the Soyle that is required for the Sowing Planting or Transplanting Tabaco THe most fruitfull and fertil soyle naturally or by art so made is most requisite for this purpose if the Soyle be naturally fat and strong regard likewise must be had of the scituation of the ground whether in field or garden that the place be not over-shadowed with Trees whereby the Sunne may be hindered from yielding unto it its heat neither must your Tabaco be planted or sowne in wide large fields which lies open to all winds and weathers especially the North winds And as unkindly blasts are a great enemy to the thriving of it on the one side so on the other side the want of the comfort of the heat of the Sunne will so chill it that it will never come to perfection But if by Art your ground must be well dunged and manured which ought to be mixed and incorporated with the earth that there may not be the least appearance of Dung. Moreover the Dung you so make use of must lie a long time rotting if it be gathered out of the stable Your best soyle therefore for present occasion is such as is taken up in the streets or else Ashes sifted Your Hops and Tabaco will require the selfe manuring and I am of opinion that such lands as they sow their Hempe in must needs be fit for this purpose because it is fat and mellow The best way of sowing your Seeds SOme are of opinion that the Seeds should be carelesly cast abroad without either sowing or raking the ground being first prepared with the Plough or the Spade Others againe will tell you that you must make a small hole in the ground with your finger about the depth of your fingers length wherein you may put ten or twelve seeds and so cover the hole againe and this reason they give for their so doing for say they the seeds being very small are either subject to be blowne away by every small winde or else parched by the extreame scorching heat of the Sunne I prefer this way before the former Others againe would have us sow the seeds as Lettuces and other small seeds are committed to the ground by taking some of the finest moulde and putting it into a platter of wood or some such like vessell mixing the earth very well with the seed and so cast to it on the ground very thinne and sparingly This may be their reason because the seed being mixed so well with the earth will stick close to some small crummes of earth that the wind cannot disperse it and besides it occasioneth the speedier rooting thereof and somewhat shelters it that the heat of the Sunne will not much annoy it but if you shall put a small quantity of Ashes very finely sifted into the vessell among the earth and seeds it would be much better The time of Sowing or Planting IN the Moneths of March Aprill or May the Seed may be committed to the earth but the most fit and convenientest season is conceived to be in the middest of Aprill or before if the Spring be very forward for March winds are no good friend unto them wherefore a good way were to cover your beds already sowed with old Matts and when the Sunne doth appeare to uncover them the next morning but because you should spare some daily labour and toyle you might be put to once for all fence it with reeds against the North-wind for the space of a moneth or two Of ordering your ground after Sowing your Seed IN the first place keep your ground cleare from weeds aswell before the sowing of the seed as afterwards because otherwise the weeds will choake the plant and steal away the strength of the ground which should nourish it Also it would not be amisse to remove all stones from about them because the stones will impede their growth and may occasion it to grow awry contrary to the nature of it Indeed if we will believe authors it is a very sullen Plant and apt to take distast which may be the reason that Physicians terme it a hearbe of Mars and I may adde another observation of my owne that from hence it is that all the Souldiers so generally approve of it that scarce one of a hundred can be well long without it I write not this to give any encouragement to our English Planters of Tabaco because when they have done all they can they are recompenced with a sorry crop in eonclusion it being generally stiled by the name of Mundungos but rather to animate Gentlemen who happily may have spare ground enough to sow and plant it in their Gardens not that they should think thereby to make any great gain by it but to have it in readinesse when occasion shall require either for his own or neighbours use The rare vertues of Tabaco the Physicians Apothecaries and Herbalists can best acquaint you with If the Season of the year prove hot and dry after the sowing of your seed you must have a speciall care to the watering of your ground and this must be done neither too early nor too late in the morning especially in the Moneths of April or May nor too late in the Evening and after the leaf hath appeared above ground about a foot high you may then transplant them The manner of transplanting Tabaco YOu shall for you must be very chary of roots that you perish them not take a knife or some other tool and cut round about the roots all the earth so deep as you may take up the roots entire which when you have done you must be very chary in separating of them if there be more than one root wherefore your best way is to take the earth that you so digged up with the roots and put it into a Tub of water and in short time the water will wash away the earth from the small and tender Imps and by this means you may sever the one Imp from the other without any danger of breaking them the one being parted from the other set them in the place which before either was or must now be prepared for them about four foot distance the one from the other and as near as you can so order it that it may have the benefit of the South Sun and that they may be defended from the North-winds with all let them not want of their due watering in Summer for as drink to a thirsty soul so water cherisheth and refresheth the drooping and almost dropping leaves of each Plant but chiefly this Plant which above all other will require it for of it sell it is very hot by nature The time of gathering it for your use THe store that you intend to keep for your use by you must be gathered before that it either flowreth or seedeth and therefore I conceive your best time woud be about the middle of June for then it is in its full strength and having gather'd it you may not leave it
ye shall set them every one in his place made before with a crow of Iron and for to make them take root the better ye shall put with your Plants watered Oates or Barley and so ye shall let them grow the space of three or four yeares or when they shal be branched then ye may remove them and if ye break off the old stubby root and set them lower they will last a long time the more If some of those Plants doe chance to put forth Cions from the root and being so rooted ye must pluck them up though they be tender and set them in other places Of Cyons without Roots IF that the said Plants have Cions without any roots but which come from the Root beneath then cut them not off till they be of two or three years growth by that time they will gather roots to be replanted in other places To plant the Fig-tree THe said Plants taken off Fig-trees graffed be the best Ye may likewise take other sorts of Fig-trees and graff one upon the other for like as upon the wild Trees doe come the Pepins even so the Fig but not so soone to prosper and grow How to set Quinces LIkewise the nature of Quinces is to spring if they be pricked as aforesaid in the earth but sometime I have graffed with great difficulty saith mine Author upon a white Thorne and it hath taken and born fruit to look on fair but in taste weaker than the other The way to set Mulberries THere is also another way to set Mulberries as follows which is if you doe cut in Winter certaine great Mulberry boughs or stocks asunder in the body with a Saw in troncheons a foot long and more then make ye a great furrow in good earth well deep so that you may cover again your troncheons in setting them an end half a foot one from another then cover them again that the earth may be above those ends three or four fingers high so let them remain and water them in Summer if need be sometimes and clense them from all hurtfull weeds and roots Note one of the same THat then within a spaâ— of time after the said tronchions will put forth Cions which when they be somewhat sprigged having two or three small twigs then ye may transplant or remove them where you lift but leave your troncheons still in the earth for they will put forth many motions the which if they shall have scanty of root then dung your troncheons with good earth and likewise above also and they shall do well The tyme to cut Cions VNderstand also that all trees which usually put forth put forth Cions if ye cut them in winter they will put forth and spring more abundantly for then they be all good to set and plant To set Bush-tees or Gooseberries or small Raisins THere be many other kind of Bush-trees which will grow of Cions prickt in the ground as the Gooseberry-tree the small Raifin-tree the Berberrie-tree the Black Thorne-tree these with many other to be planted in winter will grow without roots ye must also proine them and they will grow well enough so likewise ye may prick in Marh of Oziers in moist grounds and they will grow and serve to many purposes for your Garden CHAP. V. IT is to be understood that there be many wayes of graffings whereof here I have onely put four sorts which be good both sure and well appoved and easie to doe which may very well be used in two parts of the yeare and more for I have saith he graffed in our house in every moneth except October and November and they have taken well which I have saith he in the winter begun to graffe and in the Summer graffed in the Scutchion or shield according to the time forward or slow for certaine Trees specially young fair Cions have enough or more of their sap unto the middle of August than other some had at Midsummer before The way to graffe all soris of Trees ANd first of all it is to be noted that all the sorts of frank Trees as also wild Trees of nature may be graffed with grafts and in the Scutchion and both do well take but specially those Trees which be of like nature therefore it is better so to graffe Howbeit they may well grow and take of other sort of trees but trees are not so good nor will prosper so well in the end How to graffe Apple-trees Peare-trees Quince-trees and Medlar-trees THey graffe the Peare-graffe upon other Peare-stocks and Apple on Apple-stocks Crab or Wilding-stock the Quince and Medlar on the white Thorne but most commonly they use to graffe one Apple upon another and both Peares and Quinces they graffe on Hawthorne and Crab-stock And other kind of fruit called in French Saulfey they use to graffe on the Willow-stock the manner thereof â—â— hard to doe which I have not seen therefore I will let it passe at this present The Graffing of Cherryes THey graffe the great Cherry called in French Heaubmiers upon the Crab-stock and another long Cherry called Guiviers upon the wild or sowre Cherry Tree and likewise one Cherry upon another To graffe great Medlars THe Misple or Medlar they may be graffed on other Medlars or on white-thorne the Quince is graffed on the white or black thorne and they doe prosper well I have grafted saith he the Quince upon a wild Peare-stock the which hath taken and borne fruit well and good but they will not long endure I believe saith he it was because the graff was not able enough to draw the sap from the Peare-stock Some graffe the Medlar on the Quince to be great And it is to be noted though the stock and the graft be of contrary natures yet notwithstanding neither the graff or Scutchion shall take any part of the nature of the wild stock so grafted though it be Pear Apple or Quince which is contrary against many which have written that if ye graft the Medlar upon the Quince Tree they shall be without stones which is abusive and mockery For I have saith he proved the contrary Of divers kinds of Graffes IT is very true that one may set a Tree which shall beare divers sorts of fruits at once if he be graffed with divers kind of graffes as the black white and green Cherry together and also Apples of other Trees as Apples and Peares together and in the Scutchion ye may graffe likewise of divers kinds also as on Peares Apricocks and Plums together and of others also Of graffing of the Figs. YE may graffe the Fig-tree upon the Peach tree or Apricock but leave a branch on the stock and there must be according for the space of yeares for the one shall change sooner than the other All trees abovesaid do take very well being graffed one with the other And I have not known or found of any others howbeit saith he I have curiously sought and proved because they say one
them taste thereafter thus may ye change the colour and taste of any Apple Your colours may be of Saffron Tourn sel Brasel Saunders or other what ye shall see good This must be done before the Spring do come Some do say if ye graffe on the Oâ—ive stock or on the Aldâ—r stock they will bring red Apples Also they say to graffe to have fruit without core ye shall graffe in both the ends of your Cion into the stock and when they be fast grown to the stock ye shall cut it in the middest and let the smaller and grow upward or else take a Cion and graffe the small end of the stock downward and so shall ye have your Apple-tree on St. Lamberts day which is the xvii of September they shall never waste consume nor wax dry which I doubt The setting of Vine Plants THese Figures do shew how ye ought to Plant and set in your Vines two or two together the one to have a part of the old Tree and the other may be all of the last Cion but when ye plant him with a part of the old Tree he shall commonly take root sooner than the new Cion ye must weed them every moneth and let not the earth be too close above their roots at the first but now then loosen it with a Spade as ye shall see a rain past for then they shall enlarge and put forth better Further herein ye shall understand after How to proin or cut a Vine in Winter THis Figure sheweth how all Vines should be proined and cut in a convenient time after Christmas that when ye cut them ye shall leave his branches very thin as ye see by this Figure ye shall never leave above two or three Leaders at the head of any principal branch ye must also cut them off in the middest between the knots of the young Cions for those be the leaders which will bring the grape the rest and order ye shall understand as followeth Of the Vine and Grape SOmewhat I intend to speak of the ordering of the Vine and Grape to Plant or Set the Vine the Plants or Sets which be gathered from the Vine and so planted are best they must not be old gathered nor lye long unplanted after thâ—y be out for then they soon gather corruption and when ye gather your Plants take heed to cut and choose them whereas ye may with the young Cion take a jâ—ynt of the old wood with the new for the old wood will sooner take root than the new and better to grow than if it were all young Cion ye shall leave the old wood to the young Cion a foot or half a foot or a shaftment long the young Cion ye must cut the length of three quarters of a yard or therereabouts and choose of those young Cions that be thickess joynted or nigh joynts together and when ye Plant or set them look that your ground be well digged in the Winter before then in January ye may both cut Plant but cut not in the Frost for that is dangerous to all kind of Trees or ye may plant in the beginning of February and when ye do Plant take two of those Plants and set or lay them together a foot deep in the earth for two Plants set together will not so soon fall as one alone and lay them a foot longwise in the earth so that there may be above the earth three or four joynts ye may plant likewise a young Cion with the old so that it be thick or nigh joynted for then he is better to root and also to bring fruit than when ye have set or layed them in the earth then cover them well therewith in treading it fast down unto the Plants but let the ends of your Cions or Plants be turned upright above the earth three or four joynts if there happen to be more when they are set ye may cut them off and cut them alwayes in the middest between the two joynts and then let them so grow and see that ye weed them alwayes clean and once a moneth loosen the earth round about them and they shall prove the better if it be very dry and hot in the Summer after ye may water them in making a hole with a Crow of Iron to the Root and there ye may pour in water in the Evening As for the proyning of them thus when the Grape is taken and clustered then ye may break the next joynt or two after the Grape of all such superfluous Cions as ye shall see câ—use which will cause the Grape to wax bigger ye may also break away all superfluous buddes or slender branches which cometh about the Root or on the under branches which ye think will have no Grape and when ye proyn or cut them in Winter following ye shall not cut the young Cion nigh the old by three or four joynts ye shall not cut them like Oziers to leave a sort of heads together on the branch which doth kill your Vine ye shall leave but one head or two at the most of the yong Cions upon the old branch and to cut those young Cions three or four knots or joynts off for the yong Cion doth carry the grape alwayes and when ye leave upon a great branch many Cions they cannot be well nourished and after ye have so cut them in Winter ye shall bind them with Oziers in placing those young branches as ye shall see cause and in the Spring time when the branches are tender ye shall bind them so that the stormy tempest or wind hurt them not and to bind them withall great soft rushes are best and when the Grape is clustered then ye may break off all such branches as is afore declared upon one old branch three or four heads be enough for the more heads your branch hath the worse your grape shall be nourished when ye cut off any branch cut him off hard by or nigh the old branch if your Vine wax old the best remedy is if there grow any yong Cion about the root ye shall in the Winter cut off the old Vine hard by the ground or as nigh as ye can and let the young Vine lead and he will continue a long time if ye cover and fill the place about the root with good earth again There is also upon or by every cluster of grapes a small Cion like a Pigs Tail turning about which doth take away the Sap from the Grape if ye pinch it off hard by the stalk of your Grape your fruit shall be the greater If your Vine wax too rank and thick of branches ye shall dig the root in Winter and open the earth and fill it up again with Sand and ashes mingled together and whereas a Vine is unfâ—uitfull and doth not bear ye shall bore an hole with an Auger unto the heart or pith in the body or thickest part thereof then put in the said hole a small stone but
when your roots be sprung half a yard long or more then by every Plant or Hop in your Hills set up a Pole of xiii or xiv foot long or thereabouts as cause shall require Some do use to set but four Poles in every Hill which is thought sufficient and when ye shall set them sâ—e that ye set them so fast that great Winds do not cast them down How to proyn the Hop-tree Observe when the Hop doth blossome and knit in the top which shall be perceived to be the Hop then take and cut up all the rest growing thereabouts not having Hop thereon hard by the earth that all those which carry the Hop might be the better nourished thus do in Summer as ye shall see them increase and grow untill the time of gathering To gather the Hop AT such time before Michaelmasse as ye shall see your Hop wax brown or somewhat yellow then he is best to be gathered in a dry day in cutting your Hop by the ground then pluck up your Pole therewish for shaking off your Hop so carry them into some dry house when ye have so pluckt them lay them on boarded â—ofts or on hurdlâ—s of cloaths that the wind may dry them and the air but not in the Sun for the same will take away the strength thereof nor with fire that will do the same and ye must daily tosse and turn them till they be dry to try them when they are dry hold them in your hand a space and if they cleave together when ye open your hand they are not then dry but if they shatter asunder in opening your hand ye may be sure they are dry enough If not let them remain and use them as is before said Ye shall understand the drynesse of them is to preserve them long to last but if need be ye may occupy them well undryed with lesse portion to sow What Poles are best YE shall prepare your â—oles of such Wood as is light and stiffe and which will not bow with every Wind the best and meetest time to get them is in Winter when the Sap is gone down and as soon as ye have taken off your Hop lay your Poles in sundry places untill the next Spring whereby they may endure the longer How to order and dresse your Hills AFfter the first year is past your Hop being increased to more plenty of roots in your Hills ye shall after Michaelâ—masse every year open your Hills and cast down the tops unto the roots uncovering them and cut away all the superfluous roots some do pluck away all the roots that spread abroad about the Hills then opens the Hills and puts good new earth unto them and so cover them again which shall keep them from the Frost and also make the Ground fat so shall ye let them remain unto the Spring of the year in February or March then again if ye shall see any superfluous roots ye may take them away and cut them up and your Hop shall be the better then again cast up the earth about your Hills and cleansing them from all weeds and other roots which will take away their strength if the herbs remain so let them rest till your Poles may be set therein Of Ground best for your Hop THe Hop delighteth and loveth a good and reasonable sat ground not very cold nor yet too moist for I have seen them prove well in Flanders in dry sandy fields the Hop-hills being of good fat earth ye may as some say for great need make your Hop grow and bear on any kind of Rocky ground so that your hills be great and fat earth but the lower ground commonly proveth best so that it stand well and hot in the Sun A note of the rest abovesaid YE shall mark and understand all this order abovesaid is to have many Hops and good with a few roots and Plants placed in a small plot of ground Ye shall understand that wild Hops which grow in the hedges is as good to occupie as the other to set or Plant in any other places but look that ye take not the barren Hop to Plant some Hop will be barren for want of good earth and lack of good dressing which ye shall perceive as I have told you in the Summer before that when they should bear they will be barren which is for want of good fat earth or an unkind year or lack of weeding and good ordering Therefore such as are minded to bestow labour on the Ground may have as good Hop growing in this Countrey as in other Countreys but if ye will not go to that cost to make Hop-yards ye may with a light charge have Hops grow in your Hedge-rows to serve as well as the other and shall be as good for the quantity as the other in all respects ye may for lack of ground plant Hop roots in hedge-rows when you do quick-set set up poles by them when time shall require in the Spring and bestow every Winter after the gathering your Hop on every hill head a shovel-full of Dung to comfort the earth for then they will bear the more plenty of Hops the next year following To conclude you that have Grounds may well practise in all things afore mentioned and specially to have Hops in this ordering for your selves and others also ye shall give encouragement for others to follow hereafter I have heard by credible persons which have known a hundred Hills which is a small plat of ground to bear three hundred pounds of Hops so that the commodity is much and the gains great and one pound of our Hops dryed and ordered will go as far as two poâ—nd â—f the best Hops that cometh from beyond the Seas Thus much I thought meet and necessary to write of the ordering and planting of the Hop How to pack your Hops WHen your Hops be well tossed and turned on boarded floores and well dryed as I afore have shewed ye may put them into great Sacks according to the quantity of your Hops and let them be trodden down hard together which will keep their strength Ionger and so ye may reserve them and take at youâ— pleasure some do use which have bâ—t small store to tread them into dry Fattes and so serve them for their use which is counted the better way and the lesse portion doth serve and will longer keep their vertue and strength Wishing long life and prosperous Health To all furtherers of this Common-Wealth FINIS A PERFECT PLATFORM OF A HOP-GARDEN And necessary Instructions for the making and maintenance thereof with Notes and Rules for reformation of all abuses commonly practised therein very necessary and expedient for all men which in any wise have to do with Hops PROVERBS 11. Who so laboureth after goodnesse findeth his desire LONDON Printed by T. Mabb for William Shears and are to be sold at the Signe of the Bible in St. Pauls Church-Yard near the little North door 1653. A PERFECT PLATFORM
place of preheminence it sufficeth for the glory and commendation of the Beere that here in our own Countrey Ale giveth place unto it and that most pâ—rt of our Countreymen do abhor and abandon Ale as a loathsome drink whereas in other Nations Beere is of great estimation and of strangers entertained as their most choice and delicate drink Finally that Ale which is most delicate and of best account borroweth the Hop as without the which it wanteth his chief grace and best verdure These things considered ye may proceed to the making of your Garden wherein you are yet to have counsell for the laying out thereof for the due season and the right trade to cut and set hop-Hop-roots what choice ye shall make of them what charge ye shall be at for them you are yet also to learn the time when and the way how to prepare your ground and to make it able to entertain and nourish them to frame your Hils to maintain them pull them down to cut to fashion to erect to pull up to peserve your Poles to gather to dry and to pack your Hops with many other circumstances necessarily appertaining herâ—unto Finally ye must be taught the reformation of many â—normities and abuses which are received in most places for good rules the which God willing I will set forth truly according to the notes of expâ—rience although not learnedly after the rules of Rhetorick Of the Preparation of a Hop-Garden YOu must lay forth the Ground which you determine to imploy in this way in as levell square and uniform wise as you may If your Ground be grassie rough or stiffe it should de first sown with Hemp or Beans which naturally maketh the ground mellow destroyeth weeds and neverthelesse leaveth the same in good season for this purpose But in what plight or state soever your ground be till it in the beginning of Winter with the Plough if it be great or with the Spade if it be small and this do not onely the year before you Plant it but every year after even so long as you mean to receive the uttermost commodity of your Garden assuring your self that the more pains you take and the more cost you bestow hereupon the more you do double your profit and the nearer you resemble the Trade of the Flemming Howbeit in some Cases these pains may be spared that is to say where the mould is not deep and the hill made both good and great in this case I say the hills being pulled down the earth contained in them will cover the whole Garden and all weeds growing therein and the same will with help of dung maintain your hill for ever The time to cut and set Hop-roots IN the end of March or in the beginning of April repair to some good Garden orderly kept as wherein the Hops be all of a good kind yearly cut and wherein all the hills are raised very high for there the roots will be greatest then compound with the owner or keeper thereof for choice roots which in some places will cost six pence an hundred but commonly they will be given unto you so as you cut them your self and leave every hill orderly and fully dressed but what order you shall use herein I will hereafter shew Rules for the choice and preparation of roots ANd now you must choose the biggest roots you can find that is to say such as are in bignesse three or four inches about And let every root which you shall provide to be set be nine or ten inches long Let there be contained in every such root three joynts Let all your roots be but the Springs of the yeare last past You must have great regard that you cumber not your Garden with wild Hops which are not to be discerned from the good by the roots but either by the fruit or by the stalk Of the Hoppe THe kindely Hop beareth a great and grene stalke a large hard and a green bell it appeareth out of the ground naked without leaves until it be halfe a foot long Of unkindly Hopps THe Hop that liketh not his entertainment namely his seat his ground his keeper his dung or the manner of his setting c. cometh up small and green in stalk thick and rough in leaves very like unto a Nettle which will commonly be much devoured or much bitten with a little black flie who also will do harme unto good Hops where the garden standeth bleak or the Hop springeth rath but be not discomforted herewith for the heat of the Summer will reforme this matter and thâ— latter Springs will be little annoyed with this flie who though she leave the leafe as full of holes as a Net yet she seldome proceedeth to the utter destruction of the Hop Of the wild Hop OF the wild Hop the fruit is either altogether seed or else loose and red light bells the â—â—alk is red howbeit herein the difference between the good and the bad Hop is not to be discerned until the stalk be two or three yarde high for at their first comming up the one aswell as the other appeareth red and the best Hop is alwaies the most red Provide your roots therefore where you are assured of of their goodnesse before hand Of setting of hop-Hop-roots HAving made your provision of roots in this wise return therewith to your Garden speedily and either set them immediately or lay them in some Puddle near thereunto or bury them in the ground untill conveniency or winde weather and leisure the want whereof may sometimes prevent good expedition shall serve Provided alwaies that you leave them not in water puddle above xxiv hours but in the earth you may leave them as long as the time of setting endureth that is to say till the middest of Aprill Your Garden being dressed as before I advised you it shall be easie for you to direct your hils aright and that in equall distance with a Pole or rather with a line that will not stretch tying thereupon short threds or placing in it pins according to the proportion of space which you mean to leave between your hils whereof if one be placed out of order it shall blemish and hurt a great part of your Garden The distance of the Hils IF your Garden be one Acre in bignesse and lye square leave between every hole three yards or eight foot at the leaft in space as well that the hils may be made the greater and that the Hops of one pole reach not to another as also that the Sun may the more freely and universally passe thorow your Garden which by this means may yearly be ploughed betwixt the Hills whereas otherwise it must be digged which is a more tedious and costly businesse If your Garden be very little you may set the hills somewhat nearer together namely seven foot asunder A description of the Line YOur line being laid levell you must digge underneath every thred or pin placed upon the same a hole
nothing Let the quantity of your Poles be great that is to say nine or ten inches about the lower end so shall they endure the longer and withstand wind the better To describe the price of poles or what it will cost you to furnish a Garden containing an acre of ground it were a hard matter because the place altereth the price of Wood. But in a Wain you may carry an hundred and fifty poles and I see small cause why a load of these should be much dearer than a load of any other Wood. After the first year Poles will be nothing chargeable unto you for you may either pick them out of your own provision of Fuell or buy them of your Neighbours that have no occasion to apply them this way For the yearly supply of two loads of Poles will maintain one Acre continually Your rotten and broken Poles will do you good service for the kindling of your fires in the Oste whereupon you should dry your Hops and they should be preserved chiefly for that purpose At Poppering where both scarcity and experience hath taught them to make carefull provision hereof they do commonly at the East and North-side of their Gardens set and preserve Alders wherewith they continually maintain them Before you set up your Poles lay them all alongst your Garden between every row of hills by three or four together I mean beside every hill so many Poles as you determine to set thereon so shall you make the more speed in your work Of the erection of Poles You must â—et every Pole a foot and a half deep and within two or three inches at the most of the principall root If your ground be rockie and shallow tarry the longer before you set up your Poles so as your Hops may be grown two or three foot high that you may adventure to make a hill or bank at every pole to stay uphold the same without burying any of the young Springs which may afterward be covered with lesse danger and annoyance of the principall root Let the Poles of every hill lean a little outward one from another Of Ramming of Poles THen with a piece of wood as big below as the great end of one of your poles ramme the earth that lyeth at the outside of the Pole thereunto but medle not within the compasse of your Poles as they are placed lest you spoile the Springs Of Reparation of Poles IF any of the Poles chance to break in many pieces when the Hop is grown up undoe and pull away the same broken pole and tye the top of those Hops to the top of a new pole then winding it a turn or two about according to the course of the Sun set it in the hole or besides the hole where the broken pole stood but some being loth to take so much pains turn it about the other Poles that stand upon the same hill and so leave it But if it be not broken above the middest the best way is to set a new pole or stalk beside the broken pole to the same which may uphold the said broken pole and preserve the Hop If the pole be onely broken at the nether end you may shove the said pole again into the hill and so leave it Of pulling up Poles ANd because when the hils are made great and raised high you can neither easily pull up any nor possible pull up all your poles except you break them c. especially if the weather or ground be dry or else the Poles old or small I thought good to shew you an Instrument wherewith you may pull them up without disease to your self destruction to your Poles or expence of your money the charge being duly foureteen or fifteen pound of Iron wherewith the Smith shall make you a paire of Tongs or rather you may call them a pair of Pinsers of the fashion here set down the which may also be made with wood if you think good The way to make the Instrument wherewith to pull up the Hop-poles THey must be one yard in length whereof six or seven inches may be allowed for the mouth or lower end of them which serveth to clasp or catch hold on the Pole the same nether end should be the strongest part thereof and the mouth somewhat hollow in the middest and there also bending downward whereby the extream point may rise a little upward Upon the upper edges of the infide thereof the Smith should hack or raise a few small teeth whereby your tool may take the surer hold upon the Pole He must also fasten upon every side of this Instrument a riding hook the which may clasp and stay both sides together when they have caught hold on the pole The manner of pulling up the Hop-poles YOu shall lay a little square block upon the top of the hill and the better to remove the same from hill to hill you may thrust therein a Pin. Upon the same block you may rest your Pinsers when they have clasped the very lowest part of your Pole and then holding the upper part of each side in your hands the hook being clasped and pulled up hard towards you you may easily weigh up your Poles Of the preservation of Poles ANd although ye are not come to the laying up of Poles I am bold herein as I began too late so to make an end too quickly because I would touch the whole matter of Poles toâ—ether laying them by themselves I mean comprehending under one Title the businesse pertaining unto them For the preservation and better continuance of Poles some make houses of purpose and lay them up therein Some set them upright to a Tree and over them make a penthouse of boughs or boords Some lay a great heap of Hop-stalks upon the Ground and upon them a great heap of Polâ—s and upon the Poles again lay another heap of stalks c. These men hereby do exâ—resse no great experience although by their diligence they signifie a good desire You shall need to do no more but thus At the ends or sides of your Garden take three Poles standing upon three Hills placed directly one by another and three like Poles upon three other hills of the next row right over against them constrain them to meet together by two and two in the tops and so hold them till one with a forked wand put three wit hs lik unto three Broom bands which may be made of the stalks of Hops upon each couple of the said six Poles so shall the same six Poles being so bound by two and two together stand like the roof or rafters of an house To keep the Poles that shall lye nether most from rotting by the moistnesse of the ground within the compasse of your said six hills underneath the Poles that you have fastened together in the tops raise three little banks crosse or thwart from hill to hill as though you would make your six hills to be but three Upon those banks lay
roots for then it will rather do harm than good but when the Hop is wound about the pole then should you do it The order for reforming your ground IN March you may return to your Garden and find it replenished with weeds except by tillage c. you have prevented that matter already It must as well therefore because the earth may be more fine rich and easie to be delivered unto the hils be digged over or plowed except in the case mentioned The order of cutting Hop roots WHen you pull down your hills which if you have not already done you must now of necessity go about to do you should with your Garden tool undermine them round about till you come near to the principal roots and then take the upper or younger roots in your hand and shake off the earth which earth being again removed away with your said tool you shall discern where the new roots grow out of the old Sets In the doing hereof be carefull that you spoil not the old Sets as for the other roots which are to be cut away you shall not need to spare them to the delay of your work except such as you mean to set Take heed that you uncover not any more than the tops of the old Sets in the first year of cutting At what time soever you pull down your hills cut not your roots before the end of March or in the beginning of April and then remember the wind In the first year I mean at the first time of cutting and dressing of your roots you must with a sharp knife cut away all such roots or springs as grew the year before out of your Sets within one inch of the same Every year after you must cut them as close as you can to the old roots even as you see an Osiers head cut There groweth out of the old Sets certain roots right downwards not joynted at all which serve only for the nourishing and comfort of those Sets or principall roots which are not to be cut off There be other like unto them growing outward at the fides of the Sets If these be not met withall and cut asunder they will cucumber your whole Garden Because it may seem hard to discern the old Sets from the new springs I thought good to advertise you how easie a thing it is to see the difference thereof for first you shall be sure to find your Sets where you did set them nothing increased in length but somewhat in bignesse enlarged and in few years all your Sets will be grown into one so as by the quantity that thing shall plainly appear and lastly the difference is seen by the colour the old root being red the other white but if the hills be not yearly pulled down and the roots yearly cut then indeed the old Sets shall not be perceived from the other roots If your Sets be small and placed in good ground and the hill well maintained the new Roots will be greater than the old If there grow in any hill a wild Hop or whensoever the stalk waxeth red or when the Hop in any wise decayeth pull up every root in that hill and set new in their places at the usuall time of cutting and setting or if you list you may do it when you gather Hops with the roots which you cut away when you make your picking place Of divers mens follies Many men seeing the springs so forward as they will be by this time are loth to lose the advantage hereof and more unwilling to cut away so many goodly roots but they that are timorous in this behalf take pity upon their own profit and are like unto them that refrain to lay dung upon their Corn land because they will not beray it with so uncleanly a thing And some that take upon them great skill herein think that for the first year they may be left unhilled and uncut c. deceiving themselves with this conceit that then the Sets prosper best within the ground when they send least of their nature and state out of the ground In this respect also they pull away or suppresse all such Springs as soon as they appear which grow more and besides them which they mean to assign to each Pole as though when a mans finger were cut off his hand would grow the greater Indeed if there be no hill maintained then the more Springs are suffered to grow out from the principall root the more burden and punishment it will be to the same But when the Springs are maintained with a hill so much as remaineth within the same is converted into roots which rather adde than take away any state from the principall root in consideration hereof the suppressing of the Springs may not be too rathe for whatsoever opinion be hereof received the many Springs never hurt the principall root if the the hills be well maintained but it is the cumbring and shadowing of one to another that worketh the annoyance When you have cut your Hops you must cover them as you were taught in the Title of Setting and proceeding according to the order already set down Of disorder and maintainers thereof SOme there be that despise good order being deceived with a shew of increase which sometime appeareth in a disordered ground to them I say and say it truly that the same is a bad and a small increase in respect of the other I say also that although disorderly doings at the first may have a countenance of good successe yet in few years the same and all hope thereof will certainly decay Some others there be that despise good order satisfying themselves with this that they have sufficiently to serve their own turn without all these troubles and surely it were pitty that these should be troubled with any great abundance that in contempt of their own profit and of the Common-wealth neglect such a benefit preferred unto them Of an Oste NOw have I shewed unto you the perfect Platform of a Hop-Garden out of the which I led you for a time and brought you in again when time required and there would I leave you about your businesse were it not to shew you by description such an Oste as they dry their Hops upon at Poppering with the order thereof c. Which for the small charges and trouble in drying for the speedy and well drying and for the handsome and easie doing thereof may be a profitable pattern and a necessary instruction for as many as have or shall have to do herein Of the severall rooms for an Oste FIrst a little house must be built of length xviii foot or xix foot of widenesse eight wherein must be comprehended three severall rooms The middle and principall room must be for your Oste eight foot square The fore part which is to contain your dryed Hops will fall out to be five foot long and eight foot wide a piece The chief matters that are to be by me described
about so that you leave the very end of it and put it then into a hole but if the stump be great cut it clean off and then put only the undermost part into a hole long or short as you will but if you find two stumps grown together you may cut the lesser away And above all things you must take heed that the sprout grow upright and if it will not you must constraine it and tie it to a stick Here follow certaine instructions how the trees must be kept and how you must labour them SOme trees will have a fat ground as Figge trees and Mulberrie trees and some leane ground but all trees be in that point equall that they will have in the top dry ground and in the bottome moist earth 2. In Harvest you must uncover the roots of the trees so deep that they may partly be seen and lay dung upon them which dung must be dissolved of raine in the ground that it may come to the roots which mucking giveth good increase to the roots 3. If the ground wherein the trees stand bee too sandy then mix among it faire and new lome and if it bee too lomy then mix amongst it sand in place of mucke the which you must not only doe hard by the tree but also four or five foot off from it round about the tree according as the tree is in bignesse or that the roots are large and great Such diligence giveth to the trees great help for their nourishment and strength is thereby renewed Hereafter you shall understand whereby to know the fruitfull soile 4. In the fat ground the stumps whereupon you wil graff must be left long but in lean ground short 5. The plants of trees from their youth till three years must not be cut nor shred but they may bee transported and if they be too weak you may pricke sticks next unto them 6. Diligent regard must be taken that no sprouts spring out of the stump which might take the nourishment from the tree sprouts and those boughes which spring from the root of the tree at the first planting 7. When thou perceivest the young trees to wax weake then uncover the roots and put other fresh ground to them 8. If the ground be neither too soft nor too hard then may you chuse all kind of stumps in February for to plant when the green juice is dispersed in the bark but when the ground is too hard then the swet holes or pores of the root doe remaine closed and stopped so that they cannot draw to them their nourishment such hardness of the ground or earth hindereth the aire and moistnesse which commeth from beneath upward for it cannot be pierced of the soft sprouts with the small heat which is beneath therefore you must come to help them with a spade for with a plough you will never come to an end because of the root 9. There is great diligence to be taken for preserving of the trees when they begin to grow great to scrape from the barke all rudenesse which is done when you take from them all superfluity and sprouts which come out of the tree You may cut them in February 10. It is good for the trees to muck them often and moderatively to water their roots Also to cleave the roots and lay stones into them to the end they may revive againe of the drinesse which they have suffered or of the barrennesse of the ground or when the young planted trees for the great heat will perish Also when immoderate heat is then you must help them with turning of the ground and with watering but the water wherewith you should water them must not be altogether fresh nor cold or newly drawne out of the spring but out of a ditch pond or well or any other foule ditch water or with spring water which hath stood long in the Sunne or put a little dunâ— in the water and stir it once or twice well about and the water will be fat wherwith water your trees You may also keep them with shadowes and straw from the heat or else put in great heat fat green herbs at the stump tempred with loame some anoint the stumpe toward the South or Mid-day with chalke some with oile or with any other ointment that cooleth 11. When you would transpose a plant or have wilde stumps digged out to plant again then marke the part which standeth towards the South of Mid-day and put it so againe when you graffe it How to keep plants stumps or trees from the wild beasts that they hurt them not WHere the path of the beast is free and remedilesse there must be put poles and with thornes the same young trees must be inclosed That the Deeres spoile them not TAke the pisse of a Deere and anoint the Tree therewith That the Hares doe not hurt them SPet in thy hand and anoint the sprouts therewith and no Hare will hurt them Here follow some instructions of graffing FIrst you must know that imping graffing and setting is all one thing The imping sprouts must be young and new with great bodies and many eyes for where many and great buds be that is a token that is of a strong fruit 2. The imping sprouts must be broken off at the Sun rising although that those of the other side broken off grow likewise yet those of the other side are most naturall and temperate of heat Some country clownes beleeve that if you in cutting the sprouts turne them upside downe that they will never grow right but be crooked 3 All graffing and impâ—â—g is done by putting one into another by a fast binding that the little sprout may spread his boughs to the stump or tree wherein it is graffed that so it may become one tree 4. Over-young imps which are so weak that they will breake before they be put into the earth or into the stump are naught and therefore they may not be imped or set 5. When you impe upon a house or fruit tree the fruit will be far better But if you cut of a Garden tree a branch and imp it into one of his own sprouts it will bring forth fruit of another taste forme and bignesse for imping maketh all the diversities in peares apples and other fruits 6 It is far better to impe low in the stump than in the top in the high branches yet neverthelesse if you will make of wild apple trees garden trees you may impe them upon the top 7. In great trees which have a great bark it is not so good to impe for they take not to them so easily the veins of the roots which grow out of the young sprouts because of their hardnesse and especially when the imping sprouts are too weak Wherefore they which graffe trees must seek small and young stumps wherein they finde much liquor and little hardnesse and which may endure the binding 8. It is best imping or graffing when the liquor is in the bark
third way of grafting THis sort of grafting is very subtill witty and ready and is done as followeth Go to a smooth apple or peare tree in April when the trees get liquor and seeke a branch which hath green eyes and see that the same be lesse than your little finger and teare it from the tree and where you see that the green sprouts will come off there cut them off wholly and cleanse the middle there of that the little red at the wood may turne about and draw it not off untill you come unto another good peare or apple tree and seek there another branch of the same bignesse that the other was and cut it off and take from it likewise the red as far as you will put them again and look where the branches join that they may well sit together upon the top and tie the same place gently and well with a little barke behinde and before that the water may not hurt them in the first year it bringeth forth leaves and branches in the second floures which you may breake off for the sprout is yet too tender so that it may bear no fruit and in the third yeare it bringeth floures and fruit and by this meanes you may graft divers kinds of peares and apples upon one tree I have likewise set such sprouts upon wild stumps and they have prospered The fourth way of grafting is HOw buds are transported and bound upon another tree like as a plaister is tied to a mans body this sort of grafting is called in Latine Emplastrum We read of such a sort of grafting which is called in Latine Abducellum and it is much like unto this sort wherefore we will only speake of it being done after this sort When you see upon a great fruitfull bough a bud which will prosper without doubt and wouldst faine plant it upon another tree take a sharp knife and lift the bark up two fingers breadth that the bud be not hurt then goe to another tree upon the which you will graft and put into a convenient place a like hole into the bark and put the same bud with the bark into it and tie it with dung or with a clout that hath lien in a dunghill over the cut that it may be kept from the outward damage of weather and for an especiall nourishment and keeping of the inner juice then cut off the branches round about it that the mother may the better nourish the new sonne within twenty days after take away the band so that you see that the strange bud hath prospered and joyned himselfe with the tree This may be done in March when the bark cometh easily from the tree Also in April May and Iune and yet shee prospereth both before and after a time when you may conveniently finde such buds This sort of planting prospereth best in a willow tree or such like which is pierced through and is done after this sort The fifth way When you pierce a willow stick with a sharp plercer see that between every hole be left the space of one foot and prick therein branches a little scraped and put the stick into a ditch so that the branches stand upright one part of the stick remaining over the earth and within a year after take it out of the ditch and cut the stick asunder so find you the branches full of roots and put every one into a hole in the ground and 't is fit the holes were stopped with lome or with wax Some do take in March a fresh Beech tree which is of a mans thicknesse and pierce him overthwart with maine and great holes and small holes till unto the lowermost barke or quite through then take sprouts or boughes which be as big and small that they may fit into the holes and when you will put them into the Beech stump you must scrape the uppermost barke off untill the green and no further then the bough must remain into the Beech the sprouts must stand a foot or somwhat lesse asunder then keep your Beech stumps with the sprouts in a fresh ground and skant a soot deep you must first maime the sprouts that they may not flourish then the next March ensuing dig it out with the sprouts and cut it a sunder with a saw and every block which is cut off with its branch you must set in a fresh ground and so they will bring forth the fruit the same yeare The sixth Way This way teaches how to graffe that they may bring forth fruit the first yeare which do as follows Pare an old stumpe of what kinde soever it be the uppermost bark till to the lower green barke a span long or somewhat lesse which do in Harvest in the wane of the Moone and anoint it with Oxe dung and earth and tye it with bark and after in March when trees are transposed from one place to another then cut the same branch from the tree and put it into the ground and it wil bring fruit the same yeer I have seen that one hath prickt sticks on Alhallow eve in the earth and hath pulled them out again upon Christmas eve and put boughes in the holes and they have prospered and come out The seventh Pierce the top of a stump which is not over small and draw a bark through it and maime it with a knife as far as it standeth on the top in eight days after poure water upon it that the top of the stump may close This must be done in harvest and in the March following cut it off from the tree and bruise the top and put it with the same earth in other ground The eighth Way Will you graffe a tree that the fruit be without stones Take a sprout and graff it into a great stump with the thicker and lower part of the sprout then take the upper or thinner end of the sprout and cut it also fit to be graffed and turne it downeward and graffe it into the said stump and when the sprout of both sides prospereth cut it in the midst afunder so that which is grown right upward with the tree the fruit of it hath stones but that which was the top of the sprout that groweth contrary brings forh fruit without stones And if so be the turned sprout prosper you must break off the other to the end that the turned sprout doe not perish which you may try after this sort for oftentimes it commeth and prospereth and many times it is perished and spoiled How Cherries are to be graffed that they may come without stones WIll you make that Cherries grow without stones pare a little Cherry tree at one year old at the stump and cleave it asunder from the top to the root which do in May and make an Iron fit to draw the heart or marow from both sides of the tree then tye it fast together and anoint it with Ox dung or lome and within a yeare after when it is growne and
The Country-mans Recreation OR THE Art of Planting Graffing and Gardening in three Books The first declaring divers waies of Planting and Graffing and the best times of the Year with divers Commodities and secrets herein how to Set or Plant with the Root and without the Root to sow or set Pepins or Curnels with the ordering thereof also to cleanse your Grafts and Cions to help barren and sick Trees to kill Worms and Vermin and to preserve and keep Fruit how to plant and proin your Vines and to gather and presse your Grape to cleanse and Mosse your Trees to make your Cider and Perry with many other secret Practises which shall appear in the Table following The second treateth of the Hop-Garden with necessary Instructions for the making and the maintenance thereof as also the Scituation quantity charge and benefit preparation time to cut and set with Rules for the choice and preparation of Roots and also divers Instruments usefull for the Hop Garden with some directions for Tabaco Whereunto is added The Expert Gardener containing divers necessary and rare secrets belonging to that Art with Directions to know the time and season to sow and plant all manner of Seeds with divers new Inventions and Garden-knots and also present Remedies to destroy Snailes Canker-worms Moths Garden-fleas Earth-worms Moles and all other Vermin which commonly breed in Gardens hereunto is likewise added the Art of ANGLING LONDON Printed by T. Mabb for William Shears and are to be sold at the Signe of the Bible in St. Pauls Church-Yard near the little North door 1654. An Exhortation to the Planter and Graffer REgard alwayes before ye doe intend to plant or graffe it shall be meet to have good experience in things meet for this Art as in knowing the natures of all fruits and differences of Climates which be contrary in every Land also to understand the East and West windes with Aspects and Stars to the end ye may begin nothing that the Winde or Raine may oppresse that your labour be not lost and to marke also and consider the dispositions of the Elements that present year for all years be not of like operation nor yet after one sort the Summer and Winter doe not bear one face on the Earth nor the Spring time alwayes rain or Autumn alwaies moist of this none have understanding without a good and lively marking spirit few or none without learning may discern of the varieties and qualities of the earth and what he doth aske or refuse Therefore it shall be good to have understanding of the Ground where ye doe plant either Orchard or Garden with fruit first it behoveth to make a sure Defence to the end that not onely rude Persons and Children may be kept out but all kinde of hurtfull Cattle endamaging your Plants or Trees as Oxen Kine Calves Horses Hogs and Sheep as the rubbing of sheep doth greatly burn the sap and often doth kill young Trees and Plants and where they are broken or bruised with Cattell it is doubtfull to grow after It shall be good also to Set Plant or Graffe Trees all of like nature and strength together that the great and high Trees may not overcome the low and weake for when they be not like of height they grow not ripe nor your fruit so well at one time but the one before the other That earth which is good for Vines is good also for other fruit Ye must dig your holes a yeare before ye Plant that the earth may be the better seasoned mortified and wax tâ—nder both by Rain in Winter and â—eat in Summer that thereby your Plants may take root the sooner if ye will make your holes and plant both in a year at the lest ye ought to make yoâ—r holes two moneths before ye plant and as soon as they be made then it shall be good to burn straw or such like therein to make the ground warm The further ye make them asunder the better your trees shall bear Make your holes like unto a furnace that is more straight in the mouth then beneath whereby the roots may have the more room and by straightnesse of the mouth the lesse rain or cold shall enter by in Winter and so lesse heat to the root in Summer Look also that the earth ye put to the roots be neither wet nor laâ—d in water they doe commonly leave a good space betwixt every tree for the hanging boughes for being nigh together ye cannot set roots nor sow nothing so well under your trees nor they wil not bear fruit so wel Sâ—me leave forty foot some thirty between every Tree your Plants ought to be greater than the handle of a shovel the lesser the better See they be straight without knots or knobs having a long straight grain oâ— bark which shall the sooner be apt to take Graffes and when ye set branches or boughes of old trees choose the straightest branch thereof and those Trees which have born yearly good fruit before take of those which be on the Sunny side sooner than those that grow in the cover or shadow and when ye take up or alter your Plants ye shall note to what your plant is subject and so let them be set again but those which have grown in dry grounds let them be set in moist grounds your Plants ought to be cut of three foot long If ye will set two or three Plants together in a hole ye must take heed the root of one touch not another for then the one will perish and rot the other or dye by Worms or other Vermen and when you have placed your Plants in the earth it shall be good to strike down to the bottome of every hole two short stakes as great as your arm on either side your hole one and let them appear but a little above the earth that ye may thereby in Summer give water unto the roots if need be Your young Plants and rooted Trees are commonly set in Autumne from the first unto the fifteenth of October yet some think it better after Alhallontide untill Christmas than in the Spring because the earth will die too soon after and also to set Plants without root after Michaelmasse that they may be the better mollified and gather root against the Spring whereof ye shall finde hereafter more at large Thus much have I thought meet to declare unto the Planters Graffers and Gardeners whereby they may the better avoid the â—ccasions and dangers of Planting Graffing and Gardening which may come often times through ignorance A Table of all the principall things contained in this Book Of the seven Chapters following CHAP. I. Treateth of the setting of Curnels of Apple Treees Plum Trees Pear Trees and Service Trees HOw to choose your Pepins at the first pressing Means to use the Earth to sow your Pepins on Seeing unto the Poultry for marring your beds and how to weed or cleanse your beds or quarters Wilde Cions how to pluck them up
so done ye may well pluck them up and set them in ranks as the other of the Pepins But ye must set the ranks more larger that they may be removed without hurting of each others roots and cut off all the small twigges about as need shall require though they be set or graffed Order them also in all things as those small Cions of a years growth It is not so convenient to Graffe the Service Tree as to set WHereas ye shall see young Service Trees it shall be most profit in setting them for if ye do graffe them I believe ye shall win nothing thereby The best is onely to pluck up the young Bastard Trees when they are as great as a good walking-staffe then proin or cut off their branches and carry thâ—m to set whereas they may be no more removed and they shall profit more in setting then in graffing Some Trees without graffing bring forth good fruit and some other being graffed be better to make Syder of IT is here to be marked that though the Pepins be sown of the Pomes of Peares and good Apples yet ye shall find that some of them do love the tree whereof they came and those be right which have also a smooth bark and as fair as those which be graffed the which if ye plant or set them thus growing from the master-root without graffing they shall bring as good fruit even like unto the Pâ—pin whereof he first came But there be other new sorts commonly good to eat which be as good to make Syder of as those which shall be graffed for that purpose When you list to augment and multiply your Trees AFter this sort ye may multiply them being of divers sorts and diversities as of Pears or Apples or such like Notwithstanding whensoever ye shall finde a good Tree thus come of the Pepin as is aforesaid so shall ye use him But if ye will augment trees of themselves ye must take Graffes and so graffe them Of the manner and changing of the fruit of the Pepin-tree WHensoever ye do replant or change your Pepin trees from place to place in so removing often the stock the fruit thereof shall also change but fruit which doth come of graffing doth alwayes keep the form and nature of the Tree whereof he is taken for as I have said as often as the Pepin trees be removed to a bâ—tter ground the fruit thereof shall be so much amended How one ought to make good Syder HEre is to be noted if ye will make good Syder of what fruit soever it be bearing Pears or Apples but specially of good Apples and wild fruit have alwayes a regard unto the ryping thereof so gathered dry then put them in dry places on boards in heaps covered with dry straw and whensoever ye will make Syder thereof choose out all those which are black bruised and rotten Apples and throw them away then take and use the rest for Syder But here to give you understanding do not as they do in the Countrey of Mentz which do put their fruit gathered into the middest of their Garden in the rain and mislings upon the bare earth which will make them to lose their force and vertue and doth make them also withered rough and lightly a man shall never make good Syder that shall never come to any purpose or good profit thereof To make an Orchard in few Years SOme do take young straight slippes which do grow from the roots or of the sides of the Apple Trees about Michaelmasse and do so plant or set them with Otes in good ground whereas they shall not be removed and so graffe being well rooted thereon Othersome do take and set them in the Spring time after Christmas in like wise and doe graffe thereon when they be well rooted and both do spring well And this manner of way is counted to have an Orchard the soonest But these Trees will not endure past twenty or thirty years CHAP. III. Is of setting Trees of Nutts How one ought to set Trees which come of Nutts FOr to set trees which come of Nutts when ye have eaten the fruit look that ye keep the Stones and Curnels thereof then let them be dryed in the wind without the vehemency of the Sun to reserve them in a box and use them as before Of the time when yee ought to Plant or Set them YE shall plant or set them in the beginning of Winter or before Michaelmass whereby they may the sooner spring out of the earth But this manner of setting is dangerous for the Winter then comming in and they being young and tender in comming up the cold will kill them Therefore it shal be best to stay and reserve them till after winter And then before yee doe set them yee shall soke or steep them in Milk or in Milk and water so long till they doe stink therein then shall ye dry them and set them in good earth in the change or increase of the Moone with the small end upwards foure fingers deep then put some stick thereby to mark the place For to set them in the Spring time IF ye will plant or set your Nuts in the Spring time where ye will have them still to remain and not to be removed the best and most easie way is to set in every such place as ye think good three or four Nuts nigh together and when they do all spring up leave none standing but the fairest Of the Dunging and deep digging thereof ALso whereas ye shall think good ye may plant or set all your Nuts in one square or quarter together in good earth and dung in such place and time as they use to plant But see that it be wel dunged and also digged good and deep and to be well medled with good dung throughout then set your Nuts three fingers deep in the earth and half a foot one from another ye shall water them often in the Summer when there is dry weather and see to weed them and dig it as ye shall see need Of Nuts and Stones like to the Trees they came of IT is here to be noted that certain kind of Nuts and Curnels which do love the Trees whereof the fruit is like unto the Tree they came of when they be planted in good ground and set well in the Sun which be the Walnuts Chesnuts all kind of Peaches Figges Almonds and Apricocks all these do love the Trees they came of Of Planting the said Nuts in good earth and in the Sun ALL the said Trees do bring as good fruit of the said Nuts if they be well planted and set in good earth and well in the Sun as the fruit and Trees they first came of Why fruits shall not have so good savour FOr if ye plant good Nuts good Peaches or Figs in a garden full of shadow the which hath afore loved the Sun as the Vine doth for lack thereof their fruit shall not have so good savor although
it be all of one fruit likewise so it is with all other fruit and trees for the goodnes of the earth and the fair Sun doth preserve them much For to set the Pine Trees FOr to set the Pine-tree ye must set or plant them of Nuts in March or about the shoot of the sappe not lightly after ye must also set them where thâ—y may not be removed after in holes well digged and well dunged not to be transplanted or removed again for very hardly they will shoot forth Ciâ—ns being removed specially if ye hurt the master root thereof For to set Cherry-Trees For to set sowre Cherries which do grow commonly in gardens ye shal understand they may well grow of stones but better it shall be to take off the small Cions which do come from the great roots then plant them and sooner shall they grow then the stones and those Cions must be set when they are smâ—ll young and tender as of two or three years growth for when they are great they profit not so wel and when ye set them ye must see to cut off all the boughs Trees of bastard and wild Nuts THere be other sorts of Nuts although they be well set in good ground and also in the Sun yet will they not bring half so good fruit as the other nor commonly like unto those Nuts they came of but to be a bastard wild sowr fruit which is Filberd small Nuts of Plums of Cherries and the great Apricocks therefore if ye will have them good fruit ye must set them in manner and form following How to set Filberd or Hasel-trees FOr to set Filberds or Hasels and to have them good take the small wands that grow out from the root of the Filbird or Hasel-tree with short hairy wings and set them and they shall bring as good fruit as the Tree they came of it shall not be needful to proin or cut off the branches thereof when ye set them if they be not great but those that ye do set let them be but of two or three years growth and if ye shall see those Cions which ye have planted not to be fair and good or do grow and prosper not well then in the Spring time cut them hard off by the root that other small Cions may grow there off To set Damsons or Plum trees IN setting Damsons or Plum-trees which fruit ye would have like to the Trees they came of if the said Trees be not grafted before ye shall take onely the Cions that grow from the root of the old stock which groweth with small twigs and plant or set them and their fruit shall be like unto the Trees they were taken of To take Plum Graffes and graffe them on other Plum-trees ANd if your Plum-trees be graffed already and have the like fruit that you desire ye may take your graffes thereof and Graffe them on your Plum-trees and the fruit that shall come thereof shall be as good as the fruit of the Cion which is taken from the root because they are much of like effect To set all sorts of Cherries TO set all sorts of great Cherries and others ye must have the graffes of the same Trees and graffe them on other Cherrie trees although they be of sowre fruit and when they are so graffed they will be as good as the fruit of the Tree whereof the graffe was taken for the stones are good but to set to make wild Cions or Plants to graffe on The manner how one may order both Plum-trees and Cherrie-trees FOr somuch as these are two kind of Trees that is to understand the Cherry and the Plum-tree for when they be so graffed their Roots be not so good nor so free as the Branches above wherefore the Cions that doe come from the roots shall not make so good and frank trees of It is therefore to be understood how this manner and sort is to make frank trees that may put forth good Cions in time to come which is when they be great and good then if ye will take those Cions or young springs from the roots ye may make good trees thereof and then it shall not need to graffe them any more after but to augment one by the other as ye do the Cions from the root of the Nut as is aforesaid and ye shall doe as followeth How to graffe Plum-trees and Cherry-trees YE may well graff Plum-trees and great Cherry-trees in â—uch good order as ye list to have them and as hereaftr shall be declared in the fifth Chapter following for these would be graffed while they be young and small and also graft in the ground for thereby one may dresse and trim them the better and put but one graffe in â—ach stock of the same Cleave not the heart but a little on the one side nor yet dâ—ep or long open How you must proine or cut your Tree FOr when your graffes be well taken on the stock and that the graffes doe put forth fair and long about one yeares growth ye must proine or cut the branch off commonly in winter when they proin their Vines a foot lower to make them spred the better then shall ye mingle all through with good fat earth the which will draw the better to the place which you have so proined or cut The convenientest way to clense and proin or dresse the roots of Trees ANd for the better clensing and proining trees beneath it is thus Ye shall take away the weeds and graft about the Roots then shall you digge them so round about as ye would seem to pluck them up and shall make them hâ—lf bare then shall ye inlarge the earth about the Roots and whereas ye shall see them grow fair and long place or couch them in the said hole and earth again then shall ye put the cut end of the Tree where it is graft somewhat lower than his roots were whereby his Cions so grafted shall spring so much the better When the Stocks are greater than the Graffs WHen as the tree waxeth and swelleth greater beneath the Graffing than above then shall ye cleave the roots beneath and wreath them round and so cover them again But see you break no root thereof so will he come to perfection But most men do use this way if the stock wax greater than the Graffes they doe slit downe the barks of the Graffs above in two or three parts or as they shall see cause thereof and so likewise if the Graffes wax greater above than the stock ye shall slit down the stock accordingly with the sharp edge of a knife This may well be done at any time in March April and May in the increase of the Moon and not likely after The Remedy when ane Bough or Member of a Tree is broken IF you shall chance to have Bâ—ughs or Mâ—mbers of Trees broken the best remedy shall be to â—lace those Boughs or Members right soon again then shall ye comfort
the roots with good new earth and bind tast those broken boughs or Members both above and beneath and so let them remaine unto another yeare until they may close and put forth new Cions When a Member or Bough is broken how to proine them WHereas ye shal see under or above superfluous boughs ye may cut or proin off as ye shall see cause all such boughs hard by the tree at a due time in the winter following But leave all the principall branches and whereas any are broken let them be cut off beneath or els by the ground and cast them away thus must you doe yearly or as ye shall see cause if ye will keep your Trees well and faire How one ought to enlarge the hole about the Tree roots IN proyning your Trees if there be many roots ye must enlarge them in the hole and so to wreath them as it is aforesaid and to use them without breaking then cover them again with good fat earth which ye shall mingle in the said hole and it shall be best to be digged all over a little before and see that no branch or root be left uncovered and when you have thus dressed your Trees if any root shall put forth or spring hereafter out of the said holes in growing ye may so proin them as ye shall see cause in letting them so remain two or three years after unto such time as the said Graffes be sprung up and well branched How to set small Staves by to strengthen your Cions TO avoid danger ye shall set or strick small staves about your Cions for fear of breaking and then after three or foure years when they be well branchâ—d ye may then set or plant them in good earth at the beginning of Winter but see that ye cut off all their small branches hard by the stock then ye may plant them where ye think good so as they may remain In taking up Trees note YE may well leave the maister root in the hole when ye digge him up if the removed place be good for him cut off the master roots by the stub but pare not off â—ll the small roots and so plant him and he shall profit more thus then others with all their maister roots When as Trees be great they must be disbranched or boughes cut off before they be set again or else they will hardly prosper If the Trees be great having great branches or boughes when ye shall digge them up ye must disbranch them afore ye set them again for when Trees shall be thus proined they shall bring great Cions from their Roots which shall be frank and good to replant or set in other places and shall have also good branches and roots so that after it shall not need to graffe them any more but shall continue one after another to be free and good How to couch the Roots when they are not proyned IN setting your Trees again if ye will dresse the roots of such as ye have proined or cut off the branches before ye shall leave all such small roots which grow on the great root ye shall so place those roots in replanting again not deep in the earth so that they may soon grow and put forth Cions which being well used ye may have fruit so good as the other afore-mentioned being of three or foure years growth as before is declared What Trees to proyne THis way of proyning is more harder for the great Chery called Healmier then for the Plum-tree Also it is very requisite and meet for those Cions or Trees which be graft on the wilde sowre Cherry-tree to be proined also for divers and sundry causes Why the sowre Cherry dureth not so long as the Healmier or great Cherry THe wild and sower Cherry of his own nature will not so long time indure as the great Healme Cherry neither can have sufficient sappe to nourish the Graffes as the great Healme Chery is graft therefore when ye have proined the branches beneath and the roots also so that ye leave roots sufficient to nourish the Tree then set him If ye cut not off the under rootes the Tree will profit more easier and also lighter to be known when they put forth Cions from the root of the same the which ye may take hereafter To graffe one great Cherry upon another YE must have respect unto the Healme Cherry which is graft on the wild Gomire which is another kind of great Cherry and whether you do proin them or not it is not materiall for they dure a long time But ye must see to take away the Cions that do grow from the root of the wild Gomire or wild Plum-tree because they are of nature wild and do draw the sappe from the said Tree Of deep Setting or shallow TO set your Stocks or Trees somwhat deeper on the high grounds then in the Vallies because the sunne in summer shall not dry the root and in the low ground more shallow because the water in Winter shall not drown or annoy the Roots Some do mark the stock in taking it up and to set him again the same way because he will not alter his nature so likewise the Graffes in Graffing CHAP. IV. This Chapter doth shew how to set other Trees which come of wilde Cions pricked in the earth without roots and also of proining the meaner Cions Trees take root prickt of Branches THere be certain which take root being pricked of Branches proined of other Trees which be the Mulberry the Fig-Tree the Quince-Tree the Service-Tree the Pomgranad-Tree the Apple-Tree the Damson-Tree and divers sorts of other Plum-Trees as the Plum-Tree of Paradice c. How one ought to set them FOr to set these sorts of Trees ye must cut off the Cions twigs or boughes betwixt Alhallontide and Christmas not lightly after Ye shall chose them which be as great as a little staff or more and looke whereas you can find them fair smooth and straight and full of sap withall growing of young trees as of the age of three or four yeares growth or thereabouts and look that ye take them so from the tree with a broad Chizel that ye break not or loose any part of the bark thereof more than half a foot beneath neither of one side or other then proine or cut off the branches and prick them one foot deepe in the earth well digged and ordered before How to binde them that be weak THose Plants which be slender ye must proin or cut off the branches then bind them to some stake or such like to be set in good earth and well mingled with good dung and also to be well and deeply digged and to be set in a moist place or els to be well watered in Summer How one ought to digge the Earth to set them in ANd when that ye would set them in the earth ye must first prepare to digge it and dung it well throughout a 〈…〉 â—eep in the earth And then
set two ranks upon the sides of your great allies in gardens which be ten or twelve foot broad it shall be then best to give them more space the one from the other in each rank as about xxv foot also ye must not set your Trees right one against another but entermedling or between every space as they may best grow at large that if need be ye mae plant other small Trees between but see that ye set them not to thick If ye list to set or plant all your Trees of one bignesse as of young Trees like rods being Peare-trees or Apple-trees they must be set a good distance one from another as of twenty or thirty foot in square as to say one rank to another But to plant or set of smaller Trees as Plum-trees and Apple-trees of the like bignesse it shall be sufficient for them fourteene or fifteene foot space in quarters But if ye will plant or set two ranks in your Allies in gardens ye must devise for to proportion it after the largenesse of your said Allies For to plant eager or lower Cherrie-trees this space shall be sufficient enough the one from the other that is of x or xii foot and therefore if you make of great or large Allyes in your Garden as of x foot wide or thereabouts they shall come well to passe and shall be sufficient to plant your Trees of nine or ten foote space and for the other lesser sorts of Trees as of Quince-trees Fig-trees Nut-trees and such like which be not commonly planted but in one rank together Ordering your Trees WHen that ye plant or set ranks or every kind of trees together ye shall set or plant the smallest towards the Sun and the greatest in the shade that they may not annoy or hurt the small nor the small the great Also whensoever ye will plant or set Pear-trees and Plum-trees in any place the one with another better it were to set the Plum-trees next the Sun for the Peares will dure better in the shade Also ye must understand when you set or plant any ranks of Trees together ye must have more space betwixt your ranks and Trees than when you set but one rank that they may have roome sufficient on every side Ye shall also scarcely set or plant Peare-trees or Apple-trees or other great Trees upon dead or mossie barren ground unstirred for they increase thereon to no purpose But other lesser Trees very well may grow as Plum-trees and such like now when all the aforesaid things above be considered ye shall make your holes according to the space that shall be required of every tree ye shall plant or set and also the place fit for the same so much as ye may convenient ye shall make your holes large enough for ye must suppose the tree you doe set hath not the half of his roots he shall have hereafter therefore ye must help him and give of good fat earth or dung all about the roots when as ye plant him And if any of the same roots be too long and bruised or hurt ye shall cut them clean off aslope wise so that the upper side of each root so cut may be longest in setting and for the small roots which come forth all about thereof ye may not cut them off as the great roots How ye ought to enlarge the holes for the Trees when you plant them FOr when ye set the Trees in the holes ye must then enlarge the roots in placing them and see that they take all downwards without turning any roots the ends upward and you must not plant or set them too deep in the earth but as ye shall see cause It shall be sufficient for them to be planted or set half a foot or thereabouts in the earth so that the earth be above all the roots half a foot or more if the place be not very burning and stony Of Dung and good Earth for your Plants and Trees ANd as ye would replant or set you must have of good fat earth or dung well mingled with a part of the same earth out of which you took your plant with all the upper crusts of the earth as thick as you can have it the said earth which ye shall put about the roots must not be put too nigh the roots least the dung being laid too nigh the roots should be put into a heat but let it be well mingled with the other earth and well tempered in the holes and the smallest and slenderest Cions that turnes up among those roots ye may plant very well If you have wormes amongst the earth of your roots IF there be wormes in the fat Earth or Dung that ye put about your roots ye must also well mingle it with the dung of Oxen or Kine or slak'd Sope-ashes about the root which will destroy those worms which would have destroyed the Roots To dig well the Earth about the Trese Rootes ALso ye must dig well the earth principally all round over the roots and oftner if they be dry than if they be wet ye must not plant or set Trees when it raineth nor the earth to be very moist about the roots The Trees that be planted or set in Vallies commonly prosper well by drought and when it raineth they that be on the Hills are better by watering with drops than others and if the ground be moist by nature you must plant or set your trees not so deep therein The nature of Places ON high and dry places ye must plant and set your Trees a little deeper than in the Vallies and ye must not fill the holes in high places so full as the other to the end that the rain may better moisten them Of good Earth VNderstand also that of good earth commonly cometh good fruit but in certain places if they might be suffered to grow they would season the tree the better otherwise they shall not come to proof or have a good tast With what ye ought to bind your Trees VVHensoever your Trees shall be replanted or set ye must knock by the root a stake and bind your trees thereto for feare of the wind and when they doe spring ye shall dresse them and bind them with bands that will not break you may make them of strong soft hearbs as Bulrush or such like or of old linnen clouts if the other be not strong enough or else ye may bind them with Oziars or such like least you hurt or fret your Trees CHAP. VII Of medicining and keeping the Trees when they are planted The first counsel is when your Trees be but Plants in dry weather they must be watered THe young trees that be newly planted must sometimes in Summer be watered when the time waxeth dry at the least the first year after they be planted or set But as for the greater Trees which are both well taken and rooted a good time ye must dig them all over the Roots after Alhallontide and uncover
graffed with many great Cions then you must leave him more largely according as ye shall see cause or need to recover the clefts on the head of the said graffe or â—â—ocke How to guide and governe the said Trees WHen your trees doe begin to spring ye must order and see to them well for the space of three or four yeares or more until they be well and strongly growne in helping them above in cutting the small twigs and superfluous wood until they be so high without branches as a man or more if it may be and then see to them well in placing the the principall branches if need be with forks or wands pricked right and well about them at the foot and to proin them so that one branch approach not too nigh the other nor yet the one fret the other when as they doe enlarge and grow and ye must also cut off certaine branches from them where they are too thick A kind of sicknesse in Trees LIkewise when certain trees are sick of the Gall which is a kind of sicknesse that doth eat the bark therefore you must cut it and take out all the same infection with a little Chizel or such like thing This must be done at the end of Winter then put Oxe dung or Hogs dung upon the infected place and bind it fast thereon with Clouts and wrap it with Oziars and so let it remaine a long time until it have recovered again Trees which have wormes in the Barke OF trees which have wormes within their Barkes you shall know them when as you shall see a swelling or rising therein therefore you must cut or cleave the said barke unto the wood that the humour may distil out thereat and with a little hook you must pluck or draw out the said wormes with all the rotten wood you can see then shall you put upon the said place a plaister made of Oxe dung or Hogs dung mingled and beaten with Sage and a little unflaked Lime then let it be well boyled together and wrap it on a cloth and bind it fast and close thereon so long as it will hold The Lees of Wine shed or poured upon the roots of trees which be somewhat sick through the coldnesse of the earth which Lees do them much good Snayles Ants and Wormes do marre the Trees ALso ye must take heed of all manner of young trees and especially of those graffes which are endammged and hurt in the Summer time by Wormes and Flies those are the Snayles the Pismires or Ants the field Snaile which doth hurt also all other sorts of Trees that be great chiefly in the time the Cuckoe doth sing and betwixt April and Midsummer while they be tender There be little beasts called Sowes which have many Legs and some of them be gray some black and some of them have a long sharpe snowt which be very noysome and great hurters of young Graffes and other young trees also for they cut them off in eating the tender top of the young Cions the length of a mans finger How you ought to take the said Wormes FOr to take them well ye must take heed and watch in the heat of the day your young trees and where you shall see any put your hand softly underneath without shaking the tree for they will suddenly fall ere one thinketh to take them therefore so soone as you can that they flye not away nor fall take them quickly on the Cion with your other hand To keep Ants from young trees FOr to keep the young trees from Snailes and Ants it shall be good to take Ashes and to mix unslak't Lime beaten in powder therewith then lay it about the root of the tree and when it raineth they will be beat downe into the ashes and die but you must renue your ashes after every rain from time to time also to keep them moist ye must put certain small Vessels full of water at the foot of your said trees and also the lees of wine to spread on the ground thereabouts For the best destroying of the small Snailes on the trees ye must take good heed in the Spring time before the trees be leaved then if ye shall see as it were small warts knobs or branches on the Trees the same will be Snayles Provide to take them away fair and softly before they be full closed and take heed that ye hurt not the wood or bark of the said Tree as little as ye can then burne those Branches on the Earth and tread them under your feet and then if any doe remain or renew look in the heat of the day and if ye can see any which will commonly be on the clefs or forks of the Branches and also upon the Branches lying like toftes or Troops together then wrap your hands all over with old clothes and bind leaves beneath them and above them and with your two hands rub them down therein and immediately fire it if you doe not quickly with diligence they will fall and if they fall on the earth ye will hardly kill them but they will renew again these kind of wormes are noisome flies which be very strange therefore take heed that they doe not cast a certaine rednesse on your face and body for whereas they be many of them they be dangerous it is stâ—ange to tell of these kind of Wormes if ye come under or among the Trees where many be they will cast your face and hands your covered body as your neck breast and armes full of small spots some red some black some bluish which will tingle and trouble you like so many nettles sometimes for a day or a day and a night after they be most on Plum-trees and Apple-trees nigh unto moist places and ill ayres yet neverthelesse by the grace of God there is no danger that I understand to be taken by them that if it be in the evening or in the morning when it raineth they will remain about the graffing place of the Tree therefore it will be hard to find them because they are so small Moreover if such branches doe remaine in the upper part of the boughs all under then with a wispe on a Poles end set fire on all and burne them A Note in Spring time of Fumigations HEre is to be understood and noted that in the spring time onely when trees begin to put forth leaves and blossoms ye must then alwayes take heed unto them to defend them from the Fâ—ost if there be any with Fumigations or smokes made on the windy sides of your Orchards or under your trees with Straw Hay dry Chaffe dry Oxe-dung Saw-dust dryed in an Oven Tanners Oze dryed likewise Galbanum old shoes Thatch of houses haire and such like one of these to be mixt with another all these be good against the Frost in Spring time and especially good against the East-wind which breedeth as some say the Caterpiller worme To defend from the Caterpiller ANd some doe
of stone-fruit would be planted or set of Cions and cold Grounds and places of good earth and likewise in high or hilly places dry and well in the shade if ye do remove ye ought to remove them in November and January if ye shall see your Cherry-tree wax rotten then shall ye make a hole in the middest of the body two foot above the ground with a big Piercer that the humour may passe forth thereby then afore the Spring shut him up again with a pin of the same tree thus ye may do unto all other sorts of trees when they begin to rot is also good for them which bear scant of fruit or none To keep Cherries good a year FOr to keep Cherries good a year ye shall cut off the stalks and then lay them in a well leaded pot and fill the said pot therewith then put into them of good thin Honey and fill the said pot therewith then stop it with clay that no aire enter in then set them in some fair Sellar and put of Sand under and all about it and cover the pot well withall so let it stand or remain thus ye may keep them a year as fresh as though they came from the Tree and after this sort ye may keep Pears or other fruit Against Pismires IF ye have Cherry-trees laden or troubled with Pismires or Ants ye shall rub the body of the Tree and all about the root with the juice of Purslane mingled half with Vineger Some do use to anoint the Tree beneath all about the body with tâ—rr and birds-lime with wool oyl boiled together and anoint the tree beneath therewith and lay the Chalk stones all about the Tree root some say it is good therefore The setting of Chesnuts THe Chesnut-tree men do use to plant like unto the Fig-tree They may be both planted and graffed well they wax well in fresh and fat earth for in Sand they like not If ye will set the Curnells ye shall lay them in water untill they do sink and those that do sink to the bottome of the water be best to set which ye shall set in the Moneth of November and December foure fingers deep a foot one from another for when they be in these two Moneths Set or Planted they shall endure long and bear also good fruit yet some there be that Plant or Set them first in dung like Beans which will be sweeter than the other sort but those which be set in these two Moneths aforesaid shall first bear their fruit men may prove which is best experience doth teach This is another way to prove and know which Chesnuts be best to plant or set that is ye shall take a quantity of nuts then lay them in Sand the space of thirty dayes then take and wash them in water fair and clean and throw them into water again and those which do sink to the bottome are good to plant or set and the other that swim are naught thus may ye do with all other Curnels or nuts To have all stone fruit taste as ye shall think good IF ye will have all stone-fruit tast as ye shall fansie or think good ye shall first lay your stones to soke in such liquor or moisture as ye will have the fruit tast of and then set them as for the Date tree as some say he bringeth no fruit except he be a hundred year old and the Date-stone must soke one Moneth in the water before he be set then shall ye set him with the small end upward in good fat earth in hot Sandy ground four fingers deep and when the boughs do begin to spring then shall ye every night sprinckle them with rain water or other if ye have none so long till they be come forth and grown Of graffing the Medlar and Misple FOr to graffe the Medlar or Misple men do use to graffe them on the White Hathorn Tree they will prove well but yet small and sowr fruit to graffe one Medlar upon another is the better some men do graffe first the Wilding Cion upon the Medlar stock and so when he is well taken and grown then they graffe thereon the Medlar again the which doth make them more sweet very great and fair Of the Fig-tree THe Fig-tree in some Country beareth his fruit foure times a Year the black Figges are the best being dryed in the Sunne and then laid in a Vessell in beddes one by another and then sprinckled or strawed all over every Lay with fine Meal then stop it up and so it is sent out of that Land If the Fig-tree will not beare ye shall digge him all about and under the roots in February and take out then all his earth and put unto him the dung of a Privy for that he liketh best ye may mingle with it other fat earth as Pigeons Dung mingled with Oyl and Pepper stampt which shall forward him much to anoint his roots therwith ye shall not plant the Fig-tree in cold times he loveth hot stony or gravelly ground and to be planted in Autumne is best Of the Mulberry-tree IF ye will plant the Mulberry-tree the Fig-tree or others which bring no seed ye shall cut a twig or branch from the tree root of a years growth with the old wood or bark about a cubit long which ye shall plant or set in all the earth saven shaftment long to it and so let it grow watering it as ye shall see need This must be done before the leaves be in to spring but take heed ye cut not the end or top above for then it shall wither and dry Of trees that bear bitter fruit OF all such Trees as bear bitter fruit to make them bring sweeter ye shall uncover all the roots in January and take out all that earth then put unto them of Hogs dung great plenty and then after put unto them of other good earth and so cover them therewithall well again and their fruit shall have a sweeter taste Thus men mâ—y do with other Trees which bring bitter fruit To help barren Trees HEre is another way to help barren Trees that they may bring fruit if you see your Tree not to bear scaree in three or four years good plenty ye shall bore an hole with an Auger or Piercer in the greatest place of the body within a yard of the ground but not through but unto or past the heart ye shall bore him aslope then take Hony and water mingled together a night before then put the said Hony and water into the hole and fill it therewith then stop it close with a short pin made of the same Tree not stricken in too far for piercing the liquour Another way IN the beginning of Winter ye shall dig those Trees round about the roots and let them so rest a day and a night and then put unto them of good earth mingled well with good store of watred Oats or with watred Barley or Wheat laid next unto the
roots then fill it with other good earth and he shall bear fruit even as the boring of a hole in the master root and striking in a pin and so fill him again it shall help him to bear as before is declared To keep your fruit ALL fruit may be the better kept if ye lay them in dry places in dry Straw or Hay but Hay ripeth too sore or in a Barly mow not touching one the other or in Chaffe or in vessels of Juniper and Cipresse wood ye may so keep them well in dry Salt or Hony and upon boards whereas fire is nigh all the Winter also hanging nigh fire in the Winter in Nets of Yarn The Mulberry-tree THe Mulberry-Tree is planted or set by the Fig-tree his fruit is first sower and then sweet he liketh neither Dew nor Rain for they hurt him he is well pleased with foul earth and dung his branches will wax dry within every six years then must ye cut them off as for other Trees they ought to be proined every year as yeshall see cause and they will be the better and to plant them from the midst of February to the midst of March is best Of Mosse of the Tree OF the Mosse on your Trees ye must not let it too long be uncleansed ye must rub it off with a grate of wood or arough Hair or such like in Winter when they be moist or wet for then it will off the sooner for Mosse doth take away the strength and substance of the fruit and makes the Trees barren at length when you see your Trees begin to wax Mossie ye â—ust in the Winter uncover their roots and put them under good earth this shall help them and keep them long without Mosse for the earth not stirred about the root is one cause of Mossinesse and also the barrennesse of the ground whereon he standeth and your Mosse doth succour in Winter flies and other Vermin and so doth therein hide them in Summer which is occasion of eating the blossomes and tender Cions thereof To keep nuts long FOr to keep nuts long ye shall dry them and cover them in dry Sand and put them in a dry Bladder or in a Fatte made of Walnut-tree and put of dry Ivie-berries therein and they shall be much sweeter To keep Nuts green a year and also frâ—sh ye shall put them into a pot with Honey and they shall continue fresh a year and the said Hony will be gentle and good for many Medicines To keep Walnuts fresh and green in the time of straining of Verjuice ye shall take of the Pommis and put thereof in the bottom of a Barrell then lay your Walnuts all over with Pommis over them and so Walnuts again and then of the Pommis as ye shall see cause to fiâ—l your Uessell Then stop it close as ye do a Barrell and set him in your Sellar or other place and it shall keep your Nuts fresh and green a year Some use to fill an earthen pot with small Nuts and put to them dry Sand and cover them with a Lidde of earth or stone and then they clay it setting the mouth of the Pot down-ward two foot within the earth in their Garden or other place and so they will keep very moist and sweet untill new come To cut the Peach-tree THe Peach-trree is of this nature if he be cut as some say green it will wither and dry Therefore if ye cut any small branch cut it hard by the body the withered twigs ever as they wither must be cut off hard by the great branch or body thereof for then they prosper the better If a Peach-tree do not like ye shall put to his roots the Lees of Wine mingled with water and also wash his roots therewiâ—h and likewise the branches then cover him again with good earth mingled with his own Leaves for those he liketh best Ye may graffe Peach upon Peach upon Hasel or Ash or upon Cherry-tree or ye may graffe the Almond upon the Peach-tree And to have great Peaches ye must take Cowes milk and put good earth thereto then all to strike the body of the Tree therewith both upward and downward or else open the root all bare three dayes and three nights then take Goats milk and wash all the roots therewith and then cover them again this must be done when they begin to blossome and so shall he bring great Peaches To colour Peach-stones TO colour Peach-stones that all the fruit therof shall have the like colour here after that is ye shall lay or set Peach-stones in the earth seven dayes or more untill ye shall set the stones begin to open then take the stones and the curnells softly forth thereof and what colour ye will colour the curnell therewith and put them into the shell again then bind it fast together and set it in the earth with the small end upward and so let him grow and all the Peaches which shall come of the same fruit graffed or ungraffed will be of the same colour The Peach-tree ought to be planted in Autumn before the cold do come for he cannot abide the cold If Peach-tree be troubled with Worms ALso if any Peach-tree be troublâ—d with worms ye shall take two parts of Cow-pisse with one part of Vineger then shall ye sprinkle the tree all over therewith and wash his roots and branches also and it will kill the worms this may ye do unto all other Trees which be troubled with Worms To have the Peach without stones FOr to make the Peach grow without stones ye shall take a Peach-tree newly planted then set a Willow hard by which ye shall bore a hole through then put the Peach-tree through the said hole and so close him on both sides thereof Sap to Sap and let him so grow one year then the next year ye shall cut off the Peach-stock and let the Willow feed him and cut off the upper part of the Willow also three fingers high and the next Winter saw him off nigh the Peach so that the Willow shall feed but the Peach onely and this way ye have Peaches without stones Another way for the same YE shall take the Graffes of Peaches and graffe them upon the Willow-stock and so shall your Peaches be likewise without stones If Trees do not prosper IF ye see that your Trees do not wax nor prosper take and open the roots in the beginning of January or afore and in the biggest root thereof make an hole with an Auger to the pith or more then strike therein a pin of Oke and so stop it again and let it be well waxt all about the pin then cover him again with good earth and he shall do well some do use to cleave the root How to graffe Apples to last on the tree till Alhallontide HOw ye may have many sorts of Apples upon your Trees untill Alhallontide that is ye shall graffe your Apples upon the Mulberry-tree and upon the
Cherry-tree Many Apricot trees of one PLant an Apricot in the midst of other Plum-trees round about it at a convenient distance then in an apt season bore through your plum-trees and let into every one of them one or two of the branches of your Apricot tree through those holes taking away the Bark on both sides of your branches which you let in joyning Sap to Sap and lute the holes up with tempered loam and when they are well knit the next year cut off the branch from the Apricot-tree and so you have gotten many Apricot trees out of one Take away in time all the head of your plum-tree and all other branches maintaining onely that which is gotten from the Apricot But some commend rather the letting in of a branch of one tree into the other workmanlike for the more certain kind of graffing To graffe an Apple which shall be half sweet and half sower TO graffe that your Apples shall be the one half sweet and the other half sower ye shall take two Cions the one sweet and the other sower some do put the one Cion through the other and so graffe them between the Bark and the Tree and some again do pare both the Cions finely and so sets them joyning into the stock inclosing Sap to Sap on both the outsides of the graffes unto the outsides of the stock and so sets them into the head as the other and they shall bring fruit the one half sweet and the other half sower To graffe a Rose on the Holly FOR to graffe the Rose that his leaves shall keep all the year green Some do take and cleave the Holly and so graffe in a white or red Rose bud and then put clay and mosse to him and let him grow and some put the Rose bud into a sliâ— of the Bark and so put Clay and Mosse and bind him featly therein and let him grow and he shall carry his leaf all the year Of keeping of Plummes OF Plums there be many sorts as Damsons which be all black which be counted the best All manner of other Plums a man may keep well a year if they be gathered ripe and then dryed and put into Vessels of glasse if ye cannot dry them well in the Sun ye shall dry them on hurdels of Oziers made like Lattice Windows in a hot Oven after Bread is drawn forth and so reserve them If a Plum-tree like not open his roots and pour in all about the dregs of Wine mixt with Water and so cover him well again or powr on them stale Urine or stale pisse of old men mixt with two parts of water and so cover him as before Of altering of Pears and stony fruit IF a Pear tast hard or gravelly about the core like small stones ye shall uncover his roots in the Winter or afore the Spring and take out all the earth thereof and pick out all the stones as clean from the earth as ye can about his root then sift that earth or else take of other good fat earth without stones and fill all his roots again therewith and he shall bring a soft and gentle Pear to eat but you must see well to the watering of him often The making of Syder and Perry OF Apples and Pears men do make Cyder and Perry and because the use thereof in most places is known I will here let passe to speak any further thereof but in the pressing your Cyder I will counsell you to keep clâ—an your vessels and the place whereas your fruit doth lye and specially after it is bruised or broken for then they draw filthy air unto them and if it be nigh the Cyder shall be infected therewith and also bear the taste after the infection thereof therefore tun it as soon as you can into clean and sweet vessels as into vessels of white wine or of Sack or of Claret and such like for these shall keep your Cyder the better and stronger a long time after ye may hang a small bag of linnen by a threed down into the lower part of your Vessel with Powder of Cioves Mace Cinamon and Ginger and such like which will make your Cyder to have a pleasant tâ—ste To help frozen Apples OF Apples that be frozen in the cold and extream Wintyr The remedy to have the Ice out of them is this Ye shall lay them first in cold water a while and then lay them before the fire or other heat and they shall come to themselves again To make Apples fall from the Tree IF ye put of fiery coles under an Apple-tree and then cast of the powder of Brimstone therein and the fume thereof ascend up and touch any Apple that is wet that Apple shall fall incontinent To water Trees in Summer if they wax dry about the root WHereas Apple-trees be set in dry ground and not dead in the Ground in Summer if they want moisture ye may take of Wheat-straw or other and every evening or as ye see cause cast thereon water all about and it will keep the Trees moist from time to time To cherish Apple-Trees IF ye use to throw in Winter all about your apple-trees on the roots thereof the Urine of old men or stale pisse long kept they shall bring fruit much better which is good for the Vine also or if ye sprinckle or anoint your Apple-tree roots with the Gall of a Bull they will bear the better To make an Apple grow in a Glasse TO make an Apple grow within a Glasse take a Glasse what fashion ye list and put your Apple therein when he is but small and bind him fast to the Glasse and the Glasse also to the Tree and let him grow thus ye may have Apples of divers proportions according to the fashion of your Glasse Thus ye make of Cucumbers Gourds or Pomecitrons the like fashion THese three branches and Figure of graffing in the shield in Summer is the first branch sheweth how the Bark is taken off the middle place sheweth how it is set too and the last branch sheweth how to bind him on in saving the oylet or eye from bruising To graffe many sorts of Apples on one Tree YE may graffe on one Apple-tree at once many kind of Apples as on every branch a contrary fruit as is afore declared and of Pears the like but see as nigh as you can that all your Cions be of like springing for else the one will grow and overshadow the other To colour Apples TO have coloured Apples with what colour ye shall think good ye shall bore a hole slope with an Auger in the biggest part of the body of the Tree unto the middest thereof or thereabouts and then look what colour ye will have them of First ye shall take water and mingle your colour therewith then stop it up again with a short pin made of the same wood or Tree then wax it round about ye may mingle with the said colour what spice ye list to make
fill not the hole close therewith that so the sicknesse of the Vine may passe thereby Then lay all about the root of good earth mingled with good dung and so shall not be unfruitfull but bear well ever after or also to caste of old mens Urine or pisse all about the root of the barren Vine and if he were half lost or mard he should grow again and wax fruitfull as before this is to be done in Winter To have Grapes without stones FOr to have Grapes without stones ye shall take young Plants or Branches and shall Plant or set the top or small end downward in the earth and so ye may set two of them together for failing as I have afore declared of the others and those branches shall bring Grapes without stones To make your Vine to bring a Grape to taste like Claret TO make your Vine to have a Grape to taste like Claret Wine and pleasant withall bore a hole in the stock unto the heart or pith thereof then make an Electuary with the powder of Cloves and Cinamon mingled with a lit-Fountatin or running water and fill the said hole therewith and stop it fast and close with wax and so bind it fast thereon with a Linnen cloth and those Grapes will taste like Claret-Wine Of gathering your Grapes ALL Grapes that men do cut before they are through ripe the Wine will not be natural neither shall it long endure good But if ye cut or gather Grapes to have them good and thereby to have good Wine ye must cut them in the Full or soon after the Full of the Moon when she is in Cancer in Leo in Scorpio and in Aquarius the Moon being in the Wain and under the earth To know if your Grape be ripe enough FOr to know if your Grape be ripe enough or not which ye shall not truly know in the taste but in sight and taste together as in taste if they be sweet and full in eating and in sight if the stone will soon fall out being chafed or bruised which is the best knowledge and also whether they be white or blue it is all one matter The good Grape is he which commeth out all watry or those which be all clammy as Bird-lime by these signes ye shall know when to cut being through ripe or not and whereas you do presse your Wine ye must make your place sweet and clean and your Vessels within to be clean also and see that they have strong heads and those persons which do presse the Grape must look their hands feet and body be clean washed when as they go to pressâ— the Grape and that no woman be there having her terms Neither ought ye to eat any Chebols Scalions Onions Garlike Anniseeds or such like For all strong savours your Wine will draw the infection thereof as soon as your Grape is cut and gathered you may presse your Wine very speedily which will make your Wine to be more pleasant and stronger for the Grapes which tarry long unprest make the Wine to be small and ill ye must see that your Vessels be new and swâ—et within and to be washed with sweet water and then well dryed again and to perfume them with Mastick and such sweet vapour and if your Vessel chance not to be sweet then shall ye pitch him on the sides which pitch will take away all evill and such stinking savour therein To prove or taste Wine ANd whensoever ye will prove or taste any Wine the best time is early in the morning and take with you three or four sops of bread then dip one after another into the Wine for therein ye shall find if there be any sharp taste of the Wine Thus I leave at this present to speak any further here of the Wine and Grape If this my simple labour be taken in good part Gentle Reader it shall the more hereafter encourage me to set forth another book more at large touching the Art of Planting and Graffing with other things necessary to be known Here followeth the best times how to order choose and to Set or Plant Hops IN this Figure ye shall understand the placing and making of Hop hills by every Cypher over his head The first place is shewed but one Pole set in the middest and the Hop beneath The second sheweth how some do chop down a Spade in the middest of the Hills and therein layes his Hop roots The third place sheweth how other some do set out one Pole in the middest and the Hop roots at holes put in round about The fourth place sheweth how some chops in a Spade crosse in the top and there layes in his roots The fifth place sheweth how some do set four Poles therein and put the Hop round about the Hill The sixth place sheweth that some use to make crosse holes in the sides and there lays â—n the Hop roots Thus many practises have been proved good provided alwayes that your hills be of good fat earth specially in the midst down unto the bottom This I thought sufficient to shew by this figure the diversity in setting whereof the laying of the Hop is counted the surest way THe best and common setting time of Hops is from the middest of November to the middest of February then must ye dig and cleanse the ground of weeds and mix it well with good mold and fat earth Then divide your Hills a yard one from another orderly in making them a yard asunder and two foot and a half broad in the bottome and when ye plant them lay in every Hill three or four Roots Some do in setting of them lay them crosse-wise in the midst of the Hill and so cover them again Some set the Roots in four parts of the Hill others likewise do make holes round about the Hills and put of the Roots therein and so cover them again light with earth of one short root in a year ye may have many Plants to set and lay as ye shall see it good and it shall be sufficient for every Plant to have two knots within the ground and one without then some do chop a Spade crosse into the Hill and lay Hop in crosse and so cover it To choose your Hop YE may choose your roots best for your Hop in the Summer before ye plant them for then ye shall see which bears the Hop for some there is that brings none but that which bears choose for your Plants and set of those in your Hills for so ye shall not be deceived and they shall prosper well To sow the Seeds SOme do hold that ye may sow among other Seeds the Seeds of Hops and they will increase and be good to set or else to make beds and sow them alone whereby they may encrease to be set and when they be strong ye may remove and set them in your Hills and Plant them as the other before mentioned The setting your Poles THe best time is in April or
OF A HOP Garden AT what time necessity or any other good consideration shall move you to devise for a Hop Garden you are to consider of these three things First whether you have or can procure unto your self any Ground good for that purpose Secondly of the convenient standing thereof Thirdly of the quantity And this I say by the way if the ground that you deal withall be not your own inheritance procure unto your self some certain terme therein left another man reap the fruit of your travell and charge Of apt and unapt Ground for Hops SOme hold at this day and ancient Writers witnesse the Virgil. same that earth being saâ—t and bitter of taste is neither good nor apt to be made good It is also often written and generally received that such earth as you shall see white and bare that is to say wholly chalk or all sand lacking a mixture of perfect earth or if it be clay or so dry as thereby it shall gape or coane in the Didymus Plinius Summer it is nought for this or any like purpose It is further said that if you shall feel a clod being dissolved with water to be very clammy or clâ—aving like wax to your fingers in kneading it the same to be profitable land c. I for my part rely not upon other mens opinions neither mean to dispute with any man herein I like not to make my mouth an arbitrator in this matter mine ey may be deceived and my feeling may erre in the precise distinction of good or bad land but mine experience hath never failed in this thing that is to say that a barren a moory or wet soil though it perhaps do content a wild Hop shall never please nor maintain a good Hop I will not say with Varro that a good ground yieldeth Walwoorts nor with Columella that where Crabs or slows grow there the ground is rich I can say nothing of Florentines experience in digging a hole and filling it up again and by the swelling to judge the strength or by the gaping to define the weaknesse thereof but I can say again by sure experience that a dry ground if it be rich mellow and gentle iâ— the soil that serveth best for this purpose and such a mould must either be sought out or else by cost and labour be provoked If it be a very shallow rock except you raise it with greet or good earth you shall not set your Poles deep steddy and fast enough to withstand the force of the wind But to redresse the inconvenience hereof you shall be taught in the Title of Poles A light mould though it be very rich is not very apt for this purpose for it is a received and an approved rule that the heaviest ground will bear the most weight of Hops I say so as it be a ground apt for this purpose Of the scituation IT were good to place your Garden so as the Sun may have free recourse into it either the whole day or the greatest warmest part thereof so also as it may be armed against the violence and contagion of the wind but this I could wish to be considered rather in the scituation of the place naturally defended with hills then artificially to be set and guardâ—d with Trees Howbeit if you be driven hereunto provide so if you can that your Trees may stand aloof even that the shadow of them reach not into your Garden but in any wise that they drop not upon the hills There be many which to purchase the favour and benefit of the Sun lay their Gardens very open and bleak to the South the which I would not wish to be done for as the forepart of the year admitteth into your Garden the cold Easterly winds whereby insues Frosts the which ingenders Blasts c. So the latter part of the year maketh it subject to Southerly stormes which do much annoy an Hop-Garden when the Poles are loaden with Hops and then commonly no other wind hurteth It should also be placed near to your house except you be able to warrant the fruit thereof from such fingers as put no difference between their own and other mens goods Also your Garden being thus placed there may be made thereunto the more spâ—edy and continuall recourse besides that the Masters eye doth mâ—ny times withstand and prevent the Servants negligence By this means it may be with most ease and least charge holpen with Dung Finally if it may be let it not stand bleak to the East West North or specially to the South Of the quantity THe quantity of your Garden must either be measured by the proportion of your yearly expences of Hops in your house or by the cost you mean to bestow in the preparation and keeping thereof or by the pains and businesse that you are disposed or able to employ upon it or else according to the profit and gains that you mean to levie and win by it which later consideration pleaseth and flattereth much a covetous mans conceit whose vein or humour or rather vain humour is so resisted in the Rules appertaining hereunto as many times the greedinesse of his desire is the overthrow of his purpose as shall hereafter appear A proportion of the charge and benefit of a Hop-garden BUt to be resolved in all these points that concern the quantity of your Garden you must make your account in this wise One man may well keep two thousand hills and yet reserve his Winters labour for any other purpose Upon every Acre you may erect seven eight or nine hundred hills as hereafter shall be declared Upon every hill well ordered you shall have three pounds of Hops at the least Two pounds and a half of these Hops will largely serve for the brewing of one quarter of Mault One hundred pounds of these Hops are commonly worth xxvi Shillings viii pence So as one Acre of ground and the third part of one mans labour with small cost besides will yield unto him that ordereth the same well forty Marks yearly and that for ever And here is to be noted that ground orderly used doth not onely yield the more greater harder and weightier Hops but also they go further they will endure longer be wholsomer for the body and pleasanter of verdure or tâ—ste than such as be disorderly handled And in the savour of the Hop thus much more I say that whereas you cannot make above eight or nine gallons of indifferent Ale out of one Bushell of Mault you may draw xviii or xx Gallons of very good Beere neither is the Hop more profitable to enlarge the quantity of your drink then necessary to prolong the continuance thereof For if your Ale may endure a fortnight your Beere through the benefit of the Hop shall connue a moneth and what grace it yieldeth to the taste all men may judge that have sense in them and if the controversie be betwixt Beer and Ale which of them two shall have the
like a Pitfall one foot square and one foot deep When you have made twenty or thirty holes take up so many roots from where you bestowed them as ought to be therein and go to work on this wise alwaies watching a time if you may that the winde be in some part of the South or West but be not so scrupulous herein that you overslip the moneth of April least Salomons saying be spoken of you He that regardeth the Wind shall not sow and he that hath respect to the Clouds shall not reap For he that neglecteth the Moneth of April shall have a bad season to cut or plant Hops Take two or three of your roots which by this time will yeeld forth green Cions or white buds and will also have small roots or beards growing out of them the which must be all saving the smaller sort of white buds pared away by the old root joyn them close together so as in any wise they may be even in the tops set them also together bolt upright directly under the foresaid thred or pin holding them hard together with one hand while you fill the hole with the other with fine mould prepared and made ready before hand regarding that the tops of the roots be levell with the face or uppermost part of the ground Take good heed also that you set not that end downward that grew before upward which you shall know by the buds that appear in the knots of each root and let no part of the dead remain upon the uppermost part of the joynt thereof And when you have thus done presse down the earth with your foot hard to the roots not treading upon them but driving the loose earth close to the corner where the roots are set And here is to be noted that the readiest and evenest way is alwayes to set your roots at one certain corner of the hole which corner should alwaies be right underneath the said pinne or thred as is aforeshewed At this time you must make no hill at all but onely cover the tops of your roots about two inches thick with the finest mould you can get When you are driven to set your roots late if there be any green springs upon them you may take the advantage thereof leaving the same spring uncovered otherwise you both destroy the spring and endanger the root Abuses and disorders in setting SOme use to set at every corner of the hole one root but this is a naughty and tedious trade because a man shall be longer in dressing one of these than about four other To be short you shall this way so cumber both your self and your Garden that you will soon be weary with working and your Garden as soon weary of bearing Some wind them and set both ends upward and herein the cunning of the workman and the goodness of the roots are lively expressed for if the roots were good they could not be so wound or if the workman were skilful he would not be so fond as to set them in that order Some use to lay them thwart or flat but I say flatly that is a praeposterous way for they can neither prosper well as being set contrary to their nature and kind of growing nor be kept as they ought to be Some use to make hills and set the roots therein but the moisture in regard of the hill cannot administâ—r succour to them besides other inconveniences which may follow Some bury the roots under a great hill made on them after the setting this differs not much from the other onely the hill so choaks these that they will do no good Finally there be as many evill wayes to set as there be ignorant men to devise Provision against annoyance and spoile of your Garden IF your Garden be small and very nigh to your house you may arm every hill with a few thorns to defend them from the annoyance of Poultry which many times will scrape and bath amongst the hills and so discover and hurt the springs but a Goose is the most noysome vermine that can enter into this Garden for besides the Allegory that may be applyed in this case a Goose will knabble upon every young science or Hop bud that appeareth out of the ground which will never grow afterwards and therefore as well to avoid the Goose as other noysome cattell let your closure be made strong and kept tight Of Poles IT remaineth that I speak now of Poles because Poling is the next work now to be done If your hils be distant three yards asunder provide for every hill four poles if you will make your hils nearer together three poles shall suffice And note that in the first year you may occupy as many poles as in any year after the reason whereof I will declare in the title of Hils Alder poles are best for this purpose as whereunto the Hops seem most willingly and naturally to encline because both the fashion of these poles being as a Taper small above and great below and also the roughnesse of the Alder-ryne stayeth the Hop stalk more firmly from sliding down than either Ash or Ok which for continuance be somewhat better howbeit these with the order that I shall prescribe will endure six or seven years These are also best cheap and easiest to be gotten in most places and soonest grown ready for this purpose There is in the Spring of these least danger in growing or in being destroyed or bitten by cattell Finally by the expence of these there ensueth the least annoyance to the Coâ—mon-wealth as well for the causes aforesaid as also because they grow not in so great quantity to so good timber nor for so many purposes as either Oke or Ash The best time to cut your poles is between Alhallontide and Christmas but you must pile them up immediately after they are cut sharped reformed in length and smoothed lest they rot before you occupy them You may not leave any scrags upon them the reason whereof you shall conceive in the Title of gathering Hops Your Poles may not be above xv or xvi foot long at the most except your ground be very rich or that you added thereunto great labour in raising up your hills or else except your hills stand too near together if any of these chance to be or if all these three things meet in one Garden the best way of reformation is to set the fewer poles to a hill or to let them remain the longer Otherwise the Hops will grow from one pole to another and so overshadow your Garden the fault thereof being especially to be imputed to the nearnesse of the hills Therefore chiefly you must measure your poles by the goodnesse of your ground Your Hop never stocketh kindly untill it reach higher than the Pole and return from it a yard or two for whilst it tendeth climbing upward the branches which grow out of the principal stalk wherein consisteth the abundance of encrease grow little or
the root except the same be every year new made and dressed c. Some use to break off the tops of the Hops when they are grown a xi or xii foot high because thereby they burnish and stock exceedingly wherein though I cannot commend their doings yet do they much better than such as will have their Poles as long as their Hops But if your Pole be very long and that the Hop have not attained to the top thereof before the middest of July you shall do well then to break or cut off the top of the same Hop for so shall the residue of the growing time serve to the maintenance and increase of the Branches which otherwise would expire without doing good in that matter because that whole time would be then imployed to the lengthening of the stalk which little prevaileth I say to the stocking or encrease of the Hop And here is to be noted that many covetous men thinking in hast to enlarge their luere do find at leisure their commodity diminished whilst they make their hills too thick their Poles too long and suffer too many stalks to grow upon one Pole wherein I say while they run away flattering themselves with the imagination of double gains they are overtaken with trebble dammage that is to say with the losse of their time their labour and their cost Of the gathering of Hops NOte that commonly at St. Margarets day Hops blow and at Lammas they bell but what time your Hops begin to change colour that is to say somewhat before Michaelmasse for then you shall perceive the seed to change colour and wax brown you must gather them and for the speedier dispatch thereof procure as much help as you can taking the advantage of fair weather and note that you were better to gather them too rathe than too late To do the same in the readiest and best order you must pull down your hills standing together in the middest of your Garden cut the roots of all those hills as you shall be taught in the Title of Cutting c. Then pare the Plat small levell it throw water on it tread it and sweep it so shall it be a fair Floore whereon the Hops must lye to be picked Then beginning near unto the same cut the stalks asunder close by the tops of the hills and if the Hops of one Pole be grown fast unto another cut them also asunder with a sharp Hook and with a forked staffe take them from the Poles You may make the Fork and Hook which cutteth asunder the Hops that grow together one apt instrument to serve both these turns Then may you with your forked â—nd thrust up or shove off all such stalks as remain upon each Hop-pole and carry them to the Floore prepared for that purpose For the better doing hereof it is very necessary that your poles be straight without serags or knobs In any wise cut no more stalks then you shall carry away within one hour or two at the most for if in the mean time the Sun shine hot and it happen to rain the Hops remaining cut in that sort will be much impaired thereby Let all such as help you stand round about the Floore and suffer them not to pingle in picking one by one but let them speedily strip them into Baskets prepared ready therefore It is not hurtfull greatly though the smaller Leaves be mingled with the Hops for in them is retained great vertue insomuch as in Flanders they were sold Anno Domini 1566 for xxvi shillings viii pence the Hundred no one Hop being mingled with them Remember alwayes to clear your Floor twice or thrice every day and sweep it clean at every such time before you go to work again If the weather be unlike to be fair you may carry these Hops into your house in Blankets or Baskets c. and there accomplish this work Use no Linnen hereabouts for the Hops will stain it so as it can never be washed out If your poles be seraggy so as you cannot strip the stalks from them in this order you must pull them up with main force before the Hops be gathered and this is painfull to your self hurtfull to your Hops and a delay to your work Then must you lay these poles upon a couple of forked stalks driven into the ground being two or three yards distant one from another as Spits upon Ranges and so dispatch this businesse if the weather be fair if it be like to be foul you must be fain to carry the Hops together with the pole into your Barn or house that they may not take wet and so be made uselesse In any wise let not the Hops be wet when you cut them from the hills neither make any delay of gathering after the same time of cuttings for in standing abroad they will shed their seed wherein consisteth the chief vertue of the Hop and hereof I cannot warn you too often nor too earnestly Now by order I should declare unto you the manner of drying your Hops but because I must therewithall describe the places meet for that purpose with many circumstances appertaining thereunto I will be bold first to finish the work within your Hop-Garden and then to lead you out of the same into the place where you must dry your Hops c. When your Hops are gathered assoon as you have leisure take up your Poles and pile them that remain good as I have shewed you in the Title of Poles Then carry out your broken Poles and your Hop-straw to the fire Now may you depart out of your Garden till the March following except in the mean time you will bring in dung or good earth to the maintenance thereof towards the heightning of your hills or else will plow it c. What there is to be done in Winter herein TO be curious in laying dung upon the hills in Winter as to comfort or warm the roots as some do it shall be needlesse rather pluck down the hills and let the roots lye bare all the Winter season and this is usually done where â—ops are best ordered especially to restrain them from too rathe springing which is the cause of blasts and many other inconveniences If the ground be great that you keep you shall be driven so to do otherwise you shall not be able to overcome your work in due time In any case you must avoid new horse-dung as a very noysome and pernicious things for your Hops Stall dung is the best that can be wished for to serve this turn so it be throughly rotten Rather use no dung than unrotten dung about the dressing of your Hops but omit not to bring into your Garden dung that may there be preserved till it be good or needfull to be used When and where to lay dung ABout the end of April if your ground be not rich enough you must help every hill with a handfull or two of good earth not when you cut your
the same with a Spade so deep as you may search out and throw out every root and piece of Root that may be found in or near thereunto and then to plant according to the order before declared The reformation of a disordered Garden TO repair a ruinous Garden which through ignorance was disorderly set and through sloth suffered to over-run and decay where neverthelesse the Hops remain of a good kind though somewhat empaired as they must needs be by this mean the very best way were to do as to the wild Hop The second way is to forget that it is disordered at all imagining that all were well and to set your Poles in such order and so far asunder as is prescribed in that Title alwayes directing them right with a line so as a stranger beholding them may suppose that your Garden is kept after the best manner then lead unto each Pole two or three stalks which you shall find nearest thereunto and there erect a hill which you may ever after cut and dresse according to the rules before declared and so by continuall digging paring and diligence you may at last bring it to some reasonable perfection If your Garden be very much matted with roots so asit be too tedious to digge set your Poles as you are already taught and bring into your Garden and lay near to every such place where you mean to make a hill one Cart load of good earth with the which after your Hops are tyed to your Poles begin to make your hill and proceed as in the Title of hills alwayes cutting down such Hops or weeds as grow between the said hills If your root be set orderly and your hills made accordingly and yet left undressed by the space of two or three years it will be very hard I say to discern the Sets from the other later roots neverthelesse if your ground be good you may yet reform the inconvenience thereof namely by pulling down the hill and cutting away all the roots contained therein even with the face or upper part of the earth searching also each side and digging yet lower and round about the root which remaineth and to take away from the same all such roots as appear out thereof Needlesse curiosities used by the unskilfull TO water your Garden as to make the roots grow the better it were more tedious then needfull for the hilling thereof serveth for that purpose and there is time of growing sufficient for them betwixt the middest of April and August and yet it never hurteth but rather doth good if it be before the hill be made To pluck off the Leaves to the end that the Hops may prosper the better is also needlesse and to no purpose and rather hindereth than helpeth the growth of the Hops for they are hereby deprived of that garment which Nature hath necessarily provided for them and clothed them with To flaw the Poles thereby to prolong their continuance is more than needeth to be done in this behalf for it is too tedious to your self and hurtfull to your Hop and little available to the purposes aforesaid To burn the nether part or great end of your Poles as some do to the end they should last or endure the longer is also an unnecessary trouble onely Willow-Poles you may so use to keep them from growing So is it to weed the hills with the hand whereas the same weeds shall be buried by the raising of the hill THus have you a brief and short Description of the Platform of a Hop-Garden what ground is fit for them as also the Scituation thereof with the Proportion of ground a man may employ about Hops which may either be according to his own expending in his own private Family or else according to the charge which he intendeth to bestow about it either of which will be well recompensed if Gods blessing go along with the pains and industry of the Husbandman for whose direction in the managing of his work this small Treatise was compiled for besides the Platform fitnesse or unfitnesse of the Ground c. here in you may learn how to choose and set your Roots the distance of the Hills one from another the number of Hop-poles which you are to set about each hills in conclusion your Hops being come to perfection the manner of gathering drying and packing them up that they may continue long and keep sweet No man ever wrote more fully concerning the ordering of Hops from the first setting them into the Ground untill the drying and laying them up for store than this Authour hath done none with more brevity The Husbandmans due observation of these Directions is required and without question he cannot fall short of his expectation Here follow certaine directions for the Sowing Planting and Transplanting of TABACO I Intend to write but sparingly of this subject thâ—ough not very many have formerly treated here of I shall first therefore begin passing by the severall names it is called by as also the severall species or kinds thereof With us in England generally it is called Tabaco the shape and forme whereof very much resembleth the greater Comfry insomuch that some would take it or rather mistake it for great Comfry they may rather deeme it to be yellow Henbane they are not much unlike It hath a thick round stalk nere about two foot high whereon do grow fat green leaves but not so large as that which grows in the Indies somewhat round pointed not being notched or cut in the edges and bigger down ward towward the root than it is above while it is young it is leaved and putteth forth some branches distant from one another halfe a foot whereby it is furnished with leaves and putting forth severall joynts at length it grows to a great height The stalk branching forth beareth at the tops sundry flowers coming out of a swad or husk having the fashion of a bell scarce standing above the brinks of the husk no sooner are the flowers gone but the seeds appeare which are very small not much unlike the seeds of yellow henbane when they are not yet ripe they are of a green colour but when they be ripe they are of a black colour The roots are not very great nor woody but perishing but that not withstanding the hard frosts in winter it sprouts up againe in the Spring The seeds were first brought from some remote part of the world into this Commonwealth not many yeares since and were it not for its physicall qualities that it hath more than the great benefit which will redound to this Nation by planting it being not of veric great esteeme I had spared this labour and my chiefe reason for this is because I am of opinion that hearbs either transplanted or brought in seed into this Land if it shall agree with the soyl will agree better with the constitution of our bodies than that which is brought from any forrein part from beyond the Seas The nature of
in the Sun to dry but as Colesfoot is ordered in drying so may you order your Tabaco and be sure that each leaf be through dry before you put them together for fear lest they should grow musty and by that means made uselesse and to prevent this your wisest course will be to let them hang severally by themselves as at first onely you may if you please remove them from the drying place in Winter into some warmer place because though in the Summer it lying open to the aire it was beneficiall to you it may in the Winter prove as prejudiciall The time of flowring and seeding IT beareth Flowers from the latter end of June till the latter end of August and they are of a greenish yellow colour which the stalk branching forth doth bear at the top thereof these flowers are set in green husks but appear not much above the brims of of the husks The seed is likewise contained in the great heads after the flowers are decayed Of the Roots and Leaves THe Roots and Leaves do yield a Gluish and Rofinsh kind of juice somewhat yellow and smelling somewhat like Rosin but unpleasant and of a sharp eager and biting taste which shews that it is by nature hot more than in the second degree and dry in the first whereupon we may inferre that it is no kind of yellow Henbane To preserve the Plant or Roote from dying â—n the Winter THe root as I said before may spring up againe of its owne accord but seldome after a sharp winter for when long and tedious frosts have crusted the earth out of all question the roote if not perished will be much endangered and at the ' Spring time not be able thorough weaknesse to prosper Therefore I shall direct you how to preserve them and keep the leaves green all the winter Some would have you sence about your ground with reeds or such things as will breake the force of the cold winds and to preserve them from frosts they advise you to cover the Plants with Matts but as such a weight continually pressing the Plant downe will rotte it so will it do but little good to the Plants in extremity of Winter Others would have you make a slight house of Deale about your Plants to preserve them which you may remove afterwards Such as have enough may be at this un necessary charge But the best way as I conceive to preserve them is by removing them in the winter the manner thus Take up the root with the earth about them put all into some pot or any other thing fit for the purpose and set them in a warme place about your house and let it abide there all the winter but if the Sun chance to shine very hot afford your Plant the benefit thereof for one hour or two and so returne it to its former place this is the most certaine way to preserve roots and Plants all the Winter and in the Spring set them into the ground with the same earth about them FINIS The expert Gardener OR A Treatise containing certaine necessary secret and ordinary knowledges in Grafting and Gardening with divers proper new Plots for the Garden Also sundry expert directions to know the time and season when to sow and replant all manner of Seeds With divers remedies to destroy Snailes Canker-wormes Moths Garden-Fleas Earth-wormes Moles and other Vermine Faithfully collected out of sundry Dutch and French Authors LONDON Printed by William Hunt 1654. Certaine common Instructions how the Stumpe must be chosen whereupon you will graffe or plant EVery diligent Housholder who will plant should use thereto a convenient place to the end that the wild beast chaw not nor paire the plants or if they be young wholly eat in pieces which to avoid is needfull to be in a towne or closed Orchard where there is not too much shadow but a sweet ground well muckt tilled and turned Every Plant will have foure things First moistnesse so that the seeds or stumpe bee moist or green Secondly a convenient place which hath such earth as will lightly be rubbed to pouder and that Sun may come to it for where there is filthy lome a lean ground or sandy dry burnt or salt ground there is nothing good to be planted to have any continuance neverthelesse where the ground is lean there you must give more dung in a fat ground not so much Take heed the ground be not too moist nor too dry and muck the trees with hogs dung Thirdly a mediate water or nourishing moistness therefore be those Orchards best which are scituated between two waters for those that are placed by a water side remaine still young and fruitfull and have commonly the bark smoother and thinner than the others And those trees are more fruitful then others which are planted in a vally or in the lower part of a deep hill for from those hils may come to them nourishment and moistness and the ground which is so scituated is very fruitfull But he that cannot get for his trees such a ground must with all diligence seek to bring to his trees a little spring or pond of which the trees may sometimes find some reviving and if you may not have any of those and have a garden who by it selfe is naught the trees wil grow with thick roots which hindereth the growing of them and drieth them at length Fourthly the air is required which must be agreeable to them and of complexion to bear for there be some trees that doe prosper in all aires to wit apple and peare cherry and plum-trees Some will have a cold air to wit chesnut-trees and some a very warm aire as the palme and pepper trees therefore they be rare with us That plant which hath these four things shall prosper and if they want one or more of these four things they will decay and their prospering perish At what time trees ought to be planted and set ALL kind of trees may be planted transported and cut in March but it is better to turn them in October for then the frost hurteth them not so much as at other times for learned men say that in dry Towns and warm Countries they plant in October or November and that in moist Towns and cold vallies they plant in February or March in none other time may you plant or graffe When you will plant or set againe wild stumps if there be any thing broken at the root cut it off Every plant must be set two foot one from another or at the least one foot especially when they should beare strong fruites likewise when thou wilt set strong seeds as nuts almonds and peaches When a man will plant two stumps so must they be of two yeare old except the vine These things you must understand of those plants or stumps which are planted with roots How the stumps and plants must be prepared and dressed which you will plant THe plant or sprout you must cut round
healed goe to another little tree which is of the same kind and which hath not yet brought fruit and graffe that same on the little tree so shall that same tree bring his fruit without stones How a Vine is to be planted upon a Cherry tree PLant a Vine tree next unto a Cherry tree and when it groweth high then pierce a hole into the Cherry tree right above it that the hole be no bigger than the Vine is thick and pare the upper bark of the Vine branch till unto the green so farre as it must go through the tree and look well to it that the branch of the Vine be not bruised and wel anointed You must not suffer any sprouts to come out of the Vine from the ground up but unto the tree only that which commeth out of the other side let that same grow and bring fruit Then the next March following if the Vine prosper and grow fast into the tree then cut the Vine from the tree off and anoint the place with diligence and it will bring fruit How a grape of a Vine may be brought into a glasse WIll you make that a grape grow into a narrow glasse take the glasse before the grape cast her bloud or while she is little and put her into the glasse and shee will ripen in the glasse To graffe Medlers on a Peare tree IF you graffe the branch of a Medler upon a Peare tree the Medlers will be sweet and durable so that you may keep them longer â—hâ—n otherwise How apples or other fruit may be made red IF you will graft upon a wild stump put the sprouts in Pikes bloud and then graft them and the fruit will be red Otherwise Take an apple branch and graft it upon an alder stump and the apples will be red Likewise if you graft them upon cherry trees Of the Quince tree THe Quince tree commeth not of any grafting but you must plucke him out by the roots and plant him againe into a good ground or earth Otherwise The Quince tree requireth a dry and sweet ground and he prospereth therein How to make that Quinces become great TAke a branch of a Quince tree when it hath cast his bloud where a Quince groweth at and put it into a pot and set it into the ground and let the Quince grow in it and it will be very great And if you will shew some cunning therewith cause to be made a pot which hath a mans face in the bottome of it or any other picture whatsoever and when the quinces have blossomed then bow the branch and put the Quince into the pot and she will grow very big in the shape of a man which may also be done in Pompons Mellons Cucumbers and other earthly fruites The conclusion of graffing OVT of all the forewritten causes gentle reader is evidently shewne that although every planting or grafting be better from like to like and from kinde to kinde yet neverthelesse it agreeth also with contrary kinds as now is said wherefore he that will exercise and use the same and try divers kindes he may see and make many wonders What joy and fruit commeth of trees The first fruit THe first is that you plant divers many kinds for every housholder who hath care to his nourishment with all diligence causeth oftentimes such trees to be brought from forrein Countries The second The second is when the trees be planted and set orderly and pleasantly they give no small pleasure to a man therefore every one should cut his trees orderly and he that cannot should procure other men to doe it which know how to doe it The third is of well smelling and spiced fruit Cleave a tree asunder or a branch of a fruitfull tree to the heart or pith and cut a piece out of it and put therein poudred spices or what spice seever you will or what colour you will desire and tye a barke hard about it and anoint it with lome and Ox dung and the fruit will gett both the savour and colour according to the spice you have put in it How sowre fruits be made sweet WHich tree beareth sowre fruites in the same pierce a hole a foot or somewhat lesse above the root and fill that with honey and stop the hole with a haw-thorne branch and the fruit will bee sweet How trees ought to be kept when they wax old WHen trees lose their strength and vertue for age and the branches break off for the weight of the fruit or when they wax barren for lack of moisture that they beare not fruit every year but scant every other or third yeare you must cut some of his heavy branches which he can little nourish which is done to the end he might keep some moistnesse to himselfe for his nourishment or else the moistnesse would goe all into his branches Whereby you may mark whether you must give them or take away from them branches according to their nourishment and as the earth where shee standeth can abide that is you must leave them so much as will nourish them and no more which if you doe not the trees will bring so little fruit that your labour will not be recompensed Which cutting of trees may be done from the beginning of November till to the end of March in warme countries But it is more naturall to be done from the time that the leaves fall till the time that they begin to grow green againe except where the frost is very great and sharp How trees must be kept from divers sicknesses and first how to keep them from the Canker WHen the Canker commeth in any tree he becommeth barren and dry for it mounteth from the stumps into the top and when it taketh a peare or apple tree the bark will be black and barren thereabouts which must be cut off with a knife to the fresh wood and then the place must be anointed with Oxe dung and tied with barke so that neither wind nor rain may hurt it Against worms which must be driven out of the tree IT happeneth oftentimes that the superfluities of moistnesse in the trees breaketh out like as sometimes to a man or beast between the flesh and skin and when that beginneth to rot wormes grow out of it which takes his strength away wherefore mark When the barke of a tree at any time swels cut it presently open that the poison may runne out and if you find already wormes in it draw them out with a little Iron hook How the wormes are to be killed if they be already grown into the tree IF you will kill the worms which grow in the tree take Pepper Lawrell and Incense and mingle all well together with good wine and pierce a hole into the tree downeward to the pith or heart of the tree and poure this mixture into it and stop it with a hawthorne and the worms will dye Otherwise Take ashes or dust and mingle it with sallet oyle
sport at we call it doping A Lord lately sent to me at Sun going down to provide him a good dish of Trouts against the next morning by six of the Clock I went to the door to see how the wains of the Aire were like to prove and returned answer that I doubted not but to be provided God willing at my time appointed I went presently to the River and it proved very dark I drew out a Line of three silkes and three hairs twisted for the uppermost part and a Line of two silks and two hairs twisted for the lowermost part with a good large hook I baited my hook with two Lob-worms the four ends hanging as meet as I could ghesse them in the dark I fell to Angle it proved very dark that I had good sport Angling with the Lob-worms as I doe with the Flie at the top of the water you shall heare the Fish rise at the top of the water then you must loose a slack Line down to the bottome as nigh as you can ghesse then hold a straight Line feeling the Fish bite give time there is no doubt of losing the Fish for there is not one among twenty but doth gorge the Bait the least stroak you can strike to fasten the hook makes the fish sure and then you may take the fish up with your hands The night began to alter and grew somewhat lighter I took off the Lob-worms and set to my Rod a white Palmer Flie made of a large hook I had sport for the time till it grew lighter then I put on my red Palmer I had sport for the time untill it grew very light then I set on my black Palmer had good sport made up my dish of fish put up my Taâ—â—ies 〈…〉 at my time appointed for the service For these 〈◊〉 Flies with the help of the Lob-worms serve to Angle all the year long observing the times as I have shewed in this nights work a light Flie for darknes the red Flie in medio and a dark Flie for lightnesse This is my experiment for this kind of Angling which is the surest Angling of all and killeth the greatest Fish your Lines may be strong but must be no longer then the Rod. To take a Carp either in Pond or River if you mean to have sport with some profit you must take a peck of Ale-graines and a good quantity of any bloud and mix the bloud and graines together and cast it in the places where you meane to Angle this feed will gather the seale Fish together as Carp Tench Roach Dace and Bream the next morning be at your sport very early plum your ground you may Angle for the Carp with a strong Line the Bait must be either a red knotted worm or Paste there is no doubt of sport To take Pearch The Pearch feeds well if you light where they be and bites very free My opinion is with some experience to bait with Lob-worms chopt in pieces over night so come in the morning betimes plum your ground gage your line bait your hook with a red knotted worme but I hold a Menow better put the hook in at the back of the Menow betwixt the fish and the skin that the Menow may swim up and down alive being boyed up with a Cork or Quill that the Menow may have liberty to swimme a foot off the the ground there is no doubt of sport with profit I will shew a little my opinion of floating for scale Fish in the River or Pond The feed brings the Fish together as the sheep to the Pen There is nothing better in all your Anglings for feed then Bloud and Grains I hold it better then Paste then plumming your ground Angling with fine Tackles as single haire for halfe the Line next the hook round and small plumed according to your float For the Bait there is a small red worm with a yellow tip on his taile is very good Brandlins Gentles Paste or Cadice which we call Cod-bait they lye in a gravelly husk under stones in the River these be the speciall Baits for these kinde of Fish One of my name was the best Trouler for a Pike in this Realme he laid a wager that he would take a Pike of four footlong of Fish within the space of one Moneth with his Trouling-Rod so he Trouled three weeks and odde dayes and took many great Pikes nigh the length but did not reach the full length till within the space of three dayes of the time then he took one and won the wager The manner of his Trouling was with a Hazell Rod of twelve foot long with a Ring of Wyre in the the top of his Rod for his Line to runne thorow within two foot of the bottome of the Rod there was a hole made for to put in a winde to turne with a barrell to gather up his Line and loose at his pleasure this was his manner of Trouling But I will pawn my credit that I will shew a way either in Maior Pond or River that shall take more Pikes than any Trouler with his Rod And thus it is First take forked stick a Line of twelve yards long wound upon it at the upper end leave about a yard either to tye a bunch of Sags or a Bladder to Boy up the Fish and to carry it from the ground the Bait must be a live Fish either Dace or Gudgin or Roach or a small Trout the forked stick must have a slit in the one side of the fork to put in the Line that you may set your live Fish to swimme at a gage that when the Pike taketh the Bait he may have the full liberty of the Line for his feed You may turne these loose either in Pond or River in the Pond with the winde all day long the more the better at night set some small weight as may stay the Boy as a Ship lyeth at Anchor till the Fish taketh For the River you must turne all loose with the streame two or three be sufficient to shew pleasure gaged at such a depth as they will go currant downe the River there is no doubt of sport if there be Pikes for the hooks they must be doubled hooks the shanks should be somewhat shorter then ordinary my reason is the shorter the hook is of the shank it will hurt the live Fish the lesse and must be armed with small wyre well softned but I hold a hook armed with twisted silk to be better for it will hurt the live Fish least If you arm your hook with wyre the neeld must be made with a small hook at the one end thereof If you arme with silke the neeld must be made with an eye then must you take one of those Baits alive which you can get and with one of your neelds enter within a strawes breadth of the Gill of the Fish so put the neeld betwixt the skin and the Fish then pull the neeld out at the hindmost finne and