certain easy AND PROFITABLE POINTS in husbandry, for the Improving and making of Ground Fertile.  
For the Increasing and Preserving of timber.  
AND For the gathering in of corn, in Late and Wet Harvests.  
LONDON, Printed by BARNARD ALSOP, and are to bee sold at the sign of the thr●e Flower deluces, in Fleet-street, over against Saint Brides Lane end. 1637.   

AN easy AND PROFITABLE ORDER IN TILling of Ground to improve it, and make it Fertile.  
BEcause all things in this World are subject to casualty, and Husbandry and Tillage although it be a principal stay, and supporter both in the Church and Common-wealth, yet doth it not always hit according to the Husbandmans expectation, but oftentimes doth fail, unto his great loss, and the miseries of others: I shall here discover some certain points in husbandry, whereby the Husbandman may easily succour his Corn after it is sown, and use such means and ways that he may preserve and foster it, if need so require.  
Now the most certain way in Tillage, not to loose both your seed and labour( as many often have done in dry seasons, and are still like to do, if they hold on in their accustomend Tillage) when the season is like to be dry, is to Till your Ground by Lands, leaving always a space untilled between every Land, that so you may have places whereby you may come to moisten, and succour your Seed until it be well come forth and grown, if the season be dry, and you perceive it doth not come forth kindly as you would have it, this is a point of husbandry, that will be extraordinary useful where any barren ground lieth near unto any Rivers, where water may plentifully be had, and it will not be unuseful where good ground is, although there be not such plenty of water: but some Husbandmen it may be will be apt to think, that so much ground that year is lost that is left untilled in a Field that is tilled; but it is easily answered, that better a little ground be lost, then a greater quantity of ground, and your cost and Seed also be lost, as it may be said well to be, if it doth not bring forth a crop proportionable unto the place and charge bestowed thereon, but to speak the truth, the ground is not lost that is left untilled, bacause of itself it will bring forth some benefit: although it be not sown, and that, that is not sown the one year doth gather heart, and will be improved against the next year, for if you diligently succour your seed-plots with water, and some such other means as you shall see needful, the Invention that you may water your tilled ground with, will also at the same time water your untilled spaces, so as that, what with the watering, and with the trampling, your untilled spaces will be well improved thereby. For watering, and trampling of ground when it is moist, will improve any ground, without any other means, neither may any Husbandman sow one jot the less, for what quantity of ground he leaveth unsowne in one Field, he may sow for it the same quantity in another place, and in the same manner, if he think well, and in thus ordering, and sowing of his ground he shall find more certain profit then any other way.  
The breadth of the Lands that in this manner are to be tilled, may be 6, 7, or 8 foot in breadth, and the space between each land that you are to leave untilled, may be a foot end a half, or more in breadth if you see cause: thus may you without doing harm to your corn at any time as you see cause, both nourish and cherish it up, from the first sowing thereof until it be past all danger that may be fall it through drought, for when it is sprung up to some pretty growth, the blades will defend the roots thereof so from the heat of the sun in dry seasons, that it will not take any extraordinary harm thereby:  
Also this is to be noted, that those spaces that you leave unplowed one year, if you sow the same Field the next year, you are to plow up, & leave now some part of the lands( that the last year were tilled and sown) for to be the spaces between the Lands that you mean now to till & sow: and so every year you may rest some part of your Field, although every year you sow the greater part, and reap good crops of corn from the same.  
Now to give you some taste whether this point of husbandry will be advantageous or no, let every Husbandman first cast what an Acre of Corns is worth standing upon the Ground, and then how many Acres thereof may be watered in a day; unto the first question I can answer, I have known an Acre of Wheat to have been worth ten pounds upon the ground, when corn hath been at an high price, but I will suppose it to bee worth now but 40 shillings, or 3 pound the Acre: unto the second I will answer, where water may easily be had, a couple of men may well and easily water about some 30 Acres a day, when the dayes be long, and if it be watered well but every other day, and the ground be any thing good, or well manured, it will come forward; and by this account, two men may cherish 60 Acres and bring it forward, watering the one half well one day, and the other half another day; and 60 Acres according unto the lowest rate amounteth unto 120 pound, & at 3 pound the Acre, it will amount unto 180 pound: and how much soever an Acre of any corn can be worth, an Acre of corn well tilled and thus cherished, will come to be worth much more then that which is but slightly tilled, and that never after is helped or cherished any ways. Now if a Couple with two or three Monthes labour( for I suppose in two or three Monthes the corn will be indifferently able to defend itself against the heat of the sun, and will be come so forward that it will not need any further watering) can thus bring such profit out from the earth, I suppose it will recompense their labour, and be an encouragement unto any to proceed with pleasure and delight in a labour so advantageous for themselves, and so much concerning the public good, neither will this labour fall upon the Husbandman at an unseasonable time. For always after Seed-time hath the Husbandman most leisure, & after Seed-time then is the most seasonable time thus to cherish your Corn, & it is not to be doubted, but that oftentimes there will fall some showers also, that will both help and ease the labour of the Waterers, in the driest time and season of the year: For I for my part am persuaded that in mens honest and good endeavours there is a silent rhetoric to persuade with GOD, and yet I would not have any man to be silent in a time of necessity; but I leave that for Divines to teach and persuade, and stir up men unto.  
Now such Husbandmen that have not a manuring Plow or Seed-barrow ready, may till their Land in this order after the old accustomend manner, if the Land be not extraordinary barren. For if it be extraordinary barren, then they must use the Manuring-Plow, or Manuring-Wagen in Tilling and Sowing the same, or else perhaps they may loose much of their Crop, or at least never improove it so orderly by sowing the same: Neither is there a better, nor more easy and speedy way to improve any arable ground, or to make any barren Land to become good arable Land then by thus ordering, and sowing of the same, as any one may quickly find that shall but once make trial of some little parcel of barren-ground in any place.  
Now if there be any that can help the Author unto; any reasonable quantity of barren ground, he will further discover unto them how they shall improve both easily and speedily any barren ground, and make it to become good meadow ground, and to be worth so much yearly, as any meadow ground is, or can be in any place near adjacent thereunto.  

How to shrewd your grass.  
IT were one excellent point in husbandry to set and plant, both oaks and elms, all along in a row by the hedges on your Field sides, excepting those sides that join upon some common Roads and highways, that require the wind and sun to dry them, and make them passable, for hereby might you shelter the grass a great part of the long Summer dayes, from the scorching heat of the sun, and in the Winter from the nipping blasts of the could freezing wind, and also provide fuel for your fire and other uses, and food for your Swine, besides many other commodities that would arise from the same, for every Spring your grass would be much more forwarder than it is, and the leaves of the Trees would also help to fatten your ground; and it were to be wished that there were some Act or Statute to force this point of husbandry, that so the walls of the kingdom, and the Bridges whereby such troops of our Fore-fathers were wont to pass over the Seas to chastise their insolent and daring enemies; might be effectually maintained; and that we might thereby become feared of those enemies, that now think themselves out of our danger.  
Surely the reason why this husbandry is not used, is because the profit thereof would not presently arise to ourselves; but every one ought to know that no man is born only for himself, and that Fathers are to provide for their Children; therefore if we would leave our country to our Children, and have our Childrens Children enjoy the same, let us then providently forecast, to provide such materials for our grandchidren, that they may have wherewithal to encounter with their enemies abroad, rather then to suffer them to be forced to combat with them here at home; surely if any enemy of ours, had any kind of Timber so tough and durable as our English oak, they would not neglect so great a benefit: O then unless we would have our Enemies to succeed us in our inheritances let us make use of the benefies and privileges that our good God hath bestowed upon us above other Nations.   

How to gather wheat, Rye and Barley in late Harvests, and Wet Seasons.  
IN Harvest-time when the corn is full ripe and like to  shed, and the season so wet that it cannot be housed so dry as it should be, ought this point of husbandry to be practised, rather than that the corn should be spoyled or lost; first therefore in such seasons may the Husbandman reap or cut down his corn according to the Country custom wherein he lives, and then afterward whensoever it holds up; or sooner if there be cause; let his Harvest people( having implements accordingly) apply themselves to the cropping, clipping, or cutting off the ears of the corn by handfuls at a time, little Children may gather the corn into handfuls, and give them to the Harvest-man, who at he cuts them off, should put them into sacks, and then should they be carried home, and spread upon floors in Lofts, and in all other places where they may lie and dry, and being dry then should they be removed & other brought and should be spread in their places, otherwise whensoever the Weather holds a little faire, there may one be assigned to follow every Reaper that may clip off the ears as fast as they shall reap it, into little flaskets, and so sack them up, and carry them home as fast as it is reaped. Thus may men soon gather in their Wheat, their Rye, and their Barley, although there should be much grass, and weeds among the straw, that doth require much time to whither, and dry before it can be got in. Now when they have got in the ears of their corn, they may let the straw lie and dry a while without sustaining any great hurt, and after they may gather it in and stack it up at leisure, when the season is more dry.   
FINIS.