A DISCOURSE OR HISTORY OF BEES. SHOWING Their Nature and usage, and the great profit of them. Whereunto is added the causes, and cure of blasted Wheat. And some remedies for blasted Hops, and Rye, and Fruit. Together with the causes of smutty Wheat: All which are very useful for this later age. Written by RICHARD REMNANT. LONDON, Printed by Robert Young for Thomas Slater, dwelling in duck lane at the white Swan. 1637. To the Reader. HEaring and reading the Discourses and Writings of very many about Bees, and finding most of my Countrymen not over skilful in the way of keeping and means of preserving them; as also of the way of preserving wheat, and other things from blasting by mildews: I having of late had a little leisure to write, and considering the great good and benefit that may be made of this knowledge; have therefore (though rudely) penned this little Treatise, for the benefit of present and future ages: and am willing also, if this prove profitable and acceptable, to add something more hereunto of further use. And so praying God to give a blessing, I rest Thine in the Lord, RICHARD REMNANT. The Contents of the first Book. Chapter. 1. OF the nature of Bees. Folio. 1. Chapter. 2. How Bees are bred. Folio. 2. Chapter. 3. Of their work. Folio. 9 Chapter. 4. Of the getting of Bees, and how to find and remedy the loss of the Queen. Folio. 13. Chapter. 5. Of the time to remove Bees, and placing them to the best advantage. Folio. 15. Chapter. 6. How to defend your Bees, and preserve them from their enemies. Folio. 18. Chapter. 7. Of swarms and swarming. Also in this chapter is showed how to feed Bees: Also how and when to drive full and fat stocks. Folio. 22. Chapter. 8. How to choose and know the best Hives for store: Also how to help them that have too much, or too little food: Thirdly, signs of the first swarming: Fourthly, how to recover Bees that are chilled with cold. Folio. 31. Chapter. 9 How to make honey, mead, and wax. Folio. 34. Chapter. 10. Bees and women compared. Folio. 39 The Second Book. Chapter. 1. OF the cause and cure of blasted wheat. folio. 40. Chapter. 2. How this knowledge come to be so long hid, and now discovered. folio. 43. Chapter. 3. The cause of smutty wheat, with the best remedy that I can advise you. folio. 44. A HISTORY, OR DISCOURSE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. 1. Of the nature of Bees. IT is not my purpose here, either to follow or to confute other men's opinions concerning Bees: I shall briefly set down my own knowledge in this subject. To reveal the whole nature of Bees is very hard, and to little purpose; at least no great use or benefit if it were done: I purpose therefore to discover only so much as may serve for common use among us: And first of the nature of Bees. They are of nature very hot and fiery; The nature of Bees. whence it is that the honey which they gather is likewise hot, though extracted out of cold and mild flowers. They are blown by the females: Their sex is male and female: They are an entire female Monarchy, having the males among them but one part of the year: Their Queen hath her guard, which depart not from her, which (together with their admirable order, and industry) do represent a well governed Commonweal. There is but one sort of good or useful Bees in our Country, having six legs, four wings, two fangs, one beak or bill, few intralls, five senses, very quick and apt for use: all of one colour and form, but differ in quantity, sex, beauty, quality, employment and labour, care and providence. CHAP. 2. How Bees are bred. THe breeding of Bees is after this manner: The females do blow their brood in the cells or holes of their combs. In the uppermost part of their combs they lay up and keep honey for their winter provision; in the lower part they breed during all the warm months; the first and last of the year they breed females, the second or third course is males and females, if the stock be good and forward to swarm, else they breed no males till the middle part of the year: for till they have use of males they breed them not. For they know when they blow males, and when females; which I prove thus. First, because they never blow males till they have need of them. Secondly, it is apparent by this reason, because they place them altogether in the middle of their brood, and the females round about them, and make the cells or holes in which they blow them either higher or lower, fit for the body of the sex which they blow. When they blow males they increase it higher, and when females they gnaw it down lower, A strange instinct. as any that will observe the work may see. Wherein we may note a strange instinct beyond other creatures, in that they know when they breed males, and when females, and when to breed each: which is indeed wonderful, as also many other things in the their commonwealth are: as, their government, and the manner of it; their comely order and valour, their labour and dainty work, their care and providence. All which are worthy the beholding and consideration of all people, both rulers and subjects: and I wish that good use might be made of all the visible works of the Lord, I mean the admirable works of creation and preservation: for the works of the Lord are wonderful, and, I am sure, aught to be sought out of all that fear him. But to return whence I digressed. That there be males and females I shall now show you. There are visibly to be observed two sorts among them, the one bigger, the other lesser: the bigger, which we call Drones, are indeed the male Bees; they work not, but live on the labour of the rest: whence it is that we give that name Drone, Reasons to show that the lesser Bees are the females. to our unprofitable lubbers in the commonwealth. That the lesser Bees are the females, I thus prove: It is the female that bears the seed in her body, but the lesser Bee bears the seed in her body and blows it, therefore they are the females. A second reason is this: There is not one male or Drone in the stock all the winter (which I will anon prove) therefore the lesser Bees (being only there) must of necessity be the females: and they blow or breed when the males or Drones are not among them, which proves them to be females. Yet all the summer the males are among the females; and are by the females bred for generation, and kept for that use: But they kill them for necessity; for the males are exceeding great eaters and wasters of the winter provision, therefore the females kill them, and had rather be without their sweet company, than starve in their winter. I call it their winter when they cannot gather food, which is their means to maintain life: for so soon as ever the honey gathering fails in the fields, the females kill the Drones or males, or drive them out * Ignavum fucos pecus à praesepibus arcent. , and suffer none in winter. Now whereas some stocks have so many Drones that the female Bees are long in killing them, and so spend their precious time about that, when as they would be otherwise employed: And whereas other stocks are so weak and poor, that they are not able to kill them; therefore I advise you at that time of the year to help your Bees in killing them: which you may do in this manner. When and how to kill Drones. In the heat of the day in August (which is the usual time when hony-gathering gins to fail) then stand at the mouth of your Hives that are full of Drones, and as they come out, bruise some of them with your fingers on the stocks-mouth, and make the honey come forth of them, and leave them among the females; and so will they suck the honey out of them, and fall to do it themselves, and kill their Drones. But for the help of them that have many Drones, Drone-pots: Set these pots, and stop them close to the Hive mouth, in the heat of the day. and are weak or few themselves, and so cannot so well do it, for them provide drone-pots to do it: which pots are made of Osiers, the twigs being set so close that the Drones cannot get out, and yet wide enough for the females or Queen to go through. But because the catching in these pots doth trouble the Bees, therefore I esteem it the better way, if you dare, to kill them with your fingers. Concerning the matter in which they blow or breed, The matter in which they blow. it is something that they gather of the flowers or plants, and bring home, and put it into the holes or cells of their combs, and mix it finely with a little water, and then blow in it a small thing, less than, or as little as a flie-blote, which comes to be as big as a great Maggot, and coloureth brown; and within eighteen or twenty one days, as the weather is colder or hotter, they come forth. Note, Heat brings forth in eighteen or twenty one days. that it is the heat of the Bees that brings the bloat to maturity, as hens or fowls do eggs: and herein the male hath his use also, for he is very hot. The place (as I told you) of blowing the males, is in the midst of the combs and in small number, the females round about them, in exceeding greater number, and the Queens on the edges of the combs, in the midst and safest place of the Hive. The males cell is bigger than the females, and the Queen's cell bigger than the common Bees, and fare thicker and stronger: and but five, six or seven in an Hive. Whether the Queen's blow the Queens I am not very certain, but I take it to be so, Queen's blow Queens. because of the fairness and excellency of the creature, and the difference that is between her and the common Bees. But that there is any odds, excellency, or use of the males one above another, I find not: neither is there any other use of the males but for generation, and breeding, and helping to bring the brood to maturity: and they are great eaters, and labour not, but play and sport in and out, and take the air when it is warm, for their pleasure, and so cleanse their bodies, and back again to eat and sleep: a dainty life, from which good Lord deliver me. The manner of conveying seed. The females receive seed from the Drones in Summer time, after what manner I cannot well tell: But there is in the hinder part of the male or Drone a little white thing like the instrument of generation; take one of them alive and crush the body of it somewhat hard between your fingers, and you shall see it put forth. Also the females have near their stings a little neat place of receipt for generation: but whether they receive the seed at the head or tail, I am not certain; but if at the tail, the females must needs hold their stings very close: for if the males were pricked or venomed thereby, common sense (without reason) would make them take heed of coming there again; which many reasonable creatures (the more shame for them) cannot do. The Queen, being a female, hath a sting in her tail, but useth it not, The beauty and use of the Queen. it being only for distinction of sex and ornament. She is longer and something bigger than a common Bee, much clearer and more beautiful, and yellower under the belly and the legs. She rules and governs all by commanders, and in working time goeth from place to place in the Hive: she hath a special guard about her of the fairest and most valorous Bees, which always attend her within and without, especially when she comes abroad. And in swarming time you may in the heat of the day sometimes see her. For a little before they swarm she will come abroad, and fly about to take the air, and make herself fit to go with the swarm, and to harden herself: for she is very tender and chilly, The Queen is very choice and chilly, and soon lost, which done ruins the commonwealth. by reason she comes seldom abroad. There is one of them always in the Hive, both winter and summer; and but one only, except it be in swarming time: For more than one the Commons will not endure, and without one they cannot subsist, but are distract, dispersed, wander and work not, but come to nought and perish; which is worthy our observation, and may be helped, as I will show hereafter. Furthermore the Queens are the calling Bees, and are bred to go forth one with every swarm: and if two go in a swarm, then will there be a combustion among the commons, and one will kill another, striving which of those Queens shall govern; and so will fight till one of those Queen be killed: which done, they will be all quiet and fall to work. This is worth the noting; Therefore to remedy it, How to make peace when there is variance about the Queen. I take away one of the Queens from such a swarm, and put her into the old stock again: for sometimes all the Queens go away with the swarms, and then the old stock will perish. Now in swarming time, when they first begin to swarm, there are 5, 6, or 7. Queen-Bees, more or less, as they are prepared for swarming, and they are all calling Bees: and after the first swarm about ten days they call for a second: and so continue in calling till they have done casting. When they call. Between the first and second swarms, commonly they stay twelve or fourteen days, but for the second and third, but a day or two, if the weather hinder not. Calling Bees. The Queens have several notes, and call out one bigger, another lesser, one note under another; And I think can alter their notes as they list; for the lesser noted Bee calls last, and is most shrill and earnest, and goeth away with the second swarm: as once I found, when I had a swarm went out and came home again, and went into the next stock. And there the smaller noted Bee, called a day or two, till the swarm came away again: And the smaller note being gone in the second swarm, than the next small note doth alter, and calleth as shrill and loud as the former. These Queens go calling round about, and over all the stock (as you may hear in an evening.) And they rest not till the swarms are set forth: and if there be more Queens bred than to furnish every swarm with one, than so soon as the stock hath done swarming, they kill all those Queens save one, and bring them out of the Hive. The Queens are gentle, amiable, very loving. The Queen is a very gentle and loving Bee, and will not sting: And if you chance to rescue her from danger, or secure her any way (as I have often done) then will she fly to you, and hang about you, and not willingly departed from you, which is worth your noting and observation. Look carefully after the Queen in swarming time, but trouble not the swarm. Now in time of swarming, it behoves you carefully to look after your Queen Bee: for she is often beaten down, or falleth among the weeds, beans, or grass, or such like, near the swarm; which if you do not espy and help, all the swarm will return home again: and then it is a chance if ever they come forth again. Which you may prevent, by looking diligently for the Queen; who is easily found, because wheresoever she is, there the guard will sit fast about her; who are a knot or clump of Bees as big as a Tennisball, or somewhat bigger, according as the swarm is in quantity. Therefore in swarming time you must look about diligently near the Bees, and if you find her fallen at the mouth of the Hive, or elsewhere, take her up and put her to the swarm. The Queens lie most commonly in the middle of the swarm, and are safely guarded, and carefully attended: a thing worthy observation. CHAP. 3. Concerning their Worke. THe common Bees, (as I said before) they are females, and are bred in fare greater number than the other. For they are the working Bees: and many of them are lost in foul weather. Also they have many enemies, and so perish by them. These are they that fight for, and defend the rest: and so are in danger. Besides, they are the first that endure penury: for they spare their food (when it gins to be scarce) to maintain their Queen: In cold weather keep the Hive close in breeding time. also they are often chilled in the brood; therefore in breeding time, when the weather is cold, it is good to keep the mouth of your Hive somewhat close, but especially in the night: and keep the Hives warm. Also you must endeavour to kill and destroy all their enemies, to prevent all dangers, to cure all diseases, to cleanse them in the spring time, and to accommodate them with necessaries as you can; which to do I shall show hereafter. Their curious work. Concerning the manner of their working, it is very dainty, curious and exact: their combs placed so, as they may pass between them, and come at every cell or hole to lay up honey or to breed in: And always in warm weather, they cleanse and repair their work, and in cold weather, they lie or sit there close together, to keep themselves warm. They gather wax all the year, from the first gathering to the last, from the willow to the blowing Ivy: but they gather their honey in warm months, except it be cold and dry; and when the honey dews fall, they gather abundantly. The manner of their gathering honey and wax. They take up or draw the honey with a fine little beak like a Gnat, and carry it home in a little bladder, or thing like the crap of a bird or hen, in the forepart of their bodies, and lay it up in their cells or holes, and cover it over finely with thin wax, and so keep it for provision. The honey, when it is first extracted or drawn, is as thin as any rock water: but by the heat of the Bees, and age, it becometh thick and hard. The wax is gathered of the flowers or blooms, with the fangs of the Bee; and so she puts it to her thighs, and rubs one against another to fasten it on: and then carry it home, and make the combs in their Hives. The heat of the Bees maketh the wax so warm and so pliable, that at the first gathering they can work it and turn it to their purpose. Their combs are set all upright, beginning at the top, and so working down to the bottom. The frame and manner of it is curious, with holes on both sides of the combs, many hundreds: yet are they none of them just one against another, but placed triangular, one against three, and that most neatly and artificially: which argueth their feeling to be good, for they do it in the dark. They season their honey with salt water; which (if they be fare from the Sea) they suck out of sinks or old ditches, and places that incline to salt-peter: but about their brood they use fresh water: 〈◊〉 wa●… them. Therefore it is not amiss that you set brine, or salt water in some place near them, and freshwater in time of drought. They work very diligently, omitting no time to gather in, that is any thing fit, but will abroad, though it be to the hazard of their lives. Their sight is very clear, specially fare off, The several and quick use that they have of all the five senses. Sight. which guides them abroad, and directs them home, though sometimes in still and mild weather they are three or four miles off from home: but their sight is not so quick near hand; for sometimes they fly against you if you come suddenly cross them, and sometimes near the mouth of their Hive, they fly aside, and miss the holes: then up they fly a little further off, and take better view, and so fall right. Their smelling also is exceeding quick, Smelling. for they will sent honey a mile from them, and make haste to it: And by this sense of smelling, they find the strange Bees that are not of their own Hive, and seek presently to expel them. Their taste is as active as their other senses; Taste. thereby they make choice of waters, and all other gatherings for their use and purpose. Their hearing also is very good, Hearing. and they delight in musical sounds: of which observation comes the sounding of pans in swarming time: but it usually doth more hurt than good. 〈◊〉 ●…ke ●gainst ●…g with too soon. For if pans be rung, or other troublesome noise till the swarm be all out, it causeth them to go back again, or some other distraction it causeth among them. Therefore ring not except the swarm be flying away; and then make the greatest sound you can to prevent it, and throw up dust, or hog's dung, or cow's dung to disturb and trouble them; so will they settle or go home again. The Commons are all very laborious and careful to make provisions for food and generation: they are very heedful and observant, also fearful of dangers, but marvellous valorous if they apprehend an enemy approaching, or any offensive creature, and will resolutely hazard their lives in defence of their Commonwealth, and sting other Bees to death that come to rob or hurt them. Now in stinging one another, they lose not their stings, for their skin is so dry and thin that their spears come away again without hurt to themselves: but in stinging thick and moist skinned creatures, they leave their stings behind them and die, The nature of envy. for their intrals come forth therewith: yet are they so furious, that though they die for it, they will do it: the which the Prophet seems to note, when he saith that his cruel enemies came about him like Bees; which may be understood, not only in regard of their multitude, but also in regard of their great malice and fury, and also in regard of their intent, viz. to kill and destroy: The sequel of which their fury proved (likewise) like this of Bees; they destroyed themselves. And this is the nature of envy, that it will not or cannot be guided by reason: from which good Lord deliver us. And thus much of the nature and breeding, comely order and valour of this little creature, which is a feminine Monarchy, and orderly Commonwealth, consisting of an amiable, loving and gentle Queen, and of proper, comely, able, attentive and diligent guard and commanders, with loyal and laborious, provident and valorous Commons: all worthy admiration, and serious observation. CHAP. 4. Of the getting of Bees, and how to find and remedy the loss of the Queen. IN the next place I come to set down my advice to all those that have a desire to exercise, or employ themselves about Bees. And first concerning the obtaining or getting them. Some have received a superstitious and foolish conceit, that if they be bought with money they will not prosper: but I say, let them not be stolen, or gotten unjustly: for stolen goods will not prosper; or if they prosper outwardly, thy conscience will suffer for it, and thou shalt have a greater loss inwardly than thy gain will be outwardly. Therefore regard not old wives fables, but get them lawfully, though thou buy them with money, and then thou mayest expect a blessing. And for my part I have good store, I thank God, yet I have both bought and sold to the value of a thousand pound by the year, for diverse years together. Now I should come to speak of removing of Bees, but that I think fit first to discover a very needful observation, and, for aught that ever I have heard, of all men unknown. And that is, How many, both stocks and swarms, do perish having lost their Queen. Which I will here teach how you may both find out, and remedy. How to know when the Queen is lost. When you see any that have good store of Bees and work not, then be you sure that something is amiss with them: Either they are annoyed with dead brood: Or disturbed with some enemies, as Aunts, or mice, and the like: Or else they have lost their Queen: the which in an evening you may discern by the mournful noise that they will make. Indeed they will mourn, if mice, toads, emmets, or other hurtful or noisome thing, be gotten among them: but most of all if they have lost their Queen, roaring and running about the Hive, stopping or staying a while, and then begin again in lamenting manner. Then look under them, and if you espy no hateful thing, be sure the Queen is lost; then bestir you to help it in time: the which I have done after this manner. How to restore a Queen. I do usually save a poor swarm at the end of summer: and looking over my Bees in winter, and again at the spring, I found a good stock that had but few Commons; and looking over them again, I observed another good stock which had lost their Queen. Then took I my poor one, and stilled the Bees with smoke, & knocked down the Bees and work and all, upon a cloth, and so found the Queen, and put her into the middle of that stock which wanted the Queen; and I put the commons to the other which wanted commons: and so both were accepted, the Queen where a Queen was wanting, and the commons where commons were wanting: and so both my good stocks were preserved; and only the little poor one (thus for necessity) ruinated, which at the best was not worth above one shilling six pence. I preserved two good stocks thus in the spring also, which at that time fell to work presently, that before had left working: No Drones alive in winter. and now in both these times I found not one Drone living: but in the spring I found some to be blown and white in the combs, but not come forth of their cells; which proves plainly the little Bees with the stings to be females. Now if you find a swarm or stock in summer that hath lost their Queen, How to preserve a stock in summer that hath lost the Queen. you may preserve it by putting a little swarm to it: for in putting a Queen where a Queen wants, or common Bees where common Bees are wanting, in both these cases either Queen or commons will be received: but else they will fight and kill one another. But now, In what case Queen or commons will be received. if you have no little swarm to save your swarm that hath lost their Queen, than put that where the Queen is lost home again to the old stock: Do it thus. Knock it down upon a broad board, and set a little board for them, whereon to run up to the old stock. CHAP. 4. Of the time to remove Bees: and placing them to the best advantage. I Come now to direct concerning removing, setting, and ordering of Bees: and first of the time of removing them. The best time to remove your Bees, is in February, or a little before they begin to gather. Indeed you may remove your stocks in any of the cold months, (so that you be careful to carry them upright, and not squat or bruise them:) but their work is stiffest and least honey in it about February, and therefore then best to carry. ☞ In removing your Bees, always remember this observation, to set the same side foremost, that was foremost before; and the same place of the Hive for their passage out, which they had before you removed them, or else you will put their work out of order. If you be driven to remove your stocks in warm weather, you must remove them the space of a mile or two, or else they will go back to the place whence you did remove them, and so many of them will be lost and perish. But swarms are best to be removed as soon as they are hived, for than they are unacquainted where they stand, and there is nothing then in them which is apt to be bruised, or to take harm. Where and how to place your Bees, after you have removed them. Now when you have them, let them be set in the best place you have, where they may have a pretty fair flight; and in a sweet air, and the ground made clean before them: the grass kept cut, or the ground hard, and swept sometimes. Also not near any deep water, by the space of ten or twelve score paces, if you can avoid it: for the wind will beat them down and drown them. The seat. The best seat or stool for them is a round board, or stone fit to the Hive, only left an hand breadth wider than the Hive before, for a place for the Bees to alight upon; and set it a little leaning forward, for that the rain may run off, if any be driven or fall upon it: yet to keep them from rain and wet you must cover them with boards, if they be straw-hives: Cover them. or with straw-hackles, if they be twig-hives: And be sure to keep them dry, for the wet will decay both the Hive and the Bees work. Set them on a single stump, the board fast nailed; or if on stone, et as few stumps as will set them fast, and as fare under the stool as may be, to prevent the getting up of mice and other vermin. Prevent their enemies. Also be careful to set them where no emmets come; for they will get up into the Hive, and steal out all the honey, and starve and taint the Bees. But if they come at unawares, then shave the stumps on which the Bees stand, and anoint them round the middle with tar, which will keep the Emmets from going up: And throw seething water on the emmets, or destroy their hill or nest, if you can find it: and kill the mice with traps or how else you can. Set your Bees about two foot above the ground, or higher if need be: let their flight be to the South or Southward, and set trees, or other shelter not far from them, to break off the wind; and let not the Sun shine hot upon the bare Hives: for their work will be in danger to melt. Neither need you to or cover them the more for winter, for the cold hurts them not, ☜ Note this, they must not be set too hot in the Sun. so they be defended sure from the wet: Therefore keep the Hives whole and close, so as two or three Bees may get in and out; for in cold weather, they lie close and sleep, but spend not. Set Gore, Withies, or Palm-trees near them, What trees and flowers to set near them. for that is the first of their gatherings: Also Cherry-trees, Plum and Pear, and any fruit trees: Also Rosemary, Time, Borage, Bugloss, Balm, and Violets, Wall and stock-gilly-flowers, Rockets, and any other hollow bloom; especially Beans, Pease, Turnip, and seed-Cabbage. Also they gather much of Buck-wheat and Woad, but both these are faint and foggy, and overlade them, and cause them to fall down and perish. Therefore at such time of the year lay salt under all your Hives, within upon the stool, which will quicken your Bees, and put vigour into them, and make them the better able to labour. When and how to put salt under them. Do the like at other times, when you see your stocks that have honey in them to be lazy and dull: but those that work not, being faint for want of honey, must be fed, whether they be stock or swarm; which how to do I will hereafter show; because many (for want of skill how to feed them) do it to no purpose, and beside, spend more honey in doing it, by a great deal, than needs. CHAP. 6. How to defend your Bees, and preserve them from their enemies. Keep your Bees sweet and clean, and always note and observe what enemies they have. AS all Commonwealths are infested with some enemies, sometimes many, sometimes fewer: so likewise is this Commonwealth of Bees. Their great enemies are Hornets, Swallows, Titmice, martin's, and the like; besides Wasps, and robbing Bees: their lesser are Emmets, Spiders, etc. which I have spoken of before: ☞ Were it not for the Hornet and the Swallow, Wax would be as cheap as tallow. Therefore destroy the nests and breeding places of these vermin: also the creatures themselves, as oft as you can take them. To take Hornets, set lime-twigs before their holes, if you cannot come at their nests to destroy them. To take Wasps, set glasses with wort or water sweetened with sweet fruit in it, or a little sugar melted and dissolved in the water: but sweet fruit is the best, for fear of drowing the Bees; for they will go into any thing that hath honey in it. Of Emmets and Mice I have spoken before: also toads, snails & spiders are noisome and hurtful to the Bee. Spider's will entangle and take them in their webs, and venom them to death, and suck out their honey: therefore brush down their webs, and kill them. Also robbing-Bees are great enemies, ☜ Robbers. and very frequent in the spring of the year and the fall of the lease; which to prevent, How to prevent them. you must often prove whether your stocks have Bees enough to keep them out. Those stocks which have not, you must keep the mouths of their Hives closer, so that few may get in. If you find that the robbers be too strong for your stock, and have made some great entrance thereinto, presently stop up that stock, though it be at noonday: then in the even, so that they may see to fly, open the hole, and let out the robbers, and be sure to have ready in your hand some white flower, or meal, or lime, or the like, and sprinkle it on them as they come out, thereby you shall know them as they fly: and mark whether they fly to some of your own stocks, or to your neighbours; for you shall see them presently fly home with the meal on their backs. Which when you have found, you may thus remedy: Take a long knife or a dagger, & thrust it into the robbing stock about the middle of the Hive, on both sides: and so a little break their work. This will make them leave robbing, and fall to work to make up their own breaches: and this will do the robbing stocks no hurt, but rather good: for they are commonly the fattest Bees which rob, who have enough or too much already; like those that are guided by sense, and so cannot tell when they have enough. Now after the robbers are thus gone out of your stock, as I have before shown, look in, and see if there be left Bees enough to live: shut them in close in the day time for a day, two or three, and let them out about sunset to take air: If your stocks be full, lay in three or four little hollow kiskes or quills to let in air, else the full Hives will stifle, yet they must be so little that a Bee get not through: but if all or the most part of your Bees be gone, if there be not above an handful of Bees left; then take away the stock quite, and save the honey. Better is it to do so than lose it, for want of Bees to defend it. Try often whether your stocks want Bees. Now in these robbing times you must try your stocks often, whether they want Bees or not; which you may do by looking in morning and evening: or by knocking on the side with a philip of your finger: if there be store, they will rush a pretty while: if few, they will give a little quick sound; by which you may perceive their quantity. Bees come to decay and be lost many ways, as in boisterous winds, or by faintness, by robbers and fight, by rotten combs, or dead brood. How you may keep them in heart and vigour, Take out the rotten combs and dead Brood. I have already showed; I shall now show you how to take off rotten combs, and to take out dead brood, or any other putrefaction. You shall know when there is dead brood or other putrefaction, by lifting them a little up on one side, when it is dark, and put your nose toward the work, and so shall you find an ill favour: then in an evening you may still the Bees, and take it out. That you may still your Bees do thus: Take a coal of fire, and near the Hive kindle a little dry straw, and cast upon it a little muck, or green weeds, to keep it from flaming, and to raise smoke: then take the infected Hive, How to still Bees. and hold it over the smoke two or three turns a little while, and the Bees will run up to the top of the Hive: then turn up the Hive, and you may see and smell where the dead brood or other putrefaction lieth. Some putrefaction sticks fast in the cells or holes, and is of a brown or deep yellowish colour, which should have been brood, but came not to perfection. Other putrefaction looketh somewhat white, and was a brood, but afterward took cold, and so was chilled, and perished before it came to maturity, and so turned to putrefaction: and you may discern it by thrusting your knife into the cells, if otherwise you cannot see it: and it is easy to discern the honey from the putrefaction. If the Bees stir while you are doing it, quiet them with smoke, and so drive them up again: and then take and cut out so much work as you find infected. When there is but little, they can bring it out themselves, but being much it will trouble them much, and be long in doing: or else it will taint and stench them up, and make them die, or leave their Hives. The reason why smoke rules them. Now the reason why smoke fears them, and offends them so much, is because of the quickness of their sight and smelling: but let it be quickly done, and away, and then they are quickly pleased, and come to themselves again: but to stand continually in a smoky or bad air they will not thrive: therefore set them not near a Kiln, or any noisome air, or where smoke may beat down upon them. As concerning rotten or decayed work, you may know it by feeling; it is crispy, and of an ash colour, and without any clamminess or wax in it. This you must cut off as high as it goeth, for they cannot work to it, but must gnaw it off. Blackness is no fault, but cometh by the heat of the Bees, and may endure long time notwithstanding. And thus being careful and diligent to keep your Bees sound and in plight, you may find by God's blessing the profit of your labours in the thriving of your Bees. CHAP. 7. Of swarming and hiving your Bees, dressing the Hives, and ordering the swarms. Swarming time. IF the year prove warm and kindly, not very wet nor very dry, then may you expect swarms in May: therefore prepare your seats and Hives against that time. If your Hives be old, be sure to air them well in the Sun: but lay them to air where Hens come not at them, for Bees will not abide the sent of Hens. If they be new Hives, How to dress the hives. remember to make them smooth and clean as you can, by cutting or pulling off the twigs or rinds, which stick lose in the Hive; for else the Bees will be troubled to pick it clean. Concerning the bigness of your Hives, you must fit them bigger or lesser, according to the bigness of your swarm, or time of the year, in forwardness or backwardness. And rub your Hives with bean, or oak, or willow, or other sweet leaves: and then stick the Hive with a stick cleft in four quarters, and cleft to the upper end within an handful, and take off the edges making the stick smooth and flat: then set it to the top of the Hive, and plash it four ways, and stick the lower ends fast into the Hive within six or eight inches of the bottom: and being bend and so set, they will stick fast. Also put two cloven sticks in the middle, one cross the other: let the wood whereof they are made be either withie, or hazel. Then when your swarm is come, sprinkle a little honey or other sweet thing, as wort, or sugar dissolved in fair water, which will make them take the better liking of the Hive. As soon as the swarm is settled, The hiving of Bees. go presently to hive it, for fear of rising, or other coming to it. If it knit or light on the body of a tree, or on some stiff thing that cannot be shaken; then with a neat little broom, or little green bough, sweep them into the Hive: or with a thin slice of wood, made smooth for the purpose, strike them in gently: or if you can come to set the Hive over them, with green twiggs move or stir them to make them run up into the Hive: but if they hang on a bough or other place that may be shaken, then put your Hive under them, and shake them in: and being high on a tree, take a clean linen upon your arm, to cast over the Hive, lest they fly out in bringing them down: and being come down, be sure to have a board in readiness to set them down upon. Then lay the Hive on the side, and turn it up gently, and cover the Hive, all save one side with the cloth: and that open side, you must raise, or set up with two stones or sticks, two or three inches high, for the Bees to go in and out: and if any remain behind, or fly up, and sit there again, then fetch them down in an empty Hive, and knock them down on the board or cloth, and so will they run to their fellows. And, as I told you before, remember carefully to look for a Queen. If it be hot weather when you Hive your Bees, then remember to cover or shade the Hive with boughs: else they will rise & fly away. Then at night, when they are all within the Hive, carry the swarm to the place appointed for them to stand in. But set them not too near any new-hived swarm, nor yet near the old stock from whence they came, for fear they creep together. Now if you chance to observe two forward or great swarms coming out together, stop up one stock with a fine linen cloth or grass, till the other be hived; What swarms to keep asunder, about which you must be quick. Then open the other and let it out, and cover the first hived or settled swarm by hanging a cloth over it: for twenty to one, if the latter risen swarm see or hear the first, but it will to it. But now if two little swarms, or late in the year, And what to unite. rise and go together, that is best of all, so that they agree and do not fight. Yea if they go not together, it is best to put them together: which you may do after this manner. When they are both hived, take the first, and set it on a board, and spread a clean cloth upon the board, if the board be not broad enough, and knock the last swarm down on the end of the board, by the first: which being set up two or three inches on the side, next to that which you have knocked down, they will of themselves run to the other swarm: and in their running up to the other swarm, you may see the Queen, which you must take away; she will not sting: and you may put her into the stock which she came from, unless you have any other swarm or stock which wanteth a Queen, unto which you may put her. Thus you may unite swarms, and so you shall have none little or poor. But if notwithstanding all your care two great or forward swarms do go together, which you think are too big (for a competent number is the best) you may divide or part them thus: First still the Bees with smoke, as is before showed: How to divide great swarms that are gone together. then having another Hive ready trimed and dressed, set it by upon a board teeled, or set up a little on one side: then beat or knock down some of the Bees where two are gone together, and in running or going to the empty Hive, one Queen will be found, which you must put to the empty Hive; and knock Bees out of the other, till you have a competent number: but be very careful that the Queens be divided too, or else the commons will together again, or perish for want of a Queen. The cause of fight among swarms. Thus also you may make to agree two little swarms which go together, or are put together, by taking away one Queen, and make them leave fight, which otherwise will dis-agree; for if there be fight or distraction among swarms, it is for want of a Queen; or having two Queens they will strive which shall govern till one be killed, and then they will be at peace. Also when you put two little swarms together, it is good to sprinkle strong beer, or strong ale among them, to make them all of one scent; so can they not find out one sort from another, but be all as one and agree. In the next place remember to heed your swarms, that they fly not away when the honey dews fall (for many honey dews do fall in gloomy weather:) and in such times they may chance stay a while, and work in their Hives, How to prevent swarms from flying away. and yet afterward leave all and be gone into the woods; where they from the Oaken leaves can gather more freely and readily: which to prevent, be sure to feed them with honey, by putting in a cane or kiske of honey into their Hives every morning, till they have gotten some store, and have some provisions in their Hives, which may give them content at home, and so keep them from straying abroad. How to feed Bees. Note this by the way, that Bees are not to be fed in the winter, but in the spring and summer, in cold or wet or over-dry weather; when honey is not to be gathered abroad, then feed your swarms, Times to feed in, are cold or wet or over-dry. else may they starve, or pine, or be out of heart, and not able to work. To feed them do thus: Take a kiske or cane that is hollow, and cut it so that you leave a knot at each end of the kiske: let the kiske be eight or twelve inches long, and in bigness answerable to the number of Bees in the swarm or stock that you feed. Then cut open and make the kisk hollow on the upperside, and there pour in the honey, and put it under the Hive: knit a string to the end of the kiske, to pull it out of the Hive: so may you put it in or pull it out quite, without raising of it. Thus you may feed your poor ones, at the Spring, when you find your stocks without honey. But if (notwithstanding all your diligence) you have some poor ones at the end of the year, then if you take any stock, save some honey combs to feed with, at the Spring: then in the Spring, when you see them gather, (if they want food) you may put in those preserved honey combs: which you may do after this manner: First still the Bees with smoke (but not too early in the morning, lest they take harm by the cold air: A very approved way of feeding Bees. ) then turn them up, and take out a comb near the Bees, wherein is no honey, and in stead thereof, place the honeycomb, and pin it in with thin spleets thrust through the Hive to fasten it: and set it so that the Bees may go between the combs: and this they will take for their own, and be content to stay. Otherwise, when honey is to be had in the fields, they will fly away, if they have none of their own. How to take Bees that you find in a Tree. But now if notwithstanding all your diligence a swarm happen to fly into the woods, and get into a hollow tree, or if you chance to find a swarm in a tree; if the tree be not your own, first get leave of the owner, and then take it out: which you may do after this manner. Cut an hole a little above the place where the Bees lie, and another a little below them, and set a prepared hive over the uppermost hole, and make a smoke without flame in the under hole, putting it in and out too and fro; and so you shall make the Bees to run up into the hive: then put a cloth over the hive, and tie it round with a line, and so bring it home. If the Bees be newly gone in, they will the sooner be gotten out; but if they have been there some time, and have gotten good store of provision in the tree before you find them, than they will hardly and with much ado leave it; then your best way will be to cut it off: which if it be but an arm of a tree, is easily done; or if in the body of a tree, where you can come at it, cut above it and below it; and being cut (a rope being first fastened about it) let it down as gently as you can, for fear of bruising and squatting: then stop the holes, or tie a cloth about them, and bring them home, and nail a board at the top to keep out the water: then set them in your garden, or some other convenient place. But now if there be no way to cut it down or to save it, then when it is fullest of honey take it: which you may do after this manner. Cut an hole under it, and take matches of brimstone, set them on fire and put under them, and stop the hole to keep in the air and vapour of the brimstone: and this will kill them stone dead. So may you take out the honey and wax, and make use of it. How and when to drive full and fat stocks. If the year be such that many honeydews fall, and your stocks prove so fat that they lie out, and will not swarm, then about the midst of July drive some of the fattest: which you may do thus: In an evening take the fat and full Hive, and set it upon a big joined stool or some other hollow frame, with the mouth upward: then take a prepared Hive, being sprinkled with honey, and set over it, and bind a cloth round about them, to keep the Bees in: then knock or rap the under Hive, to make the Bees go up to the empty Hive. This do often to move them and disturb them to make them run upward: and if you can, open or make an hole in the top of the under Hive; and with a little smoke under them, you may drive them upward, and so let them stand all night; and in the morning if you by knapping, perceive any Bees to remain still in the under Hive, then do so again till all or the most part be gone up: then take the upper Hive, and set it where the full stock stood: and take out the combs of the driven Hive, and put them into a pan or kettle: and in taking out the combs, shake or brush off the Bees (if any remain) so will they go to their old place to the new prepared Hive. Experience will make you more perfect and ready in these things. Be not fearful, but patiented and gentle, and in case of necessity, overrule your Bees by smoke, and so you may do about them whatsoever is fit: but if by chance you are stung by them, What to do when you are stung by the Bees. first pull out the sting presently, then wet your finger often with spittle, and apply to the place, and keep it wet and cool in the air: and then it will not smell. Also if you rub the place with Marygolds, or honey, or St. John's wort, is a good remedy unto some. How to make Bees swarm. If some stocks hang out somewhat long, and are not willing to swarm; to provoke them to swarm, do thus: Raise up the Hive on that side where the Bees lie out, about three or four inches high, and with a little smoke, and also by stirring and moving them, make them go up into their Hive: then let down the Hive close again to the stool, and rub the place where the Bees lay, with elder, May-weed, or hemlock, so will they abide in, and in short time swarm. But if this will not serve to make them swarm, then drive those that are full and fat, as is before showed. CHAP. 8. Wherein first is taught how to choose for store: Secondly, how to help them that have too little, and take from them that have too much: Thirdly, signs of the first swarming: Fourthly, how to recover Bees that are chilled with cold. FOr choice of the best for store, always keep them that have the fairest and the evenest work, neither too fat nor too lean, and full of Bees. If a swarm be very fat, choose rather to keep an old one of a middle weight, than that fat one; choose one about three pecks or a bushel weight, and not above: for if their combs be all full of honey, than they have no where to breed, and will not swarm, and may perish for want of Bees. Now if your Bees be too fat, Feed the lean, and take from them that are too fat. and all their combs full of honey; then at the spring of the year still your Bees, and cut off the combs two or three in the middle a foot high, so will they work new, and breed: And if than you have any too poor and light, then feed them as is before showed. Now in choosing your Bees for store, if you find that their work is crumbling, or crisping into small crumbs, as big as a great pins-head, then be sure those Bees are faulty, or robbers, or strange Bees haunt them, or they dislike something. And if your Bees be kindly to swarm, you may keep them long, though old and black, for blackness is no fault so long as they be sound. If a stock swarm, and stand to health, and so hold out healthful for three years, I have known such stand eighteen or twenty years. Signs of the first swarm. Now to direct you to know the first swarming of your Bees, the signs are these. The males or Drones will commonly play forth three or four days, or more, before they swarm; and the Bees will play swarme-play; and sometimes you may see the Queen come out and in before swarming. Concerning the signs of second swarms, I have before shown by calling Bees; and also how to put the late little swarms together, or else put them back into the stock to preserve the stock, which else may dye for want of Bees. Now if notwithstanding all your care and diligence some prove light, as under the weight of eighteen or twenty one pounds weight, then when they have done gathering, close them up fast with cowdung and ashes mixed together, or lime and hair, which mice cannot gnaw, Set poor stocks into the house in winter. Bees eat not in winter. and set them (stool and all) into some cold dry place of your house or barn, where they may be little sensible of the change or alteration of the air; for as long as they stir not they eat not. And this is the reason that they may not be fed in cold winter, but only when they gather, at the spring or summer cold. Also keep your Hives close in winter, by putting stones at the mouth of the Hive, to prevent mice from going in; and open them wider, or shut them up closer in the spring time, according as the weather proves hotter or colder, and according to the strength or weakness of your stocks. Always in snowy weather remember to shut up your Bees close in sunshine, or else they will out, and be drowned or chilled. And sometimes in cold springs a poor swarm may be starved or benumbed before you are ware. I once found two or three so benumbed that none of them were able to stir, but sat as dead Bees. How to recover chilled Bees. Then made I an indifferent big fire before them, and took them off their sears, and turned them open against the fire, and so the warmth recovered them, and made them move: then I sprinkled honey in among them, and set them up, and laid salt on their stools, within the Hives: and then they came forth presently, and went to work: so than I fed them a little every day, and recovered them. Also you must remember to be very careful in keeping hogs, or horses, Be sure to keep cattles from them. or any cattles from coming near them to trouble them. Once I knew a good Nag stung to death by them. But if any trouble or disturbance chance, and they prove very angry and cruel, and unruly, then make a great smoke among them, and so they will quickly be quiet and still again. Many things more I could have showed concerning Bees, but these I have here delivered are things of use, and most needful to be known. How to take Bees. Now when God hath blessed your labours, and sent you store, you may receive the benefit of your labour, by selling or taking some. And always if any be over fat, and their combs all filled with honey, be sure to take them: which to do, and how to make and order your honey and wax, is showed in the next chapter. CHAP. 9 Of making honey, mead, and wax. How to take Bees. TO take your Bees do thus: untwist an old rope or cord, and of the several licheses, cut pieces six or eight inches in length: then melt Brimston in a pan or potsherd, and dip the pieces of cord into it, and wet it round as a candle: then take some little tub, or deep bowl, or else dig an hole in the ground, and lay two sticks over it, and then light or kindle your match, and then put them on a short candlestick, or a piece of clay, and set it into the bowl or hole, and set the stock of Bees over it, and keep in the air round about the Hive with an old cloth, and so the steam or vapour of the brimstone will kill the Bees stone dead: How to make honey. then take out the combs, and brush off the Bees, if any hang on, and break out the dead brood, if any be: then put all those combs that have honey in them, into a pan or kettle, and bruise them together: and strain it through a thin cloth-bag: or if you will have your honey very fine, let it run through a sieve without crushing. Now if your honey were gathered on good land, in a good soil, it will need no warming: but if on course or clay land, you must set it on the fire when it is strained, and make it twice blood-warme; then stir it well, and put it into the vessel where you intent to keep it; and after a while scum it, and it will be candied. Mead. How to make Mead. Now when you have taken as much honey out of your combs or pulse as you can do, then wash your pulls with water made blood-warme, and make your Mead with that. And if you desire to have your Mead very good and strong, make it so full of the honey, that it will bear a hen-egge swimming as broad as a six pence on the top: then set it over the fire, and boil it well, and take the scum clean off; then set it a clearing into a kive or tub, two or three days till it be clear; and then draw it off from the lees or grounds, and put it up into a vessel; but stop it not too close, for the strength of it will tear the vessel in pieces. Also if you will, you may put in a bag of spices thereinto in boiling. But now, Metheglin. how to make metheglin I purpose not to teach you; for it is part of my present trading: both honey and metheglin have an excellent virtue for many cures; being moderately taken they do remedy many diseases. The good use of honey, mead and metheglin They are especially good against a cold consumption, or cold watery stomach, as also against diverse other both inward & outward diseases. Also there may be admirable Baths made of it, and strange cures have been done therewith: it is proved in my own experience, in salves both for old and new wounds, that both wax and honey are very sovereign. Aches and itches. I have helped aches and strong itches in Baths made of honey. Once I had a friend had such a foul itch that he was like a Leper: then I took an empty wine Cask, called a Pipe, and took out one head, and made a liquor of water and honey, making it pretty strong with the honey, and heat it as hot as my friend could endure to stand in it, and put it into the Pipe, and caused him to stand in it up to his neck a pretty while; and this he did three days one after another, and was recovered as clear as ever. The like experience for aches. If the Bath be a little renewed with a little honey every day, it is the better. How to make wax. In making wax, you must put both your pulse and dry combs together into a kettle, and put an indifferent quantity of water thereunto, and make it boil on the fire: then take a thin cloth bag very strong, or a hair bag, and crush it as hard as you can; and have seething water ready by you to put into the bag, and to cast on the outside of the bag, and wind it up close, and crush and squeeze it hard. This do three or four times, and the wax will come clean away. Then let it stand in the keelar or bowl till it be cold; and then take up all the wax from the water, and melt it again with a little water in the bottom to keep the vessel from burning; and being melted put it into a pan or vessel, of what size you think fit to make your cake or trens of wax: but first anoint the vessel by the sides with a little honey, or butter, and so the wax will come clean off. The singular use of wax in salves and chirurgery, for cures both within and without, and for use in making candles for sweet and dainty burning, and the diverse other uses, is well known: therefore I say no more, but praise the Lord for all his marvellous benefits. Whether women may govern. And now, may there be any further use or application made of this knowledge? Yes surely: for the most wise God hath founded all his works in wisdom, and set them forth for us to make use of. How then shall I apply it? Why I raise this Quere: This is a feminine Monarchy, the females govern: But it is lawful for women to govern in a commonwealth? Ans. Yes, in some cases: that is, first, when the male sex is wanting; or secondly, otherwise disabled by natural disability: as here; nature not having enabled the male to govern, the female doth it. And surely God hath given this instance in nature, to confirm this truth: other instances we have even in sacred writ, as in Deborah the Prophetess: the Queen of the South that came to hear King Solomon: Queen Candace of Aethiopia, and others. But see this royal Queen of Bees, how qualified; she is fair, comely, loving, harmless, gentle, peaceable, yea a vigilant Queen, a royal emblem of government. See also the care, labour, diligence, providence and provision, watchfulness, valour, and loyalty, of this commonwealth. How would that commonwealth flourish, where the members joining in such unanimity, should all (setting aside private gain) aim wholly at the public weal; and in defence thereof esteem nothing too dear to bestow, no not their lives? as it is with these poor flies, who will resolutely hazard their lives for the general good. See also their policy too, in keeping and preserving the seed royal, and admitting but one to govern, to prevent contention and domestic broils. A rare pattern, and indeed a notable Hieroglyphic of a well governed Republic. But to descend lower: May the female from this example, urge a power of government in private houses and families? Let me answer in a distich or two of our English Maro, (whose baptised muse hath clothed virtue in a more pleasing habit, that so some may fall in love with her, if not for her own sake, yet at lest may come to the sight of her beauty in that poetic garb.) Ill thrives that hapless family that shows, Quarles. A cock that's silent, and an hen that crows. I know not which live more unnatural lives, Obeying husbands, or commanding wives. But I wish there were not too many of these: But how may it be remedied? Persuasions, instructions, and wholesome words from the husband may do much, if God add his blessing. Take that incomparable loving example of our Saviour toward his Church, set forth by S. Paul, And remember always that your labour is not in vain, for the woman is the glory of the man. And let me add, that a virtuous woman will do thee good and not hurt all the days of her life. But what if she be stubborn and self-willed, so that she is nothing the better for thy pains? I answer: It was thy hard hap to meet with her; and though thou do her no good, yet know that thy labour is with the Lord, and thy reward with the Almighty. Q But may not a woman govern in the house? Yes, if God hath made her able: for she was created to be an help: and especially in her husband's absence or weakness she ought to perform her best therein: and sometimes with meekness (remembering her sex,) to advise her husband: for sometimes two heads are better than one, & plus vident oculi quam oculus. And a wise woman will observe the ways of the family, & see to their labours & employments with diligence & watchfulness, and bring up her children in the fear & nurture of the Lord, & in all things be as careful as thyself; and all little enough in this age, wherein both servants and children are (many of them) very unruly and untoward; and there is work enough to keep them in order. More might be said, but this is most pertinent: and perhaps some of this may be censured by some. For what is so well done but may be amended? or what can any man do but some will calumniate? But my poor endeavours are intended to profit the willing and well minded. And so I end this little tract or direction, for the ordering of this little, yet profitable Commonwealth of Bees. CHAP. 10. Bees and women compared. OUt of the experience of ruling Bees may be learned how to rule most women: for there is some resemblance between them. So are women. 1. Bees are very sensible and apprehensive of any good or evil that is for them or against them. 2. Bees are very teachy and passionate. 3. Bees if they be well governed, and kept in good order, are very industrious, but let them be out of order, or ill handled, and there comes no good of them, but hurt and trouble. 1. Therefore to answer their senses which are so quick & apprehensive, let them not apprehend or see any evil from you by your example, but always good. 2. For their passions, overcome them by reasons and love: But some are so passionate, that reason cannot rule; others so sottish and sluttish, that they cannot be ordered, or altered from what they are: for the will is more froward than the mind is ignorant. But if you can win a woman thus, she may be both profitable and a comfort. THE SECOND BOOK. CHAP. 1. In this second Book is showed the cause, together with the cure of blasted wheat: also of rye, hops, etc. THE blasting of Wheat cometh two ways: 1. Either by winds: 2. Or by mildews. The blasting by wind happeneth in our country but seldom; and for this kind of blasting I confess I know no cure: for the wind bloweth where it lists, without possible resistance from any man's power. That which I shall here speak of, is that blasting which comes by mildew, threatened from God, Deut. 28.22. It is an affliction which by our ungratefulness we provoke God to send upon us; a sin that deserves punishment, not only by depriving us of the food of our bodies, but of our souls too: yet upon repentance God hath promised to take away our sins, and to cure our sicknesses; for he hath a salve for every sore, if we had hearts to seek it of him who is able to give. Now for this mildew, it is a fine thin sweet dew when it falleth; no dew or water in the earth is so thin, that I know of: yet if it lie till the sun or heat come upon it, or winds dry it, than it becomes clammy, stiff, and binding: but the worst effect that it hath, is upon wheat and hopps. It falls commonly in the warmest and stillest weather; it is exhaled or drawn up by the sun out of the flowers, and from sweet things or sweet places of the earth: and it is most frequent in the height of summer and warm weather, especially a little before wheat harvest: so that wheat is taken by it when it is full corn in the ear, and the straw is dry and beginneth to change white. It falleth sometimes in the night, sometimes in the day, but most of all in cloudy, misty, and gloomy weather. The which to find out, keep Bees, and they will be your intelligencers. If it fall in the night, they will out to gather as soon as day is light; or if it fall by day, they will abroad to gather, though it fall fast, and as big as a pretty rain. Therefore when you see them fly thus early and diligently, be sure there is a sweet dew fallen: then make haste before the Sun or dryness cometh on it, and get help, and away into your wheat, and with a line or rope run over your wheat as fast as may be, one in one furrow, and another in another furrow a land, two or three distance, as you can well reach, one at one end, and the other at the other end of the cord or pole: and the least touch or wagging will shake it off, it is so exceeding thin when it is new fallen. Yet if you have time and help, it were good that you went backward as well as forward, to make sure work. But if you let the dew alone, it will stick fast when heat or dryness cometh on it, and so in time will set your wheat, so that no moisture or nourishment can come out of the root into the ear, and then your corn shrinks in the ear for want of nourishment. This dew will in time stick fast, and become clammy, and bind like Turpentine or Birdlime, first streaked on the straw, and within a while all black over, and round about the straw: while the wheat is green, and that there is moisture in the straw, so long the mildew doth no hurt; so likewise when the corn is hard and dead ripe in the ear, it is then past danger: so that the greatest hurt is done between the time that it beginneth to change colour, and the full ripening; and if you be careless and negligent in this time, be sure your wheat will be dried up with the Sun, and shrunk in the ear, and blasted like Pharaoh's lean kine, and his lean ears of corn in Egypt, nothing but husk; which by God's blessing, and your small pains and diligence, you may prevent. Some have slighted and contemned this weak means for a while, as Naaman the Syrian did the advice of the Prophet Elisha, who bade him wash in Jordan and be clean; but after better consideration have made use of it, and found the profit and benefit, and were thankful for it. The mildew is also to be perceived upon the oak leaves shining and sweet: but having your intelligencers at home, you need not seek abroad. Concerning the blasting by wind, and cold or hot air, it is not very frequent in our Country, thanks be to God: yet rye and fruit is sometimes blasted by some of these, and hops very often by the mildew; therefore when this dew falleth, shake your hop-poles, and with a gentle wand beat off this dew from the leaves, and if it be not too much labour, wash it off also by throwing water, if you see that it will not come off with shaking: for if it stick on and continue there, you shall see worms and bobs breed and stick there, and so spoil your hops, and they will be lousy and filthy, and much impaired, if not all lost. Now if you be diligent and watchful herein, you may, by God's blessing, receive double and treble or greater recompense of your pains, and preserve abundance which the former ages have lost. Rye and fruit is blasted with the wind, or in cold or hot air, and in frosts, therefore I think it were good in frosts to shake off the dew, before the sun shineth upon it, or to make some smoke or smolder to prevent the coldness of the air, (taking heed always that your fire do no harm.) Now the time wherein fruit and rye are blasted, is most commonly in the blowing of them. CHAP. 2. The reason why this knowledge hath so long lain hid, and now discovered. Every thing hath an appointed time (saith the wise man in his Eccl.) and God hath made every thing beautiful in his time. And this is the very reason why this knowledge hath lain so long hid, and now cometh to be known: for in these latter ages, the world is exceeding populous, and our mother Earth (whether now grown weaker in her age, & ad ruinam vergens, I will not here dispute the question: but) scarce able to yield food for those that live on her: in this time I say, hath God revealed this knowledge. For he taketh care of, and provides for all his creatures; and as he sent the disease, so he can show the cure: therefore let us learn to ascribe it all unto him, and to give him the praise: for he dispenseth all his gifts wisely, where and when he sees need. And do we not see how in this age God hath showed the art of liming, & other manuring of land, to the wonderful improvement thereof? Besides, since our Woods failed, the fuel of coal, peat, turf, and the like, hath been found. The which let us neither despise nor neglect, but embrace, and give the alwise and everloving God his due praise and glory therefore. But what if for all this Thomas will not believe? Let him strive with himself, and inform himself, and come to his fellow Disciples, and confer with them. But let him not look now for any special revelation: time and experience may convince him of the truth of that which at the first sight appears fabulous. CHAP. 3. Of the cause and remedy of smutty wheat. I Come now to set down my opinion concerning the causes and the remedy of smutty wheat, so much as I know; because in this, wherein I am not altogether perfect, I will not be peremptory: but when I have attained the full knowledge, I intend also (God willing) to publish it. The cause I conceive to be this: a defect or failing in nature, 1. Of the seed: or 2. Of the land: or 3. Of both; but rather of the wheat: for as all things are of the earth, so to the earth they decline and return: and things that are best decay, die, and putrify, and so become the worst and basest of all: and when they are at their height, or greatest strength and vigour, than they soon return and decay. I apply it to my matter in hand. We see most men will make choice of the fairest, freest, plumpest, and weightiest wheat for seed, and they think that they do well in it: but observe it better, and make other trials of it, and see what will come of it. Is the fattest Bull or Ox, or the fattest Cow, the best to keep? It may for a year or thereabouts, but when they are fallen in their flesh, will they so easily rise again? Or will not the poorer cattles sooner rise, and make the best improvement, especially if the poor cattles come out of a mean or weak pasture, and are put in a good and full pasture, and the fat are just contrary? Doth the full grown tree or plant grow higher and better, or doth it not rather decay, after it hath attained its perfection? But to instance in my own Element: Do the fattest stocks of Bees prove better, or the most fruitful? No surely, I find that good middling stocks, that are mending, prove best, and swarm oftenest: and the very fat ones prove leaner, and sometimes die, but seldom swarm. So I take it to be in this case: when wheat is at the best, it doth soon decay and become worse, yea naught and worse than naught. You shall see it come up in great plenty, blades enough, and straw enough, and shoots the ear, and is corn in the ear; but suddenly it perisheth & dieth in the ear, and becometh naught; yea dust, and vile dust, worse than the earth, and of no use, but putrified, dead and gone. You may see it at a stand, and dead in the ear; the ear gaping and staring, much differing from the other that hath life and vigour in it. And if the land be not in very good heart, much of your wheat will be thus spoiled; and the more that comes up, and the greater bulk, the more will perish and become black, and will soil all your good wheat in the threshing, and will make it black at the ends: and it hath a damp and faintish smell with it, and I think, is not wholesome to eat; therefore pick or lease it out of the sheaf before you thresh it, or else you had need wash it well, and dry it after it is threshed, before you eat it. Therefore when your wheat is very fair, plump, and weighty, use that rather to spend in your house; for it yields more and better flower: but for seed choose a middle size, not so great, nor yet of the smallest rank, but a middle sort. Another reason to prove that wheat when it is at the best decays soon, you shall see in this experiment following. Sow of this wheat the next year, whether it be washed or not washed, yet it will be very smutty; whereas if you sow leaner or a middling wheat on the same land, and the same season, yea that very day, and yet the one will turn smutty, and the other will not; which proveth that the plump and fullest wheat, being at its height and period, returns, decayeth, and cometh to nought: (Oh the fleeting and fading estate of all, yea of the best earthly things!) How to help, and to prevent, and keep wheat, that it smut or decay not. I have by some little experience, found that there is much help in the choice of the wheat, and ordering of the land for the seed: but most of all in adding vigour and help to the seed which is sown, by steeping it in and with a certain ingredient, before it be sown, which keepeth it from decay and smut. And of this I purpose hereafter to publish somewhat more, when I have gained the certain experience by further trial. In the mean time prove some of what I have here delivered, and make choice of your seed, not the fairest and plumpest, but the hardest, and a middling grain, neither fattest nor leanest. Or if you think good to try this experiment, sow the same day, and on the same land, a little of the plumpest fairest seed that you can get, and some other of a middling hardy grain: and you shall soon observe the difference: especially if your land be somewhat weak, and a little out of heart, the difference will the sooner appear. FINIS.