become dull by too long acquaintance with them But the pleasures of a Garden are every day renewed with the approaching Aurora While with succeeding Flow'rs the year is crown'd Whose painted Leaves enamel all the ground Admire not them but with more grateful Eyes To Heaven look and their great Maker prize In a calm Night the Earth and Heaven agree There radiant Stars here brighter Flow'rs we see Gardens as if immortal ne'er decay And fading Flow'rs to fresher still give way Rapinus Such is its pre-excellency that there is scarce a Cottage in most of the Southern parts of England but hath its proportionable Garden so great a delight do most of men take in it that they may not only please themselves with the view of the Flowers Herbs and Trees as they grow but furnish themselves and their Neighbors upon extraordinary occasions as Nuptials Feasts and Funerals with the proper products of their Gardens Flowers in many things convenient are Our Tables and our Cupboards we prepare With them and better to diffuse their scent We place them in our Rooms for Ornament By others into Garlands they are wrought And so for Off'rings to the Altars brought Sometimes to Princes Banquets they ascend And to their Tables fragrant Odours lend Rapinus It furnishes our Kitchin and Tables with various Esculents as well satisfying Nature as pleasing our Appetites it yields us various Spirits Essences Perfumes Waters Unguents Conserves Perserves and many other necessary useful and pleasant dietical and medicinal Curiosities which the same Rapinus hath elegantly expressed in his Poems on the same Subject and at last concludes I should too tedious be of I should sing The mighty aids which Herbs and Flowers bring To the Diseases Men are subject to For these the Gods with Vertue did endue CHAP. I. Of the Scituation and Soyls of a Garden and their Improvement SECT I. Of the Scituation of a Garden IT may seem needless to say any thing of the Scituation of a Garden it being so absolute a Concomitant to your Habitation that a Garden remote or by it self is neither pleasant nor useful Therefore where-ever your House is near it must be your Garden But in case you have not yet laid the Foundation of your intended Residence then may you consider what Ground or Soyl is best for your Plantation and Partirre without which you can never make the other compleat Therefore as near as you can let the Soyl be good deep and light that Trees and Tillage may prosper in it and then you need not question but Flowers will thrive there Let it have the free and open Air to the East and South but the South-East is to be preferred and the North defended by tall Trees which are better than Hills which give too great a reflection of Heat in the Summer and impede the cool Breezes that frequently come out from that Coast If the whole Garden be at some distance defended by tall Trees it will very much break the fierce Winds and ferene Airs that in the Winter and Spring usually annoy the most delicate Plants and Flowers and will also yield a cooling refreshing sweet and healthy Air and Shade in the hottest Seasons If the Soyl be dry and warm a plain Level is best for a Garden but if it be cold or moist then declining or shelving towards the Sun is the best position because by Fosses or by the Walks only the Water naturally glides from it And in such a Garden Trees Plants and Flowers will thrive exceedingly These Rules are good where you are to make your election what sort of ground and wheâ—e you design your Seat I might have also added the springs of Water in or near your Garden are great additions to the Improvement Beauty and Glory of it but that it 's hoped few will seat themselves where that Element is wanting unless it be for the sake of some pleasant Grove Prospect or delicate Air Woods and Water being two of the best Ornaments of the Seat which may be had in most places together with a good Air but seldom Water and a good Prospect If you are fixed or limited to a place or scituation that puts an end to Election and then you are to consider the Nature of the Soyl you are on what it is apt to produce how to be corrected and improved SECT II. Of the different and most natural Soyls for Gardens LAnds are usually inclinable to Loam Clay Chalk Marle or Sand. A Loamy Land is usually free and apt to Vegetation warm and easie to Till the sadder the Colour the better if it be free from Stones and Gravel with a sandy mixture and mellow withal it is esteemed the best for Gardens for the most sorts of Fruits and Flowers There is much Land that is mixed with Clay in too great a proportion which maketh it apt to bind and is cold and moist in the Winter season retaining wet too much and apt to chap in the Summer it is injurious to most Fruits and Flowers and therefore hath most need of help of any other Chalky Land is generally very sweet and kind to many Plants that are not very tender it being cold in the Winter and suffers not its Plants to put forth early in the Spring it is not difficult to be corrected and made more natural to the choicest Fruits and Flowers Marle is a very good mixture in Land so that it be not in too great a quantity it being much of the nature of Chalk but easier to be tilled and improved Sandy Land is very warm and free very apt for Vegetation and amicable to most of our choicest Fruits and Flowers but if the Sand predominate it will require a constant supply of proper Soyls to enrich it SECT III. Of the Improvement of such Soyls THere are many parcels of Land lying near Towns Villages and Houses that are of that excellent mixture of Loam and other Earths that they are capable to entertain most of the delicate Fruits Flowers and other Curiosities that are fit to be planted or propagated in your best Partirs without any other mixture or composition other than convenient dung of Oxen Cows Sheep Pullen Pidgeons and sometimes old and rotten Horse-dung to preserve it in its due and wonted fertility it being by continual weeding and the attraction of the Plants you furnish it withal apt to sterilize So that where your ground is thus naturally fertile and prone to vegitate you need take no other care than to apply proper Soyls or Compositions according as the nature of your Plant requires or to maintain it in its full vigour Claiy-Land being cold moist and stiff is to be converted by labour and mixtures of a contrary nature if you dig it often the Sun Rain and Frost will make it more friable and fertile For take Clay and lay it on any other Land it will in time dissolve and unite in minute parts with it that you shall hardly discern it so
excellent surely by a continued improvement to this day must they needs now be much better There are several kinds of them as the more ordinary which run up tall and bear small heads which are very hardy and are usually called the Thistle-Artichoaks the other sorts are more large and grow low and much to be preferred but are more tender and unable to endure the severity of the Winter The best and largest sort is that called the Globe-Artichoak bearing a very large Fruit of near twelve inches over The meanest is that called the Red Artichoak with the Plants whereof many have been deceived expecting a more excellent than ordinary Fruit when instead thereof they produced the worst of Artichoaks They are increased by Slips taken from the sides of the old Roots at the time of dressing them in the Spring with as much root to them as you can Artichoaks delight in a rich and deep Soyl and not very dry which Soyl must be trenched about two foot deep and mixed very well with good old rotten Dung and so laid up into Beds of what form you think best for you may go between them as you please the Artichoak roots very deep and if it likes its ground will grow very large and continue many years You may plant them four foot apart at least that they may have room to spread their leaves and at their first planting be fure to water them in dry Weather until you observe them to grow The best times for the planting them is in the beginning of April and you may sow any Sallet-Herbs between them that may be gathered and disposed of before the Artichoaks spread too far These Plants will some of them yield heads in the Autumn following If you throughly water your Artichoaks with water enriched with Sheeps-Dung it will make them very large Watring of them in dry Land or in dry Years much advantageth them for in moist Years they are much more plentiful and large than in dry Years and the better it will be in case the Water be fat Water drawn from Ashes or improved by any fixed Salt is very good for the same purpose for I have known that Artichoaks have been the larger for Turf-ashes casually with Dung laid at their Roots to preserve them in Winter In November or the beginning of December it will be a good time to secure your Artichoaks from the Frost by raising the Earth about them and encompassing them with long Dung or any hawmy substance but not to cover them lest it perish them for it 's the Frost that perisheth the Roots and the wet and want of Air that perish the Leaves About London where they have great Gardens of Artichoaks they cannot so well cover them with long Dung but instead thereof they cut off all the Greens which they sell for feeding of Cows after the rate of 20 s. per Acre as they themselves tell me and then cover the plants over with Earth to defend them from Frosts so that it is not necessary to preserve the Greens over the Winter But this way of covering them with Earth did not preserve them in the great Frost of 1683 when all so covered were killed and at the same time those that were covered well with long Dung were preserved in the smaller Gardens remote from London and some that were buried in Dung all that winter being cast out of the Gardens were found in the Spring to be living Some prescribe to whelm over them an earthen Pot Bee-hive or such like open at the top to give them Air which may serve if the Winter be not too sharp About the middle of March you may gently move the Dung from them and at the end the Earth that was cast up and the first week in April may you dress them by digging deeply about each Root and slipping of every Set as low as possibly you can leaving two or three of the greatest and most distant the one from the other for Bearers then fill them up round with good old Dung or rich Soil mixt with the Earth and they will afford you fair Heads If you would have latter Artichoaks you must cut the first Crops betimes or expect them from your new set plants A small spot of ground thus planted and ordered will furnish your Table with many of these Fruits in a year and are equal to the best of Vegetables for Food charge and trouble and very little in comparison of the advantage They will continue six eight or ten years sometimes twenty years and more according to the goodness of the Land they grow in and then must be renewed when you perceive them to degenerate which they surely do if they like not the ground The young Buds of Artichoaks may be eaten raw with Pepper and Salt as usually Melons Figs c. are eaten The Chard of the Artichoaks which is the Stalk of a young Artichoak arising out of an old Root and preserved from the Air and from heading by winding it about with Straw to blanch it and make it tender is by the French esteem'd an excellent Dish The Roots Stalks and Leaves of them whilst young and tender are delicate Meat especially if so preserved and blanched as is by some affirmed and it is not improbable for I have often found that by covering a Winter Bud to preserve it from Frost the Snails have greedily devour'd it Those esculent Herbs that are perennial because they are not so much used for Food as for Condiment I shall discourse of in another Chapter CHAP. II. Of Esculent Roots THere are several Roots that have afforded us great plenty of substantial pleasant Of Turnips and wholesome Food whereof the Turnip is esteem'd the best there are several sorts of them the round long and yellow of which the round is the most common though the others are very good the long are usually called Navews they have been an ancient Food throughout Europe Southward and have been very much improved in England of late years They will grow on the meanest Land in its first tilth and much the more if the Season prove moist or dripping The Season of sowing them is about Midsummer that they may be ready to improve upon the Autumnal Rains which maketh them much sweeter than the Vernal They are fickle at their first coming up in a too dry Season and if being sown early they happen to fail you may at the end of July or beginning of August new sow your Ground These Seeds are much sought for and devoured by small Birds who will smell them in the ground and when they first send their pale heads above the earth the Birds will draw them out and eat of their Seeds and leave the naked Shoots on the ground Those that escape the Birds in small Gardens or places amongst or near to Trees and Groves as well as in the larger Fields the Flies in dry and hot Summers usually devour so that few or none escape them which
Lassitude or the Heat Rain or scorching beams of the Sun render the open Walks unpleasant to repose your self under some pleasant Tree or in some Covert or Shade until you are willing to try the Air again SECT I. Of Walks and Meterials for them WHerefore to accommodate you for all 1. Stone-Walks Seasons wet or dry hot or cold it is convenient to have Walks and Places of Repose in your Garden As for Walks the best for the Winter and wet Seasons are those paved with Stone about the breadth of five foot in the midst of a Gravel-walk of about five or six foot Gravel on each side the Stone or of Grass which you please for on these flat Stones may you walk securely under-foot in all Weathers without prejudice to your self or Walks Next unto the paved Stone are the Gravel-walks 2. Gravel Walks walks to be preferred which if made with a fine skreened red Gravel do very much adorn your Garden and being laid round and kept rolled with a Stone-roler cast off the Water and are very useful in moist Weather to walk on The Gravel-walks are best under your Fruit-walks because the beams or rays of the Sun reflect from them against the Walls much better than from Grass and very much advantage your Fruit. The great inconveniences these Walks are subject unto are Weeds and Moisture To prevent the Weeds you must be sure to remove all manner of earth clean from the place before you bring in your Gravel and in case the Earth be not stiff enough of it self it would not be amiss to support the sides with two or three courses of Brick or at least a Brick set on end edge by edge to prevent the falling in or mixture of the said Earth with your Gravel yet so that the upper part of your Brick may be an inch beneath the surface of your Walk that it may not be discerned If your Ground be good and apt to run to Weeds seven or eight inches deep ought your Gravel to lie lest the Weeds find their way through you ought also to cleanse the Ground under from the Roots of Grass Weeds as Nettles Docks c. least they find their way through the Gravel You may fill your Walk with ordinary coarse unskreened Gravel five or six inches and after that is levelled then lay on your last Course of fine Gravel and roll it well if your upper Course of Gravel be two or three inches thick and at any time your Walk grow discoloured or mossy you may stir it with a Spade as far as the fine Gravel lyes and finely rake it then roll it again and it will appear to be as fresh as at the first The other inconvenience these Walks are subject unto is Moisture especially after a Frost which very much loosens the Gravel and long soaking Rains make it apt to stick to your Feet For the best red Gravel hath a mixture of Clay or Loam in it which makes it in dry weather bind the better to prevent which several Expedients are lately made use of Some do grind or beat small the shels of Fish gathered on the Sea-shore and therewith add a thin coat on the Gravel which by constant rolling incorporates with it and is not apt to adhere to your Shooes as is the Gravel it self Others that live near to Brick-kilns make use of the refuse parts of Bricks that are under burnt which will easily pulverize and lay that on the Gravel-Walks which prevents the same inconvenience and adds much to the beauty of your Walk and is easily renewed as there is occasion On the edge of your Gravel-Walks you may lay on each side a narrow Walk of Turf for your use in hot weather or when you are willing to favour your Feet or your Gravel which being kept out strait on the edges beautifies your Gravel But if you will have your Walk only Gravel then will it be necessary to edge it with Brick three or four inches above the surface to prevent Earth or Rubbish from intermixing with it Bricks set on one end side by side is the securest and most lasting way for this purpose Walks of Grass are very pleasant and much 3. Green Walks to be preferred in the Summer to any of the other being cold and easie to the Feet They are either made by laying them with Turf or by raking them fine and sowing them with Hay-dust or Seed which may be had at the bottom of a Hay-mow or Rick and well rolled and weeded from all gross Weeds will soon become a fine Grass-walk if these Walks also be laid a little rounding they will cast off the water the better and be more commodious for your use than if flat A Water-table on each side of two or three inches deep cut every year anew not only receives the waste water but preserves the Grass or Weeds from mixing with your Borders and presents your Walk much more pleasant to your eye than if it were otherwise To destroy Weeds in the Gravel-walks or paved Walks where you cannot conveniently eradicate them you must water it with very salt Water or with the Liquor they have at the Salters which they call Bittern which absolutely destroys all Vegetation where it is cast in an indifferent good quantity It is none of the least oblectations a Garden 4. Of Terrace-walks affords to have Terrace-walks on which you have the benefit of the Air and prospect on your Garden These in former Ages and now also in more hot Countries were much celebrated the Hortipensiles or Pendant-gardens were after this manner made above the ordinary level for the advantage of the Air and pleasure of the Eye and somewhat to add to the magnificence of the Place being very beautiful as well as commodious They are usually made where much Earth or Rubbish is to spare which would cost time and labour to remove and here is disposed of to advantage with the only expence of a Wall on the out-side to support it or if you please on both but the inner-side to your Garden may be made declining and cloathed with Turf The Wall on the out-side surmounting the Top of the Walk about three foot and on the Edge towards your Garden may be set a Rail or Rail and Ballisters or a Pallisade or a quick tonsile Hedge of about the same height the Wall is of that neither side prevent the Air nor impede your Prospect In some Gardens where water is at your command the sinking of an Aquaeduct or Piscary will afford you Materials for your Terrace-walk both of which are best and most proper to be made at the farthest distance from your House SECT II. Of Arbors and Places of Repose TO make your Garden pleasant at all times and in all seasons either in respect of the great variety of weather or your own disposition or indisposition it will be very necessary to accommodate it with places of Shade to skreen you from the
another as you please Or you may cut off your Flower before it be fully ripe with a long Stalk and set it in the ground as far as you can and it will retain its ripening but you must shade it and give it a little Water lest it wither CHAP. V. Of Melons Cucumbers c. MElons or Muskmelons as they are usually termed from their pleasant Of Melons Scent are in the more Southern Countries not unworthily esteem'd the most delicate Fruit the Kitchin Garden affords for in those warmer Airs they attain a greater degree of Maturity which exceedingly adds to their Gust and Salubrity however here in England being raised in the first of the Spring and having thereby all the prime of the Summer and heat that Nature and Art can give them they are a pleasant and a modish repast and therefore deserve your singular care in their propagation and management There are several sorts of Melons and called by several Names but those most usually known are the large ribbed Melon and the small round Melon They are sown in February at the full of the Moon in your hot Bed the making whereof you shall find at the end of this Book the Seeds first steep'd in Milk twenty four hours and then set two or three in a hole about an inch deep When your Seeds are in the ground cover up your Bed to preserve it warm and when they are come up then cover them with drinking-glasses leaving room for a little Air near the ground Towards the end of April you may remove your Melon Plants out of the hot Bed into the Bed wherein they are to grow all the Summer which Bed or at least certain large holes in it is to be of very rich light Mould the best time for this Work is in an Evening after a fair Day At their first removal they must be watred and defended from Sun and Cold three or four days together and afterwards from the Cold. When the plants grow large you may cover them either with glass Bells made for that purpose or with square Cases of Glass made by the Glasiers for the same use Be sure keep them close at Night and give them some admission of Air under the Glass or at the top in the day time To prevent Frosts from hurting your Plants and Hail from breaking your Glasses if you have any forewarning of either you may cover your Glasses with pease-straw or Mats When you water your Melons which they expect only in very dry and hot Weather water them at half a foot distance from the Root and not wet the Leaves Place a Tile under each Melon it will lie the warmer upon it and nip off the small shoots that exhaust the sap from the more leading Branches Some prescribe to cover your Melon Bed two or three inches with Sand to increase the heat of the Sun by reflection but Tiles under the Fruit may do as well Also it is advised that you shelter your newly removed plant from the heat of the Sun at Noon and until four in the Afternoon as well as from the Cold and that until the plants have gotten Leaves broad enough to cover their Stalks and Roots from the parching Sun When your Melons are as big as Tennis-Balls then nip off the shots at some distance beyond them at a Joynt and the Melons will grow large Melons are known to be ripe when the Stalk seems as if it would part from the Fruit when they begin to gild and grow yellow underneath and by their fragrant Odour they yield which increaseth as they more and more ripen But every Melon appears not alike in Colour when mature therefore you must consider their difierent Natures If they are to carry far then gather them when they begin to ripen but if they are to spend immediately then let them be through ripe When you gather your Melons you may put them before they be cut into a Bucket of cold Water for a minute of time to refresh them which will make them eat cool and pleasant and with an excellent Flavour as it will mend a Bottle of Wine in hot Weather Leave some part of the Stalk to the Melon lest by being broken too near the Melon languish and lose the richness of its taste Let them not when you gather them be too green nor over ripe Preserve the Seeds of those that are most early ripe and prefer those Seeds that lodged at the sunny side of the Melon Cucumbers have been in very great esteem in Of Cucumbers the more Southern Countries and of late years are much improved in England and become a general Condiment for the hot Season of the year as they are Crude from the Garden and for the more cold Season as they are preserv'd in pickle There are two sorts of them that is the large green Cucumber vulgarly called the Horse-Cucumber which the French call Parroquets Parroquets And the small white or more prickly Cucumber these are best for the Table green out of the Garden but the other to preserve They are planted aad propagated after the same manner as are the Melons only they require more watring and withal they are much more hardy Although watring makes the Cucumbers more fruitful yet they are more pleasant and wholesome if they have but little Water Pompeons are much more hardy then Melons Of Pompeons or Cucumbers yet are they tender in their first springing and therefore are not usually planted until April and then for some time after they are come up defended from the Cold. They must be planted in Rich old Dung and require a large place to ramble in they will lay their Fruit on the Ground or on Scaffolds made for that purpose or on Pales or dry Hedges There are lesser sorts of them that are lately Of Squashes brought into request that are called Squashes the edible part whereof boyl'd and serv'd up with Powdered Beef is esteemed a good Sauce These and several others of the smaller kinds of Pompeons are raised and managed as the Pompeon or Cucumber CHAP. VI. Of Sallad-Herbs BEsides the great variety of Esculent and Alimental Plants which we have already named the greatest part whereof may be eaten by themselves and not as Sauces or Sallads there yet remain several excellent Herbs and Plants that are of great use in the Kitchin and are very pleasing and wholsome at the Table the Principal whereof is the Lettuce which contendeth with any of the Of the Lettuce former named Plants for Antiquity it is an excellent Summer Sallad cooling and refreshing and for that use hath it been always propagated And although there be several sorts of them yet that one Cabbage-Lettuce being the best eaten either raw or boyled the other may be neglected They are usually sown in February and March and unless the Weather prove very cold they will flourish and yield you a Spring Sallad in the beginning of April but if defended by
made fine both these and so do Deer and Goats retain their Meat longer than Horses or Swine who feed more grosly and hastily the Dung of the one being like whisps of Hay of the other like a mixture of all sorts of Filth Also Sheep and Deer drink but little which make their Dung and their Urine which also is very rich could it be preserved very fertile Neat drink much which very much tempereth and allayeth the heat and fertile Nature of the Soyl. Earth thus mixed with Sheeps Dung dissolved is very excellent for most sorts of Fibrous rooted Flowers because the decay of the Dung which will be in time leaves the ground porous that the Fibres thereby as well insinuate themselves and spread abroad as they do contract the richness the Dung affords them Tuberous rooted Flowers also affect this mixture Artichoaks delight in it exceedingly and Sheeps Dung applyed to the Roots of them and then often watered whereby the Vertue of it may be conveyed into them makes the Plant yield you fair Fruit most Garden-Tillage affect it for it is not only a very rich Soil but renders the Ground light and porous which is very advantageous to Tillage A mixture of Neats Dung after the same Neats Dung manner is very good for most of the same uses as is that of Sheeps Dung And better in some particular Cases for that if you have occasion to remove or plant any good Flower in the Summer time or out of its proper Season such a mixture of Earth and Neats Dung made into a liquid Pap and the Tree or Flower placed in it that the liquid Matter may encompass the Root will so adhere to it and be so cool and moist that it will cause the Plant to thrive as well as if it had been planted or removed in its proper season Horse Dung whilst new is the hottest of Horse Dung Dungs laid in a great quantity together by reason that a Horse chews his Meat but little feeds hastily and evacuates it in a short time so that like chopt Straw or Hay but beginning to ferment in the Belly of the Horse it continues fermenting after it is in the Dunghil but if it be laid up with the Litter that is usually moistned with the Urine of the Horse and after it is throughly rotten which will be much the sooner if it lie in a moist place or be often watred by Rain or by Hand and turned withal or cast as the Husbandman usually terms it it then makes an excellent Compost for your Kitchin Garden In your Swine-yard or places where Swine Swines Dung usually tread or feed the Earth is very much improved by their dunging and pissing which trampled into and mixt with the Earth makes it become a very good Compost especially to allay that rankness or over-freeness of some very light and rich Soils that breed the Canker in Trees and too many Worms and other Vermin and Insects that destroy your choicest Plants This Dung or Earth so inriched being a fat cooling Compost may be with success used in both your Gardens but rather amongst your Fruit-Trees where it excels Asses Dung is near of the nature of Sheeps Asses Dung Dung Deers Dung c. spoken of before altho' not altogether so rich The Dung of all Corn fed Fowl is very hot Pigeons Dung at the first especially that of Pigeons because they feed hastily and evacuate the same digested in a short time and urine not so that their Drink is no more but only to digest and nourish and not to carry away any of the Vertue of the Meat nor lessen the strength or fertility of the Dung Experience hath taught the Husbandman that in the Champion Countries where great store of Pigeons Dung is to be had the same sown but thinly with Barley makes a poor Ground yield a good Crop for when but thinly sown the Rain and Air soon qualifie its present heat which if it were laid thick would burn the Corn especially at that season or else make it grow too rank which is as great a fault as its being too short Therefore you may well conclude that these Dungs laid in a heap in the open Air and moistned by the Rain or otherwise until their heat is over will make a most rich Compost for either Garden but more especially for your Kitchen Garden I only here give you a Caution not to use Malt-dust Malt-dust in your Garden for there are many Seeds of pernicious Weeds in it that have passed all the imbibitions fermentations and exsiccations of the Malt and yet retain their vegetating nature and will furnish you with new species of Weeds out of the Fields that your Garden before was not acquainted withal The Setlings of Waters where there is least Mud of Ponds Current is the best but the Mud or Residence of any Water unless it be over-much sandy is excellent to qualifie the Nature of your Ground If your Ground be light then use stiff Mud if your Ground be stiff or cold then use light or sandy Residences These Mixtures are good for all sorts of Garden-ground The Washings of Streets or High-ways after Rain yield great store of Setling or Mud that is very profitable for Garden-ground especially the Residency of such Water that descends from Chalky Hills applied to light Ground The Mud in the bottom of Pools wherein Horses are usually washed is also very good if duely applied Any Ashes or other Matter whatsoever that Salts contains Salt is good so that the quantity of the Matter containing the Salt doth not too far exceed the Salt contained in it as usually Wood-ashes after they have been in the Wash-house Soap-house or elsewhere have the most of their Salt extracted and then applied to your Ground sterilizeth it unless it be to a strong Clay-ground then it will make it lighter although not richer The Ashes of any burnt Vegetables are excellent as before we observed a Mixture of Lime is very good in most Grounds but the Salt of Lime extracted by Water and your Ground watered therewith is much to be preferred It hath also this singular Property that it makes the Worm soon leave the Place watered therewith and expose themselves to the Air where they soon perish or to the Birds who devour them The same Effect is wrought by any Alkalizate Salts or Salts produced by Fire The Murc or Refuse after the Pressings of Murc Cider and rotten Fruit are very good to mix with your Earth but it must be after it hath lain a long time in some Pit or Heap until it hath lost its Savour and until the Seeds or Kernels are dead lest they germinate and incommode your Garden Any drezy Wood or the Dust of the Wood-pile Rotten Wood. but more especially rotten Willow is excellent to make the Earth light for most fibrous rooted Flowers The same is Saw-dust if it first lie in a moist Place until it
be rotten and hath its Acidity abated or digested Straw or any dry Vegetables become rotten Straw and mix'd with Earth maketh it light and fit for your choicest Anemonies and all fibrous rooted Flowers Tobacco dried or cur'd and afterwards Tobacco mix'd with your Garden-mould will doubtless exceedingly enrich it For it is of a very high and strong nature and containeth much of a Volatile Nitrous Salt in it and is reported to be equally as effectual in the tanning of Leather as the Bark of the Oak which if it be true as I have no reason to doubt it it may prove a considerable Improvement of many Country Farms and of great benefit and advantage to the Nation in general either of which Uses is better than that to which it is now usually put unto SECT I. Of Watering Gardens BEsides the Mixture of several Materials Fat Waters and Composts with Land to make it fruitful you may add enriched Waters which serve where you cannot conveniently change your Ground or remove your Plant as in several Flower-trees and Artichoaks Asparagus c. That Water is very good that is taken out of standing Pools where Cattel usually resort to shade or cool themselves in hot Weather and leave their Dung in it which by the stirring of their Feet enricheth the Water Ducks and Geese also much improve standing Pools where they frequent Several Waters may be prepared in which you may steep or macerate your Seeds or Pulse to make them sprout the sooner or come the fairer and with the same Water may you irrigate your Ground Many Receipts there are to that end I shall only mention some of them Take Sheeps Dung well dissolved in warm Water and after it hath stood twelve Hours strain it through a course Cloth with compression for it is so slimy that it comes through with difficulty therefore I suppose a Decantation may serve To two or three Gallons of this Liquor add a handful of Bay-salt and somewhat a lesser proportion of Salt-petre and let them both be dissolved in the former Water which to expedite let it be made luke-warm and stirred often in which Liquor let your Seeds lie for twenty four hours or more till they are throughly swelled Pulse need not lie so long Then take out your Seeds or Pulse and expose them thinly on some Floor to the Air not the Sun until they be half dry then sow them It is also prescribed that the remainder of the Sheeps Dung that was not made liquid should be dried and calcined and the fix'd Salt extracted out of it and added to the former Composition but it 's more probable that another parcel of Sheeps Dung calcined would yield more and better Salt than the remaining part of the dissolved Dung. This latter part makes the process too difficult and troublesom and adds but little to the vertue of it any other fixed Salt having the same effect as that so hard to be obtained This Liquor is more effectual for the watering of Plants than it is for the maceration of Seeds and so are any other salt Waters Some add a greater quantity of Salt-petre and Bay-salt some only Salt-petre others use Pigeons Dung in stead of Sheeps Dung also Lime-water after that manner enrich'd with Sheeps Dung Pigeons Dung or Neats Dung is equal in vertue if not exceeding that to which Salt-petre or Bay-salt is added Every Husbandman hath experimented the Effect of Lime the Salt only extracted by the Rains enriching the Earth occasioning so plentiful a Crop the other remaining part like a Caput Mortuum only tempereth the Land for the future and maketh it more sad where before it was too light which if the Land did not require it then doth Lime after its Salt is wasted much injury to the Land whereon it is laid Nitre or Salt-petre only dissolv'd in Water a Pound to four or five Gallons is held to be very effectual to enrich barren Mould This agrees with our Observations about Earth covered with Building or otherwise defended from Sun and Rain for the generation of Nitre Some commend the sprinkling of Milk and Rain-water on the Beds first sifted over with Lime pulverized whether by pounding or slacking with Water it mattereth not neither of which can improve or abate the vertue or quantity of its Salt the thing we desire and after every Watering sifting more Lime This way may not be amiss for such Lands that the Caput Mortuum of the Lime remaining after the Salt is extracted will not prejudice and for such Plants that the Lime lying on the Ground will not injure The Milk may be left out not signifying so much as the value of it amounts unto the Liquor wherein Flesh Meats whether Fresh or Salt have been boyled is much better and easier obtained The Salt of Lime extracted with Water in some large wooden Vessel containeth in it the same improving Vertue and is less troublesom to make use of and free from the Inconveniences that attend the other way Much more might be said concerning these improving Liquids as well as Solids but that the most learned and experienc'd of Rural or Mr Evelyn Hortulane Authors hath lately been very copious on the same Subject Only I may here advise the unexperienced not to water his Plants in either Garden with a cold Spring or well-Well-water if he can obtain any other which if he cannot then to expose this to the Sun or Air some time before he useth it or enrich it by some pinguid Mixtures as Lime Ashes Dung or such like which will quickly qualifie it for his purpose by abating the sudden Coldness of it to the Plant For it is a very great Injury to most tender Plants to be diluted with cold Water from the Well or Spring and checks their Growth exceedingly as may be observed in a bleeding Vine to the naked Roots of which if you pour store of cold Spring or well-Well-water it suddenly checks the ascension of the Sap by means whereof the Bleeding ceaseth and the Wound consolidates again before the more liberal ascent of the Sap much more then will it check the Growth of a weak Herb or Flower Also as it is observed to sow in the Dust whereby the Seeds gradually swell from the cold Dews of the Night and Air and are made ready to sprout with the next Rains so it is not good to water new-sown Seeds until the long defect of Showers invite you to it lest you wash off the Earth from them before they have sprouted whereby they fasten themselves the better to endure a Watering Some Seeds as Radish Lettuce Gilliflower-seed c. remain not long in the Earth and therefore may in two or three Days for want of Rain be watered by hand but Tulip Auricula Parsley Carrot-seed c. lie longer in the Ground and require not so speedy an Irrigation All Seed ought to be watered by the smallest or Rain-like Drops as you can and not too much
for hasty Watering and hasty Showers discover them For most Flowers and Plants whose Leaves lie near the Ground it is best to water them at some distance by making a Ring round the Plant a little hollow and pouring the Water into it whereby you annoy not the Leaves with your discolouring Water or chill them with the Coldness of it In all warm Weather the Evening is the best Season to water in because the Water will have time to sink into the Earth and the Plant to attract it before the Heat of the Sun exhales it but in cold Weather and when the Nights are cold the Morning is the most proper time that the superfluous Moisture may be evaporated before the cold Night overtake you and chill your Plant. By no means use Liquors either naturally hot as Spirits or artificially made so by heating it over the Fire A Plant that delights in Moisture or a drooping Plant that you may suppose Water will preserve may be watered by Filtration which is by placing an earthen Pot full of Water near the Plant and putting therein the end of a List of Woollen-cloth the other end thereof to hang down on the outside of the Pot to the Ground near the root of the Plant by means of which List if it be thick enough the Water will filtrate or distil over the Brim of the Pot through the List of Woollen so long as any Water is in reach of the List in the Pot always observing that the end of the List in the outside of the Pot be longer than that in the inside and that the List be thorowly wet before you add it The Reasons of this Operation which many Country Colona's daily experiment we will not here discourse of To water your Flower-pot that the Water Watering of Flower-pots may the easier descend to the bottom and throughout the whole Pot you may before you fill it with Earth place in it a Pipe of Lead Latton or such like close at the bottom with divers Holes at the sides of it let the Pipe extend in height to the top of the Pot and when the Pot is full of Earth and planted with Flowers and that you cannot conveniently otherwise water it then with a Funnel fill the Pipe with Water and reiterate your filling of it until you think there is enough and by the Holes on the sides of the Pipe the Water will moisten the whole Pot of Earth The Water you use here ought to be meliorated by some of the former ways For Earth thus separated from the Ground is more apt to decay than that which is remaining on its natural Foundation which continually receives an Improvement by perspiration of the vegetating Spirit There are several sorts of Watering-pots in Watering-pots use for Gardens the most useful is the common Watering-pot made of tinn'd Plate or Latton the Nose or end of the Spout whereof is covered with a Cover wherein are many small Perforations that the Water may force through in small Streams and besprinkle your Plants or Seeds like unto Rain This Cover is made to take off and on to cleanse at pleasure There is another sort of Watering-pot that hath a small Hole at the bottom and another at the top so that when you sink it into a Vessel of Water it will fill by the lower Pipe or Hole the Air passing out at the Hole at the top where the Handle is also When it is full take it by the Handle and stop the Hole with your Thumb and when you come to the Plant you intend to water you may ease the Hole whereon your Thumb lies and as you please let the Water out at the Pipe in the bottom for as the Air comes in at the top the Water will issue out at the bottom and so may you stop it and open it with your Thumb at your pleasure With this Pot you may easily let the Water down on your Plants that can bear with a washing Shower You may water any Ground by the first sort of Watering-pot with any enriched or thick Water if you take off the Cover of the Pipe and convey the same Water about the Roots of any Plants without fouling the Leaves or Flowers Also you may have a small Engine made like one of the Engines for the raising of Water to extinguish Fire withal and place it in a Frame to drive to and fro about your Garden you may fill it with Water and the Spout or Pipe with a perforated Cover like unto the common Watering-pots but not so broad as to spread the Water so much with this Engine may you imitate Rain over any of your Beds at a distance and wash your Wall-trees from Vermine and refresh them at your pleasure Any of these Watering-pots may be preserved To preserue your Watering-pots for many Years from Rust to which they are very apt by painting them over with Linseed Oyl and Red Lead SECT IV. Of making Hot-Beds IT is evident to all that most Plants do naturally observe the Season of the Year in their Germination Growth and Maturation and although they are removed into another Climate yet do they incline to the Observation of the same Time as they did in their own former natural Place of their Growth as the Persian Iris American Strawberry and several others which make them the more acceptable as they come earlier or later than others of the same Kind So is it with many other Flowers Fruits or Herbs For we annually observe how acceptable a Dish of early Pease is over what they are when later and common and so are Asparagus Cucumbers Melons c. The Growth of most Plants is quickned by a warm Position as under a warm Fence or Wall and by an artificial Heat as by being planted against a Place where Fire is usually kept or by watering them with Waters impregnated by hot Dungs which will very much accelerate Germination If you would have Herbs to sprout immediately To raise a Sallad in few Hours then lay a Bed of unslak'd Lime powdered with a Mixture of Ashes if you please or without on that a Lay of hot Dung and on that another Lay of Lime and then on that a Lay of fine rich Mould wherein sow your Seeds as Lettuce Purslain Corn-Sallad Parsley c. first steep'd in White-wine or some of the former prepared Waters and water them when sown with some of the same richest Waters and they will suddenly appear above ground and as you water them so will they prosper This should be done within doors lest the coldness of the Air should impede their growth the often watering them facilitates their nourishment But the Hot-beds that are most useful and whereon you are to raise your tender Exoticks and your early Flowers and also to raise and bring forward your Melons Cucumbers Cauly-flowers c. is usually made in February or March and after several manners Some prescribe the making of