Peece of improvement hath respect unto the Plantations of hops and Liquorish both in relation to the Mystery thereof and profits thereby Chap. XXXVII Treates of Hops plantation and how Land is Improved thereby ibid. How a hop-yard should stand 139. One of the main things in the Hop-yard is raising the hils 140. The profits may be made of them 145. Chap. XXXVIII Treats of the mystery of Saffron and the way of Planting it 148. How to set Saffron ibid. How to pick it pag 149. How to dry it ibid. Chaap XXXIX Treates of the plantation of Liquorish at large 150. The best land for it ibid. How to set your plants 151. The time of planting it 152. The advantage thereof ibid. The fifth Peece contains the 40. 41 42. Chap. And treateth of the Art of Planting of Rape Cole-seed Hemp and Flax with the severall advantages that may be made of each Chap. XL. Containeth onely the discovery of Rape and Cole-seeds Husbandry 253. The best seed ibid. The time of sowing it ibid. VVhen to cut it ibid. How to use it ibid. Chap. XLI Shewes how good a publique commodity hemp is with the manner of planting 255. How to know the best hemp-seed 259. The time of sowing it ibid. The time of getting it ibid. The best land for hemp 260. Chap. XLIII Treateth onely of the husbandring Flax so as to make it come up to as much of the Improvement as wee can 261. How to raise the best Flax. pag. 263. The best Flaxseed ibid. The season for sowing it ibid. The manner of watering it 264. The sixt and last Peece containeth 2 Chapters And discovereth what great advantage may be made upon our lands by a plantation of some Orchard Fruits and some Garden commodities Chap. XLII Treats how our Lands may be advanced by planting them with Orchard fruits 265. Chap. XLIV Doth contain a brief discourse of some choice and more generall Garden fruits intended to have been spoen to more largely 271. FINIS Excellency Necessity Antiquity Gen. 4. 2. Gen 9. 16. â— Chr. 26. 11. Prov. 6. 6. Prov. 15. 19. Prov. 20. 30. Prov. 22. 21. Prov. 12. 20. Prov. 11. 26 Prov. 21. 5 Causes of Barrennesse 1 Cause of Barrenness is ignorance occasioning Prejudice Prov. 4. 15. Prov. 36. 13. 2. Cause is Improvidence and a slavish custome 3. Cause is want of punishment of Idleness and want of Stock to set the poor on work A Crying sin Drunkenness A generall cause of Barrenness Tilling Rockiness Mountainous Improvidence laying down all Lands How to lay down warm Land How cold Land Standing water in winter Mole hils Ob. Ans. Bogginess Constant resting of the water on that Land 1 Head 2 Head Only improve upon great advantage Under great Rivers will be the best Land And under lesser the greater quantities and greatest Improvement Setting water on Pooles or Lakes not so excellent In what Cases to cover land by Water Land sad and moist worst to Improve by watering Land found dry and warm the best Boggy Lands good for watering How to begin the first piece of watering How to make the drayning Trench Shewes how the water is fruitfull How to make the Drayning Trench The best floating season Upoâ— moist Land Upâ—n warm Land A double Advantage of having a water course cut out President of one year cuâ—ting but five or six and the next twenty four President of sandy Land Mr. Plats President President of Boggy Lands To much Trenching is madness There are two sorts of Trenching Manner of making the floating Trench A shallow Trench doth certain hurt and uncertain good How to prevent heaping Earth and in evening the ground How to Level Land Plowing to Levell Spade to help Levelling The speediest Soarding of Land How to make thy Drayn to drain a Bog to purpose Where water lyeth in Rushy Land The matter that feeds the Bog where that lyeth Every Bog hath most certainly a living Spring within it Shewing how every Drayn must â—e carried up from the lowest levell Shallow Trench reprehended The most sure way to destroy a Bog The prejudice by crooks and angles in water courses How to make Draynes without any prejudice to any sheep or bâ—ast The best way of preventing danger to Cattell in Drayning Fens and Marshes recoâ—ery Floring best destroyes a Beg. The probable occasion or first cause of Bogginess Ob. These are but pretences Ans. 1. Watering breeds the Rush. Ans. Especiall season for watering Land Iob 8. 12. Ans. 2. A sign when Land begins to fatten Obj. Many have done great things herein and alway to no purpose Mountebanck Engineers projections Mysterious Engines repâ—â—â—ved Object Answ. Object Answ. Marsh Lands The first Fendrayne's or Levellers highly to be honoured Invention far harder than an Addition to it Cutting water-courses strait no small aâ—vantage Many thousands of acres recoverable wiâ—h little charge to manifold advantage Some Mils destroy more than they are worth To prevent corrupting land by a Mildam as much as may be What Fen-Drayning is not What perfect Drayning is indeed How to know when Land is firmly Drayned The just Form or Modell of the Fen-lands How the Commoner is a hindrance to Fen-drayning How Undertakers may be a prejudice to the work Queries in Fen-drayning Reasons why the land floods would be best taken oâ—â— on the outside the Fen. Some particular â—ands may be drayned of themselves though the generall be not All such-Lands are most feciblâ— to be drayned Water Engins helpfull in 〈◊〉 These more difficult and yet fecible A new World may best admit of new Husbandry Denshiâ—ing Fen lands very usefull Denshiring lands reproved in the West Burning Land extolled in the North. Lands drowned by the Sea A Good Overseer worth Gold Tooles belonging to floating and Trenching to make the work more easie and less châ—rgable A good Line A Water-Levell Sir Edward Peto his Level The manner and form of a true and the speediest Level that I can devise Who are the makers of it The Trenching Plough Turving Spade The paring Spade The use of the Paring Spade 1 Extreme 2 Extreme Enclosure held forth without Depopulation The grandest evill of a just and equall Inclosure prevents Idleness and Oppression onely Enclosure prevents the Rot of sheep exceedingly Inclosure may occasion more work done at an easier charge Lands capable of enclosure Cottier provided for Labourer provided for Minister provided for Tithes not Gospell wayes maintenance 1. Tit. 8. Depopulation reproved Impropiations to be thought of Free-holder Lord of the Soyl or Landlord How Inclosure shall not prejudice the increase of Corn or food Four arguments to prove the advantage by Enclosure and that more Corn may be raised being Inclosed than Common One Acre brings forth as much Corn as three Tillage great profit Onely Right in Commons not Vsurpers I speak to At the first Enclosing of any Common how to cast out Land to the greatest Advance Tow Advantages of this Enclosure Cavils against Improvement in Common A
it some what a more certain way but more chargable viz. After thou hast brought a Trench to the bottom of the Bog then cut a good Substantiall Trench about thy Bog I mean according to the form of thy Bog whether round square or long or three or four yards within thy Boggy ground for so far I do verily beleeve it will Drayn that which thou leavest without thy Trench at the depth aforesaid that is underneath the spring water round And when thou hast so done make one work or two just overthwart it upwards and downwards all under the matter of the Bog as is aforesaid and in one yeares patience through Gods blessing expect thy desired Issue and if it be in such a place as will occasion great danger to thy Cattell then having wrought thy Works and Draines as aforesaid all upon straight lines by all meanes prevent as many Angls Crookes and Turnings as is possible for those will but occasion stoppages of the water and filling up of Trenches and loss of ground and much more trouble than otherwise Then thou must take good green Faggots Willow Alder Elm or Thorn and lay in the bottom of thy works and then take thy Turf thou tookest up in the top of thy Trench and Plant upon them with the green Soard downwards and then fill up thy works levell again untill thou come to the bottom or neather end of thy work where thy Trench is so shallow that it will not indanger thy Cattell or rather take great Pibble stones or Flint stones and so fill up the bottom of thy Trench about fifteen Inches high and take thy Turf and plant it as aforesaid being cut very fit for the Trench as it may joyn close as it is laid down and then having covered it all over with Earrh and made it even as the other ground wait and expect a wonderfull effect through the blessing of God but if thou mayst without eminent danger leave thy workes open that is most certain of all I might make more particular Application of the premises to the drowned and covered parts of the Fens and Marshes in the next Chapter upon which they wil have such an Operation as to reduce them to perfect Pasture and to great profit and to all sorts of such natured Lands thou mayst apply them and save me much labour being the main meanes of Fen Drayning As for Sluces Flood-gates Waires and Dams are but secundary meanes and being the proper work of an Engineer or good Carpenter I shall say no more for brevity sake But if thou canst by any meanes make thy self capable of bringing any constant Stream or powerfull Land-flood and Water and constantly Flow over the same as in the former Chapter that will reduce it to a greater Advance and work the most certainest destruction to the Bog of all as I have before declared by Experience As I conceive the Bogs in many parts of the Nation were occasioned thus wherever is a Bog I am confident was formerly a Spring which Spring running and venting it self kept the Land round about it sound and dry as where most clear Springs are at this day but the said Spring stopping up either with leaves or Cattels treading or wood falling upon the same or other filth for I beleeve many or most parts of this Land was very woody in former Ages the Spring was stopped that it could not clearly vent and so being a Living water would not be suppressed or buried but swels and boyles up into Bogginess and so vents it self by little and little in a greater Compass of Land because it cannot break forth clear together in a lesser because of the pressure and weight of the Earth upon it and this is the most naturall cause thereof that I can gather And my Reason is this In many Bogs I will not say in all I have found great Pieces or Boughes or Bodies of Trees lying in the bottom of the Bog Four or Five foot deep in the full proportion of a Tree or Bough as it fell in but when you come to take it up you may cut it with your Spade just as as you do your Earth and it goes to Earth but how this should come so low and lye so deep and so familiarly in Lands of this nature and not as frequently upon sound Lands I cannot conceive otherwise than as aforesaid CHAP. VIII Answereth severall Objections made against the Probalities of so great Advance by Floating IT may be some will still object and say that these Affirmations are but Pretences no such Advantage or ease as is promised can possibly be perforwed But I say again many Gentlemen can witness the truth hereof Many Lands can shew it and if thou wilt not beleeve Relation beleeve thy eyes go and see he who prints my Book shall be inabled to direct thee where thou mayst see more than here is affirmed Again in many of the Wood-Land parts in this Nation as in Worcestershire VVarwickshire Staffordshire Shropshire and Wales-ward and Northward there are many more Improvements made upon coarse lands than is in other parts upon better Lands and the Improvements made in the Wood-land-parts speak out the truth hereof much whereof being most Barren of all lands is improved so high as that it is at present as rich as many parts of the Fieldon and fuller of wealthier Inhabitants I am confident more rich Farmers of lateyeares than when their lands were naturally more Rich and Fertile I give not all nor all sorts of Presidents of Improvements I could by far but onely a few here and there to quicken thy desires after them the Experimenting wherof will bring more to thee if not bring thee to them These things I know of my own knowledge Another he objects that it will breed the Rush the Flag and Mareblab and so this floating land shall be more prejudiciall than advantagious I answer its true possibly and easily it may at I have shewed before but be thou carefull of my directions consider thy Land if it be dry and sound and thy water if it be Fat and Rank and make the drayning Trench as afore directed and never fear it all the Difficulty is in the cold Land and Barren Water on which also observe punctually my Directions and I 'll warrant it Make thy Drain deep enough and not too far off thy Floating Course and water it with a good force of water and observe the seasons which are all the cold Winter when the Rush groweth not It must have warmth to exhale and draw it out and be sure to lay thy Land sound and dry by the Drayning Trench that it may drain under that Moysture Filth and Venom as aforesaid that maintaines them and then beleeve me or deny Scripture which I hope thou darest not as Bildad unto Iob. Can the Rush grow without Mire or the Flag without Water c. That Interrogation
part of the Land by the severall casting up of much mould upon the Grass all which are hinderanees very great to the increase of the owner But for the Ant-hils if my opinion fail not excedingly they are grand enemies to the Grazier and Husbandmans advantage they destroy more than men observe I do beleeve that in some great Pastures in England there is one fourth part of the clear fruit of that Land lost by the multiplicity of them and little better in other pastures by the Molehills for although some are of opinion that the Ant-hills are little or no prejudice they are much mistaken and they will clearly bee convinced thereof if they will but either seriously consider the quantity of grass that groweth upon them or else consider the rareness of Cattle feeding upon them and then also consider the quantity of Ground and good Ground they cover will easily appear the great prejudice by them And that the sand and gravell washed from the Mole-hill is a great cause of rotting Sheep I absolutely affirm But thereto some may object they make more ground I Answer they do such as it is destroy a lesser good quantity of Land and add possibly a double bad but let them consider that this Addition is a great Substraction for if you weigh what I said before they bear little or no grass a little wild Time and speary harsh grass that Cattell eat not but a little thereof in case of hunger And I am sure they cover a great deal of good land Doe but really consider it upon experience made upon one Acre and thou shalt find that one Acre plain or bancked shall do as much service as an Acre and near an half shall do that is so hilly And again if you do not flatter your selves in your own judgments you will find that while the Land was plain if you consider the fruit it then yeelded and the Cattle it then maintained you will find there is no proportion between what it then kept and what it now maintaines for in my experience I find that old resty Land much overrun with these hills much degenerates and doth not nor hath of late yeares kept the former usuall Stock it kept before it grew so hilly and so old by near or about one fourth part which I am sure is as much or more advantage or clear profit the Grazier Breeder or Tenant need expect and although some will not acknowledge their experience herein yet many I am sure they find it by losing proof besides the danger of casting their Cattle and Sheep betwixt the Hills which oft destroyes them Another cause of Barrenness is Bogginess or Mieriness which turns all Lands both bad good and better into such a state of Barrenness unfruitfulness that it in some parts almost destroyes the Land and in other parts it wholly destroyes it and in some places makes it worse than nothing foâ— in stead of yeelding some fruit it not onely yeeldeth none but corrupts and prejudiceth other Lands on which it borders and it self most dangerous to mischieve the Goods or Chattell that do pasture upon the same and so may be accidentally many degrees worse than nothing Another cause of Barrenness is the Overflowing and constant abiding or resting of the waters of the Sea Fenns Rivers standing Lakes or Pools for be it fresh or salt water if it lye constantly upon it it assuredly destroyeth it although some more some less according to the deepness and barrenness of the water which covers it the soundness of the ground on which it lyeth so is the fruitfulness more or less perspicuous Some pretend strange causes which my plainess fathomes not nor much affects our Country Farmers now Yet one more I must not pass by that is such New Inventions for the Improving of Land discovered by some young Husband-man at experiences as I conceive the use wherof will rather destroy Land and wast a mans profits therupon than advance some such I have lately found in a little book called New Inventions for the Improving lands Printed for J. S. and sold at the sign of the Ball on Adling hill 1646. By which I fearing some willing to lay out themselvs in Husbandry experience should be beguiled by his so great overtures of Advantage I shall onely speak to two or three particulars and leave the rest to thy leisure to consider of First As to his manuring Plough manuring Wagon manuring Stone Corroding Harrow or Corroding Rakes which he pretends as Improvements so far as my shallow Principles will compass are likely to prove Impoverishers because while a man stands to dress his Land with fine mould in which is a little strength his Land decayes for want of good soyl or ranck muck which he may sooner lay on work into his Land by the old way than he may his fine earth by his new devised mysticall Instruments not one of them discovered neither but puzzle thy self thou mayst about the thoughts thereof and though thou givest twice as much for the book as it is worth for so thou must thou art but where thou wast at first And for his Seed-Barrâ—w could he but hold that forth to set Corn as he pretends it might be of some good use because certainly setting Corn could it be done with speed and at a certain depth and well covered would be worth discovering but of this I have as little hope and as low an esteem as of his other aforesaid Instruments because he holds it out to contain one Tunnell onely for his Seed which did it contain a hundred would more likely prove for in setting one seed at once no Engine can come near the hand-setting as I conceive And this I charge as a great prejudice and may be as a barrenning the land while men stand looking for great things they neglect their ordinary and old way of Hushandry far better Another cause of Barrenness which this Gentleman puts as a meanes of Improvement is the setting up or banking into a mans land the Rain water or cold Spring water and then trampling in dung by carting and cattell as he saith will raise and increase mire and dirt and so it will I must confess but what that mireand dirt is worth I know not the dung would be excellent good of it self but what it will be in this course of husbandry I not only much question but affirm that in all my experience that treading poching and holing land in winter was an exceeding great hinderance to Corn or Grass that Spring nay some Land I have known so poched by Cattels treading though fothered upon the same both in Kent and Essex and many other parts that it hath not recovered of divers years And what strength or vertue cold spring-spring-water or rain-water hath to fatten any land I know not but wonder then how we have any barren land in England And to make good his Assertion he appeales to them that
under this Capacity you must seriously consider the Situation of your Lands If your Lands be a little hilly and your Brooks run more swiftly more Lands may be brought under them Also if your Lands lye more shelving or descending towards the River or any low descent whatever that your water may fall off as fast as it cometh on the quicker and easier will your Land be Improved especially if your Land be sound light or gravelly This is a most gallant opportunity let your Lands be what they will or of what nature soever if it lie descending the advance will be great enough if you have either a constant stream or Landflood And here let me good Reader advertise thee of one Piece of husbandry most highly commended of most men And truly so it is very commendable and excellent compar'd either with those that use none or else neglect this where it may be done which is this Many Gentlemen have assaid to water their Lands by setting the Water in Pooles Ponds or Lakes upon them and continuing it standing and soaking many daies and weeks together yea some practise it although their lands have layen descending and then draw their Sluces or remove their stoppages and drain away all their water again to which way of flowing I incourage all men rather than neglect all and honour them therein yet if they please to make experiment of the succeeding way of floating they will easily let this fall The excellency whereof consists in the speedy taking away the Water as soon as it is brought on And onely suffer it to run over and so with all speed run off into some drayning Trench again The Method whereof shall at large be handled by which such a concealed Advantage will be discovered that men will wonder how they were so easily deceived Wherein I shall be somewhat larger because able men much differ both in their opinions of both waies of watering as also in their manner of working the same My advise shall he never cover thy Land with a standing Water unless for a day or two or else in case thy Land should be so Levell that it hath no descent at all then better set the Water upon it than neglect it so thou be sure to drain it after one or two days standing and then bring it on again take it off again as aforesaid yet it is impossible ever to produce the like effect as it shall according to the subsequent directions Because it neither receives the full fruit or fatness of the water so fully and kindly nor is grazable and feedable so soon nor yet so richly as in the other kind of working 2. After thou hast considered the Situation of thy Lands as aforesaid then search and find out the lowest part of thy Lands and there having found such a Levell or descent as will lay all thy Lands dry again as thou shalt have occasion to float them which drain must be wrought So deep as that thou maist go under that corrupt feeding or springy moisture that breeds and feeds the Rush Flag and Mareblab or else causes thy Land to turn Spewing Morish or boggy which two Advantages if thou hadst discovered and found upon thy Land which little Land in England but hath one or both of them come to the third Direction and 3. Therein consider seriously the nature of thy Land which if it be cold and of a sad Nature moyst and spewing and lie very Levell It will require then a very good Land-flood or a constant River to overflow it and other barren hungry Water will do very little good thereof But if either thy Land be Gravell or of a sound warm sandy or mixed nature and any whit descending then any Running stream will have a gallant Operation The warmer lighter and sounder is the Land the greater is the Advantage These particulars discovered out of question thou hast a wonderfull advantage before thee especially if thou hast any great length and quantity of Land along the River or by a great Road-way side or else hast any good Land-floods from great Towns or Cities make as much of these Advantages and prize them as thy Lands for though hereby thou canst make thy Lands no more yet thou mayst make them so much better as thou canst desire Suppose some man of great credit should say Sir you have two hundred Acres in such a place what if I should lay you a hundred more in the midst of them he would wonder at it yet because of the credit of him that spake it he doth not wholly disdain it and if it could be done he deserved thanks for it but he doth do it really though not in kind that advanceth or Improves the Land but one third part that makes Two Acres as good as Three much more he that makes One as good as Three or Five or Ten as before this watering business be done shall clearly appear so I descend to the working out the same I had forgot another sort of Land which is your Boggy Quagmiry Land no less capable of a mighty Improvement if it fall under the opportunity of floating and ly any whit descending CHAP. IV. Shewes how to work thy Land and Water so as to reduce it and work out the Improvement promised WHerein a little consider of the way of both fitting thy Land to thy Water thy Water to thy Land with the truest naturallest properest Seasons for bringing it on and taking it off and thou shalt see an admired issue And being resolved that thou hast an opportunity upon thy Lands to make this Improvement out Plot out thy Land into such a Modell or Platform as thou maist be sure that all thy Land thou designest to this Improvement may not fail therin I mean that all thy Lands thou resolvest to float may be under the true Levell of thy Water And that this may be I shall here discover to thee how to carry thy Water upon the Levell that thou shalt lose no ground neither carry it so dead that thou canst not kindly work it this precisely observed may be in stead of many Persian Wheels so highly commended by Mr Gabriel Plats which Wheel is also commendable may be very usefull where either no good falls can be gained nor other wales the water cannot be raised to higher parts of ground you desire to water The description of which Persian Wheel I hope to give thee before this discourse be ended And also intend in my Additions if not where I describe figure out the Persian Wheel to discover a far better Engine that shal with less strength raise a greater quantity of water for any use And now for the Method or way of working thy Water upon thy Land without this Wheel which will require a double stream one to drive it and another to be raised without the charge of all other appurtenances to the said Wheel belonging as Dams
Sluces c. and the maintenance of the same for preservation of this charge and for the moee easy working the Improvement Take a most exact Survey of thy Water not by thy Eye onely but by and with a true exact Water Levell which is an instrument though plain and easy yet rarely made nor used among us which shall be largely described among other Tools in the tenth Chapter then either begin at the over end or neather end of thy Land which thou pleasest if at the over end where the water first entreth into thy Land And by thy Levell discover and plot out where thy water will go along thy Land as thou goest downeward that so thou maiest lose no Land that will easily be brought under thy water Then cut out thy Master Trench or Water-course if thou pleasest to such a bigness as may contain all thy Land-floud especially to bring it within thy Land and so bring down thy whole Water-course together But the most certainest way is as soon as thou hast brought thy Water within thy Land upon the superficies of it then carry it along in a foot broad Trench or lesser all along thy Levell which Water will be a great help and a second and truer Levell than the other and in thy working of it thou shalt find all little enough too prevent too dead a Levell yet lose no Ground neither If thy Levell be too dead the lesser stream will follow thee so that a convenient descent must be minded also to give the water a fair and plausible passage or current all along And if thou discover in his lesser Trench any mistake or failing then thou mayest with more ease and less charge amend the same easily by going higher upon thy Land or lower towards the water stop up the same again for thy Trench need be no deeper than the thickness of thy over Turff and cut out a new and so thou mayst most certainly demonstrate where thy main work shall go without hazard which will be a great certainty and little loss This done thou mayest cut out thy water-course and be sure it be large enough to contain the whole Water thou needest or intendest and so thou have longitude or length of ground the Trench must be the broader not the deeper for a shallow Trench is best for this work And when thou hast brought it so far into thy land as thou hast any land to work upon thou mayst a little narrow thy Course as thou seest the quantity of thy land or water requires so far as thou wouldest have thy course float over all at once thou must cut thy trench narrower narrower all along to the neather end that so without stops and staies it may flow all along at once the Trench being narrower and narrower that Water that comes within the Trench when it is wider must needs be thrust out when the narrower cannot contain it for here is the true excellency of this sort of Trenches and thus should all thy floating Trenches bee made in every work As soon as thou hast brought thy water upon thy Land and turned it over or upon it then as aforesaid be sure thou take it off as speedy as possibly and so fail not to cut out thy work so as unless thy Land bee very sound and thy Land-floud very Rich thou must take it off the sooner by a deep drayning Trench therefore I prescribe thee no certain breadth betwixt floating and drayning Trenches but if thy Land is sounder and Dryer or lieth more Descending thou mayest let it run the broader and as the Land is Moyst Sad Rushey and Levell let it run the lesser breadth or compass And for thy drayning Trench it must bee made so deep that it goe to the bottom of the cold spewing moyst water that feeds the Flagg and Rush for the wideness of it use thine own liberty but bee sure to make it so wide as thou mayest goe to the bottom of it which must bee so low as any moysture lyeth which moysture usually lyeth under the over and second swarth of the Earth in some Gravell or Sand or else where some greater Stones are mixt with clay under which thou must go half one Spades graft deep at lest Yea suppose this corruption that feeds and nourisheth the Rush or Flagg should lie a yard or four foot deep to the bottom of it thou must go if ever thou wilt drain it to purpose or make the utmost advantage of either floating or draining without which thy water cannot have its kindly Operation for though the water fatten naturally yet still this Coldness and Moisture lies gnawing within and not being taken clean away it eats out what the Water fattens And this also I must desire thee seriously to observe that as soon as thy Water hath spent it self and the Earth or Grass hath exhausted and drawn out of the Water her strength and richness then how long soever it runs longer and further it prejudiceth and corrupts it by breeding the Rushes in abundance The water running trickling among the Grass and upon the Earth leaving her Thickness Soyl or Filth which I call Richness among the Grass and upon the Earth and it self runneth away into the drayning Trench and troubles thee no more and so the Goodness of the Water is as it were Ridled Screened and Strained out into the Land and the Leaness slideth away from thee which can never be done neither so speedily nor so purely by standing on Lakes or Pooles besides the loss of the Grazing which may be near as good in Winter as in Summer upon a good Land-flood or rich Waters CHAP. V. Shewes the cause of water its fruitfulness and the proper season of watering Lands A Rich Land-flood is ever the washing down of great Road wayes Common Fields under Tillage or else from great Towns Houses or Dunghills The riches whereof is unvaluable Consider the goodness of thy Water if thy Water be a rich Land-flood or a lusty gallant Stream it will run further and wider upon thy Land with life and fruitfulness If lean thin and onely from Springs and Herbs or green soard t is more barren and so will operate upon less Lands so that as I said before thou must well observe both Land and Waters suitableness and so increase the latitude or breadth of thy Land thou intendest to improve with that stream before it fall into his Drain Which Drain thou must dig or make straight down as it were by a Perpendicular plum-Line which will drain the best of all Or else thou mayest make thy Drain or Trench somewhat Taper viz Narrower and Narrower downwards which will keep open the best and continue longest and for the Widness of it that must be resolved both from the nature of the ground which if Sound and Dry will require the less but if Moist and Boggy the Greater and Deeper or else from the quantity of Water it is
to receive that so it may carry it all away plausibly within it self for the drayning Trench be sure thou indeavour to carry it as near upon a straight Line as is possible the Reason shall afterward appear This work is of more advantage and more to thy profit than thou imaginest but thy exercise therein will teach thee more Thou must also well consider the proper seasons of the year bringing on thy water which is in the beginning of Winter when Grass groweth least and beginns to fail and is clean eaten off thy Land all Winter long is very seasonable for this work and the best season to take it off is in or about the beginning of March thou maiest make what Improvement almost thou desirest also upon thy moyst cold Land if thou observe the directions given But for thy warm sound Land thou maiest continue thy water and keep it working upon thy Land almost all the year round Provided that thou keep it not too long upon a place for thou must be sure to have an especiall eye that thou soak not thy Land too much that Cattell treading or Grazing upon it foyl it not for thâ—n the Rush will come upon thee and it will overgrow thee and exceedingly prejudice thy hopes mistake me not I speak not here to advise thee to continue thy water thus long upon one place but be ever removing it from place to place but especially to shew the proper seasons to make use of this Piece of Improvement Thou hast also another great advantage hereby having water drawn over thy Land thou art in such a Capacity that in case of drought in time of Summer thou needest not to fear it thou mayst now and then wet over thy Land in the heat thereof when Grass if it have but Moysture will grow far faster in so hot a time than any but be sure not to soak thy ground too much Keep thy Land rather in a thirsting condition not glutted ready to spew it up again so maiest thou preserve thy Land green and fruitfull when others are scorched all away Then may a weekes Grass or a Load of Hay possibly be worth Three or Four I my self by these opportunities have cut twenty four Load in a Meadow where I cut but five or six the year before when Hay sold at a great value The directions exactly followed I will lose my Credit if thou fail of the effect promised And for thy encouragement I will give thee a president or two Certain Acres of light sandy Land were taken for a Term of one and twenty yeares at the value of one shilling six pence per Acre and that was more than it was worth a little Brook with a Land-flood issuing out of a Common Field was brought over it the Land levelled and made fit and even to receive it for it was very Irregular and of great high Ridges and Furrowes before after the manner of that Country and after two yeares working thirty shillings an Acre would have been given for it I my self offered it and some of that Land also was my own but it was refused being wrought just by the aforesaid Directions I have made the like Improvement my self upon Lands of the same nature to as great advancement as is here spoken off too tedious to discourse M. Plat also in his book produceth a president of Lands Improved by Water with the charge of three hundred shillings to be worth three hundred pounds per annum but what it was worth before the three hundred shillings were expended upon it he saith not but no question very great Improvement I beleeve it was As for Boggy Land also I have recovered severall Pieces next to plain Quagmires The meanes of reducing whereof shall be discoursed by themselves in the next Chapter So bad and boggy it was that Cattell could not Graze upon it out of danger And indeed it bore nothing but Cattayle's And by this course I recovered it to perfect soundness and made it worth betwixt thirty and forty shillings per Acre and so dare undertake the like where ever lying under the aforesaid Capacities Many more presidents of this nature are visible in many parts of this Nation Some as great Improvements as these Some lesse and yet very great And all done without any other Cost or Expence of charge in any other materialls than Poor mens labours Which to me is a second argument of Incouragement to promote all works of this nature under these Capacities One thing more I pray thee observe that though it be the common practice of most men in drayning their Land to make many shallow Trenches of about one foot deep aud lay their Mould on heapes that so they may spoil put little ground both which I must necessarily reprove as ill Husbandry For though I am all for Floating and Drayning which will necessarily occasion many Trenches yet I am an Enemy to this ordinary and usuall way of Trenching first for so many Trenches I conceive no need in these works nor upon any Land whatsoever but something more of them more seasonably in the second Piece of Improvement CHAP. VI. Sheweth the true Artificiall making of the Floating Trench and how to Levell Land and the suddainest way to Soard it USually I shall advise to make not above Two or Three materiall Trenches having first taken up thy Turf just under the Grass rootes both thin and square and as broad as can be taken up which I exceedingly prize for many uses and preserve The one called a Flowing of Floating Trench wherin I carry my water which usually after I have brought my water where I intend to work it I carry it in a Trench seldome above one foot deep or a foot and half many times not above eight or nine inches deep that so it being made Artificially viz so Level taper Narrower and Narrower as aforesaid the further it goes that it may so cast out the water that it may flow over the same for a furlongs length al at once which is the Excellency of it And then another drayning Trench running parallel with this or Two if the Land lye very flat and of such a depth as it may not onely receive all the water that Floweth over the Land clearly but that it may also drain away the cold Moysture and Bogginess that offends the Land by breeding either Rush or Bogg and of such a latitude or breadth from my floating Trench as thy water is of strength to Improve without Prejudicing of it by breeding Rush Flag or filth as aforesaid And as I make not many Trenches so I shall fil up all others that are not serviceable to these and so have done many a one that others have made to Drain their Land withall and with this One or Two Draines cast out in the lowest part of my Land layed dry more Land than a hundred of these common Trenches
Lands which are from under such a Capacity of floating with Water And are onely such as are covered with constant Water and Lakes or else the Boggy Miry Lands it self and have no River or Land-flood to be brought over them and the remedies being equally applicatory to both for the most part I will propose generall remedies I say that Drayning is an excellent and chiefest meanes for their Reducement and for the depth of such Draynes I cannot possibly bound because I have not time and opportunity to take in all circumstances therefore in generall thus Be sure thy Draines be such and so deep and so deep as thou hast a descent in the end thereof to take away all thy water from thy Drayn to the very bottom or else it is to no use at all for suppose thou make thy Drain as high as an house and canst not take thy water from it thy work is lost for look how low soever is thy lowest levell in thy Drain thou mayst drain thy water so low and not one haires breadth lower will it drain thy ground than theu hast a fall or desent to take it cleanly from thy Drain therefore be especially carefull herein and then if thou canst get a low descent from thence carry thy Drain upon thy Levell untill thou art assuredly got under that moysture mirinesse or water that either offends thy Bog or covers thy Land and goe one Spades graft deeper by all meanes or thereabouts and then thou needest not tye thy self precisely to a dead Levell but as thy ground riseth or as the moysture lyeth higher so mayst thou rise also so that thou keep one Spades graft as aforesaid under it and that thou mayst not fall herein observe that in Cold Rushy Land this moysture or cold hungry water is found beneath the first and second swarth of thy Land and then oft-times thou commest immediately unto a little Gravill or Stoniness in which this water is and sometimes below this in a hungry gravell and many times this Gravell or Stoniness lyeth lower as aforesaid but in Boggy Land it usually lyeth deeper than in Rushy but to the bottom where the spewing Spring lyeth thou must goe and one spades depth or graft beneath how deep soever it be if thou wilt drain thy Land to purpose I am forced to use Repetions of some things because of the suitableness of the things to which they are applyed as also because of the slowness of peoples Apprehensions of them as appeares by the non-practise of them the which were ever you see drayning and trenching you shal rarely find few or none of them wrought to the bottom And for the matter or Bogg-maker that is most easily discovered for sometimes it lyeth within two foot of the top of the ground and sometimes and very usually within three or four foot yet also some lye far deeper six eight or nine foot and all these are feazable to be wrought and the Bog to be discovered but not untill thou come past the black Earth or Turf which usually is two or three foot thick unto another sort of Earth and sometimes to old Wood and Trees I mean the proportion and form thereof but the nature is turned as soft and tender as the earth it self which have layen there no man knowes how long and then to a white Earth many times like Lime as the Tanner and white-Tawer takes out their Lime-pits and then to a Gravell or Sand where the water lyeth and then one Spades depth clearly under this which is indeed nothing else but a spring that would fain burst forth at some certain place which if it did clearly break out and run quick and lively as other Springs do thy Bog would dy but being held down by the power and weight of the Earth that opposeth the Spring which boyles and workes up into the Earth and as it were blowes it up and filleth the Earth with Wind as I may call it and makes it swell and rise like a Puf-ball as seldom or never you shall find any Bogg but it lyeth higher and rising from the adjacent Land to it so that I beleeve could you possibly light of the very place where the Spring naturally lyeth you need but open that very place to your Quick-spring and give it a clear vent and certainly your Bog would decay by reason whereof it hath so corrupted and swoln the Earth as a Dropsie doth the Body for if you observe the Mould it is very light and hollow and three foot square thereof is not above the weight of one sollid foot of naturall Earth Clay or Land whereby I conceive that how much soever this Mould is forced from the naturall weight or hardness of solid Earth or Clay so much it is corrupted swoln or increased and blown up and so much it must be taken down or let forth before ever it be reduced I therefore prescribe this direction viz. Go to the bottom of the Bog and there make a Trench in the sound ground or else in some old Ditch so low as thou verily conceivest thy self assuredly under the Levell of the Spring or spewing water and then carry up thy Trench into thy Bog straight through the middle of it one foot under that Spring or spewing water upon thy Levell unless it rise higher as many times the water or Spring riseth as the Land riseth and sometimes lyeth very levell unto the very head of thy Bog unto which thou must carry thy Drain or within two or three yards of the very head of it and then strike another Trench overthwart the very head both wayes from that middle Trench as far as thy Bog goeth all along to the very end of it still continuing one foot at least under the same and possibly this may work a strange change in the ground of it self without any more Trenching But for these common and many Trenches oft times crooked too that men usually make in their Boggy grounds some one foot some Two never having respect to the cause or matter that maketh the Bog to take that way I say away with them as a great piece of Folly lost labour and spoyl which I desire as well to preserve the Reader from as to put him upon any profitable Experiment for truly they do far more hurt than good destroy with their Trench and Earth cast out half their Land danger their Cattell and when the Trench is old it stoppeth more than it taketh away when it is new as to the destroying the Bog it doth just nothing onely take away a little water which falles from the heavens and weakens the Bog nothing at all and to the end it pretends is of no use for the cause thereof lyeth beneath and under the bottom of all their workes and so remaines as fruitfull to the Bog as before and more secure from reducement than if nothing was done at all upon it Or thus thou mayst work
which if the compass of thy Land be not great and thy water small may be but a very inconsiderable charge And thy Engines may also be divers as an Engine or Windmill may with a water-wheel planted in thy Water-course or Master-drain or very near unto it which water-wheel must be made to that height as may be sure to take out the bottom of the water and deliver it at the middle of the wheel which wheel may be contrived into such a form as that the Ladles as I may call them or Peals or Scoops as others call them will cast up and cast out the water to a considerable height as a man doth with a hand-scoop pail or kit cast water out of a ditch which Engine shall at large hereafter both be described and the form of it delineated or else by a good chain-pump or bucket-work both which may be made into a Wind-mil-Engine or else with an Engine made with a perpetual Screw all which for that height as is requirable to the draining of such a Work wil lay a good compass of Land dry in a few daies and if time prevent not shall most of them be described at large 3. But a Third is most difficult which I yet conceive also fecible and may be recovered also to a great advantage And that is such a parcel of Land that lieth also at a skirt or out-side of the Fen although it may have some Land-flood running through it or near it which Land-flood if it be possible either to divert it on the one hand or the other of the Land you desire to drain or else if it be be a small Floud within the compass and power of an Engine may also be drainable and by the aforesaid direction of inbanking the Land to secure the Land-flouds from comming on at at all which with a reasonable Bank and a fair open passage to convey the Land-flouds clenly away may prevent the fear therof And then a fair Master-drain down through the lowest ground or neer the middle of the Fen you desire to drain which must be made so deep as that it may substantially draw all cold corrupt water into it self I prescribe no depth because I cannot give to all sorts of Fen-lands no nor to any other by measure a suitable and necessary proportion so far from off the place where it is to be made and this drain to be continued to that place where you have most conveniencie to land your water and there planting one of the aforesaid Engines I shall leave every of them to each mans own affection I know they will every one do the Work and that a very inconsiderable charge to the profits and advantages to be received and reaped hereby I shall say no more in this case because I much more desire the general Work which will make all these particulars to come on the easier The draining of the whole Fens yet considering the rubs that lie in the way of the general and the great delaies and uncertainties therof I am perswaded to discover the capacities of particulars As for the particular Engines the Figures and Delineations of them they shall hereafter follow to be described to the very capacity of the Country Farmer as far as possibly may be And because I desire to speak to the understanding of the meanest you must a little bear with my tediousness till you come to the practice and then you 'l find plainness very usefull and all I have said little enough to discover the same Now to proceed to the Fourth generall Head of this discourse to set forth the best way of Improvement of the aforesaid Lands I shall say the less because through my whole discourse it is my main Scope and so shall confine my self onely to some of those particulars more peculiar to these Lands though being substantially drained they are capable of the impress of any Husbandry whatsoever I shall therfore divide the Fen-lands into three sorts First The sound dry Land seldom or never drowned The Second shall be your constant drowned Lands in times of great Flouds And the Third shall be your lowest Land of all that lieth constantly so wet and cold that it is turned into a very Moor or Bog 1. Your dry Lands I for the present account them the very best and most capable of raising the greatest present profit I shall therefore because it is fruitfull of it self to grass and will yeeld advance enough thereby and also because there will be enough for many years of the other two sorts remain to husbandrize and toss and tumble up and down perswade to lay it all for pasturage until your other Lands be perfectly recovered and improved but this may prove undoubtedly excellent Hemp-land Oad-land may be Mather-land and most excellent yea rather too good for Cole and Rape-seed because there will be other worser enough for that 2. To the second sort only drowned by up-land flouds so lie dry when the floud is gone I say if this be not leavened with coldness or steeped so w th constant corrupt water that it is turned into a moorishness but yet remaines perfect Land and clear Soard this very Land may prove your best Land in a little time and therefore I shall onely for the reducing hereof advise to a moderate plowing of it and for the reducing of it to perfect soundness advise to raise it every plowing dividing each ground into lands about three yards over or thereabout which will take two casts of seed and in five or six tilths will rise up to so convenient a height as will lay it sound and dry and increase your Land also yet however you must not endeavour the laying any Land any higher than your drains will be sure to draw your furrows But in case the Level of your water will not admit you to raise up your Lands to so good a height then you were best make your Lands somewhat lesser and then the fewer plowings will lay them round and sound but be carefull not to make your last furrow alwais in one place but in each plowing shift one furrow or more sometimes one way and somtimes another and this wil preserve the furrow from overmuch barrenness This Land may be suitable and very excellent for Cole-seed and coming to its perfect soundness for most of the aforesaid opportunities but exceeding rich for all sorts of Grain out of question onely I shall earnestly perswade not to plow too oft nor impoverish it too much at first for hereby most men undo their Lands I conceive it best not to plow any of these Lands no longer than it is brought into a perfect Tilth or one year after three years may do best though four years may do well and you will find a gallant sweet Turf succeed and soard thick suddenly and sweetly and your succeeding profits all things considered may reach your very benefit of corning to a very neer scantling I
affirming that the Land next unto it but a hedge betwixt which was far better Land and indeed so it was very near as rich again husbanded by very able husbandâ— the best in that Country and that Land good Barley-Lâ—nd yet never answered the pains and cost bestowed yet I resolving to make a full triall thereof I set upon it according to the prescription aforesaid Each Acre Plowing and Harrowing Spading and Dressing for indeed I made Harrowes on purpose also of divers Sizes it cost me about fifteen or sixteen shillings an Acre the two first Crops the very Dressing of it And for these Crops being but of Oates I could have had five pound an Acre being offered it by an Oat-meal man of himself though never asked growing upon the ground Nay six pound an Acre if I would have sold it which is a vast Rate for Oates in the middle of the Nation And indeed I found the ground so poor that it would not bear Barley for I tryed some Acres of the best Land in it but it was not worth an Acre of my Oates and after Plowing I gave the old naturall Rent as it was ever set at or really worth and that for many years and the Land is better lyeth sounder warmer and both yeelds more Milk Summers as many Cattell and Winters far more and feeds better than it did before without any other cost bestowed and the very first year I layd it down after Plowing it kept me more Cattell and better than ever it did before and will continue better for it for ever after CHAP. XVI Sheweth the best and most advantagious way of Plowing and Husbandring Lands so as most to Advantage it in laying down Land to Graze to make good the Improvement promised and not to over-plow as you tender the loss of your Land TO this end be sure to lay your Furrowes open and clean scoured up and capable to receive and carry away all your standing water or soaking moysture from your Lands and be sure so to Plow your Lands as you may cast your Lands into severall Furlongs that you may have one Furrow or Drain run into another and that next into another and so into the Master Trench which if it cannot be made deep enough with the Plow let it be done with the Spade substantially And so from one to another to carry away the Water that it may neither annoy your Corn throughout your Field in any Furlong nor your Land when you come to lay it down and then when you have Plowed your Lands wherein the more truth and exactness you observe therein the more fruit expect And when you come to sowing your Lands you must get very strong weighty Harrowes if you would do it indeed and not slubber it over as most do long tined and sharp and either they must be so weighty of themselves that they may work a gallant strong Team to draw them or else so loaden with weight that you tear up rough uneven places and raise good store of Mould which is a marveilous great Advantage to the Corn as for the ordinary way of Hilding Land as most do is Reproveable and then with two or three sorts of Harrowes each Harrow having his Teeth or tines thicker than other which will so curiously and certainly cover your Corn that you will have little or none â—ye uncovered but well moulded which will have such strength heart unto it as by Gods blessing you may expect a Crop answerable to your cost bestowed and far greater The next direction is that as I cry up plowing as a soveraign meanes of a great Advancement so I also as much decry Over-Plowing or the Plowing of Lands as most do some Plow as long as it will bear any corn and others as long as it will bear good Corn And others they Plow on any fashion lay their Lands as though they were over-running them both to Corn and Graze and when they lay it down some lay down sound warm dry Land very high ridge and furrow and small Land too very prejudiciall to their Land and themselves too and are justly reproveable others lay down strong cold Land flat unopen'd some part Plowed some unplowed full of balkes holes and hils as if they would secure or ingross all the coldness and Venom of all the water and hunger that is either naturally upon it or that falls upon it or passeth by it they matter not after what manner they leave it nor after what Grain I therefore prescribe onely three or four yeares to Plow unto this sort of Land and to raise it every year not less because the Rush Filth and Earth will not be rotted nor well compounded nor the nature of the Land changed with fewer Tilths nor the Lands well brought to a good height roundness and driness in lesser time for if it be cold Laud all that can possibly be done will not lay it high and dry enough nor the Mould wrought to her perfect tenderness and true Mixture whereby it may yeeld more fruitfulness but if the Land be very rich of nature and not well wrought nor the Rush perfectly destroyed nor the Lands brought up to a convenient height and roundness then one year more may do well which year shall yeeld the best crop outof all question but will draw a little more from the strength of the Land than any of the other yeares did and if the Land be in strength it may very little prejudice it and therefore this I leave to every mans pleasure upon this consideration and could wish that all men would so Plow as mainly intending the Advance and Betterment of their Land especially Pasture Land and no otherwise For you were as good lose some of your inheritance as you do in my opinion Or as good lose the Land which is but the Carcas as the strength and vertue which is the Heart and Life of it for therein is the Common Advantage when the Earth yeelds most increase or fruit and a little parcell yeelds abundance of fruit Fifthly and lastly I advise to lay down all Lands of this nature upon Wheat Mesâ—en or Rye Stubble which will exceedingly thicken and improve the Soarding and if my Principles fail not will raise as good a Soard in the first year as after any Summer Corn whatsoever will in two and must do well for these Reasons First because it hath one half year more to Soard in then after the Lenton Tylth and so is somewhat Soarded before Oates Barley or Pease are sown Secondly because winter Corn groweth thin long and a stronger Straw and gives more liberty to the grass to grow and spread the thicker and the Soard will also be very rich and fruitfull I likewise advise to sow this Land as early â—as possibly you can even as soon as your other Crop is ended the sooner the better unless the Condition of the Country very much oppose it how
there would not be one foot of ground more lost but a double or treble Advantage raised upon it in few yeares and ever after with no other Husbandry continued but ever bring in double profit for the charge bestowed As in the cutting plashing scouring of the Hedges which payes his cost bestowed and sometimes double and treble and if it be a Hedge curiously preserved and cut just in his ripest season before it begin to die i' th' bottom and have in it either good store of great Wood or Fruit-Trees planted among the profits may arisâ— to much more than is here spoken of CHAP. XVII Wherein I proceed to a second sort of Land somewhat Inferiour to the former wherein is discoursed the destruction of the Rush Flag and Mare-blab altering the Coldness of Nature and the preventing the standing Winters Water and destroying Ant and Mole-hills c. All which are most incident to this second sort of Land THis which I call a second sort is our midling Land I delight in plainess and avoyd all Language darkning the plainest sense or whatsoever may occasion mysteriousness or confusion in the reading or practice so that this middle sort of Lands as aforesaid is all such Lands that are betwixt the value of twenty shillings per Acre and six shiliings eight pence per Acre which sort of Lands as they lye under a capacity of the greatest Improvement I have handled them at large in the foregoing Discourse especially under the four first Pieces of Improvement But as they lye under a Capacity of a moderate and less Improvement fall here to be discoursed and although I call it a moderate Improvement yet being well Husbandred according to the subsequent directions may produce a double increase and some far more and some less but in all a considerable advantage enough to encourage to the prosecution And possibly some of these Lands may be of the richest and first sort naturally but by some Improvidence or ill Husbandry being degenerate are faln under this second and that where the Rush either hard or soft prevaileth or else where the Land lyeth so flat cold and moyst that the Flag or Marâ—-blab thriveth I shall here onely apply one remedy for the removall of them all to avoid Tediousness which is most naturall thereto and cannot fail being punctually observed and that is a way all men use already though to little purpose which is to indeavour Drayning of the same as you shall see in most mens Lands both Pasture and Common â—ull of Trenches as they can hold to their great cost and loss of abundance of good Land devoured in the Trenches Heaps and banks they make and yet all is of little use the Rush as fruitfull and the Land as cold as formerly in comparison Therefore I shall advise far less Trenching and yet produce more soundness I say then as I have often said seek out the lowest part of thy Land and there make either a large Trench or good Ditch or be it but the old one well scoured up if there be one to such a Depth as may carry away that water or Corruption that feeds the Rush or Flag from every other upper Trench thou shalt see cause to make and so ascend to any part of thy Land where these offences are carrying with thee one Master Trench to receive all thy less Draines along with thee and there make a Drain yea all thy Draines and Trenches so deep for I prescribe no certain depth as to that Cold spewing water that lyeth at the bottom of the Rush or Flag which alway either lyeth in a Vein of Sand and Gravell mixed or Gravell or Clay and stones mixed as aforesaid and thence will issue a little water especially making thy Trench half a foot or one Foot deeper into which will soak the Rushes food which being laid Dry and Drayned away cannot grow but needs dye and wither It is impossible without going to the bottome to do any good Our own experience shews it and so the depth may be two Spades graâ—t or more however to the bottom thou must go and then one Trench shall do as much good as twenty alwaies curiously observing that thy Trenches run in the lowest part of thy Ground and through the Coldest and most quealiest parts of thy Lands and for the manner of making the same and further Direction therin I shall refer thee back unto the second Piece the seventh Chapter where I have spoken something to most of the aforesaid Passages But if thy Land lyes upon a Flat or upon a Levell and have many great wide Balks of which there wil be no end of Trenching or Drayning I must then assure thee it is to little purpose yet art not left remediless for this insuing direction will not fail and will bring profit with it to pay for curing also which is a moderate Plowing Ridging all thy Balks raising and Landing all thy Flats gaining them as high as possibly thou canst Plow all and leave none and do this three yeares together and observe such former Directions as are contained in the thirteenth fourteenth and fifteenth Chapters in the third Piece of Improvement And by the blessing of God expect the issue promised It will lay Land sound and dry more warm and healthfull than formerly destroy the Rush and many other Annoyances beyond Expectation I have been forced to be more large to speak twice to one thing because of the suitableness thereof unto these Lands but especially because I cannot speak enough to make some to understand it nor others to set upon the Practise and more especially because the Reader may miss the reading of it in the former part unless he take the paines as few do deliberately to read the whole Therefore if thou wilt forgive this fault I le mend the next As for the Mole-hils so great an Enemy to the Husbandman and Grazier there is so much Experience made for their Destruction that almost every Ingenuous man is grown a Moal-catcher in many parts and that is a certain way yet in many parts men are Slothful that because all their Neighbours wil not kil them therfore they wil not so they suffer their Land one third part to be turned up There is a Law to compell men to Ring their Swine to prevent their Rooting it were more advantage to the CoÌ„mon-Weal a severe Law were made to Compell all men to keep the Moal from Rooting for he destroyes abundance of Grass he covers with the Mould and Corn he throws up by the Roots which utterly perisheth Spoyls the Mâ—wers work and Tools and raiseth Balks in Meads and Pastures besides the work he makes the Husbandman to spread some of them the Cost whereof were it but bestowed in Moal-killing would prevent the aforesaid losses And although I can make no new Addition to the Moales Destruction there being so many Artists with the Moalâ—staff Tines and
whatsoever occasioneth Unfruitfulness and work an Improvement above what is Expected This way of destroying Broom Goss Braking or any such filth would be of great esteem had it been held out of it self under specious pretences of rare discovery as some can do but I am confident it is an unfailing remedy and will certainly destroy the pelf as it inriches the Lands and though many devices may be found out or strong conceits raised to do the same yet at present I know none so certain nor so profitable There is another opportunity of Improving almost any sort of Sound Land of which I gave a touch in the last Chapter Treating of the way of Improving the best sort of Lands of which it is most capable That is by Planting all sorts of Fruit-Trees in all your Divisions and Hedg-rowes where they shall not Prejudice one foot of Land and where they may grow as prosperously as in an Orchard if you will but wisely manage them The Cost or Charge of this Improvement is as easie as any that can be made if you will cast it into a Method That is when you make any Partition in your Lands which I know you will not without a Quick-set Hedge in which in every twenty yards you may Plant a Crab-Tree stock as well as a Thorn onely in setting of it be carefull of Moulding it plentifully with the best Mould you can get For that is the main Piece in Planting as I conceiee To lay a good Foundation in every thing prepares for a good Superstruction So that if the Root be Nourished from the Earth the Root will feed both Bough and Branch more plentifully Therefore though thy Land be naturally Barren yet make that place all round about thy Stock a good compass as good as thou canst with good mellow Mould and that which smelleth well in Digging is Fruitfull containing the juyce of Vegetables already prepared The Tender Mellow Earth is between the two Extremes of Clay and Sand and must needs be best And thus having Planted thy Stock in good Earth thy work is half done if thou do but now and then renew the same that is almost at it were take up thy Tree again or else get well under the Roots and so apply fresh Mould to them while they are Young and Tender And this will cause it to Thrive without measure and put forth a gallant Smooth Bark which it ever a Sign of a Thriving Tree So that be but a little carefull in the choosing thy Graft both for it self and the Fruit of it and then after Grafting have but patience in preserving of it a few years and here is all the Cost Required The Improvement may be wonderfull if men would but Plant their Grounds as in many Countries they do as in Worcestershire Hereford and Glostershire and great part of the Country of Kent they use Every Hedge-row is full of Fruit and some men plant whole Fields over every thirty yards asunder whereby they reap a Couple of Harvests One of Grass or Hay and another of Fruits O that I might but be a Remembrancer to this poor Nation of the many opportunities of Honour Wealth and Glory it is Capable of and that I could but perswade its Natives to take hold thereof and deliver the Earth of those advantages it is so big withall Judge the rest by this One Poor Piece Were all men but industrious herein how might the very fruit that might be raised in this Nation almost relieve it in such a year of Scarcity as this is like to be If it would not be bread to the Poor as it might be in some measure I am sure it would be Drink and how much Barley would that preserve to Bread-Corn that is now turned to Mault Yea had this very year been but kindly and a Plentifull Fruit-year what a great help would it have been to Enggland And might not England had it been but generally as Ingenuous as some Members of it are we might have had twice as much Fruit as now we have But certainly we are afraid lest Plenty should be our Ruin or else all men that Study so much to get Estates at second hand Each from other would rather strive to gain it at first hand Out of the Earth the True mother in whose Bowells is more Wealth than ever will be drawn forth and enough to satisfie whether theirs is or no I know not I am sure all Ingenuous men desire it that so they may be as the Midwife to deliver the Earth of it Throws it will send forth enough if thou wilt but lay an Egge in the Sand of the Earth 't will bring it forth Help the Birth be the Man-Midwife who is never in use but in greatest need Need and Misery is likely to be greater than is expected Yea I fear than hath been of many yeares If God work not above man And man work not now with God by all Prudentiall means whatsoever And so much and no more be said of Planting Fruit-trees at present untill I have gained more Time therefore and Experience therein And now I resolve to speak no more of any more wayes of Improvement here but onely One word of Preserving that We have already and 't is but onely to Direct a word or two how to keep Corn from Blasting and Seed from Vermine For Blasting is one of a Kingdomes Curses And therfore to Prescribe naturall absolute unfailing Remedies in all Places and at all Times is beyond my skill yet one Unfailing Remedy there is also the Removall of this so it is the Removall of all Causes or Occasions of Barrenness whatever And that is sinne the Root that brings forth all First brought forth the Curse and ever since the fruit thereof The onely Cure thereof is our Lord Jesus set upon the Pole he must damn the Curse for us and in us and we by looking up to him and our Application of himself to us Mourning over him and humbling our Soules before him Hereby must we be made Sensible of the Removall hereof by which and by no other meanes it is Removable But the naturall Helps as usually are Applied are the Soaking or Steeping Corn in thick fat water or Lime-Water or Urine or Brine and the Mixing-Lime or Ashes with the Corn while Wet and Moyst that so it may receive part of Smithon-Meal finest of the Ashes or Lime upon it self and Cloath it self with it so as it may fall cloathed all over to the Earth and so be covered therewith This hath been Highly Commended of late as a great Preservation of the Purity of the Corn and in some-parts of the Chiltern Country now put into great use so that instead of their Usuall way of changing their seed which hath been an Old received Principle of great advantage and I verily believe is very good Husbandry now they betake themselves hereto Yet however I would not Dehort but perswade mâ—n