because the hot and biting nature thereof hurt their naked and tender bodies therefore as the Rain or other Moisture weakens the Ashes or Lime renew it lest it prove useless Rarely do these offend in the Fields Orchards or Gardens yet Gnats and Flies are they very troublesome Guests in the House where it stands near any Fens Waters or suchlike places tending much to the Generation of Insects To keep the Windows of your Chambers close in the Summer-time especially towards the Evening is a good prevention To burn Straw and suchlike up and down in the Chamber in the Evening before you go to Bed will destroy them for either they will fly to the Flame and be consumed or else the Smoak will choak them Ashen-leaves hanged up in the Room will attract them unto it that you will be the less troubled with them The Balls of Horse-dung laid in the Room will do the same if they are new These usually prove very injurious to some sorts of Fruits Wasps and Hornets to Bees c. and are several ways destroyed First By way of prevention that is in the Spring or Summer before they have encreased to destroy the old ones for from a few do they encrease to a multitude Or you may smoak or stifle them if they are in any hollow Tree or scald them if in Thatch of an House or Barn c. or in the ground you may either scald or burn them or stamp in the Earth on them and bury them To destroy such as come to your Fruit Bees c. set by them Sider Verjuice sowre Drink or Grounds in a short-necked Vial open wherein you may catch many Also you may lay for them Sweet Apples Pears Beasts Liver or other Flesh or any thing that they love in several places upon which you shall have sometimes as many as will cover the Bait which you may kill at once We term those Caterpillars that destroy the leaves of our Caterpillars Trees in the Summer devour Cabbages and other Garden-tillage and are generally the effects of great Droughts To prevent their numerous encrease on Trees gather them off in the Winter taking away the Puckets which cleave about the branches and burning them In the Summer whilest they are yet young when either through the coldness of the night or some humidity they are assembled together on heaps you may take them and destroy them These in some years prove injurious to Fruits by the greatness Earwigs of their numbers feeding on and devouring them And are destroyed by placing Hoofs or Horns of Beasts amongst your Trees and Wall-fruit into which they will resort Early in the morning you must take them gently but speedily off and shake them into a Vessel of scalding water By reason of great Drought many sorts of Trees and Plants Lice are subject to Lice and seeing that they are caused by Heat and Drought as is evident in the Sweet-bryar and Gooseberry that are only Lowsie in dry times or in very hot and dry places therefore frequent washing them by dashing water on them may prove the best remedy Ants or Pismires are injurious to a Garden and also to Pasture-lands Ants. as well by feeding on Fruits as by casting up Hills c. To keep them from your Trees incompass the Stem four fingers breadth with a Circle or Rowl of Wooll newly plucked from a Sheeps Belly Or anoynt the Stem with Tar. Also you may make Boxes of Cards or Pastboard pierced full of holes with a Bodkin into which Boxes put the Powder of Arsenick mingled with a little Honey hang these Boxes on the Tree and they will certainly destroy them Make not the holes so large that a Bee may not enter lest it destroy them Also you may hang a Glass-bottle in the Tree with a little Honey in it or moistned with any sweet Liquor and it will attract the Ants which you may stop and wash out with hot water then prepare it as before Watering often of Allies or green Walks will drive away or destroy the Ants that annoy them Ant-hills prove a very great injury to Meadows and Pasture-lands To destroy Ant-hills not only by the wasting of so much Land as they cover but by hindering the Sythe and yielding a poor hungry food and pernicious to Cattle And may be thus easily destroyed Pare the Turf off beginning at the top and cutting it down into four or five parts and lay it open then cut out the Core below the surface so deep that when you lay down the Turfs in their places as they were taken up the place may be lower than the other ground to the end that water may stand in it to prevent the Ant from returning which otherwise she will assuredly do then spread the Earth you take out thinly abroad Also the proper season for this is in the Winter and if the places be left open for a certain time the Rain and Frost upon it will help to destroy the remaining Ants but be sure to cover them up time enough that the Rains may settle the Turfs before the Spring The greatest injury these Vermine do us is in biting Children Snakes and Adders Cattle c. They affect Milk above any thing and as old Authors say abominate the Ash there may you use the one by placing of it hot in any place where they frequent to attract them where you may destroy them and the other by laying Ashen-sticks in places where you would not have them come But this of the Ash is not to be credited But the most proper remedy against these Vermine is to keep Peacocks which prey upon them Their Sting or Bite is most easily cured if you timely apply To cure the Stinging of Adders or Biting of Snakes a hot Iron to it hodling it so near as you are able to abide it And it is by some Ingenious Persons confidently affirmed that it will attract the Venom totally from the Wound Travellers relate that in the Canaries the Natives cure the biting of a very Venomous Creature that Iurks amongst the Grapes and usually bites them by the Fingers by a streight Ligature below the Wound and holding the Finger bitten upright for some time out of which the Venom ascends it being of a Fiery Nature naturally tending upwards and may therefore be attracted by Fire it 's like SECT VI. Of some certain Diseases in Animals and Vegetables There are several Epidemical and destructive Diseases to Of Beasts and Fowl Cattle Fowl c. which sweep away a great part of the Husbandmans Stock before it ceaseth or he know how to prevent it which is esteemed a great deficiency that those ways that some have discovered and found effectual to prevent and also to cure such Diseases are not made publick the general Stock of the Kingdom may as well be preserved as some few Cattle in such general Distempers it being not our intent in this Book to
fails than in the Champion Country wet Summers being not so frequent as dry the Vales and Enclosures also being by far the greater Support of our English Granary than the Open Champion and the Hills which yields us 't is true the greater part of our Drink-corn delighting in the more hungry Soil and proves a good Supply in a wet Summer for the other CHAP. III. Of Meadow and Pasture Lands and the several ways of their Improvements either by watring or drowning or by sowing or propagating several sorts of extraordinary Grasses or Hays c. MEadow and Pasture Lands are of so considerable use and advantage to the Husbandman that they are by some preferred above Arable in respect of the advantage they bring annually into his Coffers with so little Toil Expence and Hazard far exceeding in value the Corn Lands and of principal use for the Encrease and Maintenance of his Gattle his better food and the chiefest strength he hath for the Tilling and Improving his other Lands Meadow and Pasture Lands are generally of two sorts Wet or Dry the Wet Meadows are such that the Water overflows or drowns at some times of the year under which term we shall comprehend all such Meadows or other Lands that are artificially watred or over-flown or that are under that capacity of Improvement The Dry Meadows or Pastures are such that are not over-flown or watered by any River or Stream under which we shall comprehend all such Inclosures or Severals that lie warm and in a fertile Soil yielding an annual burthen of Hay or Grass or that are capable of Improvement by sowing or propagating of new Grasses Hays c. or other ways of Improvement SECT I. Of the Watring of Meadows Of Wet Meadows or Land under that capacity of being over-flown or watred there are several sorts First Such Meadows that lie generally flat on the Banks of great Rivers and are subject to the over-flowing of such Rivers in times of Land-floods only Secondly Such Meadows that lie near to lesser River or Streams and are capable of being drowned or watered by diverting such River or some part thereof out of its natural Current over the same Thirdly Such Meadows or Lands that lie above the level of the Water and yet are capable of Improvement by raising the Water by some artificial ways or means over them All which sort of Meadows or Lands under those capacities are very much improved by the Water over-flowing them as every Country and place can sufficiently evidence and testifie Humida Majores herbas alit Virgil. Neither is there scarcely any Kingdom or Country in the World where this is not esteemed an excellent Improvement How could Egypt subsist unless Nilus did annually Fertilize its Banks by its Inundation Several other Potent and wealthy Countries there are in those African and Asian Territories whose richest and most Fertile Lands are maintained in their Fertility by the Sediment of the over-flowing Waters Huc summis liquuntur rupibus Amnes Virgil. Felicemque trahunt limum But these are Natural yet are not some Countries without their Artificial ways of advancing this ponderous Element to a very considerable Improvement as Persia Italy c. abound with most ingenious ways for the raising of the water as well for their Meadows as other necessary uses On the Banks and Borders of our great Rivers and Currents are Of Meadows watred by Floods the most and richest Meadows consisting generally of a very good fat Soil as it were composed of the very Sediment of the Water overflowing the same after great and hasty Rains such Meadows are capable of very little Improvement especially those that border on the greater Rivers as Thames Severn Trent Ouse c. uncapable of obstruction at the pleasure of the Husbandman Yet where such Meadows lying on the borders of great Rivers are of a dry and hungry Soil and not frequently overflowed by Land-floods may Artificial Works be made use of for the raising the water over the same to a very considerable advantage whereof more hereafter in this Chapter Other Meadows there are and those the most general in England Of Meadows watered by diversion of Rivers c. that border on the lesser Rivers Streams c. and in many places are overflown or drowned by diverting the Water out of its natural and usual Current over them This is of late become one of the most universal and advantageous Improvements in England within these few years and yet not comparable to what it might be advanced unto in case these several Obstructions were removed that impede this most noble and profitable Improvement First The several Interests that are in Lands bordering on Rivers Hinderances to drowning hinder very much this Improvement because the Water cannot be brought over several quantities of Land under this capacity but through the Lands of ignorant and cross Neighbours who will not consent thereunto although for their own advantage also under unreasonable terms and some will not at all others are not by the Law capacitated for such consent as we noted before concerning Enclosures Secondly That great and pernicious impediment to this Improvement Mills standing on so many fruitful Streams prohibiting the Laborious and Ingenious Husbandman to receive the benefit and advantage of such Streams and Rivers carrying in their bowels so much Wealth into the Ocean when the Mills themselves yield not a tenth of the profit to the Owners that they hinder to their Neighbours and their work may as well be performed by the Wind as by the Water or at least the Water improved to a better advantage by facilitating the Motion of the Mill whereof more hereafter Thirdly Another grand Impediment is the Ignorance of the Countrey-men who in many places are not capable of apprehending neither the Improvement nor the cause thereof But because some certain Neighbours of theirs had their Land overflown a long time and was little the better therefore will they not undergo that charge to so little purpose or because they are commonly possessed with a foolish opinion that the Water leaves all its fatness on the Ground it flows over and therefore will not advantage the next which is most untrue for I have seen Meadows successively drowned with the same Water to almost an equal Improvement for many miles together It is true the Water leaves its fatness it hath washed from the Hills and High-ways in the time of great Rains but we finde by daily experience that Meadows are fertilized by overflowing as well in frosty clear and dry weather as in rainy and that to a very considerable Improvement And also by the most clear and transparent Streams are improved ordinary Lands that they become most fertile Meadows Fourthly From a greedy and covetous Principle they suffer the Grass to stand so long on the watered Meadows that it is much discoloured and grown so hawmy and neither so toothsom nor wholesome as that on unwatered Meadows
or drowning of Land as you have fed it bare then is it best to overflow from Alhallontide throughout the Winter may you use this Husbandry until the Spring that the Grass begin to be large during April and the beginning of May in some places may you give the Grass a little water once a week and it will prove wonderfully especially in a dry Spring In Drowning observe that you let not the water rest too long on a place but let it dry in the intervals of times and it will prove the better nor let Cattle tread it whil'st it is wet In the Summer if you desire to water your Land let it be in mild or Cloudy weather or in the night-time that the water may be off in the heat of the day lest in scorch the Grass and you be frustrate of your expectation In many places you may have the opportunity to command a 5 Manner of watring of Land by small streams or Engines small Spring or Stream where you cannot a larger or may obtain water by the Engines before-mentioned which may not be sufficient to overflow your Land in that manner nor so much to your content as the greater Currents may therefore you must make your Carriages small according to your water and let there be several stops in them that you may water the one part at one time and another part at another also in such dry and shelving Lands where usually such small Springs are and water by such artificial ways advanced a small drilling water so that it be constant worketh a wonderful Improvement In some places issue Springs whose waters are sterile and injurious 6 Barren Springs not useful to the Husbandman as are usually such that flow from Coal-mines or any Sulphureous or Vitrioline Minerals being of so harsh and brackish a substance that they become destructive to Vegetables Not but that those Minerals and also those waters contain much of that matter which is the cause and of the principles of Vegetation though not duly applied nor equally proportionated as much Urine Salt c. kills Vegetables yet duly fermented and artificially applied nothing more fertile Such Springs that you suspect prove them first before you go too far those that are bad are usually reddish in colour and leave a red sediment and shine as it runs and is not fertile until it hath run far and encreased it self from other Springs and gained more fertility in its passage as we usually observe greater Rivers though reddish in colour yet make good Meadow SECT III. Of dry Meadow or Pasture Every place is almost furnished with dry Meadows which are convetible sometimes into Meadows and sometimes into Pastures and such places much more where Waters Springs and Rivolets are scarce or the Rivers very great or the Country hilly that water cannot so well be commanded over such Lands as in other places they may which dry Meadows and Pastures are capable of Improvement by several ways And principally by Enclosure for where shall we finde better Improved by Enclosure dry Meadows and richer Pastures than in several hilly places of Somersetshire among the small Enclosures which not only preserveth the young Grass from the exsiccating Spring-winds but shadoweth it also in some measure from the Summer-scorching Sun-beams as before we noted in the Chapter of Enclosure Such Meadows or Pastures well planted with either Timber or Fruit-trees in the Hedge-rows or other convenient places and enclosed in small parcels will furnish you with good Hay and good Pasture when your Neighbour whose Lands are naked goes without it for dry Springs or Summers more usually happen than wet besides the shadow for your Cattle and many other advantages as before we observed In several places where the ground is moist cold clay spewy Burning of Rushy and Mossie ground rushy or mossie or subject to such inconveniencies that the Pasture or Hay is short sower and not proveable it is very good Husbandry to pare off the turf about July or August and burn the same after the manner as is hereafter described when we come to treat of burning of Land and then plough it up immediately or in the Spring following and sowe the same with Hay-dust or with Corn and Hay-dust together for by this means will that acid Juice that lay on the surface of the Earth which was of a sterile nature and hindred the growth of the Vegetables be evaporated away and also the Grass which had a long time degenerated by standing in so poor a Soil be totally destroyed and the Land made fertile and capable to receive a better species brought in the Seed from other fertile Meadows It is too commonly observed that many excellent Meadows or Stubbing up of shrubs c. Pasture-land are so plentifully stored with Shrubs small Hillocks Ant-hills or such like that a good part thereof is wholly lost and so much thereof as is mown is but in patches here and there and that that remains not so beneficial as if it were either mown or sed together Now the best way or Method of stubbing up such thorny Shrubs or Broom or Goss or any such annoying Shrubs which proves both laborious and costly any other way than this is ingeniously delivered by Gabriel Platt the Instrument Discovery of hidden Treasures by him discovered is like a three-grained dung-fork only but much greater and stronger according to the bigness of the Shrubs c. the stale thereof like a large and strong Leaver which Instrument being set half a foot or such reasonable distance from the Root of the Shrub c. then with a Hedging-beetle drive it in a good depth then elevate the Stale and lay some weight or fulciment under it and with a Rope fastened to the upper end thereof pull it down which will wrench up the whole bush by the Roots Also Ant-hills prove a very great annoyance to Pasture and Meadow-lands which may be destroyed by dividing the Turf on the top and laying of it open several ways then take out the core and spread over the other Land and lay the Turf down neatly in its place again a little hollowing in and lower than the surface of the Earth and at the beginning of the Winter the Water standing therein will destroy the remainder of the Ants and prevent their return and settle the Turf by the Spring that by this means may a very great Improvement be made of much Meadow or Pasture-land now a great part thereof Bushes and Ant-hills These Meadows and Pasture-lands where the water overfloweth Dunging or Soyling of Meadows and Pastures not at any time are the only places where you may lay your dung or other Manure to the best advantage it being not capable of being improved by water nor the Soil laid thereon subject to be carried away or at least the better part thereof extracted by the water either casually by Floods or any other way overflowing the same The best
and is of most singular use in the Water where it lies always wet and also where it may always dry it is also a timber of great use for its toughness and therefore used by Wheel-wrights Mill-wrights c. It is also good to make Dressers and Planks to chop on because it will not break away in chips like other Timber The Elm is good Fewel and makes very good Charcoal the Branches and Leaves of this Tree are good food for Cattle in the Winter where other fodder is dear they will eat them before Oats The Elm is also a most pleasant Tree to Plant in Avenues or Walks it growing so streight and upright and mounts to the greatest height of any other Tree in so short a space It will grow the nearest of any other together being very sociable and affecting to grow in company and spreads its Branches but little to the offence of Corn or Pasture-grounds to both which and the Cattle it affords a benign Shade Defence and agreeable Ornament This Tree is also very flexible and to be reduced into what form or shape you please for shade and delight it also springs earlier than most other Forrest-trees This Tree commonly grows to a great stature delights most in The Beech. warm Land it grows plentifully in Gravelly Stony and sandy Land great Beechen-woods I have seen on the driest barren sandy Lands they delight on the sides and tops of high Hills and chalky Mountains they will strangely insinuate their Roots into the bowels of those seemingly impenetrable places This Tree is altogether a stranger to most Counties in England And it is probable that there might be none here when the Great Caesar denied that he found any For many of those great Woods of Beeches may have sprung up after the felling of Oak as it hath been observed of late years that where Oak hath been felled the Beech hath succeeded and that not only here and there a Tree but in many Acres and also where no Beech hath been near unto the place Sponte sua veniunt Some places naturally produce them If the Species of Trees may be wholly extinct as is reported of the Chesnut at least from a spontaneous growth why may not aswel a new Species naturally succeed As the Elm which is reported to be no antient product of our English Soil This is raised from the Mast as the Oak and from young Plants Propagation drawn by the Quickset-gatherers and planted as the Oak it grows but slow whilest it is young but when the Beech is gotten a little out of the way no Tree thrives better nor sooner attains to a large bulk than this Tree and although it be crooked knotty and ill-shapen whilest it is young yet will it overcome all those and prove a streight and compleat Tree It s use is principally for the Turner Joyner Upholsterer and Use such-like Mechanick Occupations the Wood being of a clean white and fine Grain and not apt to rend or slit it is sometimes used in building It is also very good Fewel burning clear and light and makes good Charcoal though not long-lasting the Mast feeds Swine Deer Pheasants c. The Wood of this Tree will be cut by an Instrument made for that purpose into thin and broad Leaves wherewith they make Band-boxes Hat-cases c. being covered with Paper this they now do in London though formerly sent into other Countries for that purpose That it is a Tree of great use in Mechanicks witness the vast quantities that are in Hampshire and some adjacent places converted into Turners-ware and weekly sent to London Many of the Instruments used aboard-ship are made of this Timber This Tree planted in Avenues or Walks yield a most delectable and agreeable shadow all the Summer few or none exceeding it for colour and shade The Leaves also gathered about the Fall and somewhat before they are much frost-bitten afford the best and easiest Mattresses in the world to lay under our Quilts instead of Straw and continue sweet for seven or eight years The Ash is a gallant quick-thriving Wood it delights in the The Ash best Land and will prove well in almost any sort of Land whatsoever and will also grow in the hard barren mountanous Land but not so well for Timber as in Coppice-woods Pollards shrowded or lopped refuse no place The best Ash grows in the best Land yet is it not convenient to plant them near Plough-lands for the Roots hinder the Coulter and exhaust the fertility of the Soil the dripping also is injurious to Corn. There is no Tree delights more nor is more beneficial in the Chalk or White Land than the Ash for on those white Hills in Wiltshire Hampshire c. that Tree thrives exceeding well and being sown in the Keys there would in time prove a very considerable advantage aswel to the private as publike It is propagated from the Seed or Keys which being gathered Propagation in October or after when they begin to fall and sown in your Nursery the next Spring come twelvemonth they will appear and will afterwards thrive and prosper very well they are to be removed whilest they are small because of their speedy deep rooting Take not off the tops of the small young Ash because it is a sappy plant but of the greater Sets it's best to cut them near the ground and then will they send forth new shoots which will soon supply the defect of the other which may also be done in all young Ash after they are well settled and it will cause to shoot large and thriving shoots I have seen the experience of it in such plants that stood several years and every year decayed till cut off at the roots and then they did wonderfully thrive You may also have Plants drawn by those that draw Quick-sets c. When you intend to raise this Tree on hills or in open grounds the best way is to sowe the Seeds in the place before or after the Plough if in Copses where the Plough cannot pass then to prick them in amongst the Rides of Hasel or other stuff which will defend this Plant from the bite of Cattle so that amongst the infinite numbers that thus you may cause to be interred in a few years you may observe many fair Trees to steal up amongst the Underwood which you may preserve The use of the Ash is almost universal good for Building or Use any other use where it may lie dry serves the occasions of the Carpenter Plow-right Wheel-wright Cart-wright Cooper Turner c. For Garden-uses also no Wood exceeds it as for Ladders Hop-poles Palisade-hedges and all manner of Utensils for the Gardiner or Husbandman It serves also at Sea for Oars Handspikes c. and is preferred before any other There is not any Wood so sweet for Cattle to brouse on as this Rangers and Keepers of Parks in hard Winters have the experience of it by brousing their Deer on
directions as you will hereafter finde Disperse the Poles among the hills before you begin to Pole laying of them between the hills Begin not to Pole until your Hops appear above the ground that you discern where the biggest Poles are required and so may you continue Poling till they are a Yard in height or more but stay not too long lest you hinder the growth of the Hop which will grow large unless it hath a Pole or such like to climb unto Set the Pole near to the hill and in depth according to the height of the Pole nature of the ground and obviousness to winds that the Pole may rather break than rise out of the ground by any fierce winds Let the Poles lean outward the one from the other that they may seem to stand equi-distant at the top to prevent Housling as they term it which they are subject unto if they grow too near the one from the other that is they will grow one amongst another and cause so great a shade that you will have more Hawm than Hops Also it is esteemed an excellent piece of Husbandry to set all the Poles inclining towards the South that the Sun may the better compass them This is most evident that a leaning or bending Pole bears more Hops than an upright Be sure to reserve a parcel of the worst Poles that you may have for your need in case when the Poles are laden a Pole may break or be over-burthened to support it for if they lie on the ground they soon perish With a Rammer you may ram the Earth at the out-side of the Pole for its further security against winds If after some time of growing you finde a Hop under or over-poled you may unwinde the Hop and place another Pole in its place having a Companion with you to hold the Hop whilest you pitch in the Pole or else you may place another Pole near it and bring the Hop from one Pole to the other The next work is after the Hops are gotten two or three foot Of tying of Hops to the Poles out of the ground to conduct them to such Poles as you think fit that are either nearest or have fewest Hops and winde them or place them to the Pole that they may winde with the course of the Sun and binde them gently thereto with some withered Rush or woollen Yarn two or three strings are enough to a Pole I have known more Hops on a Pole from one string than from four or five though there hath been more of Hawm Be cautious of breaking the tender Shoots which in the morning is most dangerous but when the warmth of the day hath toughned them may it much better be done You must be daily amongst the Hops during April and May especially guiding and directing them else will they be apt to break their own Necks by going amiss It will sufficiently requite your labour and care at Harvest It is convenient with a forked Wand to direct the Hops to the Poles that are otherwise out of reach or to have a stool to stand on or a small Ladder made with a stay on the back of it that you may reach them with your hands About Midsummer or a little after the Hop begins to leave running at length and then begins to branch that such Hops that are not yet at the tops of the Poles 't were not amiss to nip off the top or divert it from the Pole that it may branch the better which is much more for the encrease of the Hop than to extend it self only in length Sometimes in May after a Rain pare off the Surface of the Of the making up the Hills ground with a Spade How it off with a How or run it over with a Plough with one horse if you have room enough or with a Breast-plough and with these parings raise your hills in height and breadth burying and suppressing all superfluous Shoots of Hops and weeds By this means you will destroy the weeds that otherwise would beggar your Land and you suppress such Suckers and weeds that would impoverish your Hops and you also preserve the hills moist by covering them that the drought of the Summer injureth them not Also the Hop so far as it is covered with Earth issues forth its roots to the very surface of the Earth which proves a very great succour to the Hop This work may be continued throughout the Summer but more especially after a Rain to apply the moist Earth about the roots of the Hop Therefore it behoveth you to keep the ground in good heart for this purpose that your Hops may be the better and in case it should prove a very dry Spring it would not be amiss to water the Hops before you raise your hills A dry Spring such that happened in the Years 1672. and Manner of watering Hops 1674. proves a great check to the hop in its first springing especially in hot and dry grounds In such Years it is very advantagious to water them if it can with conveniency be obtained either from some Rivulet or Stream running through or near your Hop-garden or from some Well digged there or out of some Pond made with Clay in the lower part of your ground to receive hasty showres by small Aqueducts leading unto it which is the best water of all for this purpose In the midst of every hill make a hollow place and thrust some pointed Stick or Iron down in the middle thereof and pour in your water by degrees till you think the hill is well soaked then cover the hill with the parings of your Garden as before we directed which will set the Hop mainly forward as I have known which otherwise would be small and weak and hardly ever recover to attain its usual height Also a very hot and dry Summer will make the Hop blow but small and thin therefore would it not be labour lost to bestow a pail of water on every hill prepared before-hand to receive it For in such dry Springs or Summers such Hops that either stand moist or have been watred do very much out-strip their Neighbours and in such years they will far better requite your labour and industry yielding a greater price by reason of their scarcity than in other seasonable years when every ground almost produceth Hops Industry and Ingenuity in these Affairs being most incouraged and best rewarded at such times when Ignorance and Sloth come off with loss and shame After every watering which need not be above twice or thrice in the driest Summers so that they be throughly wet be sure to make up the hills with the parings and with the weeds and coolest and moistest materials you can get for the more the Hop is shaded at the root from the Sun the better it thrives as is evident by such that grow under shelter that are never drest yet may compare with those you bestow most pains and skill on The dressing
they will bear heads the Autumn following They are to be planted four or five foot distance the one from the other if the Soyl be rich but if it be not then nearer After the Planting they need no other Culture before Winter save only Weeding and dressing sometimes and a little water if the Spring be dry Against the Winter before the great Frosts they are to be preserved Preservation against Frosts against them Some cut the leaves within a foot of the ground and raise the Earth about them in manner of a Mole-hill within two or three inches of the top and then cover it with Long-dung which both preserves them from Frosts and keeps the Rain from rotting them Others put Long-dung about the Plants leaving the Plant a little Breath-room in the middle which will also do very well Others prescribe them to be covered with an Earthen-pot with a hole at the top but a Bee-hive is to be preferred before it It is not good to Earth them too soon left it rot them The Winter spent you shall uncover your Artichoaks by little Dressing Artichoaks and little at three several times with about four days interval each time lest the cold Ayr spoil them being yet tender you shall then dress dig about and trim them very well discharging them from most of their small slips not leaving above three of the strongest to each foot for Bearers and give a supply to the Roots as deep as conveniently you can of good fat Mould It will be good to renew your whole Plantation of Artichoaks every fifth year because the Plant impoverishes the Earth and produces but small Fruit. If you desire to have Fruit in Autumn you need only cut the Stem of such as have born Fruit in the Spring to hinder them from a second Shoot and in Autumn these lusty Stocks will not fail of bearing very fair Heads provided that you dress and dig about them well and water them in their necessity taking away the Slips which grow to their Sides and which draw all the substance from the Plants This Plant seems to contend for Preheminence with any of Of Asparagus the Garden-plants for the Kitchin being so delicate and wholesome a food coming so early and continuing so long as to usher in many other of the best Rarities They are raised of seeds in a good fat Soyl and at two years Planting of them growth may be transplanted into Beds Which must be well prepared with Dung first digged about two foot deep and four foot wide made level at the bottom and so mix very good rotten Dung with some of the Mould and fill them up considering that it will sink Then plant your Asparagus Plants at about two foot distance you may plant three or four Rows in this Bed of four foot wide they will in time extend themselves throughout all the Bed Some curious persons put Rams-horns at the bottom of the Trench and hold for certain that they have a kinde of Sympathy with Asparagus which makes them prosper the better but it 's referred to the Experienced Three years you must forbear to cut that the Plant may be Ordering and cutting of them strong not stubbed for otherwise they will prove but small but if you spare them four or five years you will have them as big as Leeks The small ones you may leave that the Roots may grow bigger permitting those that spring up about the end of the Season in every Bed to run to Seed and this will exceedingly repair the hurt which you may have done to your Plants in reaping their Fruit. At the beginning of the Winter after you have cut away the Stalks cover the Bed four or five fingers thick with new Horse-dung Some prescribe with Earth four fingers thick and over that two fingers of old dung which will preserve them from the Frost At the Spring about the middle of March uncover the Beds and take of good fat Mould and spread over them about two or three fingers thick and lay your Dung in the Alleys or elsewhere which will rot and be fit to renew the Mould the next Spring If you take up the old Roots of Asparagus about the beginning Early Asparagus of January and plant them on a hot Bed and well defend them from Frosts you may have Asparagus at Candlemas which is yearly experimented by some When you cut Asparagus remove a little of the Earth from about them lest you wound the others which are ready to peep cut them as low as you can conveniently but take heed of hurting those that lie hid There are divers sorts of this most pleasant and delicious Fruit Strawberries and not any of them but are worthy of our care and that little pains they require in Nursing them up The greater sort delight in a new-broken Bed or at least in such places where they have not grown before They must be kept stringed and removed every two or three years and then will yield a very great encrease They delight most in warm sandy Soyl the best Plants are said to be such as come of the Strings they bear best in the shade The white Strawberry and the ordinary red may be either planted in Beds or on the sides of the Banks at your pleasure The ordinary red grows plentifully in the new-fallen Copses from whence if you take your Plants about August you will have a very fair encrease There is a sort of green Strawberry though not usual that lies on the ground under the tall and slender leaves exceeding sweet in taste and of a very green colour Also there is another sort of Strawberry of a very excellent Scarlet-colour and most pleasant taste that grows plentifully in New-England and will prosper very well with us as is experienced by a Merchant at Clapham near London who hath many of them growing in his Garden To preserve them over the Winter though they seldom die you strow a little Straw Litter Fern or suchlike over them To have Strawberries in Autumn you may only cut away the Late Strawberries first blossoms which they put forth and hinder their bearing in the Spring and they will afterwards blow anew and bear in their latter season I have gathered many on Michaelmas-day As soon as your Strawberries have done bearing cut them Large Strawberries down to the ground and as often as they spire crop them till towards the Spring When you would have them proceed towards bearing now and then as you cut them strew the fine Powder of dried Cow-dung or Pigeons-dung or Sheeps-dung c. upon them and water them when there is cause The Cole-flower is an excellent Plant and deserves a place in the Kitchin-garden their seeds are brought out of Italy and the Italians receive it from Candia and other of the Levantine parts which is the best and produces the largest Heads You may either sow the seeds in August and carefully
that it hath become useless but by the extraordinary charge labour art and industry of some publick-spirited persons very great quantities thereof have been gained from the power of that Grand Enemy to Husbandry as may be observed in those vast Levels of rich Land in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Cambridgeshire c. in our Age recovered Many other vast Flats and Levels there are on the Borders of this Kingdom that are beyond the power strength or interest of a private Purse to attempt yet to the publick at a publick charge would redound to an infinite advantage and not only maintain thousands at work imployment being the greatest check to factious spirits but bring in an yearly increase of wealth one of the principal Supports of this Kingdom against its Enemies and that without the hazards of an Indian Voyage Land-flouds in some places especially on the great Flats and Land-flouds Levels prove a great annoyance to the Husbandman that it is of equal concernment to divert the Land-flouds from some Lands as to drain the water that resides upon it and otherwise annoys it As we see in the Draining the Great Level between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire by the Isle of Axholm where the great River Idle Navigable of its self that formerly passed with its great Land-flouds through the vast Level on the Yorkshire side of Axholm by the Art and industry of the Drainers through a new Cut is carried into Trent on the other side of the Isle that the Draining of that Great Level which otherwise might seem impossible to be done by that very means became most feasible So that here we need say no more but that as the conveniency of the place will permit you divert the Land-flouds and Streams before you attempt a through Draining if it be feasible and requisite lest you multiply your cost and be at last frustrate of your purpose The greatest of our In-land annoyances to Husbandry occasioned Standing Waters by water is from the standing or residing of water on our flat and level Marishes Meadows or other Lands whether occasioned from Rains Springs or otherwise Where there is any descent or declining of Land by cutting Drains to the lowest part it is most easily performed But where it is absolutely flat and level it is much more difficult yet are there few such Levels but there are places or Currents for the water to pass out of them which you must sink deep and wide enough to drain the whole and then make several drains from each part of the Marsh or Level beginning large and wide at the mouth of the Drain and lessening by degrees as it extends to the extreams of the Land you drain Be sure to make the Drains deep enough to draw the water from under the Marsh or Bog and make enough of them that may lay it throughly dry If you cannot make a passage deep enough to take the water away from the bottom of your Drain which in many places is a great impediment of this improvement either by reason that you cannot cut through anothers Land or that the passage be long or that some River is near which will be apt to revert upon you or suchlike then may an Engine commanded by the winde be of great use and effect that which by any other way could not be done the description whereof see before in the third Chapter According to the height you raise the water may you proportion the greatness or smalness of your Engine You need not fear winde sufficient at one time or other to keep your Drains emyty for during the greatest Calms are usually the greatest Droughts and in the wettest seasons windes are seldom wanting especially on Flats and Levels Over-much moisture proves also very injurious to Corn and other Plantations the usual remedy whereof is to lay the Land high in Ridges and cut Drains at the ends of the Furrows to carry away the superfluous water In Orchards and Gardens it usually hinders the growth and prosperity of Trees and other Plants against which the best remedy is to double the Land that is by abating the one half thereof about a foot more or less according to the nature and goodness of the Soil in long Walks or Rows about seven or ten foot broad as to you seems best and most convenient and cast it on the other in banks or borders so that you will then have those banks lie dry to the bottom of your Walks and all of the best of the Mould on which you may plant your Trees c. where they will thrive as well as on any other drier Land being planted shallow Take this as a general Observation in Agriculture that most of the barren and unimproved Lands in England are so either because of Drought or the want of Water or Moisture or that they are poysoned or glutted with too much therefore let every Husbandman make the best use of that water that runs through his Lands and by preserving what falls upon his Lands as we have at large before directed in this Treatise and drain or convey away that which superabounds and offends then would there be a far greater plenty of all manner of Tillage and Cattle to the great inriching of this Kingdom Water is also very offensive in our Dwelling-houses that we cannot make Cellars for Beer c. which may be several ways cured or prevented Either by laying the bottom and sides of the Cellar with Sheet-Lead and a Floor of boards thereon to preserve it from injury Several such Cellars there are in some Cities and Towns that lie low in the water but this is too costly a way for our Husbandman Another way is to joynt your Bricks or Stone with Tarris or the Cement before described in this Chapter for the keeping in of water in Cisterns Also you may Bed your Cellar with Clay and then Brick or Stone it over after the same manner as we directed before in this Chapter for the keeping of water c. Or you may sink a Well or Pit near your Cellar and somewhat lower than it into which you place a Pump that at such times as water annoys you it may by that means be removed Sometimes it happens that the Floor of the House you live in or the Barn you lay your Corn in are damp or moistened by certain Springs that some times or other do annoy them to your great detriment as well to your health as injury to your Goods or Corn which if the scituation of the place will bear it as most usually it will the cutting of a Trench or Ditch round about the same of such depth as you may drain it dry by the fall that is naturally from it will cure this disease This Ditch or Trench may be paved walled on the sides and covered as you please so that the Brick or Stone of the Wall on the side next the House or Barn be not laid with Mortar to prevent the issue of the
therefore let it be kept as dry as may be Let it be well dried when you use it and clean from dust it hath the more strength and less fouleth your Piece Let your Shot be well sized not too great for then it flies but thin and scattering nor too small the Bird being apt to fly away within it having not weight nor strength to enter far Shot being usually above the value of ordinary Lead and in many places not to be had of the sizes you have most occasion for I shall therefore here set down the true Process of making of it of what size you please under Mould-shot Take Lead of what quantity you please melt it down in an Iron To make Shot Vessel stir and clear it with an Iron Ladle taking off all its impurities that swim at the top When it is so hot as that the colour of the Lead begin to be greenish and not before strew upon it Auripigmentum powdered fine as much as will lie on a Shilling to twelve or fifteen pound of Lead some will require more then stir the Lead well and the Auripigmentum will flame Let your Iron Ladle have a Lip or Notch in the brim for the more convenient pouring out of the Lead and let the Ladle remain in the melted Lead for the most part that it may be of a heat agreeable to the Lead to prevent inconveniencies that may otherwise happen through its being over-hot or too cold Then take out a little of the Lead in your Ladle for an Essay and cause it to drop out of it into a Glass of Water which if the drops prove to be round and without Tails there is Auripigmentum enough in it and the temper of the heat is as it ought to be but if the congealed drops or shot prove not round but with Tails then add more of the Auripigmentum and augment the heat until you finde it right Then take a Copper-plate about the size of an ordinary Trencher-plate with a Concavity in the middle about three inches Diameter perforated with about thirty or forty small holes greater or lesser according as you would have your shot to be This Concave bottom should be thin but the thicker the brim is the better will it retain the heat Place this Plate on two Bars or other Iron-frame over a Tub or Pail of water about four inches from the water and lay on the Plate burning Coals to keep the Lead melted upon it Then with your Ladle take off your Lead and pour it gently on the Coals on the middle of the Plate and it will make its way through the holes in the bottom of the Plate into the water and fall into round drops Thus continue your Operation till all the Lead be passed through the Plate blowing the Coals to keep them alive that the Lead may not cool on the Plate and stop the holes Whilest you are thus pouring on your Lead another Stander-by may take another Ladle and put it four or five inches in the water under the bottom of the Plate and catch some of the Shot as it drops down and see what faults are in it that you may stop your hand until they are rectified The greatest care is to keep the Lead on the Plate in so moderate a degree of heat that it be not too cool to stop the holes nor too hot which will make the drops crack and fly if it be too cool blow the Coals a little if too hot stay your hand until it be a little cooler the cooler it is the larger will be your shot the hotter the smaller As near as you can observe the right temper of the heat and you will have very round shot without any tails Then take your shot and dry them over the fire with a gentle heat always stirring them that they melt not and when they are dry you may separate the small from the great in Sieves made for that purpose according to the several sizes they are of But if you would have them very large you may with a stick make the Lead trickle out of the Ladle into the water without the Plate If the Lead stop on the Plate and yet not too cool give the Plate a little knock and it will drop again Be sure let there be none of your Instruments Greasie Oyly or the like When you have separated your shot if any of it proves too great or too small or not round preserve them for the next Operation Thus having your Fowling-piece your Powder and Shot ready with your Spaniel well instructed and at command not daring to stir till you bid him then are you fit for a walk towards your Game If you are directly between the Winde and the Fowl they will be apt to scent you therefore it 's best to go against the winde or aside it it 's better to shoot at one side of them than before or behinde them for if you break a Wing you are sure of that Fowl It 's best to get as much shelter as you can by Hedges Banks or Trees for the sight or smell of a man raises them whatever danger of Hawks or any thing else be near But if they are so shie and the place so free from shelter that Stalking-horse there be no way to come at them fairly then you must lead forth your Stalking-horse being some Old Jade trained up for that purpose and that will be led in your hand as you please and not startle much at the report of a Gun behinde whose shoulders you must shelter your self and take your aim before his shoulders and under his neck which is better than under his belly If you have not such a Beast ready you may make an Artificial Artificial Stalking horse one of any old Canvas in shape like a Horse feeding on the ground You may make it double and stuff it or single and painted of a brown colour like a Horse Let it be made on a sharp stick that you may fix it into the ground as you have occasion when you take your Level It must be so light that you may carry it in one hand and high enough to conceal your body from the Fowl You may also make an Artificial Oxe or Cow which you may use for a change that when your Horse is discovered through much use you may change for the other and so make your Sport dure the longer Or you may make Artificial Stags or Bucks with their real horns on them which will be best in such grounds where those Creatures frequent and with whom the Fowl are more familiar You may either make the representation of a Tree in Canvas Artificial Trees and painted like one and so spread with small sticks that it may somewhat resemble a Tree or you may with many Boughs so form a Tree that it may shelter you from the view of the Fowl making it with a Spike at the bottom that it may stick into
not to another for I observe the Propinquity of the Sea is to be considered every place lying nearer to some one part of the Sea than another and on which Coast the Sea is nearest that Winde more frequently brings Rain to that place than to another where the Sea is more remote Therefore I desire all such that expect any success to their Observations that they quadrate the Rules to the places where they live and not trust to the Observations of other places Windes also are of different qualities according to the several places they either proceed from or pass over as the East-winde is counted propitious neither to Man nor Beast which I judge partly to be from the Fens or moist Countries as Holland the Fens in Yorkshire Lincolnshire Cambridgeshire c. from whence Windes usually proceed and must of necessity prove unwholesome both to Man and Beast except to those that inhabit on the Western Coast for the Winde hath sufficiently purged it self by passing over so much Land as to leave its noxious quality behinde it Also the Northern Windes are more serene with us than the other one cause I suppose is from the quantity of Land in Scotland and England it comes over unto us as is observed in other Countries that from the Continent the coldest and most serene Windes proceed If the Winde turn to the South from any other Coast or remove from the South having been long there it usually brings alteration of weather Windes do produce several and various alterations and effects in the Air in the Water and in the Bodies of Men and Beasts as the South and West-windes are usually more hot and moist and not so clear as the other the North and East are more clear dry and cold When the South-winde blows the Sea is blew and clear but Bacon deventis when the North-winde it is then black and obscure The Eastern-windes usually make our fresh waters much clearer than the West The North-winde is best for sowing of Seed the South for Grafting or Inoculations The South-winde is the worst for the bodies of men it dejecteth the appetite it bringeth Pestilential Diseases increaseth Rheums men are more dull and slow then than at other times Beasts also are not to be exempted from these influences The North-winde makes men more chearful and begets a better appetite to meat yet is injurious to the Cough Ptisick and Gout and any acute Flux The Eastern-winde is drier more biting and deadly The West-winde is moist milde and calm and friendly to all Vegetables The East-winde blowing much in the Spring injureth Fruits by breeding Worms All Windes blowing much cleanse the Air still and quiet Summers being the most unwholesome and subject to Pestilential and Epidemical Diseases If in great Rains the Windes rise or fall it signifies that the Rain will forthwith cease If the Winde vary much in few hours and then be constant to one place it signifies the Winde to continue long in that place If at the beginning of the Winter the South-winde blow and then the North it is like to be a cold Winter but if the North-winde first blow and then the South it will be a warm and milde Winter The blowing of the Windes from several Coasts other concomitant causes concurring are the truest Presignificators of Thunder The blowing of the Windes aloft with a murmuring or hollow noise more than below commonly presageth Rain The blowing or compression of the Windes downwards causing smoak to descend c. more than usual signifies Rain to follow If the Windes blow directly downward and cause a motion Of Whirl-windes on the water several ways or force the dust to arise with the Winde which is repercussed by the Earth if they also inforce the Hay Corn or other things in the Fields up aloft into the Air which denote unto us the crassitude of the Vapours in the Air which by the heat of the Sun do emit such casual blasts for they rarely happen but in the Summer and the day-time yet sometimes when no Cloud is near they signifie Winde and sometimes Rain to succeed other causes concurring or otherwise extream heat But if these Whirl-windes are very great they presage Tempests to be very nigh as Virgil. Omnia Ventorum concurrere praelia vidi Quae gravidam late segetem ab radicibus imis Sublime expulsam eruerunt Immensum Coelo venit agmen aquarum c. This watry Meteor and the greatest Miracle in Nature besides Of the Rainbow its Divine signification being produced of natural causes hath also its natural effects In some Countries more Southward it 's an ordinary Presage of great Tempests at hand but here various weather succeeds according to it 's various appearances and colours It is the lowest of Meteors saith Bacon and when it appears in parts and not whole or conjoyned it produceth Windes and Rain If it appear double or triple it usually presageth Rain If the colours thereof tend more to red than any other colour Winde follows if green or blew predominate then Rain The Audibility of Sounds are certain Prognosticks of the Of noise and stilness in the Air. temper of the Air in a still Evening For if the Air be repleat with moisture over us it depresseth Sounds that they become Audible at a far greater distance than when the Air is free from such moisture or vapours as you may observe in Building the lower and more ponderous the Roof or Floor next you is the farther and plainer may you hear any thing therein which is the true cause of the quick hearing at the whispering-place in Gloucester-Catherdral which is not only from the closeness of the passage as is generally conceived but from the weight and Massiness of the building over it The like I have observed in Rooms covered with Lead Stone c. and in places under large Cisterns of water From whence you may conclude that in such nights or other times that you hear sounds of Bells noises of Water Beasts Birds or any other sounds or noises more plainly than at other times the Air is inclinable to Rain which commonly succeeds The same may be said of Ecchoes as of other noises and Of Ecchoes sounds When it Thunders more than it Lightens it signifies great Of Thunder and Lightning Windes but if it Lighten oftner than it Thunders it signifies great and hasty showres Morning-Thunders signifie Winde Noon-Thunders Rain roaring or distant Thunders signifie Winde but cracking or acute Thunders Windes and Rain According to the Opinion and Rules of others and our own Of the rarity and density of the Air. Observations we have given you the best and most probable indications of the future changes of the Winde Weather c. from the several and usual appearances above either certain or uncertain or accidental Now it remains that we say somewhat in relation to the temper or qualification of the Air it self deducted from its own being more rare
Experiments and Improvements they finde within their Province relating to this or any other Art within their Inquiry which particular Societies might annually impart such Collections Observations Experiments and Improvements that they have obtained to the Grand Society and from them also might Copies or Duplicates of the whole Collection be Annually transmitted to each Subordinate Society that any person may have a place near unto him for the discovery of his Observations Experiments Inventions or Improvements and that diligent industrious and ingenious persons may have recourse thereunto for the inquiry and search into the several Inventions Discoveries and Improvements of others by which means every person may have an opportunity to publish or discover his Observations Experiments c. which otherwise have been and will be for the most part with their Authors buried in Oblivion and every one may also have the like opportunity or advantage to search into or enquire after the several Ways Methods Inventions c. used or discovered in any other place of England of such things relating to this Society which of necessity must abundantly improve Science and Art and advance Agriculture and the Manufactures two of the Principal Supports of this Nation Wealth and Honour That the particular proceedings already made known of that most Illustrious Society and the more Universal much desired and expected from them next unto the Publick Peace and Tranquillity of the Nation are esteemed the only ways and means to promote Industry and Ingenuity to imploy our numerous People to cultivate our waste Lands to convert our barren Fields into fruitful Gardens and Orchards to make the Poor Rich and the Rich Honourable every man is willing to assist in so Universal a work unless those who thrive by others ruines VVe finde many have acted their parts and discovered to the World what they apprehended or had the experience of which though much short of what may be done yet have they not lost their Aim Many by their Rules Precepts Observations and Experiments have highly advanced this Noble Science of Agriculture But seeing some of those Treatises are relating to particular Countries or places or to some branch only or part of this our Subject and those also difficult to be obtained and many of them filled with old obsolete and impertinent directions and things and too voluminous for our Laborious Husbandman whom they principally concern I thought it no time ill spent in such times and hours as other necessary Affairs detain me not to collect such useful Observations Precepts Experiments and Discoveries which I finde dispers'd in the several Authors treating of this Subject and to reduce them into the following Method omitting such things as have been found to be useless false or meerly putative or conjectural or relating to other Climates and adding also such Discoveries Observations and Experiments as I have obtained from others and my self discovered and never before published by any You have here Epitomized the Substance and Marrow of all or most of the known Authors treating of this Subject or any part thereof and also such new and necessary Observations and Experiments as are for the benefit and improvement of our Country-habitations which I hope may gratifie such Readers as desire a work of this Nature until our Philosophers and Heroes of Science and Art handle the Plough and Spade and undertake the more Plenary Discovery and Description of these Rustick Operations which indeed require not only an experienced Hand but a judicious and ingenious Pen until when I hope this indigested Piece may finde a place in our Rural Libraries and then I shall willingly be the first that shall commit this to the Flames to give way for a better which that we may suddenly obtain is my earnest desire VALE A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS Contained in this TREATISE I. OF Husbandry and Improvements in general plainly discovering the Nature Reasons and Causes of Improvements and the growth of Vegetables II. Of the great benefits and advantages of Inclosing Lands III. Of Meadow and Posture-lands and the several ways of their Improvements either by Watering or Drowning or by Sowing or Propagating several sorts of extraordinary Grasses Hays c. IIII. Of Arable Land and Tillage and of the several Grains Pulses c. usually propagated by the Plough V. Of the Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Land VI. Of the benefit raising planting and propagating of all sorts of Timber-trees and other Trees useful either in Building or other Mechanick uses or for Fencing Fewel c. VII Of Fruit-Trees VIII Of such Tillage Herbs Roots and Fruits that are usually planted and propagated in Gardens Garden-grounds either for necessary food use or advantage IX Of several sorts of Beasts Fowls and Insects usually kept for the advantage and use of the Husbandman X. Of common and known External Injuries Inconveniencies Enemies and Diseases incident to and usually afflicting the Husbandman in most of the Ways or Methods of Agriculture before treated of and the several Natural and Artificial Remedies proposed and made use of for the prevention and removal of them XI Of the several sorts of Instruments Tools and Engines incident to this Profession of Agriculture and of some Amendments and profitable Experiments in Building either by Timber Stone Brick or any other way XII Of Fishing and Fowling XIII Kalendarium Rusticum Or Monethly Directions for the Husbandman XIV Of the Prognosticks of Dearth or Scarcity Plenty Sickness Heat Cold Frost Snow Winds Rain Hail Thunder c. XV. Dictionarium Rusticum Or The Interpretation of Rustick Terms c. THE ANALYSIS OR Summary of the Ensuing WORK THE Preface or Introduction in the praise of Husbandry CHAP. I. Of Husbandry and Improvements in General plainly discovering the Nature Reasons and Causes of Improvements and the Growth of Vegetables c. Fol. 1 What Agriculture is id Of the subject whereon the Husbandman bestows his labor id Of the Universal Spirit or Mercury 2 Of the Universal Sulphur id Of the Universal Salt 3 Of the true matter of Vegetables id Where Water or Spirit abounds 4 Where Fatness or Sulphur abounds 5 Where Salt abounds id Equal commixture of Principles 6 CHAP. II. Of the great Benefits and Advantages of Enclosing Lands 10 Enclosure an Improvement id Several Interests an Impediment 12 Highways an Impediment id Trees not thriving an Impediment id Dividing Land into small parcels an Improvement 13 Enclosure for watered Meadows not an Improvement id Wheat in enclosures subject to mildew 14 CHAP. III. Of Meadow and Pasture-lands and the several ways of their Improvements either by watring or drowning or by sowing or propagating several sorts of extraordinary Grasses or Hays c. 15 Sect. 1. Of the watring of Meadows id Of Meadows watered by Floods 16 Of Meadows watered by diversion of Rivers id Hinderances to such diversion id Of Meadows watered by artificial Engines 17 Of the Persian Wheel 18 Of Wind-Engines for the raising water 19 What Windmils
Defence against Bees 182 To cure the sting of a Bee id Of the Bees work id The numbers of Bees 183 Of the Bees Enemies id Removing of Bees 184 Feeding of Bees id An Experiment for improving of Bees 185 A singular observation concerning the food of Bees id Of the fruit and profit of Bees id Driving of Bees 186 Exsection or gelding of Combs id Of the generation of Bees 188 The making of Metheglin id 2. Of Silk worms 190 Their Food id Time and manner of Hatching Silk-worms Eggs id Their sicknesses id Their time and manner of feeding 191 Their spinning id Their breeding id The winding of the Silk 192 CHAP. X. Of common and known external Injuries Inconveniencies Enemies and Diseases incident to and usually afflicting the Husbandman in most of the Ways and Methods of Agriculture before treated of And the several Natural and Artificial Remedies proposed and made use of for the prevention and removal of them 193 Sect. 1. From the Heavens or Air id Great heat or drought id Remedies for want of water 195 To make Cisterns to hold water 196 Great Cold and Frost 197 Much Rain 200 High Winds id Thunder and Tempest Hail c. 201 Mildews id Sect. 2. From the Water and Earth 203 Much water offending id Overflowing of the Sea id Land-floods id Standing-waters 204 Stones Shrubs c. 205 Weeds 206 Blights and Smut 207 Sect. 3. From several Beasts 208 Foxes id Otters id Coneys Hares 209 Poll-cats Weasels and Stotes id Moles or Wants id Mice or Rats 210 Sect. 4. From Fowls 211 Kites Hawks c. id Crows Ravens c. id Pigeons 212 Jays 213 Bullfinches id Goldfinches 214 Sparrows c. id Sect. 5. Of Insects and creeping things offending id Frogs and Toads id Snails and Worms id Gnats and Flies 215 Wasps and Hornets id Caterpillars 216 Earwigs id Lice id Ants id To destroy Ant-hills id Snakes and Adders 217 To cure the stinging of Adders or biting of Snakes id Sect. 6. Of some certain Diseases in Animals and Vegetables 217 Of Beasts and Fowl id Of the Murrain 218 Of the Rot in Sheep id An approved Experiment for the cure of the Fashions in Horses and Rot in Sheep 219 Another for the Measles in Swine and also to make them fat id Sect. 7. Of Thieves and ill Neighbours 220 CHAP. XI Of the several sorts of Instruments Tools and Engines incident to this Profession of Agriculture and of some Amendments and profitable Experiments in Building either by Timber Stone Brick or any other way 223 Sect. 1. Of the several sorts of Ploughs id Double-wheeled-Plough 224 Turn-wrest Plough id Single-wheeled-plough id Plain Plough id Double Plough id Another sort of Double Plough id Other sorts of Ploughs 225 Good properties of the Plough id Errors of the Plough id A Turfing Plough id Sect. 2. Of Carts and Waggons 226 New sort of Cart id Waggon with sails 227 Sect. 3. Of several other Instruments used in digging id Of the Trenching-plough id Of Spades id Turfing-spade id Trenching-spade id Common Spades id The How 228 Other Instruments used in digging c. id Sect. 4. Other various Instruments id Sect. 5. Of Amendments and profitable Experiments in Building 229 The scituation of a House 230 Securest and cheapest way of building a House 231 Best Covering for a House 232 Of Tiles Bricks c. id Of building of Stone or Brick-walls 233 Of Mortar id Of Timber 234 Of Mills id CHAP. XII Of Fowling and Fishing 236 Sect. 1. Of Fowling in general id Of Fowling the nature of water-fowl id The haunts of Water-fowl id Sect. 2. Of taking the greater sort of fowl with Nets 237 The form of a Draw-net id Sect. 3. Of the taking small Water-fowl with Nets 238 Sect. 4. Of taking great Fowl with Lime-twigs id Of the divers ways of making Birdlime id Of the several uses of it 139 Of the taking small Fowl with Lime-twigs 240 Sect. 5. Of taking Fowl with Springes id Sect. 6. Of killing Fowl with the Fowling-piece 241 Of the choice of Gunpowder id The way to make shot id Of the Stalking-horse 242 Of the artificial Stalking-horse 243 Artificial Trees id A digression concerning decoy-ponds id Of the taking Wilde-Ducks Eggs 244 Sect. 7. Of taking Land-fowl id The greater sorts of them id Of taking Fowl by day-nets id Of taking Larks by day-nets id Of Stales 245 Another way to take Larks by a Day-net called daring of Larks id To take Birds with the Low-bell id To take Birds with the Trammel only 246 To take Birds by Batt-fowling id To take small Birds with Lime-twigs id To take Fieldfares or Bow-thrushes 247 Sect. 8. Of taking Fowl with Baits id To take Land-fowl with Baits id To take Water-fowl with Baits id Sect. 9. Of taking some sorts of Fowl id To take the Pheasant with Nets id To drive young Pheasants 248 To take Pheasants with Lime-twigs id To perch Pheasants id To take Partridge id To take them with a Trammel-net 249 To take them with a Setting-dog id To drive Partridges id To take them with Bird-lime id To take Woodcocks id To take them in a Cock-road id Of Fishing 250 Sect. 1. Of taking Fish by Nets Pots or Engines id To Fish with Nets id With the Trammel or Sieve id With the Casting-net 251 With the shore-net or pot-net id With Fish-pots id With Wears id With Hawks 252 The way of making a Piscary id A Hawk-net id Sect. 2. Of Angling 253 Observations in Angling id Seasons for Angling 254 Seasons not to Angle in id Sect. 3. Of Angling for Salmon Trout 255 Sect. 4. Of Angling for Pike and Perch id Sect. 5. Of Angling for standing-Water or Pond-fish 256 For the Carp id For the Tench id For the Dace 257 For the Roach id For the Bream id Taking of Eels id By Angle id With Bank-hooks id By Sniggling id By Bobbing 258 Sect. 6. Of Angling for the Barbel Grailing Umber Chevin and Chub id Of Cormorant Fishing 259 CHAP. XIII Kalendarium Rusticum or Monthly Directions for the Husbandman 261 In January 265 February 267 March 269 April 271 May 273 June 275 July 277 August 279 September 281 October 283 November 285 December 287 CHAP. XIV Of the Prognosticks of Dearth or Scarcity Plenty Sickness Heat Cold Frost Snow Winds Rain Hail Thunder c. 289 Sect. 1. Of the different appearances of the Sun Moon Stars Meteors or any other thing in the Air or above us 290 Of the motions colours and appearances of the seven Planets id Of the Sun id Of the Moon 292 Of the other Erraticks or Planets id Of Comets or Blazing-stars 293 Of the shooting of Stars 294 Of the fixed Stars id Of Fire or other casual appearances id Of the Clouds 295 Of Mists and Fogs id Of Winds 296
of Animals yielding a very rich Compost though of themselves through over-much heat and pinguidity sterile The Saline or more fixed Principle which is esteemed by most Where Salt abounds Authors the only thing conducing to Fertility yet is of its self or in an over-bounding quantity the most barren and unfruitful It is prescribed as a sure way to destroy Weeds Vegetables by watering the place with Brine or Salt-water yet what more fruitful being moderately commixed with other Materials of another nature than Salt But observe that Salts extracted out of the Earth or from Vegetables or Animals are much more Fertile than those of the Sea containing in them more of the Vegetative Power or Principles and are therefore much to be preferred Glauber makes it the highest improvement for the Land and for Continuatio Miraculi Mundi Trees also affirming that by it you may enrich the most barren Sands beyond what can be performed by any other Soils or Manures in case it be deprived of its Corrosive Qualities for then will it naturally attract the other Principles continually breathing out of the Earth and in the Air and immediately qualifie it self for Vegetation as I observed in a parcel of Field-Land of about three Acres denshired or burn-beaten in a very hot and dry Spring of it self naturally barren and after the burning and spreading the ashes wherein was the Fertile Salt deprived of its Corrosive sterile quality the Land was plowed very shallow and Barly sown therein about the beginning of May in the very ashes as it were no Rain falling from the very beginning of cutting the Turf yet in thirty and six hours was the Barley shot forth and the Ground coloured green therewith this Salt attracting and condensing the ever-breathing Spirit The like you may observe in Walls and Buildings where several sorts of Vegetables yea trees of a great bigness will thrive and prosper remote from the Earth and without any other nourishment than what that Fertile Salt attracts and condenses as before which it could not have done had it not been purged of its Corrosive and Sterile Nature by Fire when it was made into Lime For all Chymists know that no Salts more easily dissolve per deliquum than those that are most calcined The Salt also of the Sea is not without its Fertile Nature being ordered with Judgment and Discretion as we see evidently that the Salt Marshes out of which the Sea is drain'd excel in Fertility and many places being irrigated with the Sea-Water yield a notable increase Corn also therewith imbibed hath been much advanced as appeared in the President of the Country-man that casually let his Seed-Corn fall into the Salt-Water And in the Isle of Wight it is observed that Corn flourisheth on the very Rocks that are bedewed with the Salt-water by the Blasts of the Southern Winds The shells of fish being as it were only Salt coagulated have proved an excellent Manure for barren Lands after they have lain a competent time to dissolve From what hath been before observed we may conclude that Equal commixture of Principles the highest Fertility and Improvements are to be advanced and made from the most equal Commixture of the aforesaid several Principles or of such Waters Soils Dungs Salts Manures or Composts that more or less abound with either of them having regard unto the nature of such Vegetable whose propagation or advancement you intend Some delighting in a more Hot or Cold Moist or Dry Fat or Barren than others And next unto that from due Preservation Reception and right disposing and ordering of that Spiritus Mundi every where found and to be attained without Cost and as well by the poor as rich It continually breaths from the Earth as we noted before and is diffused in the Air and lost unless we place convenient Receptacles to receive it as by Planting of Trees and sowing of Pulses Grain or Seed Out of what think you should these things be formed or made Out of rain-Rain-water is the common Answer or Opinion But we experimentally finde that this Vniversal Subject gives to every Plant its Essence or Substance although assisted by Rain or Water both in its nourishment and condensation We see how great a Tree is raised out of a small Plat of Ground by its sending forth of its Roots to receive its nourishment penetrating into the smallest Crannies and Joynts between the Stones and Rocks where it finds the greatest plenty of its proper food We constantly perceive and finde that Vegetables having once emitted their fibrous Roots vegetate and increase only from the assistance of this our Vniversal Subject when the Earth wherein it stands is of it self dry and not capable to yield that constant supply of Moisture the Plant daily requires Although we must confess that Rain or other Water accelerates its Growth having in it a Portion of that Spiritus Mundi also better qualifies the Earth for its perspiration That this Subject is the very Essence of Vegetables and that from it they receive their Substance and not from water only is evident in such places where Vegetables are not permitted to grow and where it cannot vapor away nor is exhaled by the Sun nor Air as Underbuildings Barns Stables Pigeon-houses c. where it condenses into Nitre or Salt-Petre the only fruitful Salt though improperly so called containing so equal and proportionable a quantity of the Principles of Nature wholly Volatile only condensed in defect of a due recipient not generated as some fondly conceive from any casual Moisture as Urine in Stables c. though augmented thereby but meerly from the Spiritus Mundi Lands resting from the Plough or Spade are much enriched only by the encrease of this Subject and ordinary way of Improvement Lands defended from the violent heat of the Sun and from the sweeping cleansing and exsiccating Air or Winds grow more Fertile not so much from the warmth it receives as from the preservation of that Fertile Subject from being wasted as we evidently see it to be in all open Champion Lands when part of the very same Species of Land being inclosed with tall and defensive Hedges or Planted with Woods are much more Fertile than the other yea we plainly perceive that under the Covert of a Bush Bough or such like any Vegetable will thrive and prosper better than on the naked Plain Where is there more barren dry and hungry Land than on the Plains and Waste Lands and yet but on the other side of the hedges Fertile either by Inclosure or Planted with Woods an evident and sufficient demonstration of the high Improvements that may be made by Inclosure only Also Land hath been found to be extraordinary Fertile under Stones Logs of Wood c. only by the condensation and preservation of that Vniversal Subject as appears by the flourishing Corn in the most stony Grounds where it hath been observed that the Stones taken away Corn hath not
proved so well and Trees having Stones laid on the Ground about the Roots of them have prospered wonderfully from the same cause As the Learned Virgil hinted on the same occasion Jamque reperti Qui Saxo super atque ingentis pondere testae Vrgerent In the watering of Meadows you may observe that the superficial gliding watering thereof doth infinitely advance its fertility and accelerates its growth or vegetation not so much from the fruitfulness of the water although that be a very great help and some waters abound very much with that Vniversal Subject but by its condensation and preservation of that Subject as appears by the warmth and early springing of such Meadows where the water thinly and superficially moves over it where on the contrary water standing and submerging such Meadows and lying and soaking long under the superficies of the Earth impedes the motion of that Subject and makes the ground more sterile and backward in its growth or springing That this Spiritus Mundi hath in it a sensible heat as well as fertility we may perceive by Springs in great Frosts when the Pores of the Earth are shut the Body from whence the Springs flow is warm on the contrary when the Pores are open and this Spirit wasted and transformed into Vegetables Animals c. and exhausted by the heat of the Sun then is the Body internally cold as we sensibly perceive by the waters in Wells in Summer-time This Spiritus Mundi whereof we treat is that which in some places perspires more freely than in other and causes that different verdant colour of the Grass in certain rings or circles where the Country-people fancie the Fairies dance The more the Aqueous humour or part is concocted or exhausted by the heat of the Sun in the Summer-time the thicker and more viscous is this subject as appears by its condensation in the Air into Mildews which after a more glutinous manner than other Rains or Dews is by the cool Air condensed into a fat and fruitful matter part thereof resting on the close and glazie leaves of the Oak and such-like Trees is collected and with very little Art transformed by the industrious Bee into that noble substance Honey other part thereof falls on the young Ears of Wheat and the Buds of springing Hops where suffering a further degree of congelation impedes their growth unless a timely shower wash it off It also by its heat tinges the straw of corn and the leaves of some Trees in spots At that season of the year also it usually coagulates in some places into Mushrooms which are meerly formed and made up of this subject undigested and perspire forth in such places in great plenty so that I have seen a Mushroom near an Ell in compass of less than two days growth the Owner in whose Garden it grew affirmed it to be of one night only You may also perceive it in a clear and cool morning condensed into small lines like unto Spiders-webs near the surface of the earth especially on the lower and richer Lands This is that Viscous Vapour that being concocted and digested long in the Air by the heat of the Sun or otherwise is condensed at length into that Sulpherous and Saline Matter and which by its combat in the Air occasions those Igneal Flames and Claps of Thunder which more frequently happen at such seasons of the year and in such Climates when and where this more concocted Vapour abounds and less in the colder Climates and Seasons where it is more aqueous This is that inexhaustible Treasure the Country-man is to preserve much more than the Soils and Dungs and such-like matters washed away with waters into the Sea which are inconsiderable in comparison of this for although Land be never so much impoverished through over-tilling thereof yet duly order'd and defended by this only Subject may it be recruited and fertilized as is evident in the poorest Land where Trees are grown after the removal of them the Land is much inriched by their shelter Also the return of the Soil or Dung that is made of the Product of any Land either by Pasturing or Tilling the same is a principal part of a good Husband and not to feed Cattle cut Hay and sowe corn on some Lands and spend their Soil and Manure on other which is a grand neglect and a main cause of so much barren and unfruitful Land in England Another thing worthy our consideration concerning this Vniversal Subject is the abating or removing the Impediments of its Fertility which do as it were suffocate or conceal that fertile or vegetating quality that is in many things As in Chalk and several other Stones Minerals and Earths the Acid or sterile Juice doth prevent that Fertility which otherwise might be raised from it Therefore do our Husband-men usually burn Stones into Lime which gradually evaporateth the Acid quality and coagulateth and fixeth the more Saline and Fertile which causeth it to yield so plentiful a nourishment unto Vegetables more than before it was burnt into Lime For the same cause is the Superficies or Turf of the Earth burnt in many places which Country-men usually call denshiring or burn-beating only they suppose that the Ashes of the Vegetable contained in the Turf occasions the Fertility But although that doth yield a part yet it is the heat of the fire evaporating and consuming the Acidity of the Earth which makes the Earth it self so prepared to be the more fertile As you may observe by the very places where those hills of fire were made that although you take the Ashes wholly away yet the Earth under those hills being so calcined yields a greater nourishment to such Vegetables growing thereon than on any other part of the ground where the Ashes themselves are spread For the same reason are the Summer-Fallowings advantageous to the Husbandman not only for the destroying of the weeds but for the evaporation of the Acid barren Juyce and digesting and fixing the fertile by which way of Calcination may several Stones Minerals and Earths be made fertile which unprepared are not so this may also prove of great use for the advancement of the growth of many excellent Plants and Flowers as I have been credibly informed hath been secretly practised to that purpose The last and none of the least considerable means for the re-reviving and improving this Subject is not only the planting sowing and propagating of Vegetables in every place but to plant sowe or propagate such that delight in the Soyl or Place under your improvement be the nature of the Soyl or Earth what it will there is some Plant or other delights in it from the highest cold hot dry or barren hill to the lowest valley although in the water it self you will finde either Trees Pulses Grasses Grains or some other Vegetable may be found that will thrive in it Hic segetes illic veniunt faelicius uvae Arborei foetus alibi atque myrissa virescunt gramina
which brings an ill name on the Hay which if cut in time would be much better and in most watered Meadows as good as any other And the Aftir-grass either to mow again or to be fed on the place will repay the former supposed Loss The former Impediments may with much facility be removed by a Law which would be of very great Advantage to the Kingdom in general The later only by the good Examples and Presidents of such industrious and worthy Persons that understand better things the generality of the world being rather introduced to any ingenious and profitable Enterprise by Example than by Precept although some are so sordid and self-willed that neither apparent Demonstration nor any convincing Argument whatsoever can divert them from their Byass of Ill-husbandry and ignorance whom we leave On the Borders or Banks of most Rivers or Streams lie several Of Meadows watered by artificial Engines Pieces of Land that are not capable of being overflown by the obstruction or diversion of the Water without a greater injury than the expected advantage would recompence which may notwithstanding be improved very considerably by placing of some Artificial Engine in or near such River or Stream for the overflowing thereof The Persian Wheel The most considerable and universal is the Persian Wheel much Of the Persian Wheel used in Persia from whence it hath its name where they say there are two or three hundred in a River whereby their Grounds are improved extraordinarily They are also much used in Spain Italy and in France and is esteemed the most facile and advantageous way of raising Water in great quantity to any Altitude within the Diameter of the Wheel where there is any current of Water to continue its motion which a small stream will do considering the quantity and height of the Water you intend to raise This way if ingeniously prosecuted would prove a very considerable Improvement for there is very much Land in many places lying near to Rivers that is of small worth which if it were watred by so constant a stream as this Wheel will yield would bear a good burthen of Hay where now it will hardly bear Corn. How many Acres of Land lie on the declining sides of hills by the Rivers sides in many places where the Water cannot be brought unto it by any ordinary way yet by this Wheel placed in the River or Current and a Trough of Boards set on Tressles to convey the Water from it to the next place of near an equal altitude to the Cistern may the Land be continually watred so far as is under the level of the water Also there is very much Land lying on the borders of Rivers that is flat and level yet neither doth the Land-floods overflow the same or at most but seldom nor can the water be made by any obstruction thereof or such-like way to overflow it But by this Persian Wheel placed in the River in the nearest place to the highest part of the Land you intend to overflow therewith may a very great quantity of water be raised For where the Land is but little above the level of the Water a far greater quantity of Water and with much more facility may be raised than where a greater height is required the Wheel easier made and with less expence There are also many large and flat pieces of Land bordering Of Wind-Engines for the raising of water near unto several Rivers or Streams that will not admit of any of the aforementioned ways of overflowing or watering either because the Current cannot easily or conveniently be obstructed or because such a Persian Wheel may not be placed in the water without trespassing on the opposite Neighbour or hinderance to others or the Water not of force sufficient c. which places may very well admit of a Wind-engine or Wind-mill erected in such part thereof where the Winds may most commodiously command it and where the Land swells above the ordinary level you intend to Water or overflow though it be remote from the Current or Stream the water being easily conducted thereto by an open or subterraneal passage from the Stream Such Wind-mils raising a sufficient quantity of water for a reasonable height for many Acres of Land must needs prove a very considerable advantage to the owner as well for the overflowing thereof as it hath done to many for the draining large Fens of great quantities of water to a considerable height Neither is it altogether necessary that such Land be wholly plain and open to all Winds for in Vallies that are on each side defended with Hills or in such Lands that are on some sides planted with Woods may such Wind-mills well be placed where the wind may at some certain seasons perform its work sufficiently though not so continually as where the place is free to all winds SECT II. The Principal Rules necessary to be observed in Overflowing or drowning of Lands When you have raised or brought the Water by any of the 1 In cutting the main Carriage aforesaid means to the height you expected then cut your main Carriage allowing it a convenient descent to give the Water a fair and plausible Current all along let the mouth of the main Carriage be of breadth rather than depth sufficient to receive the whole Stream you desire or intend and when you come to use a part of your Water let the main Carriage narrow by degrees and so let it narrow till the end that the Water may press into the lesser carriages that issue all along from the main At every rising ground or other convenient distances you ought 2 In cutting the lesser Carriages to cut small tapering Carriages proportionable to the distance and quantity of Land or Water you have which are to be as shallow as may be and as many in number as you can for although it seems to waste much Land by cutting so much turf yet it proves not so in the end for the more nimbly the Water runs over the Grass by much the better the Improvement is which is attained by making many and shallow Carriages Another principal observation in Drowning or Watering of 3 In making the Drains Lands is to make Drains to carry off the Water the Carriage brings on and therefore must bear some proportion to it though not so large and as the lesser Carriages conduct the Water to every part of your Land so must the lesser Drains be made amongst the Carriages in the lowest places to lead the Water off and must widen as they run as the Carriages lessened for if the Water be not well drained it proves injurious to the Grass by standing in pools thereon in the Winter it kills the Grass and in the Spring or Summer hinders its growth and breeds Rushes and bad Weeds which if well drained off works a contrary effect Some graze their Lands till Christmass some longer but as soon 4 Times for watring
and made use of and shall here give unto the Reader the several Ways and Methods we finde dispersed in our Rustick Authors for the imbibition of the Seed which hath been long attempted and many ways tried but most of them have fallen short of the expectation of the Experimenters because they neither took the right Matter nor observed the right manner of the Operation As according to some Authors Steeping of Corn in Dung-water you are prescribed to steep your Corn in Dung-water or Water wherein Cow-dung hath lain some time which its probable may be some though little advantage to the Corn. Then in one of the same Authors are ye commended to an Experiment better than the former That whereas before you steeped your Corn in the Water which had sucked out the strength and salt of the Dung you must now mingle your Dung your Water and your Corn together and stir them one whole hour at the least also in the evening stir them again for half an hour or more let them stand together all night and the next day at some tap draw away the Water then mingle the Corn and Dung throughly well together and after sowe the Dung and Corn so mixed in a barren and hungry mould and you shall have saith mine Author as rich a Crop as if the Ground it self had been dunged before he giveth also a Probatum est unto it The same Sir Hugh Platt gives you a process of steeping Corn Adam 's Tool Revived out of Johannes Baptista Porta which he pretends to cause a wonderful encrease and at least five for one above the accustomed yield which is To take the Corn out of the middle of the Ear and bathe it in sweet Oyntment made with the fat of old Goats being mixed with Bacchus and Vulcan which our Author interprets to be Goats-dung the older the better moistened with Wine or new Must or I rather judge Lees of Wine let their soft and even laid bed be gently warmed which he also Interprets to be the Digging of the Land and by warming it 's probable he means soyling or watering it with some prepared rich Liquor Also our Author there advises for the steeping of Corn in new Ale or Wort it s own natural Bathe but seems to prefer the steeping thereof in the Water wherein the Dung of Oxen Kine and Sheep and Pigeons-dung hath been imbibed which he prescribes to be about two parts of Water to one of Dung and let them stand four or five days often stirring them together which water decauted or coursly filtred is fit for your use wherein you are to steep your Corn till it be glutted therewith which you may easily discover but be sure not to overcharge the Corn with this Liquor Thus far we finde how the steeping of Corn in dung-Dung-water hath been used and approved of and that as may be presumed from the rationality of the thing and credit of the Author with some good success But it is probable it might not always answer the expectation of the Experimenters or at least not to produce so great an Increase as the Authors promise neither can those ways be so excellent as these we shall advise you to being grounded on more rational Principles and have been proved to be more effectual than the other That which containeth in it most of the Vniversal Subject or Matter of Vegetables whereof we discoursed at the beginning of this Treatise is the fittest for this purpose of all which Nitre or Sal terrae is esteemed the best wherewith Virgil adviseth to infuse or besprinkle the Seed Semina vidi equidem multos medicare serentes Et intro prius profundere This also is that Subject Glauber so highly extols where he says Miraculum Mundi p. 50. Si Agricolae semen hoc menstruo humectatum in agrum spargunt citius maturescit granis pinguioribus c. If Husbandmen did sowe their Seed imbibed with this Menstruum it would sooner be ripe and bear better Grain c. This Subject or Menstruum he labours in several Tracts of his to prefer above any other matter whatsoever for all sorts of Vegetables either by application thereof unto the roots or by way of irrigation or by imbibition of the Seed therein as very highly conducing to Fertility and acceleration of Maturation but in another Tract of his being the Explication of the former he very honestly undeceives all such that judge this Nitre or Subject to be common Nitre or Salt-petre Velim Explicatio Miraculi Mundl 51. autem mentem intelligi meam non accipiendum esse nitrum commune hisce minime proficium Common Nitre being not fit for that purpose The Nitre or Sal terrae intended by these and other Learned Authors as apt for this work is the fixed Salt extracted out of any Vegetable Animal or Mineral throughly calcined as after the burning of Land in the common way of burn-baiting that which causeth so great Fertility is as well the fixed Salt or Alcali that 's left in the Ashes as the waste or expence of the sterile acid Spirit which before kept that vegetating Salt from acting What is it that is fertile in Lime Ashes Soap-ashes c. but this Nitre or Sal terrae this Vniversal Subject left therein and most easily separable after calcination Therefore let every Husbandman that expects so large a Product Idem 46. or Reward take the right matter such that Glauber cast on his Asparagus which through its fiery nature destroyed the Worms or banished them wholly from their ancient habitations are by its vegetating and fructifying nature it made the Asparagus thrive more fully and perfectly than before c. This Salt is as easie to be procured as the Lee or Lixivium wherewith the women usually scour their Clothes being extracted out of any Ashes either of Vegetables Animals or Minerals All the difficulty is in the true proportion and strength of this Lixivium or Menstruum for Glauber advises in another Tract of his by no means to add too Continuatio Miraculi Mundi 21. much thereof to the Vines lest they grow too rank but in our way of Imbibition of Grain we need not fear that only this we must be cautious of that the great and fiery heat thereof destroyeth not the Corn for the highest Medicines taken in excess prove the greatest Poysons but let not this prove a Discouragement for it cannot be difficult to prevent this Inconvenience either by moderating the quality of the Menstruum or the time of imbibition Next in place to this Vniversal Subject may be used such materials that contain most of the same as the Dung of Sheep Pigeons and other Fowl who because they make no Vrine have their Dung enriched with a greater quantity of that Subject than other Creatures whence it is usually extracted by the Vrine Sheep also drink but little and feed dry which makes their Dung exceeding rich and fertile I casually met with
the following Process highly applauded by the Owners thereof promising wonderful Productions from it which is thus Take half a Bushel of Sheeps-dung and put upon it twenty quarts of Spring-water set it on the fire till it be luke-warm but not boyling and so rub with your hand all the Sheeps-dung by little and little till it be dissolved in the water then let it stand twelve hours after which strain the water through a course Cloth with a hard Compression this water keep for use Then take of Bay-salt and dissolve it in luke-warm water which water filter and evaporate in an earthen Vessel over the Fire of this congealed Salt after the waters Evaporation take two good handfuls likewise do the same with Salt-petre dissolve it in water filter the water and evaporate it then take of the remaining congealed Salt-petre one good handful and let both those Salts dissolve in the fore-mentioned Liquor of Sheeps-dung making it again milk-warm when all the Salts are therein well dissolved put into that prepared Liquor eight Gallons of Corn or other Seed and let it steep therein thirty or thirty six hours then take it and put it into a Sieve and drain the water into another Vessel which water may be used again in like manner when the water is all drained away take the Corn or other Seed and dry it in some Upper-loft exposed to the Air not to the Sun and being almost dry scatter or sowe it in half proportion N. B. that the Sheeps-dung dregs being dried must be calcined and the Salt thereof drawn in luke-warm water which being filtred and evaporated the remaining Salt thereof is to be dissolved with the other Salts in the Sheeps-dung water I have here given you this Process gratis which hath been valued and contracted for at a high rate the Owners promising a very great Increase to succeed The Process appears to be made not by such that are experienced in Rural Affairs for you will finde it difficult to strain your Sheeps-dung water dissolved in those proportions for the Sheeps-dung wholly dissolves which doth so thicken the water and convert it into a mucilage that all goes where the water goes if rightly done and that which is more strange the Grain will not only imbibe the water so animated but the very substance of the Dung also if rightly ordered which is an Argument sufficient of the melioration of the Grain insomuch that no dregs or remainder of the Sheeps-dung was lost save only a few undissolved treddles As for the Salts I think little good is to be expected from them and therefore hold those troublesom preparations of them needless only the Salt of the Dung must needs be good because it is that Vegetative Salt or Vniversal Subject whereof we discoursed before only it is far fetched and dear bought as good may be had at a far easier rate for this purpose Nevertheless common Sea-salt hath been much cried up by some for an Improver of the Seed and an Example produced of a silly Jewel-house of Art and Nature Swain who passing over an Arm of the Sea with his Seed-corn in a Sack which by mischance at his landing fell into the water and so his Corn being left there till the next low water became somewhat brackish yet out of necessity did the man bestow the same Wheat upon his ploughed Grounds and at the Harvest he reaped a Crop of good Wheat such as in that year not any of his Neighbors had the like Doubtless infusion of the Corn or Seed in any of the aforesaid materials is some advantage to it or in the Lees of Wine Ale Beer Perry Syder or else in Beef-broth and the Brine of Poudering-tubs as is by some advised Also some affirm that Corn spritted a little as they use to do for Mault and then sown came up speedily and got the predomination of the Weeds at first and so kept the same that there was produced a far greater increase than ordinary which is a sufficient convincing Argument that if common water produce so manifest an Improvement that then a better Liquor may much more Because the Corn also will seem troublesom to sowe being wet it is prescribed either to let it dry a day or two on a Floor or else to sift slackened Lime thereon which is to be preferred because it preserves the Corn from Vermine Smutt c. I find also another compounded Liquor to have been commended Hartlib 's Legacie and experimented for the steeping of Grain therein which is thus Pour into quick and unslaked Lime as much Water as sufficeth to make it swim four inches above the Water and unto ten pound of the said water poured off mix one pound of Aqua Vitae and in that Liquor steep or soak wheat or Corn twenty four hours which being dried in the Sun or in the Air steep again in the said Liquor twenty four hours more and do it likewise the third time afterward sowe them at great distances the one from the other about the distance of a foot between each Grain so one Grain will produce thirty thirty six thirty eight forty two fifty two Ears and those very fruitful with a tall Stalk equalling the stature of a man in height This seems to be a most rational Process for this purpose and on this and the like ways of maceration or fermentation of the Seed depends those several Experiments where the Corn or Seed hath yielded so prodigious an Increase as that one grain of Wheat should yield a hundred and fourteen Ears and in them six thousand Grains but in case it generally hold to be but a quarter of the number it is beyond what any other way of Husbandry can perform CHAP. V. Of the Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Lands HAving discoursed of Meadows Pastures and Arable Lands and of the great Advantages and Benefits that are raised out of them and of the several ways of Improving Meadows by drowning or watering and of Pastures and Arable Lands by Inclosure by sowing and propagating New Hays Grasses and the best sorts of Corn Pulse and other Seeds and by the best way of Tilling and Ordering the same Now it will be necessary to say a little concerning this most general way of Improvement by Manuring Dunging and Soyling of Land under which terms we comprehend all the several ways of tempering altering renewing or adding unto the Land or applying any subject whatsoever thereunto for its Improvement and Advantage SECT I. Of the Burning of Land The Burning of Land or any other operation on it by Fire seems to be the greatest though not most universal advance to most of our barren poor and hungry Lands as well dry as wet the Burning of the Ground it self seems to be of very Ancient use as appears by Virgil Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros And burning of Wood and other Combustible Materials on Gages Survey of the West-Indies Sylva Land is practised amongst
observe saith Markham that if you cannot get any Of Fullers Earth perfect and rich Marle if then you can get of that Earth which is called Fullers-Earth and where the one is not commonly the other is then you may use it in the same manner as you should do Marle and it is found to be very near as profitable Mr. Bernhard Palisly that French Author cited so often by Sir Hugh Platt commends the same I have not known it at any time practised in England for the bettering of any ground saith Sir Hugh Platt but by all presumption the same must of necessity be very rich because it is full of that vegetative Salt which appears in these scouring effects for the which it is divers ways had in use amongst us Clay is by many commended to be a considerable Improvement Of Clay Jewel-house of Art and Nature to some sorts of light and sandy Ground as Sir Hugh Platt gives the relation of a certain person that assured it to be most true that the very Clay which he digged up in St. Georges Fields being laid upon his pasture-ground which he there held by Lease did exceedingly enrich the same insomuch as he did never regard to seek after any other Soil Also Mr. Gabriel Platt relates that he knew light sandy ground which was good for little or nothing cured by laying thereon a great quantity of stiff Clay-ground which converted it to good temperament whereby it became fruitful and not subject to fail upon every light occasion as it did before but would abide variety of weather according to the nature of Hasel-ground And this Improvement saith he is of no little value for there is a great difference betwixt Land that is subject to fail once in two or three years and Land thus improved that will not fail once in two or three and twenty years through the distemperature of the weather Mr. Bernhard also affirms that all Marle is a kind of Clay-ground and it should seem to differ only in digestion from Marle It is good to try it on several grounds both Arable and Pasture and for several Grains at several times in the year and in several proportions by this means you may finde out the true value and effect of this and by the same Method of all other Subterraneal Soyl or Manure and thereby raise unto your self a considerable advantage By the same Rule and for the same Reason that Clay advanceth Of Sand. the benefit of light and Sandy grounds may Sand be an inrichment and Improvement to cold Clay-grounds as Mr. Gabriel Platt testifieth that he hath known stiff Clay-grounds that would seldom be fruitful unless the season of the year proved very prosperous to have been cured by laying thereupon a great quantity of light Sandy-ground which afterwards was converted to a good temperament like to the sort of ground commonly called Hasel-ground which seldom or never faileth to be fruitful The best Sand for fertility is that which is washed from the hills or other Sandy places by the violence of Rain other Sands that are digged have little fertility in them only by way of contracting to Clay-ground they may effect much as Columela saith that his Grandfather used to carry Sand on Clay and on the contrary to bring Clay on Sandy grounds and with good success Sand also is of great use to be mixed with Soil as Mr. Blith adviseth for the speedy raising of great quantities of Soil in the Winter by the sheep when foulding is generally neglected and that is by making a large Sheep-house for the housing of Sheep in Winter which may be Sheep-cribbed round about and in the middle too to fother them therein you may bring herein once or twice a week several Loads of Sand either out of the Streets or ways or from a Sand-pit and lay it three or four inches thick and so continue once or twice a week as long as you please and what with the heat and warmth of their bodies and the fatness of their Dung and Urine the Sand will turn to excellent rich Soil and go very far upon Land and be more serviceable than you can conceive There are several sorts of Earth that are of singular use for the Of Earth bettering of Land as all Earth of a Saltish nature is fruitful especially all such Earth as lies dry covered with Hovels or Houses of which you make Salt-petre is rich for Land and so are old floors under any Buildings Mr Platt affirms that he hath known many hundred loads of Earth sold for twelve pence a load being digged out of a Meadow near to Hampton-Court which were carried three or four miles to the higher grounds and fertilized those grounds wonderfully and recompensed the labour and charges very well which Earth being laid upon Arable Land within a Furlong of the same Meadow did more hurt than good which sheweth that the Earth must be of different nature from the Land whereon it is laid Also any sort of Earth may be made use of for the folding of Sheep thereon under a Covert after the Flanders Manner as before is said of Sand. All sorts of Earth are very useful to intermix with Lime Dung of Beasts Fowl or any other fatty substance being laid stratum super stratum in pits or on heaps to putrifie together as well to moderate the quality as to increase the quantity of your Soil Street-dirt in Towns and Villages is an excellent Improver of several sorts of Land especially the light and sandy SECT III. Soyls taken from the Sea or Water The richest of all Sands is what comes from the Sea-coasts and Of Water-Sand the Creeks thereof and all Lands bordering on the Sea may be improved by them it is the usual practise in the Western parts of England for the people to their great charge in carriage to convey the Saltish Sands unto their barren grounds whereof some of them do lie five miles distance from the Sea and yet they find the same exceeding profitable for that their inheritance is thereby enriched for many years together the greatest vertue consisting in the Saltishness thereof Others say the Richness of the Sands is from the fat or filth the Sea doth gather in by Land-floods and what the Tide fetches daily from the shores and from fish and from other matters that putrifie in the Sea all which the Water casts on shore and purgeth forth of it self and leaves in the Sands while it self is clean and pure The Sands of fresh Rivers challenge also a place in our Improvements being laid on Land proper for the same but more especially if it be mixed with any other matter as most usually it is where it is cast on shelves at the falls of some land-Land-waters descending from Hills or High-ways In Devonshire and Cornwal and many other parts they make a Of Sea-weeds and Weeds in Rivers very great Improvement of the Sea-weeds for the Soiling and Manuring
of their Land and that to a very great advantage All manner of Sea-owse Owsy-mud or Sea-weeds or any such-like growing either in the Sea or fresh Rivers whereof there is a very great quantity lost and destroyed are very good for the bettering of Land In Cornwal there is also a Weed called Ore-weed whereof some grows upon Rocks under high Water-marks and some is broken from the bottom of the Sea by rough weather and cast upon the next shore by the Wind and Flood wherewith they Compost their Barly-Land Of Snayl-Cod or Snag-greet It lieth frequently in deep Rivers it is from a Mud or Sludge it is very soft full of Eyes and wrinkles and little shells is very rich some they sell for one shilling two pence the Load another sort they sell for two shillings four pence the 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 had It hath in it many Snails and Shells which is conceived occasioneth the fatness of it I am very credibly informed that an Ingenious Gentleman living Of Oyster-shells near the Sea-side laid on his Lands great quantities of Oyster-shells which made his Neighbours laugh at him as usually they do at any thing besides their own clownish road or custom of ignorance for the first and second years they signified little but afterwards they being so long exposed to the weather and mixed with the moist Earth they exceedingly enriched his Lands for many years after which stands also with reason the Shells of all such Fish being only Salt congealed into such a form which when it is dissolved of necessity must prove fertile There is in most Rivers a very good rich Mud of great fruitfulness Of Mud. and unexpected advantage it costs nothing but labour in getting it hath in it great worth and vertue being the Soil of the Pastures and Fields Commons Roads Ways Streets and Backsides all washed down by the flood and setling in such places where it meets with rest There is likewise very great fertility in the residence of all Channels Ponds Pools Lakes and Ditches where any store of Waters do repose themselves but especially where any store of Rain-water hath a long time setled In Forein parts where Fish are plenty they prove an excellent Of Fish Manure for Land in some places here in England there are plenty of some sorts of Fish and at some seasons not capable of being kept for a Market it were better to make use of them for our advantage than not I presume they are of the best of Soils or Manures but herein I submit to experience Doubtless there is not any thing that proceeds from the Sea or other Waters whether it be Fish or the Garbish of Fish Vegetables Shells Sands or Mud or any such-like dissolving matter but must be of very great advantage to the Husbandman if duly and judiciously applied SECT IV. Of Dungs or Excrementitious Soyls This is the most common of any Dung whatsoever by reason Of Horse dung that Horses are most kept in Stables and their Soil preserved yielding a considerable price in most places the higher the Horses are fed the better is the Dung by far it is the only Dung in use whilest it is new for hot Beds and other uses for the Gardiner Next unto the Horse-dung is Cow-dung whereof by reason of Of Cow or Ox-dung its easie solution hath been made the Water wherein Grain hath been steeped and hath deceived many a plain-meaning Husbandman for there is not that richness nor vertue therein as many judge for that purpose But this together with Horse-dung or other Dung is of very great advantage to Land if it be kept till it be old and not laid abroad exposed to the Sun and Wind as is the practise of the several ignorant Husbands letting of it lie spread on their Field-Lands three or four of the Summer-months together till the Sun and Air hath exhausted all the vertue thereof which if it be laid on heaps with Earth mixed therewith and so let lie till it be rotten it will be the sooner brought to a convenient temper and on Pasture-grounds brings a sweeter Grass and goes much farther than the common way and spread before the Plough produces excellent Corn It is also to be used with Judgment for ordinary Dung used the common way in some years doth hurt and sometimes makes Weeds and trumpery to grow which ordered as before is not so apt for such inconveniences Of all Beasts Sheep Of Sheeps-dung yield the best Dung and therefore is most to be esteemed it is a very high Improvement to the common Field-lands where there is a good Flock duly folded on them especially where it is turned in with the Plough soon after the fold the only way to Improve your Sheeps-dung to the highest advantage is to fold them in a covered fold with intermixture of Earth Sand c. as before and by this means we may make our sheep enrich most of our barren Lands Sheeps-dung is very excellent being dissolved wholly as it will be if well squeezed to steep Grain therein for the Grain doth very eagerly imbibe the whole quantity of the Dung into it self except only here and there a treddle undissolved and proves a great Improvement if rightly ordered Great quantities of this Dung might be obtained if poor Women and Children were imployed to pick up the same on the Rode-ways and burning tops of hills where it seldom doth any good but would prove much more advantageous than the cost or trouble by far This hath in former Ages been esteemed the worst of Dungs Of Swines-dung very hurtful to Corn a breeder of Thistles and other noisome Weeds But our late Husbands whose experience I rather credit than English Improver an old vain Tradition say 't is very rich for Corn or Grass or any Land yea of such account to many ingenious Husbands that they prefer it before any ordinary Manure whatsoever therefore they make their Hog-yards most compleat with an high Pale paved well with Pibble or Gravel in the bottom c. they cast into this yard their Cornish Muskings and all Garbidge and all Leaves Roots Fruits and Plants out of Gardens Courts and Yards and great store of Straw Fearn or Weeds for the Swine to make Dung withal some Hog-yards will yield you forty some sixty some eighty Load of excellent Manure of ten or twelve Swine It 's most likely that this Manure so made by these large additions is more natural and kindly to Land than the bare Swines-dung it self and must of necessity prove a very high advantage considering the despicable vile state of this Beast Some good Daries will make the Soil of their Hog-yard produce them twenty or thirty pounds worth of profit in a year Of the Dung of Fowls
Cider stand in a Vat covered to ferment a day and night before you Tun it up and then draw it from the Vat by a Tap about two inches from the bottom or more according to discretion leaving the Feces behinde which will not be lost if you put it up on the Chaff for then it meliorates your Pur or Water-Cider if you make any When your Cider is Tunn'd into the Barrel where you intend to keep it leave some small vent open for several days until its wilde spirit be spent which will otherwise break the Barrel or finde some vent that will always abide open though but small to the ruine of your Cider Many have spoiled their Cider by this only neglect and never apprehended the cause thereof which when stopt close after this wilde spirit is spent although seemingly flattish at first will improve and become brisk and pleasant Cider in a little time If Cider prove thick or sowrish bruise a few Apples and put in at the Bung of your Barrel and it will beget a new Fermentation and very much mend your Cider so that in a few days after you draw it off into another Vessel If Cider be only a little sowrish or drawn off in another Vessel the way to correct or preserve it is to put about a Gallon of Wheat blaunch'd is best to a Hogshead of Cider and so according to that proportion to a greater or lesser quantity which will as well amend as preserve it If Cider hath any ill savour or taste from the Vessel or any other cause a little Mustard-seed ground with some of the Cider and put to it will help it Mixture of Fruit is of great advantage to your Cider the meanest Apples mixt make as good Cider as the best alone always observing that they be of equal ripeness except the Red-streak and some few celebrated Cider-Apples 4. Of the Wines or Juices of other Fruits If Cherries were in so great plenty that the Markets would not take them off at a good rate they would become very beneficial to be converted into Wine which they would yield in great quantity very pleasant and refreshing and a finer cooler and more natural Summer-drink than Wine It may also be made to keep long Some hath been kept a whole year and very good Although it may not prove so brisk clear and curious a drink Wine of Plums as Cherry-wine yet where Plums are in great plenty they being Trees easily propagated a very good Wine may be made of them according to the great diversity of this sort of Fruit you must expect divers Liquors to proceed from them The black tawny Plum is esteemed the best This Fruit yields a good Wine being prepared by a skilful Mulberry-Wine hand the natural Juice serves and is of excellent use to add a tincture to other paler Wines or Liquors England yields not a Fruit whereof can be made a more pleasant Rasberry-Wine drink or rather Wine than of this humble Fruit if compounded with other Wines or drinks it animates them with so high a fragrant savour and gust that it tempts the most curious Palats The juice of this Fruit boiled with a proportionable addition Wine of Currans of water and Sugar makes a very pleasant Wine to the eye and taste it being duly fermented and botled A great quantity of this Fruit may also be raised in a little ground and in a few years Of the Juice of Goosberries extracted in it's due time and Gooseberry-Wine mixed with water and Sugar is prepared a very pleasant cooling Repast This Fruit is easily propagated and yields much Liquor It 's usually made unboiled because it contracts a brown colour in the boiling As for any other Liquors Preservations or Conservations of these or any other Fruits I leave you to the many Tracts published already on that Subject CHAP. VIII Of such Tillage Herbs Roots and Fruits that are usually planted and propagated in Gardens and Garden-grounds either for necessary Food Vse or Advantage MOst of these several sorts of Tillage whereof we are now The advantage of Garden-Tillage in general to treat in this Chapter will raise unto the Industrious Husbandman an extraordinary advantage and are not to be esteemed amongst the least of Improvements for each sort being properly planted in such ground they most naturally delight in and being well Husbandried and judiciously ordered produce an incredible advantage But think not this strange that common and well-known Plants that are so natural to our English Soyl should prove so beneficial it is for no other cause than that some men are more Industrious and Ingenious than others For these Garden-plants prosper not without great labour care and skill and besides are subject more than others to the injuries of unseasonable weather Neither of which the slothful or ignorant Husbandman can away with affecting only such things that will grow with least toyl hazard or expence though they feed on bread and water when the diligent and industrious Adventurer lives like a petty Prince on the fruit of his labours and expectation which sufficiently repays his expence and hazard It is hard to finde any Trade Occupation or Imployment that a man may presume on a large and Noble Requital of his time cost or industry but it is hazardous especially to such that attempt the same without a special affectation thereunto or skill therein Nil tam difficile est quod non Solertia vincet So this Art and Imployment of Planting Propagating and Encreasing of Hops Saffron Liquorice Cabbage Onions and other Garden-Commodities being casual and more subject to the injuries of the weather than commonly Corn or Grass is makes it so much neglected for one bad Crop or bad year for any of them shall more discourage a Countryman from a Plantation thereof than five good Crops though never so profitable and advantagious shall incourage Ignorant and self-willed men are naturally so prone to raise Objections on purpose to deter themselves and others from any thing whatsoever that's either pleasant or profitable But we hope better of the Ingenious that they will set to their helping hand to promote this useful and necessary Art and thereby become a provoking President to their ignorant Neighbours that our Land may be a Land of Plenty that it may superabound with necessaries and rather afford a supply to their Neighbours than expect it from them as we are inforced to do in several sorts of those things we treat of in this Book Those of our own growth also far exceeding that we have abroad which inconveniencies and disadvantages nothing can better prevent than our own Industry and Ingenuity Besides most of this Garden-Tillage is of late years become a more general Food than formerly it was Scarce a Table well furnisht without some dishes of choice Roots or Herbs and it is not only pleasant to the rich but good for the poor labouring man many where plenty is
being useful at his Cart and Plough the Cow yielding great store of Provision both for the Family and the Market and both a very great advantage to the support of the Trade of the Kingdom Concerning their form nature and choice I need say little every Countryman almost understanding how to deal for them The best sort is the large Dutch Cow that brings two Calves at one Birth and gives ordinarily two Gallons of Milk at one Meal As for their breeding rearing breaking curing of their Diseases and other ordering of them and of Milk Butter and Cheese c. I refer you to such Authors that do more largely handle that Subject than this place will admit of Next unto these the Sheep deserves the chiefest place and is Of Sheep by some preferred before any other for the great profit and advantage they bring to Mankinde both for Food and Apparel Whereof there are divers sorts some bearing much finer Wooll than others as the Herefordshire-Sheep about Leicester bear the fairest Fleeces of any in England Also they are of several kinds as to their proportion some are very small others larger But the Dutch-sheep are the largest of all being much bigger than any I have seen in England and Yearly bear two or three Lambs at a time It is also reported that they sometimes bear Lambs twice in the Year It may doubtless be of very good advantage to obtain of those kindes and also of Spanish-sheep that bear such fine Fleeces As for their breeding curing and ordering I refer you as before to such Authors that have largely treated of them This Beast is also of a very considerable advantage to the Of Swine Husbandman the Flesh being a principal support to his Family yielding more dainty Dishes and variety of Meat than any other Beast whatsoever considering them as Pig Pork Bacon Brawn with the different sorts of Offal belonging to them Also they are of the coursest Feed of any Creature whatsoever being content with any thing that 's Edible so they have their fill for they are impatient of hunger It is a great neglect that they are no more bred and kept than they are their Food being obtained at so easie a rate Besides the Offal of Corn Whey and other Culinary Provision it cannot but prove a very considerable advantage to sow or plant Land on purpose with Coleworts Kidney-beans and several other gross thriving Pulses Plants and Roots whereby you may not only raise a considerable stock of them to your great gain and profit if old Tusser said true And yet by the Yeat have I proved e'te now As good to the Purse is a Sow as a Cow but also by their Treading and Batling in case they be kept in a Court made several for that purpose they will convert all such Vegetables they eat not into excellent Soil If they are suffered to run abroad they waste their flesh much therefore it is esteemed the most frugal and beneficial-way to keep them always penned into some Court both for their flesh and soil These are kept in some places for advantage being a very Of Goats course Feeder The Kids are esteemed good Meat their Hair also is of use to make Ropes and other things it never rots in the water The best sort of them breeds twice in the Year they are usually kept in Stables where many Horses are to preserve them from several Epidemical Diseases The Milk of Goats is esteemed the greatest Nourisher of all liquid things whereon we feed except Womans Milk and the most comfortable to the stomack from whence the Poets feign that their God Jupiter himself was nourished with Goats-milk They crop and are injurious to young Trees therefore are to be kept with much caution Although they are not esteemed amongst the number of profitable Of Dogs Cattle yet are they very necessary servants and the most observant and affectionate of all Beasts whatever to Mankinde Their love even to the loss of their lives in defence of their Master his Cattle Goods c. their officiousness in Hunting and seeking after all sorts of Prey or Game are so commonly known and so frequently made use of that it 's needless to tell you so Only that they are of different sorts and natures some as a Guard to defend your House and Goods others as Shepherds to defend your Sheep and Cattle others as Jaccals or Watchmen always wakeful to rouze up the heavy Mastiffs whereof some are for the Bear others for the Bull. Some Dogs also are for the Game as for the Stag Buck Fox Hare Coney Pollcat Otter Weesel Mole c. Also for the Duck Pheasant Partridge Quayl Moor-hens and several other sorts of Land and Water-fowl Others also are kept for their Beauty Shape and Proportion and for their docible Nature being apt to Dance and perform several other Acts of Activity c. Besides the wilde which are very profitable in Warrens tame Coneys Coneys may be kept to a very great advantage either in Hutches or in Pits which is much to be preferred These Pits are sunk about six or seven foot deep in a good light Mould or in Chalk or Sand they delight most These are to be made round or square and walled with Stone or Brick to preserve the Earth from foundring in leaving places on the sides for the Coneys to draw and make their Stops or Buries At the one end or side make a hollow place for the Buck to rest in chaining him to a small stump that he may have liberty to go to the Rack to feed and to his Den to rest On the other side or end let the places be left for the Does to make their stops in About the middle of the Pit may you place the Rack to feed them in the Buck on the one side and the Does on the other In a Pit of about ten foot square may be kept two or three Does besides the Buck which will bring each of them about fifty or more Young ones in a year sometimes seventy or eighty When they are about a Moneth old you may take them out of the Pit and either spend them or feed them in another Pit or place made for that purpose Their Food is for the most part Greens growing in and about your Gardens as Carrots and their Greens Coleworts Sowthistles Malloes Dandilion Saxifrage Parsley Grass and many other Also Hay Bran Grains Oats c. They ought to be constantly fed and cleansed and great care taken to keep them from Cats Pollcats c. If you have much Garden-ground and a good soil free from Water Clay or Stone for them to breed in they will thrive exceedingly and doubly repay your care and trouble By feeding them with dry Meat between whiles in the Winter-season it preserves them from the Rot which in moist weather they are subject unto but if you feed them much with dry Meat you must set them water otherwise not The
black or silver-haired are most usually kept tame their Their kindes skins being of great value The great Dutch-Rabbit is the best for their food being much larger than the other But the white Shock-Rabbit of Turkie is the most pleasant having long and fine hair and is now become the most in Mode SECT II. Of Fowl The Countrymans Farm or Habitation cannot be said to be compleatly stored or stocked without Fowl as well as Beasts yielding a considerable advantage by their Eggs Brood Bodies and Feathers amongst which the Poultry seems to have the Of Poultry Preheminence being more universally kept than any other sort whatsoever insomuch that any poor Cottager that lives by the High-way-side may keep of them being able to shift for themselves the most part of the Year feeding on Insects and on any thing almost that 's Edible by any other sort of Animal They are also kept to a very great advantage in the Backsides Profit of Poultry and at the Barns-doors of great Farms and as I have been certainly informed a good Farm hath been wholly stockt with Poultry spending the whole Crop upon them and keeping several to attend them and that it hath redounded to a very considerable Improvement It seems also consonant to Reason especially if within a days Journey of London that they might have a quick Return and a good Market being in a capacity to furnish the Market throughout the Year either with Eggs Chickens Pullets Capons or Cocks and Hens Also the Feathers must needs yield a considerable advantage and the Dung of Poultry being of great use on the Land much exceeding the Dung of any Cattle whatsoever Therefore if convenient places or houses were made for them Feeding and fatting of Poultry as dark as may be which doth much expedite their fatning and the Poultry there fed and their Dung reserved and before it hath taken wet let it be mixed with Earth it will undoubtedly answer the expence of a great part of the Corn you feed them withal If they are fed with Buck or French-wheat or with Hemp-seed Encreasing of Eggs. they will lay more Eggs than with any other sort of Grain Buck-wheat either grownd and made in Paste or whole the former way is the better is the best single fatner of Fowl Hemp-seed as they say giving an ill favour to the flesh of the Bird that feeds on it but this only upon report if it prove otherwise it would be one great encouragement to the planting or sowing of Hemp that the Seed should be of so great use In Egypt they hatch their Eggs in great quantities in Ovens Hatching of Eggs artificially made for that purpose In several places in this Country also one Hen will lead the Brood of two or three Hens so that they be hatched near about a time therefore may you with much facility hatch three or four dozen of Eggs in a Lamp-Furnace made of a few Boards only by the heat of a Candle or Lamp so that you order them that they may hatch about the same time that the Hen hatches her Eggs that you intend shall lead them By which means in a warm Room may one Hen lead many Chickens and raise them up with little charge and without the loss of time of the other Hens This way may be of singular use where you keep Poultry of divers kindes that is of the largest kindes to Lay and a few of the Lesser to Sit and Nurse up the Chickens They are a Fowl very profitable in many places where there Of Geese are Commons to feed them on being a Creature that requires little care and attendance and little charge in feeding them They multiply extraordinary in some places breeding twice a Year and in all places yielding a considerable price Also their Feathers are no small advantage especially if you sheer them as they do Sheep as in some places is usual You may set them on any number of Eggs under fifteen and above seven giving to each Goose her own Eggs for it 's said they will not hatch a strangers The Young or Green-Geese are best fatted if kept dark and Of fatting of Geese fed with ground Malt and Milk mixed together The Old and Stubble-Geese will be fat the same way or fed with new Malt. But in fatting of Geese you may observe that they usually sit A principal Observation in fatting of Geese especially in the night-time with their Beaks or Bills on their Rumps where they suck out most of their moisture and fatness at a small bunch of Feathers which you shall finde standing upright on their Rumps always moist which if cut away close before you put them up to fatting they will be fat in much less time and with much less Meat than otherwise They will feed on and fatten also with Carrots cut small and given them The Jews who are esteem'd the skilfullest Feeders that be do The Jews manner of fatting Geese wrap the Goose in a Linnen Apron they hang her up in a dark place stopping her Ears with Pease or some other thing that by neither hearing nor seeing of any thing she be not forced to struggle nor cry After they give her Pellets of Ground-malt or Barley steeped in water thrice a day setting by them water and gravel by which manner of feeding they make them so fat that it is almost incredible I have heard it also confidently affirmed and related by one that in France he saw Carps fatted by being bound with their Noses upright and daily fed with white-bread and Wine whether their bodies were in the water or no I remember not This as he affirmed made the Carps exceeding fat and pleasant Most certain it is that darkness doth much conduce to the fatning of any Creature and also rest and sleep as appears by the Bears and Foxes in the Northern Climates Gravel also not a little availeth it being usual that when Poultry are penned up and have lost their appetite being set where Gravel is will greedily eat it Tame Ducks being much of the nature of Geese we shall Of Ducks say the less of them only that they require more water to dabble in than do the Geese and that they are not so good Meat There are some sorts of them that lay great store of Eggs which are more to be preferred and are distinguished from the other by the turning up of their Bills more than the other sorts There are also a certain sort of Ducks kept only to draw unto Of Decoy-Ducks them and as it were Trapan whole Flights of Wilde-Ducks and bring or conduct them to the places of their retirement which are Pools made on purpose The manner and form whereof and also of the breeding of these sorts of Ducks and the taking of the wilde-Fowl they bring with them we leave to the more skilful in that Exercise to treat of Turkeys or Ginney-hens or Cocks are a melancholy
Fowl as Of Turkeys appears by their doleful cry and the anger that they seem to have against red colours being possest with a strong conceit that they are mocked by reason their own Combs or Wattels are red They are a great Feeder devouring more than they are worth by far if they are fed with Corn but if let at liberty and have Ranging room enough they feed on Herbs or the Seeds of Herbs without any great charge or trouble except in the breeding at which time they require careful attendance being an extream chill Bird. Some having the conveniency of a Wood or Grove near their house have let the Hen-Turkeys take their liberty and seek their own Nests and take care of their Young which they will do concealing their Nests from the Cock and bring up their Brood with much better success than the more tame They are seldom very fat till the Winter be well spent that they forget their Lust the cold weather gets them a stomack and the long nights afford them much rest Several sorts of Pigeons or Doves there are both wilde and Of Pigeons tame as Wood-Pigeons or Wood-Quests Rock-Pigeons Stock-Doves Turtle-Doves Then there are House-Pigeons such as are usually kept in Dove-cots or Pigeon-houses and divers sorts of Tame-Pigeons fed by hand kept for their largeness of body for their beauty and diversity of colours breeding almost every Moneth in the Year But we shall only here treat of Pigeons kept in Dove-houses that bring in unto such that are priviledged to keep them a considerable Yearly advantage with very little cost or trouble only feeding of them in the Snowy or Frosty weather when nothing is to be had abroad and about Midsummer before Pease be ripe which time they usually call Benting-time because then necessity inforceth them to feed on the Bents or seed of Bennet-grass no other food being then to be had And usually about that time have they store of Eggs and Young Ones which will otherwise be starved unless you help them but the Dung of their Houses will in a manner satisfie you for their Meat if carefully made use of There is nothing that Pigeons more affect than Salt for they To encrease a Stock of Pigeons will pick out the Mortar out of the Joynts of Stone or Brick-walls meerly for the saltness thereof therefore do they usually give them as oft as occasion requires a Lump of Salt which they usually call a Salt-Cat made for that purpose at the Salterns which makes the Pigeons much affect the place and such The Salt-Cat that casually come there usually remain where they finde such good entertainment If Assa-fetida be boiled in water and the holes washed therewith Assa-fetida their Feathers will bear the scent thereof about them that whatsoever company they light into will be so well pleased therewith that they will bear them company home to the great encrease of your Stock This hath been always esteemed an excellent Drawer of Pigeons Cummin-seed either by washing the holes with water wherein it hath been boiled or feeding them with Meat steeped in such water But that which hath been experienced to have had the greatest A baked Bitch power to draw these Birds from their former homes to the place you desire is that you take a Bitch in her heat of Lust or hot or salt as they usually term it and after she is Fleyed and Bowelled bake her in an Oven some prescribe to roast her with Cummin-seed in her Belly then lay her in the Pigeon-house and if you have but few Pigeons there you shall soon finde a wonderful encrease This hath been an experienced way to stock a decayed House in a very short time These Birds are kept for their Beauty and magnificent deportment Of Swans being the proudest most chaste and jealous and least sustainer of injuries of any other their flesh not so much regarded as the flesh of other Water-fowl Yet is the Cignet a Noble Dish at great Entertainments which Fatting of Cignets may be fatted and made the more acceptable by keeping them apart in a close Pond out of which they cannot get having only a little dry Grass-plat to sit and prune themselves in Near to the water you shall place Tubs or shallow Vessels with Oats Wheat Barley dried Mault or such like some dry and some in water for them to feed on at pleasure and sometimes cast them some hot sweet Grains on the water By this means in one moneth may they be fat These Birds are usually kept for their Excellent Beauty and Of Peacocks Deportment yet they are beneficial also to the places where they are kept by cleansing them of Snakes Adders and such-like Their Chickens also are good meat It is a Bird of Understanding and Glory for being praised he elevates and spreads his lofty Tail and of Pride for no sooner doth he behold his feet not thinking them compleat enough for so painted a Pageant he lets his Tail fall for meer conceit which appears by his melancholy posture at the loss or shedding of his Tail till Nature hath renewed it In any place these may be kept for pleasure and variety but Of tame Pheasants and the ordering of them in places near London or some great City for advantage Mr. Hartlib hath the Relation of a Lady that kept so many near Chelsey that she hatched two hundred in one Spring whereof that though many died yet by far the greater part would come to perfection Also that there are many near London who keep them to make profit of them that they are very easie to bring up and to keep when they are once past the first moneth for till then they must be kept only with Ants Eggs and fed with nothing else which are easily obtained The first moneth being past they are fed with Oats only requiring nothing else But as they love to be kept in Grassie Fields so one must change them oft to fresh grounds because they taint the Grass Also the Courts may be inclosed with Laths the Fence must be made high and places of Refuge covered with Nets to keep the Hawk from them and their Chickens which they more greedily desire than any other Game whatsoever SECT III. Of Insects Over and above the stock of Cattle Fowl c. wherewith the Country-Farm is generally replenished there are several sorts of Insects that being judiciously and carefully managed and ordered may bring into the Husbandmans-Purse no small advantage Amongst many of them that are useful in several Countries and to several ends and purposes we have only two which are Bees and Silk-worms that are familiarly known and preserved amongst us whereof we shall treat apart And first of Bees Being so commonly known and kept in this Kingdom that Of Bees there is scarcely a Village excepting near great Cities and Towns where they are not kept whereof there are many several Tracts written and published full
security to the Winder the Method being usual needs no description here 2. By bringing water in Pipes or Gutters which is easily done the Spring or Stream from whence you bring it being somewhat higher than the place where you desire it 3. By raising water by Forcers Pumps or Water-wheels many and several are the Inventions whereby to effect it but none more easie plain and durable than the Persian-wheel before-mentioned in the Chapter concerning the watering of Meadows 4. By making of Cisterns or Receptacles for water either for the Rain or some Winter-springs to fill them whereby the water may be kept throughout the Summer In this are we very deficient for on the Mountainous dry and upland parts of Spain they have no other water than what they so preserve from the Rain It being the Custom in France where in many places water is scarce to preserve their waters in Cisterns as the French Rural Poet advises That if the place you live in be so dry That neither Springs nor Rivers they are nigh Then at some distance from your Garden make Within the Gaping Earth a spacious Lake That like a Magazine may comprehend Th' assembled Flouds that from the Hills descend And all the bottom pave with Chalkie Lome c. Also in Amsterdam and Venice they keep their Rain-water in Cellars made on purpose for Cisterns capacious enough to contain water for the whole year it being renewed as oft as the Rain falls Why therefore may we not here in England on our driest hills make places Pools or Cisterns sufficient to contain water enough for our Cattle for our Domestick uses and also for our Garden-occasions if we were but diligent few years there are but yield us plenty of showres to supply them though not enough to supply the defect of them much more Rain falling here than on the Continent where those Pools and Cisterns are more used for which cause this Island is by them termed Matula Coeli and yet have we so many thousands of Acres of dry Lands uninhabited untilled and almost useless unto us from this only cause and have so easie means to remedy it If you designe to make your Cisterns under your house as a How to make Cisterns to hold Water Cellar which is the best way to preserve it for your Culinary uses then may you lay your Brick or Stone with Tarris and it will keep water very well or you may make a Cement to joynt your Stone or Brick withal with a Composition made of slacked and sifted Lime and Linseed-Oyl tempered together with Tow or Cotten-Wooll Or you may lay a Bed of good Clay and on that lay your Bricks for the Floor then raise the wall round about leaving a convenient space behinde the wall to ram in Clay which may be done as fast as you raise the wall So that when it is finished it will be a Cistern of Clay walled within with Brick and being in a Cellar the Brick will keep the Clay moist although empty of water that it will never crack This I have known to hold water perfectly well in a shadowy place though not in a Cellar Thus in any Gardens or other places may such Cisterns be made in the Earth and covered over the Rain-water being conveyed thereto by declining Channels running unto it into which also the Alleys and Walks may be made to cast their water in hasty showres Also in or near houses may the water that falls from them be conducted thereunto But the usual way to make Pools of water on Hills and Downs for Cattle is to lay a good Bed of Clay near half a foot thick and after a long and laborious ramming thereof then lay another course of Clay about the same thickness and ram that also very well then pave it very well with Flints or other Stones which not only preserves the Clay from the tread of Cattle c. but from chapping of the Winde or Sun at such times as the Pool is empty Note also that if there be the least hole or chap in the bottom it will never hold water unless you renew the whole labour Some have prescribed ways for the making of Artificial Springs others for the making of salt-Salt-water fresh but those things being not yet fully experienced we leave being not willing to trouble our Husbandman with so great Philosophical intricacies tending rather to lead him from the more plain and advantagious Method to imaginary and fruitless attempts Heat and Drought do not always attend us nor do they so Great Cold and Frost frequently afflict us especially in the greatest part or proportion of this Country but that we have also a share of a superabundant Cold and Moisture but seeing that they do not so frequently happen together as Heat and Drought usually do we will divide them The cold that most afflicts the Husbandman is the bitter Frosts that sometimes happen in the Winter or Spring and are beyond our power either to foresee or prevent yet that they may not injure us so far as otherwise they might we propose these remedies or preventions Some Lands are more inclinable and capacitated by their nature or scituation to suffer by bitter Frosts than others are as those that lie on a cold Clay or Chalk more than those that lie on a warm Sand or Gravel those that lie moist than those that lie dry those that lie on the North or East-sides of Hills than those that lie on the South or West therefore it is good to plant or sow such Trees Grains or Plants that can least abide the cold in such grounds that are most warmly seated And although that it is not an easie thing to alter the nature of the ground yet is it feasible to take away the offensive moisture that doth so much cool the Land whereof more hereafter in this Chapter and also to place such Artificial defensives against the cold that may very much remedy this inconvenience as we see it is most evident that the Frosts have a greater influence where the Air hath its free passage than where it is obstructed To which end we cannot but propose Inclosures and planting of Trees as a remedy also for this Disease for any manner of shelter preserves the Corn young Trees c. from the injury that otherwise would happen to them as we see in Snows and drowning of Meadows that the Snow and water prove defensive against the cold In Gardens and other nearer Plantations the Spring-frosts prove most pernicious the general remedies whereof where the site and position of the place is not naturally warm are Walls Pales or other Edifices or tall hedges or rows of Trees whereof the Whitethorn but chiefly Holly have the preheminence but these seem remote and rather preventions against the winde the more nearer are the application of new Horse-dung or Litter that hath lain under Horses which applied to the roots of any tender Trees or Plants preserves them from the
destructive Frosts and also by covering whole Beds therewith preserves the Plants or Roots therein Also Straw Hawm Fern or suchlike dry Vagetable will defend any thing from the Frosts although the Litter be to be preferred But such things that are not to be touched or suppressed as Coleflower-plants Gilliflower-slips c. the placing of Sticks like some Booth or suchlike over them and covering them with a Mat or Canvas or suchlike doth very much defend them giving them Sun and Air in temperate days makes them the more hardy and preserves their colour Furze where it may conveniently be had is a very excellent shelter and defence against Cold being laid about Trees or over Plants of what kinde soever It breaks the violence of Winde and Frost beyond any thing else lying hollow of it self doth not that injury to Plants that other things do without support and proves many times better than a supported shelter Preserving them also from Rain unless as much as is sufficient to nourish them is a good prevention of Frosts for the Frost injureth no Plant so much as that which stands wet as I have often observed that Cyprus-trees and Rosemary standing on very dry ground have endured the greatest Frosts when others have perished by the same Frosts standing in moist ground although more in the shelter Also the most pernicious Frosts to Fruits succeed Rainy days a dry Frost rarely hurts Fruit. Gilliflowers and several other Flowers and Plants receive their greatest injury from wet which if kept dry endure severe colds the better Hot-Beds are much in use for the propagating of Seeds in the Spring c. which when they are covered prove secure remedies Conservatories wherein to remove your tender Plants in the Winter are a usual prevention of cold some whereof are made by some degrees warmer than others are suitable to the several natures of the Plants to be preserved But the compleatest Conservatories are large leaves of boards to open and shut at pleasure over your Orange or other Fruit-trees closely pruned against a Wall or Pale and planted either against your Chimney where you always keep a good fire or against some Stove made on purpose Aprecocks so planted against an ordinary wall with such doors must needs avail much in the Spring-time to defend the young and tender Fruit from the sharp Frosts and is a much more practicable and surer way than the bowing the branches into Tubs as some advise Others hang Cloaths or Mats over the Trees in frosty nights but these are troublesome It is evident that part of the same Tree being under some shelter from the Rain will bear plenty of Fruit when other part of the same Tree being open to the Rain bears but little in cold and destructive Springs though alike obvious to the cold and winde Therefore endeavour to preserve your tender Wall-fruits from the wet and you may the less fear the winde and cold To lay open the roots of Trees in the Spring to keep them backwards from springing is a very proper prevention against the Frosts in Apples Pears c. for we finde a forward Spring that excites the early Fruit too soon proves very injurious to it in case any Frosts succeed The freezing of water also proves sometime an injury to the Husbandman either by hindering his Cattle from drink or by destroying Fish that are confined in a small Pond so frozen To prevent the latter if you can let there be some constant fall of water into it though never so small which will always keep a vent open sufficient to preserve the Fish who can as ill live without Air as Terrestrial Creatures can without water Any constant motion prevents a total Congelation If you lay a good quantity of Pease-hawm in the water that part may lie above and part under the water it is observed that the water freezes not within the Hawm by reason of its close and warm lying together which will prevent the death of Fish as well as breaking of the Ice Fruit when it is gathered into the house is subject to be spoiled by Frosts therefore be careful to lay it in dry Rooms either seeled thatched or boarded for in frosty weather the condensed Air which is most in such Rooms adhering to the Fruit freezeth and destroyeth it which is usually prevented covering them with Straw c. but best of all by placing a Vessel of water near them which being of a colder nature than the Fruit attracts the moist Air to its self to the preservation of the Fruit even to admiration Great Rains prove injurious to such Lands that are of themselves Much Rain moist enough for the remedy whereof and to prevent such injuries see more in the next Section In such Lands that lie at the bottoms or foot of Hills where the great falls of Rain do annoy the Corn or Grass care is to be taken for the conveying away of the water by Channels or Passages made for that purpose In the time of Harvest the greatest Enemy the Husbandman usually finds is Rain against which the best remedy is Expedition To make Hay whilest the Sun shines It is a grand neglect that there are not some kinde of Artificial shelters made in Lands remote from our dwellings for the speedy conveyance of Corn into shelter in dripping Harvests and there to remain till fair Weather and leisure will admit of a more safe carriage Worthy of commendation is the practise used in Sommersetshire c. where they lay their Wheat-sheaves in very large shocks or heaps in the Fields and so place them that they will abide any wet for a long time when on the contrary in Wiltshire and other more Southernly Counties they leave all to the good or bad weather though far remote from Barns sometimes to their very great detriment so naturally slothful and ignorant are some people and naturally ingenious and industrious are other Where their Lands lie two or three miles from their Barns as in some places in Champion Countries they do the covered Reek-staval much in use Westward must needs prove of great advantage in wet or dry Harvests to save long draughts at so busie a time Where Lands lie at a far distance the one from the other several Barns built as the Land requireth are very convenient for the more speedy housing of the Corn for the better preserving of it the more easie thrashing it out the more convenient fothering of the Cattle with the Straw and for the cheaper disposing of the soil for the improvement of the Land where on the contrary one great Barn cannot lie near to every part of a large Farm nor can Corn be so well preserved in it nor with so much advantage disposed into Mows nor thrashed nor the fother nor soil so easily dispersed High-winds prove very pernicious and injurious to the Husbandman High Winds in several respects to his Buildings Fruits Trees Hops Corn c. as many in the
plain open or high Countries by woful experience do finde To prevent which as to Buildings by common experience and observation we finde that Trees are the only and most proper safeguard for which the Eugh is the best although it be long a growing Next unto that the Elm which soon aspires to a good height and full proportionable body and is thickest in the branches and will thrive in most Lands but any Trees are better than none As to Fruits Walls Pales or any other Buildings are a good prevention and security for Garden-fruits but for want of that Hedges and Rows of Trees may be raised at an easie rate and in little time As to Timber or other Trees which are also subject to be subverted or broken by high windes to abate the largeness of their Heads proves a good prevention especially the Elm which ought to have its Boughs often abated else will it be much more subject to be injured by high windes than any other Tree Hops of any Plant the Husbandman propagateth receiveth the most damage from high windes which may in some measure be prevented Against the Spring-windes which nips the young Buds and afterwards bloweth them from the Poles a good Pale or Thorn-hedge much advantageth but against the boysterous windes when they are at the tops of the Poles a tall Row of Trees incompassing the whole Hop-Garden is the best security in our power to give them Also be sure to let their Poles be firm and deep in the ground As to Corn windes sometimes prove an injury to it in the Ear when they are accompanied with great Rains by lodging of it but the greatest injury to it is in the Grass when it is young I mean Winter-corn the fierce bitter blasts in the Spring destroying whole Fields The only and sure remedy or prevention against this Disease is Inclosure as before we noted of Cold. In Spain c. where the Mist of Superstition hath dimmed Thunder and Tempest Hail c. the Spiritual and Natural sight the Ringing of Sacred Bells the use of Holy Water c. are made use of to Charm the Evil Spirit of the Air which very frequently in those hotter Climates terrifies the Inhabitants that he may be a little more favourable unto them than others But it cannot enter into my thoughts or belief that any thing we can do here either by Noises Charms c. or by the use of Bays Lawrel c. can prevail with so great a Natural Power and so much beyond our Command Prayers unto God excepted which are the only Securities and Defensives against so Potent and Forcible Enemies Blighting and Mildews have been generally taken to be the Mildews same thing which hath begotten much errour and the ways and means used for the prevention and cure have miscarried through the ignorance of the Disease For Mildew is quite another thing and different from blasting Mildews being caused from the Condensation of a fat and moist Exhalation in a hot and dry Summer from the Blossoms and Vegetables of the Earth and also from the Earth its self which by the coolness and serenity of the Air in the night or in the upper serene Region of the Air is condensed into a fat glutinous matter and falls to the Earth again part whereof rests on the leaves of the Oak and some other Trees whose leaves are smooth and do not easily admit the moisture into them as the Elm or other rougher leaves do which Mildew becomes the principal Food for the industrious Bees being of its self sweet and easily convertible into Honey Other part thereof rests on the Ears and Stalks of Wheat bespotting the Stalks with a different from the natural colour and being of a glutinous substance by the heat of the Sun doth so binde up the young tender and close Ears of the Wheat that it prevents the growth and compleating of the imperfect Grain therein which occasioneth it to be very light in the Harvest and yield a poor and lean Grain in the Heap But if after this Mildew falls a showre succeeds or the winde blow stifly it washeth or shaketh it off and are the only natural Remedies against this sometimes heavy Curse Some advise in the Morning after the Mildew is fallen and before the rising of the Sun that two men go at some convenient distance in the Furrows holding a Cord stretched streight betwixt them carrying it so that it may shake off the Dew from the tops of the Corn before the heat of the Sun hath thickned it It is also advised to sow Wheat in open grounds where the winde may the better shake off this Dew this being looked upon to be the only inconvenience Inclosures are subject unto but it is evident that the Field-lands are not exempt from Mildews nor yet from Smut where it is more than in Inclosed Lands The sowing of Wheat early hath been esteemed and doubtless is the best Remedy against Mildews by which means the Wheat will be well filled in the Ear before they fall and your increase will be much more As for curiosity sake Wheat was sown in all Moneths of the Year that sown in July produced such an increase that is almost incredible In France they usually sow before Michaelmas Bearded-Wheat is not so subject to Mildews as the other the Fibres keeping the Dew from the Ear. Hops suffer very much by Mildews which if they fall on them when small totally destroy them The Remedies that may be used against it is when you perceive the Mildews on them to shake the Poles in the Morning Or you may have an Engine to cast water like unto Rain on them which will wash the Mildew from them And if you have water plenty in your Hop-garden it will quit the cost in such years Hops being usually sold at a very high rate SECT II. From the Water and Earth Next unto those Aërial or Coelestial injuries which descend upon us we shall discourse of such that proceed from the Water and Earth that do also in a very great measure at some times and in some places afflict us proving great impediments to those Improvements that might otherwise be easily accomplished and also great detriments unto the Countryman upon that which he hath already performed As the want of water in some places proves a great impediment Much water offending and injury to the improvement and management of Rustick Affairs so doth the superabundant quantity either from the flowings of the Sea over the low Marsh-Lands at Spring-tides and high-High-waters or from great Land-flouds but principally from the low and level scituation of the Land where it is subject to Springs Over-flowings c. It is evident that much good Land hath for many Ages yielded Over-flowing of the Sea little benefit by reason of the high waters that sometimes have covered it over and destroyed that which in the intervals hath grown and hath also over-flown much good Land so frequently
Water from the Earth into it Much Land there is in England that is capable of a very great Stones Shrubs c. improvement by removing those common and stubborn Obstacles as Stones Shrubs Goss Broom c. which are naturally produced in many places and the faint-hearted lazy and sometimes beggerly Husbandman had rather let them grow and suck out the Marrow and Fat of his Land than bestow any cost or pains to remove them and is contented with now and then a bundle of Bushes c. when the removal of them would not only be an improvement of his Land by their absence but the materials themselves by a right and judicious way of ordering them might become also an additional improvement As first of Stones which being picked up and laid on heaps about the roots of either Fruit or Timber-trees planted on the Bounds and in Rows on the Land is a very great help and advantage to the growth of such Trees and saves the labour of carrying them off the ground which charge usually exceeds the charge of picking them up This only where Stones offend or are injurious Shrubs Goss Broom c. prove a very great annoyance to Husbandry and the difficulty and charge in plucking them up is the principal impediment to their removal to such that are ignorant of the most dextrous ways used to that purpose the best whereof I finde to be this described by Mr. Plat Viz. A very strong Instrument of Iron like unto a Dung-fork with three Grains or Tines only much bigger according to the bigness of the Shrubs you use it about the upper part thereof is a very strong and long Stail or handle like a Leaver Now set this Instrument at a convenient distance from the Root slopewise and with a Hedging-beetle drive it in a good depth then lift up the Stail and place under it across an Iron-bar or such-like Fulciment to keep it streight and that it sink not into the ground Then take hold of the Cord that before ought to have been fastened to the top of the Stail and by this means may you Eradicate any Shrubs c. If it will not do at once place it on the other side c. These Bushes Brakes and suchlike though they are of little worth or use for any other thing yet are they very necessary and beneficial to improve the Land by burning them being dry either by themselves or under heaps of Turf Earth c. as before Chap. 5. was observed Some Lands are more prone and subject to Weeds and that in Weeds some years than other which is often occasioned by water standing on it destroying the Corn and such Seeds that are usually sown in it and nourishing such Weeds that most delight in moisture the only remedy whereof is to lay it dry and add some convenient drying and lightning materials or composts thereon as Sand Ashes c. Also some sorts of Dungs or Manures cause Weeds as Dung made of Straw Hawm Fern or suchlike laid on Lands in any great quantity without any other mixture of Horse-dung Sheeps-dung Lime Ashes or suchlike hot Compost which do in some measure correct the cold and sluggish quality of it but in some years and on some Lands any ordinary cold Dung begets Weeds which injure the Corn more than the fatness of the Dung advantages therefore Lime Marle Chalk Ashes c. are to be preferred in most Lands Weeds in Pasture-lands are best destroyed by burning of it in Turfs as before we discovered or by Plowing of it without Chap. 5. burning Rushes Flages and suchlike Aquaticks are best destroyed by Rushes Flags c. draining so that you cut your Drains below the roots thereof that it may take away the matter that feeds them The Sowthistle proves a great annoyance to some Lands by Sowthistle killing the Grass Corn c. although it be a sure Token of the strength of the Land The way to destroy them is to cut them up by the roots before feeding-time the advantage you will receive will answer your expence and more The way to destroy this so common and known an annoyance Fern. is to Mow it off in the Spring whether with an Iron or Wooden Sythe it matters not for it will easily break which work reiterate the same year as fast as it grows and it is confidently affirmed that it will kill and destroy the Fern for ever after Improvement and bettering the Land by Soyling Marling or Liming c. is also a principal remedy against all manner of Broom Furze Heath and other suchlike trumpery that delight only in barren Lands Very much differing from Mildews is the blighting of Corn Blights and Smut the Mildews proceeding from a different cause and happening only in dry Summers when on the contrary Blighting happens in wet and is also occasioned through the too much fatness and rankness in Land as is observed that strong Lands are usually sown with Barley Pease or suchlike to abate the fertility thereof before it be sown with Wheat which would otherwise be subject to Blights or Blasting Also Wheat sown on level or low Land in moist years is subject to the same inconveniencies for you may observe that the Wheat that grows on the tops of the ridges in moist years to be better and freer than what grows in the Furrows which is usually blighted by means of water and fatness lying more about it than the other for Wheat naturally affects to be kept dry on moist and strong ground Therefore as moisture and the richness of the ground together occasions this disease by knowing thereof you may easily remedy it by laying your Land on high Ridges which if it be never so rich the Wheat growing thereon will hardly be blighted if not overcome with moisture Smut seems to proceed from the same cause therefore need we Smut to say the less Only that sometimes smuttiness proceeds from other causes as by sowing of Smutty-corn by soiling the Land with rotten Vegetables as Straw Hawm Fern c. It is confidently affirmed that the smutty Grains of Wheat being sown will grow and produce Ears of Smut but I confess I have not yet tryed and shall therefore suspend the belief thereof till I have The sowing 〈◊〉 Wheat that is mixed with Smut doth generally produce a Smutty Crop whether the Smut it self grow or not unless it be first prepared by liming of it which is thus done first slake your Lime and then moisten your Corn and stir them well together c. and sow it Or by steeping of it in Brine either of which are good preventions against the Smut You may also prepare the ground by Liming or other ways of inriching it with sharp or saline Dungs or Soils and it will produce Corn free from Smut for it is most evident that Land often sown with the same Grain or much out of heart produces a smutty Crop as may be
say any thing of common Diseases of Beasts or Fowl because that Subject is so compleatly handled by several others and is not absolutely necessary for our Husbandman to know there being almost in every place Professors and Practisers of that Art and that have Materials and Instruments for that purpose yet for that I meet with some general and easily-practicable Instructions perhaps not familiar with Country Farriers or Horse-Doctors I shall a little digress This Disease is principally caused from a hot and dry season Of the Murrain of the Year or rather from some general putrefaction of the Air and begetteth an inflammation of the blood and causeth a swelling in the throat which in little time suffocateth the Cattle Also the letting dead Cattle lie unburied which Putrifying may cause a general Infection to that sort of Cattle as the Learned Van-Helmont observes that these Infectious Distempers go no farther than their own kinde Therefore to prevent this Disease let them stand cool in Summer and to have abundance of good water and speedily to bury all Carrion And if any of your Cattle be already infected speedily let them blood and give them a good Drench c. By which means divers have preserved their Cattle when their Neighbours have perished In moist Years Sheep are subject to the Rot in the same Of the Rot in Sheep grounds where in drier Years they are not and that not only from the moisture for then would Sheep Rot in all moist grounds in dry Years as well as in wet but from a certain Putrefaction both in the Air and in the Grass or Herbs that usually attends them in such moist years which together with their moist Food doth corrupt their Livers and bring this Disease The cure whereof is difficult unless it be done betime before the Liver be too much wasted The removal of them to the Salt Marshes where they may be had is a good remedy If May and June prove wet Moneths it causes a Frimmand frothy Grass which together with the bad Air that must necessarily follow causes the Rot in Sheep therefore in such Summers keep your Sheep on the dry and barren Lands and fodder them in Winter with the hardest Hay or most Astringent Fodder Some grounds yield a soft Grass more than other subject to breed the Rot in the Sheep therefore feed other Cattle there and your Sheep in the driest hardest and healthiest Pastures If your Sheep be infected with the Rot which you may discern by the colour of their Eyes some prescribe to Pen them up in a Barn or large Sheep-coat set about with wooden Troughs and therein feed them with Oats a day or two then put amongst them some Bay-salt well stamped and after that a greater quantity till such time as they begin to distaste it then give them clean Oats another day or two and afterward serve them with Salt as before This course being followed until their Eyes have recovered their Natural colour they will then be perfectly cured Where you have not a House convenient it may be done open the saving of their Dung as before we directed will answer the greatest part of your expences Chap. 5. Folding of Sheep in May or June if they prove wet makes them Rot the sooner because they more greedily devour the hurtful Grass in the Morning than those not folded therefore liberty from the Fold at that time is a good prevention An Approved Experiment for the Cure of the Fashions in Horses and the Rot in Sheep Steep the Regulus of Antimony in Ale with a little of the Spice called Grains and a little Sugar which give to a Horse about half a Pint at a time two or three times with a day or two's intermission between each time to a Sheep about two or three ounces after the same manner The same or the following Receipt may be also given to Swine for the Measles c. and to make them fat Give him half a dram of crude Antimony in his Meat it will For Swine make him have a good stomack and it will likewise cure him of all foulness of his Liver and of the Measles The same is also Soveraign for any other Beasts Trees and Plants and other Inanimate things are subject unto Of Trees and Plants Diseases that deprive them of and abate their excellency worth and duration as well as living Creatures and it doth as well require the care and industry and skill of the Husbandman to inspect into their Nature and make use of such means as are requisite as well to prevent as cure such Diseases The Canker Moss Bark-bound and Worms in Trees prove very pernicious Their Cures we have already discoursed of Chap. 7. The Jaundies or Langor of Trees makes them seem to repine and their Leaves to fall off or wither and proceeds from some hurt done to their Roots either by Moles or Mice or by the stroak of some Spade or by the Tree standing too moist or low according as you finde the Disease so must you make use of a remedy either by searching the Root and if you finde any wound or gall to cut it off a little above such wound and lay some Soot there to keep Vermine off if the injury came from them or if water offends either divert the water or remove the Tree If it be planted too deep it is better to raise it than let it stand where you may be confident it will never thrive The general Diseases of Trees and impediments to their thriving are either they stand too deep too dry too cold too moist too much in the winde c. according to the divers Nature and disposition of the Tree Therefore if you expect that a Tree should thrive observe his Nature and in what place it most delights which the sixth and seventh Chapters of this Book treating of Woods and Fruit-trees will sufficiently direct SECT VII Of Thieves and Ill Neighbours There is no more constant certain and pernicious Enemy to the Husbandmans Thrift than Man himself Homo homini Daemon they rob and steal from oppress maligne injure persecute and devour one another to the decay of Arts and Sciences and even to the ruine of whole Families of Ingenious and Industrious men every one striving to build up his house and raise his Family by the ruines and decay of his Neighbours But our only Complaint is against the common and ordinary sort of vile persons that live after a most sordid manner and seek not Wealth nor Greatness but only to maintain themselves in a most despicable lazy kinde of life by filching and stealing from their honest and laborious Neighbours and against such that though they steal not yet oppress oppugne and injure those that are more Industrious than themselves The severe penalty of death being the punishment for Theft Against Thieves is the principal cause of the infinite encrease of Thieves First because many there are who if they
places but you may raise speedily Trees about your House as before we directed it Chap. 6. being far better to have your House defended by Trees than Hills for these yield a cooling refreshing sweet and healthy Air and Shade during the heat of Summer and very much break the cold winds and Tempests from every Coast in the Winter The other according as they are scituated defend only from some certain winds and if they are on the North-side of your House as they defend you from that Air in the Winter so do they deprive you of it in the Summer if they are on the South-side it otherwise proves as inconvenient Besides they yield not the pleasures and contentments nor the varieties of Oblectations to the Ingenious Rustick as the tall plumps of Trees and pleasant Groves do yet are Hills cloathed with Coppices or otherwise improved pleasant objects so that they stand not too near your House Let not your House be too low seated lest you loose the conveniency of Cellars but if you cannot but build on low grounds set the lower Floor of your House the higher to supply the want in your Cellar of what you cannot sink in the ground for in such low and moist grounds it conduceth much to the driness and healthiness of the Air to have Cellars under the House so that the Floors be good and sieled underneath It is very inconvenient to build Barns Stables or suchlike places too near to your House because Cattle Poultry and suchlike require to be kept near them which would then annoy your House Let your Garden joyn to one if not more sides of your House for what can be more pleasant for the most part of the year than to look out at the Windows of your Parler and Chambers into a Garden What sides of your House are not joyning to your Garden let there be Courts or Yards kept from Cattle Poultry c. and planted with Trees to shade defend and refresh your House and the Walls also planted with Vines and other Fruits Not to speak of the building of Palaces or Seats for the Nobility Securest and cheapest way of Building a House or Gentry but only of plain and ordinary Farm-houses I have thus much observed that Houses built too high in places obvious to the winds and not well defended by Hills or Trees require more materials to build them and more also of reparations to maintain them and are not so commodious to the Inhabitants as the lower-built Houses which may be made at a much easier rate and also as compleat and beautiful as the other In building of a House long you loose the use of some Rooms and it takes up more for Entries and Passages and requires more doors and if it be four-square there must needs be light wanting in some part thereof more than if it be built like an H or some other suchlike Figure which maketh it stand better and firmer against the winds and Light and Air come every way to it every Room is near the one to the other The Offices as the Kitchin Dairy-rooms Brewing and Baking-rooms are near unto the Hall which only divides between those and the Parlers c. Several Descriptions and Draughts of Foundations could I give you here were not the cutting of them too costly for so Rustick a work to bear The Walls where Brick may be had are best and most securely raised with it and with little cost if you raise firm and strong Columns at the corners of your House of strength sufficient to support the Roof or main Beams you may build them square and between them may you raise the Walls with the same materials and work them up together with the Corners or Columns leaving the one half of the extraordinary breadth of the Column without and the other within the Wall whereby you will save much cost and charges both in materials and workmanship and yet your house be firm and strong The heavier any Covering is to a House the greater is the Best covering for a House expence in raising the whole Frame or Building to support it and the sooner doth it require reparations therefore healing with Lead or flat Stone is not to be approved of by reason of its weight where Earthen Tile Slate or Shingle may be had Next unto Lead or Stone Tiles made of Clay are the heaviest and most in use Pantiles such as come from Holland are the best and lightest covering of any sort of Tiles and it is to be admired at that another Nation can transport so Earthy a Commodity and pay all duties c. and sell them at our own doors at a cheaper rate than we can make them and yet have we as good materials and Fuel more plentiful than they A Composition of Clay Sand c. is easily made for Tiles Of Tiles Bricks c. that shall make them not only thinner and lighter but also stronger and more durable if Ingenious men would undertake it which are rare to be found in so dirty yet necessary an Occupation which would save very much charge and materials in Building if it were truly prosecuted The same may be said of Bricks c. and with such a Composition may be made in Molds all Window-frames for a House of different work and magnitudes and Chimney-pieces and Frames for doors c. in several pieces made in Molds that when they are burnt may be set together with a fine red Cement and seem to be as one entire piece whereby may be imitated all Stone-work now used in Building and it will very well supply its defect where Stones are scarce and dear and also may save very much Timber which is now used in Brick-building and appear much more compleat and beautiful and be of more strength and of longer continuance than Timber or ordinary Brick and is very feasible as we may perceive by the Earthen-pipes made fine thin and durable to carry water under the ground at Portsmouth and by the Earthen-backs and Grates for Chimneys made by Sir John Winter formerly at Charing-Oross of a great bigness and thickness which are evident and sufficient demonstrations of the possibility of making work fine thin and light for Tiles either plain or crooked and for the making of great work in Molds and the through burning of them for Doors Windows and Chimney-frames c. This is one of the most feasible and beneficial Operations that I know in England to be neglected Where either Tiles are scarce or Timber not very plenty that you would have your House but lightly covered Shingles Of Shingles are to be preferred before Thatch and if they are made of good Oak and slit or cleft out and then well seasoned in the water and Sun they become a sure light and durable covering Where it may be had the thin blew Slate seems to be the best Slate covering being very light and lasting This is a common covering
in most parts yet is some to be Thatch preferred before others the best that I have seen is that which is called Helm that is long and stiff Wheat-straw with the Ears cut off bound up in bundles unbruised which well laid lies thin lasts long and is much neater than the common way It is an usual thing to see thick and tall walls to fall either by Of Building of Stone or Brick-walls reason of the weakness of the foundation the weight of the wall or the decay of the Cement or Morter through Age which hath provoked several to great and unnecessary expences in laying deeper and stronger Foundations and in making the walls much thicker than usual when all that extraordinary cost might be saved by taking notice of these few Observations First that streight walls though thick and seemingly strong yet either by the falseness of the ground or being obvious to high winds or the decay of the Morter are apt to lean or fall Secondly that walls built crooked though thin and weak are yet more lasting than a streight wall Thirdly that a wall built over a River on Pillars or Arches stands as firm as the rest of the wall whose Foundation is entire as I have in several places observed Which plainly demonstrates unto us that a wall built up much thinner than usual having at every twenty foot distance or suchlike as you think fit an Angle set out about two foot or more according as the wall is in height or having at such distance a Column or Pillar erected with the wall six or eight inches or more on each side over and above the thickness of the rest of the wall the Foundation of such jetting out or Column being firmly laid that it must of necessity strengthen the wall much more than if five times the materials used in these Jettings or Columns were used in the wall being streight which most evidently saves you a great part of your expence and your wall much more firm and compleat for if it be a wall for Fruit-trees these Nooks or Corners in the Jettings out whether Angular or Semicircular are secure places for the more tender Trees or if they are Columns or Pillars they make the wall much the warmer by breaking the motion of the Winde or Air that passeth by it And these Foundations laid secure although at that distance support the wall in loose and false ground as though it were entire but if the ground be very loose you may project an Arch from each Foundation though obscurely It is a great injury to our Buildings that our Cement is no Of Morter better in former Ages when they built with small and unequal stones their Cement or Morter far exceeded ours as is most evident in the ruines of old Monasteries Castles c. where their Morter is far harder than in any of our more Modern Buildings It is a great errour in Masons Bricklayers c. to let the Lime slacken and cool before they make up their Morter and also to let their Morter cool and die before they use it also their stone they let be moist before they use them Therefore if you expect your work to be well done and long to continue work up your Lime quick and but little at a time that the Morter may not lie long before it be used and also with dry stone for which the Summer is principally to be elected For Brick if it be in the Winter-time let them be laid dry if in the Summer-time wet It will quit your cost to imploy a Boy to wet them in the Summer for they will unite with the Morter the better The Lime it self also in some places is very weak being made of soft Chalk-stones the other that is made of harder is much to be preferred In former Ages they cut their Timber in the Winter-time Of Timber when the Sap was most out of it but now by reason of the scarceness of Oak the principal Timber our Statutes oblige us to fell it in the Summer for the Bark being necessary for Tanners c. by which means our Timber shrinks chaps and decays much more and sooner than otherwise it would do which inconveniences in square-Timber are not so apparent as in Plank Board or suchlike broad and thin work therefore in such cases it requires some kinde of seasoning or other to prevent them if you lay them in the Sun or Winde they chap or shrink or cast The best remedy in that case is to lay them in a Pool or Running Stream a few days to extract the Sap that remains in them and afterwards dry them in the Sun or Air and they will neither chap cast nor cleave Against shrinking there is no remedy When Timber or Boards are well seasoned or dried in the Sun or Air and fixed in their places and what labour you intend is bestowed on them the use of Linseed-oyl Tar or suchlike Oleaginous matter tends much to their preservation and duration Hesiod prescribes to hang your Instruments in the smoak to make them strong and lasting temonem in fumo poneres surely then the Oyl of Smoak or the Vegetable Oyl by some other means obtained must needs be effectual in the preservation of Timber Also Virgil adviseth the same Et suspensa focis exploret robora fumus In Ancient times they bruised their Corn in Morters since Of Mills which most tedious and incompleat way Mills have been invented some to be used by hands as Querns others to be moved by Horses others by the Winde and others by the Water which last being maintained with least cost more certainty and most advantage hath gained the Preheminence and is made use of in every place where there is water fit for that purpose and where there is imployment although a little for the ease and conveniency of the near Inhabitants and for the particular advantage of the Owner yet very much to the detriment and damage of the Kingdom in general by injurious obstructions of water to the spoiling of much Meadow-ground and by the preventing the use of the water for that most advantagious improvement of over-flowing or drowning of Land which upon the removal of these Mills might be done and the Corn as well ground to serve every ones occasions Either by Windmills which may be erected on Hills in Hilly places and in Plains on any open place where the winde may as well grinde all your Corn in places where the Water-mills now stand as in other places where are only Winde-mills for many miles together Or by the Rectification of Water-mills that a less quantity of water may do that which now requires a greater to which end many have made very Ingenious attempts and without question may much be done in it both in the framing and ordering the Water-works which we will pass by and in the contrivance of the Mill it self which doubtless goes much heavier by the Stone they call the Runner it
we have here in England a more easie and effectual way of preparing it with the Bark of that common and so well known Tree the Holly which Preparation is thus Take the Bark of that Tree about the end of June at which To make Bird-time time it is full of Sap and fitter for your purpose fill your Vessel with it that you intend to boil it in then add thereto of clear water as much as the Vessel will conveniently hold and boil it so long until the grey and white Bark rise from the green which will be about twelve or sixteen hours Then take it off the fire and gently decant or pour the water from the Barks and separate the grey and white Barks from the green which lay on a Stone or Stone-floor in some Cellar or moist or cool place and cover it over with Fern or other green weeds to a good thickness the better to accelerate its putrifaction which will be accomplished in twelve or fourteen days time and sometimes less and it reduced to a perfect Mucilage then pound it well in a large Morter with an wooden Pestle until it be so tempered that no part of the Bark be discerned unbruised After which wash it exceeding well in clear water by renewing the water and your pains so often that no foulness or Motes remain in it and put it into a deep Earthen Vessel where it will purge it self for four or five days together Then scum it clean as its filth arises and when it hath done purging put it into a clean Vessel and keep it close for use The Bark of the Birch-tree is by some affirmed to make as good Lime as that of the Holly being the same way to be prepared so that you may try or use which is most easie to come by Also you need not boil either of the Barks if you give it longer time to putrifie for the boiling is only to accelerate putrifaction When you intend to use it take as much of it as you think fit and put it into an Earthen-pot with a third part of Capons-grease or Goose-grease well clarified and set it over the fire and let them melt together Stir them until they are throughly incorporated and so continue stirring off the Fire till it be cold If you fear the freezing of your Bird-lime add in your last mixture a quarter as much of the Oyl Petrolium as you do of the Goose or Capons-grease and no cold will congeal it When your Lime is cold take your Rods and warm them then a little besmear the Rods with your Line and draw the Rods the one from the other and close them again Work them thus continually together until they are all over equally besmeared If you lime Straws or Strings you must do it when the Lime is hot and at the thinnest by folding and doubling them together before the fire and fold and work them till it be all over throughly limed Put these in Cases of Leather until you use them When you intend to use your Bird-lime for great Fowl take of Rods long small and streight being light and yielding every way Lime the upper parts of them before the Fire that it may the better besmear them Then go where these Fowl usually haunt whether it be their Morning or Evening haunt an hour or two before they come and plant your Twigs or Rods about a foot distance one from the other that they cannot pass them without being intangled and so plant over the place where their haunt is leaving a place in the middle wide enough for your Stale to flutter in without falling foul of the Twigs which Stale you do well to provide and place there the better to attract those of its own kinde to your snares from which Stale you must have a small string to some convenient place at a distance where you may lie concealed and by plucking the string cause it to flutter which will allure down the Fowl in view Prick the Rods sloap-wise against the winde about a foot above the ground or water and if you see any taken surprize them not suddenly if any more are in view for by their fluttering others will be induced to fall in amongst them A Spaniel that is at command will be necessary to re-take them that might otherwise escape out of your reach these Fowl being very strong If you place your Twigs for the lesser Water-fowl as Duck For smaller Water-fowl Mallard Widgeon Teal c. you must fit your Rods according to the depth of the water and your Lime must be such as no wet nor Frost can prejudice the limed part must be above the water Here also it will be necessary to have a Stale of the same Fowl you intend to insnare SECT V. Of taking Fowl with Springes Most of the Cloven-footed Water-fowl delight in Plashes Water Furrows small Rivolets and suchlike places seeking for Worms Flat-grass Roots and the like in the Winter-time especially in frosty weather when many other places are frozen up and these warm Springly Water-tracts are open where you must place Springes made of Horse-hair of bigness and length according to the greatness of the Fowl you designe to take for the Heron or Bittern it must be of near a hundred Horse-hairs and above two foot in length for the Woodcock Snipe Plover c. not above eight or ten Horse-hairs and one foot in length the Main Plant or Sweeper must be also proportionable to the strength of the Fowl For the manner of the making and setting them I question not but every place will furnish you with Directors if you know it not already which is much easier and better than any written Instructions Observe also that you prick small sticks in manner of a Hedge cross-wise athwart all the other by-passages about half an inch apart and somewhat above a handful above the water or ground sloaping towards the place where your Springe is placed the better to guide which is easily done the Fowl into the Snare for such is their nature that they will not press over where they have liberty to pass through any gap If the places where these Fowl usually haunt be frozen you must make Plashes and the harder the Frost is in other places the greater will the resort of Fowl be here SECT VI. Killing of Fowl with the Fowling-piece There are many places where Fowl settle and feed at sometimes yet so uncertain that the former ways are useless and there are also many places wherein you may not have the conveniency or liberty to make use of the said ways of taking Fowl yet there may you at opportune times meet with a good shot with your Fowling-piece the length and bore of which ought to be proportionable the one to the other and both to your strength and the place you use it in Let your Powder be of the best sort as new as you can for with bad keeping it looseth its strength exceedingly
ways taken either by Nets Pots or Engines by Angling or by stupifying Baits inticing or alluring objects and these ways are used either by day or by night Also at different seasons of the year the Fish as well as Fowl having their seasons of all which we shall give you some hint SECT I. Of taking Fish by Nets Pots or Engines The usual way of Fishing by Nets is of the greatest advantage To Fish with Nets and so of greatest destruction to those watry Animals which if not moderately used destroys whole Rivers of them to prevent which there are several good Laws made though seldom executed And could all men that are concerned in this Exercise agree to neglect the use of Nets but for two or three years the Fish would encrease innumerably that in many years after they could not be destroyed which being very unlikely yet it were feasible to compel all Fishermen that they take no young Fish nor Fish in their Spawning Moneths for if they were permitted to Spawn but once before they are taken they would sufficiently stock the Rivers where they are for the destruction of Fry and Spawns is the ruine of the Fishing in most Rivers The most useful Nets in great Waters are the Trammel and With the Trammel or Sieve Sieve which according to their Mesh may be used for most sorts of Fish The making and manner of using them are known to most Fishermen The most pleasant and recreative way is with the Casting-net With the Casting-Net spreading like a Cloak and verged round with Plummets that over whatsoever Fish it is thrown it brings them to your hand This Net is either thrown off from the Banks side or from a Boat according as the water will give you leave If the remarkable places that you intend a fling at were baited before-hand your Sport would be the better In smaller Rivers where there are Roots or Stems of Trees With the Shore-Net or Poke-Net under which the Fish usually seek for shelter in the day-time the Net vulgarly called the Shore-net which is a Net broad and open before about five foot and ending backwards in a long and narrow Cod. The forepart of this Net is fixed to a semicircular Rod and to the string that strains the two Extreams of that Rod in form of a Bow-string In the use of it you pitch the straight side of the Net downwards against the place or shelter where you suppose the Fish are which Net you hold strongly against the place by the help of a Stail or handle that is fixed athwart the Bow and extends down to the String Whilest you thus hold the Net your Companion with a Pole stirs in the place of refuge and what Fish are there will suddenly bolt out into your Net By this means not only Fish in small Rivers as Trouts Humbers c. are caught but Salmon also in great Rivers where the water is thickned by the Tide the Fisherman standing against the water with the Cod of the Net between his legs and as soon as he perceiveth the Fish bolt into the Net he forthwith lifts it up In several great Rivers where shelter is scarce many have set With Fish-pots large Pots made of Osier with bars in them that when the Fish are in them driven either by the Current or seeking therein for shelter they could not get out again They are also laid in swift Currents and at Mill-tails and suchlike places for the taking of Eels which in dark nights warm weather and thick waters run down with the stream in great plenty In great Rivers the greatest destruction of Salmon and also With Wears advantage is made by Wears erected in the Main Stream that when those Fish whose nature is to swim against the stream and to spring or leap over any natural obstacle that shall oppose them by their endeavour to raise themselves over these Wears try to leap over they fall short and are taken in Grates set at the foot of them for that purpose Many other Engines there are to intercept their passage up against the waters none of which are very injurious to the encrease of that Fish were they discontinued in the Autumnal season at which time those Fish stem the swiftest Currents that they may lay their Spawn in the small shallow streams which Nature hath instructed them to do it being the sweetest meat other Fish can feed and so consequentially the best bait for a nimble and greedy Angler At which season those that do escape these destructive Wears are too often met with by the ignorant Rustick who with his Spear commonly assaults them in t he Shallows and after these Fish have Spawned and their Spawn converted into the young brood the Spring following they naturally descend with the stream and by greedy Millers and others are commonly the greatest part of them intercepted in their Pots yea sometimes in so great quantities that for want of a present Market they have given them to their Swine All which are the principal causes of the great scarcity of that Fish in these parts of England There is a sort of Engine by some termed a Hawk made almost With Hawks like unto a Fish-pot being a square frame of Timber fitted to the place you intend to set it in and wrought with wire to a point almost so that what Fish soever go through the same cannot go back again These placed the one where the River enters into your Land the other where it runs out with the Points of each towards you any Fish whatsoever that moves with or against the water when they are once within the Hawks cannot get back again In case the River be broad you may place two or three of these at an end in it a frame of Timber being set in the water that it break not out on either side nor under lest your Fish escape These Hawks ought to be made moveable to take off or on as you see occasion But in case you are in danger of Land-floods or that you have The way of making a Piscary not the command of the Land on both sides or of suchlike impediment then may you cut a large Channel out of the sides of the River and as deep as the bottom of the River with some part of the Current through it and place these Hawks at each end of it the better to intice the Fish into it At some convenient distance from the River and in the Piscary on the top of a stake pitch'd in the midst of the water and a little above the water fix a Laton-case in form of a Cylinder about three or four inches Diameter and twelve inches long in which set a Candle burning in dark nights the light whereof shines only upwards and downwards it must be open at the top because it preserves it burning the downward light intices the Fish into your Piscary so that no Fish passes up nor down the
River but will seek their way through the Hawk into the light By this very means I have known a Piscary well stored in a few nights There is a Net made round and at each end a Hawk that being A Hawk-Net set in the water and depressed by Plummets or Stones and having in the in-side thereof shining shells or red cloth or such-like inticements the Fish will seek their way in but cannot get out As for Fishing in the night by fire and stupifying of Fish with unwholesome Baits or with Lime or suchlike being ways used by evil-minded persons that rather destroy the properties of other men than lawfully use them for their necessary subsistence I shall decline any advice or directions in that kinde and prosecute that most lawful just and honest way of Angling so much celebrated by the Ingenious of every degree SECT II. Of Angling There is not any exercise more pleasing nor agreeable to a truly sober and ingenious man than this of Angling a moderate innocent salubrious and delightful exercise It wearieth not a man over-much unless the waters lie remote from his home it injureth no man so that it be in an open large water he being esteemed a Beast rather than a man that will oppose this exercise neither doth it any wise debauch him that useth it The delight also of it rouzes up the Ingenious early in the Spring-mornings that they have the benefit of the sweet and pleasant Morning-air which many through sluggishness enjoy not so that health the greatest Treasure Mortals enjoy and pleasure go hand in hand in this exercise What can more be said of it than that the most Ingenious most use it When you have any leisure days or hours from your ordinary Observations in Angling Profession or imployment you cannot better spend them than in this Innocent Exercise wherein observe that your Apparel be No bright Apparel not of any bright or frightning colour lest that drive the Fish out of your reach or make them timorous That you bait the place you intend to Angle in with such Bait the stream or place things the Fish you aim at generally affect for several days before you Angle if it be a standing or quiet water but if a swift stream there is no great need of any but if you do let it be but a few hours before or just at your Angling-time and that above your Hook The best time to provide Rods and Stocks is in December or Provide good Rods. January before the rising of the Sap when gathered dry them by degrees in a smoaky place is best they are better to use at sixteen moneths old than sooner To preserve them rub them over with Linseed-oyl or Sweet-butter never salted twice or thrice a year If your Stock be hollow fill the bore with Oyl and let it stand twenty four hours and then pour it out again this will preserve it from injury If the top of your Rod be brittle or decayed you may whip on a piece of Whalebone made round and taper which will be better than the natural top In making your Lines observe that for most sorts of Fish the The Line Hair-line is the best because it is not so apt to snarl as other Lines and will yield to the streining of the Fish very much before it will break which is a very great advantage in the taking of a stubborn Fish Let the hair be round you make your Line withal and as near as you can of a size Also you may colour your hair of a sorrel grey or green colour but then they are a little weakned by the colouring It is good to provide your self with all sorts of Hooks the The Hook smallest to take the smaller Fish withal and the greater the greater Fish Also with hooks peculiar for the Jack or Pike and hooks to lay for Eels Your Flotes may be made of Quills or of Cork and Quills The Flote and Plummet which are the best and least offensive Let your Plummet wherewith you sound the depth of the water be of Lead about the weight of a Musket-bullet which is very convenient to know the depth of the water by According to the nature of the Fish so you must provide Baits your self with baits Herein observe that if you open the first Fishes Maw that you take you may see what that Fish most delights in for that season If you use Pasts for baits you must add Flax or Wooll to keep the Paste from washing off the hook The Eyes of the Fish you take are good baits for many sorts of Fish for the Trout flies and Palmer-worms made Artificially are the best baits in clear water the season being observed wherein each of them is to be used Any baits anointed with Gum of Ivy dissolved in Oyl of Spike or with the Oyl of Ivy-berries or the Oyl of Polypodie of the Oak mixed with Turpentine will be great inticements to Fish to bite It is best fishing in a River a little disturbed with Rain or in Seasons for Angling Cloudy weather the South-winde is the best the West indifferent the East the worst but if the weather be warm and the Sky Cloudy they will bite in any winde Keep your self as far from the Water-side as you can and fish down the stream In a swift stream where the bottom is hard and not too deep if you go into the middle of it and cast your Fly up against the stream the Trout that lies upon the Fin in such strong Currents and discerns you not being behinde him presently takes your bait In March April and September and all the Winter-moneths it is best fishing in a clear serene and warm day but in the Summer-time in the mornings evenings and coolest Cloudy weather After a clear Moon-shiny night if the day succeeding prove Cloudy is a very good time for Angling for it is the nature of most Fish to be fearful to stir in bright nights and so being hungry if the weather in the morning prove Cloudy they will bite eagerly To the intent that you may not labour in vain I shall give Seasons not to Angle in you a hint of such times that Fish delight not in biting though some that have more than ordinary skill may possibly take a few at any time In the extremity of heat when the Earth is parch'd with Drought there is little sport to be obtained nor in frosty weather the Air being clear unless in the Evening nor in high winds nor in sharp North or East-winds nor immediately after Spawning-time their hunger being abated and the Fish not worth taking Nor yet after a dark night for then the greater Fish have been abroad and satiated themselves but the little Fish will then bite best having absconded themselves all night for fear of the greater The greatest Fish bite best in the night being fearful to stir in the day Therefore that is the best season
certain fore-sight of the change of Of Water-fowl weather and alteration of the seasons and especially Water-fowl which if they fly or gather together in great flights and from the Sea or great waters hasten to the banks or shore and there sport themselves it denotes windes more especially if in the morning If the Breast-bone of a Duck be red it signifies a long Winter if white the contrary Ducks and Geese c. picking their wings washing themselves much or Cackling much signifies Rain Also Sea-fowl seeking after fresh waters signifie an open or wet season Jam varias Pelagi volucres quae Virgil. Dulcibus in stagnis rimantur c. If they betake themselves to great waters it presageth cold if Water-fowl forsake the water it signifies that Winter is at hand If Land-fowl gather towards the water and shake their wings Of Land-fowl making noises and washing themselves it portendeth Tempests at hand If small Birds gather together in Flocks it signifies cold and hard weather at hand If Birds seek shelter in Barns or houses more than usual it presages cold and hard weather If Birds fly hastily to their Nests and forsake their meat it foresheweth Tempests If in frosty weather Birds seek obscure places and seem dull and heavy it signifieth a sudden Thaw The early appearance of Field-fares or other forreign Winter-fowl presageth a hard Winter Rooks Owls Jays or suchlike wilde Fowl frequenting a Town more than usual presage Mortality or Sickness to that place If the Heron soar high seemingly even to the Clouds it signifies Of the Heron. winde If the Heron stand melancholy on the Banks it signifies Rain If the Heron cry in the night as she flies it presageth Winde If the Kite soar high it signifies fair weather Of the Kite If they make more than ordinary noise or crying for Prey it presageth Rain If the Crow hath any interruption in her Note like the Hiccough Of the Crow or Croak with a kinde of swallowing it signifieth Winds and Rain Rooks or Crows gathering together in Flocks and forsaking their Meat signifie Rain The Raven or Crow Creeking clear and reiterating her Note signifies fair weather If Sparrows chirp earlier or more than usual it signifies Of Sparrows Winde and Rain If Jays gather together in Flocks it signifies Rain and tempestuous Of the Jay weather If Bats fly abroad after Sun-set it signifies fair weather Of Bats If Owls whoop at night it signifies fair weather Of the Owl The early singing of the Wood-lark signifies Rain Of the Wood-lark Of the Swallow If the Swallow fly low and near the waters it presageth Rain The coming of the Swallow is a true presage of the Spring If Cocks crow more than ordinary especially in the Evening Of the Cock. or if Poultry go early to Roost it signifies Rain SECT V. Of Observations and Prognosticks from Fishes and Insects If Porpises or other Sea-fish leap in a calm it signifies Winde Of Sea-Fish and Rain If great numbers of the Fry of Fish are generated in Lakes Of Fresh-water Fish or Ditches where Fish rarely come it presageth great scarcity of Corn or death of Cattle If Fish leap more than ordinary in Ponds or Rivers it presageth Windes and Rain Great quantities of Frogs small or great appearing at unusual Of Frogs times and in unusual places presage great Dearth of Corn or great Sicknesses to follow in that place where they appear The Croaking of Frogs more than usual in the Evening signifies Rain The early appearing of Snakes signifies a dry Spring and a Of Snakes hot Summer If they play much in the water it signifies Rain If the Ant brings forth her Eggs it presageth Rain Of Ants. If Bees fly not far but hover about home it presageth Rain Of Bees or if they make more haste home than ordinary a Storm is at hand If Gnats Flies or Fleas bite more keenly than at other times Of Gnats Flies and Fleas it signifies Rain If Gnats or Flies swarm or gather together in multitudes before Sun-set it presageth fair weather Swarms of Gnats or Flies in the morning signifie Rain If greater numbers of them appear more than ordinary it signifieth Sickness or Mortality to Man or Beast and also scarcity of Corn and Fruits The early appearance of these or any other Insects in the Spring presageth a hot and sickly Summer If the Spiders undo their Webs Tempests follow Of Spiders Si solvit Aranea casses Avien Mox tempestates nubila tetra cientur If Spiders fall from their Webs or from the walls it signifies Rain If strings like Spiders Webs appear in the Air it signifieth Winde If Spiders spin and weave their Nets much it presageth Winde The great appearances of Chaffers or other Insects although Chaffers c. they denote a present time of Plenty yet are they Omens of a future time of Scarcity and if in very great numbers of Mortality and Sickness to Man and Beast SECT VI. Promiscuous Observations and Prognosticks Leaves of Trees and Chaff playing or moving without any Of Trees and Vegetables sensible Gale or Breath of Winde and the Down or Wooll of Thistles and other Plants flying in the Air and Feathers dancing on the water presage Winde and sometimes Rain If the Herb Trefoyl close its leaves it foreshews Rain If the Oak bear much Mast it foreshews a long and hard Winter If Oak-apples ingender or breed Flies it is said to presage Plenty but if Spiders Scarcity If Trees bear but little Fruit it usually presageth Plenty and if much Scarcity But this Rule is not always certain If the Broom be full of Flowers it usually signifies Plenty The sudden growth of Mushrooms presageth Rain Et si nocturnis ardentibus undique testis Avienus Concrescunt fungi protinus Imbres If Coals of Fire shine very clear it presageth Winde Of Fire If the Fire in Chimneys burn whiter than usual and with a murmuring noise it denoteth Tempests If the Flame wave to and fro it signifieth Winde The same doth the Flame of a Candle Si flammis emicet ignis Avienus Effluus aut lucis substantia langueat ultro Protinus Imbres If Bunches like Mushrooms grow on the wick of the Candle or Lamp it presageth Rain If fire shine much or scald or burn more than ordinary it presageth cold the contrary denoteth the contrary If Wood crackle or breath more than usual in the fire it signifieth winde If Flame cast forth many sparkles it signifies the same If the Oyl in the Lamps sparkle it signifies Rain If Ashes coagulate or grow in lumps it signifies the same If the Fire in cold weather burn violently and make a noise like the treading of Snow it usually presageth Snow If Salt become moist it signifies Rain The same if the Rain Signs of Rain raise bubbles as it falls or if the