presently set it upon the stool and turn the corners of the sheet over the Hive Let him leave one place open that the Bees may go in and out but let him do this quietly for he must not in any wise fight or strive with them and let him lay Nettles on the boughs where they were knit to drive them from the place and then let him watch them all that day that they go not away and at night when all are gone up to the Hive let him take it away and set it where it shall stand and take away the sheet and let him have Clay ready tempered to lay about it upon the board or stone where it shall stand that no wind come in but the board is better and warmer Let him leave a hole open on the South-side of three inches broad and an inch of height for the Bees to enter in and out And then let him make a covering of Wheat or Rye-straw to cover and house the Hive above and let him set the Hive two foot or more above the Earth upon the stakes so that a Mouse nor any other Beasts or Vermin may come near it But if a swarm be cast late in the year they should be fed with Honey in the Winter and laid upon a thin narrow board or Slate or Lead put into the Hive and another thin board should be set before every Hives mouth that no wind come in and to have four or five little nicks made in the netherside that a Bee may come out or go in and so fastned that the wind blow it not down and so ordered that he may take it up when he will That Hive that is fed let the mouth of it be stopt clean that other Bees come not in for if they do they will fight and kill one another And let him beware that no Wasps come into the Hive for they will kill the Bees and eat the Honey There is also a Bee called a Drone which is greater then another Bee This Drone will eat the Honey and gather nothing and therefore they should be killed it is a common saying that she hath lost her sting and that therefore she will not labour as the others do How to keep Beasts and other Cattel IF a Husbandman would keep Cattel well to his profit he must have several Closes and Pastures to put them in the which should be well quick-setted ditched or hedged that at his pleasure he may sever his biggest and strongest Cattel from the weakest and especially in Winter time when they shall be foddered And though a man be but a Farmer and shall have his Farm twenty years it is less cost for him and more profit for him to quick-set ditch or hedge then to have his Cattel go before the Herdsmen for let the Husbandman spend in three years as much money as the keeping of his Beasts Swine and Sheep do cost him in the years Then always after he shall have all manner of Cattel with the tenth part of the cost and the beasts shall like much the better and by this means the Herdsman shall have for every beast two pence a Quarter or thereabouts And the Swine-herd will have for every Swine at least a penny Then he must have a Shepherd of his own or else he shall never thrive Then reckon Meat Drink and Wages for his Shepherd the Herdsmans and the Swine-herds Hire these charges will double his Rent or arise nigh to do so except his Farm be above forty pounds per Annum Now let us compute what these Charges will come to in three years but let him lay out as much money in Quick-setting ditching and hedging and in three years he shall be discharged for ever and much of his labour he and his Servants may do with their own hands and save much money And then hath he every field in severality and by the assent of the Lord and the Tenants every Neighbour may exchange his Lands with the other And then shall his Farm be twice as good in profit to the Tenant as it was before and as much Land kept in tillage by this means the rich man shall not over-eat the poor man with his Cattel and the fourth part of the Hay and Straw shall serve his Cattel better in a Pasture then four times so much will do in a House and less attendance and the Cattel shall like the better To buy fat Cattel IF the Grasier shall buy fat Oxen or Kine let him handle them and see that they are soft on the fore-crop behind the shoulder and upon the hindermost Rib and upon the Huckle-bone and the Nache by the Tayl Let him see that the Ox have a great God and the Cow a great Navel for then it is very likely that they are well tallowed And let him take heed where he buys any lean Cattel or fat and of whom and where it was bred For if he buy out of a better ground then he hath of his own that Cattel will not like with his Also let him look that there be no manner of sickness amongst the Cattel whether there be any Murren or Long-saught amongst them which may prove very dangerous for a beast may take a sickness ten or twelve days or more before it appears on them To buy lean Cattel THat Husbandman that will thrive must be well furnished with Cattel he must rear and breed some Calves and Foals or else he must be a Buyer If he buy Oxen for the Plough let him look that they are young and not goutty neither broken of Hair of Tayl or of Pizzle If he buys Kine for the Pail let him see that they are young and likely to give good Milk and let him be sure that he feed her Calves well And if he buy lean Oxen let him feed and fat them the younger they are the better they will feed and sooner gain flesh but as we have said let him look well to the Hair that it stare not and that the Beast lick himself be whole mouthed and want no teeth And though he have the Gout and be broken both of Tayl and Pizzle yet will he feed But the goutty Ox will not be driven far Let him also be sure that he have a broad Rib and a thick Hide that he be loose-skinned that it stick not hard nor strait to his Ribs for then he will not feed To rear Calves IT is convenient for a Husbandman to rear Calves and especially those that come betwixt Candlemas and May for at that season he may best spare Milk and by that time the Calf shall be weaned there will be Grass enough to put him into and at Winter he will be big enough to save himself amongst other beasts with a little favour The Dam of the Calf shall bull again and bring another by the same time of the year but if he shall tarry till after May the Calf will be weak in Winter and the Dam will not bull again
and Benefit of Marl. 197 The best way of planting Trefoyl and Clover-grass 198 Of the Plantation of Hops and how Land is improved thereby 204 Of the Mystery of Saffron and the way of planting of it 216 Of the Plantation of Liquorish at large 220 How good a Commodity Hemp is with the manner of planting of it 224 The husbanding of Flax so as to make it come up as much of the Improvement as we can 227 A Discovery of Rape and Goal-seeds Husbandry 232 Of Woad or Wade the Land best for it the usage of it and the advantages thereby 238 The nature use and advantage of Madder 248 The young Gentlemans Heroick Exercise or the Perfection of Horsemanship drawn from the Nature Art and Practice of Riding 254 Of Correction 263 That Teaching is not fit for such Horses as Nature hath not framed fit to be taught 265 Of the English Bridle Saddle and bringing of the Horse to the Block the mounting and seat of the Rider and of the Execution of the action of teaching of the Art 266 Of the bound Leap and Yark 293 Of the Capriole and Cornetti 294 A true and brief way of planting and ordering of all sorts of Orchards either Apple Pear Plum or Cherry according to the Experience of the Author being never before Published 299 THE EPITOME OF THE Art of Husbandry With the ancient Terms thereof as they have been used in several Counties of England Together with the Chiefest Choicest and most Experimental Observations as well of former as also our Modern more Refined Writers in Rustical Affairs Of the diverse manner of Ploughs THere are several makings of Ploughs according to the diverse manner of Countries there are Ploughs of Iron of diverse fashions which is occasioned from the diversity of Grounds and Soyls Some are white Clay some red some gravel chilturn some sand some barren Earth some marled and in many places Heath-ground so that one sort of Plough will not serve in all places therefore it is necessary to have diverse manner of Ploughs In Sommerset-shire about Cicester the Sharre-beam that in many places is called the Plough-head is 4 or 5 foot long and it is broad and thin And that is because the Land is very tough so as to soak the Plough into the Earth if the Sharre-beam were not large broad and thin In Kent they have other manner of Ploughs some go with wheels as they do in diverse other manner of places and some will turn the Shell-bred at every Lands end and plough all one way In Buckingham-shire are Ploughs made of another manner and also other manner of Plough-Irons the which generally are good and likely to serve in many places and especially if the Plough-beam and Sharre-beam were four inches longer between the Sheath and Plough-tayl that the Shell-bred might come more slope for those Ploughs give out too suddenly and therefore they are the worse to draw In Leicester-shire Lanca-shire York-shire Cambridge-shire Lincoln-shire Norfolk and many other Countries the Ploughs are of divers makings But howsoever they are made they are well tempered and go well To know the Names of all parts of the Plough To inform those young Husbandmen that are ignorant of the several names of ploughs I shall express them as followeth The Plough-beam is the longer Tree above which is a little bend The Share-beam is the Tree underneath whereupon the Share is set The plough-sheth is a thin piece of dry wood made of Oak that is set fast in a Mortes to the ploughs beam and also into the Share-beam the which is the Kere or chief band of the plough The plough-tayl is that the Husbandman holdeth in his hand and in the hinder end of the plough-beam is put a long slit made in the same tayl and not set fast out that it may rise up and go down and it is pinned behind and the same plough-tayl is set fast in a Mortes in the hinder end of the Share-beam The plough-stilt is on the right side of the plough whereupon the Rest is set the Rest is a little piece of wood pinned fast upon the nether end of the stilt and to the Share-beam into the further end The Shelbred is a broad piece of wood fast pinned to the right side of the Sheth in the farther end and to the utter side of the stilt in the hinder end And the said Shelbred should come over the said Sheth and Senbred an inch and to go past the midst of the Share with a sharp edge to receive and turn the Earth when the Culter hath cut it There are two long stands in every plough in the hinder end set a slope between the plough-tayl and the stilt to hold out and keep the plough abroad in the hinder end the one is longer then the other The plough-foot is a little piece of wood which is crooked and set before in a Mortes in the plough-beam set fast with Wedges to drive up and down and it is a stay to order of what deepness the plough shall go The plough-ear is made of three pieces of Iron nailed fast to the right side of the plough-beam The meaner sort have a crooked sort of wood pinned fast to the plough beam The Share is a piece of Iron sharp before and broad behind a foot long made with a Socket to be set on the further end of the Share beam the Culter is a bent piece of Iron set in a Mortes in the midst of the plough-beam fastned with Wedges on every side and the back thereof is half an inch thick and more then three inches broad made sharp before to cut the Earth clean it must be well steeled which will cause the easier draught and the Irons for to last the longer The plough-wall is a piece of hard wood with a pin put through set in the plough-beam in an Augure hole Of the tempering of the Ploughs THe knowledge of the tempering of the Plough is very expedient and necessary for a Husbandman that he may plough and turn clean and make no Rest-balks A Rest-balk is where the Plough biteth at the point of the Culter or Share and cutteth not the ground clean to the Furrow that was lately ploughed but leaveth a little Ridge standing between the which breeds Thistles and other Weeds All these Ploughs should have all a like manner of tempering in the Irons Howsoever one may temper for one thing in two or three places as for deepness the foot is one the setting of the Culter is another and the third is at the Plough-tayl where are two Wedges that are called Slote-wedges the one is in the Slote above the Beam and the other is in the said Slote under the Plough-beam sometimes the Husbandman will set both above or both underneath but always let him take good heed and keep one general Rule That the hinder end of the Share-beam always touch the Earth that it may kill the Worms or else it goeth not truly The
all at one ploughing And this shall cause the Land to lye round when it is sown at the next time and thus shall the Corn be saved from drowning To Harrow all manner of Corn. WHen the Lands are ploughed and the Corn sown it will be convenient that they should be well harrowed or else Crows Pigeons will eat devour and bear away the Corns It is the custom in many Countries to have all an Ox-harrow the which is made of six small pieces of Timber called Harrow-bulls made either of Ash or Oak they are of two yards long and as much as the small of a mans leg they have shots of wood put thorow them like Laths and in every bull are six sharp pieces of Iron called Harrow-tyndes set somewhat aslope forward and the forma slope must be bigger then the other because the fore-beam must be fastned to the same with shackle or with a Wyth to draw by This Harrow is good to break the great Clots and to make much mould and then the Horse-harrows to come after to make the Clots smaller and to lay the Ground even It is a great labour and pains for the Ox to go to harrow it is more easie and better for them to go to plough two days then to harrow one day It is an old saying The Ox is never wo Till he to the Harrow go And the reason is because the Harrow goeth by twitches and not always after one draught The Horse-harrow is made of five bulls not above an Ell of length and not so much shotted tinded And when that the Corn is well covered then it is harrowed enough There are Horse-harrows that have tindes of wood and those are used much about Rippon and some other places where he may border stones for those stones would wear the Iron too soon And those tindes are most commonly of the Ground-end of a young Ash they are more then a foot long in the beginning and stand as much above the Harrow as beneath And as they wear or break they drive them down lower they should be made long before that they are used that they may be dry for then they will indure and last much better and stick the faster The Horses that shall draw these Harrows must be well kept and shod well or else they will be soon tired and sore beaten that they will not be able to draw they must have Hombers or Collers Holmes writhed about their Necks Tresses to draw by and a Swingle-tree for to hold the Tresses and a Togewith betwixt the Swingle-tree and the Harrow And if the Barley-ground will not break with Harrows but be clotty it should be beaten with Mauls and not straight down for then the Corn will be beaten into the Earth And if they beat the Clot on the side it will the better break and the Clot will be the lighter that the Corn may come by the lighter Some use to roll their Barley-ground after a showre of Rain to make the Ground to be the evener to mow To Fallow WHen the Husbandmen have sown their Pease Beans Barley and Oats and harrowed them it will be their best time to fallow in the latter end of March or April for Wheat Rye and Barley and let them do the best that they can to plough a broad Furrow and deep so that they turn it clean and lay it flat that it rear not an edge the which will destroy all the Thistles and Weeds For the deeper and the broarder that it goeth the more new mould and the greater clots shall they have and the greater clots the better Wheat for the clots keep the Wheat warm all the Winter but at March they will melt and break and fall into many small pieces the which is a new dunging and refreshing the Corn and likewise there shall be but few weeds grow upon the fallows that are fallowed for the Plough goeth underneath the roots of all manner of weeds and turneth the root upwards that they may not grow And if the Land be fallowed in Winter time it will be far the worse for these three causes One is all the Rain that falleth shall wast the Land and drive away the Dung and the good Mould that the Land shall be much the worse Another cause is the rain shall beat the Land so flat and bake it so hard together that a dry May coming it will be too hard to stir in the month of June The third cause is the weeds shall take such root in the stirring time that they will not be clean turned underneath the which shall be a greater hurt to the Corn when it shall be sown and especially in the time of weeding of the same and for any other thing make a deep hollow furrow in the ridge of the Land and let the Husbandmen look well that the Rest balk it not for if they do there will be many thistles and then they shall not make a clean ridge at the first stirring and therefore it must be deep ploughed or else it will not turn the weeds clean How to plough all manner of times of the year THe Ploughs being made tempered as I have already expressed it will be convenient to inform the young Husbandman how he should plough all times of the year In the beginning of the year after the Feast of the Epiphany it will be time for the Husbandman to go to the plough and if he have any Leys to fallow or sow Oats upon first plough them that the Grass and the Moss may rot and plough them a deep square furrow and in all manner of ploughings let him look that his eye and his hand and his feet do agree and that they are always ready the one to serve the other to turn up much mould and lay it flat that it rear not up an edge for if it rear an edge the Grass and Moss will not rot and if he sow it with Winter-corn as Wheat or Rye as much Corn as toucheth the Moss will be drowned for that the Moss doth keep such a wet and moisture in it self In some Countries if a man plough deep he shall pass the good Ground and have but little Corn but that Country is not fit for men to keep Husbandry upon but to rear and bring up Cattel and Sheep for otherwise they must go beat their Grounds with Mattocks as they do in several places in Cornwall and in some parts of Devon-shire How to plough for Pease and Beans FIrst the Husbandman must take notice which is the most clayie Ground let him plough that first but let it lye a good space before that he sow it because the Frost the Rain the Wind and the Sun may soon cause it to break small to make much mould and to ridge it and to plough a square furrow the breadth and the deepness all one and to lay it close to its fellow For the more furrows the more Corn serves as hath been said for a
general Rule for all manner of Corns which may be proved at the coming up of all manner of Corns if the Husbandman do but stand at the Lands end and look towards the other end and he shall easily perceive how the Corn groweth How all manner of Corn should be sown and how much most commonly on an Acre FIrst of Pease and Beans An Acre of Ground by the Statute that is to say sixteen foot and an half to the Perch or Pole four Perches to an Acre in breadth and eleven Perches to an Acre in length may be very well sown with two London Bushels of Pease that is but two Strikes in other places and if there be the fourth part Beans then will it require half a London Bushel more and if it be half Beans it will have three London Bushels and more if it be of Beans it will have four London Bushels fully and that is half a Quarter because the Beans are great and grow up straight and do not spread and grow abroad as Pease do An Acre of good Beans is worth an Acre and a half of good Pease because there will be more Bushels And the best property that belongeth to a good Husbandman is to sow all manner of Corn thick enough and especially Beans and Barley for commonly they are sown upon rank Grounds and good Ground will have the burden of Corn and of Wood And as much ploughing and harrowing hath an Acre of Ground and sow thereupon but one Bushel and another soweth four Bushels And undoubtedly one Bushel will not give so much Corn again as the four Bushels though the three Bushels that be sowed more be allowed and set apart And one Bushel and a half of white Pease or green Pease will sow as much ground as two Bushels of gray Pease and that is because they are so small that the Husbandman need not to take so great a handful In some Countries they begin for to sow Pease soon after Christmas and in some places they sow both Pease and Beans under-furrow and those of reason must be sowed betimes but generally to sow after Candlemas is found to be a good season so that they are sown towards the beginning of March or thereabouts But especially let them be sown in the old of the Moon For the opinion of the most expert Husbandmen is that they will cod the better and ripen the sooner But I speak not of Hastings for those are to be sown before Christmas How to sow Wheat and Rye ABout Michaelmas is the time to sow both Wheat and Rye Wheat is most commonly sown under the Furrow that is to say cast it upon the fallow and then plough it under and in some places they sow their Wheat upon their Pease-stubble the which is never so good as that which is sown upon the fallow and that is used where they make fallow in a Field every fourth year In Essex they use to have a Youth to go in the furrow before the Horses or Oxen with a Bag or a Hopper full of Corn and he taketh his hand full of Corn by little and little casteth it in the same furrow This Boy as I suppose ought to have somewhat more then ordinary discretion howsoever there is much good Corn and Rye most commonly sown above and harrowed two London Bushels of Wheat and Rye will sow an Acre Some Ground is good for Wheat and some for Rye and some for both and upon that good Ground sow blend Corn that is both Wheat and Rye which is the surest Corn of growing good for the Husbandmans Houshold And this Wheat that shall be medled with Rye must be such Wheat as will soon be ripe and that is flaxen Wheat pole-ear'd Wheat or white Wheat There are divers kinds of Wheats Flaxen Wheat hath a yellow Ear and bare without Anys and is the brightest Wheat in the Bushel and will make the whitest Bread This Corn will wear the ground very much the straw of it is small but it grows very thick and is but small Corn. Pole-ear'd Wheat hath no Anys 't is thick set in the Ear and it will soon fall out 't is greater Corn and it will make white Bread White Wheat is like pole-ear'd Wheat in the Bushel but it hath Anys and the Ear is four-square and it will make white Bread In Essex they call flaxen Wheat white Wheat Red Wheat hath a flat Ear an inch broad full of Anys it is the greatest Corn the broadest Blade and the greatest Straw it will make white bread though it be the ruddiest of colour in the bushel English Wheat hath a dun Ear it hath few or no Anys and it is the worst Wheat except Peck-wheat Peck-wheat hath a red Ear full of Anys thin set and oft-times it is flintered that is to say small Corn wringeled and dryed it will not make white bread but it will grow upon cold ground To sow Barley EVery good Husbandman hath his Barley-fallow well dunged lying ridged all the deep and cold of the Winter the which ridging makes the Land to lye dry and the dunging maketh it to be mellow and rank And if a dry season comes before Candlemas or soon after it should be cast down and water furrowed between the Lands and in the beginning of March ridge it up again sow in every Acre five London bushels or four at the least some years it may so happen that there is no seasonable weather before March to plow the Barley-earth The Husbandman as soon as he hath sowed his Pease and Beans then let him cast his Barley-earth and shortly after ridge it again so that it be soon before April And if the time of the year be past then sow it upon the casting There are three kinds of Barleys that is to say Sprot Barley long Ear and Bear Barley Sprot Barley hath most commonly a flat Ear three quarters of an inch broad and three inches long the corners are very great and white it is the best Barley Long Ear hath a flat Ear half an inch broad and four inches and more of length But the Corn is not so great nor so white it will soon turn and grow to the Oats Bear Barley or big should be sown upon light and dry Ground it hath an Ear four inches long or more set four-square like Peck-wheat it hath small corns and little flour and that is the worst Barley four London bushels are sufficient for an Acre and in some Countries they do not sow their Barley till May and then most commonly upon gravelly or sandy ground But that Barley generally is never so good as that which is sown in March For if it be very dry weather after it is sown that Corn that lyeth above lyeth dry and hath no moisture and that little underneath cometh up and when Rain falls then that spreads that lyeth above and oftentimes it is green when the other is ripe and when it is threshed there is much light Corn
Weeder have a Hook with a Socket upon a little staff a yard long and this Hook should be well steeled and ground sharp both behind and before and in his other hand he should have a forked stick of about a yard long and with his forked stick he must put the weed from him and he putteth the Hook beyond the root of the weed and he pulleth it to him and cutteth the weed close to the Earth and with his Hook he taketh up the weed and casteth it in the Raine and if the Raine be full of Corn it is better to stand still when it is cut and withered but let him beware that he do not tread too much upon the Corn and especially after that it be shot and when that he cutteth the weed that he cutteth not the Corn and therefore the Hook should not exceed to be above an inch wide And when the weed is so short that he cannot with his forked stick put it from him and with the Hook put it to him then must he set his Hook upon the weed close to the Earth and put it from him and so he shall cut it clean With these two instruments he shall never need to stoop to his work Dog-fennel Goldes Mathes and Kedlocks are bad to weed after this manner they grow upon so many branches and are so close to the Earth and therefore they use for the most part to pull them up with their hands but let them look well that they pull not up the Corn therewithal As for Tare no weeding will serve turn How to mow and shear Barley and Oats BArley and Oats most commonly are mown a man or a woman following the Mower with a Hand-rake half a yard long with seven or eight teeth in his left hand and a Sickle in the right hand with the Rake he gathereth as much as will make a sheaf And then he raketh the Barley or Oats by the topâ— and and pulleth out as much as will make a band and casteth the band from him on the Land and with his Rake and his Sickle taketh up the Barley or Oats and layeth them upon the band and so the Barley lyeth unbound three or four days until it be dry weather and then he binds it And when that the Barley is led away the Land must be raked or else there will be much Corn lost and if the Barley or Oats lye they must needs be shorn To reap or mow Pease or Beans PEase or Beans are reaped most commonly last or else mown after divers manners some with Sickles some with Hooks and some with Staff-hooks In some places they lay them on Repes and when that they are dry they lay them together on heaps like Hay-cocks and never bind them but the best way is when the Repes be dry to bind them and to set them on the ridge of the Lands three sheaves together Mowers geld not your Beans that is to say to cut the Beans so high that the nether Cod grow still in the stalk and when they are bound they are the readier to load or unload to make a Reke or to take from the Mow to thresh and so are not the Repes How Rye should be shorn AT the latter end of June or the beginning of August is the time to shear Rye which should be shorn clean and fast bound In some places they mow it the which is not so profitable a way for the Husbandman but it is the sooner done For when it is mown it will not be so fast bound and the Husbandman cannot gather it up so clean but that there will be much lost it also taketh up more room in the Barn then shorn Corn doth Nor will it keep or save it self from rain or ill weather when it standeth in the cover as the shorn Corn will do How to shear Wheat WHeat should be shorn clean and bound hard but for a general Rule let the Shearer take heed that the shearers of all manner of Wheat-corn cast not up their hands hastily for then all the loose Corns and the straws that he holdeth not in his hand flyeth over his head and are lost and also it will pull off the Ears and that more especially of the Corns that are very ripe In some places they will shear their Corns high to the intent to mow their stubble either to thatch or to burn if they so do they have great cause to take good heed of the shearers For if the Ears of the Corn crook down or bend to the Earth if the shearer be not very wary and put up the Ear or he cut the straw as many Ears as be under his Hook or Sickle fall to the Earth and are lost And when they mow the stubble it is a great hinderance to the profit of the ground In Sommerset-shire about Zelchester or Martock they shear their Wheat very low and all the Wheat-straw that they purpose to make thatch of they do not thresh it but cut off the Ears and bind it in sheaves and call it Rede and therewith they thatch their Houses And if it be a new House they thatch it under their foot the which is the best and surest thatching that can be of straw for Crows Pigeons and the like shall never be able to hurt it How to sow both Pease and Beans LEt the Husbandman sow his Pease upon clayie ground and the Beans upon the Barley ground for they require ranker ground then the Pease Howsoever some Husbandmen are of opinion that the big and stiff ground as Clay should be sown with big ware as Beans but I am of another mind for if a dry Summer come his Beans will fall short And if the ground be very good put the more Beans to the Pease and they will yield the better when they are threshed And if it be very rank ground as it is much at every Town-side where Cattel do resort that plough not the Land until it be sown for if he do there will come up Kedlocks and other weeds But let him sow it with Beans for if he sow it with Pease the Kedlocks will hurt them And when he finds a seasonable time let him sow both Pease and Beans so that they are sown in the beginning of March. To know a seasonable time to sow go upon the Land that is ploughed and if it sing or cry or make any noise under thy feet then 't is too wet to sow but if it make no noise and will bear the Horses then sow in the Name of God For the manner of his sowing let him put the Pease into the Hopper and cast a broad thong of Leather or Garth-web of an Ell long let him fasten it to both the ends of the Hopper and put it over his head like a Belt and stand in the midst of the Land where the Sack lyeth the which is most conveniently for the filling of the Hopper and let him set his left foot before and take
make a tryal having the wind on his back to see at what length he can cast his Flye that the Flye light first into the water for if any of the Line falleth into the water before the Flye it had been better unthrown then thrown Let him always cast down the stream with the wind behind him and the Sun before it is a great advantage for him to have the Sun or the Moon before him Let him begin to angle in March with the Flye but if the weather prove windy or cloudy there are several kinds of Palmers that are good at that time First is a black Palmer ribbed with silver the second a black Palmer with an Orange tawny body thirdly a black Palmer with the body made of all black fourthly a red Palmer ribbed with gold and a red Huckle mixed with Orange Cruel These Flies serve all the year long morning and evening whether windy or cloudy weather But if the Air prove bright and clear he may imitate the Hawthorn Fly which is all black and very small and the smaller the better In May let him take the May-Fly imitate that which is made several ways Some make them with a shammy body ribbed with a black hair others make them with sandy Hogs-wool ribbed with black silk and winged with a Mallards feather several ways according to the fancy of the Angler There is another called the Oak-Fly which is made of Orange-colour'd Cruel and black with a brown wing another Fly the body thereof is made with the strain of a Peacocks-feather which is very good in a bright day The Grashopper which is green the smaller Flies are made of indifferent small Hooks which are the better these several sorts I have set down will serve all the year long observing the times and seasons And let him take notice that the lightest Flies are for cloudy and dark weather the darkest for bright and light and the rest of indifferent seasons for which his own judgment experience and discretion must guide him so that he must alter these Flies according to these directions Of late days the Hogs-wool of several colours the wool of a red Heiser and Bears-wool are made use of which make good grounds they are now very much used and procure very good sport The natural Fly is a sure way of angling and will catch great store of Trouts with much pleasure As for the May-Fly he shall always have them playing at the River-side especially against Rain The Oak-Fly is to be had on the But of an Oak or an Ash from the beginning of May to the end of August it is a brownish Fly and stands always with his head towards the root of the Tree very easie to be found The small black Fly is to be had on every Hawthorn-bush after the Buds are come forth The Grashopper which is green is to be had in any Meadow of Grass in June or July with these Flies he must use such a Rod as to angle with the Ground-bait the Line must not be as long as the Rod Let him withdraw his Fly as he shall find to be most convenient in his Angling When he comes to deep Waters that stand somewhat still let him make his Line about two yards long and dop his Fly behind a Bush at which Angling I have had very good sport The way to make the best Paste is to take a reasonable quantity of fresh Butter as much fresh Sheeps Suet a reasonable quantity of the strongest Cheese he can get with the soft of an old stale white Loaf let him beat all these in a Mortar till they come to a perfect Paste and when the Angler goes to his sport let him put as much on his Hook as a green Pease The Nature Use and Benefit of Marle MArle is a very useful thing the Nature of it is cold which is the reason that it saddens the Land exceedingly for it is very heavy and will go downwards Some Countries yield Marle of several colours as 't is affirmed of Kent wherein is found both yellow and gray the blew and red are counted best To marle together I hold not proper but when you are resolved to lay down your Land to graze be sure at the last Crop you intend to take which may be two or three more after marling then manure your Land for the less binding and the more light loose and open the more fruitful it is so that it will produce a gallant Clovery The first year after you have laid it down upon the Wheat or mixed Corn-stubble you must run it over again with Dung and it will pay treble Now the Lands upon which Marle is most natural for increase is upon your higher sandy Land mixed of gravelly or any sound Land whatsoever though never so barren to which it is natural and nourishing as Bread to a mans Life The best way of planting of Trefoyl or Clover-grass THere are several sorts of Clover I shall only speak of the great Clover that we fetch from Flanders called Trefoyl named by Clusius Trefolio majus tertium which bears the great red Honey-suckle whose root and branches far exceed our natural Meadow-Clover and bears a very small seed like Mustard-seed not so round but longer like a Bean the best is of a greenish yellow colour some a little reddish the black I suppose will not do well Your Dutch or Low-Country seed or from the lower parts of Germany is very much of it but very hazardous that comes over hither but being well chose there for the choice is the Master-piece of the work the transporting of it by Sea is no considerable prejudice to it but much of it that was sold in the Seedsmens Shops in London was either corrupted by the Dutch before it came thence or else parched by our drying or else by the Shop-keepers either mingled with old or new or keeping it another year and then selling it for new The best way of sowing of this Dutch Seed must be by mixture of it with Ashes of Wood or Coals coursly sifted or with some Dust or good Sand or fine Mould or any thing else that will help to fill the Land or spread well forth of the Land and after this I must press as the weightiest thing of this Husbandry to have a most special care of the even sowing of it because the wind though very small hath power over this and therefore you must chuse as calm a time as possibly you can You may sow it upon any Land you intend to graze upon any fair places in a Meadow or High-ways trodden and poached it will soard them but the usual way is thus advised when that you have fitted your Land by Tillage and good Husbandry then sow your Barley or Oats and harrow them in and after your Clover upon the same Land covered over with small Harrow or Bush but sow not the Corn as you usually did but if you will lose this Crop you may sow
it of it self The season of it is in the beginning of April or in the end of March if it be likely to be a dry season I have heard of three Crops and some affirm that it will bear two to cut and one for to graze the first Crop may be at mid May ready to cut and this Crop is best always to be cut green and before the stalk begin to grow too big and begin to dry and wither unless it be for Seed therefore as Experience will teach it will be best to cut it green and young and give it to Cattel or Horse in the Stable for if you cut it to keep it will go so near together as that it will do but little service dry yet if being cut young it will be very good and sweet and either seed or give Milk abundantly and then after the first cut let it grow for Seed and herein you must be careful that you let it grow till it be full ripe for it will not be very apt to shed and if it grow to seed I cannot conceive of what use those stalks that are so hard and dry can be unless it be for firing in a dear Country so that the seed must be the advance of that Crop only and so it may well enough and you may have a good after-pasture and may graze it until January and then preserve it But if you would know when your Seed is ripe observe these two Particulars First observe the Husk when the Seed appears in it then about one month after it may be ripe Secondly try the Seed after it begins to turn the colour and the stalk begins to dye and turn brown it begins to ripen and being turned to a yellowish colour in a dry time mow it and preserve it till it be perfectly dry any manner of way and then about the midst of March thrash it and cleanse it from the straw as much as you can foulter and beat the Husk again being exceeding well dryed in the Sun after the first thrashing and then get out what seed you can and after try what a Mill will do at the rest as aforesaid more at laâ—ge But I will give way to any that can make a better discovery I need not prescribe a time in July or August as best to cut for seed because some years and Lands will ripen it sooner then others will therefore have respect to thy seed and straw according to the former directions but when you are to go into good seed you must graze it upon the Land and then be sure not to let it grow too rank and high but if the stalk grow big Cattel will balk it and stain it more and it will not eat up so kindly at first nor graze so even afterwards but exceeding much Milk it will yield and feed and nourish very well But to affirm as some have done and do confidently to this day that it will grow on the barrennest Ground that is as on Windsor Forrest I dare not I have known that it hath failed and I am confident must without exceeding great cost on Husbandry yet that very Land well manured and tilled dunged limed marled or chalkt or otherwise made fat and warm will bring forth good Clover and other rich Commodities as they do in Flanders the Nature of the Land is good but the Spirit of it is too low to raise it of it self And this is all that is held forth in the Discourse of Brabant Husbandry exceeding barren Lands but well dunged and tilled and then clovered not that it is the barren Land but the good and costly Husbandry only the oldness of the Land and the restiness thereof yields more spirit to the Grain or Clover by far then the tillable Land well husbanded and laid down with Clover will do very well also The quantity of seed for an Acre as I conceive will be a Gallon or nine or ten pound though some are of opinion less will serve turn Therefore as I said before I say your old Land be it course or rich as it is or hath been disused from Tillage long is best for Corn so also it is the best and most certain Land for Clover and when you have corned your Land as much as you intend then to alter it to Clover is the properest season This I shall lay down for a general Rule That whatsoever Land is neither too rank or fat for any sort of Corn is not too good to clover and you shall always find it to be the best Husbandry unless you recover the barren Lands up to a good and rich condition which is also the far better Husbandry then to let it lye pelting and moiling upon poor mean Land unfatned by some soils or other therefore I advise every man to plow up no more then he can well overcome by his Purse and Husbandry and let the rest lye till he have brought up the other and then as he hath raised one part take up another and lay down that to graze either with Clover or otherwise and let him take heed that flatters himself to raise good Clover upon barren Heathy Land otherwise then aforesaid Let him take notice he will pull down his Plumes after two or three years Experience unless he devise a new way of Husbandary as to the annual profit that may accrue thereby I shall a little differ from the Flanders Husbandry but shall affirm that one Acre after the Corn is cut the very next year if it be well husbanded and kind thick Clover may be worth twenty Marks or twenty pounds and so downwards as it degenerates weaker less worth In Brabant they speak of keeping four Cows Winter and Summer some cut and laid up for Fodder others cut and eaten green but I have credibly heard of some in England that about one Acre have kept four Coach-horses and more all Summer long but if he keep but two Cows it is advantage enough upon such Lands as never kept one But I conceive best for us until we come into a stock of Seed to mow the first Crop in the midst or end of May and to lay that up for Hay although it will go very near together yet if it grow not too strong it will be exceeding good and rich and feed any thing and reserve the next for Seed and if we can bring it up to perfect Seed if it but yield four Bushels upon an Acre it will amount to more then I speak of by far every Bushel being worth three or four pound a Bushel and then after the Math or Eadish that year may be put up three midling Runts upon an Acre and feed them up all which laid together will make up an Improvement sufficient and yet this property it hath also that after the three first years of cloving it will so frame the Earth that it will be very sit to corn again which wil be a very great advantage First to corn the
straw and so depart your Garden till March unless it be to bring in Dung. Lay on some in the Winter to comfort and warm the Roots your old Dung is best rather none then not rotten And in April help every hill with a handful or two of good Earth when the Hop is wond upon the Pole but in March you will find unless it hath been tilled all Weeds But if you have pulled down your hills and laid your Ground as it were level it will serve to maintain your hills for a long time but if you have not pulled down your hills your shall with your Ho as it were undermine them round till that you come near to the principal and take the upper or younger Roots in your hand discerning where the new Roots grow out of the old Sets but cut no Roots before the beginning of March or end of April The first year of dressing your Roots you must cut away all such as grew the year before within an inch of the same and every year after cut them as close to the old Roots Those that grow downward are not to be cut they are those that grow outward which will incumber your Garden The difference betwixt old and new easily appears You will find your old Sets not increased in length but a little in bigness and in few years all your Sets will be grown into one and by the colour also the main Root being red the other white But if this be not yearly done then they will not be perceived and if your Sets be small and placed in good Ground and the hill well maintained the new Roots will be greater then the old if they grow to wild Hops the stalk will wax red pull them down and plant new in their places As for the annual charge of the Hop-Garden after it is planted the dressing the Hills the Allies the hoing them the poling them and tying to the Poles and ordering the Hops is usually done for forty shillings an Acre together with pulling drying and bagging by the day And so I proceed to the drying of them which may be upon any ordinary Kilne with any Wood that is dry but not too old or else good sweet Rye-straw will do well but Charcoal best of all They must be laid about nine or ten inches thick and dryed a good while on that side and then turned upside down and dryed as much on the other side about twelve hours will dry a Kilne full which must be followed night and day then laid up in a close Room upon a heap together for a month if your Markets will give you way to frume and forgive again when the stalk begins to be brittle and the leaf also begins to rub then the Hop is dryed sufficiently but tread them not while they are hot it will tread them to dust and then either against Sturbridge-Fair or what other Markets you provide for you may bag them up close and hard either to 200 a Quarter And so I come to my next Particular to shew you the profit of them One Acre of good Hops may possibly be worth at a good Market forty fifty sixty pounds an Acre may bear eleven or twelve hundred weight possibly some have done more many ten but grant but eight hundred they may sometimes be worth not above one pound four shillings the hundred and some other times they have been worth twelve or fourteen pound a hundred and usually once in three years they bring money enough It is usually a very good Commodity and many times extraordinary and our Nation may ascribe unto it self to raise the best Hops of any other Nation There 's an old Saying Heresie and Bear Hopt into England in one year Of the Mystery of Saffron and the way of planting of it THere is another very rich Commodity wherein our Nation hath the Glory and yet it is a very Mystery to many Parts of it they know not whether such a thing grows in England and yet none such so good grows in the World beside that I have ever heard or read of and that is Saffron It is a most soveraign and wholesom thing and if it take right it is very advantagious and costly for price It hath its ebbings and its flowings as all other things have I shall briefly give you the story of it Good Land that is of the value of 20 l. an Acre being well husbanded tilled and fitted or worser Land being well manured and brought to perfect Tillage will serve the turn but the better the better for the work The season is about Midsummer when it is to be set that being the season when they usually take up or draw their Sets or Roots and old store when they may be had and no time else The Land being brought into perfect Tillage the best way is to make a Tool like a Ho in operation but as broad as six of them and with that they draw their Land into ranges open as it were a Furrow about two or three inches deep and there place their Sets or Roots of Saffron about two or three inches asunder which Roots are to be bought by the Strike sometimes dearer and sometimes cheaper and are very like to Onions an Onion about an inch and a half over and as soon as they have made one Furrow all along their Land from one end to another then they after that it is set begin in another and draw that which they raise next to cover this and so they make their Trench and cover the other they keep one depth as near as may be which Ranges or Furrows are not above three or four inches distance that so a Ho of two or three inches distance may go betwixt them to draw up the Weed which being set and covered it may come up that Summer but it dies again yet it lives all Winter and grows green like Chives or small Leeks And in the beginning of Summer it dyeth wholly as by the blade of it is as to appearance let one come and take a Ho and draw all over it and cleanse it very well and then will come up the Flower without the Leaf In September the Flower of it appears like Crocus that is blew and in the middle of it come up two or three Chives which grow upright together and the rest of the Flower spreads broad which Chives is the very Saffron which you may take betwixt your fingers and hold it and cast away all the rest of the Flower and reserve that only and so they pick it and they must pick it every morning early or else it returns back into the body of it to the Earth again until the next morning and so from one to another for a months space it will bear Saffron You must get as many Pickers as may overcome it before it strike in at the very nick in the morning It will grow to bear a Crop and then it must be taken up and planted new
It must be taken up in Winter and must be sold as soon as taken up lest it lose the weight which it must needs do You may make of an Acre of indifferent Liquorish 50 or 60 Land of excellent good 80 90 or a 100 l. It is not of so great use as other Commodities are and so will not vent off in great parcels as others will neither will it endure the keeping for a good Market because it will be so soon dry How good a Commodity Hemp is with the manner of Planting of it HEmp is an excellent Commodity and would be far better but that it is not made so National This Staple-commodity in the product would bring a constant profit for the stock and would maintain the Poor at work so as to get a competent livelihood Why should we run to France to Flandeâ—s and to the Low Countries for Thred aâ—d Cloth of so many sorts and fine Linnen when we have Hemp and Flax enough of our own I shall now proceed to a brief Description of the way of raising it As for the Seed of it that is familiarly bought and sold in all places in the season but the best Seed is your brightest which you may try by rubbing of it in your hand if it crumble with rubbing it is bad but if it still retains its substance and colour it is good The best Land for it is that which is sandy or a little gravelly so it be very rich and of a deep soil As for your cold Clays they are not fit for it the very best Land can be pickt for it is but good enough The quantity that is to be sowed upon our Statute Acre is three Strikes or Bushels and harrowed with small Harrows the which after the Land is made exceeding fine as the finest Garden then in the beginning or middle of April is the time they sow it some sow it not till the end of April But if it be any thing a kindly year the earlier the better and so preserved exceeding choicely at first for fear of Birds destroying of it as you see in many Countries Be careful that Cattel never bite it nor lye upon it for they will destroy it The season of getting it is first about Lammas when a great part of it will be ripe it may be about one half that is a lighter Summer-Hemp that bears no seed and the stalk grows white and ripe and most easily discernable which is about that season to be pulled forth and dryed and laid up for use or watered and wrought up as all good Housewives know which you must pull as neatly as you can from amongst all the rest lest you break it for what you break you utterly destroy and then you must let the other grow for seed until it be ripe which will be about Michaelmas or a little before when seed and stalk are both full ripe and you come to pull them you bind up in bundles as much as a yard-hand will hold which is the Legal measure but for your simple or Summer-Hemp that is bound in lesser bundles as much as may be grasped in both your hands and when your Winter-Hemp is pulled you may stock it up or barn it any way to keep it dry and then in the season of the year thrash it and get out the seed but still preserve your Hemp till you set to the working of it which instead of breaking and tawing of it as they do in most parts there they altogether peel it and no more and so sell it in the rough But I leave all at liberty for that whether you peel or dress it up by Brake or Tewtaw As for the Seed an Acre will bear is two or three Quarters and it is usually sold for about a Mark a Quarter sometimes ten shillings If good Hemp then store of seed else not but in many and most Parts of the Nation it is sold for about four shillings a Bushel Your fimbled-Hemp is not worth above half so much as the other sometimes it is subject to Weeds to Carlock and Muckle-weed which must be weeded but the best way to destroy them is to let your Hemp-Land lye one year fallow I only speak of Holland the cheapest place for it and the first fountain of it But generally throughout the Nation it is of far more worth and value The richer your Land is the thinner the poorer the thicker you must sow One Acre of good Hemp may be worth 5 6 7 or 8 l. an Acre and sold as soon as pulled or gathered but if it be wrought up it may come to 8 9 10 or 12 l. or more it is a common thing in use every one knows the manner of working it to Cloth The Husbanding of Flax so as to make it come up as much of the Improvement as we can FLax as I may call it is a Root or roundation of advantage upon the prosperity whereof thousands of people in good honest and laborious Callings are maintained for the profit accruing thereof i both general and particular For the Land capable of raising good Flax is any sound Land be it in what Country soever it will if the Land be good either earthy or mixed of Sand or Gravel and old Land it is best that hath lain long unplowed it had need come up to the value of a Mark or near twenty shillings an Acre to sow Flax upon within a mile of London and yet in most Counties of England I know as good and as kind Land for that Husbandry as any other and at London they have Workmen dearer too and yet can raise though they give so dear a very considerable profit There is excellent Flax about Maidstone in Kent 't is said the best Thred in England is made of it one Acre of good Flax may maintain divers persons to the compleating of it to perfect Cloth consider how many Trades are supplied thereby 1. The flax-Flax-Land must have the same Husbandry of plowing and sowing as Lands have for Corn there 's the Husbandmans business sometimes yea many times weeding too then pulling stitching and drying then repelling and laying up and preserving the seed then watering is either on the ground or in the water then drying of it up howing of it then breaking and towtawing of it then better helling and dressing it up then spinning of it to Yarn or Thred then weaving it and bleaching and then it returns again to the good Houswives use or Sempster and then to the weaving and usage and all these a dozen good Callings 2. For the carrying on of this design and making the best of this Improvement I will here give you the best and most profitable way of planting of it that is discovered As for the Land let it be good and well ploughed both straight and even without balks and in due season about the beginning of March or latter end of February and as for the Seed the true East Country-seed is
the best although it cost very dear one Bushel of it to sow is worth ten Bushels of our own Country-seed but the second Crop of our own of this Country-seed is very good and the third indifferent but then no more but again to your best Seed the quantity of it is about two Bushels of it upon an Acre at least some sow a Peck more but I conceive two may be enough but of our Seed it will require half a Strike more then of the East Country-seed Our Flax-men in former days did not sow above half so much or little more but now Experience hath brought us to this pitch The season of sowing it is a warm season in the latter end of March but in the warmer parts as Essex and Kent I conceive mid March may do well but in colder parts as down towards Warwick-shire and Worcester-shire the beginning of April may be early enough and if there should come a very wet season you must take care of weeding it also that it grow not till it be over-ripe lest the stalk should blacken or mildew yet to its full ripeness you must let it grow the which you may perceive both by the hurle and by the seed Some will ripen earlier and some later but against it be ripe be sure to have your Pluckers to fall in hand with plucking of it and then tye up every handful and set them upright one against another like a Tent till they be perfectly dry then get it all into the Barn It is indifferent whether you ripple it or take off the boles of it as soon as you bring it home or when you intend to use it As for your watering of it whether in the Water or upon the Land that I shall not peremptorily determine but thus much I say that both may do well and he that gets store will find use of both because of the one you make use as soon as your Flax is pulled and then you need not stand so curiously upon the drying of it but after you have got your seed you may water it and the watering of it opens and breaks the hurle the best but then you must be careful of laying up your seed that it heat not nor mould and that which you water then get it forth upon your Grass-land and spread it thin and turn it to preserve it from mildewing and keep it so until you find the hurle be ready and willing to part from the Core and then dry it up and get it in for use And for the drying of it a Kilne made on purpose is best so that you be careful of scorching it this will make a greater riddance of the same and to them that have great store Sun-drying will never do the feat though it may do well for a small quantity or the Flax of a private Family As to the working of it you must provide your Brakes and Tewtaws both the one that is the Brake which bruises and toughens the Hurle and the Tewtaw that cuts and divides out the Core if you use the Tewtaw first it may cut your well-dryed Flax to pieces yet both do well but use the Brake first It will cost the Workmanship of it betwixt three or four pounds an Acre to bring it up to Sale It lyeth much upon the Workmans hand and therefore far more to be advanced by how much the more it raiseth imployment for so many people to live by Where Wages are great it comes off the hardest yet where it is carried on to the purpose people stock hard that want Work and because of constancy will work on easie terms or else how could they possibly do good of it at London or near about it where they work at double Rates but there I have seen the best Flax I ever saw Lastly the benefit that may be made thereby an Acre of good Flax may be worth upon the ground if it be the East-Country-seed seven or eight yea possibly ten or twelve pounds yea far more the charge whereof besides the seed until it be ripe may not be above ten shillings an Acre which if you work up to be fit to sell in the Market it may rise up to 15 or 16 or near 20 l. in the Market but to bring it so high as 30 l. as in Flanders I dare not say But an Acre of our Country-seed will hardly come up to above three pounds or four unless very good indeed to which if it amount unto and no more upon the Land it will make a good advancement of it which it may be Land and Seed and all Charges may come to about fifteen or sixteen pounds an Acre the seed not being worth above two shillings a Strike A Discovery of Rape and Coal-seeds Husbandry THe planting of Coal-seed or Rape-seed is another excellent good means for the Improvement of Land this Coal-seed hath been of late days in good esteem And it is most especially useful upon your Marsh-land fen-Fen-land or upon your new recovered Sea-land or any Lands that are very rank and fat whether Arable or Pasture The best seed is the biggest the fairest seed you can get it being dry and of a pure clear colour of the colour of the best Onion-seed It is to be had in many Parts of this Nation but Holland is the Center of it from thence usually comes your good seed The season of sowing it is about Midsummer you must have your Land plowed well and laid even and fine then you may sow it about a Gallon of seed will sow an Acre the which seed must be mingled as afore was directed about the Clover with something that you may sow it even and not upon heaps The even sowing of it is very difficult it grows up exceedingly to great Leaves but the benefit is made out of the seed especially You may sow it either upon the Lay Turfe or Arable and both may do well but your Arable must be very rich and fat having made your Ground fine and fit to sow it The time to cut it is when half the seed begins to look brown you must reap it as you do Wheat and lay it upon little Yelms two or three handfuls together till it be dry and that very dry too about a fortnight will dry it it must not be turned or touched if it be possible for fear of shedding the seed that being the chief profit of it It must be gathered in sheets or rather a great Ship sail Cloth as big as four or six sheets and so carried into the Barn erected on purpose or that place on purpose designed to thrash it that day you may have sixteen or eighteen men at a Floor four men will thrash abundance in a day I have heard that four men have thrashed thirty Coume in a day The seed is usually worth 16 s. a Coume that is four shillings a Bushel sometimes more and sometimes less It will if exceeding good bear ten Coume upon one
Acre and raise a good advance upon your Lands It is a Commodity will not want of Sale the greater the Parcel is the better price you will have It is used to make the Rape-Oyl as we call it The Turnep-seed will grow amongst it and it will make good Oyl also you may sell a thousand pounds worth together to one Chapman It is best to be planted by the Water or near it It cannot be too rank the Eadish and Stubble will exceedingly nourish Sheep in Winter It hath another excellent property it will fit the Land so for corning for Wheat it may produce a Crop as good or better then it self and for Barley after it The charge of the whole Crop I conceive may come to betwixt 20 or 30 s. an Acre and a good Crop may be worth 5 6 7 or 8 l. an Acre the least is a very good Improvement because it will do excellently well if well ordered and a kind season upon the Land the very first year after recovery when it will do nothing else if it can be but plowed when other things as Corn and Grain may be hazarded Of Weld or Would as some call it or more properly Dyers-Weed IT is a rich Dyers Commodity it beareth a long narrow greenish yellow Flower which runs to a small Seed far smaller then a Mustard seed very thick set with seed Pliny calls it Lutea but Virgil calls it Lutum and in our English Weld Would or Dyers-Weed It flourisheth in June and July In many places it groweth of it self in and about Villages and Towns and is of a very great use and considering the easie charge of the raising of it and the hardness of the Land upon which it grows is of incomparable advantage For first it will grow upon very indifferent Land not worth above ten Groats or half a Crown per Acre yea as some affirm the veriest hilly barren chalky light Land not worth twelve pence per Acre will carry it and bear it to very good purpose but unto so barren Lands I will not give encouragement unless where there is little or none better but in any indifferent Land so it be of a very dry warm nature it will do very well And secondly it will cost but a little the managing it requires no tillage at all no harrowing it being to be sowed where you sow your Barley or Oats upon that Husbandry without any other addition unless you draw a Bush over it or a Roul either of which is sufficient to cover it after you have sowed it The difficult piece in the managing hereof is the very sowing of it that is that it may be sowed even for the seed being so very small will require both skill and an even hand to scatter it Some sow it by taking it with one finger and the thumb others with the two fore-fingers but neither of these do I affect as the best way because they cannot spread so well as they may with their whole hand I therefore prescribe a mixture with Ashes Lime fine Earth or some such thing as will best suit with the weight of the seed for could you find out that which agreed both in weight and bigness then out of all question none like to that to sow it withal A Gallon of this seed will sow an Acre which had need to every quart of seed to have two Gallons of some of the aforesaid It must be often stirred together lest that the seed sink to the bottom and sow that part thicker then the other and then cast it out at Arms-end at as good an even a compass as you possibly can This seed thus sowed may grow up amongst the Corn and yet be no prejudice because it groweth not fast the first Summer but after the Corn is cut it must be preserved And the next Summer you shall receive through Gods Blessing a comfortable Crop you must be exceedingly curious in the ripening of it if you let it grow too long your seed will fall out if not long enough your seed will not be perfect nor your stalk neither and therefore observe both the turning of the seed and the ripening of the stalk for I cannot tell you which of either will admit of a dispensation and as soon as ever you perceive it to grow up to perfect ripeness you must down with it that is pull it as you do your Flax up by the Roots and bind it in little handfuls and set it up to dry in little filches or stitch until both seed and stalk be dry and then carry it away carefully as that seed be not lost lay it up dry and so keep it as you see cause for a good Market for it is to be sold for the Dyers use who sometimes will give a very good price but at all times sufficient profit and go far to buy it from forty shillings an Acre to twelve pounds an Acre some say more you may barn it up and keep it and the seed together until March and then you may get out the seed by lashing and whipping of it forth upon a Board or Door which reserve for seed the seed is sometimes ten shillings a Bushel and sometimes more or less as the Market rises or falls it coloureth the bright yellow and the Lemmon-colour The Stalk and Root are both useful and must go together to the Dyer The charges of sowing and all things till you come to pulling is not above one shilling whipping and banning may come to four shillings more the seed may be worth half a Crown so that all Charges and Rent of the Land may amount to less but I will say fifteen shillings then the Improvement will be fourfold if worth four pound ten shillings an Acre sixfold if worth six pound per Acre eightfold and much more as some affirm to sixteenfold Improvement It begins well and spreads and thrives very much in Kent in many parts thereof the best place to get the seed is in Kent clean down to Canterbury and Wye where you may see both the Land and the growth and discover the Mystery thereof It is sold by weight so much a hundred and so much a Tun weight Of Woad or Wade the Land best for it the Vsage of it and the Advantages thereby WOad is also a great Commodity it lays the foundation for the solidity of many Colours more A Woaded colour is free from staining excellent for holding its colour nay sad-holding colour must be woaded It hath been one of the greatest Inrichments to the Masters thereof until our late Wars of any Fruit the Land did bear It is called Glastum or Garden-Woad by the Italians called Guedo in Spanish and in French Pastel in Dutch Wert and in English Woad or Wade It hath flat long Leaves like Reben Rubrum the stalk is small and tender the Leaves are of a blewish green colour The seed is like an Ash-key or seed but not so long little blackish Tongues The Root
is white and simple It is a very choice seed to grow and thrive well it beareth a yellow Flower and requires very rich Land and very sound and warm so that very warm Earth either a little gravelly or else sandish will do exceeding well but the purer warmer solid Earth is best and exceeding rich Land and though it should be mixed with a little Clay it will do well but it must be very warm There is not much Land fit for this design in many Countries especially your hardest Wood-land parts you have in many of your great deep rich Pasture many Hills and Hills-sides good woad-Woad-Land when the bottom-ground will do no service but your chiefest is your home Corse or lesser Ground lying near and bordering about the Towns Your best and naturallest Parts in England for Woad are some Parts of Worcester-shire Warwick-shire Southward Oxford-shire Glocester-shire Northampton-shire Leicester-shire some Parts of Rutland Redford-shire and Buckingham-shire and some other places here and there All these Parts have some admirable Woad-land in them The Land must be sound and at above twenty shillings an Acre to graze in at least or else it will not be worth the woading And to plow and sow Woad it may be worth as much more as to graze yea sometimes more if it be extraordinary rich Soil and Trading good And whereas some write that it undoeth the Land I answer as I judge in my own Breast that in regard it is so often cut and groweth so thick and is so often weeding that it must needs do so as I believe all Corn doth draw out some of the Spirit thereof but no more then other Grain if it could be so oft cut to grow again Thus much I can say of it that it prepares the Land exceedingly for Corn and doth abate of the strength and super-richness or rankness therof which Corn would not well endure for I am ready to maintain that the richest Land is not best for Corn For though the one may overburden and be so rank yet the other may bear as much to the Strike and for goodness your middle-land beareth the Bell away for Corn in my opinion To acquaint you with the use of Woad I must do these three things 1. Shew you how the Land must be prepared and sowed 2. Shew you how it must be ordered when that the leaf must be cut and how ordered after the cutting of it 3. And lastly how it must be tempered and seasoned to make the best Woad for use and profit But before I proceed I must inform you that this Commodity is not to be played withal as you may do with Liquorish and Saffron c. to make Experiments of a little parcel but a man must of necessity set forth and forward so much stock and land and seed as may keep one Mill or two at work to make it into perfect Woad It is the doing of a great quantity and carrying on a great stock that makes this work and will carry it on to profit and credit Some have as much under hand as will work six or eight Mills The charge of it is exceeding great in the management of it and as well it payeth for all charges as any Commodity I know of The Ground must be of old Land as aforesaid and a tender Turse and must be exceeding choicely plowed if very hilly they must be cast and well cast that you cast forth lye not high to raise the Furrow they usually plow outward or cast all their Lands at the first plowing and having broke the Ground with a Harrow then they sow it and sow about four Bushels or Strikes of an Acre which done then cover it and harrow it very well and fine and pick out the Clots Turfes and Stones and lay it on the hollow places of the Ridge in heaps as is the usual custom But now I should rather chuse to take a little Cart with one Horse and as the Boys and Children pick them up cast them into the Cart and carry them into some flank and hollow place and lay them down to rot or else mend some barren place because they lose a good considerable part of Land and so of Wood too which otherwise might be as good as the rest and is now by reason of the times not worth so much The Land that is lost is very considerable in regard it is so good of it self and the stock so good and rich that is sowed upon it that all even Ground had need be regained that possibly may be 2. I am to shew you how it is to be husbanded and when the Leaf must be cut and how used and how oft c. After the Land is sowed and that it begins to come up as soon as any Weed appears it must be weeded yea it may be twice weeded or more if it requires before it be ready to cut but if it be special good and come thick and cover the Ground well it will ask the less weeding to them that are exercised in this same Service and have their Work and Work-folks at command they will have it weeded for eight pence an Acre and sometimes less as soon as the Leaf is come to its full growth which will be sometimes sooner sometimes later as the year is dryer or moister more fruitful or less which when you perceive at the full ripeness set to cutting of it off As soon as ever it is cut your Mills being prepared and great broad Fleaks so many as may receive the Crop prepared and planted upon Galleries or Stories made with Poles Fir Alder or other Wood your Mill is usually known a large Wheel both in height and bredth and weight doth best it is a double Wheel and the Tooth or Ribs that cut the Wood are placed from one side of the Wheel to the other very thick wrought sharp and keen at the edge and as soon as the Woad is cut and comes out of the field it is to be put into the Mill and ground one Kilne full after another as fast as may be the juyce of the Leaf must be preserved in it and not lost by any means and when it is ground it is to be made in balls round about the bigness of a Ball without any composition at all and then presently laid one by one upon the Fleaks to dry and as soon as dried which will be sooner or later as the season is they are to be taken down and laid together â—and more put in their places But because all the circumstances will be too tedious to discourse and the work is no common work and very many not well versed therein I will rather advise you to get a Workman from the Woad-works which can carry it on artifically rather then to venture the experimenting of so great Work upon Words and Rules Good Woad may yield in a plentiful year five or possibly six Crops yea ordinarily four and yet sometimes but three but the
perfection and others that have sold it by whole Sale a parcel together at the worst advantage to a hundred and sixty pounds an Acre and some have out of small Plots of Gardens made more then I have or will here affirm and however this being a fundamental Fruit and such a one as that the plenty thereof will not much abate the Market or dying Trade being supplyed herewith from beyond the Seas that the Erection of such a Plantation as may bring it forth wrought up and fitted to the Dyers use and so to be a supply to our selves within our selves It would be a good design to the Nation as it imploys so many hands to bring it to perfection It turns Land to as great an advantage as any Seed or Root that is capable to receive it and needs no more fear want of Markets for the venting of it than we need for Wool that Staple-Commodity of the Nation I shall proceed to the Description of it There is but one kind of Madder which is manured and set for use but there are many things like thereto as Goose-grass soft Cliver Ladies-Bedshaw Woodroof and Crosswort all which are like to Madder-leaves and are thought to be wild kinds thereof It hath long stalks or trailing branches dispersed upon the ground rough and full of joynts and every joynt set with green and rough Leaves in manner of a Star the flowers grow at the top of the branches of a faint yellow colour after which comes the seed round and green the Root creepeth far abroad within the upper Crust of the Earth intangling one Root into another and when it is green and fresh the Root is of a reddish colour it is small and tender but gathers and runs into the ground just like an Ivy along a House or Tree It is a Commodity of much value Patentees strove hard for it and Patents were gained about it in the late Kings days For the making out of a good Plantation I must observe these three things 1. Shew you what it comes of how to plant it and preserve it 2. How to get it and use it to bring it to saleable Madder 3. The benefit and advantage of it will be National and Personal Although it bear a seed yet that seed comes not to perfection it is therefore to be planted from the Sets that are to be got from the Madder it self and they are to be bought in many Gardens in London who keep up that Plantation for the advantage of selling their Sets and Roots Physically to the Apothecaries only all the skill is to distinguish of the goodness thereof And for the discovery thereof first know the season of getting or rather drawing them which is in March and April yea as soon as they are sprung forth of the ground two or three inches long then you must be careful to get Sets rooted every Set having some suckers or spinies of Root going out of them they must be slipped from the main Root and these Sets as soon as ever took up put into some Basket with a little Mould and posted to the place where they are to be set the sooner the better and then your Ground being very rich it cannot be too rich for this Commodity however it must be of a warm and a very deep Soil and digged two or three Spades graft depth and two shovellings also raked and laid even and level and then by straight Lines trod out into long Beds about one foot broad from one end of your Work unto the other and set about one foot asunder every way and if it be a dry Spring they must be kept with watering until they recover their fading wane condition You may begin to dig your Ground in the beginning and along all Winter till the very day of setting and then you must keep it with weed and hoing until it have got the mastership of the Weeds and then it being a Weed it self will destroy all others One Rod of Ground is worth seven pence a Rod digging or if very dry strong Ground eight pence but six pence the best You may sow some early Sallet-herbs as Radish or Onions of such things as will be ripe betimes among it The first year good weeding is the best preservative unto it and in your setting them by a little Line one goeth before and layeth every Set in his place and another comes and with a broad Dibble made for the purpose thrusts down a deep and open hole and puts in the Set and for the nourishing of it in case any dye you must plant new in the room of it for the time of the growing of it until that it come to perfection is three years The first year you may take off some few Sets here and there but that is somewhat dangerous for that year it must be kept with hoing a while also then the second year you may take up Sets as fast as you will and almost as many as you will leaving but as you do in the cropping of an Oak the bough for the drawing up of the sap out of the Root being so thick and strong in the ground that nothing will almost decay it If then you can get it for the use of the Drugsters and the Apothecaries and the Sets to plant again in the taking up of every Root there will be one runner which hath little buds on it which may be divided and cut into a fingers length each planted with one bud out of the ground set upright which makes very excellent good Sets one Runner will make many Sets but these Sets cannot be got up until the Madder be taken away And having thus preserved it until it come to a good Crop having curiously dryed it as you do your Hops to a just and perfect gage of drought There is a Mystery that is so pare off the husks that it may if it be possible as the Wheat is ground be flaked or flayed that it may go all one way which sort they call the Mull-Madder is little worth not above nine or ten shillings a hundred and then you must take out the second sort called the number O which is the middle Rind and is not worth so much as the third sort called the Crop-Madder by one sixth part and this Crop-Madder is the very heart and pith of it inclining to yellow this is lesser in quantity but little better in quality by far Sometimes the best Madder is worth 8 or 9 l. a hundred and the number O is worth 6 l. 6 s. 8 d. sometimes it is not worth above 4 or 5 l. a hundred Some Dyers use of this Commodity above an hundred pound a week a man Now as it is planted in Gardens unspeakable advantages are made thereby and should it hold a proportion when it comes to be made up and compleated to the Dyers it would prove the richest Commodity that I know sowed in England THE YOUNG GENTLEMANS Heroick Exercise OR THE Perfection of
the purpose cast up a high Ditch and well quick-set it that so it may grow up with your Trees to defend them as they grow up if not quick-setted before Now having found out your Ground and well fenced it you must consider what kind of Ground it is whether black Mould Clay Gravel sandy or mamsie Ground according to the Nature of the Ground you must get such Fruits as may prosper therein accordingly to the several Soils which five sorts many times happen in an Acre of Ground I shall begin with the Clay-ground all sorts of Winter-Apples do abundantly delight in a Clay-Ground being very well soiled and made rich and I have observed that your Winter-Apples as Pepins Pearmains Gilliflowers Cunnings and Harvey-Apples which if you have them of the best bearing sort growing upon a Clay-Ground well chalked have been larger firmer and have endured two or three months longer then that same sort of Apples growing upon a Gravel or sandy Ground Your next Ground is your mamsie or chalky Ground which brings forth a very lovely sweet Apple but not so big as the other yet far sweeter and will keep full as long being fit for all sorts of Winter-Apples and Summer-Pears and Winter-Pears Your next Ground is your sandy Ground which is only fitting for Summer-fruit and Cherries which to make them thrive you must well chalk and dung at least a yard round from the bodies of the Trees and a foot deeper then the Tree stands Those Apples that love such a kind of Ground are your Lerding French Pepin Higthnig Robbers and all other Summer-Apples and Pears and your Duke-Cherries and several others which will not last beyond Christmas yet are true bearers and excellent Your next is your gravelly Ground which will bear excellent Fruit being well ordered until the Trees have taken good root You must dig the Ground above a yard round from the body of the Tree and dung it very well that so the Tree may gain good strength and bigness of root before it come to touch the Gravel that so meeting with the Gravel it may not stand at a stay when it comes to root in the Gravel and then there is no doubt but it will answer your expectation Your next sort is your black Mould which is the best and will bear all sorts of Apples Pears Plums and Cherries with little help I do not mean your black sort of heathy Mould which hath neither heart nor goodness but to be cut up in Summer and well dryed will make good fires in Winter Now having found out your Piece of Ground and ordered according to directions measure your Ground and so contrive to set the Row of Trees full South at what distance you think most convenient according as you do you intend the Trees shall be suffered to grow in bigness after your first Row is planted which must be set at such a distance that you may plant one between every four Trees which will make a fifth Now having made you understand the charge and deceit of your Nursery-trees how they pine away coming out of so warm a place and so rich a Soil into such a barren place for make your Orchard as rich as you can it is barren Ground to your Nurseries for otherwise how could a man maintain his Wife and Children out of two or three Acres of Ground if it were not extraordinary good Therefore when your Ground is provided and made fit imploy your Labourers or Servants to gather you so many dozens of Crab-stocks Pear-stocks or Cherry-stocks about three foot long or thereabouts according as it best pleases the Planter to have them out See your Crab-stock and the rest be in good proof and not old decayed stock but green and as clear without knots as you can let them not exceed in bigness above three inches about Now having considered your Piece of Ground what sort of Land it is set it according to directions having so done bush up every Tree and lay some muckle Dung to every one about half a yard round do not cover your Tree too deep in Mould three inches above the Root is enough for if you cover them too deep a good shower of Rain will not reach the Root This muckle Dung keeps the Roots moist and warm and kills all manner of Weeds that would grow about the body of the Tree After they have stood one year open the Bushes and prune all the Shoots off that stand a foot below the top leave not above three or four at most and then you may put in Sheep Calves or Beasts But if it be well manured you may plant Garden-Beans or Pease according as you find the Ground inclined If your Orchard lye sloping as is best then make a Trench to lead to every Tree you need not have many great Trenches but two or three and the rest small and so you may water your whole Orchard for the first year or two without any trouble When the Trenches are made you ought to let your Crab-stock Pear of Cherry stand three years at the least before you graft and two before you bud for you will find they will bring forward your Graff more in one year then in two You may graff according as you see the Stock to prosper be sure to have your Graffs of the best sort of Fruit-Trees and of good Bearers for some sorts bear fair Apples but very few When your Trees are grassed according to your mind of all sorts of choice fruits then at the Fall of the Leaf view all your Trees and stop up the cleft where the Graft was put in some Pitch to keep the Rain out and then it will be closed soon after and the Tree grow the firmer When your Grafts are two years shoot at farthest prune them all and not suffer any to grow cross one another especially in the middle of the Tree If you find some to shoot up straight upright hang a little stone at the end of the boughs but one Spring and you will make them grow how you please Those that grow straight upright are seldom good Bearers if they be suffered to grow therefore you may remedy it at the first But when they are grown too old they will not be half so plyable When they begin to bear do not suffer them to bear above three or four Apples or Pears but pull them off for if you suffer them to bear too much at first it will put a stop to the Trees growth This I think is direction enough for any reasonable man to order his affairs FINIS An Advertisement of Books worth Buying sold at the Printing-press in Broad-street London which was formerly in Cornbil by Ben Billingsley and Obadiah Blagrave Nich. Culpeper Physitian and Astrologer his Last Legacy left unto his Wife being the choicest of his Secrets in Physick and Chirurgery newly reprinted with an Addition of above 200 choice Receipts lately found out not extant in any of his Works before