mouthes of such Madcaps in each Extreme and make good my Proposition I will begin and try whether I can hold out Enclosure without any Depopulation or the lest prejudice and then proceed to a full answer to the rest And secondly that your Arable or Common Field Lands or common Heathes Moores or Forrests may be highly Advanced that is out of question I suppose denyed scarce by any that have had seven years Experience of the Disproportion betwixt the profits of one Lordship in Common and the next adjoyning to it Inclosed The one worth three hundred pounds in Common the other near a thousand in Pasture Now here lyeth the Trick indeed to make this Improvement and neither Prejudice Poor nor Minister Labourer nor Farmer Tenant nor Landlord One or Other that hath any proper Right of interest therein and not Depopulate For the holding forth of which I will Demonstrate such a Method or way of Enclosure without Depopulation as all men in particular shall have a Proportionable Advance thereby and the Common Wealth a double or Treble and Tillage advanced also and so the one Extreme prevented and no man hindred all which shall admit of no other Inconvenience than this viz. The prevention in great measure of Idleness Oppression 't is true it will remove or take away it may be a Shepheard or a Boy or Girl from keeping Cattell who are more fit for School or Trade and put the Shepheard to the Spade or it may be prevent some great Oppressor of the Commons that drives off all poor Commoners off their Commons by his great Flocks and Heards whom this Project may drive off his Sheep walkes who lives just upon the Common side and eates out the Poor and others that live more remote And also happily prevent a Rot especially when t is Soarded which usually is once in four or five years in most part of this Nation which destroyes all before it and consumeth the Care and Paines of the Oppressor too and others together of all other yeares profit at once And possibly may for a little season bring down the price of Sheep Cattell and some other things by reason of plenty of Sheep so suddainly destroyed being of so ill a name to a low rate Which were it not for that Rotting Deluge their incrâ—ase would be beyond Arithmeticall Demonstration But for a long seasoâ— afterwards raiseth them to a double Rate immediately agâ—in And possibly it may be as an Engine to facilitate moâ—st parts of Husbandry and cause a great deal of work to be done with fewer hands and yet before the Discourse be ended I 'll find all sorts work enough to all mens Advantages whatsoever and these are the Inconveniences of Inclosure and good Husbandry others I know none the conveniences follow also if any more or greater shall be proposed I shall indeavour to Answer them in the Sequell CHAP. XII Sheweth the Lands capable of Enclosure and the Method of â—t how it Advanceth the Publick Weal and all particular Interests ANd to this end consider that all Lands capable of Enclosure are either Common Fields and Arable Lands Mens proper Right and Inheritance or else Common Pasturing upon Heaths Moor Marshs or Forrests Lands For the Enclosure of your common field Arable Land I lay down this Direction All Interests to be provided for which I conceive may be reduced to these four 1. First either Lord of the soyl or Landlord or 2. Secondly the Minister to the People or else 3. Thirdly the Freeholder Farmer or Tenant or lastly and 4. Fourthly the Poor Labourer or Cottier All which having some Interests more or less shall be seriously considered of Therefore I begin with the last the Poor Cottier or day Labourer and to provide for him because he hath ever been oppressed if any and last or least provided for And look what right or Interest he hath in Common I 'll first allot out his proportion into severall with the better rather than with the worse a Proportion out of every mans Inheritauce and so much or so many Cattell as he may keep in Common he shall keep in Pasture or rather more at as easie a rate as they pay for it in Common for their lives that now live upon it and ever after at an under Value and so I cannot possibly conceive that he hath any cause to be offended And for the Labourer you shall see how I shall provide for him too before I have done besides the allotment of his Proportion as to the Cottier or to what Right soever he hath of due or Custome Then for the Minister in the next place because he hath seemed to be the Opposer of it most usually And truly so he had good reason as the state of things formerly stood with him For though I believe that Tithes are neither consonant to a Gospell Minister the List of which dispute becomes me not nor I intend not to enter in nor yet Conducing to a sweet Compliance with his people Yet I also say that should a Minister either have accepted the peoples benevolence of our ordinary English Parishes for his pay Or have stood to the Courtesie of the Lord or Freeholder what he shonld have had upon the Inclosure I fear for the one it would have been too little for a Ministers Maintenance and for the other he might go barefoot and his Family a begging for what the Common people would Contribute to his Subsistence And therefore would have him to have his Proportion next and a very substantiall Livelihood allotted out of the Lands inclosed untill the State shall settle a more better or more suitable way of Maintenance for him If there be either a Competent number of people for him to preach unto or Competency of Land to raise it from in every Parish or else two or more Parishes that joyn conveniently to be laid together And according to what his Right or Proportion if he have it in way of Tithing to be inclosed or cast into pasture for him by himself with as much Conveniency for his dwelling as may be And where either Inclosure cannot be agreed upon or made as possibly in some parts it may not Consist with all mens advantages I conceive there may be an agreement made for the allotment of the Ministers proportion to be cast into Pasture so that were his Tenth Enclosed it would be so gallant a maintenance for him and contentfull to all Parties that it would remove all troubles or occasion of Confusion and Increase Love and Unity which Tithings have ever occasioned Divisions and Contentions Which either he may imploy his Wife and Family upon part thereof for necessary Maintenance And set with much more ease the rest to free his Family from Care and trouble And so receive his pay every half year without the least Distraction I would have him to have such a large Allotment and Proportion as might inable
VIVE LA REPUBLICK THE ENGLISH IMPROVER IMPROVED or the SVRVEY OF HVSBANDRY SVRVEYED Discovering the Improueableness of all Lands Some to be vnder a double and Treble others vnder a Five or Six Fould And many vnder a Tenn fould yea Some vnder a Twenty-fould Improuement By Wa Blithâ—â— a lover of Ingenuity All clearely demonstrated from Principles of Reason Ingenuity and late but most Real Experiences and held forth at an Inconsiderable charge to the Profits accrewing thereby under Six Peeces of Improvement 1 By Floting and Watering such Land as lieth capeable thereof 2 By drayning Fen Reducing Bog and Regaining Sea-lands 3 By such Enclosures as prevents Depopulation advanceth all Interests 4 By Tillage of some Land lost for want of and Pasturing others destroyed with Plowing 5 By a Discovery of all Soyles and Composts with their nature and use 6 By doubling the growth of Wood by a new Plantation The Third Impression much Augmented With an Additionall Discovery of the severall Tooles and Instruments in their Formes and Figures promised With a Second Part Containing Six Newer Peeces of Improvement 1 Our English Husbandring Claver grasse and St. Foyn as high as may be 2 The facilitating the charge and burthen of the Plough with divers Figures thereof 3 The Planting Welde Woad and Madder three rich commodities for Dyers 4 The Planting of Hops Saffron and Liquorish with their Advance 5 The Planting of Rape Cole-seed Hemp Flax and the profit thereof 6 The great Advance of Land by divers Orchards and Garden Fruits The Experimenting whereof makes good the Improvement promised Prov. 21. 5. The thoughts of the diligent bring abundance A diligent man shall stand before Kings Eccl. 9. 10. All therefore that thy hand shall find to do do it with all thy power for there is neither wisedome nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest London Printed for Iohn Wright at the Kings-head in the Old-Bayley 1653. To the Right Honorable the Lord Generall Cromwell and the Right Honorable the Lord President and the rest of that most Honorable Society of the Councill of STATE Right Honourable AS a Man or Christian out of pure love to Mankind I chuse rather to cast my self at Your Lordships Feet and come under Your greatest Censure for this high Presumption than to omit so necessary a Duty and Discovery as the substance of this discourse Imports Therefore dare not conceale the least inconvenience that may befall the Publique but take bolness to present my thoughts that Your non-apprehending the Prejudices hindring Improvement nor clearely your own Capassities to remove them and may be want of oportunity to consult about these lesser things though very great in themselves the practise whereof throughly promoted might make the greater more easie compared with our weighty and present affairs may in some measure be an accidentall cause that Improvements of our Lands go on no better although materially the cause is in our own sloth Prejudice and ill Husbandry And though I dare not present this rude Treatise unto Your Honors to crave so high Patronage yet I shall adventure these many most humble Representations of some Prejudices to Improvements that remain founded by a Law And of some other Obstacles as firmly rooted by Corruption that without your Honors Power and Wisdoms help therein the Improvements here tendred will be in great measure hindred To the removall whereof if Your Honors shall see cause to give incouragement either by an Addition of such Lawes as shall appear unto you wanting or Repealing such as hinder I shall not question but mens spirits will be raised to such Experimenting of the principles of Ingenuity as that wee may see this Common-wealth soon raised to her utmost fruitfullness and greatest glory The particulars here are too many here to discourse at large I shall therefore take boldness to present some few with some brief reasons to evince the same and they are very great discouragements to the Ingenuous and Active Prosecution of the Improvements of the Nation The first Prejudice is That if a Tenant be at never so great paines or cost for the improvement of his Land he doth thereby but occasion a greater Rack upon himself or else invests his Land-Lord into his cost and labour gratis or at best lies at his Land-Lords mercy for requitall which occasions a neglect of all good Husbandry to his own the Land the Land-Lord and the Common-wealths suffering Now this I humbly conceive may be removed if there were a Law Inacted by which every Land-Lord should be obliged either to give him reasonable allowance for his clear Improvement or else suffer him or his to enjoy it so much longer as till he hath had a proportionable requitall As in Flanders and else where in hiring Leases upon Improvement if the Farmer Improve it to such a Rate above the present value the Land-Lord gives either so many years purchase for it or allowes him a part of it or confirms more time of which the Tenant being secured he would Act Ingenuity with violence as upon his own and draw forth the Earth to yeeld her utmost fruitfullness which once being wrought unto perfection will easily be maintained and kept up at the height of fruitfullness which will be the Common-wealths great advantage Some Tenants have Advanced Land from Twenty pounds to Forty pounds per an and depending upon the Land-Lords favour have been wip'd of all and many Farmers by this uncertainty have been impoverished and left under great disgrace which might as well have been advanced The second Prejudice is against that great Improvement by floating Lands which exposeth the Improver to sute of Law for Turning a Watercourse by Millers or others which are minded to molest the Improvement although the Improvement be ten fold greaer than the Prejudice can be and the Advantage be far more publique than the others pretended loss can be yet few dare adventure upon the work for fear of being sued or molested Many great Improvements have been and are to this day hindred and ly dead because the Miller cannot be compounded with at any rate some I know whose Improvements might be Ten-fold and more the Millers Prejudice little if any at all because your exact husbands so clear all their boggy low parts and some time by their large draines break through many springs and issuing waters that they carry a better stream unto the Miller than he had before and his Improvement shall be able to supply a great part of the Country with Hay and Grass where was before but little and may be the Millars mill may be worth five or six pound per an few worth ten that usually stand upon these waters and let him be damnified what ever he can it is in no proportion to the Common wealths loss to such an Improvement The third Prejudice is where all mens Land lie intermixed in Common Fields or Meddowes The Ingenuous are disabled to the Improving theirs because others
thy industry in improving thy lauds viz. Some speciall directions when thy Lands are improved how to use them or stock them to the best advantage of the Common-wealth and thy profit and therein shall indeavour these five or six particulars First to hold forth the best way or meanes of breeding or rearing all sorts of cattle sheep beasts or Horse Secondly to shew the way of Cow-keeping Dayrying or raising most Cheese aud Butter And thirdly the waies of Grazing and feeding all sorts of Cattell All which are three staple Advantages of the Nation and will hold hands with Tillage Corning Trade and Merchandize and shall add Fourthly how to raise a great advantage out of Goates and Conneys for your harder stocking Lands and some two or three more particulars that thou maiest not be wanting in the usage of thy land as well as in the Improvement of it and it shall strive excedingly to dismystery them all and in the fift and last place shall proportion all with the most suitableness I can to those severall lands by which they may advance the highest profit and greatest increase and all as largely and plainly discovered as I am able By a wellwisher Of prosperity to each self which is the Common Wealth Whose faithfull servant is WALTER BLITH To the Honorable the Souldiery of these Nations of England Scotland Ireland Gent. Commâ—nders or Souldiers IT may be thought strange to direct an Epistle of this nature to you as conceived by most least capable of being Instrumentall of advancing the common good in this nature yet knowing strange things are wrought by contraries and finding the best husbands through my observance among those who have been least conversant therein have not the least hopes of you yet from a Principle of charity too lest that your learning your fingers to fight and discontinuance of your callâ—ings might difuse your bodies and minds so from labour as to discourage you from your callings have thought fit to let you know You also may be very capable to doe good service to your present Generation in this design And though many say you are more likely to lengthen cut the War to prevent Improvements I am of better hope and sure that the Armies late progresses have manifested the contrary yet I shall humbly take the boldness to press your speeding as full an â—nd thereto as you are able both for your own good and these Reasons 1 Because of the gooness and welcomness of a Calm after a Storm no less will be a setled Peace after so great a War and a little breathing will recover strength and spirits 2 Because you need not fear want of good Imployment afterward This piece will open many doores for that and I am confident Activity and Ingenuity will much inlarge our Quarters and make this Nation Rehoboth and with good husbandry indeed would more comfortably maintain hundreds of thousands more than are allready born and I hope you will learn to hate Idleness wholly as love Liberty dearly 3 And lastly because your selves are interested and possessed of many lands and those such too as will admit of great Improvement with wise management and some of them as great as by this discourse is here proposed and though you may conceive your late lands designed for your pay were highly surveied and to all advantages to raise them yet those advantages of Improvement were not to be considered nor indeed could be discovered by them which understood them not nor was any of them purchased at any other rate than the present value to be then set and let to present Tenants which Lands are as full of vast Improvements as any lands in England for all which causes I need press no more but in the honour I bear to a Souldiers name which God himself hath honoured by stiling himself a Man of War although I take no pleasure in War otherwise than in submission to Gods will and the accomplishment thereof which is not to be resisted or repined at for the satisfaction of our inclination to ease peace or rest upon this account or any other I beseech you so long as necessities command you to it to preserve alway a good Conscience within for although hopes of Victory without may carry man through great hardships yet your peace with God reaches up to heaven and cannot be scaled with Ladders nor undermined with batteries being founded upon a Rock nor starved with famine a good Conscience being a continuall Feast Mr. Fuller in his holy War gives this description of a good souldier That he that is most couragious in War is quiet and painfull in Peace and comfortably betakes himself to his calling The wielding of the sword hath not made his Spirit unwieldy for his private Calling And I having this opportunity to distribute this mean peece unto the World thought good to offer a Portion amongst you the Honourable Souldiery as for Edification how you may turn Improvers too also humbly to desire your assistance in the work so far as in you lieth to remove some grievances and Impediments of the Common-wealths advantage largely discovered in the other Epistles which brevity causes me to omit and so no more but humbly pray you study how to serve your present generation in extolling Gods glory endeavouring the common-good and in the interim abandon privacy of spirit Remember Christs Counsell view the promised Land and rejoyce to think of that day when your swords shall be turned inro Ploughshares your speares into pruning hooks and Christ only be exalted in the Earth and you brought back again to sit under your own vines and figtrees eating the of fruit your own labours and enjoy one anotâ—er in Peace which once accomplished here is cut out work for you some to till the Land and others to feed the Cattell as from the beginning so will this be the lasting Improvement Then will the God of Peace keep them in perfect Peace whose minds are stayed on him And Emanuell will break in pieces all that gather against him which is the Confidence and full Expectance of Your quondam brother fellow Souldier and very Servant Walter Blith To the Book GO tell the World of Wealth that 's got with ease Of certain profit gain most men doth please Of Lands Improvement to a treble worth A Five a tenfold Plenty's here held forth The greedy Land-Lord may himself suffise The toyling tenant to estate may rise The poor may be enricht England supplyid For twice so many people to provide Though this a Paradox may seem to you Experience and Reason proves it true By floating dry and purging Boggy Land The Plough old Pasture betters to your hand Directions to Inclose to all mens gain Minerals found out Land rich'd with little pain Woods ordred so in few years yeeld such store So large so good as you 'l desire no more In fine all Land in each Capacity In which it lies made Pleasant to your eye P. W. To the
Author THE way is new my friend thou seem'st to go We should incourage Art But thou must know Thou l't meet With Criticks and back biting foes Bad men the best of Works will still oppose If but what only pleaseth all mens sight Should come abroad no Work should come to light Goood is made better by Community It 's Publique good to quicken industry Thou 'st spent thy time thy Paines with great Expence On Countries Good for love not Recompence Let others read I 'le labour what I can To imitate this Compleat Husbandman A true Friend to thee as thou to all P. W. To Captain W. Blith upon his Improved Improver FEw upon search amongst the multitude Of human race appear who are endu'd With such a noble Genius as by art Can heighten Nature Fewer this impart For 't is an Axiom unto must unknown That that 's the best of good which most is shown Uuless some Patents for the same requite With publiqne recompence their private mite How then ought all to Count this Author rare Who by experience and observant care Knows how to husband grounds to their best use And doth to publique light what 's known produce Who clearly aims in what he doth unfold At Common good still adding new to old He gave us heretofore to understand The Art of floating and of Watering Land Taught us how Fens and Bogs we ought to drain How each one might by fair Enclosure gain How antient Pasture might by tillage mend Till'd ground by Grazing to improvement tend What soyl and compost for each ground is good And what waies further best the growth of Wood. To these this third Edition doth discover The most approved means to husband Claver The art of planting Liquorish descries Of Maddder Woad and Weld for richer dies The Planting Cole-seed Flax and Hemp's declar'd And how the Ploughs expences may be spar'd How of especiall use ground may be made For Gardens and for Orchards is displaid Which this Survey of husbandry discovers At easie Rates but not without endeavours Improveth Land to three or five Degrees Held forth most plain not kept within skies But casts it all in such a curious mould To raise from one to ten yea Twentyfold Lastly the Souldier doth example yield How he should till as well as fight the field How swords should turn to plough-shares when warres cease And what imployment suits with times of peace Thine upon the publique score T. C. To the Husbandman Farmer or Tenant TO you of all others I might spare thit paines you the very practitioners you that trade in Husbandry of some of you I have high things to report both for your industry and activity and though I am confident all men are thirsty enough after profit and increase yet few studiously industrious in this design though some esteem it matter of greatest moment yet you will not all be found patronizers hereof there is such a scandall and prejudice among many of you against new projections that I shall beseech you to take a loving admonition in two or three particulars The first is an Epidemicall disease and little less are the succeeding and it is a great mischief to your selves and the Common-wealth and that is such an immoderate plowing your land some plow far more than they can Til or Manure and others all they have in common though never so much others plowing so oft and low that they draw out the marrow of it and these are the great Improverishers of your gallant old pasture though fit enough to plow might be best advanced thereby with moderation but into both these extremes men are so apt to run so fast that I desire to stop their course a little and shall make bold to tell them that when half or one third part of so much land as many of you Till shall with that very soyl and half the labour and seed saved yeeld you as much corn as all that great quantity scramblingly husbanded that then you are ill husbands which you wil confess if that you wil but grant me that which no man wil deny that one Acre purely husbandryed and what need any be otherwise or any break up more than he is able well to compass will be as good as two or three in many mens ordinary practise but in some of your whole-sale husbandmen that plow all before them four or five Acres will not ballance one purely husbanded then judge so much land preserved from impoverishment so much seed and cost preserved and yet as great increase whether the opposite actors be not enemies to themselves families and Common-wealth The second abuse is want of good tillage wee lose our hopes excedingly by this and herein we must both have respect to season land and corn for good seasons at all times cannot be expected yet of two evills chuse the least I am confident better sometimes lose the land than land seed and all your labour as many do that outslip the season but for prevention begin earlier I am confident though it may admit of some inconveniencies sometimes yet at other times it is out of question but generally both Summer and Winter seed-time carries it away sure it hath these advantages that if it prosper not you may sow it again or if the latter part of seed time at Michaelmas time prove wet you are well having sowed before or the latter part of seed-time in the Spring prove dry as most oft it doth you have prevented that and what is the great danger of growing proud in Winter that is to mee a vertue and if in the Spring it is easily taken down also and if thou fearest weeds I am of opinion that the stronger and thicker any corn is it preserves it self the best from weeds but there is a Medium in all things too thick sowing may be as bad but this ever observe that the earlier thou sowest the thinner thou maiest sow thy winter corn and summer too if the season be good and land dry and sound And secondly to your land you must have respect too Land in good tilth in good heart and sound in a good season will out-cast its very marrow through the Lords blessing expect fruit enough Men much wrong their corn in not giving their Lands sufficient workmanship I am not precise in the number of Plowing nor Harrowing but just so much and no more than preserves the Land from weedes and best brings the land into such a composition that your land mould well I shall not justify the old Proverb here No balkes no corn I say not balkes all corn even cleanly plowing is most commendable and most profitable to some grain more tilage to some less is required yet to none no less than may both cover well and yield good bottome and rooting to the Corn. And thirdly for your Corn some graines require more tillage others less some will better beat a drier season some a wetter some grain more subject to
one weed than to another some grain wil do best with two summers and others with one In all which consider and advise thy self as much as thou canst of the nature of them all and make out what experiences thou canst thy self and somewhat incline to the most ingenuous usage and custome of thy Country In some cases a good custome is instructive but I 'll be brief here that I may be a little larger elsewhere following The fourth and last abuse is a calumniating and depraving every new Invention of this most culpable are your mouldy old leavened husbandmen who themselves and their forefathers have been accustomed to such a course of husbandry as they will practise and no other their resolution is so fixed no issues or events whatsoever shall change them if their neighbour hath as much corn of one Acre as they of two upon the same land or if another plow the same land for strength and nature with two horses and one man as well as he and have as good corn as he hath been used with four horse and two men yet so he will continue Or if an Improvement be discovered to him and all his neighbours hee 'l oppose it and degrade it What forsooth saith he who taught you more wit than your forefathers would they have neglected so great advantage if there had been any they kept good hospitality and made shift to breed up many children c. and I know not what simple chaff to blind themselves this proud unteachable spirit an ingenious man abhorrs which banes and poysons the very plenty of our Nation These prejudices both upon your minds and practises which boult you out from wealth and glory my dear friends and fellow husbandmen I pray you lay aside and doe but in charity walk with me a little through this discourse and I shall hope to satisfy that there is no other end but common good proposed The poor thy posterity and all Interest advantage here intended by him that is as studious of thine the Common wealths Improvement as his own W. B. The severall waies of Improvement or Advancement of the Lands of this Nation many whereof are undiscovered and most of them little practised which being experienced would be the Common-wealths glory and a pattern to other Nations FOr the dscovery whereof by Gods leave some particulars shall bee laid down as generalls to be discovered And that I may speak to the understanding of all men especially those who have little or nothing at all considered of such things nor so much as ever suffered the practique part of Husbandry to come into their minds or those who in respect of their more noble and high imployment have lived and conversed in another Region about the weighty affaires of the Nation onely receiving living upon the present profits of their Lands not minding their Lands advance And some few others who have lived more above the creature and conversed much in heaven and so are more unacquainted with the language tearmes of Husbandry therfore I will deliver my self in our own naturall Country Language and in our ordinary usuall homâ—-spun tearmes especially because I can speak no other in as few words as I can possibly conceive it clear to each apprehension and therfore before I begin to enter the discourse at large give me leave to premise the Excellency Necessity and Usefulness of improvement or good husbandry And then the discourse shall follow under these two generall heads 1. First I will discover the causes of Barrenness upon all Land and what corruptions both in the Land it self and in mens opinions practices and customes must be removed 2. The second generall being the Remedies and Preventions of the said Barrennesse and the meanes of reducing some to its utmost former Fruitfulness and Improving others to the greatest advantage it is capable of wherein that great Improvement promised is held forth at large All which will be discoursed under Six Severall Heads or Peeces of Improvement which are made good 1 BY floting or watering all sorts of Lands which lie under that capacity 2. By drayning or reducing of Boggy Fenny Sea or drowned Lnds to firmness and fruitsuiness 3 Shall be by such a way of Enclosure of common Fields Heaths Moors or Forrests as shall admit of no depopulation nor prejudice to any particular Interest whatsoever 4. Shall be by such way of Plowing or comeing some old Pasture Land already spoyled for want thereof as shall much better it and by so pasturing others already destroyed by plowing as to recover it and divers other waies to improve your lands to a great advantage 5 Shall be a discovery of such simples or Materialls as Soyl compounded with the Earth with the nature and use of both so as thereby you shall raise so much more Corn unto this Nation as shall make good the Improvement promised 6 By a new Election or Plantation of divers sorts of Woods and Timber as in few yeares a man may make sufficient buildings thereof yea upon divers sorts of Land in this Nation at twenty yeares growth it wil arise unto an incredible height and bigness yea as fast again as it naturally groweth CHAP. I. Treateth of the Excellency Necessity and Vsefulness of Improvement and good Husbandry WHich appeareth partly by the Antiquity of it for every thing is the more excellent the more ancient and nearer it comes to God the first being of all things which as all things nearest the Center move more strongly so all Excellency appeares most evidently the nearer if I may speak with reverence to that great Majesty the great Husbandman God himself First in his making the world hee made all Creatures and all Plants Fruits Trees Herbs and all bearing Seed for the food of Man and Beast He also made those more excellent and glorious Creatures as the Light the Day and Night the Firmament the Earth and Seas the Sun Moon and Starrs all to be serviceable and ministers unto the Creatures relief and all the Creatures subservient to Man and Man to Husbandize the fruits of the Earth and dress and keep them for the use of the whole Creation So God was the Originall and first Husbandman the patern of all Husbandry and first projector of that great design to bring that old Masse and Chaos of confusion unto so vast an Improvement as all the world admires and subsists from And having given man such a Patern both for precept and president for his incouragement he makes him Lord of all untill the fall And after that God intending the preservation of what he made notwithstanding the great curse upon Adam Eve and Serpent the Earth not going free but a curse of Barrennesse cast upon it also yet Adam is sent forth to till the Earth and improve it In the sweat of his face he must eat bread until be return to the Earth again And so down to Cain and Abel the one Husbanding the
float Land by Rivers whose practice clean confutes his opinion who study to drain their Land as fast as float it and the best and most skilfull of them will drown none at all unless for a day or two but drain as fast and draw off as fast as they bring it on And to prove his Tenent he affirms how advantageous it will be in keeping up the flouds by his inbankments to secure the Fens from drowning which is as likely as to keep the Sea from flowing after ebbing for he that will make banks to keep in Land-flouds may as well make a hedge to keep in the Cuckow and whereas he pretends hereby to raise new Springs that may be sure I am he will raise new Quick-sands and what good use they are of I am yet to learn And for Barren Land which he seemes so well skilled in the Improvement which he desires to purchase I will help him to enough if he will either be pleased to return a miâ—d answer if my plainess have offended him or else practically make good what he hath affirmed for that a man doth do is far more credible than that he affirmes he can do Many other causes of offences might be spoken unto but they are referred to a more proper Opportunity wherein they may receive a more suitable capacity of removall and will be dropped into the discourse at large as occasion most seasonably is administred And so I proceed to the Recoveries of the said Barrenness But before I descend to the particulars consider the severall sorts of Lands that will admit of Improvement Which I consider under two Generall Heads First all inclosed Severall Land whether Meadow or Pasture Secondly Common Lands whether Arable or Grazing First Severall inclosed Lands I divide into three sorts or else will rank them under three Heads 1 First shall be our worst sort of Lands of what nature soever they be from the value of one shilling per Acre to Ten shillings The Improvement whereof will fall under most of the six particular Pieces it being capable of most and greatest Improvement 2 Secondly is our middle sorts of Lands from the value of Ten shillings per Acre unto Twenty which falls naturally under the third Piece or way of Improvement yet is capable oft times to fall under some or most of the other Pieces also 3 Third shall be our richest Land from Twenty shillings per Acre to forty and from forty to three or four Pounds an Acre some of this sort will admit of very little or no Improvement having all Naturall and Artificiall experiments already made upon it but some others of this richer sort will admit of a very considerable Improvement and is principally discovered under the sixt Piece Neither can I say that all Lands without exception of the two former sorts may be Improved For possibly and out of question very much is Improved already and others may lie so void of any capacity of Improvement that either there may be none at all or else none that will raise such Improvements as will well and sufficiently requite the charge and cost bestowed but comparatively not much of this in England And my design is principally to hold onely forth possbilities of Improving at a far inferiour charge to the cost bestowed and the Improvement made from such materialls as generally are lost or little or no whit practised in most parts of the Land The second Generall are our common Lands whether errable constantly unde Tillage such as are our common fields all the fieldon or field Land throughout the Nation of which there may be three sorts also Bad Better Best of all and all and every part thereof may be very much and manifoldly advanced under some or all of the aforesaid Pieces or else whether it be Commons or Commune of Pastures upon those great and vast Commons called Heaths Forrests Moores Marshes Meades or whatsoever of them Those also may admit of a very great Advancement and these Lands will fall familiarly under every Piece according to their severall values and capacities but most especially under the third and fourth Piece treating of Tillage and Inclosure And then I shall proceed to shew you the nature of each sorts of Lands whereby the Remedies will be most facile and easie in the application And so I have ended the first Generall The second Generall Head holds forth the severall meanes of Cure Or the reducement of Land unto Fruitfulness and Fertility discovered under the first Piece of Improvement of floating or watering Lands CHAP. III. Shewes the first Cure or Remedy against Barrenness and therein discourseth what Lands are most suitable to watering Aud how to gain watering upon the same BUt before I discourse the same at large I shall only say that there are severall Remedies against the said Barrenness or divers meanes of reducing these Lands to their naturall fruitfulness or to the Improvement of them to a more Supernaturall Advance than they were ever known to be To which I must premonish the Reader that here lyeth all the Skill and Kernell which being made forth in some good measure I hope will give thee such satisfaction that thou wilt not onely vouchsafe me the reading and thy credit thereto but also be a practioner therein Which done with delight will not onely produce the reall advantage here discovered but far greater For these things are and may be brought to a greater height of Advancement by how much the more Ingenuity and Activity is exercised in the Prosecution and Experimenting of them and to a greater discovery by a constant familiar use of them which is the true and reall end of his Discovery and the Proverb herein best will hold The more the Merrier The Cure followes now more largely ALl sorts of Lands of what nature or quality soever they be under what Climate soever of what constitution or condition soever of what face or character soever they be unless it be such as Naturally participates of so much fatness which Artificially it may be raised unto wil admit of a very large Improvement Yet the fattest Land was hath been or may be bettered by good husbandry And such are the Lands that lye near or bordering upon any River or small Brooks your little Rivers and Rivulets admitting of greater falls and descents than your bigger Rivers do which run more dull slow more dead and levell whereby little Opportunity will be gained of bringing but little Land to so great advance by them but where the greater Rivers can be gained over any Lands there will the Improvement be the greatest and the Lands made the richest the greater Rivers being usually the fruit-fullest having more Land-floods fall into them But under your lesser Brooks may your greatest quantities of Land be gained and your water most easily and with small charge be brought over greater parcels than upon greater Rivers 1 For the discovering of such Lands as lie
Sluces c. and the maintenance of the same for preservation of this charge and for the moee easy working the Improvement Take a most exact Survey of thy Water not by thy Eye onely but by and with a true exact Water Levell which is an instrument though plain and easy yet rarely made nor used among us which shall be largely described among other Tools in the tenth Chapter then either begin at the over end or neather end of thy Land which thou pleasest if at the over end where the water first entreth into thy Land And by thy Levell discover and plot out where thy water will go along thy Land as thou goest downeward that so thou maiest lose no Land that will easily be brought under thy water Then cut out thy Master Trench or Water-course if thou pleasest to such a bigness as may contain all thy Land-floud especially to bring it within thy Land and so bring down thy whole Water-course together But the most certainest way is as soon as thou hast brought thy Water within thy Land upon the superficies of it then carry it along in a foot broad Trench or lesser all along thy Levell which Water will be a great help and a second and truer Levell than the other and in thy working of it thou shalt find all little enough too prevent too dead a Levell yet lose no Ground neither If thy Levell be too dead the lesser stream will follow thee so that a convenient descent must be minded also to give the water a fair and plausible passage or current all along And if thou discover in his lesser Trench any mistake or failing then thou mayest with more ease and less charge amend the same easily by going higher upon thy Land or lower towards the water stop up the same again for thy Trench need be no deeper than the thickness of thy over Turff and cut out a new and so thou mayst most certainly demonstrate where thy main work shall go without hazard which will be a great certainty and little loss This done thou mayest cut out thy water-course and be sure it be large enough to contain the whole Water thou needest or intendest and so thou have longitude or length of ground the Trench must be the broader not the deeper for a shallow Trench is best for this work And when thou hast brought it so far into thy land as thou hast any land to work upon thou mayst a little narrow thy Course as thou seest the quantity of thy land or water requires so far as thou wouldest have thy course float over all at once thou must cut thy trench narrower narrower all along to the neather end that so without stops and staies it may flow all along at once the Trench being narrower and narrower that Water that comes within the Trench when it is wider must needs be thrust out when the narrower cannot contain it for here is the true excellency of this sort of Trenches and thus should all thy floating Trenches bee made in every work As soon as thou hast brought thy water upon thy Land and turned it over or upon it then as aforesaid be sure thou take it off as speedy as possibly and so fail not to cut out thy work so as unless thy Land bee very sound and thy Land-floud very Rich thou must take it off the sooner by a deep drayning Trench therefore I prescribe thee no certain breadth betwixt floating and drayning Trenches but if thy Land is sounder and Dryer or lieth more Descending thou mayest let it run the broader and as the Land is Moyst Sad Rushey and Levell let it run the lesser breadth or compass And for thy drayning Trench it must bee made so deep that it goe to the bottom of the cold spewing moyst water that feeds the Flagg and Rush for the wideness of it use thine own liberty but bee sure to make it so wide as thou mayest goe to the bottom of it which must bee so low as any moysture lyeth which moysture usually lyeth under the over and second swarth of the Earth in some Gravell or Sand or else where some greater Stones are mixt with clay under which thou must go half one Spades graft deep at lest Yea suppose this corruption that feeds and nourisheth the Rush or Flagg should lie a yard or four foot deep to the bottom of it thou must go if ever thou wilt drain it to purpose or make the utmost advantage of either floating or draining without which thy water cannot have its kindly Operation for though the water fatten naturally yet still this Coldness and Moisture lies gnawing within and not being taken clean away it eats out what the Water fattens And this also I must desire thee seriously to observe that as soon as thy Water hath spent it self and the Earth or Grass hath exhausted and drawn out of the Water her strength and richness then how long soever it runs longer and further it prejudiceth and corrupts it by breeding the Rushes in abundance The water running trickling among the Grass and upon the Earth leaving her Thickness Soyl or Filth which I call Richness among the Grass and upon the Earth and it self runneth away into the drayning Trench and troubles thee no more and so the Goodness of the Water is as it were Ridled Screened and Strained out into the Land and the Leaness slideth away from thee which can never be done neither so speedily nor so purely by standing on Lakes or Pooles besides the loss of the Grazing which may be near as good in Winter as in Summer upon a good Land-flood or rich Waters CHAP. V. Shewes the cause of water its fruitfulness and the proper season of watering Lands A Rich Land-flood is ever the washing down of great Road wayes Common Fields under Tillage or else from great Towns Houses or Dunghills The riches whereof is unvaluable Consider the goodness of thy Water if thy Water be a rich Land-flood or a lusty gallant Stream it will run further and wider upon thy Land with life and fruitfulness If lean thin and onely from Springs and Herbs or green soard t is more barren and so will operate upon less Lands so that as I said before thou must well observe both Land and Waters suitableness and so increase the latitude or breadth of thy Land thou intendest to improve with that stream before it fall into his Drain Which Drain thou must dig or make straight down as it were by a Perpendicular plum-Line which will drain the best of all Or else thou mayest make thy Drain or Trench somewhat Taper viz Narrower and Narrower downwards which will keep open the best and continue longest and for the Widness of it that must be resolved both from the nature of the ground which if Sound and Dry will require the less but if Moist and Boggy the Greater and Deeper or else from the quantity of Water it is
to receive that so it may carry it all away plausibly within it self for the drayning Trench be sure thou indeavour to carry it as near upon a straight Line as is possible the Reason shall afterward appear This work is of more advantage and more to thy profit than thou imaginest but thy exercise therein will teach thee more Thou must also well consider the proper seasons of the year bringing on thy water which is in the beginning of Winter when Grass groweth least and beginns to fail and is clean eaten off thy Land all Winter long is very seasonable for this work and the best season to take it off is in or about the beginning of March thou maiest make what Improvement almost thou desirest also upon thy moyst cold Land if thou observe the directions given But for thy warm sound Land thou maiest continue thy water and keep it working upon thy Land almost all the year round Provided that thou keep it not too long upon a place for thou must be sure to have an especiall eye that thou soak not thy Land too much that Cattell treading or Grazing upon it foyl it not for thâ—n the Rush will come upon thee and it will overgrow thee and exceedingly prejudice thy hopes mistake me not I speak not here to advise thee to continue thy water thus long upon one place but be ever removing it from place to place but especially to shew the proper seasons to make use of this Piece of Improvement Thou hast also another great advantage hereby having water drawn over thy Land thou art in such a Capacity that in case of drought in time of Summer thou needest not to fear it thou mayst now and then wet over thy Land in the heat thereof when Grass if it have but Moysture will grow far faster in so hot a time than any but be sure not to soak thy ground too much Keep thy Land rather in a thirsting condition not glutted ready to spew it up again so maiest thou preserve thy Land green and fruitfull when others are scorched all away Then may a weekes Grass or a Load of Hay possibly be worth Three or Four I my self by these opportunities have cut twenty four Load in a Meadow where I cut but five or six the year before when Hay sold at a great value The directions exactly followed I will lose my Credit if thou fail of the effect promised And for thy encouragement I will give thee a president or two Certain Acres of light sandy Land were taken for a Term of one and twenty yeares at the value of one shilling six pence per Acre and that was more than it was worth a little Brook with a Land-flood issuing out of a Common Field was brought over it the Land levelled and made fit and even to receive it for it was very Irregular and of great high Ridges and Furrowes before after the manner of that Country and after two yeares working thirty shillings an Acre would have been given for it I my self offered it and some of that Land also was my own but it was refused being wrought just by the aforesaid Directions I have made the like Improvement my self upon Lands of the same nature to as great advancement as is here spoken off too tedious to discourse M. Plat also in his book produceth a president of Lands Improved by Water with the charge of three hundred shillings to be worth three hundred pounds per annum but what it was worth before the three hundred shillings were expended upon it he saith not but no question very great Improvement I beleeve it was As for Boggy Land also I have recovered severall Pieces next to plain Quagmires The meanes of reducing whereof shall be discoursed by themselves in the next Chapter So bad and boggy it was that Cattell could not Graze upon it out of danger And indeed it bore nothing but Cattayle's And by this course I recovered it to perfect soundness and made it worth betwixt thirty and forty shillings per Acre and so dare undertake the like where ever lying under the aforesaid Capacities Many more presidents of this nature are visible in many parts of this Nation Some as great Improvements as these Some lesse and yet very great And all done without any other Cost or Expence of charge in any other materialls than Poor mens labours Which to me is a second argument of Incouragement to promote all works of this nature under these Capacities One thing more I pray thee observe that though it be the common practice of most men in drayning their Land to make many shallow Trenches of about one foot deep aud lay their Mould on heapes that so they may spoil put little ground both which I must necessarily reprove as ill Husbandry For though I am all for Floating and Drayning which will necessarily occasion many Trenches yet I am an Enemy to this ordinary and usuall way of Trenching first for so many Trenches I conceive no need in these works nor upon any Land whatsoever but something more of them more seasonably in the second Piece of Improvement CHAP. VI. Sheweth the true Artificiall making of the Floating Trench and how to Levell Land and the suddainest way to Soard it USually I shall advise to make not above Two or Three materiall Trenches having first taken up thy Turf just under the Grass rootes both thin and square and as broad as can be taken up which I exceedingly prize for many uses and preserve The one called a Flowing of Floating Trench wherin I carry my water which usually after I have brought my water where I intend to work it I carry it in a Trench seldome above one foot deep or a foot and half many times not above eight or nine inches deep that so it being made Artificially viz so Level taper Narrower and Narrower as aforesaid the further it goes that it may so cast out the water that it may flow over the same for a furlongs length al at once which is the Excellency of it And then another drayning Trench running parallel with this or Two if the Land lye very flat and of such a depth as it may not onely receive all the water that Floweth over the Land clearly but that it may also drain away the cold Moysture and Bogginess that offends the Land by breeding either Rush or Bogg and of such a latitude or breadth from my floating Trench as thy water is of strength to Improve without Prejudicing of it by breeding Rush Flag or filth as aforesaid And as I make not many Trenches so I shall fil up all others that are not serviceable to these and so have done many a one that others have made to Drain their Land withall and with this One or Two Draines cast out in the lowest part of my Land layed dry more Land than a hundred of these common Trenches
to truth as may be and leave the Compleatment to succeeders 1. What Fen-drayning or the recovering of Lands from under water is that deserves the name or merits the Title of perfect Drayning I say it is not onely the overly taking away the Water from off the Surface or over part of the Turf or Sword for then might all bogs or quagmires be recovered and easily would Nor the taking off the downfalls as our Fen men call them that is the waters falling from the Heavens in great Raines and showers Nor is it the taking off all Land-falls Land-floods or great waters from off those Lands No nor the doing of all these in a customary and usuall way that doth or will deserve to be called a perfect Drayning But it is as I formerly said about recovering Boggy-Lands a going to the bottom of the Corruption and taking away the Venom that feeds the Fen or Moor that wateriness and coldness which gnaws out the spirit at the root And the taking away this is perfect Drayning for although I say the other Draynings are not the best nor perfect yet I neither discommend the other nor discourage from them where they are made already or may be made he reafter but highly commend them or any of them where otherwise there would be none or the Lands lye wholly drowned yet being in all Arts Trades and Callings we ought to study cut the Mysteries thereof and all men do or ought to entdeavour to raise the richest fruits and draw forth the greaest plenty to the Common-Wealth they can out of the whole Earth so out of this small parcell we never accomplish The End untill we have brought it to it's best perfection that is not onely to recover it from drowning to bearing sedge or reedy flaggy grass which is the first fruits of Draining and from which the rude ignorant Fen-man desires no appeal nor is it to recover it to bear morish foul strong grass in Summer and Drowned in Winter nor yet to lye dry both Winter and Summer upon the Surface of the Earth and wet and Boggy at the spades or Plough-share point nay though it will through a dry season or heat of Summer bear the Plough and much of it may be converted to Tillage or Corning but still unsound in the bottom all this makes not though a good yet not perfect work but the perfection is in the reducing it to soundness and perfectness of Mould and Earth whether Sand Clay Gravell or mixed then returns it to a perfect Soard and pure Turf brings forth the small common Thistle Clover Crowflower and Hony-sukle then shall you reap the Quintessence of the Earth in breeding feeding or Corning These Lands thus perfectly Drayned will return to be the richest of all your Lands and the better Drayned the better Land Where are your richest Lands of England but your River Lands your Marsh Lands that all of them lye under the Levell of the Sea and were it not inbounded by the banks and the power of Gods word would all return to the Sea again but through their perfect Drayning are most excellent sound and warm Lands yea some of them so good that usually the Winters profit of their Grazing equallizeth the Summer as witnesseth much of the Marsh-Land near London Blackwall c. with many other parts Whence is the richness of your English Holland Land but from the pure and perfect Drayning And the out-landish Holland Lands recovered to this great height of Richness I know all Lands are not so Fecible as others are nor some cannot possibly be brought to that perfection as others may I shall provoke unto the best Improvement and where there can be a Male-Improvement offer not to the Common-Wealth a Female and so you have as plain a description what Drayning is as I can give you I am of a strong opinon that there is very much Fen-Land may be recovered to as great a worth and goodness in it self as any Meadow Marsh-Land in England which leades me to the second branch of this particular to describe the Manner and lying of the Fens to the which I am induced too for these Reasons 1. Because many know them not at all 2. Because many are discouraged from the thoughts of attempting the Improvement of them that are very able thereunto I am confident would have recovered them yet partly because of their ignorance of the lying of them conceiving them to be some great Lake Pan or Meer as are some in Lancashire Cheshire or Yorkshire that lyeth so low that hath no fall or out-let can be made to drain out the Waters of them and partly through the scandall and offence that is taken and given out by rude customary and most an end unrightfull Commoners against the Drayning of them as also conceiving them to be nothing els but some great Bog or Quagmire lying so flat as is not Draynable 3. Because my self was once before I knew them in some measure thus deceived but especially because the report of the Country people was as one man that the undertakers Drayning had no whit at all advantaged them but that their Fen Lawes and Commission of sewers and the works they made through that authority and by the directions and meanes they used had brought the Fens into as good a posture as all he undertakers works the which my self was hardly drawn to believe endeavouring hereby to suggest the impossibility of ever accomplishing a perfect Drayning so that many not knowing that the fall is considerable in it self and very great into the Sea by reason of the Ebbing of the Water will thereby give opportunity unto a most compleat Drayning of them And lastly that by this information I may quicken all Ingenuous Spirits to the helping on the work so advantagious to the Common good and yet so fecible I therefore describe the Fens of England to lie in some proportionable manner to those great Rivers and gallant Meadows adjoyning to them in many eveâ— and less descending Countries onely with these two observations 1. That these Fens are nearer the Sea the Center of the waters and so we must conceive the fall or descent to be the lesser for as our lesser Brooks run quicker than our great Streams and the bigger the stream and nearer the Sea any great River runneth the slower by far the water descendeth and flatter the Land lyeth so the Fens being a far vaster and greater compass lye more flatter and the Rivers run the slower 2. Because these Fen-Lands being far greater and many times more broader than our greatest Meadowes therefore being covered with water and lying more levell will not Drain so fast and so can not hold comparison in each particular yet a more suitable Modell to describe them by to those that know them not I cannot Frame So that the Fen-Lands so called are as I may say great Meadows covered over with water in the time of a great Land-flood
for as upon great raines the Rivers or Water-courses in the uplands are not able to contain the Floods neither are the Fen Rivers Sewers or water-courses able to take away those Floods that come out of the higher Countries or uplands aforesaid And as the small brooks first overflow because of the disproportion betwixt those narrow watercourses and the floods that run in them and are unflowed again when or before the great Rivers begin to rise and the Flood of the great Rivers continue longer than the lesser so the Fen Rivers or Water-courses being much lesser proportionable to their great Floods than the little brooks are they can not contain their own water Floods with the Rivers and Floods of the upland Countries too but are forced over the banks into that great Flat or Levell of Fen-land and Meadow on both sides their Water-courses and being there dispersed many miles into a great breadth and length being ever and anon relieved with fresh Land-Floods most part of Winter long continue neither having a great fall nor large â—â—omthy Water-courses into the Sea nor other artificiall Receptacles to receive them cannot so truly nor suddenly run off again but had they Water-courses proportionable either in Number or Greatness to other great Meadows they would most of them drain themselves and return to as perfect Meadow and Pasture as any in England for almost all Land-floods and Rivers that lye on the same side of the Country the Fens lye on from the highest part of the up-lands run into and through the Fens to the Sea as their constant course if the Spring be kindly and moderatly dry the Fen-water runneth and dryeth away apace and many times in February or the entrance of March especially when the winds sit fair that is to drive the waters Sea-ward they are grazeable with great cattell and many times with Sheep too and some part of them are all Winter dry and never drowned and many of those keep as much stock of cattell especially of sheep all Winter as ever I saw any Common or pasture without hay And to conclude this description whereby you may not onely frame out a Model of the Fens but discover the Fecibility if not the only way of Drayning them which ushereth in my second particular which is 2. The discovery of some of those hindrances or rubs that either hinder or infacilitate this work of Fen-drayning and they are either in the Land it self the Commoners or the undertakers thereof The first Hindrance is in the Land 1. In the Land there may be such Mountaines and Rockiness betwixt the place you desire to drain and the Sea or River into which you must draw your drain that it may make the work so chargeable as the profits thereof will not counterpoise 2. Also there may be such a Vein of Earth as is so Moorish or exceeding Sandy upon which you must be forced to plant your Sluces or Water-gates as besides the extraordinary charge of Workmanship may much hazard the continuance of the Work and so with extraordinary charge and great hazard may render the fruits therof below the expences These things are possible yet not usuall The Second Hindrance may be in the People The Commoners and they may and do much hinder it in reproaching of the Work it self as I hinted before and weary the minds and weaken the hands of others that would indeavour it But the greatest hindrance is their unfaithfulness to the Work by their dulness and neglect of raising sufficient summes of monys to carry on the work and raising it so seasonably as may expedite the same for these Works are not to be trifled withall it must be the speedy and powerfull carrying on at once as well as the Artificiall and wise managing of it A little season lost may lose the cost and works of a whole Summer and whilest neighbors are contesting about the quality of their Levies and disputing every mans Right to pay and gathering up their moneys the Works may run further backward in a week than they were brought forward in a month I have seldome known a rude multitude or a confused heady people ever agree in this these works creep forward but run post backward Again the combination of labourers and Poor people may very much prejudice besides their slothfull and sleathy slubbering of it if not exceeding carefully overseen The Third Hinderance may be in the Vndertaker or Drayner And although this may not be such an Essential Prejudice to the Work it self as the rest are because a man would think that he that either for his wages or credit works it should doe his best yet to the common good it may be as destructive as the former And herein and in the former Hindrance as I desire not to discourage any Ingenious Spirits so neither do I desire to fawn upon the most ablest Artist but do hereby affirm that the Undertaker or Artist in this Work may exceedingly Eclipse the Common Good and through a corrupt selfish Spirit may monopolize to his private advantage particular mens Interest and in and under pretence of doing a Common Good may utterly ruin thousand souls Corrupt self or Corruption it self will endeavour this but an Ingenious Spirit scorns perfidiousness yet many an Undertaker may in these respects be an hindrance to the prosperity of Fen-draining if he be upon a publick Work for private I meddle not withall 1. If that he lay not out a good Foundation he either wholly spoils it or at least bungles out a half work and leaves the Cream behind him and it destroyes it self at last 2. If that men shall pick and cull their Lands drayn those that are more fecible and leave out those that are more difficult I say he is an enemy to the Common good And this is a Maxim I shall declare Drain the worst and the best will drain it self and sometimes the lowest Lands may if thoroughly drained prove the best Lands and be the speediest and easiest way to drain the whole 3. If that men drain those Lands wherein they are like to have an interest throughly and those the Commoners have more overly or imbank or secure the one from land-floods and not the other or if he make not such a through drain of all as may go to the bottom and lay it sound at root I am sure he will not attain the End the best fruit and advantage the Lands will yeeld which that it may be accomplished I shall descend to the third Particular The Third Particular to be considered is The Cure or best and speediest way of Reducing drowned Lands unto perfect soundness A Work too great for my shallow parts and scanty leasure And therein because I shall not dare to teach men so many degrees abler than my self I shall onely modestly propose some few Queries the which if any shall answer in lines or practice I shall have my End the Common-wealth will receive more
light and I my self full satisfaction 1. Whether all waters whatsoever the more they increase in quantity the more in weight if so then 2. Whether if all waters biggen the further they run especially in floods whether then all water-works or cuts must not biggen and strengthen also if that a perfect securing from Floods be intended And if so then 3. Whether all Water-courses that are made for drains must not widen biggen and strengthen proportionable both to the Land-floods that come out of the upper Countries as also proportionable to the waters or downfalls that come from Heaven and fall upon the said Lands And so require answerable Receptacles if so then 4. Whether or what is the proportion or how may a man know the gage thereof and so how to make every course equall to the water it must carry 5. Where the greatest difficulty lies in drayning the Fens whether in drayning the Fens from their own naturall waters and moisture or in preserving them from the Land-floods that come from the high Lands If the great difficulty be to preserve them from the Land-floods of other Lands as to me seems probable then whether it would not be more really advantagious to a perfect draining to take off the Land-floods at or before their entrance into the Fens and so carry them along the Fen-side under the up-lands and not suffer them to come into the middle of the Fen as long as it may be kept off untill you come to strike with one straight course into the out-let of the Sea or River or within some few miles thereof And whether this would not be the likeliest certain meanes to prevent the just offencâ—â—he Commoner and Country seemed to take in the last undertaking who una voce cry out that the Undertakers secured their own by banks and preserved them from the Land-floods and drowned all the Commoners side as much as ever and that by every considerable Flood And if this be granted then I dare conclude the Fen will drain it self with a small course and with greater speed and more certainty as well as more substantially And so I shall onely move this further and so refrain 6. Whether if any of the aforesaid particulars be affirmed then must not of necessity all the Out-lets or Mouths of all the Master-work and Sluces and Water-gates be widened and made proportionable to your higher courses lest that the water receive a check thereby either to force your Sluces or give a recoil to the waters into the Fen again I mean proportionable as well in greatness of the fall as to the breâ—dth and depth of the water-course I shall onely now desire to know whether when the Master-drains are made substantially deep it will not be â—o most advantage to divide the lands into lesser divisions by small draines than to cast them out into greater proportions yet I shall not prescribe so small as some do but into the most convenientest divisions may be for the compleat draining And as to Sluces Water-gates Locks c. I shall say little because they are under the command of Rule and Truth of Workmanship and a good experienced Millwright or Engineer is well able to regulate them to as much Advantage for close shutting and suitable opening to the incomming of the Tide or out-going of the Floods as the variousness of opportunities will require which I forbear because they cannot easily be described without figures And as to the severall Tooles to be used in the working of these Water-courses they are common and most of them in common use upon the Fens except a good water-levell which I have at large described in the tenth Chapter which is most essentially necessary for the casting or laying out of all the Works therof and a Trenching Plough to cut out the first Works and the Turfing Spade all largely described in the next Chapter I shall onely speak a word or two to the Improvement of some particular parcels of Fen-lands which in themselves are drainable and without the least dependauce upon the general draining although I will not say but such Land would more easily be drained in the generall than it will be done of it self yet seriously pondering all things in one even ballance there may be little difference and that upon this account if it be done as a member of the General then it must contribute to the generall charge and share in the generall breaches or miscarriage and in all paaticulars stand and fall therewith Also then it is subject to the same hazard as the generall is of prejudice by reason of the differences that may arise betwixt the Owners Proprietors Commoners Undertakers or whosoever which may be very many and so great as may tend to the ruin of the whole which without dependance thereupon it will not be And I am confident some very considerable parcels of Lands lie so convenient and so fecible unto the Work that they may be done most easily and others lye more difficultly and will be done more chargeably All which I shall hold forth under these two descriptions 1. Are all Lands that lye somewhat higher of themselves and are never drowned unless it be by some extraordinary Inundation of themselves these are most easily recovered of themselves at a little more charge than any common Lands are inclosed and that by one good substantiall Dike well turfed or sodded as the Fen-men call it on the outside round about the same and well rammed and beaten together it need neither be very broad nor high the height and weight of the water offending will discover that unto you nor indeed cost any more than the charge of a good quick Dike which every good Husband bestowes upon a new division and I dare say there are many thousands of Acres of Lands in many parts of the Fens of this nature 2. The Second is the more difficult and yet very fecible also and that is certain Creeks or corners of Land â—â—unning into the up-lands and upon the out-skirs of the Fens and many out-borders that are onely anoyed with their own and the swellfng of the naturall Fen-waters and are cleer from any Land-floods or up-land waters running through them and have one or two sides firm and the securing of one or two sides more will secure the whole These are easily drainable without dependance upon the draining of the whole Fen and that by a more substantiall imbanking than the former to secure it self from the great waters of all other Fens and then there will onely rest to resolve how to drain it self to which I shall onely say that having well provided against the waters of bordering Fens find out the lowest part of all thy Lands and thither draw a good substantial Master-drain through all thy Lands and there plant a water-Engine which may either be wrought by the wind or by the strength of horse yea possibly by the strength of two or three men
they are and the sharper and curiously kept the better will they rid off work by far and the more easie and delightfull to the Workman and not fur and clog with Earth which makes the work go off very heavily The Third Piece of Improvement shews how to Enclose without offence and prevent Depopulation that is most common Attendant and Appurtenant to Enclosure and how to make Severall all Arable Common Field Lands and also all Common Heaths Moores Forrests Wasts to every particular Interests and the Common-wealths great Advantage CHAP. XI The Eleventh Chapter Treateth of Improving Land by Pasture Reproves Depopulation proves excellent advantage by Enclosure and taketh away the usuall Scandals layd upon it THis Piece of Improvement will be the better carryed on if we could but prevent two great Rocks men are apt to dash upon and keep the Medium betwixt both The one is so Extreme for Pasturing and Grazing as he will destroy Tillage and raising of Corn so he may convert all to Sheep Wooll and Cattell though the contrary be of incomparable more advantage Credit and Glory The other all for Tillage and Plowing that he will toyl all his dayes himself and Family for nothing in and upon his common arable Field Land up early and down late drudge and moyl and wear out himself and Family rather than he will cast how he may Improve his Lands by Impasturing and Enclosing of it whereby he may raise more profit in Sheep Wools Cattell and far more Corn also if he please upon every Acre For the discovering a little these self deceivers to themselves I shall speak a word or two more large to each Extreme The first Extreme is partly through so deep an Affectation of Tillage and plowing in Common although it be to his perpetuall slavery and drudgery all his dayes he will not leave it and especially through a prejudice he hath taken against Enclosure through some mens depopulation and oppression and destruction of Tillage that he will not approve hereof upon any Tearmes but oppose with all the might and main he can what saith he Enclose depopulate destroy the poor no our fathers lived well upon their land without Enclosure kept good hospitality many servants and bred up many children and abhominated the thoughts thereof and so will wee prevent it if we can wee will toyl and moyl all our dayes and breed up our children to keep sheep horse or beast kick up their heeles upon a bank flit our horses and breed them up to take our inheritance of Thirty Forty or Fifty pounds by the year with which few can scarce bring both ends together by the yeares end as dayly experience shewes they not once considering the fruit of Idleness not the great Improvement of this honest equall Enclosure nor their childrens ruin for want of learning Trade or good breeding the least whereof is better or may be better to them than all their lands Witness thousands in England that prefer their children better with a little good breediug with little portion than they can or usually do with all their inheritance The second extreme is as like the former as can be and is so prejudiciall to the Common-Wealth and destructive to good husbandry and it ariseth out of base private humour of sloth and self-will and want of a wise Spirit of discerning in Improvements and because he seeth some men have abused 〈◊〉 Pasture-Land by over plowing and took out the Spirit and life thereof that it will not come to it self of many yeares which is an ill piece of providence indeed therefore he will not plow any old Pasture Land at all upon any tearmes or for any time no though his Land be so decayed and impoverished that that Land which would have maintained much cattell will not now maintain so much by one third part or a quartern as it did after the first through soarding and by reason either of the wet and cold year or the overpowring of the moss or Anthills or some other trash it puts not that proof into Cattell nor scarce half as it did at the first Soarding nay though it calls loud for plowing and will be much bettered and the Rent doubled yet he will not have it plowed come what will What saith he destroy my old Pasture my sheep-walkes and beggar my Land all the world shall not perswade him to that you may as soon perswade him not to eat good wholesome food because some men overcharged their stom acks by excesse herein because here and there an indiscreet man did wrong his Land by excessive plowing he will not use it at all not moderately though he may Mend or better it thereby No saith he I can raise a constant profit by my Wool and lamb my fat beef and mutton at an easie quiet way unto my self and family without much vexing or turmoyling which is a gallant way of living and I shall exceedingly advise and commend it too until the Land degenerate and calls out for plowing or the Common-wealth calls out for corning and will yeeld far better advance therby he takes more content in a Sheep-heard and his dogg and in his own will and ease than in greater advantage and as the other Extreme will hinder all Improvements he can by way of Enclosure under pretence of overthrowing Tillage though a man may till as much get far more Corn in Pasture than in Common if he will so will this out o◠as vain and senseless pretences hinder all Corning in pasture lest he should prejudice his Land for grazing although he may moderate corning and better his Land to grazing also so have I erected a Sea-mark upon both these Rocks that all men may take heed of dashing themselves thereon the Ingenious I am sure will never come near them But for satisfaction to the first extreme maintayned by that generation of strange men that oppose Enclosure yet see every day the Rents of those Lands Improved some doubled some more some less and the Land certainly advanced by it one Acre made worth three or four and after a while will bear more Corn without soyl for three or four year than divers Acres as it was before in Common that onely say Enclosure may as easily be made without depopulation as with it and to the other Extreme I am not ashamed maintain as a reproof to this Extreme that many ten thousand Acres of Land in England may yeeld a double profit divers yeares by plowing and afterwards yeeld as much rent as ever before and possibly much more Nay I 'll say observe my Directions punctually and I 'll make good the old Rent the very first year after Plowing and begin to enter upon it as soon as the Crop is reaped off and begin my year with Winter too which is accounted the worst advantage to the Tenant and so for Seven Ten or Twenty upon many sorts of Lands in England of the aforesaid Value But to stop the
him to be Capable of Hospitality of which he is to be a Lover far better able to give than to receive and to Administer to others than to be administred unto by way of Charity And as for the great depopulation in the Nation that hath devoured poor Tenant overthrow Corning and good Husbandry and in some parts Minister and all and yet persist by keeping their Land from Tillage when it wants it when Country the Landlords profit the Markets the Labourer Poor and Land it self and all calls for it is no less than grand oppression As also for other places where no maintainance is assigned for the Minister but the people starve for want of bread and where those great Impropriations are that devour all the Profits and have all to a short-coat Vicaridge How these things should be mended is infinitely beyond my Sphere how Ministers should be raised maintenance and all Interest preserved I know not only I shall pray the wise God to direct our highest Counsells in regulating these distractions for it is far beyond my shallow capacity how to advise And for the Free-holder Farmer or Tenant I question not the Free-holders offence for he having his proportion I know it will be doubled and more to his advantage And for the Tenant let him also share in some Advancement either let him injoy it at an easie rate that look whatsoever Bargain he hath in common by the year he may have a better upon the Enclosure or else let him take a Lease for Lives or Yeares that as he enjoyes the worst upon the first Inclosure so he may have the best also having a good Tâ—rm of time therein and then I hope he will not wrangle neither for I am sure he need neither Moyl nor Cark as he did before but manage his business with more ease sweet content and advance of profit And for the Land-Lord or Lord I shall not much bespeak his favour or Approbation for he will beleeve me without Demonstration that there will be a visible and considerable advance fall upon him onely crave his patience that he 'll not be offended that I seem and but seem so to do to project to give away his Right as to the Poor which in Common is their own whether by Right Custome for I speak of no other in this place but such as have right of Common and so they may require so much by Law but to encourage them and to remove offence and scandall I advise it And when all these particulars concerned in their severall Rights are satisfied we shall do well and yet the great Block and Prejudice is yet to be removed which is the destruction of Corn and Tillage which I promised to clear which followes here First I indeavour before Enclosure that either by ingagements so firm and surely made by all parties concerned in it as they may fall under Law to be recovered Or else by a particular State Law enacted to this end so to ingage all men in this new Inclosure to allot or cast out one third part or thereabout at least of all their Lands constantly for Tillage or what more at any time they please One third part for Meadow And another third part for Pasture or feeding Land which third part for Tillage if my conceptions fail not First with the help of all that Soyl that the Hay of the other third part will raise in maintaining all the Cattell in Winter that they Pastured in summer upon the other third part which I conceive may be as many more and also Secondly by that advantage there will be sometime Plowing on Pasture and resting Another whereby fresh Land and Reitey for some years will bear more Corn without Manure than it did before with it and indeed also after some yeares of resting may stand in need of Plowing and possibly may advance the Land by it as I am sure they will all our Wood-land coarser Lands whatsoever that are either subject to the Moss or Rush or Ant-hills whatever it will do to better Thirdly well knowing that without question one Acre of well Manured and Husbandryed Land will yeeld more fruit than two or three otherwise A principle undeniable Fourthly consider the vast advantage there will be by Husbandring a little well I say it is clear some one Acre manured plowed and husâ—andred in season and unto that height of Richness the Land and seed sowed doth require may and doth usually bear as much Corn as two or three ill husbandred as aforesaid Then ballance the Business and weigh but the advantage One Acre beareth the fruit of three the two Acres are preserved to graze the seed and all other charges of two Acres is preserved to help the Markets The Husbandry and Plowing and sowing of two Acres is also saved Oh consider it and neither be such Enemies to the State nor of your selves and Common-wealth so great Abusers of Ingenuity and Good Husbandry so great Traducers When men have their Lands enclosed and at their own command I fear not but most men will covet to Husbandry every Acre so well as it may yeeld forth the utmost fruit it is possibly able to produce having the rest at their own Command also to imploy to another Advantage Which done half the Land in England thus managed would yeeld more than all that now is under Tillage This Poor Piece by the by observed and practised would make good the Improvement promised consider it well and be convinced or reply Fifthly if you consider that all your Common Fields were never under Tillage neither As great part Sâ—ades and Hade wayes and a great part Meadow and much and many Balkes between each Land and many High wayes and some commune of Pastures and Leayes left for keeping Beasts or Sheep upon all which will contain one third part as I conceive if not near half in some places not under Tillage but wast Lands Certainly I conclude there may be as much Corn go by Ingenuity upon this lesser quantity of Ground and much more being inclosed than upon it all in Common And that there cannot be any destruction of Tillage upon all theâ—e Wasts and Grazed parts which ever lay to Grass and no Tillage was upon them so that I must clearly conceive were one third pâ—rt upon all Enclosure allotted out or covenanted to be kept constantly in Tillage though I advise not to keep the same third part alway in Tillage but sometimes one part and sometimes another all making up one just third part would raise as much Corn as all did in Common And lastly Enclosure cannot destroy Tillage the Staff of the Country because it ever yeelds most profit nor will nor need all be converted to Pasturage Cain and Abel were born and planted together and ordained to live together and if there were any danger of one destroying the other Tillage is likelyer to destroy Pasturage because Cain slew Abel
but without a fear the Ploughman and the Sheepheard may do best together in a Common-wealth CHAP. XIII Sheweth the Excellency of Tillage and the great Profit thereof and the great Advance is made out of severall Enclosed Countries beyond Champain as also the great Improvement of Heaths Moores and Forrests which will dismiss those needless feares of overthrowing Tillage NOw Tillage yeeldeth the greatest profit to Land-Lord or Occupier study especially the Good Husband to convert thy Land to the best Profit And that is held and maintained by all men to be by Tillage else why do men give double Rents to Till and Plow above what they do to Graze and if thou art not yet satisfied consider but the Wood-Lands who before Enclosure were wont to be releeved by the Fieldon with Corn of all sorts And now are grown as gallant Corn Countries as be in England as the Western parts of Warwickshire and the Northern parts of Worcestershire Staffordshire Shropshire Darbyshire Yorkshire and all the Countries thereabouts and all the Chalk Countries both South and West-ward Also consider the Chiltern Countries and you shall find that were it al Inclosed men would Plow little or no whit less than now they do because nothing else nor no way else would yeeld the like advance Consider Hartfordshirex Esse Kent Surry Sussex Barkshire Hampshire Wiltshire Somersetshire and all the rest All which not onely raise Corn for themselves but to supply that great City that Spends as much as all those Countreyes and far more And yet no parts of England set at greater Rates or makes greater Advantages by Grazing and yet the greatest part thereof upon Tillage and Corning And what Country not almost though Inclosed yeelds the greatest profit by the Abundance of Corn produced But if all that I have said be not enough I have enough I am sure before I have done As for your Heathes Moores and Forrest Lands I shall onely speak thus much That vast and Incredulous are their Capacities of Improvement in generall referring the particular wayes of Improvement of every sort and differing natured Land as they fall in the fourth or sixt Piece of Improvement to avoid prolixity because the very same Ingredients Compositions and Directions are suitably and naturally appliable to these Lands as to those to which they are prescribed Therefore I onely say that all Interests in these Commons or Rights of Common Pasture upon any of these Lands may without Prejudice to any particular Interest be advantaged and much Improvement made to the Publique I speak not to inright the Usurpers of right wrongfully maintained or Oppressors of any other mens Rights I desire that Right might onely run in its proper Chanell First in generall by the same Method of Enclosing held forth in this third generall Piece of Improvement touching Common field-Field-Lands if thereto before Enclosure you do but add the Method or Drought of first casting out your Lands and plotting them into such Plots and Formes so that where there is or may be a Capacity of bringing thy Land under any good Stream or Land-flood be sure to cast it for Meadowing having drawn one Master Level floating course throughout they whole Plot of Enclosure which may also serve as thy first division and to carry thy water along also to flow thy Meadowing thou shalt make all under it fit that thou mayst not lose that Opportunity now at first which after divisions made cannot be had of so great an Improvement at so small a Rate now at thy first contrivance thou mayst cast it under and then cast out all thy Lauds accorto the most suitableness of them all to such Improvements they lye under and then to the Conveniencies of each mans Right and Interest and the greatest Advancement upon these Inclosures will be two The first giving all Ingenuous men a Capacity to Plow and Till what they please thereof which will raise a double or treble Advantage as to Grazing and a Tenfold greater Advance as to Common of Pasture which to some is worth nothing at all because of their remoteness to others but little because of some great Oppressor nearely and neatly seated upon the Commons that drives others from it and to none what it may be as by right when he may use all his Parts Purse and Experiences of Husbandry at his own pleasure by improving it And it is and never was otherwise seen that men would ever joyn together in one body to use their utmost to improve any of these Lands to the best Advantage for though Common of Pasture is mens own Inheritance and every man not knowing his Lot or Portion how rarely will they ever joyn or agree therein although they are all perswaded of a probable great Advancement yet one sayes I shall not have so great an Advantage by it as my neighbour and another he believes it will be good for present but it will not last and an another sayes he hath no reason to bear so great a proportion of Charge though he have as much Land yet he 's not capable of so great an Improvement and another saith I could be well content to help on any publique work if others would but for me to bestow cost and improve my Land or commons for others that will bestow none to eat and bite up my cost much discourageth him and indeed there is some Reason for his backwardness and a thousand Excuses and Cavils there must be which though a wise man may easily answer yet never convince their Judgements for it hath ever been so since their dayes and their Fore-fathers were as wise as they and they cannot be satisfied let it alone and weeâ—l take the present profit it yeelds and there is an end of their Improvement And here I 'll give you a President which though it might as to the nature of it have come in more seasonably in the discourse about common Field Land yet here it is very naturall also both as to the end I bring it for and for the discovering a Capacity of a vast Improvement both upon it self and upon all other Lands of that nature There are many hundred if not thousands of Acres of Lands near Dunstable in a Valley under Puddle or Chalk-Hills just under the bottome of the Hills an eminent place known well to most which I believe runs both wayes far but on both sides the Rode-way to Coventry and VVestchester the Land lyeth with a little Brook or stream running through it All which Lands if you observe them above half the year ly full of water if not under water and I believe it is worth about five shillings an Acre I am sure abundance of it is not worth three shillings and some not worth two shillings an Acre which if my Judgement fail not may easily be drained and laid so sound and wholsome which were but that done as it should be or but according to the second Piece of
Improvement and the directions given in the seventh Chapter treating of draining I dare uphold one Acre would be as good as divers now are in many parts of it but then should you also by the benefit of that Brook and all these gallant rich Land floods that issue from the Hills on one hand and from the Vale especially on the other hand take the advantage and benefit of them also and according to the first Piece Improve it by Floating which may very Feazibly be done according to the direction of the fourth fifth and sixth Chapter whereby it may be Improved to its utmost I verily believe it would not onely make good the utmost extent of my Improvement promised but will afford Hay sufficient to supply all those Barrâ—n parts and that as good again for the nature of it if not thrice so good as now it is I Instance this place the rather because it is so obvious to every one and so well known to most and this offer of Improvement was once tendred to them who could not agree therein but made many of the Objections aforesaid although it was offered them to be done at anoâ—hers cost and charge and they have run no Hazzard but to have come unto so great an Improvement paying the cost and charges if the design had taken after they had seen it wrought unto their hands but there are a thousand and ten thousand Acres up and down the Nation some yeelds more and others less hopes of vast Advancement and all great enough if men would put them upon tryall and great and vast quantities of Land in many Forrests Common Fields and other Heaths Wasts Moores and other Commons subject to the greatest Improvements at little charge which will never be done till men know their own And were every mans part proportioned out to himself and layd severall it would so quicken and incline his spirits that he would be greedy in searching out all opportunities of Improvement whatsoever the Land is capable of As by Lime and Marl Muck Soyl Marl Lime Earth Chalk and Mud c. With many other wayes all which men will infinitely more pursue when they know their own than while it lyes at random And a Monarch of one Acre will advance more profit of it than he that hath his share in an hundred Acres in common which will more naturally fall into the next Piece and there shall be particularly handled whereby great store of Corn of all sorts where now not one Grain is Tilled may be gained which raiseth Straw Stover and Fodder abundantly for raising Soyl Dung or Manure As old and the onely infallible and undeniable meanes to advance any Land whatsoever I shall digress a little because all men talk of Husbandry and good Husbandry too and especially of much excellent Husbandry near and about Londoâ— where Soyl is so plentyfull that half of it is scarce used though so much needed and so unspeakably advantagious and yet so few practise Husbandry to purpose though under such great opportunities but few practise to purpose else what meanes all those Barren Lands though not Common Lands lying within some two miles other three four five or six of the great City where all men are said to be the most gallant Husbands of the Nation to lye unimproved all Heath or Ling or Broom not worth three four or five shillings an Acre surely were there either Soyl to be had at London for Mony as indeed there is enough to be had without nay in many parts men may have Mony to carry it away else were there a River to Barge it up and down men would Improve it to great worth Many hundred if not thousand Acres in Fssex Kent and Surry are neglected certainly Land is worth Money and Money enough too if I be not mistaken about London And then by these meanes when the same shall be laid down to Graze observing but the particular Directions aforesaid it shall feed and fat where before it kept but store Cattell alive much more might herein be said but I 'll say no more for if the Presidenting these experiences will not satisfie and abash the Oppressor I am sure I shall shame my self by my Prolixity and therefore I 'll sope the Black-more no more untill he manifest his offence at what I have said by way of return in the same kind but if he delight more in Rime than Reason or Experiences Take Mr. Tusser speaking in his Husbandry of the great Advantages betwixt Enclosure and the Champion Countries and betwixt Slothfulness and Ingenuity and I will give it in his own Phrase which I conceive may please thee better and he speakes very good Reason also by his Rimas By Master TVSSER 106. Pag. Chap. 52. A comparison between Champion-Countrey and Inclosure THe Country Inclosed Ipraise The other delighteth not me For nothing the Wealth it doth raise To such as inferiour be How both of them partly I know Here somewhat I mind to show Their Swineheard that keepeth the Hog Their Neatherd with Curr and with Horn Their Sheepheard with Whistle and Dog Be fence to the Meadowes and Corn. Their Horse being ty'd on a Balk Is ready with Thief for to walk Where all things in common doe rest Corn-field with the Pasture and Mead Though common ye do as the rest Yet what doth it stand you in stead Their Commons as Commoners use For otherwise shalt thou not chuse What Lair much beteter then there Or cheaper thereon to do well What Drudgery more any where Lesse good therefore where can ye tell What gotten by Summer is see In Winter is eaten up clean Example by Liecestershire What Soyl can be better than that For any thing heart can desire And yet they want ye see what Mast Covert Close Pasture and Wood And other things needfall is good All those do Inclosure bring Experience teacheth no less I speak not to boast of the thing But onely a truth to expresse Example if doubt you do make Of Suffolk and Essex go take More plenty of Mutton and Beef Corn Butter and Cheese of the best More Wealth any where to be briefe More people more handsome and prest Where find yee Goe search any Cost Than there where Inclosure is most More work for the labouring-man As well in the Town as the Field Or therefore devise if you can More profit what Country doth yeeld More seldom where see yee the Poor Go begging from door to door In Norfolk behold the despair Of Tillage too much to be born By Drovers from Fair unto Fair And other destroying the Corn By Custome and Covetous Pates By Gaps and opening Gates What speak I of Commoners by With drawing all after a Line So noying the Corn as it lye With Cattell with Coneys and Swine When thou hast bestowed the cost Look half of the same to be lost The flocks of the Lord of the Soyl Doe yearly the Winter Corn wrong The same in
best publique Advantage Husbandry all thy Lands to the best greatest benefit of the Common-Wealth for in this way of Improvement thou caâ—st not possibly intending the publique good but necessarily the greatest good must follow to Poor thy self and family Order therfore thy common Arable Lands as they also may raise and produce their most plenty to all Concernments and all Wasts Forrests and Heathes that they may produce their great advantage which being so old and restie will yeeld forth Corn in great abundance and after Pasture to double profit Bee not peevish nor let not passion nor old customed corrupted Will prevail against these Advantages for he that Improves not all his Land to this end the raysing plentie and relieving the miserable answereth not the ends wherefore thy self and all thy Lands were given as before I hinted I have no more to say to thee but to intreat thee to remember that passage of the Wise Man viz The thoughts of the diligent bring abundance And if thou wilt be yet unsatisfied be so stil. The fourth Piece of Improvement shews how to Plow and Corn old Pasture Land so as not to Impoverish it and double the Improvement of it for a Time and afterward to better it for ever in a way of grazing and will be as a medium to allay the second Extreme and will discover that Corn shall ever be the predominant profitable staple Commodity in the Nation and sheweth many particular wayes of Improvement of other sorts of Lands CHAP. XIV THere is a second Extreme also which men wedded to their self profit hugg in their very bosome which is so much to their hearts content that they never look what may make most profit to the Publique or good of the Common-wealth themselves or Posterity He is seated in way of Feeding and Grazing with a constant Stock of Breeding and let his Land be fit for one or fit for another use he matters it not he hath received a Prejudice against Plowing partly because of the Toyl and Charge thereof and partly because as aforesaid some men have Plowed their Land so long as they have impoverished it much and some men so long as it is possible it may be many yeares before it Soard Compleatly and therefore let it be Dry or moyst Sound or Rotten Rushey or Mossey Fenny or run over with a Flag Grass or Ant-hills Mossure or wild Time let it keep more or less hee 'l not alter tell him Sir it will yeeld abundance of gallant Corn to supply the whole Country raise great Summes of Money to your Purse and afterward if you yet Plow Moderately it may keep as many Cattell nay more yet nothing takes with him he will have no Enclosure Plowed by no meanes yet seriously weigh these ensuing particulars and then use thy own will and pleasure But to make good my promise herein I must first remise that my Design is mainly upon a second sort of coarser Land betwixt twenty shillings an Acre and ten shillings or a noble out of all which will come a great Advancement to no prejudice at all is a member of one of the fix Pieces of greatest Advancement promised Although the best sort of Land of all will yeeld the greatest profit yet not without some seeming little Prejudice to it and also this will best continue and hold his beauty and strength and Improve upon Grazing rather than lose which the worser sort will not And of this best sort of Lands with the Improvement to be made thereon very Considerable I shall also speak under the sixt and last Piece of all And shall now set forth how the Plowing of all such Lands according to the Design projected which shall be a supply or filling up and running over of the measure of plenty of Corn in case Inclosure should decrease it which I am confident upon the consideration of the aforesaid Reasons thou canst not Imagine and so remove that Extreme also In which Projection I shall tell thee that if thou wilt follow the Rules prescribed thou shalt double the prizes of thy Lands for the present time of Plowing and after lay it down better for Grazing than thou tookest it to plow onely consider that of this second sort there be three natures First sad and moyst strong Clay and cold Second Mixed with divers Earths Third Warm Sandy or Gravelly The first natured Land advanceth it self most be Tillage yet raiseth Corn in abundance also but the two other latter natured Lands advanceth not so much in it self as in that wonderfull increase of Corn it yeeldeth to the Common-Wealth I verily beleeve that Lands of these latter natures are as fruitfull and kind for Corn especially if they be resty and for four yeares may produce as much increase to the Strike or Market as that Land that is as Rich again or twice as Rich for as to the Corning Land it may possibly sometime be too good as alwaies too bad I had far rather make choice of a middle sound warm Land than of the richest and fattest that is for this will yeeld it self and heart more to the Corn than the other and yet this also may be bettered with wisdom used in the Plowing for Grazing also First therefore consider the nature of this first sort of Land and the way of Husbandring it to inable it to produce the promised Improvement And so I begin with that which is of a pure Clay or of a little mixed nature either with Sand or Gravell and yet is of a cold temper and so is neither so wholsome for Cattels lodging nor so fruitfull for their Pasturing Which sort of Land is many times over-run with Ant-hills which are best destroyed this way being opened the Soard taken up and the Coar taken out and scattered before the Plough will make all the Land Plow the better and also lye better and the Mould wil help a little all the parts of the Land they are spread upon And Rushes and Moss in abundance may many times so over-run the Land which are so thick and noysome that they not onely hinder the Earths naturall fruitfulness but the Rushes are so thick and high in many Pastures that the Sheep many times make them for their Refuge to preserve themselves from the heat that oft-times they are sheltered so long by them untill they be lost by the Manes Maggots or Vermine A great prejudice to the Grazier or Breeder All which is certainly occasioned by the Moystness and Coldness of the Lands which will no way more certainly and Advantagiously be removed but by Plowing these Lands which course although by many men it be thought an Impoverishing of the Land yet I absolutely deny the same and affirm both from mine own Experience and the Practise of those that have made tryall thereof that it shall most wonderfully advance the same for present and future Over-Plowing indeed weakens Land Extremes on either hand are
affirming that the Land next unto it but a hedge betwixt which was far better Land and indeed so it was very near as rich again husbanded by very able husbandâ— the best in that Country and that Land good Barley-Lâ—nd yet never answered the pains and cost bestowed yet I resolving to make a full triall thereof I set upon it according to the prescription aforesaid Each Acre Plowing and Harrowing Spading and Dressing for indeed I made Harrowes on purpose also of divers Sizes it cost me about fifteen or sixteen shillings an Acre the two first Crops the very Dressing of it And for these Crops being but of Oates I could have had five pound an Acre being offered it by an Oat-meal man of himself though never asked growing upon the ground Nay six pound an Acre if I would have sold it which is a vast Rate for Oates in the middle of the Nation And indeed I found the ground so poor that it would not bear Barley for I tryed some Acres of the best Land in it but it was not worth an Acre of my Oates and after Plowing I gave the old naturall Rent as it was ever set at or really worth and that for many years and the Land is better lyeth sounder warmer and both yeelds more Milk Summers as many Cattell and Winters far more and feeds better than it did before without any other cost bestowed and the very first year I layd it down after Plowing it kept me more Cattell and better than ever it did before and will continue better for it for ever after CHAP. XVI Sheweth the best and most advantagious way of Plowing and Husbandring Lands so as most to Advantage it in laying down Land to Graze to make good the Improvement promised and not to over-plow as you tender the loss of your Land TO this end be sure to lay your Furrowes open and clean scoured up and capable to receive and carry away all your standing water or soaking moysture from your Lands and be sure so to Plow your Lands as you may cast your Lands into severall Furlongs that you may have one Furrow or Drain run into another and that next into another and so into the Master Trench which if it cannot be made deep enough with the Plow let it be done with the Spade substantially And so from one to another to carry away the Water that it may neither annoy your Corn throughout your Field in any Furlong nor your Land when you come to lay it down and then when you have Plowed your Lands wherein the more truth and exactness you observe therein the more fruit expect And when you come to sowing your Lands you must get very strong weighty Harrowes if you would do it indeed and not slubber it over as most do long tined and sharp and either they must be so weighty of themselves that they may work a gallant strong Team to draw them or else so loaden with weight that you tear up rough uneven places and raise good store of Mould which is a marveilous great Advantage to the Corn as for the ordinary way of Hilding Land as most do is Reproveable and then with two or three sorts of Harrowes each Harrow having his Teeth or tines thicker than other which will so curiously and certainly cover your Corn that you will have little or none â—ye uncovered but well moulded which will have such strength heart unto it as by Gods blessing you may expect a Crop answerable to your cost bestowed and far greater The next direction is that as I cry up plowing as a soveraign meanes of a great Advancement so I also as much decry Over-Plowing or the Plowing of Lands as most do some Plow as long as it will bear any corn and others as long as it will bear good Corn And others they Plow on any fashion lay their Lands as though they were over-running them both to Corn and Graze and when they lay it down some lay down sound warm dry Land very high ridge and furrow and small Land too very prejudiciall to their Land and themselves too and are justly reproveable others lay down strong cold Land flat unopen'd some part Plowed some unplowed full of balkes holes and hils as if they would secure or ingross all the coldness and Venom of all the water and hunger that is either naturally upon it or that falls upon it or passeth by it they matter not after what manner they leave it nor after what Grain I therefore prescribe onely three or four yeares to Plow unto this sort of Land and to raise it every year not less because the Rush Filth and Earth will not be rotted nor well compounded nor the nature of the Land changed with fewer Tilths nor the Lands well brought to a good height roundness and driness in lesser time for if it be cold Laud all that can possibly be done will not lay it high and dry enough nor the Mould wrought to her perfect tenderness and true Mixture whereby it may yeeld more fruitfulness but if the Land be very rich of nature and not well wrought nor the Rush perfectly destroyed nor the Lands brought up to a convenient height and roundness then one year more may do well which year shall yeeld the best crop outof all question but will draw a little more from the strength of the Land than any of the other yeares did and if the Land be in strength it may very little prejudice it and therefore this I leave to every mans pleasure upon this consideration and could wish that all men would so Plow as mainly intending the Advance and Betterment of their Land especially Pasture Land and no otherwise For you were as good lose some of your inheritance as you do in my opinion Or as good lose the Land which is but the Carcas as the strength and vertue which is the Heart and Life of it for therein is the Common Advantage when the Earth yeelds most increase or fruit and a little parcell yeelds abundance of fruit Fifthly and lastly I advise to lay down all Lands of this nature upon Wheat Mesâ—en or Rye Stubble which will exceedingly thicken and improve the Soarding and if my Principles fail not will raise as good a Soard in the first year as after any Summer Corn whatsoever will in two and must do well for these Reasons First because it hath one half year more to Soard in then after the Lenton Tylth and so is somewhat Soarded before Oates Barley or Pease are sown Secondly because winter Corn groweth thin long and a stronger Straw and gives more liberty to the grass to grow and spread the thicker and the Soard will also be very rich and fruitfull I likewise advise to sow this Land as early â—as possibly you can even as soon as your other Crop is ended the sooner the better unless the Condition of the Country very much oppose it how
ever the Earlier it is sowed the better is the Crop like to prove in my opinion because these Graines of Wheat or Rie c. require the land to be in better Tillage than this can be Therefore help it what you can possibly by seasonable and early sowing that it may have as much Summer as may be and by all means Harrow in your Corn after it is Plowed For this is more certain to produce a good Crop And secondly leaves the Ground even smooth to Graze yet forget not that your Land be left High and Round the Colder in nature the Higheâ— and Rounder as aforesaid each Furrow be Scoured up as cleanly as you can possibly These simple particulars really Observed and Practised will bring the Land to that condition that I shall make good what I formerly promised and to this particular I shall say no more for present onely this may be applied to any of this second sort of Land be it of what Mixture or Composition soever that is Banky Mossy Cold and Rushy and will have a proportionable effect promised But if possibly you could run over a good part of this Land with Dung after you have plowed it before you sow your last Crop or so much as you could it would produce a double advantage of the cost bestowed towards the Soarding of it And if after you have Reaped your last Crop you could then run it over again with any quantity of Muck or Compast it might so nourish your Land and that for many years after possibly it might be near as good again upon the old Soarding as it was before for you would wonder how much good one Load of Manure doth upon the Land so Tender wrought and Mixed beyond what two or three Load will do on old Soard or old Pasture so Rough and Filthy nothing will make you to beleeve this but your own experience Let me prevail herein good Reader to make a tryall it will be to thy benefit be not an Enemy to Tillage nor raising Corn to Poor and Common-wealth and If thou expect better Satisfaction take it from divine evidence and from the Conclusion of him that spake by Inspiration as well as from natural Experience He that tilleth his Land shall be satisfied with Bread and shall have plenty Much food in Tillage for the Poor And if this satisfie not carry this one Text if thou canst remember no more along with thee into thy Pastures when thon art in thy greatest Glory He that withdraweth Corn the people shall curse him and a blessing upon his bead that selleth it But he must get it first and so we ought upon that Land as will most freely yeeld it which I conceive is a main end wherefore Thou and Thy Land was first created Be not envious to thine own good nor wilfull to thine own profit I am much abashed to use so many words to press so plain Simple Principles thoughtâ— to be well known to all and possibly they may be better than to my self but truly the little Practise of them and the Scorn men carry in their Breasts to learn and that Thirstiness in me after the Common good occasions all this Rudeness to see thousands of Opportunities so neglected makes me amaze CHAP. XVI ANd first for your richest sorts of Land conceived as good as Art and Nature can make them yet consider the insuing Discourse may hold out some Improvement to be made out of the same As for your best Land of all That by Husbandry Drayning Separating cleering Plowing Soyling or some sort of husbandry or other was brought to this perfection it was not in this condition naturally nor originally from the beginning much whereof may be now clear from Rushes Mossiness Sow Thistle Nettles Weeds and Hemlocks and all other pelf and onely bring forth pure Grass both thick and rich this possibly may admit of little Improvement upon it self but unto the Owner and Common-wealth this may yeeld above double profit for some yeares by moderate Plowing and afterward return so soon to his naturall fruitfulness as that it shall yeeld his old Grazing Rent the first year and so continue But this Land being of all other the most subject to Abuse and greater prejudice than any other Land whatsoever And I am confident unless the Presidented directions contained in the fourteenth and fifteenth Chapter be most punctually observed it may suffer loss therefore I must provoke no man to take the pursuance of them here unless any who is of such a publique spirit as rather desires the Publique than his own private Advancement And for some other men when they find so great profit come in upon them by this or any other means they out of a thirsty desire of gain will Over-do Over-plow and so destroy their Land for it is not Plowing simply as aforesaid that impoverisheth Land but too oft Plowing and look you where you will generally throughout this Nation and you will find where any good Pasture is destroyed hereby they have Plowed Six Seven and some Nine Ten and some Twelve Crops together which I approve so well as I say it is a Losing Extreme And I wish it were Felony so to abuse a mans Self Lands Posterity and Common-Wealth Also which Lands may be so many yeares before they come to a perfect Soard again as may lose as much in abatement of Rent before it come up to the old Rent as they got in the advance Rent by Plowing And yet if I affirm that Mowing Land without Limitaion is as impoverishing unto it as Plowing Land with Moderation especially Upland Pasture I should not much mistake I am a greater Eâ—emy to the one without Limit than to the other with Moderaion and yet tthe one is cryed down by all and the other by few or none Therefore my advise shall be to Plow thy Land three four or five Crops if thy affections stand that way and lookest at greatest profit Sowing it first with Hemp Oad Coal or Rape-seed Madder Licorish or Sow such rich Commodity that will so well pay for it or something else that better agrees with the rankness of so gallant Land which for divers of the first years will be so rank that Corn will fall Flat and Dwindle or Rot and neither be kindly in quality nor rise to the strike in quantity as it will upon those Lands after divers Crops taken or upon leaner Land and then after with Corn the last yeares And if thou wilt but lay it down round even upon the Wheat Rye or Meslin Stubble Sowed in his proper Season observing some other few Directions handled more at large in the aforesayd Chapters thou shalt not need to fear thy Lands Impoverishing or abating Rent It will produce so gallant and sweet a Turf as will feed as well and faster than it did before if not better For my own part I do affirm That had
I the managing it whilst under Tillage I would make good the same upon good Security But as I said before use your own liberty he that Plows not such Land at all that yeelds its utmost strength and fruit in Grazing which admits of no Corruption or Degeneration doth wel Because the Nation will afford other Land enough that stands in more need of this Husbandry to supply the Country Corn And also because many men hold it a great Disparagement to Plow up such gallant Pasture from whom I do very little or nothing dissent in Judgement yet he that if by Plowing can Advance the Publique and himself also I dare not say but he doth better yet neither much amiss Every man herein may please his own affection where the Common-wealth is not eminently prejudiced But for other wayes of Improvement of the Richest sort of Land I know little more worth Divulging for either the Cost and Charge expended will not produce an answerable present Advantage or else the continuance and certainty of future hopes may prove doubtfull Which uncertainties I affect not onely take this remembrance with thee that if thy Pasture be very Vast and Large Lesser Divisions will set the dearer and better and every mans money for Conveniency when greater are bargains for few men and those for great ones also that will make their own Advantage yet use moderation herein also A large Pasture is comely and a little Pingle Inconvenient Extremes are neither for Credit nor Profit but for Destruction A Pasture about one hundred or sixscore Acres or a hundred and fifty Acres is very commendable where they lye remote and at good distance from great Market-Towns or where Pasturing is very plentifull but if either Pasture-Land be scarce or border upon Common Fields or Heaths or Forrests or if they lye near or adjoynining to any good Market or great City lesser divisions wil farre out-vy with greater in their price advantage the people lying under such necessities of Pasturage some to help to relieve their Common and others to relieve the necessities of their own neighbouring Families But in thy Divisions be sure to make them alwaies in the lowest parts of thy Lands that so thy Ditches may serve in stead of Draines or Conveyances of Water or taking away the Coldness that offends thy Land every mans own Experience will patronize this Position But secondly when any of these Rich Lands shall Degenerate into Mossiness Rushes Coldness or Over-grow with Weeds Nettles Hemlocks Sow-Thistles c then thy Land wil need good Husbandry and wil admit of Improvement for Hemlocks Nettles Docks Chick-weeds and other common Weeds these are as much occasioned with Fatness and too much Richness as from any other cause And when from this cause no cure like Plowing for that brings profit with the Cure and advance in the very Reducement there is much Land of this Fatness Some there is in divess parts of this Nation as about Hay-Stacks or Sheep-Pens or places of Shade or in the Warmest parts of many Pastures which Sheep and Cattell chuse alway for their Lieare and very much about the heads of Conney-Berries All which according to former Direction in Plowing old Resty Land will Reduce this to Moderation in over much Rankness And especially if it be Plowed somewhat oftner than the other sorts of Lands it will bear near as many more Crops without prejudice and no other means whatsover will so Surely Feacibly and Profitably work this Effect in my Experience viz. To destroy the Weeds and reduce it to perfect Grazing And as your Land degenerates to Mossiness Rushes and Coldness none will deny the wonderfull certain change and alteration thereof by Plowing if they should I conceive I have sufficiently cleared it where I have discoursed of the second sort of Land at large in the thirteenth fourteenth and fifteenth Chapters and answered severall Objections made against the same yet one or two more remains to be Objected Bear with me I say the more herein as Coveting to beguile men of such Prejudice as possesseth most and so deeply rooted as will ask hot water to Mattock up Some say they have fouâ—d the contrary their Land not Soarding of many years after and when it hath come to Soard it hath been neither so Rich Thick nor Fruitfull therefore Prejudiced by Plowing All which I Eccho with thee that possibly it may be so and yet this may not reach too nor in the least weaken my Propositions which give direction onely to three or four Crops at most unless in case of Weeds and Nettles and too much Fatness I never advise to Plow thy Land so long to bring it to this I abominate such Husbandry neither do I absolutely perswade to the Plowing of all Lands without Exception well knowing that in some parts of this Nation there are some Lands so Binding so Tough a Sodering Clay Cold that it will neither Soard so thick nor quick as others will which sort of Land if Rich and Sweet will less Advance by Plowing than any other but to this sort of Land as it doth degenerate and decay use it as a Medicine and use it as according to former Rules and lay down thy Land according to former Limitations question not though it Soard not so soon as other Lands Mixed Light more Loosened yet it shal both Soard so Timely so Richly as it shall counter-profit all thy prejudice And for other Lands either Gravelly Light Warm and Sandy or else Mixed and Compounded I dare affirm some Land the first year may be full as good as it was before Plowing I have known a Winter Stubble after the Crop was Inned of some Pastures worth as much that Winter half year as it usually was worth any Winter upon the old Soard yet hath not bin Pastured the whole half year neither nay some have been worth as much as the said Lands have bin worth almost the whole year The Eadish hath bin so fruitfull and my self have had the like Profits and Advantages and have had a Wheat Stubble of my own being the third Crop that will make good what I have Affirmed and the very first year of Grazing full as good if not better than it was upon the old Turf before Plowing They that cannot manage this Objection further yet confess and say 't is true for two or three of the first years it may possibly hold fruitfull but it shall fall after seven eight or ten or more years after that it shall be worse than ever To this I can say little more than what I have said before unless you can produce me some Experiment wherein my directions have been observed and your Prejudice succeeded otherwise you say nothing which Experiment when you have found I shall not question but to discover your mistake either you are mistaken in the nature of the Land or else
there would not be one foot of ground more lost but a double or treble Advantage raised upon it in few yeares and ever after with no other Husbandry continued but ever bring in double profit for the charge bestowed As in the cutting plashing scouring of the Hedges which payes his cost bestowed and sometimes double and treble and if it be a Hedge curiously preserved and cut just in his ripest season before it begin to die i' th' bottom and have in it either good store of great Wood or Fruit-Trees planted among the profits may arisâ— to much more than is here spoken of CHAP. XVII Wherein I proceed to a second sort of Land somewhat Inferiour to the former wherein is discoursed the destruction of the Rush Flag and Mare-blab altering the Coldness of Nature and the preventing the standing Winters Water and destroying Ant and Mole-hills c. All which are most incident to this second sort of Land THis which I call a second sort is our midling Land I delight in plainess and avoyd all Language darkning the plainest sense or whatsoever may occasion mysteriousness or confusion in the reading or practice so that this middle sort of Lands as aforesaid is all such Lands that are betwixt the value of twenty shillings per Acre and six shiliings eight pence per Acre which sort of Lands as they lye under a capacity of the greatest Improvement I have handled them at large in the foregoing Discourse especially under the four first Pieces of Improvement But as they lye under a Capacity of a moderate and less Improvement fall here to be discoursed and although I call it a moderate Improvement yet being well Husbandred according to the subsequent directions may produce a double increase and some far more and some less but in all a considerable advantage enough to encourage to the prosecution And possibly some of these Lands may be of the richest and first sort naturally but by some Improvidence or ill Husbandry being degenerate are faln under this second and that where the Rush either hard or soft prevaileth or else where the Land lyeth so flat cold and moyst that the Flag or Marâ—-blab thriveth I shall here onely apply one remedy for the removall of them all to avoid Tediousness which is most naturall thereto and cannot fail being punctually observed and that is a way all men use already though to little purpose which is to indeavour Drayning of the same as you shall see in most mens Lands both Pasture and Common â—ull of Trenches as they can hold to their great cost and loss of abundance of good Land devoured in the Trenches Heaps and banks they make and yet all is of little use the Rush as fruitfull and the Land as cold as formerly in comparison Therefore I shall advise far less Trenching and yet produce more soundness I say then as I have often said seek out the lowest part of thy Land and there make either a large Trench or good Ditch or be it but the old one well scoured up if there be one to such a Depth as may carry away that water or Corruption that feeds the Rush or Flag from every other upper Trench thou shalt see cause to make and so ascend to any part of thy Land where these offences are carrying with thee one Master Trench to receive all thy less Draines along with thee and there make a Drain yea all thy Draines and Trenches so deep for I prescribe no certain depth as to that Cold spewing water that lyeth at the bottom of the Rush or Flag which alway either lyeth in a Vein of Sand and Gravell mixed or Gravell or Clay and stones mixed as aforesaid and thence will issue a little water especially making thy Trench half a foot or one Foot deeper into which will soak the Rushes food which being laid Dry and Drayned away cannot grow but needs dye and wither It is impossible without going to the bottome to do any good Our own experience shews it and so the depth may be two Spades graâ—t or more however to the bottom thou must go and then one Trench shall do as much good as twenty alwaies curiously observing that thy Trenches run in the lowest part of thy Ground and through the Coldest and most quealiest parts of thy Lands and for the manner of making the same and further Direction therin I shall refer thee back unto the second Piece the seventh Chapter where I have spoken something to most of the aforesaid Passages But if thy Land lyes upon a Flat or upon a Levell and have many great wide Balks of which there wil be no end of Trenching or Drayning I must then assure thee it is to little purpose yet art not left remediless for this insuing direction will not fail and will bring profit with it to pay for curing also which is a moderate Plowing Ridging all thy Balks raising and Landing all thy Flats gaining them as high as possibly thou canst Plow all and leave none and do this three yeares together and observe such former Directions as are contained in the thirteenth fourteenth and fifteenth Chapters in the third Piece of Improvement And by the blessing of God expect the issue promised It will lay Land sound and dry more warm and healthfull than formerly destroy the Rush and many other Annoyances beyond Expectation I have been forced to be more large to speak twice to one thing because of the suitableness thereof unto these Lands but especially because I cannot speak enough to make some to understand it nor others to set upon the Practise and more especially because the Reader may miss the reading of it in the former part unless he take the paines as few do deliberately to read the whole Therefore if thou wilt forgive this fault I le mend the next As for the Mole-hils so great an Enemy to the Husbandman and Grazier there is so much Experience made for their Destruction that almost every Ingenuous man is grown a Moal-catcher in many parts and that is a certain way yet in many parts men are Slothful that because all their Neighbours wil not kil them therfore they wil not so they suffer their Land one third part to be turned up There is a Law to compell men to Ring their Swine to prevent their Rooting it were more advantage to the CoÌ„mon-Weal a severe Law were made to Compell all men to keep the Moal from Rooting for he destroyes abundance of Grass he covers with the Mould and Corn he throws up by the Roots which utterly perisheth Spoyls the Mâ—wers work and Tools and raiseth Balks in Meads and Pastures besides the work he makes the Husbandman to spread some of them the Cost whereof were it but bestowed in Moal-killing would prevent the aforesaid losses And although I can make no new Addition to the Moales Destruction there being so many Artists with the Moalâ—staff Tines and
use and benefit of Marl and giveth a President of the Improvement made by it MArl is also a very gallant thing I can say much for it far more than I resolve to speak to because others have spoken much therof though little to my especiall purposes It is commended of all men and very highly almost by every Writer that sayes any thing in point of Husbandry therefore I 'll say but little onely acquaint you with its nature and an experiment made of it and the severall Lands it is most natural for Advancement or Melioration to a little quicken the Practice where it is found and the Search for it where it is not yet discovered And for the nature of it it is also of a colder nature because it saddens the Land exceedingly and very heavy it is and will go downwards also but being so much of substance cannot easily bury so soon as Lime will and the description of it is not so much in Colour as some say as in the Purity uncompoundedness of it for in my Opinion be the Colour what it will if it be pure of it self that it will break into bits like a Die or but smooth like Lead without any Composition of Sand or Gravel some others of it if it will slack like Slate-stones and then if it wil purely slack after a showr of Rain question not the fruitfulness of it 'T is possible some Countries may yeeld severall Colours of Marl as it is affirmed of Kent wherein is found both Yellow Gray Blew and Red and the red is said to be the worst there which I will not here dispute because it never fell under mine own Experience in that Country yet I will say it holds not every where indeed the Blew and Gray are very Excellent and so also is the Red no less And whereas the common sign is said to be Slipperiness or Greasiness in which I will not contest but onely I say there is some as good Marl as is most this day in England which is not so but as it lyeth in the Mine is pure dry short if you water it you shal find it in slipperiness differ little from common Clayes The onely sign but the purest and truest sign as aforesaid is the incompoundness of it and if it slack also immediately after a showr and shortly after turn to dust after it is throughly dry again and doth not congeal and conglutinate like to tough Clay but dissolve fear not the Operation Adventure the Experimenting of it the fruit wil be answerable to thy hopes And now give me leave to tel thee a true relation of one Experiment of my own because I speak but little but my own Experiences upon an hard Inclosed Wood-land Farm I rented having some Land also in CoÌ„mon amongst the rest I had about fifteen or sixteen little short Lands or Buts lay all together in the Common Field All which said Lands were so gravelly of nature that there was but about two Inches thickness of Earth before you came to as perfect Gravell as any High-way yea so exceeding herein that in many places turned to Sinder like that the Smith casts forth of his fire as the corruption of his Iron Fire Coales congealed and also so hungry and barren of nature that before I converted it to Tillage little or nothing was made of it And to Graze it was not worth above two shillings an Acre and yâ—â— it was Resty and old Turf had lain long may be 〈◊〉 or twenty yeares And resolving to make an Experiment I searched for Marl found it where none had ever 〈◊〉 in mans memory nor within many Miles of it 〈◊〉 in an old strong Clay Pooll I conceived it lye the which Pool I was forced to cleanse being full of Mud that so I might make the better and greater fall of Marl at last and my Marl was perfect Red differing in nothing from Clay in colour but in the breaking into bits and ends like Dies not slippery as was discernable from Clay And because I would make an undeceivable Experiment of it which ever was my greatest Arrogancy I carried forth that Mud also to my Land and laid it upon two or three Lands as thick again as men use to lay on Soyl or Dung I also Mucked with the Cart two more exceeding well and as I remember Fold-Mucked two more Also I Marled three or four far thicker than I Mudded the other And one Land I neither Mucked Mudded Foulded or Marled nor laid any cost upon it at all yet Plowed them all alike brought them into good Tillage and Sowed them as I remember with Wheat and Rye mixed for the first year I reaped very good Corn upon my Cart-mucked Land and Fold-Mucked the best of all the best upon my Mudded Land the next and upon my Marled Land reasonable good not so good as the aforesaid sorts yeelded because Marl yeelds not forth his utmost strength the first year And upon that I laid nothing I reaped nothing not so much as Straw although I gave it the same seed and the same Tillage as the aforesaid Lands Whereby you may perceive the goodness of the Land which is bad enough indeed when it will bear no Corn at all for very little Land in England that is old and Resty and in good Tillage but wil bear some either Oates or Tares The next year I Sowed Barley upon all sorts of these Lands and upon my Marled Land was most gallant Corn and so was my Mudded Land my Mucked Land was the worst by far the Muck decaying and upon that I Soyled not I Sowed the second year with Oates and reaped nothing again that year also Then afterward I Marled that which before I had Mucked and that which had not Soyl laid upon it brought forth nothing the two years before which brought forth as gallant Corn as England yeelded And after three or four Crops my Mud decayed also and that I Marled again and had the same Fruit as aforesaid and for my Marled Land that I kept in Tillage nine years without any other addition of any Compost or Soyl at all and had as goodly Corn as grew and then I left the Land ever since with some small addition of Fold or Manure as they do the rest of their Lands that out-strips all the rest and is discernable from all the Lands to this day her in observe how it saddens Land this was Rye Land most naturally but it turned to Wheat Barley and Pease and as it is thus excellent for Corn so it is also very fruitfull and inriching to Grass-land provided you take heed of Extremes which most men are subject to run into which is not to Til it forth of heart for to Till it forth of heart is just as if you work an Ox off his legs a Horse off his stomack or a Man off his strength
and then put them all to work for Wagers with those that are in plight and strength Try wha◠service one of them will do you not a third part of that service they did before Nor twice or thrice to Marl together I hold not proper but when your resolve to lay down your Land to Graze be sure at the last Crop you intend to take which may be the fourth fifth or sixth after Marling then Manure thy band wel with Dung which wil so open lighten and loosen thy Land for the less binding and the more light loose and open the more fruitful that it will produce a gallant Glovery and white Hunny-suckle Grass and Graze fruitfully and then if as aforesaid the first year after thou hast laid it down upon the Wheat or mixt Corn-stubble thou wouldest run it over again with Dung it would pay thee treble I cannot forbear inculcating these two because I see it is so little practised in any part of the Nation and I know it to be so wonderfull Advantagious untill thou pursue the practice of them if possibly never lay down thy Land to Graze but thus Let-not-thy Gain or Profit of a good Crop or two hinder thee of ten fold more and dishonour thy Land Prejudic◠thy Posterity defame thy Husbandry Oh that this gallant Principle of Improvement of all Lands to their utmost worth was naturally planted in all mens Breasts t is true to get Wealth and Riches is naturall enough and both in our thirsting and eager pursuit hereof by many lawfull common wayes and by more indirect baser meanes Eateth out the very hearts and bowels of many but thus to indeavour to raise Wealth out of the Earth by ingenuity to raise soyl out of one part of the Earth to inrich another or out of the Seas or any way else by a mean Low charge or poor workinens labour depending upon the Almighty for that blessing is that I so highly magnify not having forgot the old Proverb of making honey of a Dogs so I believe any Land by cost charge may be made rich and as rich as Land can be but not counterpoise one quarter of the charge or labour which I neither affect nor indeavour to hold forth but my resolutions are to perswade all mens Estates or parts to drive on all Designs for the Cōmon good so to Plow all thy Lands as to make thy Lands Fittest and Richest to Graze and then to Plow again when thy Land decayes in Grazing thy Plowing shall far out profit thy Grazing I am confident a man might so Husband the matter as neither of these should hinder each others Fruitfulness but both help on each others Advancement Now the Lands upon which Marl yeelds great increase is upon your higher Sandy Land mixed or Gravelly any found Land whatsoever though never so barren to whom it is as naturall and nourishing as Bread to mans nature and will do well upon any of these though somewhat mixed with Clay but strong Clay in my opinion is most unsutable But an exact tryall I never made thereof therefore am not Peremptory and although many men are of opinion that it can have little Operation upon Wet Cold Moyst Land I say so if there be not a possibility to lay it sound and Wholsome but that I believe thou mayst do most Land by Plowing of it up and Raising of it as high as thy Land will bear it then a good Drain or master Furrow if it will serve if not a deeper Drayning Trench will for Wet and too much Cold and Moysture offends all Corn and Grass also wheresoever as well as Marl but thus done Marl wil yeeld great store of Corn upon this Land also out of question my own president was upon a very wet Land upon a most sharp gravell CHAP. XXII Sheweth the usefulness of Sand and other Soyles out of the Seas and Rivers Sands also are great Inrichments AS for Sands manure I conceive it warm of nature and yet that is not the cause of its Fruitfulness for then would all Sands have the like Operation vertue in them but of ou◠inland Sands especially these which are naturally the Surface of the Earth or else lyeth by Mines in Hils many other parts of the Nation I conceive little Fruitfulness at all however I challenge not Immunity herein from being deceived I may be for I have made no tryall at all therein and therefore what it may do upon a contrary natured Land I know not if any have found benefit I desire to learn it for Reason hath sometime deceived me and so may others but Experience never shall But as for your Sands brought forth by the Violence of strong Land-floods and cast up on Hils Shelves in many Meadows and other places in them is Fruit and Vertue and I question not but the Application of them either to Corn or Graze will produce much Fertility especially being seasonably applied to such Lands as are most different from the nature of it self for whatever causeth Barrenness be sure to provide a Soyl that wil stand in constant opposition to it and so though one wast another and both are weakened yet the Earth is thereby bettered as here the Sand is dry and warm and something inclining to Saltishness the Land I conceive best for this Soyl is moyst and cold and while Heat and Cold Dry and Moyst contest together the Earth steales from both and is much Advanced thereby For in all Soyles and sorts of Earth there is a Combustible and Incombustible Nature each Wrestling with other and the more you can occasion Quarrels and Contention by these that is the more you ad to that which is predominant and so allay the distemper in the end the more gaineth the Earth thereby For I suppose there is a kind of contrarietie in Nature it was ever so from the Fall ever will till all be swallowed up again in one But there is another sort of Sand and this is the richest of all and that is your Sand upon the Sea Costs and in the Creeks thereof which is very rich yet in some parts it may be somwhat richer than others as I conceive for this Reason because al Lands that be bordering upon the Sea Coasts might then be Improved by them but in many and most parts of the Nation the use of it is neglected I dare not have so uncharitable an opinion of my Nation that they would neglect so great and facile an Advantage In Devonshire upon those Coasts it is very rich and upon the Coasts of Cornwall also and upon all the Southern and Western Coasts as this is if there were that fruitfulness as there is in most Sea Sands and is as likely also to be in this unless or untill men have made experience and through experienc◠thereof I for my part shall be loath to have other opinion of it but that
dung and in regard of the great want of soyl I 'll discourse a little more at large of a very good way to raise easily great quantities of soyl and that very good and excellent by the help of one good flock of Sheep and that in the winter too when soulding is more neglected and of leâ—â—er use though I proposed it in the first Edition yet because I set not forth the way of raising it I fear occasions the neglect of it It is but to make a good large Seep-house for the housing of thy Sheep in Winter the comfort it will be unto thy Sheep will be double worth thy house charge which may be Sheep-cribbed round about and in the middle too to fother them in the nights herein once a week or twice according as thou desirest the quantity of muck to rise or according to the goodness of it thou expectest bring in severall Loades of Sands either out of the streets or wayes or from a sand-pit or mine once or twiee a week and lay it three or four inches thick this renew every week or more and let them sit on it two or three or four nights or more and keep this with renewing as oft as thou pleasest and what with their heat and warmth of their bodies and the fatness of their dung and urine they will so corrupt or putrify the Sand that it will turn to excellent rich soyl and go very far upon thy Land and be far more serviceable than thou canst conceive This of great use in Flanders and other parts of the World And for your Horse Dung that is held to be too hot but I never sensibly discern any inconveniences therein especially where it is feared let it be but well Wroxed or Rotten and I conceive it is one of the best compost of Land and I am sure if it be Soyl of Horses or Stables where is much Corn given it is more hearty and rich by far than that where Horses live of Hay onely And for Cow-Dung t is as wel known by all both in nature and use that I 'll save further trouble 2. But by way of reproof of one Piece of Husbandry in the applying these three sorts of Dung to Land I say Men are mistaken in that they indeavour not all possible Expedition in laying their Dung upon their Land when once they begin and in spreading of it as soon as laid on and Plowing of it into the Land as soon as spread for if my Judgement fail not they lose a great part of the Fruit Sap and Vertue therof that carry it forth into their Land about Midsummer or in that heat of Summer and spread it all over their Land and so let it lye open to the Air and drying Winds and parching Sun and Showres which comming hastily help to wash it off their Land and thus lyeth for a month or six weeks before they Plough it into their Lands all over the Field or County and many places more which besides the Raynes washing away consider but the Winds drying and the Sun and Pearching and Scorching of it Exhaling and Drawing away the Spirit of it then tell me the Excellency of this Husbandry to me it seems not rationall I le submit to better Judgements they that are of a contrary opinion I desire them to shew me Reason and inform me better And til I know better I desire to be excused And for their Sheeps Dung as soon as ever one Land is foulded let the Soyl be covered immediately let the season or weather be what it will Also in the Manuring your Green-Soard or Grass Land do little in the Summer but either in the latter end of it after September or else all Winter long is the proper season when it may have rain to beat it into the ground or Frost to wrot it and dissolve it And though sudden showers will wash some away which is far less upon Grass ground than Tillage yet if thou have any Land both below or under that thou Manurest thou needest not lose the least benefit if thou please to turn it over and let it float thy other Land with that which the Land-flood otherwise would carry away And this course some Ingenuous Husbands hold in all their Lands What Rain or Land-floods fall in their overgrounds they carry into the next below that and float there then what falls in that with the rest of that which is a floating there they carry into the next so into the lowest so will not lose so much as the advantage of a common Ditch that carries the least Land-flood with it but this falls in occasionally here therfore no more hereof Mault dust is exceeding Rich for corn-Corn-land and one load being sowed as you do or with your Corn will goe as far as six load or more of good Dung Mans Urine is of great worth this wil fatten Land more than you are aware of it were not ill Husbandry to take all Opportunities to preserve it for thy Land Of this somwhat is said before therefore no more thereof onely I have read of a good woman of Kent that preserved it sprinkled her Meadow with it which occasioned such fruitfulness though at first a little yellowish that some of her Neighbours went about to accuse her of Witchcraft Ashes also have a secret vertue and operation of what nature soever or sort that are burned throughly to dust but your Wood-ashes are best usefull for Soyl and Compost Soot also hath a vertue of Fruitfulness for Field or Garden as some affirm but I conceive the most proper soyl for Gardens are your Sheep-dung your Hen-muck and Pidgeons-dung with your well rotted Horse-muck especially for cold Land or else the rich Mould or any good Manure that is grown to Mould is as good and naturall as any of the aforesaid Soyles provided you lay good store of it theron so also I conceive it is best for your Orâ—hards or young Nurceries of Fruit Trees but of neither Garden nor Orchards Advance is my design for present and so no more of that much may be hereafter Ouse or a kind of fat Earth in Marsh Ditces is of excellent use for stony gravelly flinty or chalky Lands there is an Earth or Mud got upon the River Ware in Hartfordshire near Walton of very good use and advantage for soyl Stubble of all sorts and other Vegetables the more in quantity or Straw or Hay fothered upon the Land is very helpfull of good use with every Husbandman that I need say no more thereof Sir Francis Bacon is of opinion that Salt mingled with Corn hath a very good operation being sowed with the Corn which possibly may because brakishness is fruitfull to the Lane Also that Chalk and Lime sowed with the Corn is very helpfull that steeping your Corn in fat Water Lime-water of Dung-hill Water hath a wonderfull
so much by the Acre of many more years growth as this at the Eleventh year And for the effecting of this Design thou must take in two or three more particulars one is a strict Observation of the Season in Planting And then secondly your Demeanure towards it after Planted First The Seasons are as soon as the Leafe is faln the earlier the better fail not to be well prepared of Materials to begin with November and so thou mayst continue three months compleat untill the end of Ianuary and possibly some part of February but it is somewhat hazardous and may exceedingly fail thy Expectation And for the Moons Increasing or Declining matter it not at all nor any Season Wet or Dry Frost or Snow so thy Labourers can but work and be sure that what Sets be gathered one day may be sâ—t the next if possibly or next after And shouldst thou be occasioned by any hindrance to keep thy sets longer Unset be thou sure thou get their Roots into the ground well covered with good Mould untilâ— thou canst set them and be not drawn away to the contrary by any Workmans perswasion whatsoever for though the lying out of Mould of Unset do not kill them yet will it so backen them that thou mayst lose a full half years growth in them Secondly Thy Ground thus planted thou must be careful in the Weeding of it for I know no greater cause of this so great Advance than this The keeping of the Ground clean from Weeds and as mellow and open as possibly which will cause the Roots to shoot exceedingly and the Plant to grow abundantly thou must for the first second year prize it and dress it almost as a Garden And therefore be sure thou preserve it from any Beast Horse or Sheep biting it in the least measure should Cattell break in they would destroy one yeares growth in a moment As for Boggy Land much of it that is perfectly Drained to the bottom that is little worth will nourish a Plantation of Wood to good Advantage especially your Poplar and Willow and Alder your Ash will grow well also But therein you must observe to make your Dikes and Draines so deep that you may lay it compleatly dry you must goe under all your Bog to the cold spewing-Spring near a foot below that then what you plant upon the Bogs or Lands you may expect a wonderfull issue 'T is very common in four or five years that the Willow rises to gallant Hurdle-wood in five or six yeares to Abundance of Fire-wood and small Pole for Hops and other Uses One Acre of new Planted Willow upon some Land not worth two shillings an Acre may in Seven years be worth near about five pound in some parts an Acre and in some parts of this Nation more And I verily beleeve were all the Bog-Lands in England thus planted and Husbandred well after these Directions might raise Woood enough to maintain a great part of this Nation in Firing and for other sorts of Wood the well Ordering Nourishing it although in Lands so bad would produce a wonderfull profit far more than I will speak of And I suppose he is no ill Husband that can raise a bog to a double advance considering some of them are worse than nothing But when they are so exceeding Coarse and barren you cannot expect such Fruitfulness ordvance as from that Land that is of a fatter or better nature For certain all plants and Woods will do much better on better Land than on coarser and in case thou shouldst bestow Soyl or Manure on thy Land before thou Plant it it would be both Labour and Cost exceeding well bestowed and conduce much to the nourishing of a young Plantation Now shall follow a piece or Device how to thicken your Springs or Coppices where they grow thin or are decayed Which fully observed may doubly improve the same such a way is here projected as is little used in any Woods where I ever yet came and as unlikely also to any thing I have yet spoken unto which is no more but this at every Fall where thy Wood groweth thin take a goood straight Pole or sampler growing of Ash or Willow at the usuall growth of the Wood and Plash it down to the Ground about four or five Inches above the top of the Ground not cutting it wholly off and cut off the head of it and put the over end of the Pole after the head cut off a little into the Ground which thou mayst do by bending it in the midst like a Bow and so thrust it in and so fasten it down once or twice from the middle of it and upwards close to the Ground with a Hook or two and out thence where any branch would put forth standing will put forth lying and more and more grow up to Plants and Poles as the other Spring doth and so you may though it be uncapable of Sets or Planting with the Root lay over all your Vacant places and thicken your Woods where ever they are wanting And let me beg of thee thy credence here it is most certain I speak out of my own ExperieÌ„ce one of the gallantest Woods I know in England it is constantly used at every fall in some place or other of it the Wood is eighteen fals every fall eighteen years growth their very Faggots made at length of the Wood besides all their Pole-woods all their brush being faggoted into the Faggot were this year sold for one pound three shillings four pence a hundred forty Faggots make a Load it is worth about twenty five pounds an Acre every fall Study warmth all that possibly thou canst for any Plants are helped much in mounting aloft thereby therfore as I conceive they prosper worse upon your cold Clay which nourisheth the Tree little and hath no quickness nor life to quicken the growth therof but by toughness and coldness of the Earth the Sap is shut in and cannot get in to spread so frankly as it should and so instead of thriving of the Tree the moss prospereth more fruitfully than the Tree Your Elm Plants may be gotten of young sprouts growing forth of the Roots of the old Elm many thousands which being slipped and set will grow very fruitfully Your Sicamore is a very quick growing and thriving Wood especially if it be planted upon some warm sound and rich Land they will thrive wonderfully and rise to gallane shade excellent to make Walks Shaddow-bowers useful for in ward building where better is wanting for firing where wood grows scarce As for Sets of this nature if you go to any place where Sicamors grow and there in the beginning of the Spring you shall sind the Seeds chitted up and down as thick as possible which gather up and set them presently and you shall have your increase at large being planted curiously from any the least prejudice of
of the aforsaid Woods witness the Dutch Precedent I brought before speaking of the excellent and great advantage Wood might yeeld in my discourse about the Oak which I here forebear The use of the Ash is most manifold good for Building and for any work where it may lie dry most prime for Coopers Hoops Rimms for Sives and Wheels as Oak is also and excellent for the Wheelwright Ploughwright and the Husbanman far tougher than any of the woods aforesaid and very rich and profitable and the best Fire-wood fittest for Ladies Chambers will burn exceeding well and sweet though green but all this excellency unless for firing is quirkly spoyled If you fall it forth of season it will be worst of any Wood bare the mistaking of the season the Worm will take it speedily make it the most unserviceable of any wood whatever The onely season is from November untill the end of Ianuary for if the sap begin never so little to arise forbear falling Ash. It spreads his root very large and so is most offensive to your Corn land because it both draws away the hert from the land and offends the plough by his roots You may sow the Ash Keyes which are the onely seed in beds by themselves and they will grow amain two or three good beds will store a Country draw then as they biggon and at last draw all away or else they will destroy your Nurcery plant them in Ianuary or December mould them very well and carefully preserve them cut not off the the top if you would have it to grow in length it being a pithy wood it wil somwhat endanger it but it may prosper well though cut a little off the top spread better and be very usefull both for Timber Lop and firing I have heard of a poor woman that had two or three ash-trees in her Garden hedge and a strong wind came and blew the Ash Keyes all over the Garden that at the Spring her Garden was turned from that to a hopefull plantation of Ashes as green as a leek above the ground the woman was at a great debat to loose her Garden she was loth and to destroy so hopefull a crop she was unwilling at last she resolved to let them grow and now her garden is turned into a nurcery and she is turned a planter and hath ever since maintained it to that use and made many times more profit than she did before The slips from the roots are not so good sets as the sciens or sprout from the Key that is far the best Set beeing straight and smooth barked and free from canker Their removing must be in the depth of winter that it may have a whole winter to fasten the roots the roots may be cut in the removing a little but the strings no whit at all It is a Tree of marvellous great advantage to the Common wealth and very profitable to the Planter Pliny writes that the Serpent so abhors the Ash that it will rather choose to run into the fire than through the Ash boughs but no more of this The Birch tree will grow in the barrennest land it will not prosper in good land it is good for some common meaner uses as to make Oxe yoakes and somewhat usefull for the Turner but most especially for the fire where wood is scarce and deere it may be worth your planting or where the land is so barren that it will beare nothing else Theophrastrus writes of it that it will grow in frosty snowy cold Countries and on the hardest gravelly land and therefore on the barrennest land they plant Birch Pine wood Firre Pitch tree and Larsh The Walnut of another use that beareth a very gallant delightful fruit taketh his pleasure in dry sound wholsom land the usuall way of raising them is from the Nut set or sowed and preserved a year or two in the Nurcery and then drawn forth and planted it will not indure cold nor moysture and seldome any grow in your strong clay land at all if they be well planted and preserved they will make a good shady walk or set in row at a good distance will prosper very well but they require great room and good land it groweth to a great bignes and is very usefull for any houshold use excellent for the joyner and curious for the Gunsmith and the fruit thereof is most delightfull and no less profitable The willow though Homer calls it an unfruitfull Tree yet I shall ingage much in the praise of it it is the quickest of all wood for growing and riseth more in one year than many doe in three And for profit I must question whether any can or may come neer it it comes off with less charge than any and hath a prehemency in lightness and toughness and is very serviceable for spades and Gun stocks and manifold uses more to be kept dry it will scarce ever decry It delights in low ground wet and shady yea the most watery the more suitable and yet will grow upon a dry bank and in the Champion also It is very good for firing also It is to be planted of young sets cut off of any bough about two foot and a half long or somewhat shorter set or thrust into the soft earth or soft ground almost any bog being cast up in great lands and on each side thereof a Trench so deep as to go a little below the bottom of the bog and these set a foot and a half a sunder in strait lines or else two foot asunder the sets being thrust into the earth within eight or nine inches of the top and this to be done in February and beginning of March and in three or four years it will come if it prosper as it should to make windings or hurdle wood in a year or two more to make hop-poles and great sets to bee planted at seven or eight foot length to be set for Trees about eight or nine foot distance by river sides or little brooks or more if you would not have your ground shaded which must bee secured by stakes or thorn or some other means for two years from rubbing or shaking with wind or cattell it is conceived that those planted moyst thrive fastest but those upon a dry land indureth the longest bee sure to cut your sets a little aslope at the heather end and set the biggest end downwards and close the earth pretty close to it when it is set and cut off all twiggs that come out of any part of the set They may be cut as you have occasion to use them at three five or seven yeares The Osier must be planted after the same manner from short sets as abovesaid must be planted upon very good land and then it will yeeld a crop every year may possibly be worth three pound an acre or more is of especiall use for Basket-makers and fishermen
but a little peece of wood set along the Sheath forward about five inches broad closing upon the Share just as if you would cut a Die in the midst from corner to corner and place the flat side to the Sheath and the edge forward which is their breast-board The Share is put upon the plough-head with a pan half round upward and flat downward and is or ought to be tushed a little on both sides as our ordinary ploughs are and so runs out to a sharp point They have one Wrest or two some one and no more but sometimes two which I should conceive alwaies and at all times best and this Wrest is to be put upon pins one in the Sheath standing just under the Breast board and the other unto a longer pin or round staff fixed into the bottom of the handle as wide as the furrow and this Wrest is no other but as a round stick about two foot long or rather a half rovnd one with two holes in it to put the aforesaid pins into and at every Lands end this Wrest must be turned on the other side so if they have two must they both be altered also and one placed two or three inches higher than the other and the highest is to be placed broader by an inch and half or two inches and sometimes three inches than the lowermost to cast the furrow cleanly over And for the Coulter that is also moveable in the Coulter hole it being made very wide at every Lands end to which purpose they have a strong ground Oak-plant about an inch and half over that is very tough and with that they will having two pins placed upon the top of the Beam one an equall distance from another and both equally distant from the Coulter wrest or writh the Coulter from one side to another and there hold it till they come to the lands end and there turn both Wrest and Coulter And thus you have a rude description of the Turnwrest or Kentish plough and the Figure you should have would it advantage my Reader half so much as it would cost the cutting but they are so common in Kent all the Countrey over and that so near London that I had rather when thou hast a mind invite thee thither to see the thing it self which will give thee better satisfaction than all the Figures can dot Yet thus much learn from hence that the Land that lyeth so upon the side of a hill as there is no plowing it upward and downward may very well be plowed with this plough and best of all and it is especially usefull hereto or it you have any flat levell peece where you would not have one furrow discovered this will do it also the formost Horse or Ox alway going in the furrow and the nearest alway upon the Land and alway double and I am consident it may be cast into a neater form and made to very good advantage the weightiness and ugliness of it I hate but the Turnwrest conceit I like which my occasions have not permitted me to experiment of which I shall say no more at present but that the Turnwrests to cast the furrow is very good and usefull for the two sorts of ground abovesaid I shall now come to the one wheeled Plough and of that I shall give you also somewhat a large accompt because it is an excellent good one and you may use it upon almost any sort of Lands which the Figure and description of the same which shall be drawn into that shape and form that will admit of more lightness and nimbleness than any of the former You may see the use and fashion of it too at Collonell Blunts near Greenwitch in Kent a Gentleman of great esteem and honour in his Country who hath made very many of them The main Plough-beam is very short about five foot long made of very good wood but small and light as may be to which is another false Beam added below the Coulter hole under the other and fixed to it by a staple drove up into the true Beam with a capping upon the false beam end or some other way the form whereof is not much materiall which false beame is that by which the plough is drawn and gives opportunity by a Standard put into the end of it bored full of holes and passing through the Master-beam to let the plough up and down to any gage of depth or shallowness whatsoever and indeed that beam is the guide of it The Sheath is pitched very forward from the beam into the mold of the Share whose Share-mold as I may call it is made as long as the Head should have been is of the same use as the plough-head is of is made of two smal slips not so heavy as the Head would be there being no head at all the Land-handle is put into the Share-mould with an iron pin and so is the plough-sheath also and there fixed fast with an iron pin and the Share forward made like anotheher Share and then just before the Breast-plate is a hole made through the Share and there is rivetted or else with an iron hook put into a long iron slipe which is made an inch or inch and half broad and so comes up to the beam just before the nose of the Shield board and so runs through it and is cottered upon the top of the Beam lying upon the Shield board and the Shield board is compassed a little hollow in the very breast and so from before the middle begins to whelm and wind towards the furrow and so winds more and more to the very end and this Breast-board is placed close upon the Share which is made with a long point and broad or narrow phin as the land requires and sometimes and any time any ordinary Pan de Share may bee used and placed upon a Head as other ploughs are either with a narrow point for gravell or stoniness or with a broader Phin and long sharp point for mixed sandy earthy Land as well as that fashioned Share and be of the same use as I conceive The Pitch of these Ploughs are about or above two foot in depth and about eight or nine inches in wideness This alway carefully observe that the uprighter you pitch your plough to goe the narrower and the more hanging the broader As for the depth I conceive it is not much materiall because it is born up from the false beam till it come to a true working pitch and in the false beam is planted an Iron Axeltree about one inch or a little more in bigness and about one foot long nine or ten inches before the end of the false beam and put in square into the beam that it may stick fast and at the other end of the Axeltree runs a wheel upon it about eighteen or twenty Inches or may be a little higher or lower as you please which guides the plough from that false beam that
given thee the product of my experience and from each removed the inconvenience and drawn out the quintessence as I am able If this plough be preserved from any earth cleaving at all to it bee as little in compass as any have the advantages of sharp irons and perfect true Workmanship as that it need no Wheel which is a weight and requires strength and is of no use but to guide the Pitch and this Pitch be made so true of it self as it will goe without it and the Wrest cut shorter which gives much ease and makes the plough go more certain and the furrow turn better and all these are as an addition to it I conceive and know less strength will draw it to which if you please you may add the Dutch Coulter it going somewhat easier and is best for the pure turf without stones but the other being kept as sharp is more certain and not subject to be cast out of the ground and will do exceeding well in wrought tillable land if you keepe it a little before the share that it may cut first and one thought wider also but never within the share 'T is true in irreguler extreme land either for stones roots or hardness I am at a loss and for that end advise to the double-wheeled plough which though it will be no otherwise advantaged to ease than as it is well and compleatly made yet it is for strength to supply extremities and cases of necessity without rule But thus much I will say that take or make me such a plough aforesaid described upon any of the aforsaid lands where the easiest and best ploughs are used which I could wish had bin before now discovered which would have saved me this labour and make tryall of it and as the land is lighter and easier so make the plough lighter and lesser and if it go not easier by a considerable part my judgement fails me I am sure these particulars considered and solidly put in practice throughout this Nation may very well save one third part of the charge and toyle of Horse and man nay in some parts I am confident neare one halfe and if to the best plough it will give but the least addition it is satisfaction enough to me but I very well know it wil save one horse in four and I believe one in three as most Countries use and one man in two All that I have said is but to the pitch and making the body of the plough I say againe if any contend for wheel or foot he need but give his plough a little deeper pitch and he may adde either thereunto as wel as to any other and please himself The description of it shal follow in the end of the 33 Chapter And if you object what shal guide the plough for depth and keep it from stinging in clay ground and how may you let it up and down as the nature of your land requires To which I answer that having both in your plough and plough-irons brought your plough to a true and perfect pitch it wil require but litle help herein yet hereby you may much answer your desire in two particulars 1 In your hindmost gears you may at your chain that is put upon your plough-cock or clevies which ought to be made short linked on purpose to take up or let down as you see occasion 2 Your hindmost or Fil-horse at the back-band which may be to take up or let down you may ease your self at plearsue and so I descend to the last General head CHAP. XXXII Containes the Applicatory part of Ploughs use wherein I shall endeavour to hold forth to what sort of Land and to what seasons or Tilths of Land each Plough is or may be most serviceable IN the description whereof I shall in generall say that when lands come to that extremity of hardness as the plough is forced beyond its gage or pitch of Truth and that nothing but force will overcome it then we must be content to lay by our hopes of ease and all our ploughs whatsoever that were made upon that account for it is concluded that all good Husbands will take their seasons which seasons are chiefly for all their Summers crops in Winter when the Land is moyst workable from November untill March and for all Winter crops the foundation of that work is to be laid in Winter as in the end of December and Ianuary to fallow as wee call it al our strong coarse lay Turf when wee may work it wel and clear it up to the bottom which being once wel ploughed in a right season it will work reasonable well in the hardest season the next plowing and so very well the next and so throughout when it is compleatly plowed at the first which first opportunity if it be overpassed by too much business or sloth or otherwise makes all the rest of our Tilths uncomfortable every common Husbandman knows these things And for this Tilth or season of plowing and these sorts of Lands especially being very rough hilly or banky your Wheeled-ploughs will not work but will be cast out by every hill for this use I shall advise you to the plain plough made a little stronger than ordinary with a true pitch both for breadth and depth and because both wheel and foot too will cast it out at every hill and some men cannot hold a plough without either and possibly thy land may be uncertain Land that is some clay and some sand and some mould each of which will alter the going of the plough therefore in this case let an iron foot be made with a sharp edge like a Coulter forward to the bottom of the shank the foot made flattish and very thin at both edges and a little stronger in the middle rising like a Place fish and no thicker and that will cut your hils before your Coulter and keep it out of the ground too from stinging or drawing into the clayes but yet a good Plough-holder with a good Plough will cast this away also in the roughest lands and meerly with this hinder chain backband of his hindmost horse take it up at pleasure and even play with it too in the strongest workable work when another shall moyl himself like a Beast as we say But to hasten when by a drought you are out of work then I say as afore that with strength your wheeled-plough will doe exceeding well and none like it your double wheeled one I mean and your single wheeled ploughs too being exceeding strongly made will tear up any reasonable ground but in regard the wheel goes but upon an Axeltree and that is fixed but in one end in the false beam end also it cannot be so strong as the other by far therefore I advise every good Husband to one of these the body of whose plough may be made to the same advantages heretofore prescribed As for the casting down a
Acre it hath been sold from 20 s. a pound to 5 l. a pound It is an excellent advantage and brings in at worst a saving bargain but it may possibly be worth 30 or 40 l. an Acre but if it come but to 7 or 8 l. it loseth not so I have given thee a brief story wherein I would have been more large but having lost my observations upon it which I took when I was upon the very Lands and received full satisfaction in every particular and member or branch thereof but as yet it hath not fell under my own experience therfore I give the heads as I remember as they were delivered unto me upon the place though I have forgot many of them to incourage to the work The Saffron Country is on one side and â—ook of Essex and some part of Suffolk and at Saffron Walden and betwixt that and Cambridge is very much of it in their common fields and truly these Lands are but of a middle worth I have seen as rich land again in many parts of England but it is as I believe loamy ground and of a little saddish nature it will require to be laid dry and sound and the land it self must be very sound wholsom Land CHAP. XXXIX Treats of the Plantation of Liquorish at large I Proceed to another Nationall business in the Plantation whereof we exceed all Nations and that is Liquorish our English Liquorish as wee call it not yet wrote of by any that I could ever see is far beyond the Spanish small dry Liquorish or any other As for the use of it most of you know but as to the profit advaÌ„tage the mystery of Planting of it but few understand fewer practise but that I may be as open and full in the discovery of it as I can in this short discourse I have to make I shal under these two or three heads formalize what I intend to speak 1. Shall be to discover the best land to bear it 2. The best way I can find practised to plant it 3. The profits and advantages of it The best Land to raise your Liquorish upon is your richest you can get or make your warmest you can find out the soundest and dryest that is possibly to be had of a very deep soyl you must dig and prepare your Land before you set and it must be digged three spades depth and two or three shovellings at the least laid as hollow light as may be you may have it digged out of naturall Land if it be very rich indeed that it will feed an Ox in a summer it is the best for eight pence a rod at London yea for seven pence and sometimes for six pence a rod forty rods make a rood which is a quarter of an Acre which comes to about 4 or 5 l. an acre this is the main charge of all for three year there is no more unless it be a little hoing which will off hand very fast I believe it will not cost above 20 s. an acre more all three yeares both in setting and all the dressings of it besides the sets and Land The sets being doubly trebly worth your money sets have been sold for 2 s. the hundred more sometimes are not worth above 1 s. a hundred but if your Land be not fresh old Land or extraordinary rich as rich as your best gardens are it must be made so with soyles warm Manures horse-dung is excellent to be intrenched into the Earth it both warms and lightens it and makes it very fit for this service About London is very seruiceable Lands for it so is on any dry soyl whatever where it is rich enough deep Holland in Lincolnshire must needs be very good many of the Marshes that are sandy and warm most excellent that which bears this well wil also bear your Madder-weed that rich commodity I hear that Liquorish grows naturally at VVorsop in Nottinghamshire and about Pomphret in Yorkshire so also I heare your sparrow-grass grows naturally at Moulton within a few miles of Spauldwin in Lincolnshire and so I proceed to my third particular Which is the best experimented way of planting of it Having digged and prepared your Land and a little raked and evened the same you may proceed to the Planting of it therein you must indeavour the procuring of the best sets you can and from the best and largest sort of Liquorish The best sets are your Crown sets or heads got from the very top of the root a little shived down be carefull of this of very sound Land for how soon soever you come to the water your Liquorish will check and run not one inch further and having procured your sets your ground being cast into beds of 4 foot broad all along your plantation from one end to another by a long line you may lay down a set at every foot along the line which line may have knots or thirds at every foot if you be so exact and then a man come with a tool made a little flattish if you will or roundish of the breadth or bigness of a good pickfork stail about half a yard long with a crutch at the over end and sharp at the neather and that thrust into the ground it being made of wood or iron but if flat an iron one will do best and open the hole well and put in the set and close a little mould to it and so you may overrun an acre very quickly in the setting of it and if it should prove a very dry time you must water your sets wo or three daies at first untill you see they have recoved their withered and wanness and then the first year you may Plant your garden with Onions Reddishe or any sallet herb or any thing that roots not downward and I am confident it will be better too because it will prevent some weeding and for the second it must be hoed and kept from weeds too and a little the third but one thing be very curious off in the taking up and sudden setting thy sets as soon as took up set again but if you fetch from far then as soon as taken up put a little mould and post them away by horse back and get them into the ground as soon as possibly the delay of setting spoiles many thousand sets The seasons of planting is in the month of Feb. and March You may the secoud year take some sets from your own stock but be very curious thereof but the third year you may take what you please and in the taking of the Liquorish up the best season for which is in November and December then there runs from every master root a runner which runs along the over part of the ground which hath a little sprouts and roots or sciences which will yeeld excellent sets if they be cut 3 or four of them in every set which
seven or eight pound an Acre sold as soone as pulled and gathered but if it be wrought up it may come to eight nine ten or twelve pound or more it is a common thing in use every one knowes the manner of working of it to cloath It maintaines many people in a good imployment and ought to have more publick incouragement given to it not so much becaâ—se of its advance of land as the poor poople of the Land CHAP. XLI Onely speakes to the husbandring Flax so as to make it come up to as much of the improvement as we can FLax it is a very good Commodity and I shall endeavour to incourage all ingenuous men that delight in the common good thereto as much as may be especially all such as have suitable lands therefore upon this account because it is as I may call it a root or roundation of advantage upon the prosperity whereof depends the maintenance of thousands of people in good honest and laborious callings and were but this very peece of husbandry advanced the sowing and raising of it according to the capacity the lands of this Nation will afford I dare affirme to hold it forth against the stoutest opponent that it would maintaine neare all the wanting people of this Nation A volume is too little to containe this vast Discourse yet take an abstract of it which for the more methodicall demonstration shall be held forth under these heads 1. The severall Lands capable of improvement hereby 2. The many people capable of imploymen hereby 3. The best experiences of plantiug and raising to the best advantage 4. The profit accrewing there from both general and particular 1. As for the land capable of raising good flax is any good sound Land be it in what Country sover it will if the land be good either earthy or mixed of sand or gravel and old land it is the best that hath lyen long unplowed it had need come up to the value of a mark or near twenty shillings an Acre that is your kindest slax-land but I know where they give three pound an Acre to sow flax upon within a mile of London and yet in most Counties of England I know as good and kind land for that husbandry as any other and at London they have work-men dearer too and yet can raise though they give so dear a very considerable profit out beside Again any of your good Arrable that is in good Heart and rich that is perfect sound drie land is perfect good flax land Some parts of Essex from Bow and Stratford down along the way by the Marsh side a great part of up-land thereabouts is good flax Land so is there very much in Kent all along on the other side the river by the marshes side is good naturall land thereto in very many parts about Maidstone in Kent where the best thred is made of England is excellent good flax-land so is there also in most Counties as Warwick-shire Worcestershire Northampton c. 2. And that I may give the more incouragement here to spin I say as heretofore it is a commodity that will set abundance of persons upon an honest and profitable calling from the first preparing the land untill the fruit of your labours come in one acre of good flaxe may maintain divers persons to the compleating of it to perfect cloth Consider how many Trades are supplyed hereby 1. The Land must have the same husbandrie of plowing harrowing and sowing as lands have for corne there 's the husbandmans businesse sometimes yea many times weeding too then pulling stitching and drying then rippelling and laying up and preserving the seed then watering it either on the ground or in the water then drying it up and housing it and kilne-drying it then breaking and towtawing it then hetchelling and dressing it up then spinning of it to yarne or thred then weaving of it and bleaching then it returnes againe to the good house-wives use or Seamster and then to the wearing and usage and all these particular imployments be upon this poore businesse halfe a dozen good callings and imployments this makes out and therefore many persons it will imploy and we both want cloth and our poor work 3. Now as to the carrying on this design and making the best of this improvement I shall here give in the best approved way of planting of it as is yet discoved as for the Land let it be good and well plowed both strait and even without balkes and in due season about the beginning of March or the latter end of February And as for the seed the true East Country seed is far the best although it cost very dear one bushel of it to sowe is worth ten bushels of our owne Couetry seede but the second crop of our own of this Country seed is very good and the third indifferent but then no more but again to your best seed The quantity of it is about two bushels upon an Acre at least some sow a pecke more but I conceive two may bee enough but of our seed it will require halfe a strike more then of the East Country seed you may buy it in the Seed-mens shops at Billingsgate our Flax men in former dayes did not sow above half so much or little more but now their experience hath brought them to this pitch At my first knowledge of the East-country flax seede for the perfect discoverie of the goodnesse of it I sowed one land the ridge or middle of the Land with our own Countrie seed and both the furrowes with this Dutch or East-country seed our seed was incompassed with this as with a wall abought it it so much over-grew it in height The season of sowing of it if a warme season in the latter end of March but in the warmer parts as Essex and Kent I conceive mid March may doe well but in colder parts as down towards Warwick-shire and Worcester-shire the beginning of April may be early enough and if it should come a very wet seasoÌ„ you must take care of weeding of it also and in the ripening of it you must be careful that it grow not till it be over-ripe lest the stalk should blacken or mildew yet to his full ripeness you must let it grow the which you may perceive both by the harle and by the seed some will ripen earlier and some later as you sow it earlier or later but against it be ripe be sure to have your pluckers to fall in hand with plucking of it and then tie up every handfull and then set them up upright one against another like a Tent till they be perfectly drie and then get it all into the baâ—ne or where you please to preserve it for use it is indifferent whether you ripple it or take off the boles of it as soone as you bring it home or when you intend to use it As for your watering of it whether in
the water or upon the Land that I shall not determine peremptorily but thus much I say that both may doe well and he that gets store will find use of both because of the one you make use as soone as your flax is pulled and then you need not stand so curiously upon the drying of it but after you have got your seed you may water it and the watering of it opens and breakes the harle the best but then you must bee carefull of laying up your seede that it heate not nor mould and that which you water then may be a winters worke for your people untill the Spring come on and then get it forth upon your grasse Land and spread it thin and turne it to preserve it from mildewing and keepe it so untill you finde the harle bee ready and willing to part from the core and then drye it up and get it in for use As for the drying of it a kilne made on purpose is best so that you be carefull of scorching of it this will make greate riddance of the same and to them that have greate store sunne-drying will never doe the feate though it may doe well for a small quantity or the flax of a private Family As to the working of it you must provide your Brakes and Tewrawes both the one and that is the brake which bruises and toughens the harl and the Tewtaw that cut and divides out the coare if you use the Tewtaw first it may cut your well dryed flax to peeces yet both do best yet the brake first These things are common and known to many in most Countries but not to all and least to those that have lands most capable thereof It will cost the Workmanship of it betwixt three and four pound an Acre to bring it up to sale it lyeth much upon the workmans hand and therefore far more to be advanced by how much the more it raiseth imployment for many people to live thereby Where wages is great it comes off the hardest yet where it is carried on to purpose people flock hard that want work and because of constancie will worke at easie tearms else how could they possibly do good of it at London or near about it where they work at double rates but there have I seen the best flax I ever saw 4. Lastly the benefit that may be made hereby an Acre of good flax may be worth upon the ground if it be the first East-Country seed seven or eight yea possibly ten or twelve pound yea far more the charge whereof beside the seed untill it be ripe may not be above ten shillings an acre which if you work up to be fit to sell in the Market it may come up to fifteen or sixteen or near twenty pound in the market but to bring it so high as thirty pound as in Flanders I dare not say But an acre of our Country seed will hardly come up to above three pound or four pound an Acre unlesse very good indeed to which if it amount unto and no more upon the Land it will make a good advancement of the Land which may be Land and Seed and all charges may come to about fifteene or sixteene shillings an Acre the seed being not worth above two shillings a strike I shall say thus much more that I verily believe wee are not come up to that perfection wee may attain unto in this mystery because I have heard of some Gentlewomen that have out of their owne Flax and Hempe drawne out a thred exceeding pure as pure and fine againe as our ordinary Traders therein doe and have made as much more cloath of a pound of both and that both strong and more serviceable then the strongest and best Outlandish Hollands and I am confident if this mystery doe but receive incouragement from Authority and it made more tending to publike good the maintenance of the poore in worke and sequestring the Trade so farre to our owne proper Natives as may be a sufficient Magazine of work for them I am sure we have land suitable enough to bear it and to afford sufficient profit and will be a considerable advance unto the lands throughout the Nation And so I hope I have supplyed in some measure more of our deficiencies that really are and are said to be in our English Husbandry The sixth and last Piece of improvement is for the discovering what great advance may be made upon our Lands by a Plantation of some Orchard-fruites and some Garden-commodities CHAP. XLIII Treates how our Lands may be advanced by planting them with Orchard-fruites ANd for making good the Improvement promised I shall shew these two or three things 1. That abundance of Land is planted in many parts of this Nation and thus improved 2. That there is land and very much in all other parts that may be improved 3 The fruits especially by which they come to such an improvement 1. That there is such land alreadey improved none dare deny to that height as is affirmed many will question I therefore doe in briefe affirme for my president that VVorcestershire part of Glocestershire and part of Herefordshire will speake out this truth some men having their Plantations both of Apples Pears and Cheries and so ordered that they hinder no more the growth of grasse then the compasse of a tree that grows upon it nay some question whether with their shadinesse in Summer and warmnesse in Winter they better not the land farre more and their very growing upon it doth not inrich it they having usually the earliest grasse and many times the greatest swath and burthen and will keep more cattell too And certainly where they are formerly planted and grow not too thicke I cannot see reason to the contrary as for the land I know very much if not most of it was worth not above tenne shillings some lesse or thirteen shillings foure pence an Acre at the first now the grasse of most of them thus regularly planted and draw as they grow in bignesse that so they may never grow to touch one another by a good space when they come to the best age for when they come to decay plant new ones in their roome and downe with them to the very grouud I say the grasse of such Orchards or Pastures is worth thirty shillings some forty shillings some fifty shillings and some more and the fruit that groweth upon the Trees planted therein may yeeld some three pound some five pound yea some will come up to seven or eight pound an Acre But come you up to Kent Essex Surry Middlesex and part of Suffolke where naturally the land was worse then in those parts by farre I dare affirme there are many Orchards planted there upon land that was not naturally and really worth above six shillings or eight shillings an Acre when they began the work and that some thousands of Acres too and with some good soyle and
as well as ours I shall make bold to discover them to my intendment for as to his I shall never attain and that is to incourage their Plantations because Lands may be highly advanced by them and when thou hast the Art of planting dismysteried to thee at large as will be very shortly fall upon them And because Land of great quantities cannot be advanced to that height as lesser parcels which are within the power and purse of the Gardner which with his constant paines watching toilings hazards and adventures he runs he may make one hundred pound possibly out of some one Acre of Land if his commodity prosper well as some have done but in the case of non prosperity some are half undone again as if it thrive not exceedingly in the growth prosper not as well in the ripening escape frost and thieves and meet not with a good market what it will come to then I determine not neither doth Mr. Speed consider of these things and how then it would do when thousand of Acres should come to be planted therewith I know not I shal leave it to him to resolve and onely take out Turneps mainly intending my design which will be sowed at small cost and charge and grow upon indifferent Land and bring forth great increase and are of more generall use and in case much Land be sown therewith and they come to so great plenty that the Markets will not carry them away at such a proportionable rate as the Gardner can afford them then may they be disposed of to the feeding of sheep and Cattel which they will doe and to good advantage too and in a dear year to make bread thereof half meal half boyled Turnep mixed and wrought together into dough and kneaded and made into bread will make a good and delightfull food as hath been by many experimented already yea as Sir Richard Weston affirmed to my selfe he did feed his swine with them though all men hold the contrary that Swine will not eat a Turnep so I say too no more than a Scot will Swines-flesh yet the boyling them at first and giving them to his Hogs in good wash and afterward all boyled that at the end they came to eat them raw would run after the Carts and pull them forth as they gathered them So that upon these accounts and because I know it will bring Land to a good advance as unto 8. pound 10. pound or possibly 12. pound per acre I propose this especially but for the fuller discovery hereof in the mysterie I leave that to be more fully discussed in the Art of planting and should that fail of seasonable comming forth or of a full discovery it is but about eight or ten quarts of seed sowed upon an acre of dry sound land indifferent rich land well plowed digged and harrowed as for corn and then after sowed thin and even with some composition with it then slightly covered with a bush some sowed early where the land will do some late when other crops are off selling them or spending them at a Market-priâ— they will bring forth the advantage promised and so I have indeavoured to supply this deficiency in husbandry also in some poor measure the want of improving our garden-fruits our Lands being as capable of improvement this way and as high as is by their Brabant husbandry and so am come to my desired end at last all which I commend to thy patience and thy self and it to the word of our Lord Christ his blessing FINIS A Table of the most principall Heads and branches of this Discourse as they are laid down under the severall main Peeces of the Book and illustrated in that Chapter discoursing each particular Peece Chap. I. SHeweth the antiquity and necessity of Husbandry pag. 3 4 5. Chap. II. The causes of barrenness as they are in men 6 7 8. The causes of barrenness as in the land it selfe 9. to 14. The first Peece contains the 3 4 5 and 6 Chap. Treating of the Remedies against Barrenness and particularly of Floating and Watering Land Chap. III. Sheweth what Land lyeth best for advancement by water 17. Of impounding water upon land in what case 18. Of what nature the best land for watering is pag. 19. 20. Chap. IV. V. How and where to begin your first watering and how to proceed 21. How to make the floating and drayning Trench 22. What makes the watering land so fruitfull 23. The best flowing season upon all lands 24 25. The advantages of watering land 25. Presidents of watered land ibid. 26. As well too much trenching as too little ibid. Chap. VI. A larger explanation both of the floating and draining Trench 27. How to prevent heaping of the earth in trenching 28. The manner of levelling land by the plough to water 29. The speediest way for soarding Land after levelling 30 31. To level by spade and what a man may do a day 30. The second Peece hath the 7 8 9 10 Chap. Containing draining Fen reducing Bog and recovering Sea-land Chap. VII To drain a bog and where the water lieth 33. What makes a bog and how to carry a drain 34. 35 36. Best and certainest way to dâ—stroy the bog totally 36. The great prejudice by crooks and angles in water-courses ibid. How to make deep drains without any danger to cattel ibid. Floating a bog best destroyes it pag. 37. Chap. VIII Answereth severall objections made against the probabilities of so great advance by floating 38 Cutting Water-courses streight no small advantage 42. Some Mils destroy more than they are worth 43. Chap. IX Sheweth a brief and plain discovery of the most feacible way of Fen-draining or regaining drowned lands or in bounding of the Sea from it 45. Hindrances of Fen-draining 51 52. The cure or best and speediest way of reducing drowned lands unto perfect soundnes 53. The best way to improve drowned lands 58. Chap. X. Directions to make and use severall Tooles or Instruments which shall much facilitate the work 65 The manner and form of a true and speediest Levell that I can devise 66. The Trencheng Plough 67. The Turving Spade 68. The Trenching Spade ibid. The Paring Spade 70. The use of the Paring Spad 71. The Third Peece hath the 11 12 13 14. Chap. Sheweth to inclose without offence prevent depopulation that is most common attendant and appurtenant to enclosure how to make severable Errable coÌ„mon field Lands common Heaths Mores Forrests Wasts to every particular Interests the Common-wealths great advantage Chap. XI Treateth of Improving Land by Pasture Reproves Depopulation proves excellent Advantages by Inclosure and taketh away the usuall Scandalls laid upon it pag. 72. Chap. XII Sheweth the Land capable of Enclosure and the Method of it how it advanceth the Publick-Weal and all particulars interests 77. Chap. XIII Sheweth the tillage and the great profit thereof and the great Advance is made
out of severall Enclosed Countries beyond Champian as also the great Improvement of Heaths Mores and Forrests 83. Cavills against Improvement in Common 85. Advantage of Inclosures 87. The fourth Peece contains the 14 15 16 17 18 19. chap. And sheweth how to Plow and Corn old pasture-Pasture-Land and double the Improvement of it and sheweth many particular waies of Improvement of other sorts of Lands Chap. XIV Sheweth how to bank An-hills most speedily 98. The best way to destroy Rush or coldness in any Pasture ibid. Chap. XV. Sheweth the manners of Plowing and working Lands to so great advance with two incredible Presidents of Advance 100. Especiall directions for Plowing â—01 A Noble experiment of Improvement ibid. Chap. XVI Sheweth the best and most advantagious way of Plowing and Husbandring Lands so as most to advantage it in laying down Land to graze to make good the Improvement promised and not to overplow as you tender the loss of your Land 103. The way of sowing Land to be left after to Grass 106. Moderate Ploughing better than unlimited mowing 108. Plowing the onely cure of Weeds 110. Reasons why quick sets thrive no better 114. Chap. XVII Sheweth the dectruction of the Rush Flag Mareblad altering the coldness of Nature and the preventing of the standing Winters Water and the destroying Ant and Moul-hils c. 116. The causes of Moales increasing 118. Chap. XVIII Sheweth how to destroy Ant-hils more pestlent and offensive than the former in some sort of Lands 120. Sow-thistles a great annoyance 121. The easiest way to destroy them 122. Of the destruction of Goss Broom Brakes c. and how to Improve ordinary Lands by planting fruit And shewes how to preserve Corn from blasting and from Crowes and Vermine and gives a Description of the Water Persian Wheel 124. The excellentest way to destroy Broom Gose Ling and Bracking 125. An unfailing way to destroy any filth ibid. How to reap two harvests pag. 127. An unfailing way to preserve Corn from Blasting 128. An unfailing prevention of Crows Rooks or Daws from Corn. 129. The fifth Peece hath the 21 22 23 Chap. And sheweth a discovery of such simples and Ingredients to be compounded with the Earth with the Nature and use of them Chap. XX. Sheweth how in tillage of thy Land thou maist improve it best with an Addition of Soyl or Manure by far than upon the Turf in Grazing and in particular treateth of Liming 132. Meanes or Materials to inrich Land 133. Chap. XXI Sheweth the nature use and benefit of Marl and giveth a President of the Improvement made by it 136. A double experiment 138. The Prime principle in Husbandry 139. Chap. XXII Sheweth the usefulness of Sand and other Soyles out of the Sea and Rivers Sands also are great Inrichments 141. Sea weeds very good soyl for Land 143. Mud in Rivers of great use 144. Chap. XXIII Sheweth the use and nature of Chalk Mud of Pools Pidgeons and Swines Dung and other soyles and Manures therein contained pag. 145. The sixt Peece contains the 24 and 25 Chap. And is a new erection or plantation of divers sorts of Woods and Timber in such a way as shall raise as much in Twenty yeares growth as usually and naturally groweth in forty or fifty years c. Chap. XXIV Speakes of the nature of the Land and sheweth the severall sorts of Woods and how to plot out the same to most delight 154. How to cast out thy Wood-plots for pleasure 155. What sorts are best 157. How to plant thy sets ibid. How to make thy Dike to plant thy sets in ibid. How to plant thy Quieksets and would them up ibid. Chap. XXV Answereth severall objections against this projection and gives a president for making good the same 159. How to thicken woods that grow too thin 161. Lime-tree water exceeding precious to be used against convulsion fits 172. The second part of Englands Improvement containeth these severall heads viz 1. By sowing the Trefoyl or Claver and St. Foyne and the advantages thereby 2. By facilitating the great charge and burthen of the Plough with the figures of them 3. The planting of VVeld VVoad and Madder three great dying commodities 4. The planting of Hops Saffron and Liquorish and the profits thereof 5. The planting of Rape Cole-seed Hemp and Flax and their Increase 6. The Improvements that may be made by some Orchard and Garden fruits Chap. XXVI The best way of planting the Trefoyl or great Claver which is the highest advantage our English lands will produce 178. Chap. XXVII Speaks of the usage of S. Foyn 186. The descripoion of S. Foyn 187. The manner of sowing it 188. The second generall Peece of improvement contains the discourse of facilitating the charge and burden of the Plough and a demonstration of the figures thereof Chap XXVIII A descritpion of the plain Share 193. The Coulter how best made 195. The Dutch Coulter ibid. The best way for the tryall of a new plough 196. A good Character of a good Plough-man 198. Chap. XXIX The description of the severall Ploughs in use and the defects in some and the advantages oâ—hers have both from my own observations and otherwise to make up a compleat and easie Plough 199. The VVheel-plough described pag. 199. The description of the Turn-wrest Plough 201. The single wheel-plough 203. Chap. XXX Discovereth some generall faults that may be incident to all sorts of Ploughs with the description of Dutch and Norfolk Ploughs 206. Chap. XXXI Demonstrateth wherein the chief ease of the Plough consists with the easiest going plough and the advantages gained thereby 112. The description of the plain plough ibid. The benefit of a broad and short VVrest 113. Chap. XXXII Contains the applicatory part of the ploughs use wherein t s indeavoured to hold forth to what sort of Land and to what seasons or tilths of Land each plough is or may be most serviceable 116. The season for plowing for summer corn ibid. The season for plowing for winter corn ibid. A Plough to cast down Land 117. A Plough to set up land ibid. Chap. XXXIII Holds forth a description of a double plough carrying two furrows at once with a plough that shall both plough and harrow at one and the same time how to make a plough to last many years 123. The Third Peece of improvement treats of Weld Woad and Madder thee rich commodities for Dyers Chap. XXXIV Describeth Weld or Woad as some call it or more properly Dyers wâ—ed 125. The manner of sowing it at no cost ibid. Chap. XXXV Treats of Woad the Land best for it and Advantages thereby 127. The best Land for Woad 128. What price men will give for good Woad-land ibid. Five or six Crops in one year of Woad 131. The advantage of Woad 133. XXXVI Which discovers the nature use and advantage of Madder ibid. The description of Madder 135. The season of drawing the sets ibid. Madder formerly granted by Patent 137. The fourth
Peece of improvement hath respect unto the Plantations of hops and Liquorish both in relation to the Mystery thereof and profits thereby Chap. XXXVII Treates of Hops plantation and how Land is Improved thereby ibid. How a hop-yard should stand 139. One of the main things in the Hop-yard is raising the hils 140. The profits may be made of them 145. Chap. XXXVIII Treats of the mystery of Saffron and the way of Planting it 148. How to set Saffron ibid. How to pick it pag 149. How to dry it ibid. Chaap XXXIX Treates of the plantation of Liquorish at large 150. The best land for it ibid. How to set your plants 151. The time of planting it 152. The advantage thereof ibid. The fifth Peece contains the 40. 41 42. Chap. And treateth of the Art of Planting of Rape Cole-seed Hemp and Flax with the severall advantages that may be made of each Chap. XL. Containeth onely the discovery of Rape and Cole-seeds Husbandry 253. The best seed ibid. The time of sowing it ibid. VVhen to cut it ibid. How to use it ibid. Chap. XLI Shewes how good a publique commodity hemp is with the manner of planting 255. How to know the best hemp-seed 259. The time of sowing it ibid. The time of getting it ibid. The best land for hemp 260. Chap. XLIII Treateth onely of the husbandring Flax so as to make it come up to as much of the Improvement as wee can 261. How to raise the best Flax. pag. 263. The best Flaxseed ibid. The season for sowing it ibid. The manner of watering it 264. The sixt and last Peece containeth 2 Chapters And discovereth what great advantage may be made upon our lands by a plantation of some Orchard Fruits and some Garden commodities Chap. XLII Treats how our Lands may be advanced by planting them with Orchard fruits 265. Chap. XLIV Doth contain a brief discourse of some choice and more generall Garden fruits intended to have been spoen to more largely 271. FINIS Excellency Necessity Antiquity Gen. 4. 2. Gen 9. 16. â— Chr. 26. 11. Prov. 6. 6. Prov. 15. 19. Prov. 20. 30. Prov. 22. 21. Prov. 12. 20. Prov. 11. 26 Prov. 21. 5 Causes of Barrennesse 1 Cause of Barrenness is ignorance occasioning Prejudice Prov. 4. 15. Prov. 36. 13. 2. Cause is Improvidence and a slavish custome 3. Cause is want of punishment of Idleness and want of Stock to set the poor on work A Crying sin Drunkenness A generall cause of Barrenness Tilling Rockiness Mountainous Improvidence laying down all Lands How to lay down warm Land How cold Land Standing water in winter Mole hils Ob. Ans. Bogginess Constant resting of the water on that Land 1 Head 2 Head Only improve upon great advantage Under great Rivers will be the best Land And under lesser the greater quantities and greatest Improvement Setting water on Pooles or Lakes not so excellent In what Cases to cover land by Water Land sad and moist worst to Improve by watering Land found dry and warm the best Boggy Lands good for watering How to begin the first piece of watering How to make the drayning Trench Shewes how the water is fruitfull How to make the Drayning Trench The best floating season Upoâ— moist Land Upâ—n warm Land A double Advantage of having a water course cut out President of one year cuâ—ting but five or six and the next twenty four President of sandy Land Mr. Plats President President of Boggy Lands To much Trenching is madness There are two sorts of Trenching Manner of making the floating Trench A shallow Trench doth certain hurt and uncertain good How to prevent heaping Earth and in evening the ground How to Level Land Plowing to Levell Spade to help Levelling The speediest Soarding of Land How to make thy Drayn to drain a Bog to purpose Where water lyeth in Rushy Land The matter that feeds the Bog where that lyeth Every Bog hath most certainly a living Spring within it Shewing how every Drayn must â—e carried up from the lowest levell Shallow Trench reprehended The most sure way to destroy a Bog The prejudice by crooks and angles in water courses How to make Draynes without any prejudice to any sheep or bâ—ast The best way of preventing danger to Cattell in Drayning Fens and Marshes recoâ—ery Floring best destroyes a Beg. The probable occasion or first cause of Bogginess Ob. These are but pretences Ans. 1. Watering breeds the Rush. Ans. Especiall season for watering Land Iob 8. 12. Ans. 2. A sign when Land begins to fatten Obj. Many have done great things herein and alway to no purpose Mountebanck Engineers projections Mysterious Engines repâ—â—â—ved Object Answ. Object Answ. Marsh Lands The first Fendrayne's or Levellers highly to be honoured Invention far harder than an Addition to it Cutting water-courses strait no small aâ—vantage Many thousands of acres recoverable wiâ—h little charge to manifold advantage Some Mils destroy more than they are worth To prevent corrupting land by a Mildam as much as may be What Fen-Drayning is not What perfect Drayning is indeed How to know when Land is firmly Drayned The just Form or Modell of the Fen-lands How the Commoner is a hindrance to Fen-drayning How Undertakers may be a prejudice to the work Queries in Fen-drayning Reasons why the land floods would be best taken oâ—â— on the outside the Fen. Some particular â—ands may be drayned of themselves though the generall be not All such-Lands are most feciblâ— to be drayned Water Engins helpfull in 〈◊〉 These more difficult and yet fecible A new World may best admit of new Husbandry Denshiâ—ing Fen lands very usefull Denshiring lands reproved in the West Burning Land extolled in the North. Lands drowned by the Sea A Good Overseer worth Gold Tooles belonging to floating and Trenching to make the work more easie and less châ—rgable A good Line A Water-Levell Sir Edward Peto his Level The manner and form of a true and the speediest Level that I can devise Who are the makers of it The Trenching Plough Turving Spade The paring Spade The use of the Paring Spade 1 Extreme 2 Extreme Enclosure held forth without Depopulation The grandest evill of a just and equall Inclosure prevents Idleness and Oppression onely Enclosure prevents the Rot of sheep exceedingly Inclosure may occasion more work done at an easier charge Lands capable of enclosure Cottier provided for Labourer provided for Minister provided for Tithes not Gospell wayes maintenance 1. Tit. 8. Depopulation reproved Impropiations to be thought of Free-holder Lord of the Soyl or Landlord How Inclosure shall not prejudice the increase of Corn or food Four arguments to prove the advantage by Enclosure and that more Corn may be raised being Inclosed than Common One Acre brings forth as much Corn as three Tillage great profit Onely Right in Commons not Vsurpers I speak to At the first Enclosing of any Common how to cast out Land to the greatest Advance Tow Advantages of this Enclosure Cavils against Improvement in Common A
President of great store of lost Land under puddle hill capable of Improvement An offer made once to have made good the same 2 Advantage of this Enclosure III husbandry discovered along the River Thames both wayes much barren Land near London 109. p. 160. See Mr. Hartlip his legacy page 56. A second sort of Coarser Land the only Land for Plowing The middle sort of Clay strong Land advanceth it self by Tillage The warm lighter Land advanceth most in Corn to the Commonnwealth How to bank Ant-hills most speedily The best way to destroy Rush or coldness in any Pasture Moderate Tillage must needs advance â—and Advance for Plowing and the old Rent the first year after An offer made of making good a Lease after Plowing of old Rent and a great advance in Plowing Stratford upon Avon President Thâ— manner how to Plow such Lâ—nds Mow the Rushes Especiall directions for plowing Experiment of Plowing the second sort of Land and the fruits of it A President of the fruit that came of poor Lands worth but nine shillings an Acre To lay open Furrows clear is very good What Hardness and Harrowing is most advantagious Overâ—plow cryed down and reproved Reasons why but three or four yeares are prescribed for Plowing old Pasture Land neither more nor less Last Crop may yeeld most Corn but worst for the Land To lay down Land upon the Wheat or Rie Stubble is best and the reasons of it The way of Sowing Land to be left after to Grass Dung laid upon the new fresh Turf works wonders When one Load of Manure will go as far as two or three Prov. 12. 11. Prov. 28. 10. Prov. 13. 23. Prov. 11. 16. Prov. 13. 23. Richst â—or â— of Land Destruction of the best Land is by over-plowing Mowing Land a great Impoverishing Moderate Plowing better than unlimited Mowing Plowing left indifferent upon the Richest Lands Divisions of Land advanceth Small Divisions reproved Plowing the onely Cure of VVeeds Plowing the only Cure against Mossiness Rush Coldness Object Against timely Soarding Ans. 2. Plowing some Land must be used as a Medicine â—oâ— as a Calling VVhat Land it is that may Soard as well the first year to as much profit as before A President of Wheat stubble its speed so Soarding Object Ans. A president of fattest Mutton on the newest 〈◊〉 Object Ans. Rotting Sheep in new Pastures well ordered may be rate To prevent Rotting in new Tilled Pastures Separations and raising of Quick-set Hedges a greâ—t advancement Hedg rowes a thing of delight and credit Reasons why Quick-setting thrives no 〈◊〉 Hedg rows a great help for Firing and Timber Not preserving Quick-sets when planted is ruin to good Husbandry Usuall wayes to kill the Rush Flag or Mare'-blab Drayning the most naturall way Much Trenching reproved How to find the matter that â—eed the Rush Flag How to drain Land well where there is no end of Trenching The causes of Moals increasing VVant of a Law for killiâ—g of Moales a great mischief Pot-Tâ—â—p chief Engine in Moal Destruction Destroying the nests destroyes multitudes of them VVater best to destroy Moals Ant-hills Destruction Object Ans. Ant-Hills good to destroy Sheep or Beasts How to bank Ant Hills most speedily Why to lay them lower than the Surface of the Earth Sow-thistle a great annoyance Easiest way to destroy the Sow-thistle Goose Tansey Feâ—rn howâ—o destroy The reason of Fearns dying Easiest way to destroy Broom Excellentest way to destroy Broom Goss Ling and Braking When one load of Soyl doth as much good as two or three An unsailing way of destroying any filth Planting Fruit-trees in hedges is good husbandry Chief piece in Planting all fruits Best Earth discovered How to reap two Harvests An unfailing way to preserve Corn from Blasting The most usuall naturall help A good help to preserve Corn pure To preserve Corn from Fowls and Vermine An unfailing Prevention of Crows Rooks or Daws from Corn. The Reason of the Crows offence taken The fuller Description of the Persian VVheel Improvement of Up-Land several waies President of Plowing Wood-Land Land A Husband-mans old principle Wood-Land Lands Tilled every ten yeares yea some every eight Means or Materials to in-rich Land Liming of Land Object Ans. Presidents for Liming The Land most naturall for Lime The nature of Lime quite contrary to the common opinion How much wil Lime an Acre Marl. Nature of Marl. Signs of good Marl described Slipperâ—ress no infallible sâ—gn A Marling Experiment Some Mucked some Folded some Mâ—râ—ed One no cost at all A double Experiment Marl saddens Land exceedingly Extremes is Marling reproved How to lay down Land to graze after Marling The Prime Principle in Husbandry Land most naturall for Marl. Sand. Of no worth or use at all Sand from the Land-flood are good What Lands are naturall for Sands Pest Sand of all What causeth so much richness in the Sea Sands The Seas fruitfulness by Fish Sea Weeds very good soyl for Land Urine frâ—itful The richness of Snayl Cod. Where the right Snayl is to be got The chief River whereâ—n this Mud lyeth comes from-ward Vxbridge by Cole-brook and is not the Thames as I can yet discover having made a Journy thither since I wrote the aforesaid discourse Mud in Rivers of great use Bacons Naturall History pag. 123. Chalk Chalk mixed most certain Mud. Ingenuity not of such esteem as a base Outlandish fashion Earth covered with any house or baâ—n is rich Pidgeons and Poultry dung little less inferiour Horses well corned make best dung Swines dung most excellent soyl The great account of swines dung The usage of their Swine and the making of the Hogyard How to feed Swin without any cornish meat Raggâ— VVoo's Marrowbone Beef Broaâ—h Sheeps-Dung How with great ease to raise rich dung Horse Dungs Excellency A great mistake in letting soyl be uncovered How to lose none of the least benefit in mucking any Land notwithstanding Land-floods Some lose no Laâ—d flood at all Vrine of mankind usefull for Lands Ashes Soot Best Manure for Gardens Stubbâ—e or Straw Salts effect How much Liming Corn or watering Corn advanceth it Oyl the fruit thereof Leaves of Tâ—eâ—â— Fearn or Rushes will make soyl The most naturall Land to plant with Wood. How to cast our thy Wood-plots for pleasure Method and conâ—usion to thee bring of an equal price and probably be the cheaper How to cast out thy plot into most delightfull divisions Planting Strawberyes is excellent How to get thy seâ—s for planting The quickest growing wood What Sets are best How to plant thy Sets How to make thy Dike to Plant thy Sets in How to plant thy Quick and mould them also Object Ans. 1. Ans. 2. 2. A President of Wood planted that one Acre was worth 60. at 11 years growth What an Acre costs plenting Object Ans. 1. Ans. 2. No Observation of the Moon Eccl. 11. 4 5 6. Weeding most necessary Boggy-Land will bring forth a Plantation of Wood. What one Acre of
it is of excellent fruitfulness and so all Wales-ward borders so rich as that they carry it many miles on Horse-back unto their Lands and make such vast Improvements as to raising Corn and Grass also as is incredulous Now were it on the Northern Eastern or Western Coasts as rich as it is upon the Southern Coast as it may be for any contrary experience I have had I could not believe the people to be so Dronish as they are in some parts thereof but that they would Drain out that Sweetness to their Lands as would cost but little or nothing but their Labour However I must absolutely say there must needs be great heart and fruitfulness in these Sands also because the Richness of the Sands is from the fat or filth the Sea doth gather in by all Land-floods and Streames that bring it from the Lands and also what the Tide fetches in dayly from the Shores and from that fat and brackish nature in it self and from the Fish and other creatures and thousands of other matters that putrifie in the Sea all which the waters Casts to Shore and purgeth forth of it self and leaves in the Sands thereof while it self is clear and pure And now being discoursing thereof give me leave to let you know the vertue and excellency the Sea may yeeld as from Sea-Weeds also which Cornwell and Devonshire and many other parts make great Improvement of for the Soyling and Manuring of their Land and that to very great advantage also and further toward the Inriching of the Land as from Fish of any sort which is so fruitfull for the Land that in many parts of the world they Dung their Lands therewith but here with us it yeelding more Advantage for Food to the relief of mans nature than unto the Earth I 'll say no more unless any Capacity fall in the dead of putrified Fish which is no other use than to this purpose A good Advantage might be made unto the Land thereof as I said before any Liquid Brackish-fat Greasie-matter and any thing that comes from or is the fleshy matter of the creature whether it be by Sea or Land hath a secret operation in it to the Earths fruitfulness Yea the very Urine of man is very excellent and of all beasts very fruitfull and very rich would be of more Accompt if men knew the worth of it I have read of some that have done too strange things therewith to report but most certainly 't is worth labour to preserve it with most exactness There is yet another Opportunity out of many of your great Rivers and is from a Mud or Sludg that lyeth frequently in deep Rivers which is very soft full of Eyes and Wrinckles and little Shels which is very rich yea so rich that in some parts many men get gallant Livings onely by taking it up out of the Rivers and selling it again by the Load One sort whereof they sell for one shilling two pence per Load and another sort they sell for two shillings four pence a Load at the Rivers side which men fetch twenty Miles an end for the Inriching of their Land for Corn and Grass One Load going as far as three Load of the best Horse or Cow-dung that can be made They call it Snayl-Cod and it hath in it many Snayles and Sheâ—s which is conceived occasioneth the Fatness of it The great Experience of this Piece is made upon that part of the River Thames which runs from Oxford and Reading down to Brainford and if my information fail not which I conceive I have from as good a hand a Gentleman full of great Experiences in Husbandry Improvements as hath not many Fellowes The Lord Cottington drawing part of the River through his Park at Hanworth hath cut in the same River many Out-lets or Ponds somewhat deeper than the River on purpose to receive the same from out of which is usually taken up great store of Mud for the Advance of the Upper Lands but whether this be that richest Snayl-Cod I cannot say but beleive it is very good but upwards as high as Cole-Brook in that River it lyeth plentifully all which not failing under mine own Experience I can say little more unto for present neither for the seasons of applying it unto the Land nor the manner of working the Land to it I dare not prescribe Only hence I conclude there may as well be the same opportunity in most Rivers of the Nation which is a most unutterable Advantage But I can say there is in most if not in all Rivers a very good Rich Mud of great Fruitfulness which were it more sought after would work on more Experiments and produce Advantage unexpected it costing nothing but labour getting nor prejudiceth any but profit to all by clearing the Rivers and great worth and vertue it must needs have in it being the Soyl of the Pastures and Fields common Streets Wayes Yards and Dung-hils all collected by the Flood and drawn thither where it concenters into Shelves and Mines as I may so call it and remanines for ever as an undiscovered Advantage where no use is made of it but hereof more if God give opportunity to the Author of Experimenting both this and others of the same nature to the utmost Advancement of it otherwise and in the mean while inquire it out they self CHAP. XXIII Treateth of the use and nature of Chalk Mud of Pooles Pidgeons and Swines Dung and other Soyles and Manures therein contained AS for Chalk Sir Francis Bacon affirms it to be of an over-heating nature to the Land and is best for Cold Moyst Land but as it appears to me in Hartfordshire and other parts thereabout there are great Improvements to be made upon Barren Gravelly Flinty Lands it hath great Fruitfulness in it but not having faln under my own Experience I dare affirm little therein onely advise any that have opportunity therein to be well resolved of the Fruitfulness of the said Chalk or of the nature of the said Lands for there is some Chalk though not very much thereof that is of so churlish a binding nature that it will so sodder and bind and hold the Water upon the top of the Earth so long till it destroy the Corn nor work a sterility in the Earth that neither Corn or Ground shall yeeld but little fruit but there is a Chalk in thousand places of great fruitfulness for Improvement And I also conceive that Chalk Earth and Manure mixed together makes an admirable sure and naturall fruitfull composition for almost any sort of Lands and is a very Excellent Unfallible Remedy against Barrenness and raiseth Corn in abundance inricheth it also for Grazing when you lay it down many great Countries in this Nation are under this capacity Also the Mud of old standing Pooles and Ditches the shovelling of Streets and Yards and Highwaies the Overâ—warths of Common Lanes
or of Commons near Hedges is very good both of it self and compâ—unded with other Soyl Manure Mud or Straw And very much account made thereof in some Countries nay more than this of Manure that is made of Horse or Cow for some sorts of Land and some sorts of Corn which I conceive is for Lands very Flinty Stony and Gravelly or a little mixed with Câ—aâ— amongst then as also for Wheat and Bâ—rley it is very natuâ—â—ll and is of constant use and great esteem in Hartfordshirâ— Essâ—x Sussex and divers other Countries thereabout and also to great Advantage being put in Execution in most of the Counties in this Nation if ingenuity was of as good esteem among us all as is a base Out-landish fashion for no sooner can that be brought into any part of the Country but it will be dispersed presently into all the parts therof but such as these that are Advantage to all and vastly profitable to the Practitioner Common-wealth are slighted and little practised Earth of a saltish nature is fruitfull especially all such Earth as lyes dry covered with Hovells or Houses of which you make Salt-Peter is rich for Land and so is old flores under any buildings There are many other gallant Soyles or Manure as your Pidgeons dung a load whereof is more worth than twenty shillings in many parts your Hens and Poultry Dung that live of Corn is very excellent these being of a very hot or warm and brackish nature are a very Excellent Soyl for a cold moist-natured Land Two Load hereof will very richly Manure an Acre so is all Dung the more it is raised from Corn or richer matter the richer it self is usually by far as where Horses are highly Corned the richer is the dung than those onely kept with Hay There is another sort of Soyl and that is Swines dung by most men accounted the worst of all nay not worth preserving out of an old received Tradition taken up by most men upon what ground I know not and so generally disliked of almost every one and therfore they will not Experiment it and much an end no use at all is made thereof possibly it came from Scotland who knew they but the excellency thereof they would love the flesh the better for the dungs sake Which to me is very irrationall that an Englâ—sh man who loves Swines flesh so well that more Account and use is made of all the parts of him rather than of the Beef or Sheep yea his very blood and guts are highly prised yet the Soyl of him so much undervalued This Dung is very rich for Corn or Grass or any Land yea of such Accompt to many Ingenuous Husband that they prefer it above any ordinary Manure whatsoever therefore they make their Hogs yards most compleat with an high pale paved well with Pibble or Gravell in the botom where they set their Troughs partly in and some part without the Pale into which they put their meat but the most neatest Husbands indeed Plant their Trough without their Pale or Hog-yard all along by the side of it and for every Hog they have a hole cut the just Proportion of his head Neck and cannot get in his feet to soyl his meat and out thence he eates his meat forth of the Trough very cleanly and sweet they keep the Trough also very clean they have their house for lodging by it self with dry straw alwayes for them to lye in and their cornish Muskings they cast into the yard for that purpose and all Garbidge and all leaves out of Gardens and all Muskings forth of their Barns and of their Courts and Yards and great store of straw or weeds and Fearn or any thing for the Swine to root amongst to make all the Dung they can into the yard for raysing dung and here they keep their Swine the year round never suffering them to go one day abroad and here your dayry Husbands or Huswives will feed them as fat as Pease or Beanes and are of opinion that they feed better and Eatter and with less meat than when they are abroad with all their Grass they spoil Which I did more than three quarters believe but now know it to be true of my own knowledge Some Hog-yards will yeeld you forty fifty some sixty some eighty Load and some more of Excellent Manure of ten or twelve Swine which they value every Load worth about two shillings six pence a Load in their very yards prize it above any other This is practised much about Kings norton both in the Counties of Worcester and Warwick and in many other parts as in Cheshire Staffordshire Darbyshire also I beleeve An Excellent Piece of husbandry I speak Experimentally hereof having made great Advantage my self hereby and do far more prize it than suffering Swine to run and course abroad knowing that rest quiet and sleep with drink and lesser meat will sooner feed any creature than more meat with liberty to run and course about into harms and wash off what they get with their meat with their vexing and running up and down and do advise as thou valewest thy own advantage some good dairies will make the soyl of their Hogyard produce them twenty or thirty pounds worth of profit in a year As for Rags of all sorts there is good vertue in them they are carried far and laid upon the Lands and have in them a warming Improving temper one good Load will go as far as half a dozen or more of the best Cow Dung Coarse Wooll Nippings and Tarry Pitchmarks a little whereof will do an Acre of Land there is great vertue in them I beleeve one Load herof will exceedingly well Manure half an Acre Marrow-bones or Fish-bones Horn or shavings of Horn or Broaths made of Beef Meat or Fish or any other thing whatsoever that hath any Liquidness Oyliness or Fatness have a wonderfull vertue in them let all be precious to thee and preserved for every little adds too and helps in the Common stock and he that wil not be faithful in a little will not be faithfull in a greater quantity as is alway seen by constant â—xperience As for Sheep-Dung Cow-dung and Horse-Dung such old ordinary Soyl I intend to say little in regard the Common use thereof which hath extracted the vertue and excellency to the Common-wealths great advantage onely thus much I shall say by way of advise and reproof from my own Experience 1. By way of advic Prize them according to their worth The Sheeps â—ung is best and a little hereof is of more strength and heart than the others are but whether it arise from the rich and pure nature of the Dung or from the warmth of the Sheeps bodies I know not but I conceive from both because it warmes the Land makes it comfortable And therfore in regard of the worth and excellency of Sheeps