for all sorts of Woods your open loose Lands is best for any Woods or Fruits and the Oak takes not pleasure in your richest soils of all but I question not the wel prospering of it there two may be the cause why so little of it is found upon your richest Lands may be because the Land may or is put to a more profitable use for this I must needs acknowledge that in many parts where Land is rich and dear or lyeth near great Towns and letteth at great prizes the wood being in danger of stifling and spoiling by Wood-stealers the Land may turn to greater profit yet however where Land is good I should advise to some wood though planted here there a tree in hedg-rows where they may not prejudice the grass or shade the ground it wil be not onely an improvement in good measure of the Land by adding to the incom the fruit thereof as well as of the grass but an honor delight unto your self and Posterity The Oak-mast maketh fat fast flesh and long lasting Bacon and will feed Deer Sheep and Poultry exceeding well and profitably I have read of one Oak in Westphalia from the foot to the nearest bough one hundred thirty foot and twelve foot thick and of another ten yards thick which may possibly be but I am sure profit and honour sufficient will attend an ingenious plantation of any sorts of Wood. This is most renowned for Shipping or any the strongest and most enduring works or buildings or for the most curious Wainscot or indeed for any use whatever I shall be brief in all the rest because that much that I have said in the planting of this may be applied to the rest the Barque is of as great worth as of need and use The Beech is also a mast-tree and very usefull and profitable both in the Body Branches and fruit thereof The Body is very good Timber for the Joyners use and for the Husbandman for Axol-trees and for much Building and the bough for Firing and the Fruit for feeding Hogs and Deer and I know not whether for Poultry or Sheep but it makes meat sweet and delicate light of digestion but not so long lasting as Peas or Acorns It delights most in your warm Land it growes well upon gravelly Land and Lands very stony and in the Chiltern Countries and sandy ground and balks not the barrennest Land likes well and better the hill and mountains than the plain The Barque thereof is usefull for the floats of fishing-nets and pantofels for Winter and if you spoyl them of their Barque they die This wood groweth somewhat quicker than the Oak and is more inclined to some Countries than to others especially your wood-land parts The Elm groweth easily it is all heart if it be fallen in his season which is when the sap is fully and clearly down in the root betwixt November and February it takes great delight in ditch-banks and dry places they will grow thickest of any wood whatever and prosper and as I conceive the most advantagious planting them is in hedg-rows or in little Plumbs of themselves As for the Elm-seed I can say but little because I never made experience thereof onely it is affirmed that there is a male and a female of the Elm and that the male Elm beareth seeed and not the female which if it do then the seed when it is ripe may be sowed as other seeds are upon a bed by themselves and fine mould sifted and cast upon them and if they be dry they as other seeds must be watered and so sowed in little rows that a little trench be betwixt row and row that they may not root one into and upon another but so as that they may be taken up again with more ease to remove and transplant where you please You may get Sets of the very roots which sprout forth of it and set them and they wil grow and very many affirm that any Elm or a very chip when the sap is firm proud will grow unto a Set. But this I had from a Gentleman of credit as a speedy unfailing to raise Elm-sets or Plants which is dig round about a well-grown Elm a foot or more from the body unto many or most of the Master-roots and cleanse away all the earth and then cut the root almost quite through with an ax and so serve most of the roots and if you cut some full through you may and forth of both those ends of the root you cut or divide in sunder will come forth gallant sprouts or plants which you must take off with a little part of the root or a little chip thereof and plant it and it will assuredly grow to a good Tree The use and worth of the Elm is little inferiour to the former it is of absolute and singular use especially for water-works good for building where it may ly constantly dry or constantly wet but sometimes dry and sometimes wet it will not long endure It makes excellent plank and good board the best wood in England for Wheelwrights Nathes or Hubs for wheels and good for felly timber also In your second plantation or removall set them in very good order and be carefull of preserving them as a garden from shaking with wind or cattel or from biting or rubbing by all means Some write that in your second removall you may do best to tie some knots of some of the string or twist them like a garland and then set them and tread the mold down about the roots first annointed with Bullocks dung but my self having made thereof no experience cannot press it all I say is a small matter wil make out the experierce which I encourage to The Elm groweth to great worth hinders little ground delights in sound warm Land dry sandy gravelly or mixed Lands but it must have good store of mold by all means it doth not delight in cold moist clays nor spewing weeping Land One Acrs length with 1. or 2. rows of Elms upon a ditch bank at their full growth may be worth 20. or 30l it runneth up generally to the greatest height and length of any Wood in England The Ash is also a gallaut quick-thriving Wood but it takes not so much pleasure in a hard barren mountainous Land as the Oak or Beech do It will grow in good Land and in Land of any nature or temperature almost what 's ever it will thrive reasonable well upon a Boggy ground so the same be deep Trenched to the bottom and laid dry and sound It delights it self in dry sound Land and will grow very fast if it like the Land faster than any
that will alway be apt to draw the plough too wide nor yet into the furrow for that will be alway apt to work it to go too narrow but just straight forward by a straight line to the pitch of the plough but if a Dutch Coulter then the wheel to be very well steeled and about ten inches high and to go as true as possible for the false cutting of the wheel will make you work at a great uncertainty which Coulter is not usefull neither upon stony gravelly flinty broomy gossy or rooty ground but upon pure turf or pure mould on which it goeth very easie The midst of the wheel had need be an inch thick because of wearing and so wrought thinner and thinner towards the edge round untill it come to be as thin as a knife if it were possible but because this Coulter is with many of high esteem and of some advantage and yet not much known I will give you the figure of it as also of the best sort of English for its compass and a sharp thin well tempered edge that tends most to the ease of our English Coulter and it shall be where I give the description of the Ploughs I intend to shaddow forth And as the Plough-holder or Ploughman may much prejudice the easie going of the Plough so one rightly qualified may in great measure advantage it although the Plough be made never so exact and true and therefore I give these two or three generall Rules to the Plough-holder which are naturall to any sort of ploughs whatever although there are some different rules appertenant to some particular Ploughs as the double wheeled plough and the Turnwrest Kentish ploughs which would be too tedious to discourse but these I leave to the plough-mans practice being easily found out by two or three dayes experience The first generall Rule shall be that the plough-man be able to judge and determine within himself the truth both of the plough-wright and the Smiths workmanship and in case he find an errour therein at first to mend it which is far easier done than after the plough or irons be wrought into a greater error yea that it is possible it may not be recoverable And secondly having his plough and all his Accutrements compleated then to the triall of it and therein be sure to make the first tryall of your plough vpon land workable and regular lands not upon lands above measure hard rooty rushy twichy or any way unfeacible because upon such lands a true demonstration of the goodness and truth of the plough cannot be discovered nor any Rule can be observed 2 Because such lands will more easily and suddenly wrench writh or put a new plough out of its work before it be wrough into its work A rough new plough being somewhat like an unbroken horse which may easily be spoyled in the hand of a violent mad-cap Rider but if the horse be kindly used and taken of his untamedness by degrees by ease kindness and patience he is made a horse for ever so after that in ordinary land your patient discreet plough-man have well scoured your plough brought it to a true furrow both for breadth and depth and set your Irons as it will goe it self with the very bearing of the hand to keep it steady then you may afterward be bold to put it to any service or any lands whatsoever the strength of it will abide and it may be serviceable for many years Thirdly let him be sure having once got his plough into a perfect furrow his plough avoiding all the earth as it takes it on at Breast and carrying a fair clean furrow along with it and turning its furrow cleaverly also from it then let him not neglect a day but iron his plough with slips or clouts in all the wearing places smooth and even and strengthen the neck of it with an iron bolt from the bottom of the head through the beam and there strongly drawn up and cottered fast if he have none before that the Head may not draw the least for after a plough is drawn in the Neck or Breast it is probably wholly spoyled and then alway be carefull in keeping your Irons sharp and clean wrought your Coulter edge thin ground and Share phin as sharp as may be and very small point upon your share all well steeled and tempered your plough shall go with great ease and truth But lastly the plough-man must have a little regard to his Teem or Draught and to the well geering or ordering them if he will take all advantages he may or ought for ease and therefore must alway make his Horse or Ox as suitable as may be not some high and some low but of an equality as even as may bee much might bee spoken herein by way of reprehension and advice too but I must forbear onely advise that if your horses be unequall for height then place the highest formost and so your higher next and your lowest last many reasons may be given therefore however make your Horses and Oxen as equallas you can possibly if they be unsizeable your highest draw up your lowest and your lowest draw down the highest therfore endeavonring all you can that all draw by a streight line is best and preserves the full strength of your Teem or Draught for your plough which otherwise you lose a very confiderable part thereof and let your Gears or Harness be strong and easie Secondly be as carefull as in sizing them for their height so also in matching them for their spirit as near as you can A horse of a dull sluggish spirit and heavy is fittest for sluggish service such as your heavy loads or weighty draughts fitter for carting than plowing your quick lively spirited Horses will be best for your plough and the dull horses will be best to be placed together at what service soever and then they will not deceive their fellows which many times is the spoyl of many a good horse your false deceitfull Horse that will draw but at his own pleasure and fail you and his fellows at a stand or dead lift as we say is exceeding unserviceable and must be avoyded as much as is possible Yet if he be quick sprited and full of metall he may do best at plough and harrowing and being sized with his fellows is usefullest in that service of any other whatsoever Lastly he must be able to judge of his Land and the seasons of plowing and to sort his severall ploughs to each alteration otherwise he shall not be able to plow all his Lands nor indeed any at some seasons and because of this I shall say more hereafter I shall dismiss my plough-man with this exhortment be as willing to learn as thou hast need and abandon those poor silly shifts men make to preserve themselves ignorant and unserviceable as they have been plough-men all their dayes and are not now to learn and men may as
decay it almost if thou hast but a reasonable quantity then thou must get it for the use of the drugsters and Apothecaries and the sets to plant again and then in the taking up of every root there will be one runner which hath little buds upon it the which may be divided and cut into a fingers length each so planted with one bud out of the ground set upright which makes very excellent good sets one runner will make many sets but these sets cannot be got up untill the Madder be taken away And having thus preserved it untill it come to a good crop if thou intendest it and hast a quantity sufficient to set up a Madder Mill having curiously dryed it as you do your hopps to a just perfect gage of drought Thou must provide all materials to that purpose the Mill I cannot well describe and it is exceeding curious to be made aright I do not hear of any one can do it yet possibly there may be some Engineer or some Dutch man here that can do it it being a common Mill in Holland and the Low-Countries which is the only place for Madder that I hear of in the World A rude discovery I could give but I wil forbear least any one taking pattern by it should abuse himself more and me in some measure yet here is the mystery of it so to pare of the husk that it may be if possible as the wheat is ground beflaked or flayed that it may go all one way which sort they call the mull Madder and is little worth not above nine or ten shillings a hundred and then you must take out the second sort called the number O which is the middle rind and is not worth so much as the third sort called the Crop madder by one sixth part and this crop Madder is the very heart and pitch of it inclining to the yellow and this lesser in quantity but better in quality by far Sometimes the best Madder is worth eight or nine pound a hundred and the number O is worth but six pound six shillings 8 pence or eight pound two shillings fix pence and sometimes it is not worth above four pound or five pound a hundred yea sometime it may come to three pound the hundred possibly because I would not abuse the Reader I advise my Madder-Planter to send over for a workman thence who can both describe the Engine and the manner of mixing sorting of it which is the greatest mystery and well worth your labour and pains it wil be At Barn-Elms was once Madder sowen brought to good perfection and a Mill erected by one Mr. Shipman the late Kings Gardner who had a Patent for it from the late King but being as I am informed a poor man was not able to carry it on for want of stock as I conceive these times coming on broke his new Plantation but on Mr Hassey bought his Madder which proved excellent good and sold it again to the Dyars who exceeding high commend it Which is sufficient proof to me that we may raise make as good as any is in the world why not as well as Holland our Lands both Marsh Fen abundanceof Up-land and Meadow is as rich dry and deep of soyl and good for it as theirs is and we have use enough for many thousand weight of it some Dyars using above a 100 pound a week a man The profit I shall not determine because it will be long before a thorough tryall can be made of it but now as it is planted in Gardens unspeakable advantages are made thereby and should it hold that proportion when it comes to be made up and compleated to the Dyars it would prove the richest commodity that I know sowed in England I hear Sir Nicholas Crisp is erecting a Plantation of it his ingenuity is to be commended highly in many things for his publique spiritedness countenanced in a work that is so likely to tend to the publique good I know none can drive on publique ends without private aims neither know I wel why he should to his own ruin but he that drives on his private so as the publique shall be most advanced from men deserves great honor and thou that repinest set such another work on foot and then thou wilt grow more charitable But I shall say no more but humbly pray all encouragement may be given hereunto for could it be brought to that perfection as Woad is here it might be as great an addition to the nation as any thing I can discover I have done The Fourth Peece of Improvement hath respect unto the Plantations of Hops Saffron and Liquorish both in relation to the mystery thereof and profits thereby CHAP. XXXVII Onely treats of Hops Plantations and how Land is improved thereby AS for Hops it is grown to a Nationall commodity But it was not many years since the famous City of Lond. petitioned the Parliament of England against two Anusancies or offensive commodities were likely to come into great use and esteem and that was Newcastle-coal in regard of their stench c. and Hops in regard they would spoyl the tast of drink and endanger the people and for some other reasons I do not well remember but petition they did to suppress them and had the Parliament been no wiser than they we had been in a measure pined and in a greater measure starved which is just answerable to the Principles of those men that now cry down all devices or ingenious discoveries as projects so this day therby stifle choak Improvement yet we see what nationall advantages they have since yeelded and no less will many of the other This Hop plantation would require a large discourse but I shall contract my self to the briefest discovery therof I can possible therefore shall under three or four Heads 1 Shew you the land is best for them and best Sets to plant withall 2 The manner of planting them and husbandring them untill they be fit for sale 3 The profit and advantage that will accrew thereby I shall describe it thus it comes up with severall sprouts like Sparrowgrass runs up climbs on an thing it meets withall bears long stalk hairy and rugged leaves broad like the Vine the flowers hang down by cushers set as it were with scales yellowish called in high Dutch Lupulus in Low Dutch Hopssem and in English Hop It is offensive upon this score hot in the first degree stuffs the head with the smell therefore use it not too much yet the leaves open clense 1 The best land is your richest land and in time you must gain therein lest another reap the benefit of your labour It must be a deep mould that which lyeth near the Rock the Poles cannot be set deep enough to stand firm it would be a mixed earth that is compounded of sand and a little clay but much solid earth a strongish
together in the top being set in 6 opposite hils so raise a little earth betwixt the hils as if they were but three hils and lay some hopbands upon the 3 hils under your hop-poles and so draw your tops nearer together or further off as you see cause When your hops are grown two foot high bind up with a rush or grass your binds to the poles as doth not of it self winding them as oft about the poles as you can wind them according to the course of the sun but not when the dew is upon them your rushes lying in the sun wil toughē And now you must begin to make your hils and for that purpose get a strong ho of a good broad bit cut or ho up all the grass in the borders between your hils therwith make your hils with a little of your mould with them but not with strong weeds the more your hils are raised the better the larger stronger grows your root bigger will be your fruit and from this time you must be painful in your garden and ever and anon till the time of gathering in raising your hils and clearing your ground from weeds In the first year suppress not one science suffer them all to climb up the poles should you bury the springs of any one of your roots it would dy so that the more poles are required to nourish the spring But after the first year you must not suffer above two or three stalks to grow up to one pole but pul down and bury all the rest Yet you may let them grow four or five foot long and then chuse out the best for use As soon as your pole is set you may make a circle how broad your hil shal be then hollow it that it may receive the moysture not long after proceed to the building of your hils And where you began or where your Hops are highest there begin again and pare again lay them to your Hops but lay the out-circle highest to receive moysture be alway paring up and laying it to the heap and with some mould untill the heap coms to be near a yard high but the first year make it not too high as you pass through your garden have a forked wand in your hand to help the hops that hang not right Now these hils must the next year be pulled down dressed again every year Some when their hop bind is 11 or 12 foot break off the tops which is better than they that have their poles so long as the hop runs but if that your hop by the midst of Iuly attain not to the top of your pole then break off the top of the same hop for then the rest of the time wil nourish the branches which otherwise wil lose al it being no advātage in running up to the stock or increase of the hop Now we come to the gathering of thē about Margarets day hops blow and at Lammas they bell but when your hops begin to change colour is a little before Michaelmas but long before som wil turn change grow ripe which howsoever the best way wil be to pul them not suffer thē to shed they are called Midsummer hops let them not grow til the other be ripe as soon as the seed of the rest begins to change then get pullers amain as many as you can taking a fair season note you were better to gather thē too early thā too late Therfore for neatness sake pul down four hils standing together in the midst of your garden cut the roots pare the same plot level throw water on it tread it sweep it and make it far wherein the hops must lie to be picked Then begin cut the stalks close by the tops of the hils cut thē asunder that grow one into another with a long sharp hook with a fork take them down you may make the fork hook one apt instrument with which you may shove off al from the pole carry it to the place But I have seen of late they carry pole all to the place and pick them off the pole strait fine poles is best for this way but cut no more stalks thā you can carry away in the space of one hour aforehand for either sun or rain will offend when they are off the pole you must all stand round the floor and speedily strip them in baskets for it is not hurtfull though some smaller leaves fall among them And clear your floor twice a day sweep it if the weather be unlike to be fair they may be carried into the house in blankets but use no linnen it will stain to purpose And if you pull them upon poles then lay them upon forked stakes dispatch thē be careful of wet lest they shed their seed which is the marrow of them When you have leisure take up your poles and pile them carry out your straw so depart your garden till March unless it be to bring in dung And for the advancement of your Hop-garden get dung into your gardē lay on some in winter for to comfort warm the roots your hills pulled down let your roots lye bare all winter season your old dung is best rather none than not rotten And in April help every hil with a handful or two of good earth when the hop is wound about the pole but in March you will find unless it hath been tilled all weeds but if you have pulled down your hils and layd your ground as it were level it will serve to maintain your hils for ever but if you have not pulled down your hils you should with your ho as it were undermine them round til you come near the principall and take the upper or younger roots in your hand and discerning where the new roots grow out of the old sets of which be careful but spare not the other but in the first year uncover no more thā the tops of the old Sets but cut no roots before the end of March or beginning of April The first year of dressing your roots you must cut away al such as grew the year before within one inch of the same every year after cut thē as close to the old roots those that grow downward are not to be cut they be those that grow outward which wil incumber your Gardē the difference between old new easily appears you wil find your old sets not increased in length but a little in bigness and in few years all your sets will be grown into one by the colour also the main root being red the other white but if this be not early done then they wil not be perceived if your Sets be small and placed in good ground the hill well maintained the new roots will be greater than the old if they grow to
Acre it hath been sold from 20 s. a pound to 5 l. a pound It is an excellent advantage and brings in at worst a saving bargain but it may possibly be worth 30 or 40 l. an Acre but if it come but to 7 or 8 l. it loseth not so I have given thee a brief story wherein I would have been more large but having lost my observations upon it which I took when I was upon the very Lands and received full satisfaction in every particular and member or branch thereof but as yet it hath not fell under my own experience therfore I give the heads as I remember as they were delivered unto me upon the place though I have forgot many of them to incourage to the work The Saffron Country is on one side and â—ook of Essex and some part of Suffolk and at Saffron Walden and betwixt that and Cambridge is very much of it in their common fields and truly these Lands are but of a middle worth I have seen as rich land again in many parts of England but it is as I believe loamy ground and of a little saddish nature it will require to be laid dry and sound and the land it self must be very sound wholsom Land CHAP. XXXIX Treats of the Plantation of Liquorish at large I Proceed to another Nationall business in the Plantation whereof we exceed all Nations and that is Liquorish our English Liquorish as wee call it not yet wrote of by any that I could ever see is far beyond the Spanish small dry Liquorish or any other As for the use of it most of you know but as to the profit advaÌ„tage the mystery of Planting of it but few understand fewer practise but that I may be as open and full in the discovery of it as I can in this short discourse I have to make I shal under these two or three heads formalize what I intend to speak 1. Shall be to discover the best land to bear it 2. The best way I can find practised to plant it 3. The profits and advantages of it The best Land to raise your Liquorish upon is your richest you can get or make your warmest you can find out the soundest and dryest that is possibly to be had of a very deep soyl you must dig and prepare your Land before you set and it must be digged three spades depth and two or three shovellings at the least laid as hollow light as may be you may have it digged out of naturall Land if it be very rich indeed that it will feed an Ox in a summer it is the best for eight pence a rod at London yea for seven pence and sometimes for six pence a rod forty rods make a rood which is a quarter of an Acre which comes to about 4 or 5 l. an acre this is the main charge of all for three year there is no more unless it be a little hoing which will off hand very fast I believe it will not cost above 20 s. an acre more all three yeares both in setting and all the dressings of it besides the sets and Land The sets being doubly trebly worth your money sets have been sold for 2 s. the hundred more sometimes are not worth above 1 s. a hundred but if your Land be not fresh old Land or extraordinary rich as rich as your best gardens are it must be made so with soyles warm Manures horse-dung is excellent to be intrenched into the Earth it both warms and lightens it and makes it very fit for this service About London is very seruiceable Lands for it so is on any dry soyl whatever where it is rich enough deep Holland in Lincolnshire must needs be very good many of the Marshes that are sandy and warm most excellent that which bears this well wil also bear your Madder-weed that rich commodity I hear that Liquorish grows naturally at VVorsop in Nottinghamshire and about Pomphret in Yorkshire so also I heare your sparrow-grass grows naturally at Moulton within a few miles of Spauldwin in Lincolnshire and so I proceed to my third particular Which is the best experimented way of planting of it Having digged and prepared your Land and a little raked and evened the same you may proceed to the Planting of it therein you must indeavour the procuring of the best sets you can and from the best and largest sort of Liquorish The best sets are your Crown sets or heads got from the very top of the root a little shived down be carefull of this of very sound Land for how soon soever you come to the water your Liquorish will check and run not one inch further and having procured your sets your ground being cast into beds of 4 foot broad all along your plantation from one end to another by a long line you may lay down a set at every foot along the line which line may have knots or thirds at every foot if you be so exact and then a man come with a tool made a little flattish if you will or roundish of the breadth or bigness of a good pickfork stail about half a yard long with a crutch at the over end and sharp at the neather and that thrust into the ground it being made of wood or iron but if flat an iron one will do best and open the hole well and put in the set and close a little mould to it and so you may overrun an acre very quickly in the setting of it and if it should prove a very dry time you must water your sets wo or three daies at first untill you see they have recoved their withered and wanness and then the first year you may Plant your garden with Onions Reddishe or any sallet herb or any thing that roots not downward and I am confident it will be better too because it will prevent some weeding and for the second it must be hoed and kept from weeds too and a little the third but one thing be very curious off in the taking up and sudden setting thy sets as soon as took up set again but if you fetch from far then as soon as taken up put a little mould and post them away by horse back and get them into the ground as soon as possibly the delay of setting spoiles many thousand sets The seasons of planting is in the month of Feb. and March You may the secoud year take some sets from your own stock but be very curious thereof but the third year you may take what you please and in the taking of the Liquorish up the best season for which is in November and December then there runs from every master root a runner which runs along the over part of the ground which hath a little sprouts and roots or sciences which will yeeld excellent sets if they be cut 3 or four of them in every set which