Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	ground_n	seed_n	sow_v	3,097	5	9.7817	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15685	Nevv Englands prospect· A true, lively, and experimentall description of that part of America, commonly called Nevv England: discovering the state of that countrie, both as it stands to our new-come English planters; and to the old native inhabitants. Laying downe that which may both enrich the knowledge of the mind-travelling reader, or benefit the future voyager. By William Wood.	Wood, William, fl. 1629-1635.	1634 (1634)	STC 25957; ESTC S111764	77,206	116

healthfulnesse of the Countrey shall be from mine owne experience who although in England I was brought up tenderly under the carefull hatching of my dearest friends yet scarce could I be acquainted with health having beene ●et blood sixe times for the Pleurisie before I went likewise being assailed with other weakning diseases but being planted in that new Soyle and healthfull Ayre which was more correspondent to my nature I speake it with praise to the mercifull God though my occasions have beene to passe thorow heate and cold wet and dry by Sea and Land in Winter and Summer day by day for foure yeares together yet scarce did I know what belonged to a dayes sicknesse CHAP. IIII. Of the nature of the Soyle THe Soyle is for the generall a warme kinde of earth there being little cold-spewing and no Morish Fennes no Quagmires the lowest grounds be the Marshes over which every full and change the Sea flowes these Marshes be rich ground and bring plenty of Hay of which the Cattle feed and like as if they were fed with the best up-land Hay in New England of which likewise there is great store which growes commonly betweene the Marshes and the Woods This Medow ground lies higher than the Marshes whereby it is freed from the over-flowing of the Seas and besides this in many places where the Tre● grow thinne there is good fodder to be got amongst the Woods There be likewise in divers places neare the plantations great broad Medowes wherein grow neither shrub nor Tree lying low in which Plaines growes as much grasse as may be throwne out with a Sithe thicke and long as high as a mans middle some as high as the shoulders so that a good mower may cut three loads in a day But many obiect this is but a course fodder True it is that it is not so fine to 〈◊〉 eye as English grasse but it is not sowre though it grow thus ranke but being made into Hay the Cattle eate it as well as it were Lea-hay and like as well with it I doe not thinke England can shew fairer Cattle either in Winter or Summer than is in those parts both Winter and Summer being generally larger and better of milch and bring forth young as ordinarily as Cattle doe in England and have hitherto beene free from many diseases that are incident to Cattle in England To returne to the Subject in hand there is so much hay-ground in the Countrey as the richest voyagers that shall venture thither neede not feare want of fodder though his Heard increase into thousands there being thousands of Acres that yet was never medled with And whereas it hath beene reported that some hath mowne a day for halfe of a loade of Hay I doe not say but it may be true a man may doe as much and get as little in England on Salisbury Plaine or in other places where Grasse cannot be expected So Hay-ground is not in all places in New England Wherefore it shall behoue every man according to his calling and estate to looke for a fit situation at the first and if hee be one that intends to live on his stocke to choose the grassie Vallies before the woody Mountaines Furthermore whereas it hath beene generally reported in many places of England that the Grasse growes not in those places where it was cut the fore-going yeares it is a meere falshood for it growes as well the ensuing Spring as it did before and is more spiery and thicke like our English Grasse and in such places where the Cattle use to graze the ground is much improved in the Woods growing more grassie and lesse weedy The worst that can be sayd against the meddow-grounds is because there is little edish or after-pasture which may proceede from the late mowing more than from any thing else but though the edish be not worth much yet is there such plenty of other Grasse and feeding that there is no want of Winter-fodder till December at which time men beginne to house their milch-cattle and Calves Some notwithstanding the cold of the Winter have their young Cattle without doores giving them meate at morning and evening For the more upland grounds there be different kinds in some places clay some gravell some a red sand all which are covered with a black mould in some places above a foote deepe in other places not so deepe There be very few that have the experience of the ground that can condemne it of barrennesse although many deeme it barren because the English use to manure their land with fish which they doe not because the land could not bring corne without it but because it brings more with it the land likewise being kept in hart the longer besides the plenty of fish which they have for little or nothing is better so used than cast away but to argue the goodnesse of the ground the Indians who are too lazie to catch fish plant corne eight or ten yeares in one place without it having very good crops Such is the rankenesse of the ground that it must bee sowne the first yeare with Indian Corne which is a soaking graine before it will be fit for to receive English seede In a word as there is no ground so purely good as the long forced and improoved grounds of England so is the●● none so extreamely bad as in many places of England that as yet have not beene manured and improved the woods of New England being accounted better ground than the Forrests of England or woodland ground or heathy plaines For the naturall soyle I preferre it before the countrey of Surry or Middlesex which if they were not inriched with continuall manurings would be lesse fertile than the meanest ground in New England wherefore it is neyther impossible nor much improbable that upon improvements the soile may be as good in time as England And whereas some gather the ground to be naught and soone out of hart because Plimouth men remove from their old habitations I answer they do no more remove from their habitation than the Citizen which hath one house in the Citty another in the Countrey for his pleasure health profit For although they have taken new plots of ground and built houses upon them yet doe they retaine their old houses still and repaire to them every Sabbath day neyther doe they esteeme their old lots worse than when they first tooke them what if they doe not plant on them every yeare I hope it is no ill husbandry to rest the land nor is alwayes that the worst that lies sometimes f●llow If any man doubt of the goodnesse of the ground let him comfort himselfe with the cheapenesse of it such bad land in England I am sure wil bring in store of good monie This ground is in some places of a soft mould and easie to plow in other places so tough and hard that I have seene ten Oxen toyled their Iron chaines broken and their Shares and

shoales of Macrill from one end of the sandie brech to the other which the inhabitants have gathered up in wheel-barrowes The Bay that lyeth before the Towne at a low spring tyde will be all flatts for two miles together upon which is great store of Muscle banckes and Clam bancks and Lobsters amongst the rockes and grassie holes These flatts make it unnavigable for shippes yet at high water great Boates Loiters and Pinnaces of 20 and 30 tun may saile up to the plantation but they neede have a skilfull Pilote because of many dangerous rockes and foaming breakers that lye at the mouth of that Bay The very aspect of the place is fortification enough to keepe off an unknowne enemie yet may it be fortified at a little charge being but few landing places there about and those obscure Foure miles Northeast from Sangus lyeth Salem which stands on the middle of a necke of land very pleasantly having a South river on the one side and a North river on the other side upon this necke where the most of the houses stand is very bad and s●ndie ground yet for seaven yeares together it hath brought forth exceeding good corne by being fished but every third yeare in some places is very good ground and very good timber and divers springs hard by the sea side Here likewise is store of fish as Basses Eeles Lobsters Clammes c. Although their land be none of the best yet beyond those rivers is a very good soyle where they have taken farmes and get their Hay and plant their corne there they crosse these rivers with small Cannowes which are made of whole pine trees being about two foot a half over and 20. foote long in these likewise they goe a fowling sometimes two leagues to sea there be more Cannowes in this towne than in all the whole Patent every houshould having a water-house or two This Towne wants an Alewife river which is a great inconvenience it hath two good harbours the one being called Winter and the other Summer harbour which lyeth within Derbies Fort which place if it were well fortified might keepe shippes from landing of forces in any of those two places Marvill Head is a place which lyeth 4 miles full South from Salem and is a very convenient place for a plantation especially for such as will set upon the trade of fishing There was made here a ships loading of fish the last yeare where still stands the stages and drying scaffolds here be good harbour for boates and safe riding for shippes Agowamme is nine miles to the North from Salem which is one of the most spatious places for a plantation being neare the sea it aboundeth with fish and flesh of fowles and beasts great Meads and Marshes and plaine plowing grounds many good rivers and harbours and no rattle snakes In a word it is the best place but one which is Merrimacke lying 8 miles beyond it where is a river 20 leagues navigable all along the river side is fresh Marshes in somes places 3 miles broad In this river is Sturgeon Sammon and Basse and divers other kinds of fish To conclude the Countrie hath not that which this place cannot yeeld So that these two places may containe twice as many people as are yet in new England there being as yet scarce any inhabitants in these two spacious places Three miles beyond the river of Merrimacke is the outside of our Patent for the Massachusetts Bay These be all the Townes that were begun when I came for England which was the 15 of August 1633. CHAP. XI Of the evills and such things as are hurtfull in the Plantation I have informed you of the Country in generall and of every plantation in particular with their commodities and wherein one excelleth another Now that I may be every way faithfull to my reader in this worke I will as fully and truely relate to you what is evill and of most annoyance to the inhabitants First those which bring most prejudice to their estates are the ravenons Woolves which destroy the weaker Cattell but of these you have heard before that which is most injurious to the person and life of man is a rattle snake which is generally a yard and a halfe long a● thicke in the middle as the small of a mans legge she hath a yellow belly her backe being spotted with blacke russet yellow and greene colours placed like scales at her taile is a rattle with which she makes a noyse when she is molested or when she seeth any approach neere her her necke seemes to be no thicker than a mans thumbe yet can she swallow a Squerill having a great wide mouth with teeth as sharpe as needles wherewith she biteth such as tread upon her her poyson lyeth in her teeth for she hath no sting When any man is bitten by any of these creatures the poyson spreads so suddenly through the veines so runs to the heart that in one houre it causeth death unlesse he hath the Antidote to expell the poyson which is a root called snakeweed which must be champed the spittle swallowed and the root applyed to the sore this is present cure against that which would be present death without it this weed is ranck poyson if it be taken by any man that is not bitten whosoever is bittē by these snakes his flesh becomes as spotted as a Leaper untill hee be perfectly cured It is reported that if the party live that is bitten the snake will dye and if the partie die the snake will live This is a most poysonous and dangerous creature yet nothing so bad as the report goes of him in England For whereas he is sayd to kill a man with his breath and that he can flye there is no such matter for he is naturally the most sleepie and unnimble creature that lives never offering to leape or bite any man if he be not troden on first and it is their desire in hot weather to lye in pathes where the sunne may shine on them where they will sleepe so soundy that I have knowne foure men stride over one of them and never awake her 5 or 6 men have beene bitten by them which by using of snakeweede were all cured never any yet losing his life by them Cowes have beene bitten but being cut in divers places and this weede thrust into their flesh were cured I never heard of any beast that was yet lost by any of them saving one Mare A small switch will easily kill one of these snakes In many places of the Countrie there bee none of them as at Plimouth Newtowne Igowamme Nahant c. In some places they will live on one side of the river and swimming but over the water as soone as they be come into the woods they turne up their yellow bellies and dye Vp into the Countrey westward from the plantations is a high hill which is called rattlesnake hill where there is great store of these