Acre and raise a good advance upon your Lands It is a Commodity will not want of Sale the greater the Parcel is the better price you will have It is used to make the Rape-Oyl as we call it The Turnep-seed will grow amongst it and it will make good Oyl also you may sell a thousand pounds worth together to one Chapman It is best to be planted by the Water or near it It cannot be too rank the Eadish and Stubble will exceedingly nourish Sheep in Winter It hath another excellent property it will fit the Land so for corning for Wheat it may produce a Crop as good or better then it self and for Barley after it The charge of the whole Crop I conceive may come to betwixt 20 or 30 s. an Acre and a good Crop may be worth 5 6 7 or 8 l. an Acre the least is a very good Improvement because it will do excellently well if well ordered and a kind season upon the Land the very first year after recovery when it will do nothing else if it can be but plowed when other things as Corn and Grain may be hazarded Of Weld or Would as some call it or more properly Dyers-Weed IT is a rich Dyers Commodity it beareth a long narrow greenish yellow Flower which runs to a small Seed far smaller then a Mustard seed very thick set with seed Pliny calls it Lutea but Virgil calls it Lutum and in our English Weld Would or Dyers-Weed It flourisheth in June and July In many places it groweth of it self in and about Villages and Towns and is of a very great use and considering the easie charge of the raising of it and the hardness of the Land upon which it grows is of incomparable advantage For first it will grow upon very indifferent Land not worth above ten Groats or half a Crown per Acre yea as some affirm the veriest hilly barren chalky light Land not worth twelve pence per Acre will carry it and bear it to very good purpose but unto so barren Lands I will not give encouragement unless where there is little or none better but in any indifferent Land so it be of a very dry warm nature it will do very well And secondly it will cost but a little the managing it requires no tillage at all no harrowing it being to be sowed where you sow your Barley or Oats upon that Husbandry without any other addition unless you draw a Bush over it or a Roul either of which is sufficient to cover it after you have sowed it The difficult piece in the managing hereof is the very sowing of it that is that it may be sowed even for the seed being so very small will require both skill and an even hand to scatter it Some sow it by taking it with one finger and the thumb others with the two fore-fingers but neither of these do I affect as the best way because they cannot spread so well as they may with their whole hand I therefore prescribe a mixture with Ashes Lime fine Earth or some such thing as will best suit with the weight of the seed for could you find out that which agreed both in weight and bigness then out of all question none like to that to sow it withal A Gallon of this seed will sow an Acre which had need to every quart of seed to have two Gallons of some of the aforesaid It must be often stirred together lest that the seed sink to the bottom and sow that part thicker then the other and then cast it out at Arms-end at as good an even a compass as you possibly can This seed thus sowed may grow up amongst the Corn and yet be no prejudice because it groweth not fast the first Summer but after the Corn is cut it must be preserved And the next Summer you shall receive through Gods Blessing a comfortable Crop you must be exceedingly curious in the ripening of it if you let it grow too long your seed will fall out if not long enough your seed will not be perfect nor your stalk neither and therefore observe both the turning of the seed and the ripening of the stalk for I cannot tell you which of either will admit of a dispensation and as soon as ever you perceive it to grow up to perfect ripeness you must down with it that is pull it as you do your Flax up by the Roots and bind it in little handfuls and set it up to dry in little filches or stitch until both seed and stalk be dry and then carry it away carefully as that seed be not lost lay it up dry and so keep it as you see cause for a good Market for it is to be sold for the Dyers use who sometimes will give a very good price but at all times sufficient profit and go far to buy it from forty shillings an Acre to twelve pounds an Acre some say more you may barn it up and keep it and the seed together until March and then you may get out the seed by lashing and whipping of it forth upon a Board or Door which reserve for seed the seed is sometimes ten shillings a Bushel and sometimes more or less as the Market rises or falls it coloureth the bright yellow and the Lemmon-colour The Stalk and Root are both useful and must go together to the Dyer The charges of sowing and all things till you come to pulling is not above one shilling whipping and banning may come to four shillings more the seed may be worth half a Crown so that all Charges and Rent of the Land may amount to less but I will say fifteen shillings then the Improvement will be fourfold if worth four pound ten shillings an Acre sixfold if worth six pound per Acre eightfold and much more as some affirm to sixteenfold Improvement It begins well and spreads and thrives very much in Kent in many parts thereof the best place to get the seed is in Kent clean down to Canterbury and Wye where you may see both the Land and the growth and discover the Mystery thereof It is sold by weight so much a hundred and so much a Tun weight Of Woad or Wade the Land best for it the Vsage of it and the Advantages thereby WOad is also a great Commodity it lays the foundation for the solidity of many Colours more A Woaded colour is free from staining excellent for holding its colour nay sad-holding colour must be woaded It hath been one of the greatest Inrichments to the Masters thereof until our late Wars of any Fruit the Land did bear It is called Glastum or Garden-Woad by the Italians called Guedo in Spanish and in French Pastel in Dutch Wert and in English Woad or Wade It hath flat long Leaves like Reben Rubrum the stalk is small and tender the Leaves are of a blewish green colour The seed is like an Ash-key or seed but not so long little blackish Tongues The Root
It must be taken up in Winter and must be sold as soon as taken up lest it lose the weight which it must needs do You may make of an Acre of indifferent Liquorish 50 or 60 Land of excellent good 80 90 or a 100 l. It is not of so great use as other Commodities are and so will not vent off in great parcels as others will neither will it endure the keeping for a good Market because it will be so soon dry How good a Commodity Hemp is with the manner of Planting of it HEmp is an excellent Commodity and would be far better but that it is not made so National This Staple-commodity in the product would bring a constant profit for the stock and would maintain the Poor at work so as to get a competent livelihood Why should we run to France to Flandeâ—s and to the Low Countries for Thred aâ—d Cloth of so many sorts and fine Linnen when we have Hemp and Flax enough of our own I shall now proceed to a brief Description of the way of raising it As for the Seed of it that is familiarly bought and sold in all places in the season but the best Seed is your brightest which you may try by rubbing of it in your hand if it crumble with rubbing it is bad but if it still retains its substance and colour it is good The best Land for it is that which is sandy or a little gravelly so it be very rich and of a deep soil As for your cold Clays they are not fit for it the very best Land can be pickt for it is but good enough The quantity that is to be sowed upon our Statute Acre is three Strikes or Bushels and harrowed with small Harrows the which after the Land is made exceeding fine as the finest Garden then in the beginning or middle of April is the time they sow it some sow it not till the end of April But if it be any thing a kindly year the earlier the better and so preserved exceeding choicely at first for fear of Birds destroying of it as you see in many Countries Be careful that Cattel never bite it nor lye upon it for they will destroy it The season of getting it is first about Lammas when a great part of it will be ripe it may be about one half that is a lighter Summer-Hemp that bears no seed and the stalk grows white and ripe and most easily discernable which is about that season to be pulled forth and dryed and laid up for use or watered and wrought up as all good Housewives know which you must pull as neatly as you can from amongst all the rest lest you break it for what you break you utterly destroy and then you must let the other grow for seed until it be ripe which will be about Michaelmas or a little before when seed and stalk are both full ripe and you come to pull them you bind up in bundles as much as a yard-hand will hold which is the Legal measure but for your simple or Summer-Hemp that is bound in lesser bundles as much as may be grasped in both your hands and when your Winter-Hemp is pulled you may stock it up or barn it any way to keep it dry and then in the season of the year thrash it and get out the seed but still preserve your Hemp till you set to the working of it which instead of breaking and tawing of it as they do in most parts there they altogether peel it and no more and so sell it in the rough But I leave all at liberty for that whether you peel or dress it up by Brake or Tewtaw As for the Seed an Acre will bear is two or three Quarters and it is usually sold for about a Mark a Quarter sometimes ten shillings If good Hemp then store of seed else not but in many and most Parts of the Nation it is sold for about four shillings a Bushel Your fimbled-Hemp is not worth above half so much as the other sometimes it is subject to Weeds to Carlock and Muckle-weed which must be weeded but the best way to destroy them is to let your Hemp-Land lye one year fallow I only speak of Holland the cheapest place for it and the first fountain of it But generally throughout the Nation it is of far more worth and value The richer your Land is the thinner the poorer the thicker you must sow One Acre of good Hemp may be worth 5 6 7 or 8 l. an Acre and sold as soon as pulled or gathered but if it be wrought up it may come to 8 9 10 or 12 l. or more it is a common thing in use every one knows the manner of working it to Cloth The Husbanding of Flax so as to make it come up as much of the Improvement as we can FLax as I may call it is a Root or roundation of advantage upon the prosperity whereof thousands of people in good honest and laborious Callings are maintained for the profit accruing thereof i both general and particular For the Land capable of raising good Flax is any sound Land be it in what Country soever it will if the Land be good either earthy or mixed of Sand or Gravel and old Land it is best that hath lain long unplowed it had need come up to the value of a Mark or near twenty shillings an Acre to sow Flax upon within a mile of London and yet in most Counties of England I know as good and as kind Land for that Husbandry as any other and at London they have Workmen dearer too and yet can raise though they give so dear a very considerable profit There is excellent Flax about Maidstone in Kent 't is said the best Thred in England is made of it one Acre of good Flax may maintain divers persons to the compleating of it to perfect Cloth consider how many Trades are supplied thereby 1. The flax-Flax-Land must have the same Husbandry of plowing and sowing as Lands have for Corn there 's the Husbandmans business sometimes yea many times weeding too then pulling stitching and drying then repelling and laying up and preserving the seed then watering is either on the ground or in the water then drying of it up howing of it then breaking and towtawing of it then better helling and dressing it up then spinning of it to Yarn or Thred then weaving it and bleaching and then it returns again to the good Houswives use or Sempster and then to the weaving and usage and all these a dozen good Callings 2. For the carrying on of this design and making the best of this Improvement I will here give you the best and most profitable way of planting of it that is discovered As for the Land let it be good and well ploughed both straight and even without balks and in due season about the beginning of March or latter end of February and as for the Seed the true East Country-seed is
it of it self The season of it is in the beginning of April or in the end of March if it be likely to be a dry season I have heard of three Crops and some affirm that it will bear two to cut and one for to graze the first Crop may be at mid May ready to cut and this Crop is best always to be cut green and before the stalk begin to grow too big and begin to dry and wither unless it be for Seed therefore as Experience will teach it will be best to cut it green and young and give it to Cattel or Horse in the Stable for if you cut it to keep it will go so near together as that it will do but little service dry yet if being cut young it will be very good and sweet and either seed or give Milk abundantly and then after the first cut let it grow for Seed and herein you must be careful that you let it grow till it be full ripe for it will not be very apt to shed and if it grow to seed I cannot conceive of what use those stalks that are so hard and dry can be unless it be for firing in a dear Country so that the seed must be the advance of that Crop only and so it may well enough and you may have a good after-pasture and may graze it until January and then preserve it But if you would know when your Seed is ripe observe these two Particulars First observe the Husk when the Seed appears in it then about one month after it may be ripe Secondly try the Seed after it begins to turn the colour and the stalk begins to dye and turn brown it begins to ripen and being turned to a yellowish colour in a dry time mow it and preserve it till it be perfectly dry any manner of way and then about the midst of March thrash it and cleanse it from the straw as much as you can foulter and beat the Husk again being exceeding well dryed in the Sun after the first thrashing and then get out what seed you can and after try what a Mill will do at the rest as aforesaid more at laâ—ge But I will give way to any that can make a better discovery I need not prescribe a time in July or August as best to cut for seed because some years and Lands will ripen it sooner then others will therefore have respect to thy seed and straw according to the former directions but when you are to go into good seed you must graze it upon the Land and then be sure not to let it grow too rank and high but if the stalk grow big Cattel will balk it and stain it more and it will not eat up so kindly at first nor graze so even afterwards but exceeding much Milk it will yield and feed and nourish very well But to affirm as some have done and do confidently to this day that it will grow on the barrennest Ground that is as on Windsor Forrest I dare not I have known that it hath failed and I am confident must without exceeding great cost on Husbandry yet that very Land well manured and tilled dunged limed marled or chalkt or otherwise made fat and warm will bring forth good Clover and other rich Commodities as they do in Flanders the Nature of the Land is good but the Spirit of it is too low to raise it of it self And this is all that is held forth in the Discourse of Brabant Husbandry exceeding barren Lands but well dunged and tilled and then clovered not that it is the barren Land but the good and costly Husbandry only the oldness of the Land and the restiness thereof yields more spirit to the Grain or Clover by far then the tillable Land well husbanded and laid down with Clover will do very well also The quantity of seed for an Acre as I conceive will be a Gallon or nine or ten pound though some are of opinion less will serve turn Therefore as I said before I say your old Land be it course or rich as it is or hath been disused from Tillage long is best for Corn so also it is the best and most certain Land for Clover and when you have corned your Land as much as you intend then to alter it to Clover is the properest season This I shall lay down for a general Rule That whatsoever Land is neither too rank or fat for any sort of Corn is not too good to clover and you shall always find it to be the best Husbandry unless you recover the barren Lands up to a good and rich condition which is also the far better Husbandry then to let it lye pelting and moiling upon poor mean Land unfatned by some soils or other therefore I advise every man to plow up no more then he can well overcome by his Purse and Husbandry and let the rest lye till he have brought up the other and then as he hath raised one part take up another and lay down that to graze either with Clover or otherwise and let him take heed that flatters himself to raise good Clover upon barren Heathy Land otherwise then aforesaid Let him take notice he will pull down his Plumes after two or three years Experience unless he devise a new way of Husbandary as to the annual profit that may accrue thereby I shall a little differ from the Flanders Husbandry but shall affirm that one Acre after the Corn is cut the very next year if it be well husbanded and kind thick Clover may be worth twenty Marks or twenty pounds and so downwards as it degenerates weaker less worth In Brabant they speak of keeping four Cows Winter and Summer some cut and laid up for Fodder others cut and eaten green but I have credibly heard of some in England that about one Acre have kept four Coach-horses and more all Summer long but if he keep but two Cows it is advantage enough upon such Lands as never kept one But I conceive best for us until we come into a stock of Seed to mow the first Crop in the midst or end of May and to lay that up for Hay although it will go very near together yet if it grow not too strong it will be exceeding good and rich and feed any thing and reserve the next for Seed and if we can bring it up to perfect Seed if it but yield four Bushels upon an Acre it will amount to more then I speak of by far every Bushel being worth three or four pound a Bushel and then after the Math or Eadish that year may be put up three midling Runts upon an Acre and feed them up all which laid together will make up an Improvement sufficient and yet this property it hath also that after the three first years of cloving it will so frame the Earth that it will be very sit to corn again which wil be a very great advantage First to corn the
Land which usually yields a far better profit then grasing and sometimes a double profit and sometimes more near a treble profit and then to clover it again will afford a wondrous strange advance And if you consider one Acre with the Clover and Husbandry thereof may stand you the first year in twenty Shillings the Land being worth no more which may produce you yearly if it thrive well easily five six or eight pounds per Acre nay some will affirm ten or twelve pounds or more Of the Plantation of Hops and how Land is improved thereby HOps is grown a National Commodity But it was not many years since the famous City of London petitioned the Parliament of England against two Anusancies or offensive Commodities were likely to come into great use and esteem that was Newcastle Coal in regard of their stench c. and Hops in regard that they would spoil the taste of Drink and endanger the peoples healths and for some other reasons I do not well remember but petition they did to suppress them and had the Parliament been no wiser then they we had been in a measure pined and in a greater measure starved This Hop-plantation will require a large Discourse but I shall contract my self to the briefest discovery thereof I can possibly 1. Chuse the Land that is best for them and best Sets to plant withal 2. The best manner of planting them and husbanding of them until they are fit for sale 3. The profit and advantage that will accrue thereby I shall afterwards as plainly as I can express 4. Describe the manner of its growth thus it comes up with several sprouts like Asparagus runs up and climbs upon any thing it meets withal bears a long stalk hairy and rugged Leaves broad like the Vine the flowers hang down by clusters set as it were with scales yellowish called in High Dutch Lupullus in Low Dutch Hopssem and in English Hop It is offensive upon this account hot in the first degree stuffs the head with the smell therefore use it not too much yet the Leaves open and cleanse The best Land is your richest Land it must be a deep Mould that which lyeth near the Rock the Poles cannot be set deep enough to stand firm it should be a mixt Earth that is compounded of Sand and a little Clay but much solid Earth a strongish Land laid dry and warm will bear the weightiest Hops A barren Moorish wet Soil is not natural to Hops but if this be laid very dry and made very rich with Dung and Soil it may do reasonable well The Hop-Garden should stand warm that it may be preserved from North and East winds rather by Hills then Trees as near your House as may be and that Land you determine for your Hop-Garden lay as level and as square as you can and if it be rough and stiff it will do well to be sowed with Hemp Beans or Turneps before but in what state soever it be till in the beginning of Winter make use of the Plough or Spade and this not only the year before but every year as long as you use it and the more pains and cost you bestow the more profit and is the nearer to you resemble the Flemming in his Hopping And for your Sets and good Roots to procure them you must go to a Garden orderly kept where the Hops are of a good kind all yearly cut and where the Hills are raised very high for the Roots will be greatest be sure to buy choice Sets they may cost six a hundred in some places and sometimes you may have them for the taking up leave your Husbandry orderly their Hills well drest You must chuse the biggest Roots you can find such as are three or four inches about and the Set nine or ten inches long and have three joynts in a Root Take heed of wild Hops they are only discerned by the Root and stalk The unkindly Hop that likes not his ground soil or keeping comes up green and small in the stalk thick and rough in the leaves like Nettles much bitten with a black Fly but it destroys not the Hop but somewhat injures it The manner of planting as soon as your Roots are got is either to set them speedily or lay them in some Puddle or bury them in Earth but leave them not in Water above twenty four hours Then begin to direct your Hills with a Line tyed with knors and threads thereto the due distance had need to be eight foot betwixt because then you make the fewer and bigger Hills the Sun comes about them Let the Poles reach not one another that so it may be plowed yearly the more easily otherwise it must be digged some say seven foot and others say six foot as one lately accustomed manner is And I am confident there is most advantage by thin planting but that I leave to each mans Experience Your hole under the knot of your Line had need be a foot square and deep then if you can have the wind South or West it is best if not go on having made many holes but be sure to take the month of April for the work and take two or three of your Roots as a great old Gardiner affirmed to me by which they will yield green Sciens or white Buds and will have small beards growing out Joyn your Sets together even in the tops and set them altogether bolt upright and there hold them in their place till you have filled the hole with good Mould and set low but just as the tops may be level with the ground and then after they must be covered thick with fine Mould be careful you set not that end downwards which before grew upwards which you may know by the bad growing upwards and let no part of the dead stalk remain upon the uppermost joynt thereof then press down the Earth hard to the Roots Some will set them every one at a corner of the foot of the Line which I rather incline to because they have room and stand round But if you plant late and have green springs upon them then be careful of not covering the spring but to set more Plants lest some should fail and in a bigger hole round about the same set eight some say ten or more which is thought tedious Now at this time you need make no Hills at all there as aforesaid Poultry must be kept from thence for scratching the Goose more especially or any things that are mischievous Now for poling if your distance be three yards or eight foot then four Poles are required else three will serve but I incline to six or seven foot distance and four Poles and as many this year as any Elder Poles are very good taper and rough and suitable to the Hops desire The time of cutting your Poles is in December or in November and then dress them and pile them up dry if you leave some Twigs it will not do amiss
straw and so depart your Garden till March unless it be to bring in Dung. Lay on some in the Winter to comfort and warm the Roots your old Dung is best rather none then not rotten And in April help every hill with a handful or two of good Earth when the Hop is wond upon the Pole but in March you will find unless it hath been tilled all Weeds But if you have pulled down your hills and laid your Ground as it were level it will serve to maintain your hills for a long time but if you have not pulled down your hills your shall with your Ho as it were undermine them round till that you come near to the principal and take the upper or younger Roots in your hand discerning where the new Roots grow out of the old Sets but cut no Roots before the beginning of March or end of April The first year of dressing your Roots you must cut away all such as grew the year before within an inch of the same and every year after cut them as close to the old Roots Those that grow downward are not to be cut they are those that grow outward which will incumber your Garden The difference betwixt old and new easily appears You will find your old Sets not increased in length but a little in bigness and in few years all your Sets will be grown into one and by the colour also the main Root being red the other white But if this be not yearly done then they will not be perceived and if your Sets be small and placed in good Ground and the hill well maintained the new Roots will be greater then the old if they grow to wild Hops the stalk will wax red pull them down and plant new in their places As for the annual charge of the Hop-Garden after it is planted the dressing the Hills the Allies the hoing them the poling them and tying to the Poles and ordering the Hops is usually done for forty shillings an Acre together with pulling drying and bagging by the day And so I proceed to the drying of them which may be upon any ordinary Kilne with any Wood that is dry but not too old or else good sweet Rye-straw will do well but Charcoal best of all They must be laid about nine or ten inches thick and dryed a good while on that side and then turned upside down and dryed as much on the other side about twelve hours will dry a Kilne full which must be followed night and day then laid up in a close Room upon a heap together for a month if your Markets will give you way to frume and forgive again when the stalk begins to be brittle and the leaf also begins to rub then the Hop is dryed sufficiently but tread them not while they are hot it will tread them to dust and then either against Sturbridge-Fair or what other Markets you provide for you may bag them up close and hard either to 200 a Quarter And so I come to my next Particular to shew you the profit of them One Acre of good Hops may possibly be worth at a good Market forty fifty sixty pounds an Acre may bear eleven or twelve hundred weight possibly some have done more many ten but grant but eight hundred they may sometimes be worth not above one pound four shillings the hundred and some other times they have been worth twelve or fourteen pound a hundred and usually once in three years they bring money enough It is usually a very good Commodity and many times extraordinary and our Nation may ascribe unto it self to raise the best Hops of any other Nation There 's an old Saying Heresie and Bear Hopt into England in one year Of the Mystery of Saffron and the way of planting of it THere is another very rich Commodity wherein our Nation hath the Glory and yet it is a very Mystery to many Parts of it they know not whether such a thing grows in England and yet none such so good grows in the World beside that I have ever heard or read of and that is Saffron It is a most soveraign and wholesom thing and if it take right it is very advantagious and costly for price It hath its ebbings and its flowings as all other things have I shall briefly give you the story of it Good Land that is of the value of 20 l. an Acre being well husbanded tilled and fitted or worser Land being well manured and brought to perfect Tillage will serve the turn but the better the better for the work The season is about Midsummer when it is to be set that being the season when they usually take up or draw their Sets or Roots and old store when they may be had and no time else The Land being brought into perfect Tillage the best way is to make a Tool like a Ho in operation but as broad as six of them and with that they draw their Land into ranges open as it were a Furrow about two or three inches deep and there place their Sets or Roots of Saffron about two or three inches asunder which Roots are to be bought by the Strike sometimes dearer and sometimes cheaper and are very like to Onions an Onion about an inch and a half over and as soon as they have made one Furrow all along their Land from one end to another then they after that it is set begin in another and draw that which they raise next to cover this and so they make their Trench and cover the other they keep one depth as near as may be which Ranges or Furrows are not above three or four inches distance that so a Ho of two or three inches distance may go betwixt them to draw up the Weed which being set and covered it may come up that Summer but it dies again yet it lives all Winter and grows green like Chives or small Leeks And in the beginning of Summer it dyeth wholly as by the blade of it is as to appearance let one come and take a Ho and draw all over it and cleanse it very well and then will come up the Flower without the Leaf In September the Flower of it appears like Crocus that is blew and in the middle of it come up two or three Chives which grow upright together and the rest of the Flower spreads broad which Chives is the very Saffron which you may take betwixt your fingers and hold it and cast away all the rest of the Flower and reserve that only and so they pick it and they must pick it every morning early or else it returns back into the body of it to the Earth again until the next morning and so from one to another for a months space it will bear Saffron You must get as many Pickers as may overcome it before it strike in at the very nick in the morning It will grow to bear a Crop and then it must be taken up and planted new
again and then it will yield good store of Sets to spare which cannot be had any other way It must be taken up at Midsummer and then set as aforesaid And when that you have got your Saffron then you must set it a drying and that you must do make a Kilne of Clay not half so big as a Bee-hive and very like it will be made with a few little sticks and Clay and serve excellently well for this service A little fire of Charcoal will serve to dry it but it must be very carefully tended Three pound of wet Saffron will make one of dry An Acre of Land may bear fourteen or fifteen pounds of Saffron if very good but if seven or eight pounds it will do the work and one Acre of it will be managed with no great charge I do not believe it can come to 4 l. an Acre it hath been sold from 20 s. a pound to 5 l. a pound It is an excellent advantage and brings in at worst a saving bargain but it may possibly be worth 30 or 40 l. an Acre but if it come to 7 or 8 l. it loseth not The Saffron-Country is on one side and Nook of Essex and some part of Suffolk at Saffron-Walden and betwixt that and Cambridge hath very much of it in their Common-fields And truly these Lands are but of a middle worth I have seen as rich Lands again in many Parts of England but it is as I believe Loamy Ground and of a little saddest Nature It will require to be laid dry and sound and the Land it self must be very sound and wholesom Of the Plantation of Liquorish at large I Proceed to another National Commodity in the Plantation whereof we exceed all other Nations and that is Liquorish our English Liquorish as we call it being far beyond the Spanish Liquorish or any other The planting of it few understand and fewer practise That I may be open and full in the discovery of it I shall under two or three Heads formalize what I intend to express 1. To discover the best Land to bear it 2. The best way I can find practised to plant it 3. The profits and advantages of it The best Land to raise your Liquorish upon is your richest you can get or make your warmest you can find out the soundest and the dryest that is possibly to be had of a very deep soil you must dig and prepare your Land before you set and it must be digged three Spades deep and two or three shovelings at the least laid as hollow and as light as may be You must have it digg'd out of natural Land if it be very rich Land indeed that it will feed an Ox in a Summer it is the best for eight pence a Rod at London forty Rods make a Rood which is a quarter of an Acre which comes to about 4 or 5 l. an Acre and this is the main charge of all for three years there is no more unless it be a little hoing which rids off of the hands very fast I believe it will not cost above 20 s. an Acre more in all the three years both in setting and all the dressings of it besides the Sets and Land the Sets being doubly trebly worth your money Sets have been sold for 2 s. the hundred but if your Land be not fresh old Land or extraordinary rich and as rich as your best Gardens are it must be made so with Soils and warm Manures Horse-dung is excellent to be intrenched into the Earth it both warms and lightens it and makes it fit for this service About London are very serviceable Lands for it and so is any dry Soil whatsoever where it is rich enough and deep that which bears this well will also bear your Moulder Weed that rich Commodity Having digged and prepared your Land you may proceed to the planting of it and therein you must endeavour to get the best Sets you can and from the best and largest sorts of Liquorish The best Sets are your Crown-sets or heads got from the very top of the Root a little shived down be careful of this of very sound Land for how soon soever you come to water your Liquorish will check and run not one inch further and having procured your Sets your Ground being cast into Beds of four foot broad all along your Plantation from one end to another with a long Line you may lay down a Set at every foot along the Line which Line may have knots and threds at every foot if you will be so exact and then a man may come with a Tool made a little flattish or roundish of the bredth or bigness of a good Pickforks-tayl about half a yard long with a Crutch at the over-end and sharp at the nether and that thrust into the ground it being made of Wood or Itch but if flat an Iron will do best and open the hole well and put in the Set and close a little Mould to it and so you may over-run an Acre very quickly in the setting of it and if it should prove a very dry time you must water your Sets two or three days at the first until that you see that they have recovered their withered waneness and then the first year you may plant your Garden with Onions Radishes or any Sallet-herb or any thing that roots not downward and I am confident it would be better too because it will prevent some weeding and for the second it must be hoed and kept from Weeds too and a little the third but one thing be very curious of in the taking up and sudden setting of thy Sets as soon as took up set again but if you fetch from far then as soon as taken up put a little Mould and poste them away by Horse-back and get them into the ground as soon as possibly the delay of setting spoils many thousand Sets The seasons of planting is in the months of February and March you may the second year take some Sets from your own stock but be very curious thereof but the third year you may take what you please and in the taking of the Liquorish up the best seasons for which is November and December there will run from every Master-root a Runner which runs along the over-part of the ground which hath little Sprouts and Roots or Sciens which will yield excellent Sets if they be cut three or four of them in every Set which may be about four or five inches long which is also to be planted and is as good as the Crown-set also if it be any thing a moist time you may take slips from the leaf or branches and set them and then some of them will grow but they may be set betwixt the other to thicken lest they should fall The third Particular is the profit and advantage that may be made thereby which is very considerable but it is also subject to the ebbings and flowings of the Market
the best although it cost very dear one Bushel of it to sow is worth ten Bushels of our own Country-seed but the second Crop of our own of this Country-seed is very good and the third indifferent but then no more but again to your best Seed the quantity of it is about two Bushels of it upon an Acre at least some sow a Peck more but I conceive two may be enough but of our Seed it will require half a Strike more then of the East Country-seed Our Flax-men in former days did not sow above half so much or little more but now Experience hath brought us to this pitch The season of sowing it is a warm season in the latter end of March but in the warmer parts as Essex and Kent I conceive mid March may do well but in colder parts as down towards Warwick-shire and Worcester-shire the beginning of April may be early enough and if there should come a very wet season you must take care of weeding it also that it grow not till it be over-ripe lest the stalk should blacken or mildew yet to its full ripeness you must let it grow the which you may perceive both by the hurle and by the seed Some will ripen earlier and some later but against it be ripe be sure to have your Pluckers to fall in hand with plucking of it and then tye up every handful and set them upright one against another like a Tent till they be perfectly dry then get it all into the Barn It is indifferent whether you ripple it or take off the boles of it as soon as you bring it home or when you intend to use it As for your watering of it whether in the Water or upon the Land that I shall not peremptorily determine but thus much I say that both may do well and he that gets store will find use of both because of the one you make use as soon as your Flax is pulled and then you need not stand so curiously upon the drying of it but after you have got your seed you may water it and the watering of it opens and breaks the hurle the best but then you must be careful of laying up your seed that it heat not nor mould and that which you water then get it forth upon your Grass-land and spread it thin and turn it to preserve it from mildewing and keep it so until you find the hurle be ready and willing to part from the Core and then dry it up and get it in for use And for the drying of it a Kilne made on purpose is best so that you be careful of scorching it this will make a greater riddance of the same and to them that have great store Sun-drying will never do the feat though it may do well for a small quantity or the Flax of a private Family As to the working of it you must provide your Brakes and Tewtaws both the one that is the Brake which bruises and toughens the Hurle and the Tewtaw that cuts and divides out the Core if you use the Tewtaw first it may cut your well-dryed Flax to pieces yet both do well but use the Brake first It will cost the Workmanship of it betwixt three or four pounds an Acre to bring it up to Sale It lyeth much upon the Workmans hand and therefore far more to be advanced by how much the more it raiseth imployment for so many people to live by Where Wages are great it comes off the hardest yet where it is carried on to the purpose people stock hard that want Work and because of constancy will work on easie terms or else how could they possibly do good of it at London or near about it where they work at double Rates but there I have seen the best Flax I ever saw Lastly the benefit that may be made thereby an Acre of good Flax may be worth upon the ground if it be the East-Country-seed seven or eight yea possibly ten or twelve pounds yea far more the charge whereof besides the seed until it be ripe may not be above ten shillings an Acre which if you work up to be fit to sell in the Market it may rise up to 15 or 16 or near 20 l. in the Market but to bring it so high as 30 l. as in Flanders I dare not say But an Acre of our Country-seed will hardly come up to above three pounds or four unless very good indeed to which if it amount unto and no more upon the Land it will make a good advancement of it which it may be Land and Seed and all Charges may come to about fifteen or sixteen pounds an Acre the seed not being worth above two shillings a Strike A Discovery of Rape and Coal-seeds Husbandry THe planting of Coal-seed or Rape-seed is another excellent good means for the Improvement of Land this Coal-seed hath been of late days in good esteem And it is most especially useful upon your Marsh-land Fen-land or upon your new recovered Sea-land or any Lands that are very rank and fat whether Arable or Pasture The best seed is the biggest the fairest seed you can get it being dry and of a pure clear colour of the colour of the best Onion-seed It is to be had in many Parts of this Nation but Holland is the Center of it from thence usually comes your good seed The season of sowing it is about Midsummer you must have your Land plowed well and laid even and fine then you may sow it about a Gallon of seed will sow an Acre the which seed must be mingled as afore was directed about the Clover with something that you may sow it even and not upon heaps The even sowing of it is very difficult it grows up exceedingly to great Leaves but the benefit is made out of the seed especially You may sow it either upon the Lay Turfe or Arable and both may do well but your Arable must be very rich and fat having made your Ground fine and fit to sow it The time to cut it is when half the seed begins to look brown you must reap it as you do Wheat and lay it upon little Yelms two or three handfuls together till it be dry and that very dry too about a fortnight will dry it it must not be turned or touched if it be possible for fear of shedding the seed that being the chief profit of it It must be gathered in sheets or rather a great Ship sail Cloth as big as four or six sheets and so carried into the Barn erected on purpose or that place on purpose designed to thrash it that day you may have sixteen or eighteen men at a Floor four men will thrash abundance in a day I have heard that four men have thrashed thirty Coume in a day The seed is usually worth 16 s. a Coume that is four shillings a Bushel sometimes more and sometimes less It will if exceeding good bear ten Coume upon one
is white and simple It is a very choice seed to grow and thrive well it beareth a yellow Flower and requires very rich Land and very sound and warm so that very warm Earth either a little gravelly or else sandish will do exceeding well but the purer warmer solid Earth is best and exceeding rich Land and though it should be mixed with a little Clay it will do well but it must be very warm There is not much Land fit for this design in many Countries especially your hardest Wood-land parts you have in many of your great deep rich Pasture many Hills and Hills-sides good Woad-Land when the bottom-ground will do no service but your chiefest is your home Corse or lesser Ground lying near and bordering about the Towns Your best and naturallest Parts in England for Woad are some Parts of Worcester-shire Warwick-shire Southward Oxford-shire Glocester-shire Northampton-shire Leicester-shire some Parts of Rutland Redford-shire and Buckingham-shire and some other places here and there All these Parts have some admirable Woad-land in them The Land must be sound and at above twenty shillings an Acre to graze in at least or else it will not be worth the woading And to plow and sow Woad it may be worth as much more as to graze yea sometimes more if it be extraordinary rich Soil and Trading good And whereas some write that it undoeth the Land I answer as I judge in my own Breast that in regard it is so often cut and groweth so thick and is so often weeding that it must needs do so as I believe all Corn doth draw out some of the Spirit thereof but no more then other Grain if it could be so oft cut to grow again Thus much I can say of it that it prepares the Land exceedingly for Corn and doth abate of the strength and super-richness or rankness therof which Corn would not well endure for I am ready to maintain that the richest Land is not best for Corn For though the one may overburden and be so rank yet the other may bear as much to the Strike and for goodness your middle-land beareth the Bell away for Corn in my opinion To acquaint you with the use of Woad I must do these three things 1. Shew you how the Land must be prepared and sowed 2. Shew you how it must be ordered when that the leaf must be cut and how ordered after the cutting of it 3. And lastly how it must be tempered and seasoned to make the best Woad for use and profit But before I proceed I must inform you that this Commodity is not to be played withal as you may do with Liquorish and Saffron c. to make Experiments of a little parcel but a man must of necessity set forth and forward so much stock and land and seed as may keep one Mill or two at work to make it into perfect Woad It is the doing of a great quantity and carrying on a great stock that makes this work and will carry it on to profit and credit Some have as much under hand as will work six or eight Mills The charge of it is exceeding great in the management of it and as well it payeth for all charges as any Commodity I know of The Ground must be of old Land as aforesaid and a tender Turse and must be exceeding choicely plowed if very hilly they must be cast and well cast that you cast forth lye not high to raise the Furrow they usually plow outward or cast all their Lands at the first plowing and having broke the Ground with a Harrow then they sow it and sow about four Bushels or Strikes of an Acre which done then cover it and harrow it very well and fine and pick out the Clots Turfes and Stones and lay it on the hollow places of the Ridge in heaps as is the usual custom But now I should rather chuse to take a little Cart with one Horse and as the Boys and Children pick them up cast them into the Cart and carry them into some flank and hollow place and lay them down to rot or else mend some barren place because they lose a good considerable part of Land and so of Wood too which otherwise might be as good as the rest and is now by reason of the times not worth so much The Land that is lost is very considerable in regard it is so good of it self and the stock so good and rich that is sowed upon it that all even Ground had need be regained that possibly may be 2. I am to shew you how it is to be husbanded and when the Leaf must be cut and how used and how oft c. After the Land is sowed and that it begins to come up as soon as any Weed appears it must be weeded yea it may be twice weeded or more if it requires before it be ready to cut but if it be special good and come thick and cover the Ground well it will ask the less weeding to them that are exercised in this same Service and have their Work and Work-folks at command they will have it weeded for eight pence an Acre and sometimes less as soon as the Leaf is come to its full growth which will be sometimes sooner sometimes later as the year is dryer or moister more fruitful or less which when you perceive at the full ripeness set to cutting of it off As soon as ever it is cut your Mills being prepared and great broad Fleaks so many as may receive the Crop prepared and planted upon Galleries or Stories made with Poles Fir Alder or other Wood your Mill is usually known a large Wheel both in height and bredth and weight doth best it is a double Wheel and the Tooth or Ribs that cut the Wood are placed from one side of the Wheel to the other very thick wrought sharp and keen at the edge and as soon as the Woad is cut and comes out of the field it is to be put into the Mill and ground one Kilne full after another as fast as may be the juyce of the Leaf must be preserved in it and not lost by any means and when it is ground it is to be made in balls round about the bigness of a Ball without any composition at all and then presently laid one by one upon the Fleaks to dry and as soon as dried which will be sooner or later as the season is they are to be taken down and laid together â—and more put in their places But because all the circumstances will be too tedious to discourse and the work is no common work and very many not well versed therein I will rather advise you to get a Workman from the Woad-works which can carry it on artifically rather then to venture the experimenting of so great Work upon Words and Rules Good Woad may yield in a plentiful year five or possibly six Crops yea ordinarily four and yet sometimes but three but the
Winter Crop is of good worth excellent for Sheep conceived good against the Rot and also it will maintain them well and it will contain them in good heart and strengthen them till sowing time again The time of sowing is in the beginning and end of March. And thus when you have cut all your Crops one after another till Autumn the declining season will not ripen it again and your Mill is at leisure then you must proceed to the third Particular which is to the ordering and seasoning of it and working it up to use which must be done in the manner following You must set your Mills to work again to grind it all over and then season it up and so you may make it stronger or weaker as you shall see occasion There is so much difference betwixt Woad and Woad that the Dyers though so experimental will hardly buy you any parcel till they have experimented it in colouring and therefore for me to prescribe a Rule upon such uncertainties I hold it not safe the Woad-man that uses to make up three or four sorts of Woad will make it up as he intends to friend a Customer The first years tryal will put you into sufficient Experience As the Woad yields many Crops so each Crop is worse then the other the first Crop is best the second next the third much worse the fourth far worse then that and the fifth worst of all if you get a fifth but that is not usual four Crops is sufficient and sometimes you must be content with three and as the first Crop is usually in a good year ripe by the midst of June so will the second be usually ripe in one month after that and so every month or thereabouts each Crop will be ready and if the latter end of the year prove kind then you must expect a Crop the more Now to know when the Woad is ripe and to take it in the very season is a fundamental piece which is when the Leaf is come to a full growth and retains its perfect colour and lively greenness then with all your might set so many hands to cutting of it as that it do not fade or wax pale or wan before you have cut your Crop for then it will begin to be over-ripe and the less sap and marrow of it drinks in again and will not yield store of juyce which is the spirit of it and best of the Woad The Woad-man seasons the two first Crops together and some season the third by it self and the fourth by it self some put the three first Crops together which makes the worser Woad but the very Virgin-Woad is the first and second and the better they desire to make it the more intire they compound it not confounding it with divers sorts The manner of seasoning is thus after every Crop is cut grinded balled and dryed as dry as possibly it can be and laid up in the Ball every Crop by it self then you must take the first and second Crops and grind them all over again together or apart as you please but they must be then wrought as dust as it were in the Mill and ground very well the first and second Crop or so much as you will make of your best sort of Woad and so laid upon the floor in a heat or Couch and then you must mix it with water and turn it over and mix it again and turn it over and give it so much water as that it will be soakt throughly however you may over-soak and drown it and that will be very prejudicial to it It must be turned in the Couch once for three or four weeks together and then every other day once for about a fortnight and then twice a week till it comes to a right colour At the first many men must be imployed carrying water as hard as they can till it be wet and well soaked and that you may know the better how to temper it aright you shall find it heat exceedingly in the Couch which you must look to keep in a moderate condition which over-heating you may prevent with turning that it over-heat not by any means it may grow so hot as you can possibly abide your hand in it but not to exceed that heat and how to know its seasons kindly and so will in time come to perfect rich Woad you must observe that it will alter and change divers times first it will hoar mould and frost and smell exceeding strong and then it will in a little time abate thereof and grow towards a black colour and then it will hoar and mould again and change a little whitish and after this second change it will come to a perfect black which the brighter and clearer colour the better This must be the Winters work and it will be good for cold weather and when it is thus wrought and comes to its colour then you may lay it up or heap it up to lye for a Sale putting divers Poles into each heap to the bottom to open and keep it cool and you must be sure it take not heat again and thus all your sorts of Woad must be seasoned one after another and especially all such that you can dry that Summer but to tell you how to chuse the best Woad is scarce in the power of the Woad-man who can but guess at it from that Experience he hath in the mixing of it but it must be tryed by the Dyers who as we said usually do so before they buy it I shall end with the advantages thereof which are very great And first it is National in that it sets many poor on work It is the staple and chief of the Dyers Trade layeth a foundation for all enduring and holding Colours and much advantages Land in the Rent it doubles or more and in the usage of it upon this Husbandry trebleth or quadrupleth it and many times more And then secondly it is personally advantagious the best Estates that have been got in all our rich upland Countries have been got by it at some seasons and when they have a right Crop and good Markets it will amount to as much more it hath been sold from 20 to 30 l. the best Woad and back again down to 6 l. a Tun. The Nature Vse and Advantage of Madder ANd so I descend to my third Dyers Commodity in relation to Dying or Colouring and that is to the story of Madder that colours the rich and best solid red It is now very rarely planted in Gardens and in some small Plots of Ground and it amounts to the very great advantage of the Planters that set and sell forth by the Roots they draw to vent to the Apothecaries and medicinably to others they make a most exceeding value of the Lands beyond all credence some have made as I have been informed after the Rate of three hundred pounds an Acre in three years for so long as it grows before it come unto
perfection and others that have sold it by whole Sale a parcel together at the worst advantage to a hundred and sixty pounds an Acre and some have out of small Plots of Gardens made more then I have or will here affirm and however this being a fundamental Fruit and such a one as that the plenty thereof will not much abate the Market or dying Trade being supplyed herewith from beyond the Seas that the Erection of such a Plantation as may bring it forth wrought up and fitted to the Dyers use and so to be a supply to our selves within our selves It would be a good design to the Nation as it imploys so many hands to bring it to perfection It turns Land to as great an advantage as any Seed or Root that is capable to receive it and needs no more fear want of Markets for the venting of it than we need for Wool that Staple-Commodity of the Nation I shall proceed to the Description of it There is but one kind of Madder which is manured and set for use but there are many things like thereto as Goose-grass soft Cliver Ladies-Bedshaw Woodroof and Crosswort all which are like to Madder-leaves and are thought to be wild kinds thereof It hath long stalks or trailing branches dispersed upon the ground rough and full of joynts and every joynt set with green and rough Leaves in manner of a Star the flowers grow at the top of the branches of a faint yellow colour after which comes the seed round and green the Root creepeth far abroad within the upper Crust of the Earth intangling one Root into another and when it is green and fresh the Root is of a reddish colour it is small and tender but gathers and runs into the ground just like an Ivy along a House or Tree It is a Commodity of much value Patentees strove hard for it and Patents were gained about it in the late Kings days For the making out of a good Plantation I must observe these three things 1. Shew you what it comes of how to plant it and preserve it 2. How to get it and use it to bring it to saleable Madder 3. The benefit and advantage of it will be National and Personal Although it bear a seed yet that seed comes not to perfection it is therefore to be planted from the Sets that are to be got from the Madder it self and they are to be bought in many Gardens in London who keep up that Plantation for the advantage of selling their Sets and Roots Physically to the Apothecaries only all the skill is to distinguish of the goodness thereof And for the discovery thereof first know the season of getting or rather drawing them which is in March and April yea as soon as they are sprung forth of the ground two or three inches long then you must be careful to get Sets rooted every Set having some suckers or spinies of Root going out of them they must be slipped from the main Root and these Sets as soon as ever took up put into some Basket with a little Mould and posted to the place where they are to be set the sooner the better and then your Ground being very rich it cannot be too rich for this Commodity however it must be of a warm and a very deep Soil and digged two or three Spades graft depth and two shovellings also raked and laid even and level and then by straight Lines trod out into long Beds about one foot broad from one end of your Work unto the other and set about one foot asunder every way and if it be a dry Spring they must be kept with watering until they recover their fading wane condition You may begin to dig your Ground in the beginning and along all Winter till the very day of setting and then you must keep it with weed and hoing until it have got the mastership of the Weeds and then it being a Weed it self will destroy all others One Rod of Ground is worth seven pence a Rod digging or if very dry strong Ground eight pence but six pence the best You may sow some early Sallet-herbs as Radish or Onions of such things as will be ripe betimes among it The first year good weeding is the best preservative unto it and in your setting them by a little Line one goeth before and layeth every Set in his place and another comes and with a broad Dibble made for the purpose thrusts down a deep and open hole and puts in the Set and for the nourishing of it in case any dye you must plant new in the room of it for the time of the growing of it until that it come to perfection is three years The first year you may take off some few Sets here and there but that is somewhat dangerous for that year it must be kept with hoing a while also then the second year you may take up Sets as fast as you will and almost as many as you will leaving but as you do in the cropping of an Oak the bough for the drawing up of the sap out of the Root being so thick and strong in the ground that nothing will almost decay it If then you can get it for the use of the Drugsters and the Apothecaries and the Sets to plant again in the taking up of every Root there will be one runner which hath little buds on it which may be divided and cut into a fingers length each planted with one bud out of the ground set upright which makes very excellent good Sets one Runner will make many Sets but these Sets cannot be got up until the Madder be taken away And having thus preserved it until it come to a good Crop having curiously dryed it as you do your Hops to a just and perfect gage of drought There is a Mystery that is so pare off the husks that it may if it be possible as the Wheat is ground be flaked or flayed that it may go all one way which sort they call the Mull-Madder is little worth not above nine or ten shillings a hundred and then you must take out the second sort called the number O which is the middle Rind and is not worth so much as the third sort called the Crop-Madder by one sixth part and this Crop-Madder is the very heart and pith of it inclining to yellow this is lesser in quantity but little better in quality by far Sometimes the best Madder is worth 8 or 9 l. a hundred and the number O is worth 6 l. 6 s. 8 d. sometimes it is not worth above 4 or 5 l. a hundred Some Dyers use of this Commodity above an hundred pound a week a man Now as it is planted in Gardens unspeakable advantages are made thereby and should it hold a proportion when it comes to be made up and compleated to the Dyers it would prove the richest Commodity that I know sowed in England THE YOUNG GENTLEMANS Heroick Exercise OR THE Perfection of