Markham's farewell to HUSBANDRY OR, The enriching of all sorts of Barren and Sterile Grounds in our Kingdom, to be as fruitful in all manner of Grain, Pulse, and Grass as the best Grounds whatsoever:  
Together with the anoyances, and preservation of all Grain and Seed, from one year to many years.  
As also a Husbandly Computation of Men and Cattles daily Labours, their Expenses, Charges, and uttermost Profits.  
Attained by Travel and Experience, being a Work never before handled by any Author:  
AND Published for the good of the whole Kingdom.  
LONDON, Printed by I. B. for Roger jackson, and are to be sold at his Shop near Fleetstreet Conduit. 1620.   

TO THE RIGHT Worshipful and his most worthy friend Mr. BONHAM NORTON Esquire.  
Worthy Sir:  
KNowledge which is the divine mother of certain Goodness, never came unwelcome to a knowing judgement; no more I hope Shall this my Labour to your worthy Self, since doubtless you shall find in it many things New, somethings necessary, and nothing which ●…th not in it some particular touch of profit: It is a work your former encouragements to my other labours did create in me; and the wants you worthily found, I hope shall bring you supplies both wholesome and becoming. The experience I assuer your Goodness, was the expense of a bitter and tedious Winter, but the contentme●… (in gaining my wish) made it more pleasant than all the three other Seasons. What ever it be, it comes to you full of love, full of service: And since I know Virtue measureth all things by its own goodness; it is enoughto me, that I know you are that Virtue. In you is power to judge; in you is Authority to exercise Mercy, lth them both fly from your Goodness, with that mildness, that in them my hopes may be Crowned, and myself rest ever at your ser●…ice.  
GERVASE MARKHAM.   

To the Reader.  
DId not the beginning of the work itself sufficiently plead an excuse for every part of the Work; I should (Gentle Reeder) trouble thee with a tedious tale of the manner, matter, and cause of this Building; and therein beg that cha●…itable Alms, which the honesty of thine own Nature will give me without any troublesome acclamation: Let it suffice, I have written no more than I have seen, nor added a benefit which I have not known liberally bestowed upon the industrious; of which, if you will be a partaker, follow their Imitation, and to good labours add a good life, and there is no fear of a Blessing: if any man be costive or hard of belief. I know not how to purge him, except it be with the bitter airs of those barren places where these Sterile Grounds are; on which, if he live and have no food but his own labour, doubtless he will not only belee●…e, but love and admire what is written for a general profit; and to that I leave those: The rest that are of more equal indifferency, to the Blessings and Increase which shall come by worthy knowledge and experience. Farewell.  
G. M.   

The Table and general Contents of the whole Book.  

CHAP. I.  

THe nature of Grounds in general Page 1  
The Author's preamble ibid.  
The profit of the Work 4  
A satisfaction for the truth of the Work 6  
The nature of barren Grounds. ibid.    

CHAP. II.  

The Ordering, Tilling, and Dressing of all barren Clayes; simple or compound 9  
The first Enriching of barren Grounds ibid.  
The manner of Ploughing 10  
The hacking of grounds ibid.  
The Sanding of grounds 11  
The Lyming of grounds 12  
The Meanuring of grounds ibid.  
The times for all labours 13  
The second ploughing 14  
The second hacking ibid.  
The first Harrowing ibid.  
Of Sowing the Seed ibid.  
The second Harrowing 15  
Faults in the Earth ibid.  
The Clotting of grounds 16  
Another manner of Clotting 17  
An Objection and Answer 20  
The ordering of Earth's where Sand wanteth 21  
Sowing of Salt ibid.  
The excellency of Salt ibid.  
Of Steeping Seed in Brine. 22    

CHAP. III.  

Of the ordering tillying and dressing of all rough barren clay as simple or compound, being overrun with Gorse, Brome, etc. 24  
The destroying of Weeds 26  
Burning of Bait ibid.  
The breaking of the burnt Earth 27  
The causes of unfruitfulness ibid.  
An excellent manure ibid.  
The Ploughing 28  
Of diverse Meanures ibid.  
Mixture of Meanures ibid.  
Of Weeding 29  
The time for Weeding 30  
The gathering of Stones. 31    

CHAP. FOUR  

Of the Ordering, tilling, ●…nd Dressing of barren Clayes that are overrun with Whinnes 32  
What Whinnes are ibid.  
Paring of grounds 33  
Making of Baits ibid.  
Breaking of Baits 34  
Ploughing 35  
Harrowing, Weeding, and the profits. 37    

CHAP. V.  

Of Ordering, tilling, and Dressing all barren Clayes which are overrun with Ling and Heath 38  
Destroying of Heath 39  
Another burning of Bait 40  
Of Weeding. 42    

CHAP. VI  

Of the Ordering, Trimming, and Dressing of all barren Sands, bearing no thing but mo●…ie Grass 44  
Of Ploughing 46  
Of Marling 47.53  
What Marl is ibid.  
Of ●…kalke, and the use 49  
The Profit. 51    

CHAP. VII.  

Of the Ploughing, Tilling, and Dressing of all barren Sands, that are overrun with Braken, Ferne or Heath 52  
Of Sanding and Liming 54  
Of Ploughing and Sowing ibid.  
Labours after Sowing 55  
Of Weeding. 56    

CHAP. VIII.  

The Flowing, Tisting and Ordering of all barren Sands laden with Twitch and wild Briar 57  
The destroying of Twitch and Briar ib:  
Of Meanures 58  
Of Harrowing and other labours 59  
Of Weeding. 60    

CHAP. IX.  

The Ploughing, Tilling, and Ordering of Sands laden with morish stinking grass 61  
Grounds for Fishponds 62  
The Draining of Wet grounds 64  
The Harrowing 67  
The Weeding. 66    

CHAP. X.  

How to enrich and make the most bar soil to bear excellent good Pasture or Meadow 69  
Two ways to enrich Earth's ibid.  
Of watering Grounds 71  
The belpes in watering 72  
When and how to Water ibid.  
The best season for Watering. 73    

CHAP. XI.  

The i●…iching barren Grounds, for Hemp or Flax 75  
Black Clay for Hemp 76  
The Weeding 78  
The making ill Earth bear Hemp ib:  
The Weeding. 79    

CHAP. XII.  

The manner of Stacking all kind of Grain with least loss. 80    

CHAP. XIII.  

The diseases and impersections which happen to all manner of Grain 84  
Crows or Birds, and the cure 85  
Pigeons and the cure 87  
To save Corn ready to reap 88  
Of Dor and the cure 90  
Of pismires and the cure 91  
Of field Rats and Mice ibid.  
Of worms and the cure 92  
Of Rye not to be wet ibid.  
Of snails ibid.  
Of Grasshoppers 94  
Of Moales and the cure 95  
Offences from the influences of Heaven 96  
Of Smuttinesse or Mildew, and the cure. 97  
Of Hale, and the cure ibid.  
Of Lightning, and the cure ibid.  
Of Frosts 99  
Of Mists and Fogs, and the cure 100  
Of Blast, and the cure ibid.  
Corn reaped wet, and the cure 102  
Of Washed Corn 104  
To know washed corn. 105    

CHAP. XIIII.  

How to keep all manner of Grain thrashed or unthrasht the longest time and how to preserve it, etc. 106  
The needful use of preserving corn. ib:  
The keeping corn in the ear or chaff, 108  
Keeping corn dressed 109  
Of Garners ibid.  
Of Hutches, and their uses 110  
To preserve wheat 111  
To preserve Rye 117  
To preserve Beans 118  
To preserve Pease or Fetches 120  
To preserve Lentils or Lupins 123  
To preserve Oats 125  
To preserve Oatmeal 126  
To preserve any Meal ibid.  
The preserving of all small Seeds. 128    

CHAP. XV.  

How to keep Grain either for transportation, etc. 129  
The use of Grain. 130  
Of Pulsse. ibid.  
Of Rice and the use ibid.  
Of Wheat and the use 132  
Of Oat meal and the use 133  
Of Barley and the use 135  
Of Buck and the use ibid.  
Of Pulsse and the use ibid.  
Of French Beane 136  
Of the Kydney Beane ibid.  
Of Common field Beanes ibid.  
Of Pease and their use 137  
Several sorts of Pease ibid.  
To transport Grain ibid.    

CHAP. XVI.  

A general computation of Men and cattle's Labours, etc. 140  
Of Ploughing, Sowing, and Mowing 141  
Of Reaping and gathering Grain 142  
Of Ditching, Hedging, Plashing 143  
Of Delving and Thrashing 144  
The particular expense of a day 145  
The particular Labour of cattle 147    

CHAP. XVII.  

The applying of Husbandry, to the several Countries 148  
The carters Office 150  
Of cattle for the Draught 152  
The Several Labours, of the several Months 153     

MARKHAM'S FAREWELL TO HUSBANDRY.  

CHAP. I.  
The nature of Grounds in general: But particularly of the barren and Sterryll Earth.  
Certainly in this unthankful and uninst 
The Author's Preamble.  Age, where greatness and Garments only make up the virtuous, there is nothing of less esteem than the painful labours of those pens, whose watch and indostrie have only kept an unwearied pace, with the benesit and general good of their Countries; no, though the despisers thereof eat no bread but the food of their writings, so ungrateful is man to his best Teachers, and so unhappy they that in this kind become the world's Tutors.  
Why, me thinks those squint-eied uneven accusations: those fool's bolts shot backward from the true mark; and those manifold mouth-torturing imputations, which a world of wise (in their own conceits) will thunder against me for this Labour; doeas it were, even now stand before me face to face, and brave me: Why, me thinks I hear one fool (who hath better fortune than wit) say; writes he of Husbandry and is no husband; nay, I will not believe his rules till I see his example: poor sot, how Clerk like he he speaks, as if no man had famously written of any thing to which he had not been bound Prentice seven years by condition; I would have him look upon Lybault and Stevens, two of the most famous Physicians that ever lived in France; men, that in mine own conscience never knew what belonged to the handling of a Blow, or ever lifted Mattock above their shoulders, for they were merely Scholars, and better knew how to gather Plants then set them; yet in this Art of Husbandry, who hath ever writ more famously, or more truly and exactly, France flourishing more by their Theory, then by the practice of all the peasants of that Kingdom. So also Seres, an excellent Scholar, an excellent Hystorian, a man that the State could not spare into the Country, yet who reads his Agriculture, shall find such deep knowledge and rich rules for Husbandry, that the Kingdom will ever acknowledge him for a famous Benefactor. So likewise Vinet, a man of the same nature, the same nurture, and the same excellence. And to look down into our own Country, was not Fitzharbert and Goouge, gentlemen of good birth and education, far from any servile or mean offices; yet in this Art of Husbandry, who hath written with greater praise or allowance. Master Tuffer was merely all University, and outwardly professed only in Music, yet shall his books of Husbandry live as long as there is life in any book of that nature. What shall I do speaking of Virgil, who although his fame and profession was only Po●…sie, yet shall his books of Husbandry be as famous over all the World as in Italy. Now for myself, although a piece of my life was Scholar, a piece Soldier, and all Horseman; yet did I for nine years apply myself to the Blow, followed it with earnestness, and my nature being evermorefull of inquisition, I could not endure to have any thing hid, that practice, argument, or discourse could reveal unto me; nay, so far forth (I must accuse mine own ambition) that I could not for bear any travel, any expense, to find out the truth of any doubt I have in Husbandry heard related, neither could ever any man's words take up my mind, till I did by proof find that action and discourse went even hand in hand together: whence it comes that I have been more darringly audacious to publish my labours, than otherwise my nature or good manners would have given me leave.  
There be some will say, what can I write more than I have written, are not my two books of the English Husbandman extant; and if they contain not all my know●…dge, sure I wrong the World, or the opinions of ma●…y of my Readers.  
To this I answer, who knows not that Industry is a mother whose womb can never be discharged of her whole burden, hourly bringing forth new things, drawing every Art and Occupation to that height of excellency, that the knowledge of our forefathers compared with the times now present, is but mere ignorance; and shall we then be confined to our first rules, not daring to show the better, because we ha●…e published the good: It were a tyranny not sufferable, and a way to murder all the perfection in Art. For m●…ne own part, this I must both conseffe and I●…stifie in mine own Works, that for thosetwo parts of the English Husbandman, they are tracts, as easy and certain for the ordering of our English grounds, as any that have b●…ne published of that nature within our Kingdom, and do as truly show the manner of ordering of all sor●…s of grounds (in which is any good or reasonable fertility) as either labour or profit can wish or bring forth. But this part of which I intent now 
The profit of this Worke.  to treat, bathe a higher aim, and shoots much more near to the mark of commodity: For the former showeth how to make the fruitful more fruitful; this, how to make the Barren most plentiful: every good ground will of itself bring forth (for Nature was ever a hater of Idleness) But the Barren and Sterile Earth, to make it full of increase and plenty, is Gratum opus Agricolis, and such a general benefit to all good men, that the concealment can be no less an offence than theft, robbing a man's Country of that treasure (by negligence) which no other industry, in him, can after restore. I have formerly written, how by Art to keep good Grounds good, and to strengthen the weak: But now I show how to make ill Grounds excellent, and to convert that which is Barren and unfruitful, to become rich in store and plenty: whence shall ensue to all men, these particular profits following: First, plenty of Corn and Pulse, because all grounds being made able and apt for Tillage, the Kingdom may afford to sow for one Bushel that is now, hereafter five hundred, so mighty great are the unfruitful and untilled wastes of Heathes, Downs, Mores, and such like, which at this day lie untilled and unoccupied: and to this abundance of Corn, will redound an equal, or greater abundance of Grass and Pasture; for besides that, those men and Masters of many grounds, may convert all their best and most fruitful Earth to Pasture and Meadow, and only keep the Barren for tillage: yet also this barren earth after it hath done bearing of Corn, which will be in five or six years, shall for as many years more, bear as good Meadow or Pasture either for breeding or feeding as can any way be reasonably required, and then being newly made again, shall newly begin and flourish in his first Profit, as shall be at large showed and set forth hereafter; as I have seen with mine own eyes, to my no small pleasure and amazement, not in one, butin diverse and sundry most untruitfull and hard Countries.  
Secondly, whereas through the most parts of this Kingdom, there is every year a third or fourth part of all Corn grounds lost in the fallow or tilth fields, one field of three, or one of four, continually lying at rest; now by the use of the Husbandry following, you shall never keep any fallow field at all, but have all your ground to bear you continually either Corn or Grass in good abundance.  
Lastly, whereas in all the general best parts of this Nation, you cannot have any Grain of price, as Wheat, Barley, Rye, and such like, under two, three, four, five, and some six times ploughing; now you shall not plow above twice at the most for the tenderest and richest grain that is to be reaped, whereby there shall be much pains eased in the Husbandman, great travel saved from the cattle, and a much larger limitation of time given for other nece●…ary household and foreign businesses.  
Now some may here ask me what true and upright 
A satisfaction for the truth and goodness of the Worke.  right testimony I can give of this my assertion, or what inducements to draw men to a belief of my relation: though I could refer such disputers to practise, and the experience which shall arise from such practice; yet to give them better satisfaction, if they please to ride or walk into the North parts of Devonshire, into the Barren or Mountainous parts of South Wales, or North Wales, or into that wilderness of Bogges, and Barrenness, I mean that cold vast Country of Exmore, where is nothing but unseasonableness, and they shall even there find where the ground is industriously made and refined, as good plenty of Corn and Grass, as in the fruitfullest vales in our Inland and warmer Countries. Truly for mine own part, I dare boldly avow that which mine eyes have beheld; for I have seen on oneside of the hedge nothing but moss for grass, furs, go●…sse, whynnes and all other tokens of Sterile barrenness; and on the other side as good Corn and Grass, and in as great plenty as in any fruitful Country whatsoever, and all this brought forth but with a little cost and some labour.  
To proceed then to the full effect of my purpose 
Nature of Barren Grounds.  without more preambulation or satisfaction to the curious, for to the honestly virtuous are all mine endeavours directed: you shall understand that it is meet that evety Husbandman be skilful in that true knowledge of the natures of Grounds, as which is fruitful, which not: of which, in my first Books I have written sufficiently; nor do I in this Book intent to write any tittle that is in them contained; for as I love not Totologie so I deadly hate to wrong my friend: Grounds then as I have formerly written in my first Books, being simple or compounded; as simple Clayes, or simple Sands; or compounded of Clayes, Sands, or Gravels together, may be all good, and all fit to bring forth increase, or all evil and barren, and unfit for profit; for every Earth, whether it be simple or compounded, whether of itself or of double mixture, doth participate wholly with the Clime wherein it lieth, and as that is more hot or more cold, more moist or more dry; so is the Earth ever more or less fruitful: yet for the better understanding of the plain Countryman, you shall know that both the fruitful and unfruitful Ground havetheir several faces and characters, whereby they be as well known as by the Clime or situation of the Continent; for that ground which though it bear not any extraordinary abundance of grass, yet will load itself with strong and lusty weeds, as Hemblocke, Docks, Mallows, Nettles, Ketlocks, and such like, is undoubtedly a most rich and fruitful ground for any grain whatsoever: also, that ground which beareth Reed, Rushes, Clover, daisy, and such like, is ever fruitful in Grass and Herbage; so that small cost and less labour in such grounds will ever make good the profit of the Husbandman: But with these rich grounds at this time I have nothing to do.  
To come down then to the barren & unwholesome 
Knowledge of barren Grounds.  Grounds, you shall understand that they are to be known three several ways; first, by the Clime and Continent wherein they lie; next, by their constitution and condition; and lastly, by outward faces and characters. By the Clime and Continent, as when the ground lies far remote from the Sun, or when it lies Mountainous and high, stony and rocky, or so near unto the skirts and borders of the Sea, that the continual Fogs, Storms, Myfts and ill vapours arising from thence, do poison and starve the Earth; all which are most apparent ●…ignes of Barrenness. By the Constitution and Condition, as when the ground is either too extremely cold and moist; or else to violently hot and dry; either of which, produceth much hardness to bring forth, and showeth the Earth so lying, to be good for little or no profit. By the outward Faces and Characters, as when you see (instead of Grass which should be green, flowery, and thick growing) a pale thin mossy substance cover the Earth, as most commonly is upon all high Planes, Heathes, Downs, and such like: or when you see the ground covered with Heath, Ling, Broome, Braken, Gorsse, or such like; they be most apparent signs of infinite great Barrenness, as may be seen in many Moors, Forests, and other wild and woody places. And of these unfertill places, you shall understand that it is the Clay ground, which for the most part brings forth the Moss, the Broom, the Gorsse, and such like: the Sand, which bringeth forth Brakes, Ling, Heath; and the mix●… Earth, which utters Whynnes, Briars, and a world of such like unnatural and bastardly issues.  
Thus having a true knowledge of the Nature and Condition of your ground, you shall then proceed to the ordering, eareing, and dressing of the same, whereby it may not only be purged and cleansed from those faults which hindered the increase thereof, but also so much bettered and refined, that the best ground may not boast of more ample increase, nor your more fruitful placed Neighbours exceed you in any thing, more than in a little ease.   

CHAP. II.  
Of the Ordering, tilling, and Dressing of all sorts of plain Barren Clayes, whether they be simple or compounded.  
THou whom it hath pleased God to place upon a barren and hard soil, whose bread must evermore be grounded with sweat and labour, that mayest nobly and victoriously boast the conquest of the Earth, having conquered Nature by altering Nature, and yet made Nature better than she was before; thou, I say, that takest this honest delight in goodness, harken unto these following Precepts.  
Assoon, as thou haft well pondered and considethe 
The first enriching of barren Grounds.  nature of thy ground, and dost find that it is altogether barren and unfruitful, the Clime and condition not suffering it to bring forth any thing of worth or profit, and that thou haft well weighed what manner of Earth it is; as that namely it is either a simple Clay, or a Clay so mixed with other earths, that yet notwithstanding, the Clay is still most predominant, thou shalt then select or choose out of this earth so much as to thyself shall seem convenient, it being answerable to the strength of thy Team, and the ability of thy purse and labour to compass; and this Earth so chosen out, thou shalt about the beginning of May, in a fair season, break up with a strong Blow, such as is generally used in all strong Clay grounds, the Share being rather long then broad, and the Colture rather somewhat bending them strait and even, according as the nature of the ground shall require, which every simple ploughman will soon find out in turning up two or three furrows; for according to the cutting of the earth, so must the Husband man fashion the temper of his Blow.  
Now for the manner of ploughing this bad and barren 
The manner of ploughing.  earth, if the ground lie free from water (which commonly all evil barren earths do) you shall then throw down your furrows flat, and betwixt every furrow you shall leave a balk of earth half as broad as the furrow, and so go over and plow your whole earth up, without making any difference or distinction of lands: but if you fear any annoyance of water, than you shall lay your furro was more high, near and close together, dividing the ground into feveral lands, and proportioning every land to lie the highest in the midst, so that the water may have a descent or passage on either side.  
Now so soon as you have thus ploughed up your 
Hacking of Ground:  land, and turned all the swarth inward unto the earth, you shall then take hacks of iron well steeled and reasonable sharp, such a competent number, as or your purse of power can compass, or the greatness your ground requireth; for you shall understand that one good hacker, being a lusty labourer, will at good ease hack and cut more than half an Acre of ground in a day; and with these hacks, you shall hew and cut to pieces, all the earth formerly ploughed up, furrow, by furrow, and not the furrows only, but also each several balk that was left between, and any other green swarth whatsoever the Blow bade escaped, and it shall be cut into as small pieces as conveniently you can, for thereby is your mould made much more mellow and plentiful, and your seed at such time as it is to be cast into the earth, a great deal the better and safer, covered, and much more sooner made to sprout and bring forth increase. Now for the shape and fashion of these Hacks, you shall behold it in this figure.  
When you have thus hacked all your ground, and broke in pieces all hard crust and toughness of the swarth; you shall then immediately, with all the convenient speed you can (because time is very precious in these labours) if you 
Sanding of Ground.  be near unto any part of the Sea-Coast, or to any other Creek or River where the salt water ●…th a continually recourse, and thence fetch (either on Horse back, or in Cart, or other Tumbril, such as the nature of the Country or your own ease can afford) great store of the salt Sand, and with it cover your ground which hath been formerly ploughed and hacked, allowing to every A●… of ground, three score or, fourscore full bushels of Sand, which is a very good and competent proportion; and this Sand thus laid, shall be very well spread and mixed amongst the other hacked and broken earth. And herein is to be noted, that not any other sand but the salt ●…and is good or available for this purpose, because it is the brine and saltness of the same which breedeth this fertility and fruitfulness in the earth, choking the growth of all weeds and bad things which would sprout from the Earth, and giving strength, vigour, and comfort to all kind of Grain or Pulse, or any fruit of better nature.  
When you have thus sanded your earth, you shall 
Lyming of Ground.  then, if you have any Limestone about your Grounds, (as barren earths are seldom without) or if you have any quarries of stone (which are seldom unaccompanied with Lymestone) gather such Lymestone together, and make a Kylne in the most convenientest place you have, as well for the carriage of the Lime, as for the gathering together of the Stone, and hauing burnt your Lime, the manner whereof is so generally well known through the whole Kingdom, that in this place it needeth little or no repetition; you shall then on every acre so formerly ploughed, hacked, and sanded, bestow at least forty, or else fifty bushels of Lyme, spreading and mixing it exceedingly well with the other sand and earth; and herein is to be noted, that the stronger and sharper the Lime is, the better the earth will be made thereby, and the greater increase and profit will issue from the same; neither shall you need to respect the colour and complexion of the Lime, as whether it be purely white (as that which is made from chalk) or grey (as that which is made from the small Lymestone) or else blackish brown (as that which is made from the great stone and main Quarry) since it is the strength and goodness of the Lime, not the beauty and colour which brings forth the profits.  
Now, when you have thus limed your ground, you 
Meanuring of ground.  shall then take off the best manure you have, as Ox, Cow, or Horse dung, straw rotten either by the lyttering of Beasts, or by casting upon the Highways; the mud of Lakes, Ponds or Ditches; the soil of young cattle made in the Winter time by feeding at stand Heakes, or any such like kind of Ordure; and this manure or compass, you shall carry forth either on Horseback, or in Carts or Tumbrels (according as the Country will afford) and you shall lay it and spread it upon your ground so formerly ploughed, hacked, sanded, and limed, in very plentiful manner, so far forth as your provision will extend: for it is to be understood, that barren and hard earths can never be overladen with good manure or compass, since it is only the want of warmth and fatness which manure breedeth, that causeth all manner of unfruitfulness.  
After you have thus meanured all your ground, it is 
Times for all labours.  to be supposed that the season of the year will be well shot on, for the labour of sanding will take little less than two Months, your ground being of any indifferent great quantity, except you have the assistance and help of many of your friends, which is a courtesy that every Husbandman may embrace, but not trust unto; for I would not wish any man that hath not Tenants to command, to presume on other friends, lest they fail him, and so his work lie half done, half undone, which is a great Character of negligence and improvidence: but let every one proportion their labours according to their own strengths, and the number of their ordinary families. The lyming of your ground, will take at least half so much time as the sanding; and the meanuring rather more than less than the lyming; so that by any reasonable computation of time, beginning to Blow your ground at the beginning of May, ere it be hacked, sanded, limed, and meanured, Michaelmas will be come, which is the last of September: for I allow the Month of May to ploughing and backing, june and july, for sanding; August, for lyming; and September, for meanuring. So then to proceed on with your Labour, at Michalmas, or from that time to the end of October, you shall 
Second ploughing.  begin to Blow over that ground againc which formerly you had ploughed, hacked, sanded, limed and manured; and at this later ploughing, you shall plow the ground somewhat deeper than you did before; and taking a good stitch (as they call it in Husbandry) you shall be sure to raise up the quick earth which had not been stirred up with the Blow before, making your furrows greater and deeper then formerly they were, and laying them closer and rounder together than they were before; and in this ardour or later ear-ring, you shall be careful to Blow your ground as clean as you can, without balks or other escapes in Husbandry, and as you thus plow your ground, you shall have certain Hackers, 
Second Hacking.  with their hacks to follow the Blow, and to cut the Earth and furrows into very small pieces, as was formerly showed in the hacking and cutting of the first Ardour: then so soon as your ground is thus ploughed & hacked `you shall take a pair or two of very strong & good iron Harrows, 
First Harrowing.  and with them you shall go over your ground, tearing that which was formerly ploughed and hacked into more smaller pieces than before, and raising up the mould in much greater abundance than was formerly seen: which work once finished, you shall then take your Seed, which 
Of sowing the Seed  would be the finest, cleanest, and best Wheat you can provide, and after the manner of good Husbandry, you shall sow it on the ground very plentifully, not starving the ground for want or Seed (which were a tyrannous penury) nor yet choking it with too much (which were as lavish a foolery) but giving it the fault due, leave it to the earth and God's blessing.  
Now so soon as you have thus sown your Seed, 
The second Harrowing.  forth with you shall take all the Harrows again, harrowing the Seed into the earth, and covering it close and well with all care and diligence; and in this latter harrowing, you shall have great respect to break every clot as much as you can, and so stir up and make as much mould as you can, and the finer such mould is made, the better it is, so it coverdecpe and close; for you shall understand, that all these kind of barren Clayes, are naturally tough, cold, and binding, whereby they stifle and choke any thing that grows within them; for the natural 
Faults in the earth.  toughness of the earth will not give any thing leave to sprout, or if it do sprout, the binding nature thereof, so fetters and locks it within the mould, that it cannot issue our, or if it do (with extreme struggling) rise through the pores of the same, yet doth the cold presently starve the root and make the stem utterly unable to bring forth fruit, or any profit at all, so that except the toughness be converted to a gentle looseness and easy dividing of itself, the coldness unto warmth, and the hard binding unto a soft liberty, there can be small hope of commodity which this manner of dressing the earth bring●… to passe●… for the mixture of the sand, takes away the toughness; the Lime brings heat, and the manure comfort and libettie: as for the hacking and cutting the earth, that is to make all the roast symbolize and mix together: for as if any Physician, Apothecary, or Dispensatory, if he make a medicine, and cast his ingredians confusedly one upon another, without care of mixture, melting, or dissolution, shall find but a corrupt, disorderly, and ill compounded receit'; so he that dresseth and meanureth his ground, and doth not by hacking ploughing, or some other husbandly course, mix the earth and the compass perfectly well together, shall seldom find profit from his seed, or find any man of wit desirous to become his imitator. Now I must confess, that some easy grounds of light and temperate nature, will mix very well and sufficiently by the help of the Plough only; but this barren hard earth of which I now write, must only be broken by this violent and extreme labour, or else there will neither be mould, earth, nor any other coverture for the seed, but only foul, great, and disorderly clots and lumps, through which the grain can never pass, and that which lieth uncovered will be made a prey to foul and other vermin which will hourly destroy it.  
After you have sown and harrowed the ground, you 
Ofclotting grounds.  shall then see if there remain any clots or hard lumps of earth unbroken, which the teeth of the Harrows are not able to tear in pieces (as it is very likely you shall perceive many) for these hard barren earth's which are ploughed up in their green swarthes', are nothing near so easily broken and brought to mould, as are the mellow soft earths which have been formerly ploughed many times before, because the hard and intricate roots of the Grass, Moss, and other quick substances growing upon the same, doth bind and hold the mould so close and fast together, besides the natural strength and hardness of the earth, that without much industrious and painful labour, it is impossible to bring it to that fineness of mould which Art and good Husbandry requireth; therefore, as soon as you behold those clots and lumps to lie undissevered and unbroken, you shall forthwith take good strong clotting beetles, or mauls made of hard and very sound wood, according to this proportion of figure.  
And with these maules or clotting beetles, you shall break all the hard clots and lumps of earth in pieces, even to so small dust, as possibly you can; because you are to presuppose, that these clots thus hard, tough, and unwilling to be with any easy means digested into mould, are either not at all, or else very insussiciently mixed with the Sand, Lyme, and other meanures; and therefore you must the rather break them, that thereby they may mix, and give easy passage to the grain, and not like heavy poises and dead lumps lie and press down the Seed so that it cannot sprout.  
But if it so fall out that partly by the hardness of 
another manner of clottting.  the ill earth, partly through the season and dryness of the year, that these clots and lumps of earth will either not be broken at all, or at least so insufficiently that the mould will not be any thing near so fine as you would have it; you shall then having done your best endeavour, let your ground rest till there have fallen a good ground shower or two of rain, which may wet the clots through and through; and then the next fair blast, you shall take your clotting beetles, but not those which you took before in the dry season, but some much lighter, broader and flatter, being made of thick Ash board's more than a foot square, and above two inches in thickness, according to this figure.  
And with these flat mauls and beetles, you shall break all the unbroken clots and lumps of earth which shall trouble or annoy your ground, making your Lands as plain and smooth as is possible, so that the grain may have easy passage forth; which labour as soon as you have finished, you shall then refer the increase and prosperity thereof unto the mercies of God, who no doubt will give his blessings according to thy labour and thankfulness.  
As touching the trimming and weeding of this Corn, after it is sprung a foot above the earth, or there about, you shall understand, that these hard barren grounds are very seldom troubled with weeds; for weeds, especially great, strong, and offensive weeds are the issues of rich and fertile soils; yet, if through the trimming and making of this earth (which is not commonly seen) you do perceive any s●…ore of thistles, or other grosser weeds to spring up, you shall then in the Month of May, with hooks, nippers, and such like tools, cut them away orpull them up by the roots, which indeed is the better manner of weeding.  
Now here is to be understood, that your ground being thus dressed and trimmed as is before showed, you 
Several seeds several years.  may very well for the first two years' sow Wheat or Rye upon it, but Wheat is the greater profit and more certain seed; the third yearebestowing but your fold of Sheep upon it, that is meanuring it with your Sheep, (for it is to be intended, that in these barren earth's sheep are the greatest stock of which the Husband man can boast) you may very well sow it with barley, and have a fruitful and plentiful crop thereon: the next three years, you may sow it with Oats; and the senenth year you may sow it with small white Garden Pease or Beanes, according as you shall find the strength and goodness of the ground (for Beans desire somewhat a rich●…r soil than the Pease) then for three or four years following the seven, you may let it lie at rest for Grass, and doubtless it will yield you either as good Pasture, or as good Meadow as you can reasonably (according as the necessity of your occasions) shall require. And then after the expeence of this time, it shall be good that you dress and order your ground again in such sort as was formerly declared; and thus you may every year dress one or other piece of ground, till you have gone over all your ground, or at least as much as you shall think expedient; and without fail, he that is Master of the most fruitfullest and richest soil, shall not boast of any greater increase than you shall, only your charge may be a little more, and so shall be also your commoditi●…, which shall make an amends for your charge; as for your toils, yours shall be much the less, by a just computation; for though you have many labours, yet they are but Summer labours, and neither hurt your own body, nor your cattle: whereas the Master of the rich soil is in continual work both Winter and Summer, labouring twice so much to confound the superfluous growth of weeds as you do to beget the increase of Corn; and whereas he must ever keep a third or fourth part of his Corn-ground without fruit, you shall not keep any which shall not yield you a sufficient commodity.  
Now me thinks I hear, in this place, to be objected 
Objection.  unto me, that whereas I do prescribe the sanding of these barren Earth's with the salt Sea-sand, and no other (as it is true, for all other fresh sand is unavaileable) what if the ground do lie so far within the Land, that there is no salt sand within many score of miles of it, how then shall I make good my barren earth; sure to fetch sand so far, will never equal the cost, or it may be this experience hath no further limits then to such hard and barren earths as lie alongst the Sea coast only.  
To this I answer, that al-be this salt Sea sand be of 
Answer.  infinite good and necessary use, enriching grounds wonderfully much, yet is not this experience of bettering of barren soils, so strictly feltered or bound thereunto, but that without any use of the same, you may make your earth as fruitful in Corn or Grass, as hath been already formerly declared.  
Therefore if your ground lie much within the Land, and far from the Sea, so that this commodity of sand is not by any possible means to be gotten, than you 
Ordering Earth where sands wanteth.  shall (having first looked into the nature of your ground, and finding it to be by all characters and faces a cold, barren, stiff, dry Clay, yielding nothing but a short mossy grass, without any other burden at all as is seen upon most Plains, and Downs of this Kingdom) first, plow it and hack it as was before showed in the former part of this Chapter, then in stead of sanding it, you shall lime it as beforesaid, or rather a little more plentifully, than you shall manure it, after (at seed time) you shall plow it and hack it again, then harrow it as before said; then to every acre of ground, you shall take two bushels of very dry bay salt, and in such manner as you sow 
Sowing of Salt.  your Wheat, you shall sow this salt upon the ground, then immediately after the sowing of the salt, you shall sow your Wheat, which Wheat would be thus prepared before you sow it; the day before you are to sow your grain, you shall take Bay salt and water, and mixing them together make a brine so strong that it will bear an egg, than put the Wheat you are to sow into that brine, and let it steep therein till the next day then drain it as clean as may be from the brine, and so sow it, harrow it, clot it, and weed it, as was before declared, and no doubt but you shall find a marvelous great increase thereby: for this I can assure you, both from a most 
The excel lencie of salt.  certain knowledge, and a most worthy relation, that a Gentleman buying some store of seed Wheat, and enforced to bring it home by Sea, by some casual means some of the sack at the unlading, fell into the Sea, and were much drenched in the salt water, whereat the Gentleman being grieved (as doubting some hurt to come to the Seed) yet enforced of necessity to make use thereof caused all the Wheat which was so wet to be sown by itself in a parucular place, and upon the worst ground which he had, (as much despairing in the increase thereof) and it is most infallibly true, that of that wet Seed, he received at least fivefold more profit than of any other, and from thence it came, that this experiment of Bryne and the sowing of salt hath taken place; from which the painful husbandman hath found such infinite increase to arise, that the use thereof will never be laid down in this Kingdom, neither is the thing in itself, without good and strong probability of much increase and strength for the bettering of all manner of earable grounds; for there is nothing which killeth weeds, quicks, and other offences of the ground so much as saltness: for what makes your Pigeons dung and your Pullens dung to be better for earable grounds than any other dung or manure whatsoever, but by reason of the saltness thereof, by which saltness also, you may judge the strength and heat thereof, insomuch that the proper taste of fire, or any hot thing is ever salt; also we say in Phylosiphie, that blood which carrieth the vital heat and warmth of the body, is in taste salt, and so a nourisher, maintainer, and increaser of all the strength and vigour of the inward faculties; whereas Fleame, Chollar, and Melancholy, which are the hurts and confounders of the vital spirits; the first, is in taste sweet; the second bitter; and the last, of an earthy and dry taste, full of much loathsomeness.  
Now again you shall understand, that as you thus wet 
Of ●…ping Seed in brine.  or steep your Wheat seed, so you may also steep any other seed, as Barley, Oates, Beanes, Pease, Lupins, Fetches, and such like; of which, your Beans, Pease, and Lupins, you may steep more than any of the rest, and your Oats the least. As touching Rye, it shall be good not to steep it at all, for it is a great enemy to all manner of wet and moistnre, insomuch, that the curious Husbandman will forbear to sow it in any great shower of rain, bearing in his mind this ancient adage or saying, that Rye will drowned in the Hopper: as on the contrary part, Wheat would be sown so moist that it might ftick to the Hopper; yet notwithstanding, when you do sow Rye in any of these Inland and cold barren Country, where sand is not to be gotten, you shall not by any means omit the sowing of your salt before, for it is nothing near so moist as it is warm and comfortable. And thus much touching the ordering, ploughing, and sowing of all barren, cold, and moist Clayes, whether they be mixed or unmixed, which are plain and unfruitful, as bearing no other burden then short mossy grass, without any other hard and boisterous substances.   

CHAP. III.  
Of the Ordering, tilling, and Dressing of all rough Barren Clayes, whether simple or compound, being laden and overrun with Gorse Broome, and such like.  
Nextunto these plain barren earths, which by reason of their heights and elevations, are subject in the Winter time to all manner of cold, frosts, ftormes, tempests, blasts, and winds which are the perfect binderers of all increase and growth; and in the Summer time to all hot scorchings, scaldings, and fiery reflections of the Sun, which on the contrary part, burneth and withereth away, that little seeming increase which appeareth above the earth. I will place that barren Clay, whether it be mixed o●…vnmixt, which lying not so high, and subject unto those hurts and offences, seemeth to be a little more fruitful, yet either by the extreme cold moisture thereof, or the stony hardness and other malignant qualities, is no less barren than that of which I have formerly written, which inde●…de is that barren and vild soil, which will neither bear Corn nor Grass, but is only overrun and quite covered over with great, thick, and tall bushes of Gorse or Furs, which is a most sharp, woody and gross weed; so full of pricks, that neither Horse, Beast, Sheep nor Goats dare thrust their noses to the ground to gather up that little poor grass which groweth thereon: Andal-be these Gorse, or Furs, are one way a little commodity to the needful Husbandman, in being a reasonable good fuel, either for Baking, Brewing, or diverse other sudden and necessary uses; yet, in as much as the profit being compared with the great quantity of earth which they cover and destroy, and which with good husbandry might be brought to great fruitfulness, is indeed no profit at all; it shall not be amiss for every good Husbandman that is pestered and over-laden with such ground, to seek by way of good husbandry how to reduce and bring it to that perfection and excellency which may bec best for his one particular commodity, and the general good of the kingdom wherein he liveth.  
Then is there another kind of soil which is nothing at all differing from this, but is every way as barren and sterryll, which is that ground which is over run with Broome (which is as noisome a weed as the former) and though it have not such sharp prickles as the other, whereby to hinder the grazing of cattle; yet doth it grow so close and thick together, and is naturally so poisonous and offensive to grass, that you shall seldom see any grow where this Broom prospereth, besides the bittrrnesse thereof is so unpleasant and distasteful to all kind of cattle, that not any will ever crop or bite upon the same, only it is of some necessary use for the poor Husbandman, in respect that it serveth him both for fuel, for thatching and the covering of his houses (being for that purpose, of all, the longest lasting) and also for the making of Besoms for cleansing of the house and Barns, or else for sale and commodity in the Market; all which profits (as before I said) being compared with the loss of the ground and the goodness that might be reaped from the same, are indeed truly no profits but hindrances.  
Therefore I would wish every man that is Master of such grounds, whether they be overrun with Gorse, Furs, Broome, or any such kind of gross, woody, or substantial weed: first, to cut up the iweede (of what 
Destroying of weeds.  sort so ever it be) whether Gorse, Furs, or Broome) as close and near unto the ground as you can possibly, and then making them up into sheaves or big Faggots, carry them home and stack them up very dry, so as no rain may enter or pierce into them, for the smallest wet will rot and consume them to dirt and filthiness; which done, you shall make Labourers with hacks, picks, and such like tools to stub up all the roots which you left in the ground, even to the very bottom of the same; and these roots you shall be very careful to have stubbed up exceeding clean, by no means leaving (so near as you'can) any part or parcel of the roots behind you; then these roots thus stubbed up, you shall diligently gather together into little heaps as big as moale-hils, and place them upon the ground a pretty distance one from another, and so let them lie till the Sun and Wind have dried them (for it is to be intended, that this labour must begin about the latter end of April and beginning of May.  
Then so soon as you find these roots are thoroughly 
●…urning of Baute.  dried, you shall pile them handsomely together, laying them a little hollow one from another, and then with a hack cut up some of the same earth, and therewithal cover all the roots quite over, only leaving a venthole at the top and on one side, and so let the hills rest two or three days till the earth be a little parched and dried, then take fire and some other light dry fuel which is apteft to blaze, and with the same kindle every hill, not leaving them till you see them perfectly on fire, which done, let them burn both day and night, till the substance being wholly consumed, the fire go out of it oneself, and this in some Countries is called the Burning of Bait.  
Now as soon as the fire hath been extinguished for 
Breaking of the burnt earth  two or three days, you shall then come, and with shovels and beetles (to break the hard burnt earth in pieces) you shall spread all the ashes clean over the ground; which done, you shall with a very strong Blow tear up the earth into great and deep furrows, and divide into Lands as you shall think meet and convenient, laying them higher or flatter as you shall have occasion, and as the ground lieth more or less within the danger of water, whether it be the overflowing of some near neighbouring Brooks or Rivers, or else other standing water occasioned by rain and extraordinary showers, which must be carefully looked unto, because all overflows 
Causes of of unfruitfulness.  and inundation of water, is a mighty destroyer and consumer of grain: but these barren grounds of which I now write, are very seldom oppressed with water; for most commonly they lie so high, that the continual dryness thereof, is a strong occasion of the much unfruitfulness. After you have thus burnt your bait and ploughed up your ground, you shall then with your hacks hack it into small pieces, in such manner as was declared in the former Chapter; than you shall (if the Sea be any thing near you) sand it with salt sand (as beforesaid) than lime it and after, manure it either with Ox dung, Horse dung, rotten Straw, mud of Ponds and Ditches, the spyteling of House-floores, or sweep of Channels and Streeres, or such like, or 
An excellent manure..  for want of all these in case you dwell near unto the Sea-coast (where mean●… for the most part is in greatest scarcity, and the hardest to be come by) you shall gather from the bottom of the Rocks (where the seydge of the Sea continually beateth) a certain black weed, whica they call Hemp weed, having great broad leaves, and growing in great abundance, in thick tufts, and hanging together like Peas-straw; and with these weeds, you shall cover your Lands all over of a pretty good thickness 
Of Ploughing.  and then forth with you shall plow it again somewhat deeper, and with somewhat greater furrows than before, raising up the new quick earth to intermingle and mix with those meanures and helps which you had formerly prepared and laid upon the ground; then shall you again hack it and harrow it, then shall you take Pigeons dung, or Pullens dung (that is any kind 
Of diverse meanures.  of land foul whatsoever, but by no means any water foul) or Pigeons dung and Pullens dung mixed together, and allowing to every acre two or three bushels thereof, which is the true quantity of seed proportioned for the same, and this dung being broken and mashed into small pieces, you shall put into your Sydlop or Hopper, and in the same manner as you sow your Corn, you shall sow this dung upon the ground, and then immediately after it, you shall sow your Wheat either steeped in brine or salt Sea-water, or unsteept, as you shall think good, but in case you can neither get salt sand nor Sea-Rocke weeds, than you shall by no means omit the steeping of your Seed; neither shall you fail before you sow your seed, to mix with your Pigeons and Pullens dung, a full equal part of 
Mi●…ture of m●…nures.  Bay salt well dried and broken, and so sown with the dung upon the land, and then the seed after it; which done, you shall Harrow it again, clotit, slight it, and smooth it, in such sort as was formerly declared in the former Chapter, for these labours have no alterations, but must in all points be done as was before set down.  
Now touching the weeding of this earth; after the 
Of weeding.  Corn beginneth to grow above the ground, there is no fear to be had either of Thistles, Tares, Cockles, Darnell Docks, and such like strong weeds, which indeed are the issues of good groundsel ordered and handled: But the weeds which you shall most fear in this place, is young Gorse, or Furs, or else young Broome, which are very apt to grow from the left part or parcel of roots that shall be left behind; nay, the very nature of those barren earth's is such, that of the one accord it will bring forth those weeds, the cold sharpness of the air mixing with the fterrility and roughness of the earth, being the cause that it will give life to no other better plants; therefore so soon as you shall behold any of them to appear above the earth, though they be not half a singer high, you shall presently, with all diligence, pull them up by the roots and cast them away, or lay them in heaps that they may be afterwards burnt, and the ashes sprinkled upon the ground, and herein is to be observed, that the younger and the sooner that you do pull up these weeds, the better it is and the easilier they will come from the earth, and the sooner be destroyed: for all those mixtures where with already you have been taught to mix your earth, are in themselves such natural enemies to all these kind of barren weeds, that should you omit the manual labour of destroying them (which no good husband willingly will do) yet in time the earth of itself, and the often ploughing of the same would leave no such offence of weeds or other growths which might hinder the Corne.  
Now touching the best time when to pull away these 
Time for weeding.  weeds, though generally it must be done as soon as they do appear above the ground; yet it shall not be amiss for you to defer the work till after a shower of rain, and thenimmediatly after the ground is wet (and so by that means more apt and willing to open and forsake the roots fastened within it) you shall with all diligence pull them out of the ground and destroy them: neither shall you pull them out of the ground with your hands only; for the Gorse have exceeding sharp pricks, so that with your naked hands you are not able to touch them, and to arm your hands, against them, with ftrong thick gloves, would be too boisterous and cumbersome, so that sometimes you might either miss the weeds, and pull up the Corn; or else pull up the Corn and weeds both together; therefore to prevent all these casualties or hindrances, you shall take a pair of long small wooden nippers, made after the form of this figure.  
And with these you shall pull the weeds out of the ground and cast them into the furrows by the sides of the Lands, till your days work be finished, and then with a rake you shall rake them together, and so lay them in heaps, to dry and wither, in more convenient places, that when time shall serve, you may burn th●…m and use them, as was before declared.  
Laftly, you shall have great respect that if this ground 
Gathering of stones.  be very much troubled with loose stones, as Flynt, pebble, and such like, that then you very carefully get them gathered from the ground, both before and after you have ploughed it, and to lay them on heaps in other vacant places, where they may serve for paving, and such like purposes when time requireth: but if the ground be overrun with great or else small limestones, as for the most part these barren grounds are; then shall you with all care gather them up and lay them in great heaps in some corner of your field where you may make a convenient lime-Kilne, and so there burn these stone thus gathered, which will be both an infinite profit, and an infinite case to the rest of your labours. And thus much touching the Ordering, ploughing and sowing of all manner of rough barren Clayes, whether simple or compound, being laden and overrun with Gorsse, Broome, and such like.   

CHAP. FOUR  
Of the Ordering, tilling, and Dressing of all rough barren Clayes, whether simple or compound, that are overrun with Whinnes, and such like.  
Nextunto this barren Clay which is overrunnewith Furs, Broome and such like, I will place that barren and unfertill earth, being also a Clay, weather simple or compound, which is overrun only with Whinnes, as indeed bearing little or no other burden, or if it do bear any other burden, as some little short, moffie grass, yet is that grass so covered over with these sharp Whinnes, that not any beast dare put his nose to the ground, or bire upon the same; and indeed, this kind of earth is not any whit at all less barren than those of which I have already written: but rather more, in that the malignant qualities thereof are not so soon corrected, nor yet the virtues so soon restored.  
To speak then first what these Whinnes are, you shall 
What Whinnes are:  understand that they be a certain kind of rough dry weeds which grow bushy and thick together, very short and close unto theground, being of a dark brown colour, and of crooked growth, thick and confused, and full of knots, and those knots armed with hard, long, sharp pricks, like thorns or briars, they have little brown leaves which shadow the pricks, and do wind their branch so one into another, that they can hardly be separated, yet is their growth at any time little more than a handful above the earth, only they spread exceedingly, and will run and cover over a whole field, choking up all sorts of good plants whatsoever, and turning the best grass that is to moss, and filthiness; 
Paring of Grounds.  wherefore if at any time you be Master of any such naughty and barren ground, and would have it reduced unto goodness and fertility, you shall first take a fine thin paring-shovell made of the best iron and well steeled and hardened round about the edges, according to the form of this figure following:  
And with this paring-shovell, you shall first pair up all 
Making of Baits.  the upper swarth of the ground, about two inches or an inch and a half thick at the least, and every paring would be some three foot in length at the least, and so broad as the shovel will conveniently give it leave, and; this swarth thus pared up, you shall first turn the whinny or grass side downward, and the earth side upward, and so let it lie two or three days in the Sun to dry (for this work is intended to begin in the month of May) and when that side is well dried you shall turn the other side, and dry it also; then when all the swarth is dried, you shall gather fix or seven pieces together, and turning the whinny or grass side inward and the earth side outward, you shall make round, hollow little hills thereof much what according to the fashion of this figure following:  
And the inward hollowness like unto the hollowness of an Oven, butmuch less in compass, which done, you shall fill the hollowness with dry chips, or else small sticks, or Furs and straw mixed together, which you shall put in at the vent-hole which shall be left on one side of the hill, and then kindling it with fire, you shall burn all that swarth in such sort as you burned the roots of your Furs and Broom before; for this is also called a burning of Bait, as well as the former; for it is a most principal nurrisher of the earth, and a very sudden destroyer of all malignant weeds whatsoever.  
After the burning of your hills, as soon as the fire 
Breaking of Baits.  is utterly quenched and gone out, and no heat at all left in the hills, you shall then with clotting beetles beat them all downeto dust, and then with shovels you shall spread the ashes quite over all the ground, as was before declared in the former Chapter: and herein is to be noted, that you must place these hills as thick and close together as by any means possibly you can, making your hills so much the less and lower, that they may stand thicker and nearer together, and so cover more ground, and thereby the heat and strength of the fire to disperse itself over all that piece of ground; for the fire burning upon the ground, doth as much good for the enriching of the earth and destroying of the weeds, as the ashes doth which are spread upon the same.  
Now after your Bait is in this manner burned and 
Ploughing.  spread, you shall then (as was before showed) plow up your ground in good large furrows, then hack it very small, sand it, limeit, and manure it; and of all meanures, there is not any better for this ground than Ox dung and ashes well mixed together; of which ashes, those of Beane-straw, Peas-straw, or any other straw, are best; those of Wood or Ferne next, those of Charcoal next, & those of Sea-coal or pitcoale are the worst of all; Swine's dung is not much amiss for this ground; for though it be a great breeder of weeds and thistles in good or fertile grounds, yet in this cold hard and barren earth it worketh no such effect, but is a great comforter and warm moistner of the same.  
After you have thus made your ground; as soon as wheat seed-time cometh, which is the latter end of September and beginning of October, you shall then with great care plough over your ground again, and take great respect that you turn up your furrows much deeper than before, and that for two especial causes; the first, that the new earth may the better mix with the old earth and those helps which are added thereunto; and secondly, that you may be surer to tear up the roots of all the Whinnes from the very bottom of the earth, not suffering any part of them to remain behind, and for this purpose it shall not be amiss to have an idle Boy or two to follow your Blow, and to gather away all the roots that shall be torn up or any way else left bare above ground, which roots shall be laid on heaps in convenient places, and then after burnt, and the ashes thereofspread upon the ground, which will be a very great comfort unto the seed, being a speedy help unto the sprouting thereof, and a very warm comforter of the root after the stem is spindled above ground, for in these cold barren earth's, nothing doth so much spoil and flay the Corn, as the dead coldness which lieth at the root thereof; for in many of these unfertill places, you shall see Corn at the first sowing (whilst there is a little strength in the ground) sprout in great abundance, promising much hope of the profit; but when it should spindle and come to much better perfection, that poor strength being spent and consumed, and the cold and dryness of the soil, having as it were ourcome all matter of comfort then presently you shall sec the blade of the Corn turn yellow, the stem or stalk to wither, and either put forth no ear at all, or else a very poor little empty one, being laden with nothing but a most dry chaffy husk without substance: But to come again to our purpose, after you have thus ploughed up your ground the second time, you shall then hack it again, and harrow it, as was declared in the other former Chapters; than you shall take your seede-wheate which hath been steeped either in brine or Sea water, and to enery bushel of that seed, you shall add a bushel of Bay salt and mix them very well together in your Hopper or Sydlop, and so sow them together upon the ground, observing to double your casts so oft, that you may not fail to cast that true quantity of seed into the earth which otherwise you would have done if so be there had been no mixture at all, for to do otherwise were to deceive the ground, and a handful of seed so saved, would be the loss of a peck in the time of Harvest; therefore have great respect that your ground have his due, for it is no more cost though it be a little labour.  
When your seed is sown, you shall harrow it again 
Harrowing.  the second time, clot it, smooth it, and slight it, as was before declared in the former Chapters.  
As touching the weeding of this ground, it is the left 
Weeding.  labour of all other, for the earth being so corrected as is before showed, it will naturally of itself put forth no weeds, especially if you remember to plow it deep, and be sure to tear up and gather away all the quick roots, otherwise if that labour be any thing neglected, then will it put forth both Whinnes and great store of other rough weeds, which as soon as you shall perceive to appear, you shall presently with your wooden nippers pull them up by the roots, as was at large declared in the foregoing Chapter.  
Now for the general profit of this ground thus 
Profits.  made and prepared, it is the same that the two former are, that is to say, it will bear you good and sufficient Wheat, in plentiful abundance for the space of two or three years, than Barley a year after; then Oats three years together after the Barley; and Pease or Beanes a year after the Oats; then lastly, very good Meadow or Pasture, for the space of three or four years after, and then you shall begin and dress it again, as was formerly declared, and thus much touching the ordering, ploughing, and sowing of all rough barren Clayes, whether simple or compound, being laden and overrune with Whinnes, and such like.   

CHAP. V.  
Of the Ordering, tilling, and Dressing of all barren Clayes, whether simple or else compound, which are overrun with Ling, or Heath.  
There followeth now successively, another sort of barren Earth, which indeed is much more sterryll and barren than any of the other formerly written upon, because they, out of their own natures, do bear a certain kind of grass or food which will relieve ordinary, hard, store-cattels, whether it be sheep, goats, or young beasts. But this earth of which I am now to entreat, beareth no grass at all, but only a vild, filthy, black-browne weed, which we call Ling or Heath, the tender tops whereof cattle and wild Deer will sometimes crop, yet it is to them but little relief, and only maintaineth life and no more. Now al-be some may object unto me, that this kind of soil is ever a sandy soil and no Clay, as may be seen in most Chasses, Forests, and Downs: yet I answer, that al-be it hold so in general; yet there are diverse Clayes, especially in mountainous Countries, that are pestered with these kind of weeds, as may be seen in the North and North-West parts of Devonshire, in some parts of Cornwall, and in many parts both of North and South Wales; and these Clay grounds which are thus offended with these weeds of Ling or Heath, are much more barren and unfruitful than the sands, because of their much more coldness; yet those Clayes which are mixed with either black sand, dun sand, or yellow sand, and overrun thus with Heath or Ling, are the most barren of all: to make any further description of this Heath or Ling, being a thing so notoriously known over all this Kingdom, I hold it merely needless, only to say it is a rough brown weedo, shooting out abundance of stalks from one root, with little dark leaves, and flowers on the top, of a pale reddish colour, much inclining unto Peach colour at the first, but being full blown, they are then a little more whitish.  
You therefore that have any such ground, and desire 
Destroying of heath.  to bring it to fruitfulness and the bearing of good Corn and grass in a reasonable abundance; you shall first with scythes or sharp hooks (but old scythes are the better) cut down all the Heath, or Ling which groweth upon the earth, you intent to convert to goodness so near the ground as possibly you can; then when it is cut down (which would ever be at the beginning of the Month of May) you shall let it lie upon the ground, daily tossing and turning it till it become very dry, then spreading it all over the ground, and mixing or covering it with dry straw of any kind whatsoever you shall presently set it on fire in so many several corners of the field, that all the several fires in the end may meet in one point, and not leave any part of the mown Heath or Ling unburnt, or any part of the ground unscortched; after this is done and the ground cooled, you shall with your flat clotting beetles beat the ashes hard into the ground, than you shall take a strong plough, with a broad-winged share, and an even colture, and you shall plow up all this ground thus burnt, in very large and deep furrows, by no means picking out any of the quick roots which shall remain in the furrows so turned up, but letting them rest in the earth still, then with your hacks and the help of your iron paring-shovell, you shall cut up the furrows, formerly turned up, into short pieces of three foot or three foot and a half long, and some less, as occasion shall serve; then with these pieces, you shall build little hollow hills, such as in the former Chapter you made of the upper swarth of the ground only; and then filling the hollowness with dry heath and dry straw mixed together, you shall set every hill on fire, 
Another Burning of Bait.  and so burn the very substance of the earth into ashes, which will soon be done by reason of the infinite number of roots and small strings which lie mixed in the earth, and the dryness thereof occasioned by the former burning: And this is another kind of burning of Bait much different from all the former, and yet to as great end and profit as any whatsoever, and these hills must as the former be placed one as near another as is possible, so as they may spread and cover over the greatest part of the ground, and leaviug no more than a good reasonable path to pass between hill and hill.  
Now as soon as you have thus burned all your Bait, and that your hills are cold, you shall then as was before showed in the former Chapters with beetles and Shovels break down the hills and spread the earth and ashes over all the ground; which done, you shall sand it (if the situation of the ground be answerable thereunto) and lime it in such sort as was showed in the second Chapter; then when it is limed, and the lime equally spread, not more in one place then in another, you shall then manure it with the best manure you can provide, of which there is none better or more proper for this ground than man's ordure, and the rubbish, sweep, pare and spytling of houses mixed together, or for want of this (because it may not be in so great plenty as other meanures) you may take either old Ox dung, or Horse dung, or for want of them, the old rotten and mouldy staddels or bottoms of Corne-stacks, or reeds; especially Peasestacks, or beanstalks, provided that it be thoroughly rotten, for the less rotten it is, the worse it is: Also the scourings of common Sewers, and especially those through which much of man's urine doth pass, is a most wonderful and beneficiail manure for these grounds, so are also the scow●…ings of sinks and channels which come from Kitchins and Wash-houses, where great store of Brine and salt broth is shed, and other greasy, fat and putrified substances, as also abundance of soap suds, and buck-ashes, and other soap and lie washings, than which there is no better manure that can be used for these kind of grounds.  
After your ground is thus perfectly made and meanured, and that Wheat-seede time doth draw on, which (as before was showed) is ever at the latter end of September, you shall then plow up your ground again in that manner as was showed for the former earths; to wit, much deeper than before: for you are to understand, that this ground being dressed as is before declared, there will remain nothing of the furrows which were first ploughed up but the as●…s, which being covered with sand, lime, and manure, the earth will lie plain and level, so that of necessity you must raise up new furrows of new earth, which being done, you shall then with your hacks, cut all the new earth into very small pieces; mixing them well with the other mould made of sand, lime, manure and ashes, then as was before said, you shall harrow it to make the mixture so much the better, and the mould so much the finer; and than if it have been sanded, you may sow your Seede-Wheate simply of itself, without any doubt of the plentiful increase thereof; but if it have not been sanded, then as in the fore going Chapter, you shall not only steep your Seed in Brine (as before showed) but also you shall mix your Seed with Bay-salt, and so sow it into the ground; or if at the time of sowing (after it is ploughed, hacked and harrowed) youbestow or Pigeons dung, or Pullens dung, or sheep's dung upon the Land, it will be much better, and the Corn will give a much greater increase. Now as soon as your Land is sown, you shall then forthwith harrow it again and cover the Seed very close, than you shall clot it, smooth it, and slight it (as was before showed.)  
As touching the weeding and cleansing of this earth 
Of Weeding.  after the Corn is sprung up, you shall understand that there is great care to be had thereunto, for this ground is much subject unto weeds, and those of the worst kind: foot although for the most part it will be free from all manner of soft and tender weeds, as thistles, cockle, darnel, ketlocks, docks, rape, and such like herbal stuff; yet is it much subject to twitch Briars, which grow at both ends, ling, wild time, `and such like, any of which as soon as you shall see appear or peep above the earth, you shall presently with your Nippers pull them up by the roots, and not suffer them in any wise to look a handful above the ground, for if you do, their hardness is so great, and their roots so large and fast fixed in the mould, that you can by no means pull them away without great loss and hurt to the grain, pulling up with them all such roots of Corn, as shall be fixed near about them, for any other weak and superfluous things which shall grow from the Land, you may with ordinary weeding hooks cut them away; as for long grass, whether it be soft or segy, or any other such like stuff, you shall not stir it but let it grow, for it keepeth warm the roots of your Corn, and giveth nourishment and increase thereunto: Now for the profit of this soil thus ordered and husbanded it is equal with any of the former, and will bear Wheat very plentifully for the space of the three first years, good Barley; the fourth year with the help of the sheep fold (as was before said;) and good Oats the sift, sixth, and seventh years; and very good small Pease the eight year (for Beans this Soil will very hardly bear at all) and the ninth, tenth, and eleventh year it will bear very good meadow (though not altogether very fine pure grass, yet very good feeding and wholesome grass) or so good pasture as a man can reasonably require for any holding cattle whatsoever; nay; it will also indifferently well feed, and fat cattle, though peradventure it requireth a little longer time than other finer grounds will. And thus much touching the well Ordering, Ploughing, and Sowing of all barren Clayes, whether simple or compound, which are overrun with Ling or Heath.   

CHAP. VI  
Of the Ordering, tilling, and Dressing of all plain, simple barren Sands, bearing nothing but a short mossy grass.  
Having thus (in as large manner as I hope shall be needful for any judicial or indifferent Reader) written of the Natures, Ordering, Plowing and Dress of all manner of barren and unfruitful Clayes, whether they be simple of themselves, or else compounded with other earth's, as sands, chalks, gravels, and such like; showing by those natural burdens which continually of their own accords, they produce & bring forth (which indeed is the easiest and safest way of knowledge) how to amend and better them and bring them to that perfection of fruitfulness, that the best earth shall but in a very small degree exceed them, nay hardly any thing at all, except in the saving of a little charge and some labour, without which nothing is to be obtained by the Husbandman; neither ought we indeed to expect any thing without our industry, since the Highest hath said himself, that we shall eat the sweat of our Labours; neither is this charge or labour thus bestowed on these barren grounds to be grudged at by any honest mind, since the worst crop of ten or eleven, will make good his charge and toil with a reasonable interest; so that I make account, nine or ten years' profits come into his Barns without purchase, for it is to be intended that all these earth's formerly spoke of, are not to be dressed or to put the Husbandman to any charge more than the first year of ten or eleven, for the second year he shall as soon as he hath gathered his Wheat off, which will be in August, and finished other parts of his harvest, he shall presently put his Blow into the same Wheate-ground again and Blow it up, hack it, harrow it, sow it, herrow it again, clot it, and weed it, as in the former year, and so consequently of all the years following, whereby you perceive that all labours and charges are saved more than once ploughing and sowing.  
This then considered, it necessarily now followeth, that I speak of the bettering and bringing into perfection of all manner of barren Sand-grounds, being simple of themselves, without any mixture of other earths, except one and the same kind, as sand with sand, though peradventure the colours of the sands may alter; as red with white, yellow with black, etc. which in as much as the whole substance is sand without any contrary mixture, therefore it may well be called simple and not compound: and of these sands, I purpose to entreat, as formerly I did of the Clayes; that is to say, by their outward faces and Characters, which are those burdens and increases which of their own proper natures without any help or compulsion they produce and bring forth into the World. And first of that naughty cold and barren sand, which lying upon high, stony & mountainous Rocky places, or else upon lower cold bleak Plains, subject to the North and North-East winds and tempests, or bordering upon the Seas, doth not bring forth any thing but a short mossy grass which the Sun makes bitter, and the cold dews fulsome & unsavoury in taste. If any man then be Master of such unprofitable and unfruitful earth, and desire to have it brought to goodness and perfection, he shall First, at the beginning of the Spring, as about mid 
Ploughing:  April or earlier, with a strong Blow answerable to the soil, yet somewhat less both in timbers and irons then that wherewith you plow your Clay grounds: you shall Blow so much of that earth up as you may conveniently compass to sow and dress exactly and perfectly; for to undertake more, were to make all unprofitable, and to cast away much labour and charge without any profit, this ground you shall plow of an indifferent depth, though not so deep as the Clayes, and you shall lay the furrows though flat, yet close one one to another, without leaving any balk between, but ploughing all very clean; yet not so very clean and close together, that you may lay the green swarth to the new ploughed or quick earth; but rather turn one swarth against another, so as the furrows may lie, and no more but touch the edges one of another: This when you have done, you shall then with your hacks cut and break all the earth so turned up into very small pieces, and not only the earth so turned up: but also all other green swarth which was left unplowed; provided, that before this labour of hacking, you let the ground lie certain days in the furrows, that one swarth heating and scalding the other, they may both equally rot and grow mellow together, which once perceived by the blackness thereof, you may then at your pleasure hack it and cut it as is before declared.  
Now some may in this place object unto me, that this 
Objection.  labour of hacking should be needless, in as much as all sand grounds whatsoever are out of their own natures so light, loose, and willing to dissever, that this toil might very well and to good purpose be saved.  
To this I answer, that true it is, most sands in their 
Answer.  own natures are loose, and light, and willing to dissever into fine mould without any extremity, especially rich and fruitful sands whose predominant quality of warmth giveth nourishment and increase; but these barren and cold sands, in which is a certain phlegmatic toughness and most unwholesome dryness, are of a clean contrary nature, and through the stony hardness thereof, they are as unapt to break and dissever as any Clay whatsoever: besides, the swarth being of a tough mossy substance (which ever carrieth a hard strong root answerable with the cold in which it is engendered) doth so constantly bind, fetter, and hold the mould together, that it is inpossible for any harrow to break it in pieces, or to gather from it so much mould as may serve to cover the Corn and give it root when it is sown into the same; and therefore then this work of hacking, there can be none more necessary, or to the Husbandman can bring more ease or profit.  
When therefore you have thus hacked your Land, 
OfMarling  and distributed the mould into many small pieces, you shall then with all expedition marl it; which forasmuch as it is no general or common practice in every part of this Kingdom, I will first tell you what Marl is, and then how to find it, dig it, and use it for your best behoof.  
Marle you shall then understand, is a certain rich, stiff 
What Marl is.  & tough Clay of a bluish colour, and full of many red veins like Porphery or Marble, it is of a tough & gluey substance, apt to work and hold together like wax, and chiefly when it is any thing moist, but being dried, it mouldereth and breaketh as small as cinders; and by these three Characters, colour, toughness, and looseness, being dried, you shall never fail certainly to know it. Some are of opinion, that this Marl was first found out in Germany, and there put in practice, and found of most notable use, calling it by the name of Pitch, or a certain Clay like pitch: others that we found it out first here in England, as indeed is most probable, because we have the greatest store, and make the greatest use thereof: others, that the first knowledge came out of France, but that is least credible, for neither is it there in much use, nor much mentioned in any of the French Authors, especially the ancientest or any that writ out of present memory; howsoever, most certain it is, that not any manure that is in use with the Husbandman is of more virtue or perfection, especially for these loose, sandy, barren earths, neither of so much goodness and continuance; for it is hard for any one single and simple manure to continue above three or four years; yet this Marl is known to have continued the ground good for the space of a dozen years at the least.  
This Marl is commonly found in the lowest parts of high Countries, near Lakes and small Brooks, and in the high parts of low Countries, upon the knolls of small hills, or within the Cly●…ts of high Mountainous banks, which bound greater Rivers in●…to conclude, you shall seldom find any of these barren sands, but they are either verdged about with Marle grounds, or if you will bestow the labour to dig beyond the depth of the sand, you shall not fail to find or Marl or quarry of stone, or both; for in some places Marle lieth very deep, in other some places within a spades graced of the upper swarth of the earth: Therefore it shall be good for you to make proof of all the most likely parts of your ground to find out this Marl; and as soon as you have found it out, you shall with Mattocks and Spades dig it up and carry it to your land, there laying it in big round heaps, and setting them within a yard or two one of another; thus when you have filled over all your ground (which would be done with as great speed as might be, for the ancient custom of this Kingdom was, when any man went about to Marle his ground, all his Tenants, Neighbours and friends would come and help him to hasten on the Work) you shall then spread all those heaps, and mixing the Clay well with the Sand, you shall lay all smooth and level together; and herein is to be observed, that if the land you thus marvel shall lie against the side of any great Hill or Mountain, whereby there will be much descent in the ground, than you shall (by all means lay double as much marvel, sand, or other compass on the top of the Hill as on the bottom, because the rain and showers which shall fall will ever wash the fatness of the earth down to the lowest parts thereof; when your ground is thus marled (if you be near to the Seaside) you shall then also sand it with salt Sea-sand, in such sort as was formerly declared, only you may forbear to lay altogether so much upon this sand ground as you did on the Clay ground, because an half part is fully sufficient. If you cannot come by this salt-Sand, then in 
Of Chalk and theuse.  stead thereof, you shall take chalk, if any be to be had near you, and that you may lay in more plentiful manner then the sand; and albe it is said, that chalk is a wearer out of the ground, and maketh a rich father yet a poor son, in this style it doth not so hold, for as it fretteth and wasteth away the goodness that is in Clay grounds, so it comforteth & much strengtheneth these sand earths, and this chalk you shall lay in the same manner as you did your marvel, and in the same manner spread it and level it, which done you shall then lime it as was before showed in the Clay grounds, yet not so abundantly, because also a half part will be sufficient; after your lyming, you shall then manure it with the best manure that you have, whether it be dung of cattle, Horse, Sheep, Goats, straw, or other rubbish, and that being done and Seede-time drawing on, you shall then plow up your ground again, mixing the new quick earth and the former soils so well together, that there may be little distinguishment between them, than you shall hack it again, then harrow it, and lastly sow it with good sound and perfect seed, and of seeds though Wheat will very well grow upon this earth; yet Rye is the more natural and certain in the increase, yet according to the strength of the ground, you may use your discretion, observing that if you sow Wheat, then to steep it before in brine or salt-Sea-water, as was before described; but if you sow Rye, than you shall sow it simply without any help, except it be Pigeons dung, or Bay-salt simple of itself in such manner as hath been before declared; either sowing the salt with the Corn or before the Corn, as shall seem best in your own discretion.  
After your seed is sown, you shall then harrow it again, clot it, smooth it and state it as before showed in the second Chapter, which done (after the Corn is shot above the earth) you shall then look to the weeding of it being somewhat a little too much subject to certain particular weeds, as are Hare-bottels, wild Chesse-bolles, Gypsy flowers and such like, any of which, when you see them spring up, you shall immediately cut them away close by the roots, as for tearing their roots out of the ground with your nippers, it is not much material, for the cutting of them is sufficient, and they will hardly ever again grow or do you hindrance, many other weeds there may grow amongst these which are also to be cut away, but these are the principal and of most note; wherefore as soon as you have cleansed your lands of these and the reft, you shall then refer the further increase of your profit unto God's providence, thankfully accepting whatsoever he shall send you.  
Lastly, you shall understand that this ground being 
The Profits  thus ploughed, dreft, and ordered, will without any more dressing, but once ploughing and sowing, every year bear you good Wheat or good Rye three years together; then good Barley the fourth year; good Oats the fifth, sixth and seventh year; excellent good Lupins the eight year, and very good Meadow or Pasture three or four years after, and then it shall be necessary to dress it again in such manner as was before described. And thus much touching the ploughing, ordering, and enriching of all these plain barren sands.   

CHAP. VII.  
Of the ploughing, tilling, Ordering and Enriching of all barren Sands which are laden and overrun with Braken, Ferne, or Heath.  
NExt unto this plain, cold, barren Sand, which beareth no other burden but a short mossy grass; I will place that Sand which is laden and over run with Braken, Ferne, or Heath, as being by many degrees more barren than the former, both in respect that it is more loose and less substantial, as also in that it is more dry and harsh, and altogether without nutriment, more than an extroame sterryll coldness, as appeareth by the burden it bringeth forth, which is Braken or Ferne, a hard, rough, tough weed, good for nothing but to burn, or else to litter store-beasts with for the breeding of manure, or if you strew it in the Highways where many Travellers pass, it will also thereturne to good reasonable compass.  
Of this kind of ground if you be Master, and 
Of destroying Braken.  would reduce it unto fertility and goodness, you shall first, whether the Braken be tall and high (as I have seen some as high as a Man on Horseback) or short and low (as indeed most commonly these barren earths are, for tall Ferne or Braken ●…hewes some strength in the ground) you shall with Sythes first mow it down in the Month of May, then whither and dryeit upon the ground, and after spread it as thin as you can over all the earth you intent to plow; which done, you shall bring your plough and begin to plow the ground after this order: first, you shall turn up your furrow and lay it flat to the ground, greeneswarth against greeneswarth, then look how broad your furrow is so turned up, or the ground it covereth, and ●…st so much ground you shall leave unplowed between furrow and furrow, so that your land may lie a furrow and a green balk, a furrow and a green balk, till you have gone over all the ground, then shall you take a paring-shovell of iron and pair up the greenswarth of all the balks between the furrows, at least two inches thick, and into pieces of two or three foot long, and with these pieces of earth and the dry Ferne which is pared up with them, you shall make little round hollow Bait hills as in the third and fourth Chapter; and these hills shall be set thick and close over all the ground, and so set on fire and burnt; then when the fire is extinct, and the hills cold, you shall first with your hacks cut in pieces all the furrows that were formerly turned up, and then break down the burnt hills, and mix the ashes and earth with the other mould very well together; which done, you shall then with all speed marl this earth as sufficiently 
Of Marle.  as possible may be, not scanting it or sparing it of Marle, but bestowing it very plentifully upon the same; which done, you shall then plow it over again, and ploughing it exceedingly well, not leaving any ground whatsoever untorne up with the Blow; for you shall understand that the reason of leaving the former balks, was that at this second ploughing after the Marl was spread upon the ground, the new, quick, and unstirred fresh earth might as well be stirred up to mix with the Marl, as the other dead earth and ashes formerly received, whereby a fresh comfort should be brought to the ground and an equal mixture without too much dryness, and this second Ardour or ploughing would begin about the latter end of june.  
After your ground hath been thus marled, and 
Sanding and lyming  the second time ploughed, you shall then sand it with salt Sea-sand, lime it and manure it as was declared in the foregoing Chapter: and of all meanures for this soil, there is not any so exceeding good as sheep's manure, which although of the Husbandman it be esteemed a manure but of one year, yet by experience in this ground it happeneth otherwise, and is as durable, and as long lasting a compass as any that can be used, and besides it is a great destroyer of thistles, to which this ground is very much subject, because upon the alteration of the ground the Ferne is also naturally apt to alter unto Thystell as we daily see.  
When your ground is thus amply dressed and well 
Ploughing and sowing.  ordered, and that Seede-time cometh on, you shall then plow it again in such manner as you did the second time, that is to say, very deep, clean, and after the manner of good Husbandry, without any rest balks or other disorders: then shall you hack it very well, then harrow it, and then sow it; but by mine advice, in any case, I would not have you to bestow any Wheat upon this soil (except it be two or three bushels on the best part thereof for experience sake, or provision for your household) for it is a great enemy unto Wheat, and more than the marvel hath no nourishment in it for the same, because all that cometh from the salt sand, lime and manure it little enough to take away the natural sterility of the earth itself, and give it strength to bear Rye, which it will do very plentifully; and therefore I would wish you for the three first years only, to sow the best Rye you can get into this ground; the fourth year to sow Barley; the sift, sixth and seventh Oats; and of Oats, the big black Oat is the best for this ground, maketh the best and kindlyest Oat-malt, and feedeth Horse or cattle the soundest; as also it is of the hardest constitution, and endureth either cold or dryness much better than either the white Oat, the cut Oat, or any Oat whatsoever; the eight year, you shall only sow Lupyns or Fetches; and three years after, you shall let it lie for grass, and then dress it again as before said; for it is to be understood, that in all the following years (after the first year) you shall bestow no labour upon this ground more than ploughing sowing, hacking and harrowing at Seede-time only.  
But to proceed to the orderly labour of this 
Labours after sowing.  ground, after you have sown your Rye, you shall then harrow it again, clot it, smooth it and sleight it as was before showed in the second Chapter of this Book. And although a man would imagine that the sandy looseness of this soil would not need much clotting or slighting of the Earth, yet by reason of the mixture thereof with the Marl and manure, it will so hold and cleave together, that it will ask good strong labour to loosen it and lay it so hollow and smooth as in right it should be.  
Touching the Weeds which are most subject to 
Weeding.  this Soil, they are Thistles and young Brakes or Fernes which will grow up within the Corn, which before they rise so high as the Corn, and even as it were at the first appearing, you must with your wooden nippers pull up by the roots, and after rake up and lay in some convenient place where they may wither and rot and so turn to good manure. And thus much touching the ordering, dressing, ploughing, and enriching of all barren Sands which are overrun with Braken, Ferne, or Heath.   

CHAP. VIII.  
Of the Ploughing, Tilling, ordering and enriching of all barren Sands, which are laden and overrun with Twitch, or wild Briar.  
Having written sufficiently of this hard & barren, waste, wild, sandy ground, which is overrun with Braken, Ferne, Heath, & such like: I will now proceed, and unto it join another sand which is much more barren, and that is the sand that bringeth forth nothing but wild Twitch, Briars, Thorn-bush, and such like undergrowth of young misliking wood, which never would rise or come to profit, the bitter cold dryness of the earth wherein it groweth, and the sharp storms to which the clime is continually subject both day and night, blasting it in such manner that nothing appeareth but a starved, withered, and utterly unprofitable burdens good for nothing but the fire and that in a very simple sort. Such ground if you be 
Destroying of Twitch and Briar.  master of, and would reduce it to profit and fruitfulness, you shall first with hooks or axes cut up the upper growth thereof, that is the bushes, young trees and such like, than you shall also stub up the roots, not leaving any part of them behind in the earth, carrying away both home to your house to be employed either for fuel, or the mending of the hedges, or such like, as you shall have occasion; this done, you shall take a pair of strong Iron harrows, and with them you shall harrow over all the earth, tearing up all the Twitch, Briars, and rough Grass so by the roots, that not any part but the bare earth may be seen●…, and when your barrows are cloyed, you shall vulade them in several places of the ground, laying all such rubbish of weeds and other stuff, which the harrows shall gather up in a little round hill, close up together that they may sweat, whither and dry; then spreading them abroad and mixing them well with dry straw, burn them all over the ground, leaving no part of the weeds or Grass unconsumed, then without beating in of the ashes, you shall presently plow the ground all over very clean as may be, laying the furrows as close as you can one to another, and leaving no earth untouched or untorne up with the Blow, which done, you shall immediately hack it into small pieces, and as you hack it, you shall have idle Boys to go by the Hackers, to gather away all the roots which they shall loosen or break from the mould, and laying them on heaps in the worst part of the ground, they shall there burn them, and spread the ashes thereon, after your ground is thus harrowed, ploughed, and hacked, you shall then muck it, as was formerly showed in the sixth Chapter, then shall you sand it, lime it, and manure it as before said.  
Now of meanures, which are most proper for this 
Meanures  soil, you shall understand that either Ox, or Horse manure, rotten straw, or the scouring of Yards is very good, provided that with any of these meanures, or all these meanures, you mix the broad-leaved weeds, and other greene-weeds which grow in Ditches, Brooks, Ponds or Lakes, under Willow tree, which with an iron Rake, Drag, or such likeinstrument, you may easily draw upon the bank, and so carry it to your land, and there mingle it with the other meanures & so let it rot in the ground, this manure thus mixed is of all other most excellent for this soil, both by the experience of the Ancients who have left it unto memory, as also by daily practice now used in sundry parts of this kingdom, aswell because of the temperate coolness thereof, which in a kindly manner assuageth the lime and sand, as also through the moisture which distilling through those warm Soils doth quicken the cold starved earth, and giveth a wonderful increase to the seed that shall be thrown into the same.  
After your ground is thus sufficiently dressed with 
Harrowing and other labours.  these soils and meanures, you shall then plow it again the second time which would be after Michaelmas; after the ploughing you shall then hack it again, and be sure to mix the earth and the meanures very well together, than you shall break it in gentle manner with your Harrows, and then sow it; which done you shall harrow it again, but than you shall harrow it much more painfully, and not leave any clots or hard earth unbroken that the Harrow can pull in pieces: as touching the seed which is fittest for this earth, it is the same that is spoken of in the next foregoing Chapter: as namely, the best Rye or the best Masline, which is Rye and Wheat equally mixed together, or if there be two parts Rye, and but one Wheat, the seed will be so much the more certain and surer holding, and this seed you may sow on this ground three years together, then Barley, than Oats, and so forth, as is formerly writ of the grounds foregoing. After your ground is sown and harrowed, you shall then clot it, slight it, and smooth it as you did the other grounds before, and then lastly with your back Harrows, that is with a pair of harrows, the teeth turned upward from the ground, and the back of the harrow next unto the ground, you shall run over all the ground and gather from the same all the loose Grass, Twitch, or other weeds that shall any ways be raised up, and the same so gathered, you shall lay at the lands end in heaps, either to rot for manure, or else at the time of the year to be burnt for ashes, and sprinkled on the earth the next seed time.  
Lastly touching the weeding of this soil, you shall 
Weeding.  understand the weeds which are most incident thereunto, are all the same you first went about to destroy: as namely, Twitch, rough wild Grass, and young woody undergrowth, besides Thistles, Hare bottles, and Gipsy flowers; therefore you shall have a great care at the first appearance or springing up of the Corn, to see what weeds ariseth with it, (for these weeds are everfully as hasty as the Corn) and as soon as you see them appear, both yourself and your people with your hands shall pull them up by the roots, and so weed your land as you would weed a garden, or Woad ground. Now if at this first weeding (which will be at the latter Spring, commonly called Michaelmas, or the Winter Spring) you happen to omit & let some weeds pass your hands unpulled up (which very well may chance in so great a work) you ●…hal then the Summer Spring next following (seeing them as high or peradventure higher than the Corn) with your wooden nippers pull them up by the roots from the ground, and so cast them away: As touching the cutting them up close by the ground with ordinary weedhookes, I do in no sort allow it, for these kind of weeds are so apt to grow, and also so swift in growth, that if you cut them never so close in the Spring, yet they will again overmount the Corn before harvest, and by reason of their greatness, roughness, and much hardness choke and slay much Corn that shall grow about them, and therefore by all means you shall pull these weeds up by the roots whilst they are tender, (if possibly you can,) or otherwise in their stronger growth, sith their sufferance breedeth great loss and destruction; And thus much touching the ploughing, ordering, dressing and enriching of all barren sands that are laden and overrun with Twitch, wild Briar, or woody undergrowth.   

CHAP. IX.  
Of the Ploughing, Tilling, Ordering and Enriching of all barren Sands which are overrun with mores or morish stinking long Grass.  
Unto these foregoing barren Sands, of which I have already written, I will lastly join this last barren Sand, being of all earth's, whether Clay or Sand the most barrenest, and that is that filthy, black, morish Sand which beareth nothing but a stinking, putrified Grass or Moss, or Moss and Grass mixed together, to which not any Beast or cattle, how course or hardly bred soever, will at any time lay their mouths: and this kind of ground also is very much subject to marishes and quagmires, of which that which is covered with Moss, or Grass, is the worst, and that which is tufted above with rushes, the best and soon reduced unto goodness; in brief, all these kinds of grounds generally are extremely moist and cold, the ●…uperabundance whereof is the occasion of the infinite sterrillity and barrenness of the same.  
And therefore he that is master of such unprofitable Earth, and would have it brought to some profit or goodness, shall first consider the situation of the ground, as whether it lie high or low, for some of these marish grounds lie low in the Valles, some on the sides of Hills, and some on the tops of Mountains, then whether the much moistness thereof be fed by River, Lake or Spring, whose veins not having currant passage through or upon the earth, spreads soakingly over all the face thereof, and so rotting the mould with too much wet, makes it not only unpassable, but also utterly unprofitable for any good burden.  
Now if you find that this marish Earth lie in 
Ground for Fishponds.  the bottom of low vales as it were girdled about with Hills or higher grounds, so that besides the feeding of certain Springs, Lakes, or Rivers, every shower of rain or falling of water from higher grounds bringeth to these an extraordinary moisture to maintain the rottenness, in this case this ground is past cure for grass or Corn, and would only be converted and made into a fishpond for the breeding and feeding of Fish, being a thing no less profitable to the Husbandman for keeping his house, and furnishing the market than the best corne-land he hath; and therefore when he maketh any such pond he shall first raise up the head thereof in the narrowest part of the ground, and this head by driving in of stacks and piles of tough and hard wood as Elm, Oak and such like, and by ramming in of the Earth hard between them, and sodding the same so fast that the mould can by no means be worn down or undermined with the water, he shall bring to as firm Earth as is possible, and in the midst of this head he shall place a sluice or Floodgate made of sound and clean Oak Timber and planks, through which at any time to drain the Pond when occasion shall serve, and this done you shall dig the Pond of such depth as the Earth conveniently will bear, and casting the Earth upon either side you shall make the banks as large and strong as the ground requireth, then if any Spring which did before feed the Earth be left out of the compass of the Pond (because it lieth too high to be brought in) then shall you by drawing gutters or drains from the Spring down to the Pond, bring all the water of the Springs into the Pond and so continually feed it with fresh and sweet water. Then storing it with Fish of best esteem as carp, Tench, bream, Perch and such like, and keeping it from weeds, ●…he and Vermin, there is no doubt of the daily profit;  
But if this marish and low Ground though it lie low and have many Springs falling upon it yet it lieth not so extreme low but that there is some River or dry Ditches bordering upon it, which lie in a little lower diffent, so that except in case of inundation the River and Ditches are free from the moisture of this Ground, but where there is any overslowing of waters there this marish Ground must needs be drowned, in this case this ground can hardly be made for corn, because every overflow putteth the Grain in danger, yet may it be well converted to excellent pasture or meadow, by finding out the heads of the Springs, and by opening and cleansing them, and then drawing from those cleansed heads, narrow drains or furrows through which the waters may pass to the neighbour ditches, and so be conveied down to the lower Rivers; leaving all the rest of the ground dry, and suffering no moistures to pass, but what goeth through these small deep channels, then as soon as Summer cometh, and the ground begins to harden, ifyou see any of the water stand in any part of the ground, you shall forth with mend the drain, and help the water to pass away, which done (as the ground hardeneth) you shall with hacks and spades lay the swarth smooth and plain, and as early in the year as you can conveniently, you shall sow upon the ground good store of hay seeds, and if also you do manure it with the rotten staddels or bottoms of haystacks, it will be much the better, and this staddell you shall not spread very thick but rather of a reasonable thinness, that it may the sooner rot and consume upon the same.  
But if this marish and filthy ground do not lie so 
Draining of wet grounds  low as these low valleys, but rather against the tops of hills, you shall then first open the heads of all the Springs you can find, and by seucrall drains or sluices, draw all the water into one drain, and so carry it away into some neighbouring ditch and valley; and these drains you shall make of a good depth as at least two foot, or two foot and a half, or more, if need require, and then crossewise, every way overthwartthe ground, you shall draw more shallow furrows, all which shall fall into the former deep drains, and so make the ground as constant and firm as may be, then having an intent to employ it for Corn, you shall bring your Blow into the ground, being a very strong one, and not much differing in Timber- work or Irons from that which turneth up the clay grounds, and laying before the Blow long wades or rolls of the straw ofLupyns, Pease, or else Fetches, (but Lupynsis the best) you shall turn the furrows of earth with the Blow upon the wads, and so cover or bury them in the mould, and thus do unto every furrow, or at least unto most of the furrows you turn up, and so let it lie a little time to rot, as by the space of a fortnight or three weeks, in which space, if the ground receive not rain and moisture enough to rot the straw thus formerly buried, you shall then by stopping the drains, and making the Springs overflow, gently wash the ground all over and no more, and then presently drain it again; which done, as soon as the earth is dry, you shall hack it and break it into small pieces, than you shall also Sande it, Lyme it and meanureit.  
Andlastly, you shall marl it, but if no salt sand be to be had, then instead of it, you shall chalk it, yet of all the rest you shall take the least part of chalk.  
This done, about the latter end of luly you shall plow up the ground again with somewhat a better and deeper stitch than you did before, that if any of the straw be unrotted or unconsumed, it may again be raised up with the new moist earth & so made to waste more speedily, and if at this second carrying you do see any great hard clots to arise, then with your hacks you shall break those hard clots in pieces, laying the land clean without clots, weeds, or any other annoyance, and so let it rest till October, at which time you shall plow it over again, hack it, harrow it, and then sow it with the best seed-wheate; for this soil thus dressed and meanured, albeit it be of all other the most barren, yet by reason of this mosture which at pleasure may be put to it, or taken from it, and by the mixture of these comfortable soils and compasses, it is made as good and fruitful as any earth whatsoever, and will bear wheat abundantly the space of three years together; then good barley the fourth year with a little help of a sheepfold, or sheep's manure; then Rye the fifth year, Oats the sixth, the seventh and eight year, small Pease the ninth year good meadow or pasture three years following, and then to be new dressed again, as before said.  
Now as soon as your seed wheat is sown, you shall 
Harrowing.  then harrow the ground again, and be sure to cover the wheat both deep and close, as for the clots which shall arise from this soil, it shall not matter whether you break them, or no, for by reason of their moisture, they will be pliant and easy for the wheatto pass thorough, so that you shall not care how rough your land lie, so it lie clean, and the Corn well covered, but for all other seeds, you shall break the clots to dust, and lay the land as smooth as may be.  
Now for the weeding of this soil, you will not be much troubled there with, because this ground naturally of it own accord, putteth forth no weeds, more than these which are engendered by the new-made fruitfulness thereof, and those weeds for the most part are a kind of small sedge, or hollow reed; any of which if you see appear, or with them any other kind of weed, you shali at the first appearance, either pull them up by the roots with your wooden nippers or else cut them close by the ground with your weedhookes.  
And thus I have with as much care and diligence, as 
Weeding.  either my knowledge, experience, tradition from the best and skilfullest Teachers, or the observations which my ●…udgement could at any time collect from my travel or other men's labours, faithfully and duly set down the best, safest and easiest ways how to bring the most vild and barrenest grounds in this kingdom, whether they be clays or sands, mixed or unmixed, or of what nature soever, to as great fertility and fruitfulness in the bearing and bringing forth of Corn, as the best and most richest soil under the Sun can do, and that (all things considered) with as little cost, and much less labour, for to make a short comparison, or computation of the labour and charges which belong to these two soils, the rich and the barren, you shall understand that the rich soil is that which beareth Barley most naturally and abundantly as is to be seen in all the fruitful vales of this Kingdom, as the vale of Beluoyre, the vale of ●…am, the vale of White-Horse, the vale Royal, and Taunton-Deanry, with such like; and all these rich vales to be fallowed in January and February, than Summer stirred in April and May; then foiled in July and August, than Winter rigged in October and November, and lastly fowne in March following; so that here is a full work of a year and a quarter betwixt the preparing of the ground, and the sowing of the seed (as may better appear by my Book called, The English Husbandman) and yet I do, appoint here no time for the leading out of manure, supposing the earth to be so rich that needeth no manure at all, yet is the Husbandman in a most continual toil both Winter and also Summer, and at continual charge both with cattle and servants whereas the barren grounds (of which I have written of before) is begun to be tilled in May, sanded, marled, limed and meanured in lune, and at such vacant times in July, August and September, as may no way hinder harueft, then is it sown, clotted and smoothed in October, so that here is but one half years work before the crop be expected, and that but in one year of eleven or twelve neither; For after the first year it needeth but only one half months work which is ploughing and sowing; also the rich earth looseth every fourth years profit, by reason of the lying fallow, and this barren earth, never looseth any year at all, but always brings forth some profit: lastly, for the value and prices of the profits arising from these grounds, I never saw in the rich soils an acre of Corn sold for above xlvi. s. viii. d. and I have seen in the barren grounds an acre of Corn ordinarily fold for v. li. so that I conclude the barren earth ever is worthy of the Husbandman's charge and labour.  
It resteth now that I speak some thing of the bettering and enriching of all forts of barven Grasse-grounds, inasmuch as they are for the maintenance of stock, (without which no Corn or other commodity is to be had) in as great use and necessity as any Corn ground is, and the rather in as much as there be some barren earths which partly through their evil situations, partly through much distance of place, and other natural defects, can hardly, or very inconueniently be brought to bear Corn; therefore you shall reduce them unto good meadow or pasture, by these helps and good husbandries following.   

CHAP. X.  
How to enrich and make the most barrenest soil to bears excell●…nt good pasture or medam.  
MAny will think that in the head of this Chapter, I have taken to large a scope, and have made so unbounded a promise that I cannot chufe but either loose myself, or lead my Readers infinitely astray in this large wilderness: Indeed for mine own part I could have wished to have gathered it much nearer within the compass of common men's common understandings: But since I saw the fruitful grounds and gardens, growing about Chatsworth, in the Peake in Darbye-shire, and since I saw the meadows upon Exmore, and the rich pastures on the tops of mountains in North Devon-shire, and all made by industry & not nature; I thought my promise scant enough, and that any painful man might with his cost and labour easily walk about my meaning.  
To speak then of the bettering and enriching of 
Two ways to enrich earths.  these barren earths, and reducing them to good pasture or meadow, it is to be understood that there are but two certain ways to compass and effect the same, namely water or manure.  
You are then when you go about this profitable labour First, to consider the situation of the earth, you would convert to pasture and to sellect for this purpose the best of this worst earth you can find, and that which lies lowest, or else that which is so descending as that the bottom there of may stretch to the lowest part of the continent, for the lower that such grounds lie, the sooner they are made good and brought unto profit; Next you shall consider what Burden or grass it bears, and whether the grass be clean and entire of itself (which is the best and likeliest soil to be made fruitful) or else mixed with other worse growthes, as Thistles, Heath, Brome or such like, and if it be burdened with any of these naughty weeds, you shall first destroy them by stubbing them up by the roots and by burning the upper swarth of the earth with dry straw mixed with the weeds which you shall cut from the same, than it shall be good for certain nights both before the first and latter Spring to fold your sheep upon this ground, and that not in a scant manner but very plentifully, so as the dung of them may cover over all the earth, and their feet trampling upon the ground, may not only beat in the dung, but also beat of all the fwarth from the earth, that where the fold goneth, there little or no grass may be perceived, then whilst the ground is soft, and thus trampled, you shall sow it all over with Hay seeds and then with your flat board beetles beat the ground smooth and plain, which done you shall then strew or thinly cover over the ground with the rotten staddels of Haystacks, and the moist bottoms of Hay-barnes, and over that you shall spread other strong manure of which horse-dung, or Horse-dung and man's ordure mixed together is the best, or for want of such either the manure, of Oxen, Kine, or other Beasts; and this manure also you shall spread very thin upon the ground, and so let it lie till the grass come up through the same, which grass you shall by no means graze or feed with your cattle, but being come to the perfitness of growth, you shall mow it down, and although it will be the first year, but short and very course, yet it skilleth not, for the ensuing years, shall in the profit, and bring forth both so good grass, and such plenty thereof, as reasonably you can require for this is but the first making of your ground and alteration of the nature thereof, neither shall you thus dress your ground every year, but once in twenty, or forty years, having plenty of water to relieve it. When therefore you have thus the first only prepared your ground by destroying the barren growth thereof, and by meanuring, sowing and dressing it, you shall then carefully 
Of watering grounds.  search about highest parts of the ground, and the highest parts of all other grounds, any way neighbouting round about it, and somewhat above the level thereof, to see it you can find any Springs in the same, (as doubtless you cannot choose to do, except the ground be of more than strange nature,) and the heads of all such Springs as you shall find, you shall by gutters and channels draw into those ditches which shall compass your meadow ground about, observing ever to bring the water into that part of the medow-ditch which ever lieth highest, and so to let it have a current passage through the ditches down to the lower part thereof, and so into some Lake, Brooke, or other Channel, and in this fort you may bring your water amyle or two, Nay I have seen water brought for this purpose, three or four miles, and the gain thereof hath quit the charge in very plentiful manner.  
But if you cannot find any Springs at all, nor can have the help of any Lake, Brooke, River, or other 
Helps in the watering.  Channel of moving water, (which is a doubt to curious, as being cast beyond the moon) you shall then not only cast ditches about this your meadow ground but also about all other grounds which shall lie above it, and that in such sort, that they all may have no passage but into the upper part of the meadow ditch, so that what rain soever shall fall from the sky upon those earth's, it shall be received into those ditches, and by them conveied into the meadow ditch; and to augment the stor●… of this water, you shall also in sundry parts of those upper grounds which are above the meadow, in places most convenient, dig large Ponds or Pits, which both of themselves may breed, and also receive all such water as shall fall near about them, and these Ponds or Pits being filled (as in the Winter time necessarily they must needs be at every glut of rain) you shall presently by small drains made for that purpose, let the water out from them into the ditches and so into the meadow ditch, and so stopping all the drains again, make the Ponds or Pits capable to receive more water.  
When you have thus made your ground rich with 
When and how to water.  water, and that you see it flow (as in the Winter time necessarily it must) in plentiful manner through all your ditches, you shall then twice or thrice in the year, or oftener, as you shall think meet in the most convenientest places of the meadow ditch, stop the same, and make the water to rise above his bounds, and to overflow and cover your meadow ground all over, and if it be a flat levelly ground; if you let the water thus covering it to lie upon the same the space of 4. or. 5. days or a week, it shall not be amiss; & than you may water it the seldomer, But if it lie against the side of a hill, so that the water cannot rest upon the same, than you shall wash it all over, leaving no part unmoystned, & this you shall do the ofner, according as the weather shalfal out, & your water grow more or less plentiful.  
Now for the best season or time of the year for 
The best season for watering.  this watering of meadows, you shall understand, that from Alhallontide, which is the beginning of November (and at which time all after-growth of meadows, are fully eaten, and cattle for the most part are taken up into the house) until the end of April (at which time grass beginneth to spring and arise from the ground) you may water all your meadows at your pleasure without danger, if you have water enough at your pleasure, and may spend or spare at your will, yet to do it in the best perfection, and whereby your ground may receive the greatest benefit; you shall understand that the only time for watering of your meadows, is immediately after any great Flux of rain, falling in the Winter any time before May, when the water is most muddy, foul and troubled, for than it carrieth with it a soil or compass which being left upon the ground, wonderfully inricheth it, and makes it fruitful beyond expectation, as daily is seen in those hard countries where almost no grass grows but by this industry; And here you must observe, that as you thus water one ground, so you may water many, having ever respect to begin with the highest, and so to let the water pass out of one ground into another until it come unto the lowest, which commonly is ever the most flat and level, and there you may let the water remain so long as you think good (as was before showed) and then let it out into other waste ditches or rivers. And here you shall know that this lowest ground will ever be the most fruitful, as well because it lieth the warmest, moistest, and safest from storms and tempests, as also because what soil or other goodness this overflow of water, or the rain washeth from other grounds, it leaveth upon this, and so daily increaseth the fertility, from whence you shall gather, that at the first making of these meadow grounds you may bestow less cost of manure and other charges upon this lowest, flat, level ground, then on the higher; and so by that rule also observe to bestow on the highest ground, and the highest part of the highest ground ever the greatest abundance of manure, and so as you shall descend lower & lower, to lay your manure thinner and thinner, yet not any part utterly unfurnished & void of compass, yet as before I said you are to remember that these meadow grounds need not this much use of manure (having this benefit of water, and the first years dressing as was showed in the beginning of this Chapter) above once in twenty years; nay it may be not above once in a man's life time.  
And here also is to be considered, that the water which cometh from clay or marvel grounds, being thick, muddy and pudly, is much better and richer then that which cometh from sand, gravel or pebble, and so runneth clear and smooth, for that rather doth wash away and consume the goodness of the ground, than any way add strength thereunto.  
And thus much touching the dressing and enriching of all sorts of barren meadow or pasture grounds.   

CHAP. XI.  
Of the enriching and dressing of barren grounds, for the use of Hemp or Flax.  
Having showed you thus how to better and enrich all sorts of barren grounds of what temper soever they be, as whether they be clays or sands, or whether mixed or unmixed, and that as well for Corn as for Grass: It resteth now, that I show you how to enrich and make any soil whatsoever fit to bear abundance, either of Hemp, or Flax, a thing of no mean or small use in this our Kingdom, as witnesseth the abundance of all manner of cordage daily used for ships and other purposes; the infinite store both of course and fine linen cloth, and a world of other things, without which families cannot be sustained.  
You shall then first understand that there are two 
Grounds ill for Hemp or Flax.  sorts of grounds which out of their own natures utterly refuse to bear Hemp or Flax; that is the rich stiff black clay, of tough, solid, and fast mould, whose extreamefertility and fatness giveth such a surcharge to the increase of the seed, that either with the rankness, it runneth all into Bunne and no Rind, or else the seed being tender, and the mould sad and heavy, it burieth it so deep therein, that it can by no means get out of the same, but lies choked and consumed without profit: the other is the most vild and extreme barren ground, which by reason of the climate wherein it lies, is so exceeding sterrile and unfruitful that it will neither bear these seeds nor any other good seed; and of these two soils only I purpose in this place to entreat, for with such soils as will naturally and commodiously bear these seeds, I have nothing to do in that I have sufficiently written of them in mine English Husbandman, and English Huswife, which are books only for good grounds, but this for all such grounds as are utterly held without cure.  
To begin then with the stiff black clay, which albeit, be very rich for Corn, is most poor for these 
Blaoke clay for Hemp, &c,  seeds, when you would reduce and bring it to bear Hemp or Flax, which near unto the seacoaste, is of greater price and commodity than Corn any way can be, especially adjoining unto any place of fishing, in respect of Nets and other Engines, which is to be made of the same, and which being daily washed and consumed, must likewise be daily replenished: You must first with astrong plough, fit for the nature of such land, plow up so much ground as you intent to sow Hemp or Flax upon, about the midst of May, if the weather be seasonable, and the ground not o hard: if otherwise, you must stay till a shower do fall, and that the earth be moistened, then shall you hack it and break the clots in small pieces, then with the salt Sea sand, you shall sand it very plentifully, but if that be not to be gotten, and that you be very well assured of the natural richaesse of the earth, you shall then sand it with the best red sand you can get or find near unto you, and upon every acre of ground you thus sand with fresh sand, you shall sow three bushels of Bay-salt, and then plow up again the earth, sand and salt together, which would be done about thelatter end of the year, as after Michaelmas and so let the ground rest till seed time; at which time you shall first before you plow it, go down to the low rocks on which the sea beats, and from thence with drags and other Engines, gather those broad leaved black weeds, which are called Orewood, and grow in great tufcs and abundance about the shore, and these weeds you shall bring to your Hemp-land, and cover it all over with the same, and then you shall plow it again, burying the weeds within the earth: And herein is to be observed, that in any wise you must lay these weeds as wet upon the land, as when you bring them out of the Sea, provided still that you add no other wet unto them but the salt water, for so they are of all soils or meanures whatsoever, the only best and most fruitfullest, and most especially for these seeds, and breed an increase beyond expectation.  
When you have thus ploughed over the ground you shall then back it again, then sow it with either Hemp or Flax seed, which you please, and after it is so sown, you shall then harrow it (and not before) and you shall be careful to harrow it into as fine mould as you can, and this mould is likely to run fine enough, as well by reason of the fertility, as also of the mixture; yet what clots you cannot break with your Harrows, those you shall break with your clotting beetles, and such like Tools, then after the first great shower which shall fall after your sowing, you shall run over your Land thus sown with your back harrows, that is with a pair of large Harrows, the wrong side turned upward, to wit, the teeth turned from the earth, and the back towards the earth, and if need be, you shall lay upon the harrows some indifferent heavy piece of wood which may keep the back of the harrows closer to the ground, and so go over all the earth, and lay it as smooth and light as is possible, without leaving the smallest clot that may be unbroken.  
Now if the ground be sown with Hemp, you 
〈◊〉.  shall not think of weeding it at all, because Hemp is so swift a grower, and such a poison unto all weeds, that it overrunneth, choketh, and destroyeth them; but if it be sown with Flax or Line, which is a much tenderer seed, and bringeth forth more tender leaves and branches, than you shall watch what weeds you see Spring up, and in their first growth pluck them up and cast them away till you behold your Flax or Line to be grown above the weeds, and then you may let it alone also, for after it hath once gotten height, it will not be overgrown with weeds.  
Now touching the other soil, which through the extreme barrenness thereof, refuseth to bring forth 
Making of ill earth bear hemp etc.  any good fruit at all; you shall in all points dress it as you dressed your plain clays described in the second Chapter of this book, beginning at the same time of the year that is then appointed, or (if more necessary occasions hold you) if you begin latter it shall not be amiss, and then at Michaelmas you shall plow it over the second time, and manure it with the sea weeds, and so let it lie at rest until March (which is seedtime) and then plow it again, and manure it with the sea weeds again, and after the ploughing you shall hack it, and if in the hacking you find the earth stiff and tough than you shall harrow it before you sow it, then sow it and harrow it again, breaking the earth so small and laying it so smooth as possible you can, using the help both of the clotting beetles and all other tools which may be available for the breaking of the earth, and making the mould as fine as any ashes, then after the first great shower of rain, perceiving the ground to be well moistened, you shall instead of the back harrows (which upon this earth may be to light) take the great rouler which is described in the book of the English Husbandman, being a great round piece of Timber of many squares, drawn either by Horse or Oxen but a single Horse is the best, both in respect of much treading the ground, as also for the swift going away or drawing of the same; for the swifter it is drawn, the better it breaketh the ground, and the lighter it leaveth the mould: and with this Rouler you shall run over and smooth your ground very well, leaving no clot unbroken, and so let it rest.  
As for the weeding of this ground, you shall not respect 
Weeding.  it at all, for naturally it will put up no weed, the very ground of itself being a very great enemy thereunto, nor shall you need to dress this ground in the form beforesaid, above once in eight or ten years; only every seedtime when you plow it, (as you shall not need to plow it at any time, but seedtime only) you shall before the ploughing, cover or manure the land with the sea weed before spoken of, which will give strength enough to the ground, without any other assistance.  
And thus much touching the enriching, ploughing, and dressing of all manuer of barren earths, of what nature or quality soever, whereon you would sow Hemp or Flax.   

CHAP. XII.  
The manner of Stacking of all kind of Grain or Pulse with greatest safety, and least loss.  
IN these barren and hard countries of which I have formerly written, all sorts of buildings are exceeding costly and scarce, both in respect of the clime which is commonly most extreme cold mountainous, and much subi●…ct to storm and tempest, as also through the great want of Wood and Timber, which in those hard soils doth hardly or never prosper; and therefore in such places building must be both small and dear, so that it will be very hard for the Hnsbandman to have houseroom for all his Corn, but that of necessity he must be enforced to Stacke much or the most part of his Corn without the dorcs, which albeit it be a thing very usual in this Kingdom; yet is it in many places so insufficiently done, that the loss which redounds thereby (partly by the moisture of the ground, which commonly doth rot and spoil at least a yard thickness of the bottom of the Stacke next the ground, and partly through mice, Rats and other vermin, which breeding in the Stacke, do eat and devour a great part thereof; as also through many such like negligent causes) is greater than a good Husband may with his credit be guilty of, or a profitable Husband will by any means suffer to be los●… so negligently.  
To show then the manne●… how to Stacke or Moow your Corn without the doors, in such sort, as neither the ground shall rot it, nor these vermins destroy it, nor any other loss come to it by way of ill husbandry, you shall first cause four pieces of timber, or four stones to be hewed broad and round at the neither end and somewhat narrower and round at the upper end like the fashion of a Sugarloaf, or this figure,  
And these pieces of wood or stone shallbe in length three foot or thereabouts, and in compass or breadth at the bottom, two foot, or a foot and a half, and at the top not above one foot, these four pieces of wood or stone, you shall place in your stack-yard, or other convenient place near your thrashing-sloore, and you shall place them foursquare, of an equal distance one from another, than you shall cut out four smooth boards of two inches and a half thick at the least, and full three foot square every way, & these boards you shall lay upon the heads or narrow tops of these stones or pieces of timber according to this figure.  
Then shall you take strong over-lyars of wood, and lay them fouresquare from one board to another, according to this figure.  
And then upon those over-lyars you shall lay other smaller poles cloffes one by another, and then upon them you shall Moow or Stack all your Corn whether it be Wheat, Barley, Oates, Pease, or any other kind of Grain, and be sure if you make your Stack handsome and upright, which consisteth in the Art and Workmanship of the Workman, you shall never receive loss in your Corns, for the raising of it thus two or three foot from the ground will preserve it from all moisture or hurt thereof, and the broad boards which cover the four ground posts will not suffer any Mice orother vermin to ascend or come into the same.  
Now for the manner oflaying your Corn into the 
Stacking of Graine.  Stack, you shall be sure to turn that part of the sheaf where the ears of the Corn lie ever inward into the Stacke, and the other which is the straw end you shall ever turn outward, and by that means you shall be assured that no flying foul as pigeons, Crows and such like, can do you any hurt or annoyance upon the same; Lastly you shall understand that you may make these stacks either round, square, or long-wise, yet round is the safest, and if you do make them longwise, than you shall set them upon six ground posts or eight, according to the length and proportion you would have it, and after your Stacke is made, you shall then thatch it very well to keep out the wet; also if when you do stack your wheat, you do top your Stacke with Oats or other course Graine, it will be so much the better, and the Wheat will lie in greater safety, for no part of a Stacke well made, especially a round stack will so soon take wet or hurt, as the top thereof.  
And thus much as touching the Stacking of Corn without doors in greatest safety.   

CHAP. XIII.  
The diseases and imperfections which happen to all manner of Graine.  
ALbeit the manner of stacking and laying up of Corn or Grainein the form before showed, may to every one give an assurance for the safe and profitable keeping thereof as long as it endureth therein, and abideth in the ear, yetbecause diverse necessities may compel the Husbandman to thrash out his Corn, as either for present use of straw, chaff, garbage or other commodities needful unto him (as the season of the year shall fall out) I think it most necessary in this place to show how all manner of Grain and Pulse, of what nature soever may most safely and profitably be kept from all manner of annoyances, or corruptions whatsoever, being a work of that utility and goodness, that not any belonging to the Husbandman doth exceed it; Nor shall it be sufficient to show the offences and diseasses of Grain with their cures and healthful preservations, whilst it is in the Husbandman's possession, but also whilst it is in the earth, and at the mercy of cold, heat, moistness or dryness, and not only subject to the malignant influ●…nces of stars and planets, with the increasing and decreasing of the Moon and her operations. but also of diverse other hurtful vermins, as birds, worms, pissmires, dorrs, snails, moales, and other such like; some whereof consume and devour the grain ere it sprout, others in sprouting when the kernel is rotten turned to a sweet substance, and others after it is sprouted by devouring the first tender leaves before they have strength to appear above the earth, being as itwere but soft white threads not changed into the strength of green because the air & Sun hath not yet looked upon it. To begin then with the first enemies of corn or grain 
Crows and Birds.  after it is thrown into the earth, there is none more noisome than crows and choughs and other smaller birds, which flocking after the seedsman, will in a manner devour & gather up the grain as fast as it is sown, for as according to the old saying, That many hands make ●…ht work●… so many of their mouths (being creatures that ever fly in flocks together) and their much nimbleness in devouring, soonerob the earth of her store, and deprive the labouring Husbandman of very much profit, and the grain which these creatures do most consume, is all manner of white corn, as wheat of all kinds, barley of all kinds, rye & oats, as also hempseed, linseed, rapeseed and such like: Neither are they only offensive during this time of sowing, but also after it is sown and covered, digging it with their strong bills out of the earth, and so making the waist greater & greater.  
The prcuention or cure for this evil, is diverse, as the 
The cure.  affections of people and customs of country's do instruct them, for some (especially the French men) use when they sow these grains or seeds, first to sprinkle it with the dregs or lees of their bitterest oils, which when these devouring fowls do taste, they refuse to do any further hurt: Others use to sow Pigeons dung or lime with their seed, which sticking unto the grain, the unsavorines thereof will make the soul caft up the grain again, and leave to do further hurt; But for as much as these medicines cannot ever be had, nor are euer wholesome for every ground, the only best and safest means to prevent this evil, is to have ever some young boy with bow and arrows to follow the seedsman and Harrows, making a great noise and acclamation and shooting his arrows where he shall see these devourers light, not ceasing but chassing them from the land, and not suffering them at any time to light upon the same; and these servants are called field-keepers or Crow-keepers, being of no less use and profit (for the time) than any other servant whatsoever, nor is it sufficient to have these field-keepers for the bare time offeed only whilst the Grain is in sowing, but he shall also maintain them till such time as you see the Grain appear above the earth, which for Wheat or Rye, because they are Winter seeds, and so longer in sprouting, will ask a full month, for all other seeds which are sown in the Spring or Summer, a fortnight is full sufficient; and this field-keeper shall not fail to be in the field an hour before Sun in the morning, and so continue till half an hour after Sunset in the evening; for at the rising and setting of the Sun, is ever done the greatest mischief, for then are all creatures most eager & hungry: and though the endurance may promise much pain and trouble, yet questionless the labour to any free spirit, is both easy and pleasant, and not without much necessary use, in as much as it makes him expert and cunning in the use of his Bow, which howsoever musket shot in these days seems to disgrace, yet sure the very nature and quality of our Kingdom, (being so muchplaine champion and unfenced, and our best strengths in our men, not towns) will challenge it as a matter of great worth and consequence.  
The next great destroyers of Corn unto these, are 
Pigeons.  your Pigeons, which the wisdom of our nation, hath so well found out that they have provided many wholesome Laws for the restraint of the great multiplicity thereof, for they are not only great destroyers of Grain when it is going into the ground, but also when it is gathered and Stackt, tearing the thatch and other coverings, and digging such holes into Stacks and Reeks of Corn, that the loss is most plain and apparent; Now the Grain to which these Pigeons are most offensive, albeit they are generally hurtful to all kind of Corn, yet they are especially most mischievous unto all sorts of Pulse, as Beans, Pease, Fetches, Lentiles, Lupyns, Tear and such like.  
The cure or prevention against these kind of fowl, 
The cure.  when the Corn is going into the ground, is the same formerly showed for Crows or Chouges, without altering any circumstance, only if instead of the bow and arrow, you do use a musket, harquebus, or fowling piece, the report or noise where of is more terrible and fearful, you shall find the profit thereof a great deal more, and that a shot or two of Powder will save more Corn, than a whole weeks hooping and shouting; only you must observe by all means that your field-keeper shoot neither bullet nor hailshot, for so he may turn scaring unto killing, and that may breed unkindness from, and injury to your neighbours: Now touching the destruction that they make of Corn after it is stackt up, by tearing of the thatch, and digging holes and pits therein, you shall observe that as your Thatcher thatcheth the same, that forthwith he throw great store of ashes of any kind, as either of wood or coal, upon the thatch, orinstead of ashes to sprinkle all the thatch over with Lyme, that as the foul (whether it be pigeon, Crow or any other) teareth up the straw, the lime or ashes may sparkle into their eyes and-nares, and by the noisomeness thereof make them forbear their wicked labours, as for those parts of the Stack which cannot be thatched, as the sides and ends thereof, upon them you shall prick diverse scarecrows, as dead crows, or dead Pigeons, or the proportion, or shape of a man, made either of thumb-ropes of hay or straw, or else some old castaway apparel stopped with straw and so with stakes fastened to fundry parts of the stack, there be others which to remedy these evils, make little clap mills of broken trenchers, which blown and turned about with the wind, do make such a continual noise, that not any bird whatsoever dare come near it.  
Now to conclude, for the general offence of these birds or any other whatsoever, if you want ability to maintain a field-keeper, or think his labour might be better employed in other services, than the only way to rid you of the loss and annoyance, which come by these dcuouring birds, is to take long lines of packthread, and in them to knit diverse feathers, especially white ones, and with little stakes so to fasten them over the Corn you would save, that with every breath of wind the feathers may dance, turn and move about, and the nearer that these blinks or straws come to the ground, when the Corn is new swoon, so much the better it is least the foul finding away to creep underthem, begin not to respect them, so that a hand or two from the ground is sufficient, provided that the feathers, and scars have liberty to play.  
But if it be to save Corn in the ripening, that is to say, a little before it be reaped, when the ear begins to 
To save Corn rea●… to reap.  harden, or when it lieth in single sheaf upon the land for then fowl and birds do as great mischief, as at any other season, it shall then be fit that you raise these lines or scars upon higher stakes, so as they may play as much above the tops of the ears of corn as before they did above the earth: and amongst these scars thus made upon lines in sundry parts of the field, you shall upon other stakes place many other bigger scars, as dead crows, pies, gleades, pigeons, or such like; as also the proportions of man formerly showed you, or any rags of cloth being black, foul, & ugly like bakers malkins, & than this; there is no safer way for the defence of grain or corn from these birds; & such like.  
The next great devowrers or consumers of grain 
Of pismires  are pismires or Antinous, which although it be but a little creature, yet it is so laboursome, that the grain which they carry away or destroy by eating, amounteth to a great quantity, and the mischief which these little vermins do, is after the corn is covered in the ground, and before it sprout, for they creeping in at the little chinks of the earth, & finding the corn, either drag it out, or eat it; so that it cannot grow, & the grain which they most hurt, is all manner of white corn, especially your finest and smallest wheat, for the skin or hull is thinnest, and the kernel whitest & sweetest: also to barley they do much hurt, especially, that which is fullest & best, and likewise to rye, hemp seed, lin seed, and rape seed; as for oats, because it is double hulld, & also your great hole straw wheat & polard wheat which is thick huld, their hurt is not so much to them, & unto pulse nothing at all, because they are too heavy, too thick skinned, and too bitter in taste.  
The best cure or prevention for these pismires is to 
The cure.  search your corn fields well, especially under hedges & old trees, and on the tops of moale-hilles, and if you find any beds or hills of Ants or pismires, presently after Sunsetting with hot scolding water to drowned the beds or hills, or with wet straw and fire to make such a smoke upon them as may smother them to death, also if you manure your Corn lands with ashes, lime or salt sand, you shall be well assured it will never breed Pismires.  
Next unto these your Doors, or great black Clocks 
Of Do: es.  are vehement destroyers of all kind of Corn both white corn and Pulse, whilst it lieth dry in the earth, and before it sprout, for after it beginneth to rot, they do no more touch it, and these Doors destroy it in the same manner as the pismires doc by creeping in at the small cravies of the earth, and finding the grain do as long as it is dry feed thereon, and though they are no hoarders or gatherers together of the grain, keeping it in heaps in dry places as the pismires and other vermin doc, yet they are great feeders thereon and that continually, beside they will ever choose out the fullest and best Corn, and leave the leaner; whereby they do the Husbandman a double in●…ury, as first to devour, and then to devour but the best only.  
The care or prevention for these Doors or black 
The Care.  Clocks, is in seedtime to make great smokes in your corne-fields, which will presently chase them from thence, for they are the greatest enemies that may be to all manner of smoke; but if that be not sufficient, then immediately before you sow your Corn, you shall very lightly sow your land with sharp lime, and whensoever the Door shall find the smell or taste thereof, presently he will depart, or if he eat of the grain that toucheth the lime, it is as present poison unto him, and he there dyeth.  
After these your field Rats and Mice, are very vehement 
Of field Rats and Myce.  destroyers of all manner of Grain or seeds before they sprout, especially all sorts of wheat, and all sorts of pulse, because for the most part those kind of grains in many soils are sown under furrow, and not harrowed, so that the furrows at first lying, a little hollow, these vermins, getting in between the earth and them, will not only devour and eat a great part of the grain, but also gather together great heaps thereof into their nests, as is often seen when at any time their nests are found, some having more, some less, according to their labours; And albeit in other soils where the grain is sown above furrow, and so harrowed in and laid much more close and safe, they cannot do so much hurt as in the former, yet even in these they will with their feet dig out the corn in great abundance, and though in less measure, yet do hurt that is unsufferable; so that to conclude, neither Rye, Barley, Oates, nor any other smaller and more tender seeds are free from their annoyance and destruction.  
Now the cure and prevention for these field Rats and Mice are diverse, according to the opinions of diverse authors, and diverse of our best experienced Husbandmen; for some use in the Dog days, or Canicular days when the fields are commonly bare, to search out the holes and nests of these Rats and Mice, which are easily known, being little round holes in the earth made so round and artificially as if they were made with an Auger, no bigger than the body of the Creature that was to lie in it; and into these holes they use to put a few Hemlock seeds, of which when the beast tastes it is present death unto them: Others use to sprinkle upon the land, Hellebere or sneezing powder mixed with Barley meal, of which the mice and Rats will greedily feed, and it is deadly bane and present death unto them; Lastly, (and which is the best medicine, if you take a good quantity of ordinary green glass beaten to powder, and as much copporas or vitriall beaten also to pound and mix them with course honey, till it come to a paste, and then lay it in the holes, and most fuspicious places, and it will neither leave Rat nor Mouse about all your fields, but fodainely destroy them.  
The next great destroyers of Corn and Graine, are 
Of worms.  worms, and they destroy it in the sprouting, then when the ground hath rotten it, and the white or milky substance breaking open the upper husk, shooteth forth in little white threads at both ends, upon which whilst it is so moist and tender the worm feedeth extremely, & so devouring up the substance or sperm, is the cause that the Corn cannot grow or get out of the ground, and these worms being as it were the main citiz●…ns within the earth are so innumerable that the loss which is bred by them is infinite.  
Now the cure or prevention for these worms is diversely 
The Cure.  taken; for some husbandmen use, but only to strike into the plough rest, and under the lowest edge of the shelbord certain crooked spikes of iron or great nails half driven in, and turned back again, with which as the plough runs tearing in the ground, & turns up the furrow, those pices of iron kill and tear in pieces all such worms as are either within or under the furrows that the plough castsup, and this is sure a very good husbandly practice, but not sufficient for the destroying of such a secret hurtful vermin which is so innumerable, and lies so much concealed; therefore more curious husbands use beside this help of the plough, to take ox dung and mix it with straw, & then to burn it upon the land, making a great smoke over all the land, immediately before you plow it for seed, and it is thought that this will kill all the worms which lie so high in the earth, as to hurt the Corn; Others use before they make either the mixture or the smoke to wet the straw in strong lie, and then adding it to the dung, the smoke will be so much the stronger and the worms killed the sooner, or if you Sprinkle strong lie up on your seed before you sow it, there is not any worm that will touch the grain after; Also if you take hemp and boil it in water, & with that water sprinkle your seed before you sow it, not any worm will come near to touch it. Yet it is to be observed in this rule of wetting 
Of Rye not to be wet.  your seed Corn, that by no means you must wet your seed Rye, for it is a grain so warm and tender that it will neither endure cold, wet, nor stiff ground insomuch that the ploughman hath a proverb, that Rye will drowned in the hopper, that is to say, it must neither be sown on wet ground, nor in a wet day, since present showers are apt to destroy it; lastly, it is thought that oft ploughing of your ground in the wane of the mooneiss a very good means to destroy worms, touching that practice which many use, to gather the worms from their lands at Sun-rise, & sunset in bright dewy mornings when the worms couple above the earth, I hold it more fit for small gardens then large Corne-fields.  
The next great destroyers of Corn are Snails and 
Of Snails.  they destroy it after it is sprouted, seeding upon therender white threads and rions which start from the seed & woldrise above the earth, being the stem or stalk on which the ears should grow (were it not devoured and eaten up by these Snails, and such like vermin) as so one as it begins to peep up, or as it were but to open the earth, whereby it is driven back and forced to dye in the earth: for these creatures sucking upon the tender sweetness, deprine it both of life and nourishment.  
The cure and prevention for this evillis to take the 
The cure.  soot of a Chimney, and after your Corn hath been sown a week, or ten days, or within two or three days after the first shower of rain which shall fall after the Corn is sown; you shall sow this soot of the Chimney thinIy over the land, and not a Snail will endure to come thereon: Others use (especially in France and those more fertile Countries) to take common Oil lees, and after the Corn hath been sown and is ready to appear above ground, to sprinkle it all over the Lands, by which means no Snail or such like creature will endure to come near the same.  
The next great destroyer of Corn is accounted 
Of Grashop pers.  the Grasshopper, and he also destroyeth it after it is sprouted & appeareth above the ground as the Snail doth, but somewhat more greedily, for he not only feedeth on the tender white strings, b●…t upon the first green leaves that appear also; by which means the Corn is not able to spring or bring forth a esteem or stalk to bear the ear upon; or ifit do put forth any, yet it it is so small, weak and wretched, that the ear growing on the same, is withered and lean, and the grain dry and blasted, and no better than chaff; nor is there any Corn that scapeth the destruction of the Grasshopper, for he generally seedeth on all: first, on Wheat and Rye, because they are the earliest, then on Barley and Oates, and lastly on Pulse, upon whose leaf and blossom he feedeth whilst the first is sweet and pleasant or the other green.  
Now the cure or prevention for these Creatures 
The cure.  is according to the opinion of some Husbandmen to take Wormwood and boil it well in water, till the strength of the Wormwood be gone thereinto, and then with that water in the month of May to sprinckell all your Corn over when the Sun is rising or setting: and not any Grasshopper will come near or annoy the same. Others use in steed of wormwood to boil Century, and to use the water thereof in the same manner as afore said, and findean equal and like profit in the same, but it is most certain that any bitter decoction whatsoever used and applied as aforesaid will not leave one Grasshopper about your fields, for any bitterness is such an enemy unto them that they cannot live where they feel any taste thereof.  
The last offence of living Creatures belonging to 
Of Moales.  Corn or Graine are Moales, which not only feed upon it after it is sprouted and spindled by eating up the roots thereof, and so consequently by killing the whole Corn: but also by their digging and undermining of the earth, do not root up the Corn and destroy it, in most wonderful manner, for where they make their haunts, or are suffered to dig, there they will destroy almost half an acre in a day, neither make they choice, either of ground or Grain, for all grounds and all Grains are alike, if the ground be not too wet, or subject to inundation or overflows (as for the most part Corn grounds are not) for above all things moales cannot endure wet ground or earth of too moist quality.  
Now the best cure or prevention against these creatures 
The cure.  is to find out their trenches and passages which are most plain and easy to be known by the turning up of the new earth, and digging cross holes in the same, to watch either the going forth, or the coming back of the Mole, and when you see her cast to strike her with an iron fork made of many grains, as eight or fix at the least, and so to kill and destroy them; which still is so generally known amongst Husbandmen, that it is become a trade and occupation amongst them, so that it needs no further description, & the rather in as much as for three d. or iiii. d. a score, you may have any ground cleansed of Moales whatsoever; Now there be some others which have not this art of killing, or catching of Moales, which only do take brimstone and wet stinking straw or any thing else that will make a stinking smoke, and putting fire thereto, smoke all the places of their haunts, and by that means drive them all clean away from the Corn lands; many otherpractices they have, but none so good, certain and probable as these already declared.  
Thus far I have spoken of those offences which proceed 
Offences from the influence of the heavens.  from living creatures, I will now entreat of these which come and grow from the influence of the heavens, being malignant vapours which striking into the erathdo alter the sweet & pleasant nourishment thereof, and change in into bitterness and rottenness, whereby the Corn is either ssaine outright, withered and made lean and unkindly, or else the kernel turned to a filthy blackness being bitter, dry and dusty like unto 
Of smutinesse and mildew  smoke, which the Husbandman calleth smuttines or mildewing, and yet this smuttinesse or mildewing cometh another way, as namely by overrankenesse or to much fatness of the earth, and this happeneth most commonly only to wheat, for if blackness happen to any other grain, it cometh of blast or other malice of the stars, for rankness of the ground in Barley, Rye or Oates only makes them lie flat to the ground, the stalk not being able to support the multiplicity of the ears, and so by that means the grain wanting his true nourishment, grows light, withered, and of no validity; now that this is most easy to be found out, the rankness of the growing corn, rising as it were in close bundles together, and the deep blackness of the green blades will with small travel show you. 
The Cure.   
This to cure and prevent it shall be good before you sow your Grain, to sow your land lightly over with fine chalk for that will abate his over-ranknesse.  
To proceed then to the other imperfections 
Of hail  which do happen from the skies, I hold hail in the foremost rank, which with his violence beateth down the Corn flat to the ground, and bruiseth the reed so in pieces that the Corn not able to rise up again, there lies and rotteth, or else withereth to nothing.  
The cure and prevention of this evil (according 
The cue.  to the opinion of the French Husbandmen) is to take the white Vine, and to plant it in diverse parts of your Corne-fields, and it will deffend the Grain from this annoyance of hail; or if your soil be such as the white vine will not grow therein, if then you take but branches thereof, and strike them in diverse parts of your lands, it is thought that no hail will at any time do offence to your corn; Others use to take an Owl, and to fasten her legs into a post in the midst of your Corn field and her wings extended and spread forth to the uttermost, and so abiding whilst the Corn groweth, no hurt shall come to your Corn by hail.  
The next mischief which commet●… to corn, is by 
●…ning  lightning, which is a violent opening or flashing of the air, being an eruption of swift fire which dar●…eth out his beams so sharply, that sometimes it burneth or scorcheth the corn, sometimes breaketh the reed in pieces, and sometimes withereth and slayeth it outright.  
The cure and prevention of this evil, according 
The cure.  to the opinion of some husbandmen is to take a hedge Toad, and to close it up fast in an earthen pot, and then digging a hole in the midst of your Corn field there bury the pot with the Toad, and lightning will never ●…damage your corn, there be others which use to take the feathers of an Eagle, and to hang them up in the four corners of your cornfield, or for want of them to hang up the skin of a Seal, and either of them will prevent the hurt of lightning; lastly, some use to plant the Laurel or Bay-tree in their corne-fields, and hold it a certain prevention from lightning, or where the trees cannot conveniently be gotten, if but some branches thereof be but stuck up in sundry places, it is thought to prevent all hurt that comes by lightning.  
Next unto lightning is the hurt which cometh to 
Ofthunder.  corn by Thunder, being a sharp and fiery exhalation or meteon closed within the body of cold, moist cloud, every way contrary both in nature and quality to the thing in which it is imprisoned, whereby a most violent contention growing betwixt the fire and the water; at last the fire getting the upper hand, breaks from his cold bed with such violence and noise, that many malignant qualities follows it, and it doth much hurt both to grain and all other growing things whatsoever.  
The cure and prevention for those evils which happen 
The Cure.  by Thunder, is many times to ring loud and great Bells, or now and then to shoot of a Cannon or Culverin shot, or any other great shot whereby the acquaintance with these great noises may make the grain more apt and able to endure the violence and suddenness of the Thunder whensoever it shall happen, for it is the suddenness of the crack which breedeth all the imperfection, there be others that in this case use to gather up all the stinking and filthy smelling weeds and seeds which can be got, and mixing them with any other filthy matter that stinketh most, to burn them in their corne-fields, and it is a most safe preservation from any hurt which shall happen by Thunder.  
The next evil which happeneth to corn or grain 
Of frosts,  is that which cometh by frosts and sharp nipping colds, which starving the root, and binding up all nourishment marketh the corn dry, whither and never prosper, and then the violence of the frost, there is nothing more bitter to plants and seeds, for ever rasorlike it cutteth the veins and sinews in pieces, and as sharp needles pricketh the heart of every growing thing, for as the fire which is most hot, when it rageth burneth and consumeth all things, so the frost which is most cold when it continueth, starveth and choketh or stifleth whatsoever it embraceth.  
Now the cure or prevention for those evils which do happen to grain by these great frosts is as some 
The cure.  husbandmen sappose to cover the land over when it is sown with ashes, others spread straw or rotten litter upon their corn, and not any of them but is sufficient to pre●…ent the worst injury that the frost can do.  
The most malignant quality which offendeth grain 
Mists and fogs.  is mist and fog, which being naughty vapours, drawn from the infected parts of the earth, and falling upon the corn, do not only make the grain leprous, but also infecting the better earth alter the kindly nourishment there of, and as it were distilling corruption into the veins, makes all that depend thereupon most leprous and unwholesome, and thereby altereth the quality, quite turning sweetness into bittenesse, fullness into emptiness, and goodness into badness, to the great loss of the husbandman, and the much disreputation of the ground.  
Now the cure and prevention of this eiill, according 
The c●…re.  to the opinions of all the best husbandmen, is to take weeds green, the twigs of brambles and other bruth wood, wet straw or any such like stuff, and binding them in great bundles, to p●…t fire there to, making a great and violent smoke, and then taking the advantage of the wind, to walk up and down the field and smoke it, which is thought a certain remedy to take away those inconveniences which happen by violence and poison of these mists and fogs.  
The last and not least hurt (for indeed it happens oftest, 
O●…sting.  and is most dangerous, which ●…als on cornfields, is that which proceedeth from blasting, or (as some call it) planet struck; This blasting is diversely distinguished, as proceeding from diverse occasions, as sometimes from the evil aspects of the Stars, sometimes from the rotten corruptions of the air, sometimes from the contagion and infection of the winds, and sometimes from the evil habits of dews, and other pestiferous serenes which fall upon the earth; of all or any of which, if a man be desirous to read, let him look into Pliny, in the first book of his natural history, and he shall find them set down and deciphered at large, with an abstract of all such Stars and Planets as are most propitious and helpful to all manner of grain, as it were guarding and defending it from the casual maladies which do come from the sky; so that in this place to enter into the large field of so well written a discourse, were much needless, and a good man's work much worse repeated.  
Touching the cure and prevention of those evils 
The cure.  which happen unto corn by blasting, they are sundry according to the sundry opinions of husbandmen, yet the best and most approved, are these two only, of which I mean to write in this place; the first, to take the right or far horn of an ox, and mixing it with a good quantity of his dung, add fire unto it, so as the horn and dung may make a great smoke or smother, & this do in diverse parts of your cornfield, the operation or virtue where of, is, that this smoke will purge and dissolve the evil qualities of the air and other influences, and reduce them to their proper goodness and virtue: The second, is to take the boughs or branches of the Bay-tree, and to plant them in sundry places of the Cornfield, so as they may stand a pretty distance or space above the height of the standing corn, for it is held a maxim amongst the best husbandmen, that all blast will fall upon those boughs and branches, and the corn will remain safe and unstriken or blemished.  
Now to conclude the diseases and infirmities which 
Corn reaped wet.  happen to corn, whilst it is in the field, there is not any formerly spoken of more dangerous or of vilder quality than the reaping, mowing or gathering in of corn, wet or too green, and unhardened, for such moisture when the corn is either sheaffed up close together, or stackt or mowed up, forthwith gathereth heat, and either setteth the corn on fire, or else the moisture being of less quantity, and not apt to flame, yet it corrupteth the grain and straw, and breedeth a stinking mouldiness or rottenness about it, so that the grain either becomes dung and dirt, or at least so stinking and unsavoury that it is good for no use or purpose as is daily seen where careless husbands gather in their grain without respect or government, making the old proverb good, that hast ever brings waste.  
The cure and prevention of this evil, is the well 
The cure.  husbanding and managing of the harvest, as first with a careful and well judging eye to look upon your corn, and to know by the hanging downward of the ear (looking as it were back to the ground) and by the hardness of the grain, whether it be ripe or no; then to look into the cleanness of the corn, as whether it be full of greene's, as grass, weeds, and such like or clean of itself without any mixture, if you find there be many weeds mixed with it, than you may reap it so much the sooner, though the kernel be not so well hardened as you would wish, and above all things have a care never to shear corn in the rain or wet, no not so much as with the mornings or evenings' dew upon it, but even in the heat and brightness of the day; then having reaped your corn so full of grass and weeds, you shall by no means sheaf it, but sprcading it thin in the Sun, let the grass wither all that day, which when you perceiu to change colour & grow dry, then bind it up in sheaffes, and let it lie single a day that the wind and Sun may get into it, and dry the greene's more sufficiently, then lay it in stuckes of six and eight sheaves a piece, and turn the cares so inward that the other bigger ends may defend them from all rain, wet or dew that may fall upon them; then a day or two after lay them in stoucks of twenty or four and twenty sheaves a piece, and in those stoucks let them take a sweat, then break them open in a bright Sunshine day, and letting the air pass thorough them to dry them, forthwith lead the grain home, and house it or stack in such sortas was showed in the former chapter, and be sure the grain thus ordered and dried can never take hurt, but if the season of the year fall out so extraordinariy evil, & full of wet, that by no means you can get your corn dry home (which although it be seldom seen, yet it is possible to be seen) in this case you must bring it home as well as you can, and having your kilne well ordered and bedded, you shall lay as many sheaves thereon, as it can contain, and turning and tossing them over a very gentle fire, by slow degrees dry them very perfectly as near as you can, with no greater a heat then that which the Sun giveth, and then moow and stack them up at your pleasure, for the air will sweeten them again and take all smell of smoke or other annoyance only observe not to stack them up-whilst the fire or heat is in them, but when they are cold, and so they will be as sweet as may be.  
Now it is not amiste that I speak here a word or 
Of w●…ht Corne.  two of washed corn, or the washing of corn; true it is (as before I have written) that all sorts of wheat whatsoever are subject, or by the rankness of the ground, blasting or else mildewing to a kind of filthy sooty blackness, as is already showed; and this sooty corn is taken two ways, generally, and paticularly; generally, if the whole land be stricken, and no corn saved but all spoiled, which is called mildewed; or particularly, where but some special ears are struck, or some special part of the grame, as when it is black at both ends, yet full and sound in the midst, and this is called smutcht corn, being disfigured in part, and not in all: this smutcht corn which is stricken here and there, if the blasted ears be not culled out from the other (which to do, is an husbandry exceeding good and very worthy) when it cometh under the flasile, the dust of those black blasted ears will so defile all the rest of the corn, that it will all look black and ill-favoured, and so become unserviceable and unmarkeable, for the blasted corn is both bitter and unwholesome; In this case you must of force wash this corn, and you must do it in two or three waters, till you see all the blackness quite gone, which done then drain away your water clean, and laying the corn on fair window clothes or coverlids, lay it in the heat of the Sun, and so dry it again till it be so hard that it will grind; But if the time of the year will not serve for the Suns drying it, than you shall dry it on a kelne with a very saft and gentle fire, and then cool it in the air to recover the sweetness again, and then the corn is as serviceable as any other, only for seed it will by no means serve, both by means of the blasting which makes the kernel imperfect at both ends, where it should sprout, as also the too much drying thereof, by which it is so much hardened that the ground hath not strength to resolve it, therefore it is the offence of every Husbandman when he chooseth his seed corn, to eschew by all means this washed corn as a grain that is lost in the earth, and will by no means grow.  
Therefore that you may know washed corn from all 
To know washed corn.  other corn, and so not be cozened by any deceit in the ill Husbandman, you shall take it up into your hand and if the corn look bright, clear, and shining, being all of one entire colour without change or difference, then be sure the Corn is unwashed and perfect.  
But if you find it look whiter at the ends then in any other part of the Corn, and that the whiteness is black and not shining, so that there is a changeable colour in the Corn, then be assured that the Corn is washed, and then by no means apt for seed or increase.  
Again, put three or four grains into your mouth and chaw them, and if then the taste be sweet and pleasant, and grind mellow and gently between your teeth, then is the Corn not washed, but if it have a bitterish, or flashy raw taste, and grind hard between your teeth, or with much roughness, then hath the Corn been washed and dried again, and is not good for seed, also when Corn is more than ordinarily moist, or more than ordinarily dry, both are very ill signs, and show either imperfect Corn, or imperfect keeping; for the best and good Corn indeed ever holdeth an indifferent temperature betwixt dryness and moisture.  
And thus much touching the diseases and imperfection of all sorts of grain within the field, with their certain cures and most approved remedies, being a work hitherto unwritten, yet worthy of all knowledge and usefulness;   

CHAP. XIIII.  
How to keep all manner of Grain, either thrashed or unthrasht with least loss the longest time, and how to preserve it from all infirmities mities and vermin in the house or garner.  
SOme may imagine it an unnecessary 
Objection.  work to teach men these extraordinary secrets and skill touching the keeping and preeseruing of corn, in as much as it leaneth so near unto hoarding and uncharitable keeping up of grain, which occasioneth dearthes' and other scarcities, by which many times the commonwealth is hurt, and the poor almost famished.  
But they are therein deceived, for to the cormorant and devouring myzer whose sins are his substance and whose mind is ever labouring on the evils he intends to practise, though these rules were buried in the centre of the earth, yet could his inventions produce a thousand others to fit the wickedness of his purpose, nor was it euer seen that ignorance ever made a wicked man good; but the truth is, that there is nothing 
The needful use ofpreseruing corn.  more needful and necessary than this knowledge for all sorts of people, as well the poor as rich, for every man doth not sow corn, yet every man must eat corn, and what thing can be more husbandly & good then for a man to buy his provision of corn and meal at the best and cheapest time of the year, in which no small thing is saved, where the family is of any greatness: as thus for example, if a man dwell either in the city or other market town, being a Trade's man or other which soweth not any corn, and yet he spendeth weekly in his house, of wheat one bushel, of Rye two bushels, and of malt four bushels; wheat in October, November and December is worth iii s. iiii. d. a bushel, Rye worth two. s. iiii. d. and malt worth two. s. in the Spring Wheat is worth v. s. Rye worth iiii. s and malt worth iii s. iiii. d. but in the Summer, wheat is worth vi. s. and vi. s. viii. d. Rye worth v. s. and malt worth iiii. s: now if a man know how to keep his corn, or meal sweet and sound all the year, and buy his provision at the best hand, and at once, there is the price of a quarter of his provision almost saved in the bargain. Again the poor husbandman that is to make the best profit of his grain that he can, is peradventure in great need for fodder for his cattle, and must of necessity thrash up his corn to get the straw to feed with: in this case, if he know not how to preserve and keep his grain wholesome and sweet, he must of force sell it, and it may be at that time markets are full and all corn at very low rate, so that he cannot choose but be a wonderful loser, whereas on the contrary part having skill and knowledge how to keep it sweet and without shrinking, he may take his best markets at his best leisure, and so put off his corn to his best advantage, so that to conclude both to the Farmer and the Grazier, the good town man, and the village man, this is an Art and skill right good and necessary.  
To proceed then to the keeping and preserving of 
Keeping of corn twofold.  Corn and Graine, it is to be understood that it is to be done two several ways; that is to say, in the ear and out of the ear, in the Stack when it is joined with the Straw and Chaff, or in the Garner when it is cl●…nfed and dressed.  
Touching the keeping of Corn in the Ear or 
Keeping corn in the ear or in chaff.  in the Stacke, there is no better or safer way than that already described in the twelfth Chapter, being free from all offences whatsoever that can come to hurt it.  
Now, there be others that cut off the ears of their Corn, and then put them into great Chests or Hutches of wood, (such as are very frequent and much in use in Ireland and other Countries where war rageth) and so keep it sweet and good many years: Others use to beat it out of the Ear, but not separate it from the Chaff, and then laying a lere of Straw more than a foot thick, to lay a good thick lere of the thresht Corn, than another lere of Staw, and so a lere of thresht Corn, and thus lay lere upon lere, till you have made up your Stacke, in such proportion as you shall think convenient; and this will keep all kind of Corn, or Grain, or other seeds, sound, sweet, and fit for any purpose, at least a dozen year, or more as some have supposed, without either too much drying, whithering, moistening or moulding; and sure this is a very excellent way for the storing up of much Corn in a very little room, and may as well be done with Corn as with Srtawe; only it is not to be done in Barn nor House, because Mice, Rats and other kind of Vermin will work much destruction thereupon, but on a Stacke or Hovel made and proportioned in such form as was showed before in the twelfe Chapter, and so it will stand in safe without alannoyance, as long as it shall please the owner to keep it; sure I am it will last thus fully twelve years, yet some Authors affirm it will last fifty years, but that is a space of years beyond my trial.  
Touching the keeping of Corn after it is thrashed 
Keeping of corn out of the ear or dressed.  and dressed, it is diverse ways to be done, as by stowage or place of lere, as garners, hutches, and such like: by labour and industry, as with the shovel, or else by device or medicine.  
For Garners they be made diverse ways, according 
Of Garners.  to the nature of the Country and custom of the people.  
Some are made with clay and loom trodden with hair, straw chopped, and such like: but these are the worst and do soon corrupt Corn, for although they are warm, which is a great preservation to Corn, yet they yield dust, and from that dust is bred fleas, mites, weavels, and other vermin which spoil Corn, and make it easily rot.  
Others are made of stone and lime, but they are subject against wet weather, to yield fourth a moist dew which corrupteth and rotteth corn.  
Others are made of brick and lime, and they are very good against the weavell and other small vermin, but the lime is sharp and so consequently very unwholesome for all manner of Graine. The best Garner than that can be made to keep all manner of grain in, is made of plaster burnt & brought into mortar, and so raising it up with the help of small stones hidden and placed in the midst of the wall to make both the inside and the outside of the Garner of smooth plaster, no stone being seen but hidden at least two fingers thick on each side, and all the bottom also must be made of plaster for no floor keepeth corn so well, of what kind soever it be, and these Garners would be placed as near as you can to the backs or sides of chimneys, or as near the air of the fire as you can conveniently, for as there is nothing more cold than plaster, yet is it ever so dry and free from moisture, that with no change of the air or weather it relenteth, but keepeth the corn ever in one state of goodness, whilst the warm standing thereof is such a comfort in the Winter, and the natural coolness of the thing so sovereign in Summer that the grain ever abideth in one state without alteration.  
Now for hutches or great chests, byngs, dry-fats 
Of hutches.  and such like, they are made of old dry and well seasoned oake-bords, plained smooth and close joined and glued together, with covers and lids made also very close whereby little or no air can come in; Some of these great byngs or hutches made of dry boards are made open and without covers, but they are not so good for the air cooling the upper part of the corn, and the middle part sweeting, breedeth corruption, or mustiness, which hurteth and spoileth the corn; beside they are somewhat too warm, and thereby make any green corn apt to corrupt and smell.  
Touching the use of Garners and Hutches, they are 
The use of Garners and hutches for malt,  principally to keep malt after it is dried, or Barley which is for the use of bread or meal; & here is to be noted that the best manner of keeping malt, is to keep it in the come, that is to say in the dust and other filth which cometh with it from the kilne, as thus, when first you lay your malt on the kilne to be dried you know there is at one end a certain sprout or small trids which grows from the corn, and is called the come, which by the rubbing and drying of the malt falls away and leaves the corn clean and snug of itself, and when you trim and dress up your malt for the mill, is windowed and cleansed away; this you shall preserve and put altogether into your garner or hutch, which will so mellow and ripen your malt, that in the spending thereof a peck will go further than a peck and a half kept of a contrary fashion, and although some are persuaded that this come or malt dust, is a great breeder of the worm or weevell, by reason of the much heat thereof, being indeed of the purest of the hart of the corn; yet it is not so unless some dankness or moisture do get to the corn, and then it breeds weevels in infinite abundance, and therefore by all means be sure that your garners and hutches do stand exceeding dry, and then there is no fear of the loss of corn, nor shall you need to dress or window your malt but as you spend it.  
Lastly, here is to be noted, that although I hear join garners, hutches, chests and byngs together, yet I make them not all of equal goodness, for the plastergarner is absolutely the best of all, the close hutch or chest next, and the open b'ing last; yet any or all sufficient enough to keep malt, barley, or small seeds, diverse years without imperfection.  
It is written by some of the ancientest Authors that wheat hath been kept in these close hutches or chests sweet, the space of fifty years, yet I hold the rule somewhat doubtful, both because wheat of itself lying so close packed together, is apt to heat and sweat, and that heat commonly turneth to faughtinesse, and the sweat to corruption; but that it may thus be preserved from worms, weavels, mites and other vermin, breeding in corn: it is doubtless and infallible, there be other husbandmen, which for the preservation of their corn, take a land Toad and tie it fast by the hinder leg, and hang it before the door or entrance of the garner, and by the virtue thereof, suppose that no hurt can come to their corn; tie venom of the best, as it were drawing away all other venom or evil that may come to the corn; many other experiments there are, but none so certain as these, and therefore these for malt or barley, shall suffice in this place.  
Now for the preservation of wheat, which is the 
To preserve wheat.  most principal grain, of greatest use, and greatest price, and therewithal most tender, and aptest to take hurt: the experiments are diverse as men's fancies and practices have found out, for some husbandmen hold opinion, especially the French and Spanish, that if you take the lees of common oil (so it be sweet) and sprinkle it upon your wheat as it lies, either in the garner or upon the floor that it will preserve it from all corruption and annoyance whatsoever, not doth it save wheat only, but all other manner of grain whatsoever; nor doth preserve corn alone from mischief, but if corn by casualty be tainted or hurt, it doth recover it again and brings it to the first sweetness, and if either worms or weavels be bred in it, the oil presently kills them, and makes the corn free from that mischief: as for smaller feeds as hemp, line and rape, this oil doth not only keep them long and sound, but also feeds & nourishes them, and makes them better, either for the ground, or for use either in the mill or in medicine, there be others that use to take chalk, and beat it to powder, and then scatter it amongst their wheat, when they put it into the garner, and have found that thereby their grain hath been wonderfully preserved from all imperfection and surely there is great reason for the same, because the dryness of the chalk drinketh up the moisture which sweateth from the grain, and is the first breeder of all putrefaction: also it cooleth and assuageth the immoderate heat which is engendered in the Corn by reason of the pack and close lying together. Again, there be others which use to lay great store of wormwood amongst their wheat, which likewise preserveth it from all anoyances, especially from worms and weavels, as also from Mice, Rats, and such devouring vermin; neither will the Corn corrupt or grow faugthty, as long as the wormwood remains amongst it: In Italy the careful Husbands use to take a certain dry earth or clay, called earth of Olnithus or Cernithus, and this earth they beat amongst their wheat, and then put it into the garner or hutch, and it will keep it sound and sweet diverse years together; then when they have occasion to use it, with small reading sives to dress it from the Corn, and so preserve the dust, which will last and serve you many years together, even almost an age as some have reported, and is at this day to be seen in many parts of Italy and other places.  
Again, I have for mine own part seen in the Lands of the Axores, which lie lowest from Spain (and it is a great practisealso in Spain) certain very great and large caves or pits made under the earth, of the fashion of a Spanish earthen jar, that is to say, great and spacious in the midst, and narrow both at the top and bottom, like a brass pot or great glass vial, and made as smooth within as may be, & in these caves or pits, they first lay chasse, and then their thrashed wheat filling it up full to the top, or within a handful thereof, which they fill again with chaff, and then closing the top with a broad stone, they cover it over with earth so close and unperceiveable, that you may walk or travel over it without any suspicion; and for mine own part, I have myself digged up many of these pits, and found great store of wheat, both in the high ways, and other most in suspicious places, and surely it is thought, and experience in those places makes it good that in these caves or pits you may keep wheat as long if you please as Pliny speaketh of, which is an hundred or an hundred and twenty years without hurt or putrefaction either of heat, moisture, worms, weavels or any other vermin whatsoever which consumeth or devoureth Corn; yet how I may recommend this experiment to our nation I am uncertain, because the much moisture of our climate, and the cold rawness thereof promisseth a contrary effect for the great enemies unto grain, are violent cold and moisture, and with us it is very difficult to make any caverns under the earth but they must be subject; unto both; therefore only to those which live in hot sandy country's high and free from springs or waters, or in dry and rocky grounds, where these mines or hollow places may be hewed out, as in a main and firm quarry, I recommend the trial of this practice, with this assurance, that where the ground is fit for this purpose, as in any of your sand grounds or gravely earth's, as in Norfolk, Middlesexe, Kent, and many other sandy climates; or in rocky situations as in Nottingham, bath, Bristol, and such like, you may keep your wheat, good, sound, firm and free from all annoyances, even as long as you shall please to keep it, both without putrefaction in itself, or waste made by other devoring worms & vermin: but if in a more moist place, as in a clay or other mixed earth which ever is vomiting wet and dewish humours, you are forced to approve this experiment: than you must necessarily lime all your cave or hollow mine within, at least half a foot thick with tile shred and plaster laid wall-like together, and then the plaster dawbde at least three fingers thick above all, and so you may keep your corn as safe and as sound as in any hot soil whatsoever, but without it your corn will not endure a week without rottenness, faughtinesse, mouldiness and stinking. To conclude, having showed you all the most approved & best experiments, for the keeping and preserving of wheat, there is not any better, or so good as this last poor silly plain one, which I will hear deliver; & that is, first (as near as you can) reap your wheat at the change of the Moon, for wheat which is so reaped, is sedome or never subject to loss or putrefaction (being gotten dry and in husbandly manner ordered & handled) because that celestial body hath such a power and influence in the growth of corn and seeds, that as she groweth, so they grow, and as she waneth, so they abate and wither, and truly for mine own part in my poor husbandry, I have made this observation, that I have reaped corn at the beginning of the wane (to mine eye and judgement) great, full and bold, (as the Ploughman calls it) and within few days after when it came to thrashing, I have found it most poor, hungry and small Corn, no●… could give or find any other reason for the same but that it was reaped in an ill and most unseasonable time, for on the contrary part, I have ever found tha Corn reaped upon the change, being ripe, full, and every way fit for the barn (and the weather fair and dry above head) it hath never altered but kept his first and perfect goodness, so that I cannot choose but in this case think the observation of the Moon, to be a thing of great effect and validity, appointed by God as a secondary means for our help and profit; when therefore your Corn is thus seasonably and well got, you shall thrash it, window it and dress it so clean as you can, then carry it up into your chambers or lofts appointed for that purpose, and whose floors by all means, I would wish to be cast of the best plaster, for boards are too hot, and clay is to apt to breed vermin: On this plaster floor, you shall spread your wheat not above a foot d●…pe at the uttermost, and so let it lie; observing once in four or five days at the most, with a large wooden shovel, to turn the wheat quite over and over, and thus doing, you shall be sure to keep it as sweet, found and good as when it came first into the barn; for neither can the heat, sweat nor coldness offend it, the first being cooled and tempered by the opening and dispersing; the second dried up by the air which hath free recourse into it, and the last comforted by the labour and tossing of the shovel, casting it up and down from one place to another; and though some curious husbands may object that this manner of keeping Corn drieth it somewhat too much, and thereby disableth it for some particular purposes as for seed, and such like; yet in that they are much mistaken; for this stirring and moving of grain, is not a drying of it, but rather a great comforter and strengthener of it dispersing back into the Corn, those wholesome vapours which should do it good (by way of communication and fellowship with the Grain) and expelling those ill humours which sweeting out of it would otherwise confound and hurt it, so that in conclusion for the true and long keeping of wheat, sweet, sound and perfect without loss or corruption, there is no way more safe or easy than this last expressed, being of all other the best, although in show it appear sleight and trivial, as for the most part things of greatest moment in this nature do; but to the judicial Husbandman I referrc it, whose aim is at the worth and substance not at the words and curious gloss, set forth in strange ingredians.  
Touching the keeping of Rye or Massine, or as 
To preserve Rye.  some call it Munck-corne or Blend-corne, being part Rye, and part Wheat mixed together, that which preserveth Wheat will also preserve it, for they are Grain of like nature, only the Rye is somewhat hotter and drier, and therefore will endure somewhat more moisture, yet to speak particularly touching the preservation of Rye, there is nothing better than the Plaster floor and oft turning; the close Hutch is also exceeding good, so is the Pipe or Dryfatte, but being once opened and the air entering into the Corn, except it be soon spent, it will soon putrify, for though in the close keeping it last long, yet when it comes to the air, it quickly receiucs taint. Lastly, for the profit in keeping of Rye, indeed there is nothing better than to pile it and tread it hard into dry vessels or barrels, wherein Salt hath been much ledged, or other brine or salt matter; provided always that the vessels be sweet and untainted, no ways subject to faughtinesse, or other unsavoury smells, from which there is no preservation.  
Concerning the preservation & keeping of Beans, 
To preserve Beans.  which are indeed a more gross and fatter Grain than any heretofore written of, & out of the fulnees of their substance, more subject to moisture and those dankish humours which corrupt corn: the careful Husbandman observeth two rules; first, not to thrash any Beans or Pulsse, more than for necessary use (as for the Stable or the Mill) before it be mid March, at which time the Grain having taken a kindly sweat in the mow, Stack or hovel is become so dry, firm and solid, that no floor, wall, or other place of lere, can make it relent or give again (except great abuse and too much moist keeping: for it is to be understood, that this sort of Pusse or Graine is of itself so exceeding moist and apt to sweat in the moow, that all Husbandmen endeavour by no means to house it, or lay it within doors, but seek to make it up in stacks and hovels without doors; not so much that houseroom is wanting, as that the benfit of the Sun and Air which pierceth through the same, drieth & ripeneth the corn in such kindly manner, as maketh it as serviceable as any other: and indeed, the first invention of Stacks, hovels, Reeks, and such like, did not spring so much from the want of housing, as from the good & profit which the Husbanman found to accrue to this kind of Grain only by reason of laying it abroad; for it is certain, that Beans & Pease neither grow together, nor ripen together, but put forth their increase one after another; for you shall see upon one Stake, blooms, swads, and ripe cod; so likewise in the gathering of Pulse (when it is reaped from the ground) you shall see some dry and withered, some ripe, some half ripe, some absolutely green, and as but new in growing.  
Now all these must be reaped together, and if you stay them in the field till all be of like dryness, questionless the oldest will shake & shed upon the ground before the youngest be ripened, and what that loss will redound to, every husbandman can judge; so also to house and moow up in close moow, the dry pulse with the green, surely the green cannot choose but inflame and heat the dry, and the dry so heated, give fire to the green till both be either rotten or consumed: and hence it came, that expert husbandmen devised to lay their pulse for the most part ever without doors in Stacks, Reeks and hovels, that the Sun and wind passing thorough them might bring all the grain to an equal dryness and hardness.  
Again, Pulse being of all Grain the coursest and fullest of substance in itself, and the Straw ever big and substantial, and full of broad thick leaves ever moist and sappy; it must needs follow that this Grain must ever be most apt to sweat in the moow, and so necessarily craveth the greatest store of air, and the longest time in drying; so that to return to my first purpose, it must needs follow, that no Beans or Pease can be fully ripe or seasoned in the moow, till it be mid March at the least; for it is an old saying amongst the best husbands, I hat March wind is a salt which seasoneth all Pulse: And if use or necessity compel men to thrash their Pulse before that time the grain is so imperfect, that of force it must be kilne dried, or else it is fit neither for the use of bread nor provender.  
Now herein is to be understood that Pease or Beanes which are kiln dried may be kept sound, sweet and good, either on plaster floors, boarded floors, or earthy floors, the space of many years without turning or tossing; nor need you to respect how thick the heap lie, since Beans after they are once dried on the kilne, or in the Sun, never after will thaw, give again or relent, butremaine in their first soundness. But if you preserve your Beans for other uses, as to boil in your pot and feed your servants withal, as is used in Somersetshire, and many other Westerly parts of this Kingdom, than it shall be good for you to take oil Barrels, oil Cask that is sweet, and first chalk them all over within and without with ashes, and then put your Beans therein, and close up the heads, and as it is affirmed by diverse great Authors of Husbandry, it will keep Beans sound, sweet, and good, twenty years: nay, some give instances of Beans which have been thus kept and preserved the space of one hundred and twenty years; and surely I am persuaded that if Beans be well and dry got, and thrashed at a seasonable time of the year, as in March or April, that then thus kept, they will last the uttermost of a man's pleasure.  
Now for the keeping and preserving of Pease or 
Preserving of Pease or ●…tches.  Fetches, which of all other Grain whatsoever, is most subect to rottenness and imperfection, because out of it own nature it is apt to breed worms, weavils and mites, by reason of the much luscious sweetness of the kernel of the Grain; you shall in all things observe the same courses that you do with your Beans, both touching their gathering, drying, stacking, and also thrashing, for as they are most aptest to grow together being near of nature and condition one to the other, so it is fit that unto them you do apply one and the selfsame medicine or remedy.  
And herein is to be noted, that as Pease are of more general use ●…hen Beanes, as for horse-provender, feeding of Swine, Pigeons, Pullen and such like; as also for bread, pottage, to boil with or without meat, for certainly it is a most wholesome and strong food as may be seen by the people of Devon-shire, Cornwall and Sommersetshire, to whose great strength of body not any reason can be given more probably than their much feeding on this grain, and their acquaintance with much and strong labour, so they ought with more care and circumspection to be preserved from all those anoyances that naturally are apt to hurt them, as worms, rottenness, mould, mustiness, and such like.  
And first there is nothing better for the long and well keeping of Peasse, than the very well drying of them, either in the Sun or on the kilne, especially those which you use for bread, provender or feeding of Swine, and although some Husband's use to feed their Swine with undried pease, nay many times both undried and undressed, that is to say the pulse or chaff not taken away, and are of opinion that the Grain so given sooner feedeth and puffeth up Swine then the other, yet they are deceived; for albeit it swell and puff up a beast, yet is the flesh and fat neither so good sound and long lasting, as that which is gotten with dry food, nor doth it make a Swine so thirsty, and the Husbandman is ever assured that when his Swine drinks not well, he feeds not well; therefore what Pease you keep for bread or feeding of Cattle, by all means dry them well, and lay them either in Garners or Floores, and they will last sound and good without breeding worms or weavils, as long time as you please. But those which you keep for food at your own table, as in pottage, or other uses, which must by no means be two much dried, because than they ask a double time in boiling, and spend a double quantity of fuel in their preparing. Some use after they be clean thrashed and dressed to lay them in a cool close Garnor, either of Plaster, earth or boards, of which, Plaster is the best; as for any thing that relenteth or yieldeth moisture, as Lime, stone walls, or such like, it is most hurtful, and immediately maketh pease mould and rot: also it is good to lay your pease in thick heaps in you garner, for that will preserve them moist the longest time, but to spread them thin upon the floor by which means the Sun, Air, and Wind may pass thorough them is not so good, for it drieth them too so are, and taketh from them much of their sweetness and goodness, which ought most carefully to be preserved. There be others which preserve these tender meat Pease by thrashing them up, and then letting them lie in their own pulsse or chaff, and not dressing them but as they have occasion to use them, and questionless this is a very good & laudable way, for the pulsse or chaff doth maintain th●…m sweet & moist, and yet keepeth them withal so warm and comfortable, that they last much longer than any other way wha●…soeuer, and in this manner of preserving Pease is to be noted, that by all means you must let them lie upon a dry earth floor, so long as they are in the chaff, rather than on the boards or on plaster, and yet in this case the boards are better than plaster.  
Lastly, and which indeed is the best experiment of all other, if you intent to keep Pease any extraordinary long time, you shall take Barrels or dry Cask, well and strongly bound, and pitch them within exceeding well, with the best pitch or bitumen that you can get, and then sprinkle the pitch all over with strong vinegar; then take your Pease, being clean and well dressed, and put them into the Barrels, pressing them down close and hard, than head up the Barrels, and let them stand dry and cool, and they will preserve your Pease sonnd, sweet and good for any use whatsoever as long as you please, be it for ten, twenty, or thirty years, according to the opinions of ancient Husbandmen and other provant masters that have lived and commanded in towns besieged, and towns of Garrison; neither shall any worm, mite or weavell, ever breed in it or offend it, nay if any have in former time been bred in them, this manner of keeping the Grain, killeth them and destroyeth them for ever.  
Now there is another sort of Pulse which are called 
Preserving of Lentils or Lupins.  Lentils or Lupins, which albeit they are not so generally used for the food or sustenance of man, yet they are for horse, swine, and other cattle as much in request as any Grain whatsoever, and indeed do feed fatter and sooner than other ordinary Pulse, and the flesh so fed is sweeter and pleasanter both to the eye and to the taste, then that which is fed with Beans or Pease; also they are a Pulse very Physical and good for many; medicines, as may appear by the works of many learned Physicians; & these the longer they are kept, the better they are, and fuller of profit. To preserve them then in good and sound estate, it is meet to reap them in very fair weather, and to Stacke them up exceeding dry, & if they be laid in the Barn, or any close house, it is not amiss, for they will endure houssing better than any other pulse, yet the sooner you beat them out of the straw or thrash them up, the better it is, for husbandmen suppose there is no greater hurt to this kind of Grain, than the long keeping it in the straw, for it is of such rankness, that the very straw and cod breed in it much putrefaction; and I my self observed both in Spain and in the neighbour Islands, where is great abundance of this kind of grain, that they do no sooner gather it and bring it home, but immediately they thrash it; nay, some thrash it in the fields upon the lands where it grows, and so bring it home, then spread it on fair boarded floors in very great heaps, or else lay it up in close hutches, or bings, such as wheat and other white grain is to be kept in: If you dry this kind of Pulse in the Sun, or upon a kilne, with a very moderate and soft fire, and then lay it up either in close garner, or close hutch, it will last many year sound, good, and without corruption; there be other husbandmen which mix with this grain when it is thrashed, a half part of hot, dry, white sand, or at least cover the whole heap of Pulse with the sand, and do find that it keeps the grain very sound & good many years together. But to conclude, if you take strong vinegar, & a good quantity of L●…cerpitium, and dissolve and mix them very well together, and then having laid your lentils or lupins together on a fair boarded floor, in large, broad and flat heaps about two foot, or two foot and a half thick with the vinegar and Lacerpitium sprinkle over all the heap and not any change of weather, frosts, worms or other vermin shall do them hurt, but they shall remain sound and good as many years as you please to keep them. There are other husbandmen that instead of this before rehearsed, take only sweet oil, & sprinkle it all over the grain, and find the same virtue and effect, for neither worms nor other vermin will touch it, nor will the radical humour thereof at any time waste or decay, but remain strong, full & found without any kind of diminishing, nor shall you find any abatement of it, shrinking in the measure, but that which was a bushel, this year will be also a bushel, the next year, and as many years after as you please; which is no small profit to the owner: whereas on the contrary part if the grain be either dried in the Sun, on the kilne, or by the wind, you shall hardly have of every such bushel so dried, three pecks and a half again, which is by computation at every quarter which is eight bushels full one bushel lost, and yet this Pulse thus preserved as before said shall be as good for any use whatsoever fit for such Corn to be employed in, as any other dried grain whatsoever, and yield as much every way, and altogether as good meal, and as good meat,  
Now touching the preserving and keeping of Oats 
Preserving of Oats.  it is to be understood that of all Grain it is least casual, because of itself naturally it breedeth no evil 〈◊〉, and is again preserved and defended with a double husk; whereby neither cold, moisture, heat, nor dryness is able so soon to pierce and hurt it as other grains which are more thin clad and tender, yet because it is of great and necessary use both for cattle and pullen, and that neither the husband nor housewife can well keep house without it, you shall know that the best way to preserve it longest, is, after it is thrashed to dry it well either in the Sun or on the kilne, and then either put it into close Garner or close case, and it will keep many years sound and sweet.  
Touching the preserving of Oatmeal, which is 
Preserving of oatmell.  the inner kernel of the Oats, and a grain of most special use in the husbandmaus house, as in his pottage, in his puddings, and in many other meats necessarily used for the labouring man. It is an experiment not altogether so curious as any of the rest formerly written of for no oatmeal can be made, but the Oats must be exceedingly well kilne-dried, or else the kernel will not part from the hull, and being dried, as is fit that drying is sufficient to keep and preserve the oatmeal diverse years: provided ever that presently after the making of your oatmele, you put it into dry close cask or dry close garner (but cask is the better) and so as it may remain exceeding dry (for any thaw or moisture corrupts it) and as near as you can let it have, if it be possible, some air of the fire, for the warmer it stands, the better and longer it will last as experience showeth.  
For the preserving or long keeping of any sort of 
Preserving of any meal.  meal, there is no better way than first to boult and searse him from his bran, for the bran is very apt to corrode and putrify the meal, and to bring it to a faughtinesse or mustiness, then into very sweet and clean dry cask close and well bound, tread in your meal so hard as you can possible tread it, and then head it up close, and so you may keep it either by land or water as long as you please, and when you have any occasion to spend of it, be sure to loos●…n no more of the meal than you presently use, for the faster and closer the meal lieth together, the longer and sweeter it will last, for it is the gathering in of the air that only corrupts it.  
And here is also to be noted, that you should not presently assoon as your meal is ground, boult it from the bran, but rather let it lie a week or fortnight, in the bran in some close b'ing or trough, and then after that time boult or searse it, and you shall find it to afford you in every bushel, more meal by at least half a peck then if you should boult it presently as soon as it comes from the miln, whence it proceeds, that the cunning and skilful Baker will ever have a week or a fortnight's provision of meal before hand, which lying so long in the bran, pays double interest for the continuance.  
Now if it fall out so, that either by trade of Merchandise, or other occasion, you buy any meal by way of transsportation which is caskt up (as much meal is should by the barrel) you shall then presently as soon as you have bought it (if it be for your own use or expense) break open the heads and empty the meal upon fair sheets on a clean floor, and then spreading it abroad, let the Sun and Air pass thorough it which will dry up the sweat, and if there be any taint or faughtinesse, take it away, and bring the meal to his first sweetness, and then immediately boult out the course bran, and after as was before declared, tread it hard into fresh and sweet cask: and thus you may keep your provision of meal all the year long; nay, if need require two or three years, for after the first sweat is taken away and kindly dried, there is no doubt to be made of any that shall follow after.  
Lastly, touching the preserning and keeping of all 
Preserving of all small seeds.  manner of small seeds of what nature or quality soever they be, whether hemp, line, rape, musterseed, or any other garden-seed whatsoever, though truly and properly they last never above one year, nor are fit for seed or increase after that date expired, yet in as much as they are medicinable after, and a much longer time, therefore you shall understand that the best way to keep them safe and sound, and the fittest for use and profit, is first to gather them as soon as you perceive them to be ripe, and the weather being bright, clear and dry, then shall you dry or wither them in the shade and not in the Sun, especially upon a plasterfloore, where the light looketh to the South, and be sure that as little Sun and moisture come to them as you can, for both are main enemies; which done, bind them up in bundles without thrashing, and so hang them up and keep them in their own cod, and they will last for all uses, a full year, and for some particular uses two or three years; and in this manner you may also preserve all manner of herbs, weeds, flowers, roots, and the barks or rinds of all manner of trees.  
And thus much touching the preservation of all manner of Grain, Pulse, or meal, with smaller seeds and other things thereunto appertaining.   

CHAP. XV.  
How to keep Grain, either for transportation by Sea, or for use in a town of War or Garrison, from one year, to one hundred and twenty.  
OF the necessity of this knowledge there needs small disputation both in respect of the daily use thereof, & the continual benefit is found thereby, as also in as much as travel and long voyages grow with us in these latter days still more and more; our forefathers knew but three parts of the world, we are acquainted with four, and there is constant promise that surely our children shall inhabit five: so excellent are men grown in all the Art of discovery and Navigation; neither comes these discoveries unto us empty handed or in mean garments, but with infinite bounty, and such wealth, that industry never thinks himself so happy as when he is in the employment as our frequent trade can witness, and our many Plantations, all like most rich flocks bringing their fleeces to our Island, and clothing it more rich than any neighbour Nation whatsoever: then sith our trade is so honourable and gainful and no way to be continued & preserved but by seafaring & sea iournes what can be more fit, for any good husband to know, then that which is the strength, sinews, nourishment and ability of such labour, which indeed is victual, and of all victual none so good, sound, sweet, and long lasting, nor so wholesome for man's body, as grain and pulsse, for all (God be thanked) our land is excellently stored, nay far exceeding most of the Nations in Christendom, with Beef, Bacon, Pork, Fish, Butter, Cheese, and many such like, most excellent provissions, all which are able to endure the sea, yet seeing they are ever fault, and preserved in fault, they do not only breed in men the Scurvy, jaundice Dropsy, and such like; but many other contagious, as Calamtures, hot Fevers, a●…d other sicknesses proceeding from adust and choler, which being well corrected with fresh meats, such as are made of grain and Pulse, for they are all the fresh meats that a man can well or certainly carry to the Sea in a tedious long voyage) they keep men able and in strength fit for any employment.  
To speak then of the Grains and Pulses which are 
Theuse of Grain, Pulse at Sea.  meetest for the sea, and their several uses.  
It is to be understood that the best and principallest Grain which is indeed both most sweet, most fresh, most pleasant in taste, and most long lasting, is Rice, which although it grow not much in our 
Of Rice, and the vs●….  kingdom, but that we are beholden to our good neighbours for the trade thereof, yet it is in such plenty, where we fetch it, that we need neither complain of the scarcity nor the cost, and so much the rather in that a peck thereof will go further than a bushel of any other Grain; of this Rice is made many good and wholesome dishes, some thick, some thin, some baked, some boiled, as thus: if you take a quarter of a pound of Rice, and boil it in a pottle of water, till it come unto an indifferent thickness, and then put into it a good lump of potted or barrelled butter, and ●…s much sugar as shall salt-wise season it to an indifferent sweetness, it is a dish of meat, meet for an Emperor at Sea, wholesome, good, and light of disiesture, and will be as much as four reasonable men can well eat at a meal; for the nature of the Rice is such that it will swell in boiling and grow to that bigness, that in an instant it will thicken a pottle; some use the night before they boil it, to steep it in so much water as will only cover the Rice all over, and then the next day boil it in a pottle of water more, and the Rice so steeped will so swell, that all the first water will be drunk up, and a great deal of less boiling will serve to make it ready, and sure than this a man cannot find a cheaper way to feed men, since one pint of water and the fourth part of a quarter of a pound of Rice (which comes not to above a half penny at the dearest reckoning) is a meal sufficient for a man's eating, having biscuit and drink proportionably. And this dish of meat being but thus thin boiled, is called at Sea Lob-lolly, and after salt-feeding is wondrous wholesome and comfortable to any man, whether he be sick, sound, or diseased, and both abateth infirmities & hasteneth the healing of all wounds. There be others that after they have steeped this rice (as aforesaid) do then boil it in like manner, till it be so thick that a spoon may stand upright in it, and no liquidnesse of the water perceived, then put a good lump of butter into it, and boil it with it, and stir it about, and it will make it come most clean out of the pot in which it is boiled; then season it with sugar and a little Cinnamon & it will be a dish of meat, right good and delicate, and meet for any man of what quality soever, that is worth goodness or preserving, nor need the quantity exceed the proportion already described. Again, if you have meal in the Ship, if you take of this Rice steeped in water, and a little lightly boiled and seasoned with Sugar, Cinnamon and Ginger, and a good quantity of butter, and then bake it in little Bastics, you shall find it a most delicate, pleasant, and wholesome meat, and that a penny in it shall go further and give better contentment than four pennyworth of Beese, Bacon, Fish, or any other hard salt meat; yet do not wish any man on Shipboard to make this a continual feeding dish, for it is both too pleasant and too strong, and where cuacuation of some humours are wanting, may breed inconvenience in strong bodies; but rather to use it once a week as a physical nourisher, or for the comfort of sick and diseased men, whose stomaches are ta'en away or else weakened; there may be also made of this Rice in time of necessitic (being ground to a fine mcale) an excellent good Bread or Ruske, which is pleasanter, sweeter and much longer lasting then any made of Wheat or any other grain, whatsoever, besides many other secdes which would in this place show but too much curiosity to repeat.  
The next Grain unto Rice which is of estimation 
Wheat and the use.  and great service at the Sea, is Wheat, of which although there be diverse kinds; yet they are all alike for the sertling of this purpose; only the large and thick huld Wheat (being well dried) will last the longest, but the smaller and fine skinned Wheat, yields the purer slowre and makes the better meat. Now of this wheat is to be made diverse dishes of meat, for some do take it and bruise or beat it in a bag, till the upper skin be beaten off, and then having dressed and winnowed it, boil it in clean water till it burst and grow as thick as pap, then take it from the fire and being hot put it into several dishes of wood or trays, so much in every dish or trey as may serve four men, and so let it cool; then give it to the sick or sound, as you shall be directed, and it is an excellent wholesome good meat either cold or else hot, and a little butter melted with it or being again boiled in fresh water, and seasoned with salt and a little sugar, it makes an excellent gruel, or lob-lolly which is very sovereign at Sea; also your parched wheat is a very good food at Sea, and of much request & estimation, being sprinkled with a little salt, and of this food a little will serve a man at a time, by reason that the much sweetness thereof, soon filleth and cloieth the stomach, yet it is wondrous light of digestion & breeds great strength and much good blood as we daily find by experience.  
The next Grain unto this which is to be recommend 
Of Oatmeal and the use.  to the Sea (and which is indeed not any thing inseriour to either of the other going before, both for strength and lasting) is Otemeale, which by reason of the great dryness and drying thereof feels little or no imperfection at the Sea, as being unapt to suck or draw in any of the ill or moist vapours thereof. Of this Oatmeal is made many good, fresh and comfortable meats at Sea, as Gruel or loblolly by boiling it in fresh water and seasoning it with salt, and (if you have it conveviently) sometimes with sugar and a few currants, and a little mace, which is meat of great strength and goodness; especially for such as are sick and weak, for it is a great restorer of nature and purger of the blood; also to stecpe the whole Grotts of Oatmeal a night in water, and then draining them, & putting it unto a bag boil it till the grotts break, then putting it out of the bag butter it with butter, & it is an excellent food; also boiling Oatmeal in fresh water with barm, or the dregges and hinder ends of your Beer barrels, makes an excellent good pottage, and is of great use in all the parts of the West Country, especially, where Mariners or Seamen live, and are called by the name of drousson pottage. Also of Oatmeal is made that meat which is called in the West, Washbrew, and may be made at the Sea at you pleasure, being a meat of that great account amongst Devonshire and Cornishmen, that they will allow it no parallel; and for my own part I have heard a most famous & well learned Physician in those parts allow it to be a meat of singular great strength, and goodness, and withal so light of disiestion, that a man can very hardly surfeit upon it at any time; and I am the rather induced to believe the same, because I have observed and seen many of the labouring men of that Country to eat such an unmeasurable quantity thereof, that in mine eye one man's supper would have served a whole family.  
But you will say, hunger and labour, are such excellent sauces that they will digest any thing: To that I answer, that I have seen the best Gentlemen and Gentlewomen of that Country, of whom as much curiosity hath attended, as is liable to the City, nay such as have had sickness their best familiar, yet eat of this with great and sharp appetite, and when health was most to be feared, then to boast of most soundness: This washbrew is to look upon like Painters cyze, or new made jelly, being nothing but the very heart of the oatmeal boiled and drained to that height and thickness having neither hull nor bran in it but the pure meal and water, and it is to be eaten either with wine, strong bear, oral, or with fine clarified honey, according to men's stomaches or abilities: Now this the eaters thereof affirm, that by no means it must be chawed but rather swallowed by the spoonfuls whole because chawing like a pill makes it taste unpleasantly; There is again another meat to be made of oatmeal, which is called Gertbrew, and is somewhat more course, and less pleasant than washbrew, having both the bran and huls in it, yet is accounted a food of a very good strength, and exceeding wholesome for man's body, and of my knowledge much used and much desired of all labouring persons that are acquainted with it, many other foods there are to be made of oatmeal, but these shall be at this time fully sufficient.  
The next grain to this I account Barley, which may 
Of Barley and the use.  be every way used like unto Wheat, either to make Gruel, to be creyed, parched, or boiled; and of Barley for this purpyse of food, the best is French Barley, the next is barley big, or bear barley, and the worst are the spi●…ke or battledore barley, and our common English barley.  
And as Barley or Wheat, so you may use you Buck 
Buck or the use.  and your Indian Silligo, for they are of like nature, only ask a longer time in their beating, steeping, and boiling, because they are naturally more hard, & more dry, by reason of the heat of the climate in which the best grow; and it is ever to be observed for a rule, that the drier you keep your corn at Sea, the better it is, the sweeter and longer lasting.  
Now having showed the use of these lighter grains 
Of Pulse and first of Beanes, the use.  I will come to Pulse, and show their use and benefit at the Sea, or in besieged towns; and of Pulse, I will first speak of Beans as a principal food, wholesome and strong, and though not so fine and light of digestion as any of the former, yet exceeding hearty and sound & a great breeder of good blood, they are for the most part to be boiled whole, till such time as they appear soft and tender, or begin to break, and then drained from the water, are served in trays, and well salted and so eaten; a pottle whereof is thought a full proportion for four men; and of these Beans there are diverse 
The French Bean.  kinds: as the common garden Beane, or French bean, which is great, broad, and flat, and these are the best to boil, either with meat, or by themselves, and ask the least labour, because their outer skin is most tender, and the inward substance most apt to be mollified, and softened: they may also be boiled both when they are young and green, and when they are old and dry, and the meat at both times is good and savoury.  
The next bean to these are the Kidney bean, which 
The Kydney Beane.  is flatter, and lesser, and nearer the proportion of a kidney then the French Beane is, and this is also a garden bean, and whilst it is young & green is to be eaten salad wise after they are boiled, both the cod and bean together, and it is certain a better salad cannot be tasted; for the cod or husk is every way as excellent in taste as the bean is; but after they grow old and dry and that the moisture is gone out of the cod, than it is meet to thrash them, and then boil them like the French bean, and they are every way as good meat and as soon boiled and as tender.  
The next Bean to these are your common and ordinary 
Common Field beans theuse.  Field beans, which having tough and hard skins ask more boiling than the other beans, & are somewhat harder in taste, yet a good sowed food also: there be many that parch them in the fire and think them then the best meat, because the fire sooner breaks the skin and softeneth the kernel; but they cannot be done so abundantly, and therefore are not so much in use.  
After this great sort of Pulse, I will speak of the 
Of Pease and the use.  smaller sort as Pease and their like: and of Pease there betwo kinds, the garden Pease and the field Pease, and for this use (albeit both are good) yet the garden Pease are best, for they are soon boiled, are most tender, and serve for most use, as for pottage, boiling, parching or spelting; and of these garden Pease, there are diverse kinds; as white Pease, French Pease. hasting rounsivals' and such like; the first being the longest 
Several sorts of garden Pease.  lasters, the second the pleasantest in taste, the third the earliest and tenderest, and the last largest and fullest.  
The field Pease are only of two kinds, as the white Pease and the grey Pease, and they seldom make pottage, because they are unapt to break, but are only for boiling and making of leap Pease, or for patching, yet a good and a strong food also, and as we use Pease, so in other countries they use Lupins, Lentils, Tares, Fetches, and such like smaller Pulse, but they are neither so good, wholesome nor savoury in taste, being a kind of Grain more rank, fulsome and breeding of ill blood and infection within, these cases of Seafare and warfare ought principally to be eschwed and shunned.  
Now it resteth after this long digression of these 
Totransport Graine.  several Grains, and their uses with the meats and profits which are made from them, that we come to the safe manner of keeping and preserning them either by land or water, for victual or transportation, so as they may last & endure without ill smell or rottenness.  
And first for transportation of Grain by Sea, it is two ways to be done, as either in great quantities for trade and the victualling of other Nations, or in smaller quantity for victualling the men in the ship, prepared for a long and tedious voyage.  
For the transporting of Grain for trade in great quantitics, it is to be intended the voyage is seldom 
Transporting grain for trade.  long, but from neighbour to neighbour, and therefore commonly they make close decks in the ships to rereceive the Grain, fair and even boarded, yet if such decks be matted and lined both under and on each side it is much the better, and this matting would be strong and thin; there be some which make the decks only of mats, and sure it is sweet but not so strong as the board, therefore the best way of transportation is to have strong boarded decks well matted, and then spreading the Corn of a reasonable thickness, to cover it with matting again, and then to lay Corn on it again, and then mats again, that between every reasonable thickness of Grain a mat may lie, the profit whereof is that when the Corn with his own heat and the working of the Sea shall begin to sweat; which sweat for want of air to dry it up would turn to putrefaction, than these mats thus lying between, will not only exhall and suck up the sweat, but also keep the Corn so cool and dry that no imperfection shall come unto it, and here is to be noted that these mats should rather be made of dry white bents, then of flags and bulrush, for the bent is a firm●…, dry, crisp thing, and will not r●…ent or sweat of itself, but the flag or bulrush is a spongy and soft substance which is never empty of his own and others moistures.  
Now for transporting of Grain for victual for the ship which is in much smaller quantity, because it 
Transporting grain for victual.  is but for the private use offew within the ship; the only best and safest way is to take salt fish barrels, or any cask in which any salt fish hath been piled, as Cod, Herrings, Salmon, Sprats, or any other powdered fish; and whilst the vessels are sweet you shall calk them both within and without with plaster, daubing them all over, then into them put your Grain of what kind soever it be, and head them up close, and then stow them in such convenient dry place of the ship as you shall think fit, and questionless, if belief may be given to the worthiest Authors which have writ in this kind, you may thus keep your Grain sweet, sound, and in full perfection from one year to one hundred and twenty years, but certainly daily experience shows us, that all kind of grain thus put up and kept, will remain sound and sweet, three, four, and as some say, seven years, for so far hath lately been tried: and what here I speak of Shipboard, the like maybe done in any town of War or Garrison, whether besieged or not besieged, or in any other place where any necessity shall compel; the proof of this manner of piling or putting up of grain, serveth as well for Land as Sea.  
And thus much for the transportation and preservation of Corn and Graine.   

CHAP. XVI.  
A general computation of men, and Cattles labours; what each may do without hurt daily.  
TO make an exact or severe computation of men and cattle's labours, so as it might stand for a precedent not to be altered, is a thing almost impossible, because countries alter, customs alter, and people are incertain: countries alter, so as one may work more in half a day in some then in a whole day in othersome; as where one may plow two acres in the sand, he shall hardly plow one in the clay; customs alter, for in some countries they plow but from seven or eight a clock in the morning, till two or three in the afternoon; and in other countries they plow from before Sunnerise, till Sunset: and people are incertain, for some are painful and conscionably industrious, not desiring to eat more than the work, and others are so full of floath and greediness, that in the prime labours as in harvest and seedtime, they spend more time in eating and drinking, then in their work, for I have observed both in those places where I was bred, and in those where I have lived, that the harvest man's hours of repast have much run beyond either his work or honesty: as thus for example, within the compass of mine own knowledge, I have seen harvest men come into the Farmer's house, between five and six a clock in the morning, and there eat bread and cheese and drink, then go to the field, and at nine of clock have breakfast, at eleven the dinner, at one a nooning, at four a drinking, and at seven Supper, besides an hours sleep in the heat of the day for refreshing, now what time is left for labour may easily be judged, so that to measure true proportions to these uncertainties is a travel too difficult. But to come to the honest industrious workman which craves to the sorest labour, but reasonable repost, as breakfast, dinner, nooning and supper, with drink at such convenient times as he is thirsty, according to the violence of his labour and the heat of the day: To these I say may be proportioned a reasonable computation how work may with least loss or vexation be compassed and governed; to speak then generally of all husbandly works where the country is tolerable 
Ploughing and sowing.  without any extraordinary difficulty, you shall understand that a man may well in stiff ground, plow an acre, or an acre and a half, and in light sand grounds two or three acres with one Team in a day, and he may plow and sow in stiff ground two acres and a half each day, and in light ground four at least with one Team, and a ways what he soweth, that he may harrow the same day also. 
Mowing.   
A man may well mow of good and deep loggy meadow, or of rough uneven meadow every day one acre, mowing clean and making a smooth board, of well standing, and good smooth meadow, an acre and a half each day, and of very thin and short grass, or upland meadow two acres at the least every ●…ay.  
Also he may mow of Corn as Barley and Oars if it be thick, loggy and beaten down to the earth making fair work and not cutting of the heads of the ears, and leaving the straw still growing one acre and a half in a day, but if it be good, thick and fair standing Corn, than he may two acres, or two acres and a half in a day, but if the Corn be short and thin, than he may mow three, and sometimes four acres in a day, and not be over laboured; Also of Beans he may mow as much, and of Pease mixed with Beanes, having a hook to follow him, no less; for they are works in this nature most easy and least troublesome.  
One man with a binder may well reap an acre of 
Reaping.  Wheat, or Rye in a day, if it be principal good and well standing, but if laid or beaten down with weather, than three rood is fully sufficient for a day's labour; but if it be thin and upright standing, than he may reap and bind five roods in a day of small Pease, Fetches and such like, a man may well reap two acres every day.  
Now for as much as it is a custom in diverse countries 
Binding of Barley and Oates.  (and truly is exceeding profitable and worthy imitation) to sheaf and bind up both Barley and Oats as well as Wheat or Rye, and that it both saveth much Corn, and also makes it take a great deal less room, and that this labour is to be done after the mowers, as the other was after the reapers by gathering the Barley or Oats up with a sickle or hook, as it lies in the swath and so binding it in sheaves, you shall understand that one man in a day will bind as much as one mower can mow, and if the men be any thing skilful in the labour two binder's will bind as much as three mowers can mow.  
For the gathering or inning of Grain, no man can 
Gathering in of grain.  proportion the number of loads, or quantity of ground shall daily be brought home, sith the journeys are uncertain, some going a quarter of a mile, some half a mile, and some a mile; therefore it is the husbandman's best way, the first day to go with his Team himself, and both to observe the labour and distance of place, and by that to compute what may be done after without hurt to his cattle, and where he fails of any hope, there to take a strict account of the error, for it is either ignorance or carelessness, which brings forth mischances, speaking of husbandry, as overthrowing the Team, over loading the Team, breaking necessary instruments, or not respecting the ways and passage, any of which may in a day hinder more than half the day's labour.  
Again, a man may in a day ditch and quickset of 
Ditching.  a reasonable ditch four foot broad, and three foot deep a rod or poll a day, allowing sixteen foot to the rod, and so of larger measure less ground, and of less ground larger measure, according to the sufficiency of the fence which you purpose to make.  
A man also may hedge in a day, if the hedge be good 
Hedging.  and substantial, that is to say, five foot high, well bound, thick stackt, and close laid, two rod in a day, and if the work be lower or thinner than double so much, according to the former proportion.  
For the plashing of hedges, or making a quick fence 
Plashing.  if he do it workmanly, and that the quick growth be high and well grown, and then he lay it thick, close, and strongly bound on the top, turning the quick downward and inward, to plash a rod a day is as much as any man can well do, but if ye plash it after the West country fashion, that is, only cutting it down, & laying it a long close to the ground, seeking only thickness, and not much guard or comeliness, than he may well plash a●…od and a half in a day without trouble, and sure in this work is great care and art to be used as well for the preservation of the quick as the goodness of the sense, being a thing of worth and validity to every husbandman.  
Again, a man may delve or dig, as for garden mould 
Delving,  hempe-yard, Flaxeyard, or for the setting of Corn, or levelling of uneven places, one rood in a day, and the ground so digged and delved, he may rake dress and level in the same day also, but if he dig it deep, and trench it, and manure it, as is meet; either for garden, orchard, or cornsetting, then to delve half a rood in a day, is a very great proportion, because ordinarily to delve, as to receive ordinary seeds requires but one spade graf●…in depth, but extraordinarily to delve, as for enriching and bettering of the ground, and to cleanse it from stones, weeds and other anoyances, will require two spade grafted at the least.  
Lastly, a man may thrash if the corn be good and 
Thrashing,  clean, without some extrordinary abuse or poverty in the grain, in one day four bushels of Wheat or Rye, fi●…e bushels of Barley or Oats, & five bushels of Beans or Pease, but the Pulse must then be imagined to be exceeding, otherwise a man shall thrash less of it, then of any other kind of Grain, for as when it is well loaden, it yieldeth plentifully, so when it is poor and lightly loaden it yieldeth little or nothing, and yet hath not one stroke less of the slaile, nor any labour saved more than belongs to the best Pulse whatsoever being ever at least three times turned and four times beaten over.  
Having thus generally run over (in a short computation) the labours of the husbandman. I will now 
The particular expense of a day.  as bricfly as I can, go over the particular days labours of a Farmer or aPlowman, showing the particular expense of every hour in the day, from his first rising, till his going to bed, as thus for example; we will suppose it to be after Christmas, and about plough day (which is the first letting out of the plough) and at what time men either begin to fallow, or to break up Pease earth which is to lie to bait, according to the custom of the country; at this time the Ploughman shall rise before four of the clock in the morning, and after thanks given to God for his rest and the success of his labours, he shall go into his stable, or beast house, and first he shall fodder his cattle, then cleanse the house, and make the booths neat and clean, rub down the cattle, and cleanse their skins from all filth, than he shall curry his horses, rub them with clothes and wisps, and make both them and the stable as clean as may be, than he shall water both his Oxen and Horses, and housing them again, give them more fodder, and to his horse by all means provender, as chaff and dry Pease or Beanes, or Oat-huls, Pease or Beanes, or clean Oats, or clean garbage (which is the hinder ends of any kind of Grain but Rye) with the straw chopped small amongst it) according as the ability of the Husbandman is.  
And whilst they are eating their meat, he shall make ready his collars, hams, treats, halters, ' mullens, and plow-geares, seeing every thing fit and in his due place, and to these labours I will also allow, full two hours, that is to say, from four of the clock, till six, then shall he come into breakfast, and to that I allow him half an hour, and then another half hour to the gearing and yoking of his cattle, so that at seven of the clock he may set forward to his labour and then he shall plow from seven of the clock in the morning, till bet wixt two and three in the afternoon, than he shall unyoake and bring home his cattle, and having rubbed them, dressed them, and cleansed-away all dirt and filth, he shall fodder them, and give them meat, then shall the servants go in to their dinner, which allowed half an hour, it will then be towards four of the clock, at what time he shall go to his cattle again and rubbing them down, and cleansing their stalls, give them more fodder, which done he shall go into the oarnes, and provide and make ready fodder of all kinds, for the next day, whether it be hay, straw, or blend-fodder, according to the ability of the husbandman; this being done and carried into the stable, oxehouse, or other convenicnt place, he shall then go water his cattle, and give them more meat, and to his horse provender as before showed: and by this time it will draw past six of the clock, at what time he shall come in to supper, and after supper he shall either by the fire side, mend shoes both for himself and the family, or beat and knock hemp, or flax, or pick and stamp apples, or crabs for cider or verdivyce, or else grind malt on the quernes, pick candle-rushes, or do some husbandly office within doors till it be full eight a clock; Then shall he take his lantern and candle, and go to his cattle, and having cleansed the stailes and planks, litter them down, look that they be safely tied, and then fodder & give them meat for all night, then giving God thanks for benefits received that day let him and the whole househould go to their rest till the next morning.  
Now it is to be intended that there may be in the household, more servants than one; and so you will demand of me what the rest of the servants shall be employed in before and after the time of ploughing; to this I answer, that they may either go into the barn and thrash, fill or empty the malt fat, load or unload the kilne or any other good and necessary work that is about the yard, and after they come from ploughing, some may go into the barn and thrash, some hedge, ditch, stop gaps in broken fences, dig in the orchard or garden, or any other out work which is needful to be done, & which about the husbandman is never wanting, especially one must have a care every night to look ●…o the mending or sharpening of the plough irons, and the repairing of the plough and plow gears, if any be out of order, for to defer them till the morrow, were the loss of a day's work, and the worst point of husbandry that might be, besides the example.  
And thus from this brief and compendious computation, may a man compute and direct the works of his family, how great soever it be and keep every one to his true and distinct labour, without amazement or molestation.  
Now for the particular labours of cattle, though it 
Particular labours of cattle.  be already inclusively spoken of in that which is gone before, where I show you how much a man may conveniently plow in a day with one Team or draught of cattle, yet for further satisfaction, you shall understand that in your cattle, there are many things to be observed, as the kind, the number & the soil they labour in, for the kind which are Oxen, bulls, or horses, the best for the draught, are Oxen, & the reasons I have showed in my former works, the next are Horses, and the worst Bulls, because they are most troublesome; the number fit for the plough is eight, six, or four; for the Cart, five or four, and for the Weine never under six, except in loading home of harvest, where loading easily, four very good oxen are sufficient, for the soil of it be of the toughest and deepest earth, eight beasts can do no more but fallow, or break up Pease earth, no nor sooner surre, if the season grow hard and dry, for soiling; winter rigging, and seed furrow, six beasts may dispatch that labour: if the soil be mixed and haffel, than six may fallow and sow Pease, and four do every other ordure; but if it be light and easy sand, than four is enough in every season; for the quantity of their work, an ox plough may not do so much as a horse plough, because they are not so swift, nor may be driven out of their pace, being more apt to surfeit then horses be, so that for an ox plough to do an acre, and a horse plow an acre and a rood, or an acre and a half in good ground is work fully sufficient. And thus much for a brief and general computation of men and cattle's labours, how they ought to be employed for the best use and profit.   

CHAP. XVII.  
The applying of husbandry to the several countries of this Kingdom, where in is showed the office and duty of the Carter or Ploughman  
IT is to be understood that Husbandry doth vary according to the nature and climates of countries; not one rule observed in all places, nor all places to be governed and directed by one rule, but according as the earth, the air, the much or little heat, moisture or cold doth increase or diminish, so must the skilful husbandman alter his seasons, labours and instruments; for in stiff clays, as are all the fruitful Vales of this kingdom (of which I have named most part in a Chapter before, as also Huntington-shire, Bedford-shire, Cambridge-shire, and many other of like nature, all manner of errable works must be begun at early seasons, and betimes in the year, and the ploughs and instruments must be of large size & strong timbers, and the labour great and painful; so also in mixed soils that are good and fruitful, as Norhampton shire, Hartfortshire, most part of Kent, Essex, Berkshire and countries of like nature; all errable toils would begin at latter seasons, and the ploughs and instruments, would be of middle size and indifferent timbers, and the labour somewhat less than the other, but the light sandy grounds which have also a certain natural fruitfulness in them, as in Norfolk, Suffolk, most part of Lincolnshire, Hampshire, Surry and countries of that nature, all errable toils would begin at the latest seasons, and the ploughs and instruments would be of the smallest and lightest size, and of the least timbers, and the labour of all other is most easy.  
Lastly, for the barren and unfruitful earths (of which only I have written of in this book) as is Devonshire, Cornwall, many parts of Wales, Darbyshire Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and many other like or worse than they; the errable toils would have certain set time or sit season of the year, but only according to the temperateness of the year, which if it happen early, than you must begin your labours early, but if it fall lower in the year, than you must begin your labours at later seasons, and for your plough and instruments, they must not keep any certain proportion, but be framed ever according unto the ground, the stronger and stiffer ground having ever the strong and large plough with instruments of like kind, and the lighter and more easy earth, a plough and instruments of more easy substance; as for the labour, it must be such and no other than that which hath been already declared in this book.  
And hence it comes that the office and duty of every 
The Carters office.  skilful ploughman or Carter, is first to look to the nature of the earth, next to the seasons of the year, then to the customs and fashions of the place wherein he liveth: which customs although they be held as second natures amongst us, and that the best reasons of the best workmen commonly are, that thus I do because thus they do; yet would I wish no man to bind himself more strictly to custom, than the discourse of reason shall be his warrant, and as I would not have him to preiudicat in his own opinion, so I would not have him too great a slave to other men's traditions, but starding upon the ground of reason made good by experience, I would ever have him profit in his own judgement. Now of these matters I have written sufficient both in this book, and in my former, and also for the election, ordering, tempering, and making of all sorts of ploughs or plow irons, together with the Teams, dranghts and other advantages, of which whosoever is ignotant, let him look into the English Husbandman, and he may be satisfied: Now the further office and duty of the Husbandman, is with great care and diligence to respect in what sort or fashion to plow his ground; for although I have in the former Chapters showed how he shall lay his furrows, what depth he shall plow them, and how he shallbe able to raise and gain the greatest store of mould, yet is there also another consideration to be had, no less profitable to the husbandman, than any of the former, and that is how to lay your lands best for your own profit & ease, as also the ease of your cattle, which shall draw within your draught, as thus for instance: if your arable land shall lie against the srde of any steep or mountainous high hill (as for the most part all barren earth's do) if then you shall plow such land directly against the hill, beginning below, and so ascending strait upright and so down again, and up again; this very labour and toiling against the hill wilbreed such a bitter wearisomeness to the cattle, and such a discouragement, that you shall not be able to compass one half part of your labour; beside, the danger of over-heating and surfeiting of your beasts, whence will spring many mortal diseases. Therefore when you shall plow any such ground, be sure ever to plow it sideways overthwart the hill, where your beasts may ever tread on the levelly ground and never directly up and down, so shall your cattle be better able to endure the draught, and you with much case and comfort be able to compass and finish your labours, Besides the compass and manure which you shall lay upon the ground shall not be so soon washed away from the top or upper part of the ground, because the furrows not lying strait down in an even and direct descent, but turned crossewise upward against the hill, it must necessarily hold the soil within it, and not let it wash away as it were through liberal channels, as I have oft seen in diverse places where the corn hath been as rank as might be at the bottom, and not any growing at the top; only for want of well ordering of the Lands, and knowledge how to prepare, both for a man's own ease and his cattles.  
Again, it is the office & duty of every good Ploughman 
Of cattle for draught.  to know what cattle are meetest for his draught; as whether Oxen, or Horse, or both oxen and horse: wherein is be understood that although of all draughts whatsoever within this kingdom, there is none so good to plow withal, both in respect of the strength, stability, endurance and fitness for labour, as the oxen are, in whom there is seldom, or never, any loss, because whensocuer his service faileth in the draught, his flesh will be of good price in the shambles; yet not withstanding in this case a man must necessarily bind himself much to the custom of the Country, and fashion of his neighbours; for if you shall live in a place where fuel is scarce, and far to be fetched as commouly it is in all barren Countries, which for the most part are stony Champains or cold Mountains; and your neighbours as well for the speed of their journeys, as for the length keep Horse draughts: in this case you must also do the like, or else you shall want their companies in your journey, which is both discomfort and disprofit if any mischance or casualty shall happen, or being enforced to drive your Oxen as fast as they do their Horse, you shall not only overheate, tyre, bruise and spoil them; but also make them utterly unfit either for feeding or labour: and therefore if your estate be mean, & that you have no more but what necessity requires, than you shall sort your plough or Teeme according to the fashion of your Country, and the use of your neighbours: but if God have blest you with great blenty, than it shall not be amiss for you to have ever an Ox draught or two to till your Land; and a Horse draught to do all your foreign and abroad businesses; so shall your work at home ever go constantly forward, and your outward necessary provisions never be wanting.  
Now for the mixture of Oxen and Horse together, it falleth out oftentimes, that the ploughman must of force be provided with cattle of both kind, as if he happen to live in a mountainous and rocky country, where the steepness of the hills, and narrowness of the ways will suffer neither Cart, Weine, nor Tumbril to pass; in this case you shall keep Oxen for the plough to till the ground with, and Horses to carry pots or hooks: the first to carry forth your manure, and the other to bring home your hay and Corn harvest, your fuel and other provisions which are needful for your family; as they do both in Cornwall, and all other mountainous countries, where Carts and weines and such like draughts, have no possible passage.  
Again, it is the office and duty of ●…uery good ploughman to know his several labours, for every several month through the whole year, whereby no day nor hour may be misspent, but every time and season employed according as his nature requireth, as thus for example.  
In the month of january, the painful ploughman if 
january.  he live in fertile and good soils, as amongst rich, stiff, simple cleys, he shall first break up, or plow up his pease earth, because it must lie to take bait before it be sown; but if he live in fruitful well mixed soils, then in this month he shall begin to fallow the field he will lay to rest the year following; but if he live upon hard barren earths (of which chiefly I write) then in this month he shall water his Meadows and Pasture grounds, and he shall drain and make dry his errable grounds, especially where he intends to sow Pease, Oates, or Barley, the feed-time following.  
Also he shall stub and root up all such rough grounds as he intends to sow the year following; in this Month you shall manure and trim up you garden moulds, you shall comfort with manure, sand, or lime, or all three mixed together, the roots of all barren fruit trees: and also you may cut down all fuch timber as you would not have chink or rive, but hold firm and close together, only there will be loss in the bark, for the time is something to early for it to rise.  
Lastly, you may transplant all sorts of Fruit trees, the weather being open, and the ground cafie: you may rear Calves, remove Bees, and for your own health, keep your body warm, let good diet and wholesome be your Physician, and rather with exercise, than sauce, increase your appetite.  
In the Month of February, either set or sow all sorts of Beans, Pease, and other Pulsle, and the stiffer 
February.  your ground is, the sooner begin your work, prepare your Garden mould, and make it cafie and tender, prune and trim all sorts of Fruit trees from moss, cankers, and all superfluous branches; plasse your hedges, and lay you quicksets close and entire together, plant Roses, Gooseberries, and any fruit that grows upon small bushes; graf●… at the latter end of this month upon young and tenderstockes, but by all means overlade not the stocks: Inaugurat●…in in this month, or any other, as soon as the bark will rise, and also set any slips, branches, or young scion.  
Lastly, for your health, take heed of cold, forbear meats that are slimy and phlegmatic, and if need require, or purge, bathe, or bleed, as art shall direct you.  
In the month of March, make an end of sowing of 
March.  all sorts of small pulse, and begin to sow Oats, Barley and Rye, which is called March Rye; graft all sorts of fruit trees, and with young plants and scions replenish your nursery, cover the roots of all trees that are bared and with fat earth lay them close and warm, if any tree grow barren, boar holes in his root, and drive hard wedges or pins of oak wood therein, and that will bring fruitfulness; transplant all sorts of Summer flowers, and give new comfort of manure and earth to all early outlandish flowers, especially to the crown Imperial, Tulippos, Hyacynth and Narcissus of all shapes and colours, cut down underwood for fuel or fencing, and look well to your cwes, for than is the principal time of yeaning: And lastly, bathe often, bleed but upon extremity, purge not without good counsel, and let your diet be cool and temperate.  
In the month of April finish up all your barley seed 
April.  and begin to sow your hemp and flax; sow your garden seeds, and plant all sorts of herbs; finish grafing in the stock, but begin your principal inauguration for then the rind is most pliant and gentle; open your hives and give the Bees free liberty, leave to succour them with food, and let them labour for their living: Now cut down all great Oak timber, for now the bark will rise and be in season for the Tanner; Now scour your ditches, and gather such manure as you do make in the streets and high ways into great heaps together, lay your meadows, fleight your corn grounds, gather away stones, repair your high ways, fet Ozyers, and Willows, and cast up the banks and munds of all decayed fences.  
Lastly for your health, either purge, bathe or bleed, as you shall have occasion, and use all wholesomerecreation, for them moderate exercise in this month, there is no better Physic.  
In the month of May sow Barley upon all light 
May.  sands and burning grounds, so likewise do your hemp and flax, and also all sorts of tender garden seeds as are Cucumbers and Melons, and all kind of sweet smell ling herbs and flowers; ●…allow your stiff clays, Sommer-stirre your mixed earths, and foil all light and lose hot sands. In this month begin to prepare all barren earths; for Wheat and Rye, Bourue bait, Stubgorsse or Furs, and root out Broome and Ferne, begin to fouled your sheep, lead forth manure, and bringhome fuel and fencing, weed your winter corn, follow your common works, and put all sorts of cattle to grass, either in pasture or teather; put your mares to the horse, let nothing be wanting to furnish the Dairy: and now put off all your winter-fed fat cattle, for now they are scarcest and dearest, put young steers and dry kine now to feed at fresh grass, and away with all Pease fed sheep for the sweetness of grass, mutton will pull down their prices,  
Lastly for your health, use drinks that will cool and purge the blood, and all other such Physical precepts, as true Art shall prescribe you; But beware of Mountebanks and old wife's tales, the latter hath no ground, and the other no truth but apparent cozenage.  
In the month of june, carry sand, marvel, lime, 
June.  and manure of what kind soever to your land; bring home your coals and other necessary fuel fetched far off, shear early fat sheep, sow all sorts of tender herbs, cut ranckelow meadows, make the first return of your fat cattle, gather early Summer fruits, distil all sorts of plants and herbs whatsoever.  
And lastly for your health, use much exercise thin diet and chaste thoughts.  
In the month of july, apply your hay-harvest, for 
july.  a day slacked is many pounds lost, chiefly when the weather is un constant, shear all manner of field-sheepe, Sommer-stir rich stiff grounds, foil all mixed earth's and latter soil all loose hot sands, let herbs you would preserve, now run to seed, cut of the stalks of outlandish flowers, and cover the roots with new earth, so well mixed with manure as may be, sell all such Lambs as you feed for the Butcher, and still lead forth sand, marvel, lime and other manure, fence up your Copses, gaze your elder underwoods, and bring home all your field-timber.  
And lastly for your health, abstain from all Physic, bleed not, but upon violent occasion, and neither meddle with Wine, womans, nor other Wantonness.  
In the month of August apply your Corn 
August.  harvest, shear down your Wheat and Rye, mow your Barley and Oats, and make the second return of your fat Sheep and cattle; gather all your Summer greater fruit, as Plumes, Apples, and Pears, make your Summer, or sweet Perry and Cider; fet slips and scyens of all sorts of Gillyflowres, and other flowers, and transplant them that were set the spring before, and at the end of this month, begin to winterrigge all fruitful soils whatsoever; geld your Lambs, carry manure from your dove-coats, and put your Swineto the early or first mast: And lastly for your health, shun feasts and banquets, let physic alone, hate wine, and only take delight in drinks that are cool and temperate.  
In the month of September, reap your Pease, 
September.  Beanes, and all other Pulse, making a final end of your harvest; now bestow upon your Wheat land, your principal manure, and now sow your Wheat and Rye, both in rich, and in barren climates; now put your swine to mast of all hands, gather your winter fruit, and make sale of your wool, and other summer commodities; now put off those stocks of bees, you mean to sell or take for your own use; close thatch, and dawbde warm, all the surviving hives, and look that no drones, mice nor other vermin be in or about them, now thatch your stacks and reeks, thrash your seed Rye and Wheat and make an end with your cart of all foreign journeys.  
Lastly, for your health in this month use Physic, but moderately, forbear fruits that are two pleasant or rotten, and as death shun riot and surfeit.  
In the month of October, finish up your Wheat-seed, 
October.  scour ditches and ponds, plash and lay hedges and quickset, transplant, remove, or set all manner of fruit trees of what nature or quality soever; make your winter cider and perry, spare your private pastures and eat up the corne-fields and commons, and now make an end of winter-ridging, draw furrows to drain and keep, dry your new swoon Corn, follow hard the making of your malt, rear all such calves as shall fall, and wean those foals from your draught mares, which the Spring before were foaled; now sell all such sheep as you will not winter, give over folding, and separate Lambs from the Ewes which you purpose to keep for your own stock.  
Lastly, for your health refuse not any needful physic at the hands of the learned Physician, use all moderate sports, for any thing now is good which reuiueth the spirits.  
In the month of November, you may sow either 
November.  wheat or Rye in exceeding hot soils, you may then remove all sorts of fruit trees, and plant great trees, either for shelter or shadow; now cut down all sorts of timber, for ploughs, carts, axeltrees, naves, harrows, and other husbandly offices, make now the last return of your grass fed cattle; bring your swine from the mast, and feed them for slaughter, rear what calves soever fall, and broke up all such Hemp and Flax as you intent to spin in the winter season.  
Lastly, for your health, eatc wholesome and strong meats well spiced and dressed free from rawness, drink swect wines, and for difiestion ever before cheese prefer good and moderate exercise.  
In the month of December, put your sheep and 
December.  swine to the Pease reeks, and fat them for the slaughter and market; now kill your small Porks and large Bacons, lop hedges and trees, saw out your timber for building, and lay it to season, and if your land be exceeding stiff, and rise up in an extraordinary furrow, then in this month begin to plow up that ground whereon you mean to sow clean Beans only, now cover you dainty fruit trees all over with canvas and hide all your best flowers from frosts and storms with rotten old horse litter; now drain all your cornfields and as occasion shall serve, so water and keep moist your meadows; now become the Fowler with piece, nets and all manner of engine, for in this month no foul is out of season: Now fish, for the carp, the bream, Pike, Tench, Barbel, Peale and Salmon. And lastly for your health, eat meats that are hot and nourishing; drink good wine that is neat, sprighty and lusty, keep thy body well clad, and thy house warm, forsake whatsoever is phlegmatic, and banish all care from thy heart, for nothing is now more unwholesome, than a troubled spirit.  
Many other observations belong unto the office of our skilful Ploughman or Farmar; but since they may be imagined too curious, too needless, or too tedious, I will stay my pen with these already rehearsed, and think to have written sufficiently touching the application of grounds and office of the Ploughman.   
FINIS.