yet more are to be taken in there and in other places Rumsey-marsh in Kent consisting of 45000 Acres and upwards as Cambden relateth is of some antiquity where the Land is usually set 30 s. per Acre and yet 1 d. per week constantly is payd through the whole levil for the maintenance of the wall and now and then two-pence whereas ordinary salts are accounted deare at five shillings or six shillings per Acre so that the improvement is very considerable the same I may say of Fens especially that great Fen of Lincolnshire Cambridg Huntingdon consisting as I am informed of 380000 Acres which is now almost recovered and a friend of mine told me very lately that he had profered a Mark per Acre for 900 Acres together to sowe Rape on which formerly was scarcely valued at twelve pence per Acre very great therefore is the improvement by draining of lands and our negligence very great that they have been wast so long and as yet so continue in divers places for the improving of a Kingdom is better than the conquering of a new one 2. I see likewise no small faults in this land by having so many Chases and Forrests where Bramblâ—s Brakes Furzes doe grow when as these trumperies might be cut up and pot-ashes made of them and the ground imployed profitably for Corn or Pasture I know a Forrest by Brill in Buckinghamshire taken in and the land is usually let being now well enclosed for 4 or 5 Nobles per Acre In Lancashire also as about Lerpoole and elsewhere I have seen Commons little worth advanced to a great price by Marling c. 3. Sort of waste-waste-land is dry heaâ—hy Commons I know that poor people will cry out against me because I call these waste-lands but it 's no matter I desire Ingenious Gentlemen seriously to consider whether or no these lands might not be improved very much by the Husbandry of Flaunders viz. by sowing Flax Turneps great Clover-grass if that Manure be made by folding Sheep after the Flaunders way to keep it in heart 2. Whether the Rottennesse and Scabbinesse of Sheep Murrein of Cattel Diseases of Horses and in general all diseases of Cattel doe not especially proceed from Commons 3. If the rich men who are able to keep great stocks are not great Gainers by them 4. Whether Commons do not rather make poor by causing idlenesse than maintain them and such poor who are trained up rather for the Gallows or beggery then for the Common-wealths service 5. How it cometh to pass that there are fewest poor where there fewest Commons as in Kent where there is scarce six Commons in the County of a considerable greatnesse 6. How many do they see enriched by the Commons and if their Cattel be not usualy swept away by the Rot or starved in some hard Winters 7. If that poor men might not imploy two Acres enclosed to more advantage then twice as much in a Common And Lastly If that all Commons were enclosed and part given to the Inhabitants and part rented out for a stock to set all the poor on work in every County I determine nothing in this kind but leave the determination for wiser heads 4. Parks Although I cannot but reckon Parks amongst Lands which are not improved to the full but perceive considerable waste by them by brakâ—s bushes brambles c. growing in divers places and therefore wish there were fewer in this Island yet I am not so great an enemy to them as most are for there are very great Uses of them As 1. For the bringing up of young Cattel 2. For the maintaining of Timber so that if any have occasion to use a good piece of Timber either for a Mil-port or a Keel of a Ship or other specil uses whither can they go but to a Park 3. The Skins of the Deer are very usefull and their flâ—sh excellent Foâ—d Not to speak of the Medicinal Vses nor of Acorns for Hogs c. But some will object that the Plough never goeth there To the which I answer It 's no matter For I cannot but say as Fortescue Chancellor to Henry 6. doth That God hath given us such a fruitful land that without labour we have plenty whereas France must dig and delve for what they have And I suppose that I could maintaine two things which are thought great Paradoxes viz. that it were no losse to this Island if that we should not plough at all if so be that we could certainly have Corn at a reasonable rate and likewise vent for all our Manufactures of Wool 1. Because that the Commodities from Cattel are far more stable then Corn for Cloths Stuffs Stockins Butter Cheese Hides Leather Skins Wool Tallow are certaine even every where Corne scarcely in any place constantly in none 2. Pasture imployeth more hands which is the second Paradox and therefore Pasture doth not depopulate as it is commonly said for Normandy and Picardy in France where there are Pastures in a good measure are as populous as any part of France and I am certaine that Holland Friezeland Zealand Flaunders and Lombardy which rely altogether on Pastures are the most populous places in Europe But some will object and say that a shepherd and a dog formerly hath destroyed divers Villages To this I answer that we well know what a shepherd and a dog can do viz look to two or three hundred sheep at the most and that two or three hundred Acres will maintain them or the land is extreamly barren and that these two or three hundred Acres being barren will scarcely maintain a Plough which is but one man and two boyes with the horses and that the mowing reaping and threshing of this Corne and other Work about will scarcely maintaine three more with work through the whole year But how many people may be imployed by the Wool of two or three hundred Sheep in Picking Sorting Carding Spinning Weaving Dying Fulling Knitting I leave to others to calculate And further if the Pastures be rich Meadows and go on daiâ—ing I suppose all know that an hundred Acres of such land imployeth more hands then 100 Acres of the best corr-Corr-Land in England and produceth likewise better exportable Commodities And further if I should grant that formerly the shepherd and his dog did depopulate that I may not condemn the wisdom of former Ages yet I will deny that it doth so now for formerly we were so unwise as to send over our Wool to Antwerp and other places where they were Manufactured by which means one pound oft brought ten unwrought to them but we set now our own poor to work and so save the depopulation Yet I say it 's convenient to encourage the Plough because that we cannot have a certainty of Corn and carriage is dear both by sea and land especially into the Inland-Countreys and our Commodities by Wool do cloy the Merchants 5. Rushy-lands Blith telleth us good Remedies for these Inconveniences viz.
and Improvements imparted by Gabriel Plats to Mr. Hartlib FOur hundred graines of chosen Wheat doe weigh three quarters of an ounce which is three ounces for a perch and so a hundred and sixty perches must have four hundred and eighty ounces which is in weight thirty pound and in measure half a bushel and two pints If this half bushel being set upon an Acre shall enrease but an hundred for one which is the least encrease of set Corn that ever was known then there will be about 11 quarters upon that Acre And that several sorts of Wheat doe differ at least 11. pound in a bushel in weight and also in the number of grains so that it is impossible to make this accompt absolutely and exactly perfect But yet it appeareth clear that there is above forescore pounds in the two hundred pounds saved in the seed Corn in setting more than by sowing the common way and also that there is above forescore pounds in the hundred pound saved in workmens wages by this new device of setting and also it shall appear that there is above forescore pounds in the hundred pound saved in the Compost by dispersing it by my new Invention in such manner that it shall all lye within the attractive virtue of the seed Corn. Also it shall appear that the Corn upon every Acre being set by my direction shall yeeld a full third part increase more than if it were sown the common way which said third part shall bear all the charges whatsoever both rent and other expences so that by this new way of Husbandry there will be as much Corn gained clear upon every Acre of ground in England as formerly the said land did yeeld one year with another The seed wheat for the setting of an acre is worth half a crown at five shillings a bushel the workmens wages for seting is six shillings the compost costeth little more than the ordinary charges of spreading the dung by the ordinary way of ploughing c. Also it appeareth clear that the gains of one Acre will do a great deal more than to pay for the several Engins which notwithstanding being well trimmed will endure and be serviceable for the space of an hundred years And if any man doubt of it let him cast up the charges of my work more punctually and also the charges of the common way and he shall finde that there is more cleare gains by my way by ten Acres then by thirty done the common way in which accompt I will not be my own carver but will refer my self to the accompt in a little book which I met withall lately though it was printed Anno Dom. 1601. when setting of Wheat was in great practise but afterwards when the price of Wheat grew cheap and Labourers wages grew dear the practise ceased for want of an expeditious way A comparison between Ploughing and Sowing of three Acrees of Land after the old fashion and Ploughing and Setting of one Acre after the manner declared in the book printed Anno Dom. 1601. by Mr. Maxey Gentleman a great practizer in those daies in the art of setting of Corn. And first for the charge The Rent of three Acrees in most places is worth some five shillings an acre the land according to the use of the Common fields doth lye fumer fallow the first year and beareth Corn the other so the Farmer payeth the yeares rent before he hath his crop which rent cometh to thirty shillings The ploughing of these if it be well done and as most grounds require every Acre four times which is twelve plowings at two shillings every time cometh to four and twenty shillings the dunging of these three acres with some twelve or fourteen loads upon every Acre and is for three acres some forty loads at six pence a load spread upon the land amounteth to twenty shillings The seed that will sow it is usually two bushels and an half of Wheat or Rye for every acre which is a eleven bushels and an half at four shillings the bushel cometh to thirty shillings The Weeding and Reaping and other charges in two years though uncertain yet for example ten shillings thus two yeares rent and charges cometh to five pound fourteen shillings The usual encrease in the common fields barren lands have so little help with dung is but two quarters upon an acre but allow twenty bushels to stop a wranglers mouth which is for three acres seven quarters and a half rated at four shillings a bushel thirty two shillings the quarter cometh to twelve pound out of which if you take the charge aforesaid there remaineth to the Farmer for his stock six pound six shillings and so for every one of those acres allowing so good encrease and so good a price the profit two and forty shillings And you shall understand that notwithstanding their accompts and mine own of seven or eight quarters upon an Acre and also of Sir Hugh Plats accompt of fifteen twenty five and twenty or thirty quarters upon an acre yet all these accompts may be true for you may learn by my book so to fertilize your land that it may bring thirty quarters upon an acre in such years when the Months of May June and July prove exceeding hot and dry which I would advise no man to trust to in regard that these three Moneths scarce prove so once in a eleven years in these Insulary Countries which are subject greatly to the change of weather and if these Months prove moyst and rainy then all ground that is so mightily enriched will be spoyled with rankness and therefore the safest way is to order your Compost so that an Acre may bear 11. quarters one year with another And though I have known that an Acre of Barley hath â—orr by accident thirty quarters and that the same thirty quarters were worth the same year threescore pounds yet the adventure was so dangerous that I would advise no man to attempt the like And thus a friend of mine proceeded viz. he ploughed up at Michaelmass twenty Acres of very fertile and rank green sword ground and afterward cross ploughed it and harrowed it three or four times to kill the grass and also to mingle the fat earth with the lean then he sowed it about the begining of March with Barley before the vehement drought came had cover'd the ground so full that it was as if it were even turfed with the Corn so that afterwards the violent heat and drought which spoyled the thin and barren Corn in the Common fields did cause this Corn to have but a short straw yet the rich earth put forth a large ear and very exceeding thick and also the corn was plump and round which had the weather happened to be moyst and rainy then there would have been almost nothing but straw but so it came to pass that he had thirty quarters upon every Acre which was upon the twenty Acres six hundred quarters and by reason
inches depth and six inches distance and it yeelded more than twice as much as other Corn of the same kind being not steeped at all in any thing and being set at the same depth and distance and in the same ground on purpose to see the difference The fifth Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how the difference of the nature of land may be found out thereby to fit it with an apt Compost It is found by experience that where vegetables dumb as Ferne Whinnes Broom and the like have long grown and dyed upon the ground and have continued in this course of husbandry or rather ill husbandry for many years there the earth doth abound with the vegetable salt or juice for the cure whereof it is likewise found by experience that Lime Bay-salt and Ashes and Pidgeons dung and such like things of hot and binding nature doe poyson it and decrease the fertility It is likewise found by experience that in such grounds which have been long occupied in good Husbandry there dung is the best Compost in the world the cause is for that by long continuance in such husbandry the nature of the land is quite changed by the yearly carving of the Corn Hay or other crops whereby the vegetable salt or juice is diminished and contrariwise the hot and binding nature doth predominate which require for cure salt-peter dung blood and such things wherein the vegetable salt or juice predominateth The middle of these natures of ground require Sheeps dung as of all other most temperate being neither so hot and dry as Lime Bay-salt Ashes or Pidgeons dung nor so cold and moyst as the dung of beasts in the room whereof Lime putrified with dung or more earth as aforesaid may supply the want thereof very exceedingly The use of these Observations and Experiences may teach us that all books heretofore written for this purpose are frivolous for they prescribe such a Compost for such an earth of such a colour or of such a mixture as sand clay hasel earth white clay red clay white sand red sand black sand c. whereas it is found by good experience that where Lime was the most excellent Compost in the world about a hundred yeares agoe there about fifty yeares agoe they were forced to change their Compost and to lay upon the same ground half Lime and half Dung and now the same ground requires the Dung onely or else it will yeeld no Corn for Lime poysoneth it yet is not the colour or quality of the same ground in outward visibility to the eyes corporal but by the intellectual eyes beholden of all men of good understanding Therefore that all men may obtain their desire in this worke my counsel is that the more skilful men if they take in hand to improve twenty Acres or more or lesse of such land which they have not formerly tryed fully that they goe the best known way with nineteen Acres the first year or two and make divers several tryals in the odde Acres till they have hit the mark punctually And as for the more unskilfull my counsel is that they doe make divers several trials in the odde Acre the first year and let the other be used as aforetime till by experience they have learned to improve all the best way By this meanes many notable Improvements may be found out of inestimable benefit both to the Farmer Parson and Landlord and also to the whole Common-wealth plenty without any sensible or considerable losse to the undertaker And for the better instruction then is contained in any book formerly printed or written of this subject for the Adaptation of Compost let this suffice for brevitie viz. where the earth is subject in the heat of summer to chap much if it be clay or to burn much if it be sand there if you apply Lime Salt Ashes or Pidgeons dung or any thing of like hot and dry nature there you poyson it Also where the earth is not apt to chap or burn in the heat of summer there it you apply any other thing except Lime Salt Ashes or Pidgeon dung or other things of hot and dry nature there you poyson that also for as it is a foolish thing for a Cook to put more salt into the pot when the pottage were too salt before so is it as fond a trick in Husbandry to adde a Compost to land wherein that quality predominateth which doth also predominate in the land for Corn and Seeds are as nice in their diet and nutriment as any Lady in the world and will not prosper nor draw the nourishment if it be never so little distastful and this is the cause why so many times so little a quantity of Compost doth work such wonderful effects by the exquisite adaptation to the land or seed Men might easily find out an apt Compost for such land as hath been Devonshired and hath spent its fertility which it will do in three years and then it is reputed nothing worth I assure my self that Lime and combustible earth putrified together will doe the feat yea and that with a small quantity if it be dispersed by my Invention The sixth Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how Farm-houses Mannors or Towns may be builded upon high grounds and plentifully furnished with water It is found by experience that in some places Townes are builded upon high grounds where Springs or Wels are easily had and there a thousand Acres of land near to the Town are made worth a thousand pounds in the year and that a mile off a thousand Acres of the same land for want of Improvement are not worth above a thousand shillings so that there is lost to the Owners and to the Common-wealth nine hundred and fifty pounds yearly For the prevention of which loss let every Farmer have a Court paved like a Tennis-court and let the Barns Stables and other Edifices be so builded that all the Rain-water that they yeeld may run into the said Court and from thence into a vault or well out of which it may be pumped up or run into your kitchins or other houses of Office which rain water will keep sweet in the close vault and will serve for all uses whatsoever This is commonly practised in Spain where they have no other water throughout the whole year for all uses and their Gentlemen do chuse to build upon high grounds for the benefit of the goodness of the air which is more wholsome in all Countries in the Mountains than in the Vallies Also in Venice and Amsterdam and in other places where other waters are usually brackish they keep rain water in Sellars for all uses Also it is found by experience in Rumney Marshes that they use to gather rain water from Churches and other Edifices and never have so good and wholsom drink as when they brew with such water And where Tarris is wanting there you may make use of good clay which is of the nature of
from all goodnesse As for the troublesomnesse of the times I can but put you in mind of that part of the Proposition that assures this to be one of the most safe and likely waies to save a mans estate where if it be not fully enough explained I refer you to your own better judgement to find and propound what you think best And now whosoever raised these Objections did well if he did it for the right end viz. to illustrate the Proposition that so it might be made more clear and acceptable But it s too common to object as an enemy not to demonstrate but destroy designes in themselves not evill at least well intended A new Husbandry or Improvement of Rape-seed IN the way of a Merchant I doe not certainly know but can guesse how to dispose of great quantities of Rape-seed but for Hemp seed I confesse I am ignorant how to vent any such great quantities but if I may be shewed a way to vent either particularly the last I may possibly propound a way to produce a much greater encerease than is usually had of either as namely whereas it is now the usual custome to sow Rape-seed in low lands and Fenny Moorish Countries where it is lyable to the breakings in of the Sea or overflow of Land-floods I can as well and with as much hope of a plentifull return and encrease sow it in any good upland not lyable to such casualties and for the profit more certain which at present is in the aforesaid Lowlands when it scapes those floods valued at five pound per Acre I say I can propound a way how each Acre of such rich Upland shall yeeld at least a Last or ten Quarters or eighty Bushels which at but three shillings a Bushel the cheapest rate is twelve pound sterling and for extraordinary charge I will deduct forty shillings more than the common way requires per Acre so that one Acre shall be as good as two now and fixt that is the profit much more certain And for Hemp I say that whereas an Acre of good Hemp may now be sold standing for about six pound and the very best under ten seed and all I can propound a way by taking of which each Acre shall be worth all charges defray'd at least six pound thirteen shillings four pence for the tew onely and at least six pâ—â—nd thirteen shillings and four pence more for the seed and both these productions are made by the careful and skilfull replanting of the hearbs and choice and manage of the grounds A Passage taken out of a tract against the high rate of Usury presented to the high Court of Parliament Anno Domini 1623. In which the Use for Money was brought down from ten to eight in the Hundred And now humbly recommended to a further Publique Consideration as a special Means for Advancement of the National Husbandry of this Commonwealth IT hath been the wisdom and care of former Parliament to provide for the preservation of Wood and Timber for which there is nothing more available than the calling down of the high rate of Usury for as the rate of Money now goeth no man can let his Timber stand nor his Wood grow to such years growth as is best for the Commonwealth but it will be very losse-full to him The stock of the Woods after they are worth forty or fifty the shillings the Acre growing faster at ten in the hundred than the Woods themselves doe And for Shipping which is the strength and safety of this land I have heard divers Merchants of good credit say that if they would build a Ship and let it to any other to employ they cannot make of their Mony that way counting all charges tear and wear above ten or twelve in the hundred which can be no gainful Trade without hazard Money it self going at ten in the hundred But in the Low-Countries where Mony goeth at six the building of Ships and hiring them to others is a gainfull Trade and so the stock of Rich men and the industry of beginners are well joyned for the publike And yet that which is above all the rest the greatest sin against the Land is that it makes the Land it self of small value nearer the rate of new found Lands than of any other Countrey where Laws Government and Peace have so long flourished For the high rate of Usury makes Land sell so cheap and the cheap sale of Land is the cause why men seek no more by industry and cost to improve them and this is plain both by example and demonstration for we see in other Countries where the use of Money is of a low rate Lands are generally sold for 30 40 in some for 50 years purchase And we know by the rule of bargaining that if the rate of use were not greater here than in other Countries Lands were then as good a pennyworth at twenty years purchase as they are now at sixteen For Lands being the best assurance and securest inheritance will bear a rate above Money Now if Lands were at thirty yeares purchase or near it there were no so cheap purchase as the amendment of ouâ— own Lands for it would be much cheaper to make one Acre of Land now worth five shillings by the year to be worth ten shillings or being worth ten to be worth twenty shillings and so in proportion then to purchase another acre worth five or ten shillings And in every acre thus purchased to the owner by the amendment of his own there were another purchased to the Commonwealth And it is the blessing of God to this Land that there are few places of it to which he hath not given means by reasonable cost and industry greatly to amend it in many to double the value so as in time if for their own good mens industry were compelled that way the riches and commodities of this Land would neer be doubled Then would all the wet-lands in this Kingdome soon be drained the barren lands mended by Matle Sleech Lime Chalk Sea-sand and other means which for their profit mens industry would find out We see with how great industry and charge our neighbours the Dutch do drain and maintain their Lands against the Sea which floweth higher above them than it doth above the lowest parts of our drowned lands I will admit a great deal to their industry but I should very unwillingly grant that they are so much more ingenious and industrious than we as that all the odds were therein Certainly the main cause of it is that with us money is dear and land cheap with them lands dear and money cheap and consequently the improvement of their lands at so great a charge with them is gainfull to the owners which with us would be losse-full for Usuring going at ten in the hundred if a man borrow five pounds and bestow it on an Acre of ground the amendment stands him in ten shillings a year and being amended the
Land is not worth above fifteen years purchase But if the use of money went at no more than at other places then five pound bestowed upon an Acre of ground would stand a man in but five or six shillings a year and the acre of land so amended would be worth as hath been shewed six and twenty or thirty yeares purchase Whereby it appeareth that as the rate of Use now goeth no man but where the land lyeth extraordinarily happy for it can amend his Land but to his own losse whereas if money were let as it is in other Countries he might bestow more than double as much as now he may and yet be a great gainer thereby and consequently as was before remembred should to his own benefit purchase land to the Common-wealth Neither would such purchase of Land to the Common-wealth be the benefit to the landed men onely the benefit would be as much to the poor Labourers of the Land For now when Corn and other fruits of the land which grow by labour are cheap the Plough and Mattock are cast into the hedge there is little work for poor men and that at a low rate whereas if the mendment of their own lands were the cheapest purchase to the owner if there were many more people than there are they should be readily set a work at better rates than now they are and none that had their health and limbs could be poor but by their extreamest lazinesse A Bank of Lands or an Improvement of Lands never thought on in former Ages Begun to be presented upon most rationable and demonstrable grounds by Mr. William Potter a Gentleman of great deserts and of a most Publique Spirit which being more fully cleared in all its Particulars and established by publique Authority may become a standing and setled Meanes to enrich the whole Nation and also to remove Taxes and other publique Burdens THrough the long continuance of the Wars Trade hath been interrupted great losses sustained at sea the people constrained to live upon the main stock mens credits ruined many debts otherwise good lost both friends and enemies plundered or sequestred and Taxes c. unavoydably continued whereby the Nation is now in a very low condition There is a great necessity that this Epidemical disease of ruin in mens estates should be cured for hereby 1. The Rich that should support others are diminished in number and weakned in means and the Poor that should be upheld are increased both in number and necessities 2. If the removing of Burdens be necessary the removing of Poverty without which the rest are in effect no burdens is more necessary 3. The Trade Manufacture Shipping Strength Repute and flourishing estate of the Nation depends as the meanes upon the Riches thereof 4. The servility of a low condition deprives men of much leisure and freedom in attending higher things This burden may be removed by encouraging such employments and undertakings as tend to increase the estates of some without impoverishing others for whatsoever takes from one mans estate as much as it adds to another doth not inrich the Nation The capacity of inriching this Nation is in a sort infinite 1. By making it the Scale of Trade to other people which consists in buying the commodities of other Countries working them here and selling them again in forraign parts Whereby if England were a City upon a Rock and held no land of their own they might be maintained comfortably Witnesse Holland 2. By Plantations throughout the world which tends to lessen our charge and increase our means by the returnes of commodities out of the industry of those that otherwise must be maintained for nothing 3. By the Fishing-trade wherein the Sea affords a vast Treasure without demanding any rent for it all which three last particulars would yeeld a kind of infinite of increase if there were no want of stock to employ therein 4. By improving our present Possessions For 1. Almost all the Land in England might be made to yeeld much more encrease if men had money to imploy in manuring the same 2. Divers Husbandmen want wherewith to stock their ground whereby perhaps the Nation suffers more than many times by much unseasonable weather 3. A great part of Ireland lyes at present waste which without great stock to plant is like so to continue 4. There are great quantities of oazie grounds about the Sea-coast and other Fens and waste grounds besides Forrests and Commons which drained and improved might equalize in value some two or three Counties in England 5. There are many Mines in England Ireland and Scotland which being wrought would much increase our Exportation and imployment for poor men To set all these Wheels a going two things are necessary viz. that the people may know where to be furnished with stock at low interest and that a sufficient quantity of currant money be disperced amongst them And indeed the great Remora is that the people are generally voyd of stock whereby it is impossible they should deal either in the Forraign Trade Fishing Plantations or Improving their own possessions by reason whereof both poor and rich are deprived of imployment and forced to live chiefly upon the Principal to the greater increase of their poverty and ruin Whereas if they knew where to obtain such stock at low Interest it would both enable them to prosecute the aforesaid ends and also make way for the more speedy vent of commodities in other Nations for greatnesse of stock at low Interest would enable the English Merchants to deal for much and thereby to buy cheap work cheap and sel for lesse profit in the pound and also to procure their commodities at the best hand viz. at the places of their growth in their proper season whereby out-trading and underselling other Nations they obtain the pre-emption of sale and so cannot fail of vent abroad Also great stock at low Interest would enable Merchants to raise the price of our own native commodities in Forraign parts by keeping them for a good Market which helps much towards the enriching of a Nation Again if there were great quantity of money disperced amongst the people of this land there would not wantvent of commodities amongst themselves For in this case every man to improve his stock would be laying out that mony in commodities those that receive it would be laying it out again upon others and those upon others and so on which would beget a constant return or quick vent for commodities proportionable to the quantity of money so perpetually revolving amongst them Now if through plenty of mony amongst the people there were as much vent for commodity as the earth could by industry be made to afford men would not spare either the Sea or the Land but the one by the Fishing Trade the other by Husbandry and all ingenious wayes of Improvement here in England by planting in Ireland and other new Plantations throughout the whole Globe would bestow
Samuel Hartlib HIS LEGACY OF HUSBANDRY Wherein are bequeathed to the Common-wealth of ENGLAND not onely Braband and Flanders but also many more Outlandish and Domestick Experiments and Secrets of Gabriel Plats and others never heretofore divulged in reference to Universal Husbandry With a Table shewing the general Contents or Sections of the several Augmentations and enriching Enlargements in this Third Edition Psal 144. v. 13 14 15. That our Garners may be full affording all manner of store that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets That our Oxen may be strong to labour that there be no complaining in our streets Happy is that people that is in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord. London Printed by J. M. for Richard Wodnothe in Leaden-hall Street next to the Golden-Hart 1655. A Table shewing the General Contents or Sections of the Legacie of Husbandry AN Introduction to the Legacy of Husbandry extracted out of the Surveyors Dialogue A large Letter concerning the Defects and Remedies of English Husbandry page 1. The 1. deficiencie concerning Ploughs and Carriages pag. 4 5 6. The 2. deficiencie about digging of Land setting and howing in of Corn pag. 6 7 8. The 3. deficiencie concerning Gardening pag. 8 9 10. The 4. deficiencie in Smut and Mildew pag. 10 11 12 13 14. The 5. deficiencie concerning planting of Apples Pears Cherries and Plums pag. 14 15.16 17 18 19. The 6. deficiencie concerning not improving our Fruits pag. 19 20 21.22 The 7. deficiencie concerning Vines p. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29. The 8. deficiencie concerning Hemp and Flax p. 30.31 32 33. The 9. deficiencie concerning Dunging and Manuring lands p. 33 34 35 36 37 38. The 10. deficiency concerning the Non-improvement of our Meadows p. 39 40 41. The 11. deficiencie concerning Wast lands p. 41 42 43 44 45 46. The 12. deficiencie in Woods p. 46 47 48 49 50. The 13. deficiencie of Bees p. 50 51 52 53. The 14. deficiencie concerning Silk-worms p. 53 54 55 56 57 58. A Copy of King James Letter to the Lords Lieutenants of the several Shires of England for the increasing of Mulberry-trees and the breeding of Silk-worms for the making of Silk in England p. 59 60 61 62. Instructions for the increase and planting of Mulberry trees What ground is fit for the Mulberry-seeds how the same is to be ordered and in what sort the seeds are to be sowed therein p. 63 64. When the Plants that are sprung up of the seeds are to be removed and how they are to be planted the first time p. 64. When and how the Plants are to be removed the second time and in what manner they are to be planted where they shall remain p. 64 65. When and how the Eggs of the Silk-worms are to be hatched and how to order the Worms that shall come of them p. 65 66 67. When and how to make fit rooms for the Worms to work their bottoms of Silk in and in what sort the said bottoms are to be used p. 67 68. The 15. deficiencie of the ignorance of the Husbandry of other places p. 68 69 70 71 72. The 16. deficiencie of the ignorance of things taken from the earth and waters of this Island p. 72 73 74 75 76 77. The 17. deficiencie of the vegetables of this Island and their virtues and uses p. 77 78 79 80 81. The 18. deficiencie concrning Animals p. 82 83 84 85. The 19. deficiencie concerning divers things necessary for the good of Cattle p. 85 86 87 88 89. The 20. deficiencie of the want of divers things which are necessary for the accomplishment of Agriculture p. 89 90 91 92. The 21. deficiencie that because of our sins we have not the blessing of God upon our labours p. 92 93. The last deficiencie that we do not magazine or store up Corn when the Lord sendeth us plenty p. 93 94 95. Copies and Extracts of more Letters tending very much to the great improvement not only of Agriculture but true and real Learning and natural Philosophy p. 96 97 98. Queres sent into France about the seed called La Lucern with the Answers to them p. 98 99 100 101 102 103 104. A Copy of a Letter relating a proof or experiment of an strange English Husbandry p. 104 105. A conjectural Essay upon the foregoing Secret or Experiment of an English Husbandry p. 105 106 107. An Extract of a Letter from Amsterdam with another Experiment of a French Husbandry and the Answers to them p. 108 109. Another Letter from Paris discovering the secret of the forenamed French Husbandry p. 110. Another Extract of a Letter from the Low-countries upon the Parisian experiment of Husbandry p. 110 111. Another Letter expressing the reasons why the experimenter of the Barley-corn thinks it not fit or expedient to part with his secret as yet for a common use pag. 111 112 113. A secret practised with very good success in England concerning sowing of Wheat to prevent it from being smutty p. 113. Another secret practised in Germany for the enriching of Meadows p. 113. How to make Rushy ground to bear Grass p. 114. For planting or sowing Walnuts p. 114. Mr. Lanyon's description of the usual manner of planting and transplanting according to that of Flanders of those trees called Abeales imparted for publick Good p. 115 116. Another direction for the planting understand the second planting of the Abel-trees p. 116. New Observations concerning Abel-trees p. 117. Dr. Arnold Boats Annotations upon the Legacy of Husbandry from p. 118. to p. 132. An Answer to the Animadversor on the large Letter of Husbandry from pag. 132 to pag. 172. An Observation concerning a Fish-calender p. 172. The Profitable Mercurius or Mercurius Laetificans from pag. 173. to pag. 182. A Treatise of Gabriel Plats containing certain Notes Observations Experiences and Improvements of Husbandry with the judgement upon them of an experienced Husbandman who hath also brought the Invention of Setting of Corn to greater perfection A Comparison between Ploughing and Sowing of three Acres of Land after the old fashion and Ploughing and Setting of one Acre after the manner declared in the book printed Anno Dom. 1601. by Mr. Maxey Gentleman a great practizer in those daies in the Art of setting of Corn p. 185 186 187 188. Experiments and Improvements for inriching of land by Mr. Plats New Invention or Engine which disperceth the Compost in such manner that it falleth all within the reach of the attractive virtue of the Corn. The first Experiment or Improvement p. 188 189.190 The second Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth fit to fill up the holes when the Corn is set p. 190. The third Experiment or Improvement where is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth near to the Sea which may be carried many miles p. 191 192. The fourth
upon this Alphabet of Interrogatories and consider vvhat Ansvvers your Observations vvill afford unto them or vvhat you can learne from the Observations of others to clear them and as you have opportunity do as my Friend from Paris hath done furnish me vvith vvhat Gods providence shall send unto your hands that as I have begun I may put it out to use and requite you more plentifully as I hope I shall be able to do vvith the increase vvhich it shall yield by this vvay of Trading vvhich I have taken up freely to bestovv my paines and cost upon others that all may see the goodness of God in the vvorks of his hands and have cause to be thankfull unto him for the same and that so many eminent talents vvhich God hath put into your hands may not seeing he hath given you a heart to use them lye idle for vvant of Objects and sit Commodities vvherevvithall to be trading vvith him vvho subscribes himself alvvays SIR Your very much obliged and assured friend to serve you Samuel Hartlib A large Letter concerning the Defects and Remedies of English Husbandry written to Mr. Samuel Hartlib SIR ACcording to your desires I have sent you what I have observed in France about the sowing of a Seed called commonly Saint Foine which in English is as much to say as Holy-Hay by reason as I suppose of the excellency of it It 's called by Parkinson in his Herball where you may see a perfect description of it Cnobrychis Vulgaris or Cocks head because of its flower or Medick Fetchling By some it is called Polygala because it causeth cattel to give abundance of milk The plant most like unto it and commonly known being frequently sown in Gardens is that which is called French Honey-suckle and is a kind of it though not the same France although it be supposed to want the fewest things of any Province in Europe yet it hath no small want of Hay especially about Paris which hath necessitated them to sowe their dry and barren lands with this seed Their manner of sowing it is done most commonly thus When they intend to let their Corn-lands lye because they be out of heart and not scituate in a place convenient for manuring then they sowe that land with Oats and these Seeds together about equal parts the first year they onely mowe off their Oats leaving the Saint Foine to take root and strength that year Yet they may if they please when the year is seasonable mowe it the same year it is sown but it 's not the best way to do so the year following they mowe it and so do seven years together the ordinary burthen is about a load or a load and a half in good years upon an Arpent which is 100 square Poles or Rods every Pole or Rod being 20 foot wuich quantity of ground being nigh a 4th part less then an English Acre within a league of Paris is usually Rented at 6 or 7 s. After the land hath rested 7 years then they usually break it up and sowe it with corn till it be out of heart and then sowe it with Saint Foine as formerly for it doth not impoverish land as Annual Plants do but after seven years the roots of this plant being great and sweet as the roots of locorish do rot being turned up by the Plough and enrich the land I have seen it sown in divers places here in England especially in Cobham-Park in Kent about 4 miles from Gravesend where it hath thriven extraordinary well upon dry Chalky Banks where nothing else would grow and indeed such dry barren land is most proper for it as moist rich land for the great Trefoile or great Clover-Grass although it will grow indifferently well on all lands and when the other Grasses and Plants are destroyed by the parching heat of the Sun because their roots are small and shallow this flourisheth very much having a very great root and deep in the ground and therefore not easily to be exsiccated As we have observed Ononis or Rest-Harrow commonly to do on dry lands but if you sowe this on wet land the water soon corrupts the root of it This Plant without question would much improve many of our barren lands so that they might be mowen every year once at least seven years together and yield excellent fodder for cattel if so be that it be rightly managed otherwise it cometh to nothing as I have seen by experience I therefore councel those who sowe this or the great Trefoile or Clover-Grass or any other sort of grasses that they observe these Rules 1. That they do make their ground fine and kill all sorts of other grasses and plants otherwise they being Native English will by no means give way to the French ones especially in this moist climate and therefore they are to be blamed who with one ploughing sowe this or other seeds for the grass presently groweth up and choaketh them and so their negligence and ill Husbandry discourageth themselves and others 2. Let them not be too sparing of their seeds for the more they sowe the closer and thicker they will grow and presently fully stock the ground that nothing else can grow And further the seeds which come from beyond the Seas are oftentimes old and much decayed and therefore the more seed is required 3. Not to expect above 7 years profit by it for in that time it will decay and the naturall grass will prevail over it for every plant hath its period some in one year some in 2. As Would Cole Rape Wade c. Others in 3. as the common Thistle c. and therefore after 7 years let them either plough the Land up and sowe it with that same seed again or with other Grain as they do in France 4. Let not sheep or other cattel bite them the first year that they may be well rooted for these grasses are far sweeter then the ordinary grasses and cattel will eat them down leaving the other and consequently discourage their growth 5. The best way if men will be at the charge is to make their ground very fine as they do when they are to sowe Barley and harrow it even and then to howe these seeds in alone without any other grain as the Gardiners do Pease yet not at so great a distance but let them make the ranges about a foots breadth one from another and they shall see their grasses flourish as if they were green Pease especially if they draw the howe through them once or twice that summer to destroy all the weeds and grasses And if they do thus the great Clover and other seeds may be mowen even twice the first year as I have experimented in divers small plots of ground There is at Paris likewise another sort of fodder which they call La Lucern which is not inferior but rather preferred before this Saint Foine for dry barren grounds which hath bin lately brought thither and is managed as
be mellow not much more chargeable 3. That it would imploy many thousand of people that a third part of the seed might be saved As I have found by experience that all the weeds and grasses might be more easily destroyed thereby and the ground better accommodated for other crops and to conclude the crop considerably greater Yet thus much I must further say concerning setting of Grain That great Beans are even of necessity to be set and that small Beans in Surrey and other places are likewise set with profit for the reasons above mentioned that to set Pease unless Hastevers and Roncivals Oats Barley is a thing even ridiculous that Wheat although in divers grounds it may be set with profit yet to how it in as the Hardiners speak as they do Pease though not at the same distance but about a foot the ranges one from another is better then setting for these Reasons 1. Because to set Corn is an infinite trouble and charge and if it be not very exactly done which children neither can nor will do and these must be the chief setters will be very prejudicious 2. If worms frost ill weather or fowls destroy any part of your seed which they will do your crop is much impared 3. The ground cannot be so well weeded and the mould raised about the roots by the how Which 3 inconveniences are remedied by the other way Further I dare affirm that after the ground is digged or ploughed and harrowed even it 's better to howe Wheat in then to sowe it after the common way because that the weeds may be easily destroyed by running the howe through it in the Spring and the mould raised about the roots of the Corn as the Gardiners do with Pease it would save much Corn in dear years and for other Reasons before mentioned Yea it is not more chargeable for a Gardiner will howe in an Acre for 5 s. and after in the Spring for less money run it over with a howe and cut up all the weeds and raise the mould which charges are not great and you shall save above a bushel of seed which in dear years is more worth then all your charges Further 1 s. 6 d. or 2 s. an Acre for the sowing and harrowing of an Acre in Kent is accounted a reasonable price and may be saved but if any fear charges let him use a Dril-Plough with one horse which is commonly known at Fulham and about London I therefore cannot but commend the howing in of wheat as an excellent piece of good Husbandry whether the ground be digged or ploughed not only because it saveth much Corn imployeth much people and it is not chargeable but it also destroyeth all weeds fitteth grounds for after crops and causeth a greater increase and in my apprehension is a good Remedy against Smut and Mildew There is an Ingenious Italian who wondreth how it cometh to pass that if one setteth a Grain of Corn as Wheat Barley c. it usually produceth 300 or 400. yea 1000 2000 as I have tryed yet if you sow Wheat after the ordinary way 6 or 8 for one is accounted a good crop what becometh of all the Corn that is sown when as the 50th part if it do grow would be sufficient For answer to this 1. I say much Corn is sown which nature hath destinated for the Hens and Chickens being without any considerable vegetative faculty 2. Worms Frosts Floods Crows and Larks which every one doth not consider do devour not a little 3. Weeds as Poppy May-weed and the grasses growing with the Corn do destroy much Lastly When Corn is so sown after the ordinary manner much is buried in the furrows especially if the ground be grazy much is thrown on heaps in holes and consequently starve and choak one another Most of these Inconveniencies are to be remedyed by this way of setting and howing in of Corn. Gardening though it be a wonderfull improver of lands as it plainly appears by this that they give extraordinary rates for land viz. from 40 s per Acre to 9 pound and dig and howe and dung their lands which costeth very much Yet I know divers which by 2 or 3 Acres of land maintain themselves and family and imploy other about their ground and therefore their ground must yeild a wonderfull increase or else it could not pay charges yet I suppose there are many Deficiencies in this calling 1. Because it is but of few years standing in England therefore not deeply rooted nor well understood About 50 years ago about which time Ingenuities first began to flourish in England This Art of Gardening began to creep into England into Sandwich and Surrey Fulham and other places Some old men in Surrey where it flourisheth very much at present report That they knew the first Gardiners that came into those parts to plant Cabages Colleflowers and to sow Turneps Carrets and Parsnips to sow Raith or early ripe Pease Rape all which at that time were great rarities we having few or none in England but what came from Holland and Flanders These Gardiners with much ado procured a plot of good ground and gave no less then 8 pound per Acre yet the Gentleman was not content fearing they would spoile his ground because they did use to dig it So ignorant were we of Gardening in those days 2. Many parts of England are as yet wholly ignorant Within these 20 years a famous Town within less then 20 miles off London had not so much as a Mess of Pease but what came from London where at present Gardening flourisheth much I could instance divers other places both in the North and West of England where the name of Gardening and Howing is scarcely known in which places a few Gardiners might have saved the lives of many poor people who have starved these dear years 3. We have not Gardening-ware in that plenty and cheapness unlesse perhaps about London as in Holland and other places where they not onely feed themselves with Gardiner's ware but also fat their Hogs and Cows 4. We have as yet divers things from beyond Seas which the Gardiners may easily raise at home though nothing nigh so much as formerly for in Queen Elizabeths time we had not onely our Gardiners ware from Holland but also Cherries from Flaunders Apples from France Saffron Licorish from Spain Hops from the Low-Countreys And the Frenchman who writes the Treasure Politick saith That it 's one of the great Deficiencies of England that Hops will not grow whereas now it is known that Licorish Saffron Cherries Apples Pears Hops Cabages of England are the best in the world Notwithstanding we as yet want many things as for example We want Onnions very many coming to England from Flaunders Spain c. Madder for dying cometh from Zurick-Sea by Zealand we have Red Roses from France Annice-seeds Fennel-seeds Cumine Caraway Rice from Italy which without question would grow very well in divers
for it maketh a fine Gentile wine with a curious colour In Germany when their Grapes are green they make fire in their Sellars in Stoves by the which means their wines work extraordinarily and do digest themselves the better This course we must also take here in England some years for it helpeth the rawnesse of all liquours very much There is an Ingenious Dutchman who hath a Secret which as yet he will not reveal how to help Maturation by a Compost applyed to the roots The Compost which I have spoken of before made of Brimstone Pigeons-dung is very excellent for that purpose as also Lâ—es of wine blood lime used with moderation He also knoweth how to make sour Grapes produce good wine I suppose his way to be this First all juice of Grapes newly expressed is sweet and which may by it selfe alone be made into a sweet syrup by boiling which the French call Racineè Further in the Evaporation of liquors which have not fermented or wrought the watery part goeth away first 3. Fermentation giveth a vinous taste and maketh a liquour full of spirits You may then easily guess at the way and perhaps he may adde also sugar and spices as the Vintuers do when they make Hippocras I know a Gentleman who hath made excellent wine of Raisins well boiled in water and afterward fermented by it self or with Barm it 's called usually Meade I likewise know that all sweet and fatty Juices will make sine vinous liquours as Damsins if they be wrought or fermented ingeniously but whosoever goeth about such experiments let him not think that any thing is good enough for these purposes but let him use the best he can get for of naughty corrupt things who can expect that which is excellent and delicate The Deficiency of us in this kind is so obvious that all the world takes notice of it and it is next the neglect of fishing the greatest shame to this Nation for all know that we have as good land for these seeds as any can be found in Europe and that the sowing of them requireth neither more labour cost or skill then other seeds And further that the Materials made from these are extreamly necessary for how miserable should we be without Linnen Canvases Cordage Nets How can we put our ships to Sea which are the bulwarks of this Isle And yet we are necessitated to have these Commodities from those who would destroy I will not say the Nation but I may boldly say our Shipping and Trade I hope that this will more seriously be considered by those at the Helme of our State I will freely and plainly relate how this Deficiency may easily be remedied according to my judgment 1. To compel by a Law that all Farmers who plough and sow 50 or 100 Acres of Land should sow half an Acre or an Acre of Hemp or Flax. or to pay 5 s. or 10 s. to the poor of the Parish where they live or some Law to this purpose for there is no man but hath land fit for one of these Hemp desiring a stiff deep rich land Flax that which is light For there is so much irrationality in some professions that they must be forced even like Bruits to understand their own good· In King Edward the sixth days something was enacted to this purpose as I am informed In Henry the eighth days there was a Law enacted that every man should sow his lands and that no man should enclose his lands lest he should turn it to Pasture for we have had great dearth in England through the neglect of Tillage which Laws even as yet stand in force yet there is not nor needeth there be any force to compel men to till and sow their lands for they have at length found the sweetnesse and willingly go about it for their own profits sake and now we suppose and not without cause that Enclosing is an Improvement and so concerning Hemp and Flax I say if they were once accustomed to sow them they would never leave it as I see Farmers do in East-Kent scarce a man but he will have a considerable plot of ground for Hemp and about London far greater quantities of Flax is sown then formerly 2. It were convenient that every Parish through the Nation should have a stock to set their poor to work that the young children and women might not run up and down idle and begging or stealing as they do in the Country of Apples Pease Wood Hedges and so by little and little are trained up for the Gallows 3. That a severe Law should be enacted against those who run up and down and will not work for if all know that they may have work at home and earn more within doors honestly then by running roguing up and down why should they not compel them to it And though some may think the Parishes will lose much by this way because that the stock wrought will not be put off but with losse as perhaps 10 l. will be brought to 8 l. yet let them consider how much they shal save at their doors how many inconveniences they are freed from their hedges in the Countrey shall not be pulled their fruits stoln nor their Corn purloined and further that the poor will be trained up to work and therefore fit for any service yea and in their youth learn a calling by the which they may get an honest livelyhood and I dare say their Assessements for the poor would not be so frequent nor the poor so numerous and the benefit which redounds to the Nation would be very great 4. The charitable deeds of our forefathers ought to be enquired after that they be not misplaced as usually they are but be really bestowed for the good of the poor that are laborious as in London is begun and if there be any that will not work take Saint Pauls rule who best knew what was best for them I dare not advise to take it in part of Commons Fens c. and to improve them for this use lest I should too much provoke the rude mercilesse multitude But to return to my discourse I say that sowing Hemp and Flax will be very beneficial 1. To the Owners of Land for men usually give in divers places 3 l. per Acre to sow Hemp and Flax as I have seen at Maidstone in Kent which is the only place I know in England where thread is made and though nigh an hundred bands are imployed about it yet they make not enough for this Nation and yet get good profit How advantageous will this be to those who have drained the Fens where questionlesse Hemp will flourish and exsiccate the ground for Hemp desireth stiff moist land as Flax light and dry and likewise to those in the North of England where land is very cheap I hope in a little time Ireland will furnish us with these commodities if we be idle for there land is very cheap and those
extraordinary likewise on a Hop-Garden 13. Mault-dust is exceedingly good in Corn-land blood for trees also shavings of horns which are carried many miles from London for this purpose as also the dust of mault 14. Some commend very much the sweeping of a ship of salt or drossy salt and brine it 's very probable because it killeth the worms and all fertility proceedeth from salt At Nantwich they use the dross or refuse of salt for their Meadows with very good success 15. I have seen in France poor men cut up Heath and the Turf of the ground and lay them on an heap to make mould for their barren lands Brakes laid in a moist place and rotted are used much for Hop-Grounds and generally all things that will rot if they were stones would make dung 16. In New-England they fish their ground which is done thus In the spring about April there cometh up a fish to the fresh Rivers called an Alewife because of its great belly and is a kind of Shade full of bones these are caught in wiers and sold very cheap to the Planters who usually put one or two cut in pieces into the hill where their Corn is planted called Virginia-Wheat for they plant it in hills 5 Grains in an hill almost as we plant Hops in May or June for it will not endure Frosts and at that distance it causeth fertility extraordinary for two years especially the first for they have had fifty or sixty bushels on an Acre and yet plough not their Land and in the same Hills doe plant the same Corn for many years together and have good Crops besides abundance of Pompions and French or Kidney beans In the North parts of New-England where the fisher men live they usually fish their Ground with Cods-heads which if they were in England would be better imployed I suppose that when sprats be cheap men might mend their Hop-grounds with them and it would quit cost but the dogs will be apt to scrape them up as they do in New-England unless one of their legs be tyed up 17. Vrine In Holland they as carefully preserve the Cowes Vrine as the Dung to enrich their land old Vrine is excellent for the Roots of Trees Columella in his Book of Husbandry saith that he is an ill Husband that doth not make ten loads of dung for every great beast in his yard and as much for every one in his house and one load for small Beasts as Hogs This is strange Husbandry to us and I believe there are many ill Husbands by this account I know a woman who liveth five miles South of Canterbury who saveth in a paile all the droppings of the Houses I mean the Vrine and when the paile is full sprinkleth it on her Meadow which causeth the grass at first to look yellow but after a little time it grows wonderfully that many of her Neighbours wondred at it and were like to accuse her of Witchcraft 18. Woollen-rags which Hartfort-shire men use much and Oxford-shire and many other places they do very well in thin Chalky Land in Kent for two or three years It 's a fault in many places that they neglect these as also Linnen rags or Ropes-ends of the which white and brown paper is made for it 's strange that we have not Linnen-rags enough for paper as other Nations have but must have it from Italy France and Holland 19. Denshyring so called in Kent where I onely have seen it used though by the word it should come from Denbighshire is the cutting up of all the Turffe of a Meadow with an instrument sharp on both sides which a man with violence thrusts before him and then lay the Turff on heaps and when it is dry they burn it and spread it on the ground The Charge is usually four Nobles which the goodnesse of a Crop or two repayeth 20. Mixture of Lands Columella an old Writer saith that his Grandfather used to carry sand on clay and on the contrary to bring clay on sandy grounds and with good success the Lord Bacon thinking much good may be done thereby for if Chalk be good for loamy land why should not loam be good for Chalky banks 21. I may adde Enclosure as an Improvement of land not onely because that men when their grounds are enclosed may imploy them as they please but because it giveth warmth and consequently fertility There is one in London who promised to mend lands much by warmth onely and we see that if some few sticks lye together and give a place warmth how speedily that grasse will grow 22. Steeping of Grains The Ancients used to steep Beans in salt-water and in Kent it 's usuall to steep Barley when they sow late that it may grow the faster and also to take away the soil for wild Oats Cockle and all save Drake will swim as also much of the light Corn which to take away is very good If you put Pigeons-dung into the water and let it steep all night it may be as it were half a dunging take heed of steeping Pease too long for I have seen them sprout in three or four hours 23. Is the sowing of Course and cheap Grain and when they are grown to plough them in For this purpose the Ancients did use LVPINES a Plant well known to our Gardiners and in Kent sometimes Tares are sowen which when the Cattel have eaten a little of the tops they turn them in with very good Improvement for their ground Lastly To conclude I may adde as a main Deficiency that though we by experience find that all the foresaid Materials and divers others as oft-tilling Husbandry seasons c. change of Seed and Land resting of Lands fencing c. do cause Fertility yet we are very ignorant of the true causes of Fertility and know not what Chalk Ashes Dung Marle Water Air Earth Sun c. do contribute whether something Essential or Accidental Material or Immaterial Corporal or Spiritual Principal or Instrumental Visible or Invisible whether Saline Sulphureous or Mercurial or Watry Earthy Fiery Acreal or whether all things are nourished by Vapours Fumes Atoms Effluvia or by Salt as Urine Embrionate or Non specificate or by Ferments Odours Acidities or from a Chaos or inconfused indigested and unspecificated lump or from a Spermatick dampish Vapour which ascendeth from the Centre of the Earth or from the Influence of Heaven or from Water onely impregnated corrupted or fermented or whether the Earth by reason of the Divine Benediction hath an Infinite multiplicative Vertue as Fire and the Seeds of all things have or whether the multiplicity of Opinions of learned Philosophers as Aristotle Rupesc Sendivog Norton Helmont Des Cartes Digby White Plat Gla uber concerning this Subject sheweth the great difficulty of this Question which they at leasure may peruse I for my part pare not venture on this vast Ocean in my small Bark lest I be swallowed up yet if an opportunity presents shall
making deep trenches oft-mowings Chalking Liming Dunging and Ploughing I know where hungry guests Horses soon make an end of them 6. Furze Broom Heath these can hardly be so destroyed but at length they will up again for God hath given a peculiar propriety to every kind of earth to produce some peculiar kinds of Plants which it will observe even to the Worlds end unlesse by Dung Marle Chalk you alter even the very nature of the earth In Gallitia in Spaine where such barren lands do very much abound they do thus first they grub them up as clean as they can of the greater Roots and Branches they make fire-wood the smaller sticks are either imployed in fencing or else are burnt on the ground afterwards the Land being ploughed twice at least they sowe Wheat and usually the Crop is great which the Land-lord and Tenant divide according to a compact then the ground resteth and in three or four years the Furze or Brooms will recover their former growth which the painfull Husbandman grubbeth and doeth with it as formerly I set this down that you may see how laborious the Spaniard is in some places the poverty of the Countrey compelling him to it 7. There are other Inconveniences in the Land besides weeds and trumpery viz. Ill Tenures as Copy-hold Knight-service c. so that the Possessour cannot cut any Timber down without consent of the Lord and when he dyes must pay one or two years rent perhaps more because there is no certaine Fine but is at the Land-Lords mercy But these are not in the power of the poor Husbandman to remedy I therefore passe them by yet hope that in little time we shall see these Inconveniences remedied because they much discourage Improvements and are as I suppose Badges of our Norman slavery To conclude It seemeth to me very reasonable and it will be a great encouragement to laborious men to improve their barren lands if that they should have recompence for what they have done according as indifferent men should judg when they leave it as is the custome in Flaunders I have likewise observed some Deficiâ—ncies in Woods which I shall briefly declare with the best way to remedy the same 1. It 's a great fault that generally through the Island the Woods are destroyed so that we are in many places very much necessitated both for fuel and also for timber for building and other uses so that if we had Coals from Newcastle and Boards from Norwey Clap-boards Barrel-staves Wainscot and Pipe-staves from Prussia we should be brought to great extremity and many Mechanicks would be necessitated to leave their callings 2. Deficiency is that our Woods are not ordered as they should be but though Woods should be especially preserved for timber for building and shipping yet at this time it 's very rare to see a good Timber-tree in a Wood. 3. That many of our Woods are very thin and not replenished with such sorts of Woods as are convenient for the place 4. That we sell continually and never plant or take care for posterity These Deficiencies may be thus Remedyed 1. To put in execution the Statutes against grubbing of Woods which are sufficiently severe It 's well known we have good Laws but it 's better known they are not executed In the Wilde of Kent and Sussex which lies far from the Rivers and Sea and formerly have been nothing but Woods liberty is granted for men to grub what they please for they cannot want firing for themselves and they are so seated that neither fire-wood nor timber can be transported elsewhere I know a Gentleman who proffered there good Oak-timber at 6 s. 8 d. per tun and the Land in those parts in general is very good About Tunbridge there is Land which formerly was Wood is now let for 30 s. par Acre so that to keep such lands for Wood would be both losse to the owner and to the Island But in other parts of the Island it is otherwise and men are much to be blamed for destroying both timber and fuel I have seen at Shooters-hill near London some Woods stubbed up which were good ground for Wood but now are nothing but furze which is a great losse both to the owner and to tbe Countrey For the Land is made worse then it was formerly I conceive there are Lands which are as naturally ordained for Woods viz. Mountainous Craggy uneven-land as small hills for â—he Vines and Olives plain lands for Corn and low moist lands for Pasture which lands if they be stubbed do much prejudice the Common-wealth 2. That all Woods should have such a Number of Timber-trees per Acre according to the Statute There is a good Law for that purpose but men delude both themselves and the law that they every Felling cut down the standers which they left the felling before lest perchance they should grow to be Timber and leave twelve small Standers that they might seem to fulfil in some measure the Statute but it 's a meer falacy and causeth the Statute to fail of it's principal end which is to preserve Timber 3. The best Remedy against thinnesse of Woods is to plash them and spread them abroad and cover them partly in the ground as every Countrey-man can direct by this means the Wood will soon grow rough and thick It 's good Husbandry likewise to fill your Woods with swift growers as Ashes Sallow Willow Aspe which are also good for Hop-poles Hoops Sycamore is also a swift grower In Flaunders they have a kind of Poplar called by them Abell-tree which speedily groweth to be timber 4. That some Law be made that they which fell should also plant or sowe In Bisâ—ay there is a Law if that any cut down a Timber-tree he must plant three for it which law is put into execution with severity otherwise they would soon be undone for the Countrey is very mountainous and barren and dependeth wholly on Iron Mines and on Shipping their Woods are not copsed there but onely Pollards which they lop when occasion serveth I know one who was bound by his Land-Lord to plant so many Trees yearly which according he did but alwayes in such places that they might not grow In France near to the Borders of Spain they sowe Ashkey which when they grow to such a greatnesse that they may be slit into four quarters and big enough to make Pikes then they cut them down and I have seen divers Acres together thus planted hence come the excellent Pikes called Spanish-Pikes Some Gentlemen have sown Acâ—rus and it 's a good way to increase Woods Though the time is long I doubt not but every one knoweth that it 's excellent to plant Willows along the waters side and Ashes nigh their houses for firing for they are good pieces of Husbandry and it 's pity that it 's not more put in practise There is a Gentleman in Essex who hath planted so many Willows that he may lop 2000
Diamonds are found about Bristol and Cornwall very large but soft There is a stone near Beaver Castle like a Star In York-shire another like a Serpent petrefied and also other stones round like bullets which being broken have as it were a Serpent in them without an head c. 6. Of all Minerals and Metals Iron-stone is found almost in every County and is profitable where Wood is plentiful the best is found in Laneashire one load and an half making a Tun of Iron it hath been transported into Ireland to mix with poor Mine In Richard the seconds time a Copper-Mine was found in Wenlock in Shrepshire but exhausted in Queen Elizabeth's dayes one was found at Keswick in Cumberland and ately in Staffordshire York-shire and near Barstable in Devonshire on which some Gentlemen intend speedily to work Lead is found in Durham Wales and Devonshire Brimstone in York-shire and Wales Antimony in Staffordshire a silver Mine in Cardiganshire a gold Mine was discovered in Scotland in King James his time and many rich Mines might be discovered in England if that the Kings Prerogative which was to take all Royal Mines to himself viz. Silver Gold Copper were so cerainly abolished that they which should find these Metals in their own Lands might safely dig them But some wil object say that many things are of little worth and profit To these I answer that God hath made nothing in vain every thing hath his peculiar use and though some things seem to be of little worth and contemptible as Sand Loam Chalk yet it hath pleased the wise Creatour to make these things very necessary for mans comfortable subsistence which they that want these things can testifie As for example in New-England where there is no Chalk nor Lime-stone they are compelled to burn Oyster-shels Cockles to make Lime or else they could hardly build any houses The like I may say of Sand and Loam in divers places where they are wanting 2. I say that most of those things I have spoken of are very profitable in one place or other To instance in some of the meaner sort at London Brickmen give 50 li. per Acre onely for Loam to make Bricks and pay 3 li. per Acre of yearly Rent and are to leave the Land worth the same yearly Rent likewise I know a Chalk-cliff in Kent not two Acres of ground valued at many an hundred pound and that one Colum of Chalk which is ten foot square is valued at forty or fifty pound at 8 d. per load The Oker Mines of Oxford and Glocestershire are of great value and so would others of that kind if they could be found so is the Black-lead Mine Also the pits of Clay Marle Coale Turffe c. And therefore I desire all Country men to endeavour to know all sorts of Stones Clays Earths Oares and to teach their Children the use of them that they may know that this sand is for building this Loam is for Bricks this Clay for Pots this Marle for Corn-land and if that they shall find any Stones Earths which they know not that they would lay them up till that they meet with some ingenious man that can inform them The richest Mines of the world have been found out by these means if we will believe Histories And this I am sure of that by this means they may much advance their knowledge and be more profitable to the Publique their Neighbours and also to themselves 17. Deficiency is the ignorance of the Vegetables of this Island and their Vertues and Vses And the first Deficiency that I take notice of is the ignorance of the ordinary seeds which are commonly sown amongst us for usually the Countrey-man contenteth himself with one or two sorts and knoweth no more when as there are very great varieties some of which agree with one sort of ground some with another As for example there are very many sorts of Wheats some called White Wheat some Red Wheat some Bearded which as I have said before is not so subject to Mildews as others others not some sorts with two rows others with four and six some with one ear on a stalk others with double ears or two on the same stalk Red-stalk Wheat of Buckinghamshire Winter Wheat Summer Wheat which is sown abundantly in New-England in April and May and reaped ordinarily in three months and many sorts more Not to trouble my discourse with Spelt Zea Tiphine-Wheat or Olew Far Silâ—go Alica which were used amongst the Ancients but now unknown not onely to the Countrey-man but even to the learnedest Botanicks so I may say that the ordinary Yeoman is ignorant of the diversities of Barley's for there is not onely the ordinary Barley but big sprat-Barley which hath lately been sown in Kent with good profit also Winter-Barley sowen in Winter Barley with four six rows naked Barley which require divers dispositions in Land some delighting in finer others in stiffer grounds So there is also Winter and Summer-Rie and twenty sorts of Pease the ordinary Schew the Raith or Early-ripe Pease the Roncivals Hastivers Hotarses Gray-Pease Green-Pease Pease without skins Sugar-Pease whose shels are sweeter then the Pease it self and have been within these ten years plentifully sowen in Lincoln-shire with profit also Fulham Sandwich-Pease c. which require divers sorts of lands and seasons so also there are divers sorts of Oats white black naked which in New-England serveth well for Oatmel without grinding being beaten as they come out of the Barn Scotch Poland c. Also Buck-wheat Lentiles divers sorts of Tares of Hemp and Flax altogether unknown to most Countrey-men but I hope that hereafter they will be more inquisitive after them for divers of them may be of good use on their lands 2. Deficiency in this kind is that they are ignorant of the Plants and Grasses which naturally grow amongst us and their Uses which likewise were made for to be food for Cattel and also for the service of man This ignorance causeth them to admire and to esteem even as miraculous ordinary and trivial things as for example how it cometh to passe that in one Meadow an Horse thriveth very much and speedily and yet a Bullock will not in that place and contrariwise in a Meadow close by the former the Bullock will thrive and the Horse not so also how it cometh to pass that Conies and Sheep will thrive well where there is scarcely any pasture and yet come to nothing on Commons where there is a greater quantity of pasture which proceedeth from this cause that some kind of Plants are more agreeing and sweeter to one sort of Cattel then to another and every Beast almost hath some Plant or other which they love exceedingly I suppose that the observances of this kind might be very useful in Husbandry These Deficienciâ—s I will draw to three Heads 1. I say that divers Plants not to speak of Fruits because we have already spoken of them that grow
for that reason Servant in ordininary to the late King who acquainted me of many excellent ingenious men and promised to seek me at my lodging 14. Being in Cambridgeshire I examined more particularly the Husbandry planting ordering and curing of Saffron Some other things came in my way not without notice but these are the chief My own improvements and comments upon all which I shall more at large give you when we meet together being alwayes SIR Yours affectionately to serve you Queries sent into France about the Seed called La Lucern WHen one N.N. was last in France being in discourse with Doctor D. concerning Saint Fâ—in he was then told by Doctour D. that for the improvement of barren grounds there was in those parts of France about Paris another Seed that did far excel that of Saint Fâ—in and that the name of that more excellent seed was La Lucern I am desired by a friend of mine to whom N. N. related this passage of Doctor D. that by your kindnesse he may be spoken to of this La Lucern and his directions desired where the said seed in to be had for what price how much is usually sowed upon an English Acre what time of the year it is sown whether it be sown alone or any other ordinary Corn and with what Corn and with what kind of land it best agrees and finally what other particulars he can direct more then is here set down The Answer to the Queries from Paris J Have been with Doctor D. about Lucern who tells me that it groweth best in wettish grounds that the best time of sowing it in England will be in February at the same time that Oats are sown with the which also it may be sown but best alone that to the sowing of an Arpent which is much-what the same with an English-Acre there will go twelve or fifteen pound of the seed the which useth to be sold here at eight or nine Sols the pound More Queries concerning Lucern J Desire further to know what kind of wet grounds are best for it whether Moorish or Clay whether poor or rich whether it will continue over a year in the ground and if more then a year then how many years it will continue without being new sown whether it be only good for Meadows or for Pasture and if for Pasture then whether the sheep or Cattel be suffered to go upon it or whether it be carried off green as the Clover-grasse is in Flaunders Lastly For what Cattel it is most proper Another Answer from Paris J Thought to have sent you nine pound of the seed of Lucern for the sowing of three Acres Doctour D. having told me as heretofore I told you that three pound would sow an Arpent or Acre But as I was going about it I met with a Gentleman an acquaintance of mine who some years since but unknown to me hitherto hath had some Acres of Meadow of Lucern upon his ground to whom having casually spoke of my business and told him all that Doctour D. had told me about the Lucern he answered me that Doctour D. was most grosly mistaken in the quantity of the seed required for the sowing of an Acre and that it would not take up three pound but two whole Sacks each Sack containing the full load of a strong Porter after which rate the quantity of seed for the sowing of three Acres would fill a great dry-fat the sending whereof by land would come to excessive great charges and therefore necessarily to be sent by Sea in my opinion You will be pleased to impart these things to your friend and to let me know his final resolution upon them the which shall be faithfully accomplished by me and in the mean while I will get him a perfect and full assurance upon all his Queries not from Doctour D. whom I dare trust no more in this businesse having found him guilty of such grosse mistakes about it but from that other Gentleman who told me he could himself resolve most of these Questions but that for to be the surer he thought it best to confer first with his Farmer about it You make Apologies for putting me upon these Inquiries but I pray you to believe that at any time I shall most readily and chearfully perform any service that shall lie in my power for you or any of your friends for your sake And I were very unreasonable to think troublesome any thing that you require of me when as continually I put you to so much trouble my self The last Answer concerning Lucern THe Information about the Lucern that I have got from my Friend being a very particular one and containing a very full answer to all the Questions propounded by your Friend is such as followeth It requireth a rich ground but somewhat loose and light so as a stiff Clay and such other rough grounds are no wayes fit for it The ground must not be over-dry nor over-moist but in a mean yet somewhat more inclining to moisture then to the contrary It must be ploughed three times the first time in October and the second and third towards the Spring Naturally it doth not love Dung and cometh much better in a ground that is sufficiently rich of it self then that which hath been enriched by dunging and where Dung is made use of it must be very stale and well rotten and long before the sowing time It cannot endure the cold and therefore must not be sown till the cold weather and all the danger of it be quite past viz. about the beginning or midst of April The Quantity of the seed is the sixth part of Corn that the same ground will require so as only one Bushel of Lucern is to be sown on that space of ground which would require six Bushels of Corn. It must be carefully weeded especially in the beginning And to the end that it may take the more firme root some Oats must be mixed with it but in a very small proportion It is to be cut as soon as it beginneth to flower which in the hot Countries Provence Languedock and Spain it doth five or six times and some years seven or eight times in a Summer but in this Climate it useth to be cut twice a year about the end of June and about the end of September Being cut it must be turned very oft that it may dry the sooner and be carried off the ground the soonest that may be and it must be kept in close Barns being too tender for to be kept in Reeks open to the Air as other Hay It is good for all kind of Cattel as Kine Sheep Goats and as well for the young ones Calves Lambs Kids as for the others but above all it agreeth best with Horses It is much more feeding then any other Hay insomuch as any lean beasts will soon grow fat with it and to the Milch-beasts it procureth abundance of milk but it must never be given alone especially to
Spirit as yours is till I shall by Gods assistance be able next year to produce you more abundant examples of Gods wonderful power and bounty that offers and mans ingratitude that neglects or refuses such honest means of the truest and most justly gotten humane wealth honour and happiness Your most faithfull and obli-Friend and Servant C. D. September 26. 1650. A Conjectural Essay upon the fore-going Secret of Experiment of an English Husbandry My Dear Friend BEing the other day among a knot of great Husbands and telling stories of such like Experiments and Improvements I remembred something that seemed very remarkable concerning a very fortunate attempt in Husbandry made heretofore by Sir John Culpepper who they commended at least for a man very sagacious in things of this nature He it seems sowed a round parcel of Wheat about the Month of July and turned in sheep afterwards to eat it until about All-haâ—ontide keeping it very low till the cold and winter began to come And without doing any thing else to it he gained so goodly and admirable a Crop of Wheat the next year that Kent scarce ever saw the like it growing in those parts almost to a Proverb As great a Crop as Sir John Culpepper had Sir This Story gave me an occasion by my self to meditate on your Friends Mr. Dymock's great Experiment of his Pease and Barley and remembring he did nothing to the seed nor to the ground but somewhat after it was come forth of the ground I began to consider Analytically what it was possible for man to do to Plants after they were come out of the ground And I satisfied my self that a man could but either dung them water them weed them remove them succour them keep them low by eating pruning or cutting them or lastly spread their Roots by rowling them And though there be some other managements by Glasses multiplying of light c. Yet I imagined they were too subtle and costly to take place here 1. For dunging and watering them they were clearly things done to the Ground it self as well as to the Plant. 2. For weeding them though this oft proved a great improvement and bettering of Plants yet I saw not how it could make so great an increase or multiplication of the Grain as was in Mr. Dymocks Experiment 3. For removing them and taking off the suckers though this be a very necessary management in taller Plants and serves to make them much more vegete and lusty yet I saw not how this could take more place in Barley and such small grain then grafting These Considerations made me pitch upon the two last and of the two rather upon Rowling or the like Art for the spreading the Roots of it then upon the other of eating feeding or cropping it 1. First Because the former Experiment of Sir John Culpeppers seemed to me an improvement of the Plant onely by the giving it opportunity the better to fasten and spread its root Which the length of time of its being in the ground the cold of the season and trampling and lying down of the sheep seemed all to confer unto All which Rowling I thought might in some measure perhaps supply 2. It is an Observation among some bigger Plants that their Roots are answerable to their Heads intimating that a small root could not have a large and bushy head no more then a strong and fairly spread root could have a small and spindly head And truly this Rule in greater Plants seems more necessary in smaller for how should we think there should be many ears or stalks from one Grain upon a small and single root for where could there be a place for them And how should we think a Root to be strong spreading and succulent and yet not endeavour Germination in the several parts and joynts of it especially in hasty growing Annual Plants I therefore conclude such a super-fortation of ears must necessarily proceed from an improvement by the Root where nothing was done either to prepare the Ground or the Seed And that this spreading of the Root is probable to be best effected by a Rowl or some such like thing 3. I might adde to this Conjecture the common Experiment of Camomil and some other low creeping Plants being rowled in dry weather As also an Experiment that I once heard of a Gardiner who raised a great Estate by his Husbandry of Turnips which was by keeping them low for a certain time by which they grew the sooner big and sweeter The like is used in some Countries to Potatoes To all which I might adde the plain defect of this Rowling in Husbandry to any sort of Grain which also may give the greater occasion of finding a remarkable benefit and improvement upon the use of it However Sir Being so much satisfied as I was of the thing I could not but give you this my Essay upon it and Conjecture the rather because in the more dry or stiff Grounds as also in seasons indifferent for moysture and drinesse If this have not been yet tryed Me thinks it were sit to be used To your inquiry after which I shall therefore leave it and shall be SIR Your very true Friend B. W. An Extract of a Letter from Amsterdam dated the 28. of November 1650. with another Experiment of a French Husbandry SIR I Am much obliged unto you for sending me the Discourse of the Braband Husbandry which I have perused Not long ago was told of certain men which would fain have morgaged some thousand Acres of Heathy Grounds which lay here and there as Commons But the late Prince of Orange by the advice of his Councel durst not entertain any such Propositions the lands belonging to the Commonalty On the other hand the undertakers would not be contented with lesse for imparting of their Secret It appears unto me by all circumstances that it was the same designe of Husbandry with yours the parties if I remember well being English men From Paris I am advertised for certain of one who did last year 1649. ferment one Grain of Wheat which this year hath produced him 114 Ears within them 6000 Grains which is more then 80 Ears and 600 Grains of your English friends This year 1650. he hath a great many fermented and sown An Answer to the foregoing Extract of a Letter from Amsterdam SIR I Have received from you a Relation of a very great and wonderful production or increase which your Friend at Amsterdam relates to be done in France I am far from lessening the admirable greatnesse of that persons skil and success Only since I find my self taken notice of by the same party and the Experiment I made the last year of Barley weighed in the scales with this and found too light I shall take leave to say that besides all difference that is or may conceived to be betwixt the soyles that of France hath a manifest advantage in the Elevation and powerful Operation of the Sun That
report for I know they are apt to make Molchils Mountames c. in the Interim I shall acquiesce in my own opinion Animadversor England hath a perfect Systeme of Husbandry viz. Markham He speaketh more of Markham than ever I heard before or as yet have seen In general he is accounted little more than a Translator unless about Cattle and yet I cannot but in that question his skill Considering how grosly he mistaketh the names of Plants The works which I have seen of his are first the great book translated out of French which whether well or ill done I will not declare but I am sure our Husbandmen in England profit little by it Secondly I have seen five several bookes bound up together two or three of which he acknowledgeth to be anothers as The Improvement of the Wild of Kent also his Houswifery he acknowledgeth to have had from a Countess also part of his Farewell is borrowed and what he owneth if I have seen all are very short in many particulars as it will easily appear by my former discourse and Blithes book of Husbandry lately augmented and printed Yea if I understand any thing he setteth down many gross untruths which every Countryman will contradict viz. That Flax is ripe after Hemp That Corn sleept in Brine encreaseth fivefold more than ordinarily That Lupin must be steeped when they were never sown in England He wisheth Husbandmen to let long Grass grow amongst their Corn for saith he it keepeth it warm Fullers earth as profitable as Marle A sack or a sack and a half of Rags for an Acre Corn reapt in the wane nought Hops not to be planted in too rich a ground One Teame in one day to plough in stiffe land two Acres and a half in light four Also one to man to mow two Acres of Grass in a day to reap and bind five rood of Wheat of Fetches and Pease two Acres Also one man to dig rake and level one rood the day c. And such like which cannot be done But I have said and doe confirme it again that he hath done well in divers things and is to be commanded for his industry Animadversor The Romane Law was onely for sining c. My expression doth not necessarily conclude that ill husbandry is Crimen Lesâ— Majestatis or Treason but that the punishment was inflicted on them because the publick received damage by their ill husbandry being averse or contrary to the common good Animadversor Holy Land not barren Royer Our Sands reporteth it such and so it is commonly voted but whether through a peculiar curse of God or for want of Cultivation for we know that many hils would be very excellent for Vines and Olives which notwithstanding are little worth for Corn or Pasture c. I will not here dispute Concerning Fish-ponds Angling c. I could wish we had a good Treatise in English Vaughan was commended to me for them but I have not read him and therefore will not speak much for him c. Thus at length I have run over all if any thing be impertinent as I fear divers things are I desire you to expunge it An Observation concerning a Fish-Calender imparted from Zurich 11. Nov. 1654. There is an exact Fish-Calender printed in the Low-Country but whether it be reprinted every year I cannot tell I was enquiring here whether they had no such curiosity One told me that there is a Catalogue extant of all the sorts of Fish ever taken in their Lake or Sea as they call it When I asked whether their seasons were not added he could not tell But said that in their Stat-house they have the twelve Months painted and that under every Month are expressed in picture without any names set by them the several sorts of Fish fit to be then eaten I have not since had leisure to go see those pictures If any think this a needless or an Epicurean Curiosity let them read Doctor Bâ—ates Natural History of Ireland where he imputes the Irish Leprosie to their brutish eating of Salmons when the very eye would have made them know they were unwholsom But saith he the English having discovered it did under a penalty forbid the selling or taking of Salmons at that time of the yeare whereupon in a few years after it was as rare to finde a Leper in Ireland as in any other Country A Copy of the Letter wherein the following Discourse entituled Mercurius Laetisicans was sent enclosed to Mr. Samuel Hartlib SIR YOur cordial love to the kingdoms good being so clearly expressed to the world not onely by your pen but also by your constant practise in promoting of all good designes which tend to the general good of the Commonwealth hath emboldened me to send you this enclosed Copy desiring that you will be pleased to take care that it may be forthwith printed and published together with this Letter Neither need you fear any dishonour by promoting of this laudable design for I have shewed the Copy to the Learned as well as the unlearned to the rich as well as the poor and all approve of it and desire to have it as soon as it shall be published They think it is a fine experiment to make good bread of an old shooe And though they differ in opinion concerning other affairs yet they all love to eat bread with one consent and if they shall agree to practise according to their profession which is to doe their best endeavours to further the good of the publick then certainly the cards will turn and we shall win our money again by concord which we have lost by discord yea and twice as much more And though many of these things which I would have to be put to the best uses seem to be trivial that is for want of understanding in the Readers for in Genoa as I have been credibly informed it is an usual practise to buy barren land for little or nothing and to carry good earth to it and cover it so deep as a spade or a plough may work upon it but this practise would never counter vail the first charge unless they did usually practise another strange work which is so common there that if an horse or a beast doe dung in any street or high-way it is a marvel if some boy or girle doe not take it up before it he cold so carefull are they that the fertility of the Kingdom should not be diminished And though these boyes and girles get nothing but sinnes and points or some other trifles yet in the general the whole Countrey is made rich and plentifull Even as we see in a Bee-hive though every Bee bring but a drop of honey at a time yet it maketh up a weighty mass and many of those masses put together do make up the great masse which I have seen at Sturbridge Fayre which is able to amaz a man that beholdeth it When this Book is published then I desire you to
her other labour I mean extraordinary labour If young poor Maid-servants will imitate her industry I will tell them the whole Secret to the intent that besides the benefit to the publick every one may get her self a considerable portion and to the end that many may be industrious in this laudable way and that many thousands may remember me in their good wishes I will first speak a good word for them to all generations to come to wit that such an one which by her wit industry and providence getteth her self a portion of twenty or forty pounds which she may easily doe in a certain number of years not very many deserveth as good a marriage as one that hath an hundred pounds given her by her parents and friends And to the end that this may not seem to be a ridiculous relation I will shew the reasons of it and also the experience and lastly declare the several materials which I taught her to reserve As for the reasons they are thus discovered viz. the vegetable spirit of the world by which all things do encrease and multiply is sometimes cloathed with a gross and earthly foeculencie as in dung and more in some dung than in other somtimes it is more purified from its earthly foeculency and then it is far more effectual as we see by experience in London that a load of shavings of horn is sold for shillings or three pound a load wollen rags is sold for thirty or forty shillings when as a load of common dung is sold for a penny and many times for nothing but carriage away Now I proceed to declare the several materials which I taught her to reserve As for the linnen rags she reserved those before I knew her and sold them yearly to the Paper-Mils and I seeing her industry thought it a good deed to advise her to reserve all the shreads and rags of woollen cloath as well old as new all the shreads and pieces of leather of all kinds as well old as new all the horns and hoofs of beasts of beasts of all kinds whether shaven or not that came in her way all the hair either in Barbers shops or Tanners yards or at the houses of Butchers and Cooks where they scalde many hogs and pigs and fondly cast away the hair and to take up all the old shooes and peeces of leather which happened in her way as she went about her ordinary occasions and to work as often as she could at the houses of Taylors Shoomakers Sadlers c. For I have found by experience that a load of the best common dung will not produce corn worth above twenty shillings at three crops unlesse corn be very dear and if it be far carried then the labour rent and seed will consume the gains whereas a load of any of these materials formerly mentioned will produce Wheat and other corn worth above ten pound though the price be reasonable These things being well considered there is a great reason why these materials should not be fondly cast away to the common dunghill in great Cities or other places whereas the greatest part thereof is utterly lost and though some of them goe to the dunghill yet they serve onely to enrich land which lieth near to great Cities where there is no need of them whereas being reserved by themselves they will quit the cost to be carried twenty or thirty miles and so make land fertile which beareth not halfe the quantitie for want of dung And whereas I have found by experience that a load of any manner of seeds whatsoever doth contain as much of the vegetable spirit of the world as ten loads of common dung I could wish that all such young men-servants as have no Stocks nor Trades should get them services in great Innes or to be Bayliffs of Husbandry to great men and to reserve all the hay seeds that come within their reach and all the soot that is swept down out of the chimneys that they can get and once in a year to get so much blood at any Butchers or Poulterers houses as will make them into a paste and then to adde so much Cow-dung dryed to them as being tempered with urine will be sufficient to make the whole masse apt to be formed into the form of bricks loaves or cheeses and then they are to be layd up in a dry place till they be throughly rotten and that a small quantity thereof being made into powder will not produce any thing suddenly being spread in a garden or other open place where the rain may fall upon it without the help of new seed and then though their common dung will yeeld no price at all in that place but rather they are forced to pay money to have it carryed away yet this will give them a large price after that the virtue thereof is known And if any such men-servants have meanes to farm certain Acres of barren land which lieth so remote from dung that the annual rent thereof is little then by setting of Wheat or other Grain by my directions in my book formerly mentioned they may make one quarter or one pounds worth of corn to yeeld forty quarters or forty pounds worth of corn in lesse time than one year and as much over and above as shall pay all charges and workmen nobly and also as much rent as any ordinary Farmer can afford to give yearly for it by which means he may in a few yeares get a considerable Stock and be as likely to thrive as he that hath twice so much given him by his parents or friends And I could wish all such men to marry with such women as by their wit industry and providence have gotten themselves portions by my directions in this lâ—ttle Book and let others which have portions given do the like and try conclusions whether of them thriveth better If â—ny one should be seen to cast away good bread when so many poor people want it then all the world would cry shame upon him but why should not the casting away of any of these materials fondly be reputed a more heynous sin when as they will produce divers times their weight of as good bread as any Prince eateth I have seen by experience that Salt-peter is the most rich compost in the world to multiply Corn and I have seen fifty pounds worth of Salt-peter extracted out of a vault at Dowgate not very spacious which was formerly an house of office and not emptied till the matter was throughly rotten why may not the same thing be done by Art which was formerly done by Nature and Accident I have been credibly informed that such a work is ordinarily done in the Kingdome of China and also at the City of Paris in France and I see no reason why English men should not have as much wit they If any man hath convenient room to build two houses of office and to close up the one whilst he useth the other then there
of the failing of Corn in the Common fields he sold it for forty shillings a quarter which came to twelve hundred pounds with the rent and all so that he gained above a thousand pound clear by his twenty Acres of Barley Yet I would wish no man to take in hand so hazardous a work again but rather to 2aim at a meane in fertilizing of his land which is the surest way one year with another for if he make his land too extream fertile then it is ten to one he shall have nothing but straw and some light corn which is good for little use but onely for Poultry and if on the other side he take so much are able land that he is not able to enrich it so that every Acre may bear in a reasonable year five quarters by sowing the common way or thereabouts and a eleven quarters and a half or thereabouts by setting then let him cast up his accompts justly and he shall find himself to be no good friend to himself nor yet to the Common-wealth for he might have gained more by laying his Compost upon half so much land and by setting it orderly than by the whole so that he himself and the Common-wealth is deprived of that benefit of the herbage of that land which he did unadvisedly and above his ability to enrich keep in tillage to his own loss and great damage Certain Experiments and Improvements for the inriching of Land by my new Invention or Engine which disperseth the Compost in such manner that it falleth all within the reach of the attractive virtue of the Corn. The first Experiment or Improvement It is found by experience that where dung hath been layd upon heaps upon fallowed land and hath layen unspread for a moneth or six weeks and withall some store of rain hath faln to carry down the Chilus or juice of the dung into the earth there though the dung was all removed in the spreading from the place where the heap lay yet there grew more corn in a yard square of that ground so fatned with the chilus or juice of the dung than in three yards square where the dung was dispersed in the rest of the land By this we may observe that Dung doth not enrich ground till it be putrified and turned into chilus or aqua pinguis or aqua viscosa and also that Compost of land whatsoever is to be turned into such a nature and property before it can produce great encrease in the present crop Wherefore the best Husbandry is to prepare Earth and Compost in such manner that the nutritive virtue thereof may assimilated into the corn and fruits in the first year or else the Husbandman layeth out his stock and charges long before hand and is deprived of great part of the benefit thereof by reason that the rain and land-flouds doe carry away a great share of the chilus or juice of such dung as falleth out of the reach of the attractive virtue of the seed or plant and if any man doubt of it let him fill all the holes when he hath set an Acre of Corn with such fat earth and he shall find his encrease doubled upon common barren field land and contrariwise let him fill the holes with common dung and he shall finde no such success But some will say that this is a pedling business and an endless work to which I answer That so it is indeed to those which know not the use of my new Invention or Engine but that being known is the most profitablest work in the world for a man may fill 400. holes in the twinckling of an eye and may order a whole Acre in like manner with a very little charges more than the spreading of the dung doth usually cost Therefore now I will proceed to shew how divers fertile earths may be prepared wherewith the holes may be filled and so consequently the encrease may be doubled and this practise will be excellent in such places where the charge of carriage costeth much by reason of the great distance of the place from the Compost for I find that though divers imbibitions of the seed with apt liquors doe produce a good improvement yet it is not a practise comparable to this for if a Farmer have twenty acres of Arable land and have dung but for fifteen Acres and shall yet have a good crop by means of a good imbbiition yet is not this knowledge sufficient for a Husbandman upon whose skil the happiness of himself and the whole Common-wealth dependeth For by this way he may enrich his Arable land at pleasure be it never so barren nor never so much remote from his Compost for on the one side if the filling of the holes be not sufficient he may heap them as hops are usually heaped with fertile earth and dung and on the other side if the earth be too rich so that it will make the Corn too rank then he may half fill the holes or less and then fill them up with a Rake with their own proper earth or he may make his earth so rich that he may mingle with it twice the quantity of the field earth before he disperse it by which means he may save a great deale in the charge of the carriage of his Compost where the fields are far distant The second Experiment or Improvement wherein is shewed how a rich Compost may be made in form of earth fit to fill up the holes when the Corn is set Let an Acre or more or lesse of good Areable earth neither clay nor sand but indifferently well mixed be chosen in some apt place where dung is plentifull and cheap then cover it with dung a foot thick or thereabouts and then you may be at choice whether you will at six Moneths end shovel off all the dung and carry the fat earth to be used as in the former Experiment or else to plough it four or five times all together in a years space and then carry all to be used as in the former Experiment either of these waies will serve for one Acre of earth thus made fertile will make an hundred Acres fertile and to yeeld a good crop yea even as you desire so you may fertilize by the means prescribed in the first Experiment and this same work may be done in a little garden plot in Cities Corporations or Villages where a bed of good earth may be enriched at pleasure with all liquors thrown upon it which contain any fatnesse or saltnesse as urine beef-broth soapsuds blood brine of powdering tubs kitchin-wash fish-water lees of all wine bear perrey cider or whatsoever is good for hogs the same will yeeld an excellent virtue to this earth and if a cover were set over it to keep it dry for a years space you might enrich it so that you might carry it twenty miles and yet find more gains by it than by a common dung that lyeth but a mile off and any
fatnesses is gratefull to humane nature the other is offensive for the avoyding of which inconvenience I know none better than to let the dung be fully putrified and turned into earth without stnking before it be mingled with the Corn or Seeds And this may be done by my former Inventions in such sort that there may be above forescore pounds in the hundred saved in the Compost of all the Arable land in England There are three causes why people in the Country live longer and have better health than those that live in great Cities The first is the aire is more pure and wholsome The second is their food doth not abound so much with the fatness and sulphur which is apt to putrifaction and to contaminate the blood The third is their much exercise doth evacuate that part of their nutriment which is ungrateful to humane nature The contrary to all these is in great Cities where the aire dyet and exercise are so much different the effect doth shew the cause very clear so that there need no other or further philosophation concerning the same If any man doubt whether vegetables draw the corruptible or stinking sulphur or fatness which lyeth within the reach of their attractive virtue let him behold the places where beasts have lately dunged in Pastures and he shall finde that there the grasse is more sowre and gistastfull to the Beasts and Cattle The eleventhâ— Experiment wherein is shewed how rich Compost may be made in great Cities of things formerly cast away The water wherein Fishmongers water their Fish being made as salt as it will bear with the foul salt in the sweeping of ships salt Lime great Larders and other such places being boyled in Butchers slaughter-houses when their beasts are to be killed and the blood let run warm unto it being likewise hot it will not clodder but will be admirable good liquor to imbibe good Wheat earth whereby it may be made the richest Compost in the world to fill the holes where Wheat or Barley is set for that one bushel of this earth is sufficient to be mingled with three or four bushels of the earth of the land it self by which means great charge is saved in the carriage it selfe by reason that a little quantity will work a great effect Saltpeter for some grounds is more apt and cheaper though the price be greater for a little quantity will work a great effect especially where the land is hot and dry by nature Saw-dust is excellent to mingle with earth to fill the holes where Corn is set in strong binding clay ground Also shavings of horn hoofs of all beasts hair of beasts woollen rags chapped small are admirable Shavings of horn are now usually sold in London for three shillings and six pence a sack for the same purpose also woollen rags for two shillings a sack As for hoofs of beasts hair and Tanners horns may be putrified in good Arable wheat earth being kept dry from rain and then the earth and all together is the richest Compost in the world to be used for the filling of the holes where Wheat is set Also all other composts whatsoever mentioned in this book are the most wholsomest for mans body and most effectual for producing of great encrease if they be thus ordered The twelfth Experiment wherein is shewed how any Kingdom may live in great prosperity with half the trouble and charge which now they sustain and yet live in adversity It is found by experience that where there is a good Council of War there the kingdom is well defended and where there is good regularity in Divinity there the soul is preserved from sickness Why should it not be so for the state temporal if a council of Husbandry was erected whereupon the happiness of all kingdoms doth depend Surely if a certain number of the best experienced men were deputed for this purpose who might regulate the rest it would produce a great perfection in that knowledge which as it is the most ancient of all Sciences so it is the most excellent and honourable for that by it all Princes live and no Inferiour person can possibly live without it The Plebeans are like those in Ireland who will not lay aside their old custom to draw their horses by the tayls though an Act be made against it nor lay aside the burning their Corn in the straw to save the labour of thrashing though their houses lye unthatched I have known some Parsons in Parishes which have been skilful in Agriculture and have been excellent Improvers of land and some that were good physitians and have done much good in their Country that way I have also known some Landlords qualified with the same skils and certainly if all were so it would conduce greatly to the prosperity of a Kingdome for the greatest profit would redound to those two sorts of men yet may the marter be easily ordered so that the rest might live in twice as much prosperity as now they do and though they were doubled in number for I have known many men to live better with 30. acres of land than others have done with an hundred of acres and if need require I can shew where one acre of land hath been worth two hundred pound per an by being planted with Mellons and a whole family have lived well upon it and gathered riches If the course of Husbandry were regulated in this manner viz. That no man should occupy any land in Pasture whose fertility may perpetually be encreased by the means of water though the hay growing thereupon were totally spent to produce dung for the fertilizing of high grounds Also that no man should occupy any land in Tillage whose fertility may be perpetually increased in Pasture by having the same dung spent upon them which they yeeld naturally Also that no man should Till any other land but such high and barren land as is not able to fertilize it selfe and should make use of my several Inventions for the enriching of the same Then would there be left but little barren land in England in a short space whereby all the premises in this twelfth Experiment might be easily performed A friend of mine did search divers Register books in several Parishes in England he also searched the Parsons bookes of Tythes and found that where Arable land as turned into Pasture there were fewer Christnings and many more tyth Lambs and tyth Calves whereby he discovered a kinde of Witchcraft which is to turn men into beasts To dissolve this Witchcraft there is no other way but to goe the contrary way and whereas the Landlord found more gain in the increasing of sheep and beasts than formerly he found in the increasing of people to shew a way how more gain may accrew to the Landlord by the increase of people than formerly he found in the increase of beasts and surely this is no hard task for if the peoples employments be well regulated there will come more
profit a great deal than by beasts And if there be any doubt whether people may be had to improve the land and to produce greater profit than beasts can doe let but things be so ordered that the Plebeans may have such good employments whereby they may maintain a married estate plentifully and it will be found by a short experience there will be no want of servants By this means the Parsons may double their tyths the Landlord may double his rents and the common people though doubled in number may live twice as well as they did before and Princes and Statesmen shall not have half the trouble which they had before for want and necessity is found to produce grudgings and discontentments These have produced Rebellions and Insurrections all which have caused Princes for to lose their kingdoms many times and turned the state of Countries topsey turvey Besides that the lives of men would be lengthened as in former Ages by their good and wholsom diet for there can be no other cause in nature why men should be now of lesser stature and enjoy worse health and dye sooner than in former Ages but these few viz. First men are much imployed with worldly cares and difficulty for living in populous Countries which might easily be remedied by the means aforesaid Secondly the Corn which should be the preserver of other meats from too sudden corruption in the bodies of men before the chilus hath performed all his several offices is now adulteraâ—ed and contaminated much by mixing the dung with the corn before the corruptible part thereof be consumed and so the corn helped to contaminate the blood which should preserve it and would do it powerfully if my new Invention were generally put into practise Thirdly in populous Countries where there is difficulty of living the pure law of nature is not observed in Marriages and married estates but other respects doth sway overmuch which causeth defects in many generations But to return to my main subject I am now about a way to experiment to meliorate any Corn Pulse Seed Kernel Fruit c. and doubt not but to bring it to passe in such sort that the pleasantness of the tast the wholsomness of the smel and the ability to keep other meats from sudden corruption in mans body will invite great men in general to make use of the same and to give good prices so that a Farmer may maintain his family well and grow rich too by the planting of 1 Acre of land yearly For upon my certain knowledge there are fondly cast away in every family in England as well in great Cities as Country-towns so many things as being used according to my direction would produce such an increase of corn yearly as would serve for the maintenance of the said family and would be more wholsom for the body of man than the greater part of corn which now usually groweth in England yea though this Compost should be used in the more barren sort of land So that now the question is not whether this Land and so consequently other Kingdoms may live in worldly happiness and prosperity for ever hereafter but whether they will do so or not for if they be willing they wil shew the same by their actions and then I am sure there is no doubt to be made of the possibility thereof Whereby an Vtopia may be had really without any fiction at all If order were given that every Over-seer of the poor in their Parishes only one day in the year in the practise of some of these new Inventions as setting of Wheat of compounding of Composts in great Cities fit to be carried many miles then they would be expert against a year of dearth and famine so that they might be employed in that work whereby a wonderfull quantity of corn might be saved for the present relief of the Land which else must needs be imported from other Kingdomes for which the wealth of this Land must needs be exhausted The thirteenth Experiment wherein is shewed how timber for buildings and wood for houshold-stuffe may be provided in short space It is found by experience that a Chesnut will grow in ten or twelve yeares into a fair tree able to be the Master-post of a fair building and then there is no question but that it may be provided into lesser parts for studds and spars It is also found that a Walnut will grow in the like time into a tree able to make little tables boxes stools and chests very beautiful and sit for use to adorn the house Whereby any younger brother that will shew so much frugality and providence as to obtain leave of his father to plant a certain number of such trees in some convenient place in his fathers lands in his minority while he is a School-boy he may not onely have wood to build him an house and to furnish it against his occasion but also he may win so much credit by his industry and diligence that as for my part if I had a daughter to marry I would sooner match her with him though I purchase him land to set his house upon than with his elder brother if he wanted those gifts and qualities though he were able to make a good Joynture For I have seen by experience that a present estate either real or personal is not to be compared to the quality of thriving which any man else may likewise see by experience that sometimes yea many times a Farmer being industrious intelligent and provident though he pay a good round rent liveth better than a Freeholder which is owner of much free-land The fourteenth Experiment wherein is shewed divers waies concerning Fruit-trees It is found by experience that if the kernel of a Pear or Apple be set and not grafted but be let grow to a great tree then it will not bear fruit till forty or fifty yeares as a great number of other trees of the same kind It is likewise found by experience that a Siens taken from a tree that is fruitfull and also from the most fruitful bough of that tree and being grafted into a young stock of the same kind as that before mentioned will bear fruit in a quarter of the time which the other did the cause can be no other but that nature hath ordained a certain time for propagation in all things but yet the said time was accelerated in the grassed tree by Art helping Nature but in the other tree time was left to natures free determination So that every one may make choice of these two wayes at pleasure and if he aim at his present profit then graffing is his present way and best but if he aim at the profit of his posterity then it is best not to graft at all And by this means he may change the tasts of fruits at pleasure which by graffing he cannot doe for it is found by experience that if three kernels of several sorts be put into the cave
of a Bean-stalk cut half an inch long above a knot and so set it will bear a fruit contrary in colour tast and form contrary to any one of them Also by this means he may exalt the nature and excellencie thereof at pleasure if about the root thereof he make three or four little holes in the earth and now and then with a little Fennel and a spoon he put into the holes a little of the best new wort wherein hath been boiled a little Cinamon Cloves Mace Sugar or any other substance of excellent tast and odour For as it is found by experience that any evil neutriment doth spoil yea sometimes poison the thing nourished so any excellent nutriment doth wonderfully advance the goodnesse and excellency thereof And after that these trees are come to age of maturity to be fruitful then the Siens taken thence will be perpetual and able to fill the whole Country with fruits of the same kind and by such means as these there is no question but all these varieties of excellent fruits were obtained in former times for it cannot be thought but that at the first when there was none but wild fruits there could neither be such varieties nor yet fruits of such excellency I have now some tryals in hand with some pulse fruits and garden stuffe to meliorate them in this manner and doe not doubt of the success The fifteenth Observation and Experiment shewing how it may be ordered that Corn shall never be exceeding cheap to the great prejudice of the Farmer nor exceeding dear to the grievance of the buyer It is found by experience that when Barley is at two shillings the bushel or under then an Acre and so twenty Acres of land may be manured with Malt more cheap than with dung if it he worth six pence a load and to be carried half a mile and this is true if after the common manner the Malt be sowed amongst the Wheat as they use to doe with Pidgeons dung Malt dust rags shavings of horn salt-peter bay-salt or any other thing which is potent and effectual for multiplication Now let every man judge of how great consequence this Experiment will be if by my new Invention the Malt be dispersed into the holes where the Wheat is set so that it all lye within the attractive virtue of the Corn for then none will be lost and by this means an acre of land may be manured with so much Corn as is usually cast away by the accustomed manner of sowing more than by setting And the reason why Malt is so much better than Corn is because that by drying upon the kiln the vegetative spirit is killed and by the Malting the nutritive virtue is opened and advanced and it mattereth not of what Corn the Malt is made as of Barly Pease Beans Oats Fetches or Buck-wheat or whatsoever is cheapest for by this means it is converted into the substance of the Wheat together with the benefit of the multiplication neither is it material whether the Mast be ground or not especially for Wheat or any Corn sown before winter for that in due time it will be dissolved and putrified so that by little and little it may be assimilated I have found by experience that when I have taken the great piked Wheat my increase hath been doubled more than with the smaller sort the reason can be no other but that such Wheat is both Seed and Compost I have also put into every hole with the Wheat seven or eight Malt-cornes and then increase was four or five yea sixe times more increased than before and this seven or eight Malt-corns being so dispersed by my Engine into every hole is quickly done and amounteth to no more Corn than is usually cast away in sowing more than is needful in setting Now the use to be made of this Experience for the prevention of cheapnesse is to make a great use thereof in time of exceeding plenty and to keep much dung in store for another year this with the practise of ingrossing and hoarding up of Corn taught before will prevent immoderate cheapness and preserve many an honest poor Farmer from poverty And howsoever I shall not be free from the aspersion of the ignorant Plebeans for this my attempt yet I regard them not being devoted to the universal benefit of all and let them be pleased to understand that every cheap year is but a forerunner of a dear one unless that this course be taken by reason that much Corn ground is usually upon such occasions turned into Pasture when as the Farmers find more gain in converting the fruits of the earth into Beef Mutton Butter Cheese c. then by turning them into Corn. And let them be pleased also to take notice of the Statute made in the reign of King James of happy memory which alloweth Engrossers to hoard up Corn for no other purpose but this which Statute I wish all men that can spare their money to take notice and to maste use of the same for their own advantage as wel as for the publick benefit and let them not doubt of their gain which must needs prove certain howsoever yea though nature should divers years together prove a loving Nurse and not play the Step-mother by administring too much rain or too much drought or too little of either which is sometimes seen three or four years together though very seldom and if it happen so yet by turning the Arable land into Grasse it hath alwaies come to passe as I have diligently observed for many years that the price of Corn hath been doubled at the least Now that I have done with the preventions of cheapnesse I will proceed to the preventions of dearth which may be partly done by the storing of Corn and partly by my new Invention for the expeditious setting of Corn which is so easie and quick for dispatch that he that hath an ordinary plowland viz. sixty acres in Tillage may set it all in due time and pay his charges with the fourth part of the money which he may sell his corn for presently besides the increase of the succeeding crop which wil be a third part more at least and will come in a good time for it is never seen that corn is very cheap the next year after a dear And by this meanes a good Farmer may sow twenty quarters in his seed corn which is worth twice as much mony as it is other yeares and how much corn will be thus sowed in the whole kingdom I lean to the estimation of all men and suppose that they will confess that if every Farmer keep these Engine ready for such times howsoever they make not so great use thereof in time of exceeding cheapness that it may well be called store-corn and is more effectual and preserveth greater abundance of Corn for the prevention of dearth then all the store-houses that ever were in the world I have taken the more pains and
in or near his Orchard and then taking all earth he may conveniently from his fruit trees root he putteth this Sult unto them and this every two years and that he hath thus recovered old decaying Trees and such as had scarce bark or any life left in them and that his other Trees have shot forth and fructified double and treble to what they did before For the Devonshire Gent. I am hopelesse of seeing him again but his relation concerning Furzes was to this effect That they valued them much in Devon and sowed their seed for hedges to shelter their Cattel and for Fuel and that they found them very profitable for fruit-trees being young to hang about their bodies neer the ground to defend them from Hares which usually bawk young Trees sheep and winds and that the dressis as he called the dust of them doth marvellously hearten the earth in which they grow if laid upon the ground onely round about them and that they value that dust for that use above any horse dung They are of excellent use to keep Mice out of Barn-floors for being laied under the Corn Mice and Rats avoid touching the floors So Reeks of Corn that stand from the ground upon piles of Wood and Cheese-racks that have Furzes bound in the way where the vermin might creep are sufficiently secured The Lady D. told me that at Islington being annoied with Rats she was advised to take Furzes and place them in the passages and holes where Rats entred her rooms and that she was fully cleared of them by that means Thus contempâ—ible things are of precious use by the order of him that made nothing in vain An Estimate made some years ago of the great destruction of Corn by the multitude of Pidgeon-houses An Estimate of the great quantity of Corn that Pidgeons do eat spoil and destroy in the County of Cambridg and probata for every shire of England the one with the other as by due inquiry may be made appear as followeth viz. 1. THat there are in the County of Cambridge 163 Parishes and in every Parish one with another 3 Dove-houses every house hath in it at least one with another 200 holes which are bred in and in every hole a pair of Pidgeons which breed besides those that have no mates which breed not of whose number no notice is taken which devour eat and spoil much Corn also 2. That it hath and may be proved that a Pidgeon hath had at one time in her Crop 1000 Wheat Corns which is about a pint a Pidgeon doth feed thrice a day then conceive what every Pidgeon doth spoil eat and devour in a year but to come to a far lesse scantling that a Pidgeon doth eat but half a pint a day besides that he spoileth by the space of six weeks in the harvest time onely besides that he beateth much down and spoil in beating down the standing Corn that amounteth unto at least at the rates aforesaid for every Pidgeon house the one with the other 39 Combs and 6 pecks one sort of Corn grain with another the which tother at 10 s. the Comb comes unto 19 l. 13 s. 9 d. but let it be granted as true it is that every Pidgeon house eateth besides that he otherwise spoileth to the value of 20 l. worth by the space of six weeks as aforesaid and the number of Parishes in the whole Nation being 9533. as Whites Almanack said besides Londen and so rate every shire with the County of Cambridge at 3 Dove-houses for every Parish the one with the other for in some Parishes there be farre more at which rate the whole Kingdom amounteth unto 28599. devouring Dove-houses the which at the several rates aforesaid commeth unto 571980 l. damage to the whole Kingdom in six weeks space onely but it is conceived they haue nine weeks in the harvest to eat and spoil in which it may amount to half as much more besides that they devour at seeds and other times in their several waies 3. That the multitude of Dove-houses are winked at and are suffered to stand in many places for the ingendring of Peter where some of the Owners thereof not sowing any Corn at all and some other having but a little Land with Corn of their own inheritance And moreover the profit of any Dove house is not worth to the Owner thereof the 40. part of that which the Pidgeons devour onely in six weeks space besides what they beat out and spoil 4. That the damage then in what the Pidgeons eat devour and spoil in the whole Kingdom in six weeks space at the rates aforesaid amounteth unto One Million seven hundred and seventeen thousand nine hundred and forty pound at the least 5. But if it may be proved that they eat and devour by the space of nine weeks as aforesaid then it will amount to the sum of Two Millions five hundred seventy three thousand nine hundred and ten pounds damage to the Kingdom in that space which is more than all the Pidgeons and Peter made in the Kingdom is forty times worth 6. That if it may be computed how many poor people of six persons in a Family at a bushel a week for every family that which the Pidgeons doe eat and destroy in the space aforesaid will maintain so many thousand families for nine weeks space which is a thing worthy to be thought upon and reformed by the Parliament 7. That in some Towns where there are not above fifty or sixty Families there are ten or twelve Dove-houses and the best owners thereof except Lords of the Mannors have not above forty or threescore acres of ploughed land in the Town besides that it will be proved that in some Parishes there are two or three Dove-houses where is not one Acre of ploughed land in these Parishes 8. That Judge Crook at an Assize time was of opinion that it was neither fitting nor lawfull for any man to have a Dove-house when so many poor people and their families may be maintained with the Corn that the Doves doe eat spoyl and devour Another Estimate by way of confirmation of destructive Pidgeon-houses PIdgeons can fly farre for the filling of their crops and return the same night so long as Pidgeons can get Corn they will eat little lesse They begin to eat Corn about the end of Jâ—ly at which time the Corn which is before hand sprung up in the ear and that ear pretty well filled begins to ripen or turn colour and they hardly want Corn till the end of Barly seeding which is about May day which in all amounts to two hundred and eighty daies or thereabouts the rest of the time they live on benting c. There are in England and Wales at least 24000 Dove-houses and there cannot be lesse than 500 pair of old Pidgeons in each house one with the other which amounts to 2000000 of pairs To speak very modestly each pair of old Pidgeons with what they carry
Letter from Dublin I Have dispersed that Paper of Sir Ri. Westons Directions you did me the favour to send me about the Husbandry of Clover and I am to return you humble thanks for it though there doth remain a very matterial scruple about it which is That if they sow it with the Barley or Oats it must needs spring up and be ripe before the Barley and consequently at the mowing of the Barley will either be mixt with it so as not well to be separated or must be trodden down and spoiled by it This I being not able to answer must intreat you to take a little pains to satisfie me and to communicate what you have experimentally been informed concerning it I am to solicite you also in the name of some young Husbandmen and other Improvers here to procure them a parcel of choice good new and excellent Clover-seed who are resolved according as this takes so to follow that Husbandry As therefore the good successe of this will much incourage our young Undertakers so if this Seed should prove bad and not thrive it would as much discountenance all our new Projectors The Doubts and Queres in the Letter from Dublin resolved IN Answer to the Questions youâ— make concerning the sowing of Clover with other Corn I can say that onely which my experience hath taught me viz. That Polish Oats are the best Corn to be sown with Clover about the middle of April two bushels and a half or three bushels of Oats will be enough which yeelding a middle crop of Oats at harvest will shadow the Clover from the heat of the Sun and leave the Clover at the time of mowing 2 or 3 inches high and no more which will be a notable pasture in September or October following and will according to my experience Winter 2 or 3 Sheep of an Acre For the profit of the second Summer and so forward A Kentish-man by name Sir Thomas Payton gave me this relation of his own experience viz. That by cutting of it and feeding of Cattel in racks under a tolle of trees six Acres did maintain between the middle of April and the middle of October that is half a year 13 Cows 10 Oxen 3 Horses and 26 Hogs which aâ— 12 d. a week for the Bullock or Horse and 2 d. for a Hog comes to above 30 s. a week which is 40 l. for the 26 weeks which is not lesse then 20 Nobles for the Summer profit of an acre besides what it yeelds in the Winter which is also considerable Sir Rich. Weston applies this Husbandry to the improvement of barren ground but my experience and judgement are that the best improvement is upon the best ground nor is 10 s. or 15 s. an acre considerable to the certainty which rich land gives to an improvement that is so great in it self The common practise also imploies this Husbandry by way of mowing of the Land but my opinion is and practise shall be to pasture it which instead of impoverishing the ground as mowing by experience doth will much better the ground by the abundance of stock which is continually kept upon it upon the same reason as foddering of land doth Note also that the Clovergrasse is most excellent food for Bees An Answer to more Queres concerning the Husbandry of Clover-grasse Q. THe quality of the ground Clover-grasse delights in A. Any light sandy or hazel-mould-land is best to bear Clover and though barren land wil bear it yet fresh and rich ground doth by experience return best profit Q. The manner of preparing the ground A. There cannot be too much cost in preparing the ground and making it free from all manner of other grass Q. The season and manner of sowing the seed A. Clover is usually sown with Barly Polish Oats sometimes with Flax or with any seeds that are sown in April The best manner of sowing that I have been able to learn is to mix it by quarters of pounds or lesse quantities with such proportions of sand as when all the parcels are put together they may make two bushels and a half or tbree bushels or any such proportion as fits an ordinary sowers hand and thus it may be sown like any other Corn with a full hand some at the first did use to sow 4 or 5 pounds upon an Acre others have used to sow 10 pounds and I shall next Spring sow more It is usually about the spring-time sold in London for 12 or 14 d. the pound but by the help of some Belgick Merchant it may be had thence for 6 d. the pound or perhaps for lesse Q. The best use of it for Cattel A. The best way that I can learn of feeding Cattel with it is to cut it and to give it them in the Racks within some little grown or shady places and a proportion of swine will grow very fat with what falls from the Racks In this manner as I am credibly informed 6 acres did feed all this summer time more Oxen Milch-cows Horses and Hogs then not being my own experience I am willing to name Q. The way of saving or getting it out A. To this my experience reaches not but in this I am fully satisfied that our own seed is best and freest from cousenage It lasts three or four or more years in the ground according as the ground is good and at first well peopled with it This is all that my experiences reacheth unto concerning Clover Concerning the Threshing of Clover-seed THe Clover-Seed is a Seed very difficult to thrash They Must bee good Thrashers that can Thrash six Gallons in a day The way used by a great Husbandman of Clover in Kent is first to Thrash off the heads which easily part which being seperated from the Straw he used to Thrash over again until it seem all as chass or dust which after he winnowed with a Fan as long as the dust flyeth out Amongst the dust there wil remain some small heads unbroken which he separated or Thrasht over again as before I hope it will be no offence to give this publike notice that one Mr. Stoughton a Gentleman that lives in Norfolk hath for many years since used the Husbandry of Clover-Grass and hath an easie way by the help of a kind of Mil to Shell the Husk from the Seed whereby his Seed will not stand him in 2d per Pound An Extract of a Letter written from Dublin May 16. 1654. concerning the Husbandry of Clover in Ireland I Was at the charge for sending for a hundred weight of Clover-grasse seed on purpose to incourage the chief of our friends here to undertake the Husbandry of it and when it came I sowed some in my own ground some I sent to Col. J. some to Col. H. some to Capt. V. and to other Collonels and Officers of the Army Lately I furnished some of it to two Gentlemen in the Country that were excellent Husbandmen And thus I dispersed it giving away
some parcels and selling some other and sowing the most part of it with others in Partnership But though I vsed that care I did it to procure good seed and though I am as confident of Mr. M. my friends care who had it where you directed him and staid for it while the Merchant told him he had new come over Yet none of all these parcels I speak of so much as came up save one handfull of it which sowed in my garden And my friends here have sufficiently abused me for it Pray Sir present my humble service to honest Sir C. Culpepper when you write to him and my thanks for his so free communications of his Clover-grasses husbandry An Answer to the foregoing extract concerning the miscarriage of the Husbandry of Clover in Ireland I Am sorry the Hushandry of Clover hath received such a blast in Ireland in its first essay having observed how much more men are ordinarily ready to judge of things by the successe of some one trial ill made then to take the pains to weigh and consider in which of the particulars which belong more or fewer to every action there may have been some failing One of the most ordinary wayes of failing which I have observed in this Husbandry is in the Seed which comes to us sometimes two yeares old old and very seldome other then what is mixed and this I know by dear experience of my own heretofore and of a very neer friends this last Spring A second consideration is the ground which for a general Rule ought to be light and tending rather to the sand then clay A third but very considerable Observation is that the season be very clear and free of all other grasse or roots and as fiâ—e worked as if it were for a garden which is a circumstance not more necessary then it is little observed A fourth Consideration though not so general if the drought of the Fumer which hath as I hear spoiled much Clover this spring and not lesse I fear then 20. acres of mine if the ground have not helped me by its being proper and good But if these particulars be well observed I can from my own and others experience assure you that it will upon an easie account double and treble the profit or rent of the Land and that an acre if managed by the Owner will yeeld as much to all intents as 5 l. worth of other pasture The greatest fault which I find in this Husbandry is that if the ground be stil cut or mowed it will like Corn impoverish the ground for no man can eat his cake and yet still have it to prevent this great inconvenience and to turn it to an advantage my self intends to try how it will thrive and what return it will make being pastured I have known already the experience of some who have this spring before there was any pasture elsewhere kept 8 Sheep of an acre which is double the proportion which the best land in Rumney Marsh will bear if this upon trial prove well I cannot but think that this way of pasturing of Clover will be a kind of foddering of the land and â—ather improve then impair it An Extract of another Letter in reference to the fore-going Answer PRay thank Sir C. C. heartily for his accurate Animadversions upon Clovergrasse upon consideration of which I am pretty well satisfied We failed in the point of Husbandry and ordering the Land sowing it somewhat rudely as is done with other grain But though this was the failer the discredit falls upon the Climate so quickly are mens patiences tired and so easily are their judgements abused as Sir Ch. very well observes being ready to suspect and accuse any thing rather then our own error More Extracts of Letters concerning French Seeds of St. Foine and Lucerne Paris 23. Novemb. 1652. THe name of St. Foine is in some parts of France communicated to Lucern although the generality thereof have appropriated the same to another kind of fodder extreamly differing from it all manner of ways viz. the Onobrychis Antiquorum wherewith Medica that is the true Latine name of Lucern hath nothing common When I find an opportunity I shall send you some of the seed of each according to their usual denominations here the sight whereof and much more its planting will soon convince all contradictors Paris Decemb. 21. 165â— I have delaied the sending of the seeds of St-Foin and Lucern because I thought they were desired for sowing to see what herbs they would produce for which end they would have come time enough two or three moneths hence But seeing that the sight of themselves is desired you shall have them out of hand More of Lucern Paris March 22. 1653. DR H. told me that a Merchant who dealeth much in Oranges Lemmons and other Provence Wares had told him that within a few days he expected 10 or 12. mules loaden with those commodities among which there would be good store of Lucern seed and that of 3 several sorts for so many there is which I never knew before and Dr. H. shewed me Paterns of every one of them having got them of the said Merchant Therefore I wished him to send unto Sir C. not 25 l. of any one of them we not knowing nor able to learn here which is the best sort but 5 or 6 lib. of every sort the which Sir C. having sown all and seen them grow he may consider which he liketh best and have of that as much as he pleaseth the next year The Answer Of the 3 sorts of Lucern mentioned in Dr. B. Letter of March 22. 1653. my desire is to have of each sort as much as will plentifully sow an English Acre and rather more than lesse I shall under correction of better experience write my own apprehensions concerning the quantity that serves for an Acre viz. That of that Lucern seed of which I received formerly a sample 15 lib. if good will sow an acre of the other 2. sorts of seeds if bigger there must be so much more if they be lesser seeds there must be so much lesse or fewer pounds of each Kind This still supposed that the seeds be naked and not like St-Foin closed in a cod for in that case there ought another consideration to be had of it More Queries about Lucerne and the Seed called Esparcet I Am well acquainted with the Saint-Foyne Seed which you received from Paris but as for the Lucerne seed I doe upon sight of it conceive it to be no other than the Clover seed that is commonly procured here from Flanders being meliorated in France only by growing nearer the Sun And therefore I heartily wish that you friend could certifie you of his certain knowledge of the Flanders Clover-seed and of the different natures if any of those two seeds But howsoever it prove I should be very glad if by your friends kindnesse I might by the first of April or before receive twenty
Children A Last of Rape-seed is ten Quarters or eighty Bushels and three shillings is the ordinary price of a bushel One Acre is sowed with half a peck sufficiently and will yeeld replanted according to the goodnesse of the ground and seasonablenesse of the year 40 l. 30 l. 20 l. and at the least 10 l. per acre The whole charge to sow an Acre and all things thereto belonging first and last will stand in three pound Rent and all for the Rot amongst the Sheep and Murrain amongst Cattle must needs make Land cheaper If therefore there were found a hundred men of indifferent quality that would disburse each man tea pound sterling and commit all their stocks into one hand to be managed by that person as one that is known to be skilful and so able to undertake and pass through the work for the raising of a portion for their child or children respectively they would finde this advantage thereby viz. They should onely spare the said ten pound for the two first years and no more at the end whereof it should be returned and so they have given that child no other portion point-blank more than the use of ten pound for two yeares which is but two and thirty shillings 2. They should be at no charge to keep or maintain the same child save onely the first two years for at the end of the third year they should receive competent maintenance for the same year and so continue or increase the same so long as the grand stock is suffered to lye in the Stewards hands which is to be understood that during the first seaven yeares the Steward cannot give it up but by consent of the owner but after that he may ease himself of the burthen when it grows too heavy as he shall see cause 3. He will have a most plentifull provision for his childe without any trouble to himself or at all diverting his intentions by only allowing the Steward one tenth part from time to time as the reward of his care skil paines and expence of his time which must be chiefly dedicated to this service And here I present it more lively to your view in the following Table Years Acres Charge Increase 1 3 9 30 2 6 18 60 3 9 27 90 4 18 54 180 5 42 126 420 6 102 306 1020 7 291 582 2910 For all 29100 58200 291000 Deductions for the Poor Maintainance of your child Return of your first summe Remains 3 7 0 20 6 14 10 30 9 21 00 60 18 22 00 140 42 38 00 340 102 48 00 970 291 59 00 2560 29100 5900 00 256000 By this time you may perceive that the Steward did the last year manage 29100 Acres which is full enough and therefore he cannot well goe further this way By this time you may perceive that every Engager hath benefited the poor 471 l. and by all together the poor are relieved with 47100 l. A blessed deed it is and your reward follows it close at the heels for all your children are made richer by 256000 l. and every particular child hath a portion raised of 2560 l. and all parties are well contented since your Steward also must acknowledge himself well payd Insomuch that if any his good Masters shall desire to have all oâ— part of the said stocks longer to remain in his hands for a farther improvement he will surely be willing to advance them in other waies to the best advantage And by this means also some thousands of working poor are provided for A Scale of the Charges of the Table formerly presented with the Scale of some other Tables to demonstrate that advantageous Proposition SIR WHereas in the paper I presented to you yesterday I have in a Table been bold to set down what I know to be very true and as certain as most ordinary humane affairs yet in regard I know also that the spirits of too many men in this Age especially are not only backward to attempt or incourage good actions but are even ready to catch hold of any critical argument whereby they suppose they can blast an honest rational and advantageous Proposition I thought it necessary to prevent all disputes of that nature by adding the following Table and the Scales of Charge by which either that or this is to be measured And first the Scale of the Table formerly presented Rent for one Acre 00.13.04 Seed half a peck 00.00.06 First ploughing 00.02.06 Burning 00.05.00 Seed ploughing 00.03.04 Replanting and taking up 00.16.00 Re-ploughing 00.03.04 Cutting and thrashing 00.13.00 Fencing 00.07.00 Â 03.00.00 The Scale of the second table the charge of one Acre Rent 00.13.04 Seed half a peck 00.00.06 First ploughing 00.02.06 Burning 00.05.00 Seed ploughing 00.03.04 Cutting and Thrashing 00.12.04 Fencing 00.03.00 Â 02.00.00 The second table now presented accompting but five pound per Acre the Crop Years Acres Increase 1 4 a half 22 l. 10 s. 2 10 50 3 18 60 4 36 210 5 81 405 6 155 775 7 304 1220 Deducted for the Poor Maintainance Remainder 00 00 22 l. 10 s. 00 00 40 and the 10 l. payd 09 10 80 21 19 180 40 20 345 77 23 675 122 28 1070 26000 10000 347000 By this it appears that valuing the Crop but at 5 l. per Acre which no man can except against each man will have his 10 l. repayed at the end of the second year and will out of onely 16 s. stock raise for his child a portion of 1000 l. and upwards and for the relief of the Poor about 260 l and for the present maintainance of his child after the two first and until the end of the seventh 100 l. And if men would but be sensible how certain or at least probable it is that the first scale of charge will produce the return of 10 l. per acre per annum then men need venture their 10 l. but till the end of the first year onely when it should be returned and yet their stock run up to the proportion discovered in the next Table and also both the poor and their children receive good maintenance the second Year The Third Table valuing the crop at 10 l. per Acre Years Acres Increase 1 3 30 2 6 26 3 12 100 4 27 270 5 43 430 6 111 1110 7 294 2940 Deducted for the Poor For the Child Remains 0 00 20. And the 10 l. Returned 6 14 40 12 18 90 27 13 240 43 17 370 111 19 980 294 26 2620 49300 10700 Â By this it appears that by onely sparing 10 l. and that but for one year you have purchased or provided for your Child as his Portion or Estate 2620 l. and for his present maintenance after the first year that is to say for the other six by unequal proportions 107 l. and the Poor are bettered by all this in the seven yeares by 493 l. from every particular Interest and by the whole Stewardship or hundred persons or stocks
by 49300 l. And all this is done in seven years which any man may reasonably hope by the blessing of God that he may live to see it effected If any man ask why this great advance here held forth is not followed hardly by any one man living The answer is not far off viz. Few men do understand these wayes fewer will give themselves leave to cast up their accompts for the future or take care to put their endeavours for gain into so honest a method For indeed in a manner all men are from their youth brought up either in idlenesse and vanity and by that meanes are utterly carelesse of all wayes to thrive and of the honestest most or if they be brought up to businesse they are so sixt before they come to a ripe understanding such as is able to distinguish and choose that they neither will nor well can winde themselves out of their present Imployment or former Engagements And indeed men are too generally possest with a too sturdy dislike of any thing how excellent soever that is out of their common path and by so much their dislike thereto also increased by how much those courses propounded incline more to virtue But if all such dispersed spoaks and vallies were fixed in one Center viz. a faithfull carefull skilfull Steward it might make such a wheele as would be ever turning round in the right atchievement of an even almost infinite and endlesse prosperity Farewel A Proposition concerning Rape-seed wherein the charge is set down with the most the return with the least but both in the common way ONe Acre of Marsh land fit for Rape l. s. d. may be taken for 00.13.04 May be ploughed the first time for 00.03.04 May be burned for 00.06.08 Will be sowed with half a peck of seed worth 00.00.09 May be ploughed the second time for feeding for 00.04.08 May be fenced for 00.04.03 May be reaped for 00.10.00 May be thrashed for 00.07.00 The whole charge of an Acre is 02.10.00 If God please to send but the ordinary blessing upon this there cannot be lesse than five Quarters but it is not unusual to have six seven eight nine or sometimes ten Quarters upon one Acre One Quarter of good Rape seed is worth alwaies and at least four and twenty shillings and so the least return of one Acre five Quarters is worth l. s. d. 06.00.00 The Straw may be worth though it be but to burn 00.03.04 The whole profit is 06.03.04 From this deduct the charge 02.10.00 There remains as clearly gained 03.13.04 Whosoever engages twelve pound gains 14.13.04 Whosoever engages four and twenty gains 29.06.08 Whosoever engages thirty gains 36.13.04 Whosoever engages threescore gains 73.06.08 Whosoever engages a hundred gains 124.13.04 It appears that he that engageth deepest hath the advantage and that all mens moneys is more than doubled and all this in the common way which I shall endeavour to make much better by the blessing of God If any ask why an Engagement of twelve pound in stead of ten is desired it is for the reward or subsistance of the Steward of the work who after the first year and when engagements are become deeper will accept one tenth part in the beginning of each year of the stock for his charges and pains and at the end of the year one tenth part of the Increase for the reward of his care and skill or come to a certainty of profit to the Engager and himself have no other reward but the over plus when they are satisfied be it more or lesse as God shall blesse his endeavours If any man doubt of the truth of this let him resolve himself by a free and ingenious enquiry of such as have dealt in this commodity A Proposition for sowing of Hemp whereby also a way is shown to set most of the present Poor to work without prejudice or oppression or altering any Law already established FOr the more general sorts of Poor I humbly conceive that what followeth may be a good way and open to them a door of subsistence without wrong or losse either of wealth or freedom to any subject of England since in it all things are to be done in love and order the Rich invited by the Profit and the poor comming in as to a safe harbour where he may rest secure under the Lee of this opportunity from the dangerous working of those many and strong tentations their poverty is accompanied with and from the danger of the severe prosecution of the known Laws against Idlenesse which will become altogether good if all pretence or excuse be thus taken away and the person once taken notice of be uncapable of any second forbearance I say then that sowing Hemp is the most certain way how with gaines to all parts many hands may be set to work but if any man think Flax better he may use it yet I must tell you that Flax as sometimes it turnes to greater profit than Hemp so it is not so certain and after Flax the ground is not so right for Corn as after Hemp which indeed prepares land excellently for Corn but the chief reason is that the persons to be employed are more likely to do good at first especially on Hemp than Flax the other being the more choice and difficult work in all points requiring more care and skil and the vent for Flax also is nothing so ready as that of Hemp the uses being not so many nor so great and we may equal the works of other Nations in Hemp not presently in Flax. If there will appear a hundred honest able worthy Englishmen that will engage each man six thousand pound to set forward this good work or if not just so yet more men and lesse stocks amounting to that proportion viz. of stock engaged in all six hundred thousand pound I shall onely hold forth the private and publique Advantages and may boldly promise them besides Gods blessing and their Countries love together with the conveniency of taking the most safe course one of them at least that can be imagined in these times The six hundred thousand pound will sow about threescore thousand Acres and defray all charges first and last till the Hemp he converted into Cordage Cloth c. and fit for sale That is ten pound for an Acre and each Acre will set above two hundred persons to work for one day the whole will set above forty thousand to work all the year Every Acre well managed will yeeld at least twenty bushels of seed which at two shillings the bushel is forty shillings the Acre or a hundred and twenty thousand pound for the whole and each Acre so managed may yeeld at least five hundred and sixty pound of Cloth or Cordage worth one with another five pence the pound in all for one Acre sixteen pound sterling and in all for the grand stock nine hundred and sixty thousand pound sterling by which three hundred and sixty thousand pound is
gained that is about fourteen shillings in the pound gained yearly And for two years after the same ground will bear most excellent Wheat Rye or Barley all charges payed to the value of four Quarters of Barley on an Acre worth one time with another twenty shillings a Quarter al a hundred and twenty thousand Quarters and so also a hundred and twenty thousand pound yearly Thus shall forty thousand Poor be kept constantly at work all the year and the Commonwealth eased of that burthen and advantaged besides a hundred and fifty thousand Quarters of Hemp-seed a hundred and fity thousand tun of Cloth and Cordage and above a hundred and twenty thousand Quarters of good Corn and the Undertakers amongst them shall gain clearly three hundred and sixty thousand pound sterling yearly This is set down purposely the Charge with the most and the Return with the least And if the number of so many Rich men cannot be found to engage for any of these sums more persons and lesse engagements may begin the work An Answer to five Queres or Objections against the Proposition for setting the Poor to work upon Hemp growing or to be growing in England Qu. 1. WHether those in France c. practising this way do make the Gaines here supposed all Casualties considered Answ Whether they in France c. doe make so great or greater profit I cannot tell as having never been there to see but 't is probable they doe equal this if their ground be equal as some will have it superiour to ours in fertility and fitnesse for this weed Qu. 2. Whether we can spare the land here in England or whether it is not already imployed to more benefit Answ To this I can better answer as the thing I pretty well know that the Land may not onely be spared but will otherwise very much enrich us and advance our plenty of Corn and this is declared in the Proposition and the Question therefore not so pertinent Yet for a farther Answer I affiâ—m that there is demonstratively in England and Wales above 4000000 of Acres for Tillage and you finde but forty thousand Acres to be used yearly for the sowing of Hemp which is but the hundereth part and it is there promised that in the two or three succeeding years wherein the same land shall be sowed with Corn amends shall be fully made for the missing of that yeares crop and more by the goodnesse of those that follow The last part of this Quere is soon answered for it is generally known that an Acre of Corn taking one time place grain with another throughout is hardly worth forty shillings whereas a reasonable Acre of Hemp is worth standing four pound some five pound some six pound and very many more And then the Acre of Corn is worth no more than it shews for whereas the Hemp to the Commonwealth as well as the particular owner is of far greater value if we consider that one Acre of Hemp well wrought up may be worth above a hundred pound but then the charge may amount to the better half indeed Qu. 3. Whether by the inexperience of the people of this Land other Nations will not very much under-sell us Answ I could as well have propounded Flax as Hemp since in many cases and places it is more usefull and profitable but â— onely name it in the Proposition and if you observe the reason there given for so doing you will find much of this Question answered or prevented But how far other Nations may under-sell us or we them I leave to the judgment of those that are more Merchant-like to which I lay no claim but at most to be one that would fain be a good Inland Husband a Lover of my Country and a faithful seeker of her Peace Prosperity by all just and lawful means Yet thus much I can say to the point that to my knowledge many hundreds I think I may say thousands of Acres are with great advantage to the possessors imployed in this way namely in the Isle of Axholm and other the parts of Lincolush c. which place is more populous than any part of England that I know and yet few or no Beggars And I have a little lookt into the prizes yet I find not English hemp differ much in price from that which is imported it seems to me that necessity rather as not having enough at home causes such importing I have seen a Hull Merchant stand upon three pence a pound for raw Hemp when the same day English Hemp that was adjudged every whit as good was sold for two pence half penny I have also known Hemp fetched by Waggon from Bourn in Lincolnshire to Glocester upon the River of Severn And our Experience certainly we may blush to say we have not sufficient skill to make Cordage or such kinds of coarse cloath as the Proposition intends namely such as is commonly used to make Sheets Table-cloathes Towels Napkins and the coarser sorts of Shirting or the like As for the finer sorts we may work our selves into the kill and practice of making such by degrees and at more leasure Qu. 4. Whether when we make so much Linnen Cordage as here we shall have so good vent for our Native commodities for which Cordage Hemp c. is returned Answ As I said I pretend not to judge of Merchants affairs yet I have not heard of any of our native commodities which are vented for Hemp or Cordage or the like which will not be acceptable to the same or other Countries for the return of as good commodities Once I am sure that those commodities are onely or at least most fit to import which we cannot so well make native to us as Spices Wines Drugs Medicinal Silkes c. And I suppose it cannot be unhappy or unfit for us to make as many our own as by good meanes we can especially Hemp Cordare c. since we cannot be without them and are not sure alwaies to hold fair correspondence with those Nations from whom we have them the chief strength of England principally consisting in Shipping 't is but a coarse policy to have our Cordage c. to keep Qu. 5. Who will advance so great a summe in unsetled times upon a New Trade having in it the afore-mentioned and perhaps more difficulties Answ If you please to observe my Proposition you will find I say onely if such men may be found I promise not to find them but if they will finde themselves I hold forth to them the sweet invitation of a greater advantage than I beleeve they can otherwise obtain by direct and good means And then adde to that the double and treble service or good they shall all under one do tax for their Christian Brethren and native Country And if this will not this will not invite cannot perswade them yet me-thinks we should rather take occasion to bewaile our own theirs and the Commonwealths misery and aversnesse
venture to give some hints that some more able Pen may engage in this difficult Question which strikes at the Root of Nature and may unlock some of her choycest treasures The Lord Bacon hath gathered stubble as he ingeniously and truly affirms for the bricks of this foundation but as yet I have not seen so much as a solid foundation plainly laid by any on which an ingenious man might venture to raise a noble Fabrick I acknowledge the burthen too heavy for my shoulders I will not deny but that we have good Husbands who dung and Marle their Meadows and Pasture-land and throw down all Mole and Ant-hills and with their Spud-staffe cut up all thistles and weeds and that they likewise straw ashes on their Grounds to kill the Mosse and salt for the Wormes and they doe very well but yet there are many who are negligent in these particulars for the which they are blame-worthy but the Deficiencies of which I intend to speak of are these following Cato one of the wisest of the Romans saith that Pratum est quasi paratum alwayes ready and prepared and preferreth Meadows before the Olive-Gardens although the Spaniards bequeath Olive-trees to their children as we do cottages or Vines or Corn because Meadows bring in a certain profit without labour and pains But the other requireth much cost and paines and are subject to Frosts Mildew Haile Locusts to the which for the honour of Meadows I may adde that the stock of Meadows is of greater value and the Commodities which arise from them are divers and of greater value then Corn as Butter Cheese Tollow Hides Beef Wool and therefore I may conclude that England abounding in Pastures more then other Countreys is therefore richer and I know what others think I care not that France Acre for Acre is not comparable to it Fortescue Chancelour of England saith that we get more in England by standing still then the French by working but to speak of the Deficiencies amongst us 1. We are to blame that we have neglected the great Clover-grass Saint Foine Lucerne 2. That we do not float our lands as they do in Lumbard where they mowe their Lands three or four times yearly which consist of the great Clover-grass Here are the excellent Parmisane Cheeses made and indeed these Pastures far exceed any other places in Italy yea in Europe We here in England have great opportunities by Brooks and Rivers in all places to do so but we are negligent yet we might hereby double if not treble our profits kill all rushes c. But he that desireth to know the manner how to do this and that profit that will arise thereby let him read Mr. Blithes Book of Husbandry lately printed 3. That when we lay downe Land for Meadow or Pasture we doe not sowe them with the Seeds of fine sweet grasse Trefoils and other excellent herbs Concerning this you may read a large Treatise of the Countrey-Farmer for if the Land be rich it will put forth weeds and trumpery and perhaps a kind of soure grasse little worth if it be poor ye shall have thistles May-weed and little or no grasse for a year or two I know a Gentleman who at my entreaty sowed with his Oats the bottome of his Hay-mow and though his Land were worne out of heart and naturally poor yet he had that year not onely a Crop of Oats but he might if it had pleased him have mowen his grasse also but he spared it which was well done till the next year that it might make a Turffe and grow stronger By this Husbandry Lands might be well improved especially if men did consider the diversity of grasses which are ninety sorts and three and twenty of Trefoil I know a place in Kent which is a white Chalky Down which ground is sometimes sown with Corn a year or two and then it resteth as long or longer when it is laid down it maintaineth many great Sheep and very lusty so that they are even fit for the Butcher and yet there doth scarce appear any thing that they can eat which hath caused divers to wonder as if they had lived on Chalk-stones but I more seriously considering the matter throughly viewed the ground and perceived that the ground naturally produceth a small Trefoil which it seemeth is very sweet and pleasant it 's commonly called Trifolium luteum or Lupilinum that is yellow or Hop-Trefoil and I am perswaded if that the Seed of this Trefoil were preserved and sowne with Oates when they intend to lay it down it would very much advance the Pasture of that place therefore I desire all Ingenious men seriously to consider the nature of the Trefoils which are the sweetest of grasses and to observe on what grounds they naturally grow and also the nature of other grasses which as I have said before are no less then ninety sorts naturally growing in this Isle some on watry places some on dry some on clay others on sand chalk c. Some on fruitful places others in barren by the which means I suppose a solid foundation might be laid for the advancing of Pasture-lands of all sorts through this Island for I know some plants as the Orchis call'd Bee-flower c. which will thrive better on the Chalky barren banks then in any Garden though the Mould be never so rich and delicate and the Gardiner very diligent in cherishing of it and why may not the same propriety be in grasses for we see diverse beuty grasses to thrive espcially on barren places where scarce any thing else will grow I must again and again desire all men to take notice of the wonderfull grass which groweth near Salisbury and desire them to try it on their rich Meadows It 's a common saying that there are more waste lands in England in many particulars then in all Europe besides considering the quantity of land I dare not say this is true but hope if it be so that it will be mended For of late much hath been done for the advancement of these kinds of land yet there are as yer great Deficiencies In the times of Papistry all in this Island were either Souldiers or Scholars Scholars by reason of the great honours priviledges and profits the third part of the Kingdom belonging to them and Souldiers because of the many and great Wars with France Scotland Ireland Wales And in those times Gentlemen thought it an honour to be carelesse and to have Houses Furniture Diet Exercises Apparel c. yea all things at home and abroad Souldier-like Musick Pictures Perfumes Sawces unlesse good stomacks were counted perhaps unjustly too effeminate In Queen Elizabeth's dayes Ingenuities Curiosities and Good Husbandry began to take place and then Salt-Marshes began to be fenced from the Seas and yet many were neglected even to our dayes as Holhaven in Essex Axtel-holme Isle nigh York-shire many 1000 of Acres have lately been gained from the Sea in Lincolne-shire and as