CERTAIN EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING FISH AND FRVITE: Practised by JOHN TAVERNER Gentleman, and by him published for the benefit of others.  
ANCHORA SPEI  
LONDON, Printed for William Ponsonby. 1600.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR EDMOND ANDERSON KNIGHT, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE COMMON PLEAS.  
RIGHT Honourable my good Lord, it was my bap lately to light upon a Book dedicated unto your Lordship, by one M. George Churchey, entitled, A new book of good husbandry, and entreating of fishponds, and ordering of the same: which book, as it should seem, was first written in Latin by one james Dubravius, but translated into English by the industry of the said Master Churchey, wherein his good meaning and travel is greatly to be commended. I thereby gathering that your Lordship took some delight in that practice, & being before that time minded to put in writing certain experiments, that myself had observed concerning those matters, did presently conclude with myself, humbly to crave that the same may pass under your L. protection: your virtues also deserving that I should make choice herein of your Lordship before others, as one unto whom the whole commonweal of this Realm in general is greatly bounden, for the great and painful watchings, care and travel you take in administration of justice in your place and calling: and therefore I in particular, find myself willing (if by any means I may) to move unto your Lordship any delight or liking, though never so little. And if your Lordship have been any practiser of these delights, I mean making of fishponds, or planting of fruit, I doubt not but you shall in this little Treatise, find somewhat that you knew not before, and thereby your delight that way augmented, which, if it so happen to be, my expectation herein is most amply satisfied: Beseeching the Almighty, to bless, preserve and keep you and all yours, with such felicity, as your heart desireth.  
This 22. of jan. 1600. You Lordships in all humbleness, JOHN TAVERNER.   

To the Reader.  
GOOD Reader, in seeking to shun that Monster Idleness, and having a desire by all honest means possible, to benefit this my native country of England, and finding my ability otherwise insufficient to perform the same, I have thought good to set down some experiments that myself have had concerning fish and fruit: of which two things, especially of fruit, although many authors have more learnedly written, yet many of them being strangers, inhabiting in Climates far differing from ours here in England, do also for the most part teach how such fruit as their countries bring forth are to be used, of which kind of fruits here in England we have little or no use. As also concerning fish, there are none that have written in our vulgar tongue to any purpose that ever I have seen, saving that one Master Churchey hath procured to be translated into English a Treatise compiled by a stranger, a Moravian (as I take it.) Howbeit by reason the translator (as it should seem) had no great experience in that matter, he therefore that shall practise, shall find great want in that book to supply his desires that way. Notwithstanding the good endeavour of Master Churchey is greatly to be commended, neither is my meaning herein to say what may be said in these matters, but only what things myself have observed and practised. And if I should set down by way of preface, the exceeding great benefit that might grow to this Realm, by practising to have abundance of the two foresaid commodities, the preface would grow to a greater volume than now the whole book containeth. And although I know that many men can say more than myself can do herein, yet I also believe that most men know not so much: for whose sake I have compiled this little treatise, by which, if they take either profit or honest pleasure, I have my desire. Farewell.   

CERTAIN EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING FISH AND FRVITE.  

FIrst it is requisite to speak of ponds, I mean such as be necessary, profitable, and convenient to be used with us here in England, not such in which the prodigal Romans used to spend their superfluous wealth and treasure, rather for vain ostentation, then for any honest recreation of mind, or profit unto themselves, or the common wealth: whereunto I would wish our country people in all their actions to have chief regard. It should seem that many of the Romans employed incredible wealth in making of ponds, in which with sea water, they kept diverse kind of sea fish, for delicacy and wantonness, rather than profit: for that such kind of ponds were only made near unto the sea side, whereas the like fish might more conveniently be taken in the sea itself. I would rather wish the greatest store of our ponds to be made far up land in the inmost parts of the Realm, unto which places fish cannot well be brought from the sea, to be eaten fresh whilst it is good, and sweet. The ponds I mean to speak of, shall be of two sorts: the one digged right down into the ground by labour of man: the other made with a head in a valley between two hills, by swelling of the water over grassy ground, not in former times covered with water. Those that are digged right down are for the most part but small, and serve indeed to little use, unless it be to keep fish in for the winter time, to spend as need requireth, or to feed fish in: otherwise of themselves they are not able to sustain any number of fish, in any good sort, to increase in growth or goodness of meat, and therefore I mean not to speak much of such ponds. But the other kind of pond made with a head being rightly ordered, as hereafter is mentioned, will give great nourishment to fish without any feeding save of itself. It is therefore requisite for him that would have good fish, to have two such ponds with heads so made, as with their sluices he may lay them dry when he pleaseth, and again to fill them with water when he shall think good, to the end that one of them may lie dry one year, & the other the next year. The greatness of his ponds may be according to the aptness of the place where he maketh them, and to the cost he meaneth to bestow. And that valley that hath not any sudden descent but descendeth by little & little, having also some little rill or brook running through it, is fittest for this purpose: by reason that in such places a man shall with least charges in making the head overflow greatest quantity of ground. The said ponds are to be made as followeth.  

The making of a pond for fish.  
Having a place convenient, viz. a valley between two hills, and some small brook or rill running through the same, you are to dig a channel or pond as it were from the one hill to the other, overthwart the valley: and with the earth that you take out of the same to make your head. Always making your head down the stream from the channel, so that the channel shallbe the deepest place of your pond, and in no wise to dig any earth, or to make any channel on the backside of your head: for that will much weaken your head. You must also begin the foundation of your head not hard by the brim of your channel, but some eight or ten foot from the same, lest the weight of the earth of the head cause your head to slide into the channel: and raise your head not upright, but slopewise for calving or slipping down. And look how high you mean to make your head, and so much it is requisite to be in breadth in the top thereof, & three times that breadth in the bottom: as for example: If you mean to make your head ten foot high, it had need to be ten foot broad in the top, and thirty foot broad in the bottom, otherwise it will hardly lie, but calf and slip down again, unless you force it with timber. Howbeit such may be the nature of your earth, as a light sand, or only chalk, that it will not stand without timber, otherwise a stiff clay mingled with gravel, is best for such a head: if your soil be a light sand, or altogether a gravel, or chalk, it will hardly hold water. It is not good to put any timber in your head to bear it up, but rather only earth being broken very small, and watered with water often times as you raise it: for that will cause it to bind closer and surer than any ramming or timber work will do. I suppose the Spring time, & Autumn to be best for the making of such heads, especially if you water it well and break the earth small, that it may dry again and settle. In the making of the head, 
Where to lay your sluice.  you are to lay your sluice in the head against the deepest place of your channel, being made of a whole piece of timber, or at least wise the forepart thereof being a whole piece, and the residue of one or two pieces more, being joined very close, and stopped with hair and tar in the joints: for if therein be never so small a hole, it will spoil your head at the sewing of your pond. Having made and hollowed your trough, hewn through at the tail, but close at the end next to the pond, you are to nail thereon a strong board or plank, very close in all places: or else which is better, a slab being before the hollowing of your trough, sawn from the same: then turn that side downward, and then the upper side will be that which before was the bottom of the trough: at the end whereof next to the channel in the upper part thereof, you are to make the tampion hole square, and likewise make a square tampion to shut close in the same, with a steal, either of the same piece which is best, or else strongly mortised with a bovetaile mortice into the said tampion, and so reaching up as high as the top of your head, or at least to the uppermost part of the water. And the best fashion for the head of your sluse, is two strong planks, fastened on each side of the tampion hole, being in breadth somewhat broader than the square of your tampion, & grated boards nailed before & behind the same, some two or three foot from the bottom. But for the more speedy sewing out the water, you may make as it were a nose of grated boards before the tampion, at the bottom of the sluice, of some three or four foot long, and a foot deep. The residue of the sluice may be boarded up to the top with boards ungrated, and I think grated boards to be better for this purpose, being made with a hand saw, rather than holes made with piercer or augur. The trough of this sluice had need be laid so soon as you begin to make your head, because it may convey the water from you, which else will trouble you in making the channel.  
The sluice made, and the channel digged, it may be you shall need more earth to be carried in dung-carts or barrows which you are still to keep mingled with water, and the earth broken small: in frosty weather it is good working of any such head. Also take heed you put not in the said head, any dung or turfs of grass, that will turn to dung: but only good earth. When the head is raised, it is requisite to settle well before you fill the same with water, and therefore not good to fill it full the first year, but rather half full: and to store it with such fish as you mean to keep therein, 
When to store your ponds.  in january, February or March: after which time it is not good to carry or handle any fish all the summer time, until it be October or November. The colder the weather is when you handle your fish, the better: unless it be for such fish as you mean to spend presently. 
Not good to handle fish in hot weather.  But store-fish being taken or handled in hot weather, will be sick, and not prosper long time after, and perhaps die thereof, although not presently.  
And to speak of fish, I mean such as are usually kept in ponds or lakes, I will divide them into two sorts: those that live by ravening and devouring of other fish, and the others that live upon seeds, roots, weeds, corn, worms, and such like: for as there are some beasts that do live chiefly and naturally by flesh of other beasts, and other some that live only by corn, grass, fruit, & such like, & will at no time taste of flesh: 
Ravening fish.  so there are fishes much like in nature. The fish that live upon ravening and devouring of other fish, are the Pike, the Trought, the Perch, & the Eel: and these kinds will not naturally feed upon corn, roots, seeds, grass, or such like. 
Fish not of the ravening kind.  But the carp, the bream, the Tench, and the Roch, live naturally upon corn, seeds, grass, worms, bodes, flies, and such like: & will not naturally feed upon any other fish, neither hath nature given them means so to do, for that the foresaid devouring fish have only dog-teeths, or sharp teeth, wherewith they bite and hold any other fish that they take: and when that by gripping and biting it, they feel it dead, and cease to struggle or strive, than they swallow it down whole. The other kind do not so: but having teeth only like unto man, broad and flat do grind and chew all their meat before they swallow it: and it is as unnatural for the carp, bream, Tench or Roch to eat another raw fish, as it is for a sheep or a cow to eat raw flesh. The sharp and devouring teeth in the Pike, Perch, Trought & Eel, are easily seen and perceived, but so are not the flat grinding teeth in the other kind of fish. Howbeit if you search diligently the head of the carp, bream, or any the other aforesaid of that nature, & of any bigness, when it is sodden you shall find two neither jaws, having in each jaw a row of flat teeth, like to the eye teeth in a man, & apt to grind & chew withal, with which two neither jaws they grind their meat against a certain flat bone in the roof of their mouth, or upper part of their throat, which is commonly called the stone in the Carp head, and is in steed of his upper jaw and teeth, and of many thought to be a remedy for excessive bleeding at the nose for man. The like is in the head of the Tench and Roch, although by reason of the smallness it is not easy to be found. Of the same nature also is the barbil, Cheven, Dace, Bleak, and river Roch: although I have not seen them usually in any pond. Howbeit they will live and wax in a pond, especially the river Roch, but not spawn, unless it have great store of watea running through it continually, neither will the Trought spawn in any standing pool, but will live and grow very fat and good, if the pond be of any greatness, as some five or six acres of ground, or more, and that he may have good store of small fry to feed on, and will also be very fat and good all the winter long, by reason he doth not spawn as aforesaid.  
The best fish in my opinion is carp, bream, Tench, and Perch: howbeit if your pond be not above four or five acres of ground, a bream will be five or six years at the least, 
A bream long in growing, and a great increaser.  before it be of any bigness to eat, as also they will over-store any pond with fry, which is a great hindrance to the growth of your bigger fish. Having stored your pond, as aforesaid, you shall find that the first year your fish will spawn exceedingly. 
The first year your fish will spawn exceedingly.  Howbeit if any water run through your pond, your fry will very hardly be kept in: for that all the beginning of the summer they will go away against the stream: and in the latter end of the summer they will go away with the stream, 
The nature of fish.  if they be not with very good grates kept in, and herein you are to use very great diligence. And therefore your pond being full of water, it is good to convey away the residue in some ditch, along hard by the one side of your pond, casting the bank of your ditch toward the pond: the level of the water will direct you where to make your ditch: so may your convey away your superfluous water. 
No water to run through a pond in the Summer time.  If any water run through your pond, especially in the Summer time, it will also make your fish lean with labouring against it, as it is their nature to do, and also in manner unpossible to keep in your frie.  
A pond being thus ordered, and your fish therein feeding all the Summer time, 
How to order your fish at sewing time.  it is requisite that about Hollantide next you sew your pond, taking out all your fish: the best, and such as you mean to spend that winter, to put into small ponds, or stews, whereas with a drag you may take them again as you need to spend them: the other store-fish you may put into the like pond, as aforesaid, either new made, or one that hath lain dry all the Summer before. 
To preserve over many fry, is a hindrance to the owner.  Howbeit if you have any great number of fry, especially of bream, it were better to preserve but part of them, and the residue to put into some stew or small pond with Pikes: 
To feed Pikes with your superfluous fry.  so shall you always have good Pikes, and also your carp, bream, and Tench will be very fat and good. If your ponds be not overstored with fry, your pond being sewed, and your fish bestowed, it is good to let that pond you last sewed, to lie as dry as you can by any means all that winter, and the next summer until Michaelmas: and then to fill it with water of the first flood that happeneth about that time: and sew your other pond between Michaelmas and Hollantide, using the same as is before rehearsed. As for having any fish to spend in the Summer time, it is requisite to trust to your angle, a bownet, a tramel, or such like: by which means you shall seldom fail of some fish for your spending. If you should keep any carp, bream, or Tench in stews in the Summer time, they will wax lean, unless you do feed them with corn: as barley, sod pease, or oats, or any other kind of corn. It may be hear expected I should set down some proportion of number of fishes, having regard to the greatness of your pond, and the greatness of the fish. Surely as the fertility of some soil will nourish double the number of cattle that some others will do, even so of ponds: if the soil be a fat clay, or other good ground, it will nourish double the number of fish, that a lean barren heath ground or dry sand will do. Howbeit the ordering of a pond in such sort as aforesaid, and to lie dry every other year, will much mend any ground every year, especially if in the Summer time when it lieth dry, cattle, and especially sheep may feed and lie therein, as hereafter shall appear by good reason. Howbeit in an indifferent soil, I suppose you may well keep four hundredth carp, 
The proportion of fish according to the greatness of your pond.  bream, or Tench, for every acre, supposing your fish to be eight or ten inches in length: and the greater your pond is, the greater number in proportion it will keep: as for example: a pond of four acres will much better keep 1600. fish, than a pond of two acres will keep eight hundredth of like fish: for every hundredth of such fish as aforesaid, you may keep half a hundredth Perches in the same pond, after you are once sufficiently stored of fry, and not before: for that a Perch is a very great devourer of fry, especially of carp. I have seen in the belly of a small Perch sixteen or seventeen small carp fry at once: but having sufficient of fry, they do good in a pond, rather than otherwise: and will themselves be very fat and good. The Pike is in no wise to be admitted into your great ponds, with your other fish, he is so great a devourer, and will grow so fast having his fill of feeding, that being but eight or ten inches in the beginning of Summer, he may be eighteen or twenty inches before Hollantide, at what time he will eat more fish every day, then will suffice a man, and will feed only of carp before any other fish, if there be carp fry in the pond. Howbeit having two such ponds as aforesaid, made with heads, you shall every year have sufficient store of refuse fry, to feed some good number of Pikes withal, wherewith they will be made very thick, sweet, and well grown, but not fat, unless you have some store of small Eels, wherewithal to feed them some month or six weeks before you take them to spend: for that only that feeding upon Eels, being cut in pieces, so as they may stir in the water, and yet not be able to escape away, will make the Pikes very fat.  
The causes moving to have a pond lie but one year with water and fish, 
Causes why ponds should lie dry every other year.  and the next year empty and dry, do hereafter ensue. First by that means you shall avoid superfluous number of fry, which greatly hinder the growth and goodness of your greater fish. Secondly, by that means you shall so proportion your pond, that it shall never be overstored. Thirdly, by that means your water shall always be excellent sweet, by reason it overfloweth such ground as hath taken the sun and air all the summer before: wherein also if cattle do feed, or especially be fodered and lie, their dung and stale together with the natural force of the Sun at the next Spring overflowing with water, will breed an innumerable number of flies, and bodes of diverse kinds and sorts, which in a fair sunshine day in March or April, you shall see in the water as thick as motes in the Sun, of which bodes and flies the fish do feed exceedingly. Also great store of seeds, of weeds, and grass, shedding that summer that it lieth dry, is a great feed to your fish the next Summer after, when it is overflown with water. The said bodes do for the most part breed of the blowings and seed of diverse kinds of flies, and such like living creatures in the summer, when your pond lieth dry, in the dung of cattle, and otherwise: and take life and being the ne●t Spring time by the natural heat of the Sun, together with the moisture of the fat and pleasant water, as aforeiaid: for surely many and sundry kinds of flies that fly about in the air in Summer time, do take life in the water overflowing such ground where they have been left by the blowings and feed of other flies. And I have often observed and beheld in a sunshine day, in shallow waters, especially where any dung or fat earth is therewith mingled: I say, I have seen a young fly swim in the water too and fro, and in the end come to the upper crust of the water, and assay to fly up: howbeit not being perfectly ripe or fledge, hath twice or thrice fallen down again into the water: howbeit in the end receiving perfection by the heat of the sun, and the pleasant fat water, hath in the end within some half hour after taken her flight, and flied quite away into the air. And of such young flies before they are able to fly away, do fish feed exceedingly. fourthly, your fish shall every year have feeding in proportion to their increasing in bigness: for it standeth with reason, that Carp or other fish of twelve inches long, will require more feeding then so many of si●e inches long will do: but chiefly by means aforesaid of sewing every year, 
What maketh sweet fish.  you shall have opportunity to be rid of the great increase of fry, and your greater fish more sweet and fat then any other hath by far.  
Fish will live in a manner in any pond, and without any feeding, or such other industry as aforesaid: but then they are forced to live upon the muddy earth and weeds that grow in such ponds, and being so fed, they will eat and taste accordingly: and there is as great difference in taste between fish that is kept as aforesaid, 
Great difference in goodness of pond fish.  and other fish that is kept in a standing pond without feeding or other industry, as is between the flesh of a Lark, and the flesh of a Crow or Kite. And I suppose that that is the cause that most men are out of love with all pond fish, because they never tasted of any good or well ordered pond fish.  
That Summer that your pond lieth dry, as aforesaid, if there happen to grow any sour or rank weeds therein (as many times there will) it is good to cut them up, and being dried with the sun, to burn them, so shall you have sweet grass, or young weeds come in their place, that cattle will feed on, and also the heat of the sun shall much amend your ground. Also trench out the water, that it may lie as dry as may be possible: and if you can plough it, and have Summer corn therein, as buck or barley that Summer that it lieth dry, I think it very good.  
I have heard the common people in the fen countries affirm, and that very earnestly, that their fishes do feed of ashes, by reason that in a dry Summer, when much of their fen grounds lie dry, and are pastured with cattle, then towards the winter time such rank grass, sedge, reeds, or weeds, as the cattle do leave uneaten, they will burn them with fire, to the end that the next Summer such old sedge, reeds, or weeds, may not annoy the coming up of young and better sedge, reeds, or grass. And the common people find by experience, that after such a dry Summer, as aforesaid, all the next Winter the water overflowing those grounds, their fish will be exceeding fat and good: and therefore (say they) surely the fish do feed upon the ashes of the weeds, and such like burnt as aforesaid. But the truth is, in such a dry Summer as aforesaid, the cattle then feeding in such grounds as then lie dry, do bestow therein great quantity of dung and stale, wherein is bred great abundance of such bodes, flies, and worms, as aforesaid: as also the natural and lively heat of the Sun piercing such grounds, doth make the same pleasant and fat, and to bring forth the next Summer many herbs and weeds, the seeds of which do yield unto fishes very great food and nourishment, and not the barren dry ashes, as afore is imagined.  
He that cannot have such ponds as aforesaid, 
The second sort of ponds.  and having but some small mote or other horse-pond in his ground, that standeth continually full of water, may often times have a dish of good fish, if he will bestow some feeding of corn, 
How fish may be fed in such ponds.  as sod barley or pease, cheese-curds, or blood of beasts, to throw into his pond in the summer time, for that fish being not of the ravening kind, do then only feed. But it behoveth to do it in such sort, as he may be assured that the fish do eat it, and that he be not beguiled with ducks, geese, or such like. He may therefore make a square thing of some two foot broad, of Elm boards, with ledges some three or four inches deep, and therein sink his corn with a line tied unto the four corners thereof, so that he may pull it up and let it down when he pleaseth, and after the fish have once found the use thereof, you shall well perceive they will haunt it. Sweet grains in small proportion are also good, but if they be once sour or musty, the fish will not feed on them, and also they will stench your pond. 
The Tench good to be fed.  The Tench of all other fish will best like to be fed, as aforesaid, and will be very good, sweet, and fat, and next unto him the carp.  
It is with fish as it is with other creatures, for like as one acre of ground, will hardly feed one ore throughout the year, to keep him in good plight and fat, yet so much corn or hay you may lay in that acre, that you may feed therein ten or twenty oxen. And even so, although one acre of ground overflowed with water, will naturally, and if itself keep but 300. or four hundredth Carp, or other fsshes: yet so much feeding you may add thereunto, that it may keep three thousand or four thousand in as good plight as three hundredth or four hundredth without such feeding. 
The great increase of fish.  Of all creatures fish are the greatest increasers in number: and so great is the increase of them, that I do verily suppose the Sea itself and all fresh rivers likewise, would be overstored if they did not devour one another in very great quantity: yet have they many other enemies besides fish, that do continually pray and feed upon them: as, for pond fish, first the small Eels, when the Carp, Bream, Tenches, or roaches do lay their spawn in eggs in spawning time, you shall many times see six, 
Eels and afterward Perches great devourers of frie.  ten, or more small Eels follow them, and as the spawn falleth from them they eat it, as also Ducks will do the like. Afterward so son as it is quick, the Eel, and especially the Perch, will devour it in great quantity before it be able to swim any thing fast. After that, it is food for the King's fisher, 
Fish have many enemies to destroy them.  all kind of shel-foule, the Bitture, the Hearne, the Cormorant, and the Ospray. And when it is at the greatest, as if it be a carp of three foot long, the Otter will kill him: otherwise all ponds would quickly be overstored, if it also go not away with floods, which is greatly to be foreseen. I remember myself did once put three spawning Carp into a pond that was some three acres of ground, and with them nine or ten milters about February, and in November next following I did sew the same pond, and of those breeders I had 9000. and upwards of carp fry, notwithstanding all the foresaid enemies: and surely a bream will increase in number much more. 
How fish do breed.  The engendering and breeding of the like fish as aforesaid, I have noted to be in this manner, sometime in May, and sometime in june, as the season happeneth to fall out apt for generation, the water by God's providence having then a natural warmth to perform the same, the male fish by course of nature, will chase about the female, seeking copulation: and as in all other creatures, so in this the female seemeth to shun and fly from the male, so that you shall see three, four, or five male fish chase one female, and so hold her in on every side, that they will force her to swim through weeds, grass, rushes, straw, or any such like thing that is in the pond, wherein she being entangled and wearied with their chase, they find opportunity to join in copulation with her, mingling their milt with her spawn, sometime one of them, sometime another, at which time the spawn falleth from her like little eggs, and sticketh fast to the said weeds: some eight, nine, or ten days after which time it quickeneth, taketh life, and hath the proportion of a fish: yea two or three days before it quicken, if you take such an egg and break it upon your nail, you shall perceive the proportion of a fish therein. After it is quick it moveth very little for some fortnight or three weeks, and then it gathereth together into skulls by the shore side, where the water is shallow: howbeit the Tench fry will lie scattering in the weeds, and not float in skulls.  
And if there run any water from your pond, you shall not possible keep Eels out of the same, they will come into the same against the stream. Their manner of breeding is very uncertain and unknown, 
The breeding of Eels very uncertain and unknown.  but undoubtedly they are bred in the brackish or sea water: and at the first full Moon in May they begin to come into all great rivers, and out of great rivers into lesser rivers, and out of those lesser rivers into all small brooks, rills, and running waters, continually against the stream all the beginning of Summer: as likewise with the first flood that cometh about Michaelmas, they covet to go down the stream, and will not stay until they come into the deep and brackish waters, if they be not taken or letted by the way. I know that some hold opinion that they breed of the May dew, for proof whereof they say if you cut up two turfs of grassy in a May morning, and clap the grassy sides of those turfs together, and so lay them in a river, you shall the next day find small young Eels between the said turfs: and so you shall indeeede, for the most part do. Howbeit not therefore they do breed of the dew, for if you likewise take a little bottle of sweet hay, straw, or weeds, that have had no May dew fallen thereon, and sink it in a river at that time of the year, and take it out suddenly the next morning, and you shall find likewise many small Eels therein. The reason is, at that time of the year that river being full of such young Eels, they will creep into every thing that is sweet and pleasant. 
Eels come from the brackish and sea water.  And for proof that the said Eel fry do come out of the brackish waters against the stream into all other Rivers, Rils, and Ponds, if in the beginning of the Summer you do diligently observe at the tail of any water Mill, 
In the river of Severne I have seen great store of these small Eel fry taken going against the stream, when they are no greater than a wheat straw.  especially near unto any great river, you shall see them in great numbers early in the morning, and late in the evening, in june or july at the chinks and holes in the flood-gates to labour exceedingly to get up against the stream, although they be often times driven back with the violence of the water, yet cease they not still again to labour until they have gotten up against the stream. The like do Salmonds, 
Eels go against the stream, and so doth most other fish in the spring time.  Barbils, Trout, Roch, Date, Chevin, gudgeons, and other river fish at Wears and Dams in great rivers, for that they covet to spawn in shallow waters, and not in the deep: the which thing when they have performed, 
Fish covet to go down the stream in the latter end of the Summer.  they then presently covet to go down the stream until they come unto the brackish or sea water.  
It may be here expected that I should set down the baits to be used for all kind of pond-fish, 
Baits for every several fish.  for all seasons of the year, but therein I have not had such exact knowledge to prescribe unto the diligent practiser any better than himself can find out. I have found that the carp, bream, and Tench, being used to feeding, will bite at the red worm, paste made of dough, or the grasshopper, most part of the Summer season. The Tench also is a fish very easily taken in a Bownet, and whosoever hath of them in his ponds, it behoveth him to take great heed that he be not deceived by lewd people.  
The shallow or pond Roch with the red fins will spawn in most ponds. The river Roch and Dace will not spawn in any pond: howbeit if your pond be near any river, and that there run any water from it in the Summer time, you shall find that they will come into the same against the stream, where you would think it unpossible: and so will Pickerel and Perch. And I have heard some affirm very constantly, that waterfowl do often times bring the spawn of such fish in their feathers into ponds. 
Many opinions concerning breeding of fish.  Others will affirm, that the heat of the Sun may draw up such spawn of fish before it be quick, and so the same taking life in the moist air, may afterward fall down in a shower of rain into a pond: the reason that hath moved many men so to think, is, because they have found such kind of fish in their ponds, where they are sure that they nor any other have ever put any such. Howbeit surely the same have come into the said ponds against the stream, as aforesaid, in Summer floods, and not by any such other monstrous generation as is last afore mentioned. And somewhat to say of the growth of fish: as nature may be helped by art in other things, so likewise in fish very much: for that a carp may with feeding the first year be brought to be six inches long, and the next to twelve or fourteen inches, whereas in ordinary ponds without feeding, they will hardly be brought to be fourteen inches in five or six years.  
I do not think that ground would yield unto the owner any other way so much benefit, as to be converted into such ponds with heads as is afore mentioned, if only fish were spent upon the days by law ordained for that purpose in this Realm: the which thing if it were observed, no doubt would turn this Realm to incredible benefit, many and sundry ways. But now those that should spend such fish, will rather bestow their money in Rabbits, Capons, or such like. Howbeit I am persuaded that fish used as aforesaid, and dressed whilst it is new taken, is very wholesome for man's body, and also more delicate than most kinds of flesh.  
A bream will be very long in growing, before it come to any bigness, 
A bream very slow in growth.  as commonly five or six years before he be a foot long, but if your water be not very great, he will hardly be a foot long in ten years.  
The Tench will grow and prosper very well: howbeit will never be so great as some Carp will be.  
I have seen a carp of xxxiii. 
carp.  inches between the eye and the fork of the tail, but never any Tench above two and twenty inches of like measure.  
The Pike will grow exceedingly, if he may have his fill of other small fish: as, the first year to twelve or fourteen inches, the next to twenty or two and twenty inches.  
And whosoever hath ponds with heads as aforesaid, shall every year very conveniently feed some good number of Pikes in some ditch or small stew with refuse frie.  
If you have such ponds as aforesaid, often or twelve acres of ground or more, near any river where Troughts are, 
Troughts may be kept in ponds.  you may get Troughts to put into such ponds with your other fish, so there be no Pikes amongst them. Howbeit when you come to sew your pond, and that the water cometh any thing near the mud, your Troughts will then die: yet have I seen them grow exceedingly in such a pond in one year, and to be very fat and good: howbeit they must be very charily handled in the carriage, and a few of them carried in a great deal of fair and clean water, and that in cold weather, and may not be handled with hands, but in a hand-net very charily: and so likewise are all other fish to be used, especially such as you mean to keep for store.  
If you have Carp in small ditches, in the month of March, at what time Toads do engender, the Toad will many times covet to fasten himself upon the head of the carp, and will thereby invenime the carp, in such sort that the carp will swell as great as he may hold, so that his seals will stand as it were on edge, and his eyes stand out of his head near half an inch, in very ugly sort: and in the end will for the most part die thereof: and it is very dangerous for any person to eat of any such carp so invenimed.  
It is not sufficient that fish be alive and swim away when they are put into a pond, 
Fish to be charily handled in the carriage.  but if they be bruised or take heat in the carriage, they will be long before they recover again and fall to their feeding, and sometime never recover, but after long pining and sickness, do in the end die also.  
The carp of all pond fish will abide most hardness in carriage: 
The carp will abide most hardness.  next to him the Tench, than the bream, Pike, and Perch. A carp in the winter time may be carried alive in wet hay or grass that is sweet for the space of five or six hours.  
If you carry any fish in water, let not the Tench or Eel be carried among them, 
Tenches and Eels not to be carried with other fish.  because they cast great store of slime, which will choke and kill your other fish, especially Pike or Perch.  
A Pike will hardly feed of any thing except it stir and be alive, but the Perch and Eel will feed of the small guts of sheep being cut, or of any garbage of Chickens, Coneys, or such like, and of blood of beasts.  
The Tench, Perch, and Eel, being used to be fed, will not lightly fail to bite at an angle anytime the Summer half year.  
The feeding of fry the first year will make them quickly past many dangers, as of being past danger of eating of some other fishes and fowls, as also past danger of going away at grates, or at the holes of water rats in banks. Also they will be of a larger and greater growth than ever they will be not being fed: and it behoveth to feed them with such food as they are able to feed on: as, the first month with oatmeal, or some other meal sodden, and being cold may be like a jelly in thickness, a very little in quantity to be laid in shallow places, where only the fry do haunt, and not the greater fish. A carp fry will begin to feed when he is not above an inch long, at what time also they will begin to gather together in skulls after some fortnight or three weeks, you may then make their meat thicker, and increase in quantity as your fry be of ability to eat it, giving to every kind of fry such feeding as his nature requireth.  
It is not good to handle any kind of fry whilst it is very young and tender, or at least wise not in hands, but in some small mashed hand-net, that is flat and not deep like a bag or a sack, and a few at once, that they rub not one upon another.  
The second year you may feed your fry with sodden barley or malt steeped in water, and the third year with sodden pease: for like as any kind of beasts, especially such as chew not the cud, do take more nutriture out of sodden corn, than out of corn being raw: so fishes being of nature more cold than other creatures, take less nutriture of raw corn than any other creatures do. And if you feed your fish with raw corn, you shall find it come from them in their dung not half concocted, whereby a great part of the feeding thereof is lost and doth not good. It may be demanded if it will quite the cost, to have fish in this sort fed. Surely if corn be not excessive dear, it will bear the charges very well: for that a small quantity of corn will suffice a great many of fish. Howbeit the other way before mentioned, with ponds with heads, and to lie dry every other year, is less troublesome, and will breed very excellent, good, sweet, and fat fish: so that they be not overstored, although they have no feeding by hand.  
The more that a pond lieth open unto the Sun, the air, and the winds, the better it is for your fish.  
The leaves of any kind of trees, but especially of oak, falling into any pond, is noisome to the fish, and so is the green boughs of oak, or any other wood except willow▪  
The haunt of cattle unto any pond is very good, and nourishing to the fish, especially of kine and oxen, and chiefly when such cattle do feed where corn hath been newly mown or reaped, for that therewil then remain in their dung much corn and seeds of grass, which the fishes being not of the ravening kind do feed on.  
The fish that be not of the ravening kind, do feed little or nothing in the winter time, but do lie either in holes in the banks, or in weeds in the bottom of the ponds, to shun the extremity of cold air.  
The ravening kind do feed in the winter season, although nothing so much as in the Summer season.  
Some will hold opinion that the Pike will not eat the Perch, because of his sharp fins, but I have often times seen two or three small Perches in the belly of a Pike, and likewise in the belly of an Eel. And I have likewise seen a Pike choked sometime with eating of a Perch, when as he hath swallowed the Perch with the tail foremost.  
But the Pike will not lightly meddle with the Perch if there be any store of other kind of feeding for him in the pond of other small fish.  
It is also requisite that the Pike be helped, so that he labour not over much in chase of his prey before he take it, as to have the tails of the small fish cut off, when you throw them into the stew or small pond unto your Pikes, to the end they may with the more ease take them, The Perch and Eel will feed of blood of beasts as aforesaid, and likewise of the small garbage of sheep and such like being cut small, and also of small fry of fish, either dead or alive.    

THE PREFACE CONCERNING FRVITE.  
IF the benefit arising unto the commonwealth through the abundance of fruit were well weighed and pondered, there would be laws established for the increase and maintenance thereof throughout this Realm. Many countries as Gloccster-shire, Herefordshire, Worcester-shire, great part of Kent and Sussex are so replenished with fruit, that it serveth the poorer sort not only for food a great part of the year, but also for drink the most part of the year. I have known in those countries many men that have 12. or twenty persons uprising and down lying in their houses, that do not spend most years two quarters of malt for their drink (but only cider and perry) and also do yearly sell great quantity. And there is no doubt but in most countries in England there might be the like, if men would generally plant fruit, and notwithstanding take as great commodity in effect by pasturing or ear-ring of their ground as they now do. But in many places the short estate that men have in their holdings, and the discommodity they find in stealers, do discourage them. Howbeit if men would generally plant in their hedgerows, balks and other places, it would be a very small matter to any one man, although poor folk did now & then take some part of the same. Howbeit it were very necessary that some law were established to punish such offenders, not so much in respect of the value of the thing, as in that it discourageth men to set & plant fruit, and that respect were had to Moses Law, viz. that so long as the same extendeth but to the filling of their bellies to expel hunger, it is the more to be borne withal: but if they shall also carry away to any value, there is no reason but that it should be severely punished. I am also persuaded that cider and perry is very wholesome for the bodies of natural English people, especially such as do labour and travel. It is also by experience found to be very good to furnish ships withal for long voyages by sea, for that a small quantity thereof will relish and give good taste unto a great deal of water: and very great commodity might arise to this Realm, if we were able to spare malt to serve the Low countries withal, or rather the same being made into bear, for that our Themes water doth for that purpose pass any other water whatsoever: which thing in time might be very commodious unto our Prince in respect of custom, & likewise to the whole Realm, in respect of maintenance of Navigation by transporting the same, besides other commodities not here to be spoken of.   

CERTAIN EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING FRVITE, AS FOLLOWETH.  
FOR planting of any great quantity of fruit it is necessary first to sow in some bed (being before hand well trenched two foot deep, 
A nursery of plants and grafts.  and the earth broken small and laid light but not dunged) the kernels of apples, crabs, or pears. The kernels of apples may be gotten in some good quantity of such as make apple pies to sell in markets or market towns. The keruels of crabs or pears, are to be picked out of crabs that are stamped for verjuice, or pears ground or stamped for perry: which kernels being sown in such beds as aforesaid, being kept from cropping of cattle or Coneys, and also kept with weeding, will in two years be ready to remove and to be set in beds three foot asunder one way, and a foot the other other way, the body being cut off half a foot above the ground, in which beds having stood one year, they may then be grafted with what fruit you please, a handful above the ground is best grafting, which beds being kept with weeding, you may also commodiously plant strawberries under your grafts. Within three or four years after the grafting, they will be ready to remove into an Orchard, where you may plant them to continue: but if you mean to plant them in your hedgerows in your ground where cattle cometh, they had need to be of six years growth after the grafting, because you may then the more conveniently tie bushes about them, or other provision to keep them from cattle: but the wild choke pear that is never grafted, will make very good perry.  
Also one other way to plant an Orchard may be done by planting of small crab-stockes in beds in some nursery as aforesaid, three foot asunder one way, and one foot the other way, the ground in the said beds being first trenched two foot deep, and the mould laid light, and the stock cut off half a foot above ground: and the next year the same to be grafted close by the ground, or at the most four inches above the ground, to the end that if the first grafting happen to fail, it may be again grafted the second time. Howbeit some also do use to graft five or six foot high, and upon great old stocks, the same is not greatly amiss: howbeit the other way is far better as I take it, for that the sciences so grafted five or six foot high, are many times broken down with fowls lighting on them, & many times broken down with the wind in the joint when they are 3. or 4. years old, which is a great displeasure unto the owner.  
Above all things you must foresee, 
An especial note to be observed.  that the ground of your nursery or orchard be not naturally over wet or moist. It cannot lightly be too dry, for that the roots will naturally run downwards, until they come unto sufficient moisture: but if the root of any plant be once set too deep, he cannot help himself: it is against nature for the root to grow upwards, but will rather grow musty and die.  
The third way to plant an Orchard, is by setting of slips of trees of cider fruit, which is the speediest & readiest way in shortest time to have store of such fruit. But that kind of setting doth seldom prosper but only in some few especial kind of cider fruit. As also an Orchard so planted, will not continue above forty, or at the most fifty years, but it will decay again.  
In planting of an Orchard the greatest care is to be had, 
Wet grounds unfit for an Orchard.  that the ground be not too wet: for that a tree planted in such ground cannot prosper: or if it grow, it will not bear other then spotted and cappard fruit, either apple, pear or plum, neither will it shoot out or grow in any good sort. If your ground be naturally wet, it must be holpen with making of trenches between every row of trees, so as the water may drain away, at the least three foot deep: and whereas the ground is inclined to moisture, you are to set your trees very shallow, as half a foot deep, and rather to raise a hillock of earth about your tree root, then to set your tree too deep near the water. 
An especial matter to be noted in planting of any trees whatsoever.  And here note, that every ground hath an upper crust of earth, which by the natural heat of the Sun, & pleasantness of the air piercing the same, is made more fruitful than the residue of the earth is: which upper crust in some grounds is a foot, some two foot, and in some three foot deep: also in some grounds not above half a foot deep. And under the same upper crust is either a hot chalk, a dry sand, a barren gravel, or a cold lean clay, or lome, or such like. It is therefore requisite that you set your young tree in such sort, as that the roots thereof may run and spread in that upper crust, for that if you set him any deeper, you spoil all.  
In many places in a chalk ground, where such crust as aforesaid is very shallow and not past half a foot deep, you shall see most of the roots of the Elms Ashes, and other trees there growing, to run naturally even three or four inches above the earth: which thing they do to shun the extreme heat of the chalk. The like experience shall you also see in a wet or moorish ground, a great part of the root of great trees to run also above the ground, for that they do naturally shun the extreme wet and cold of such grounds.  
The fattest & fruitfullest ground is not best for fruit, for that the trees growing in such ground will be very subject to be eaten with cankers, as also the fruit will be much worm-eaten.  
I suppose the best ground for an Orchard is a wheat ground, or that which is as it were a mixture of clay and sand, but in no wise inclined to wet or springs of water.  
If you plant your trees twenty foot one way and thirty foot the other, 
Many men are at great charge● in planting of Orchards, and yet can have no good fruit, only by reason their trees are at the first set too deep: howbeit do not perceive the reason thereof.  you may then very conveniently either plough broad ridges, or mow your Orchard between every rank of trees: and such ploughing will also do good unto the roots of the trees, especially if you turn your ground upward unto the roots of your trees some three or four plowings together, making your sorrow in the midst between every rank of trees, especially whereas the ground is inclined to wet.  
It is also requisite that the place where you set your tree, be digged wide and deep, to the end that the roots may have loose earth to run into: by which means the root spreading and increasing, it will send out the more nourishment and strength into the top.  
Also when you plant your young trees in your Orchard, it is requisite to cut off all the top, otherwise he will be in danger to die the next Summer, by reason the root cannot the first year be able to give nourishment unto many boughs & branches. Many covet to have their trees six or seven foot high before they branch out in top, but I have found very great inconvenience in so doing, for that when such trees come to bear fruit, the bodies will not be able to sustain the tops, but that they will bend down, and often times break in sunder with the weight of fruit: but to branch at some four foot in height, I take to be the best, especially where cometh no cattle to crop them.  
In my opinion there were no fruit to be compared unto the Pippin, if it were not so subject unto the canker as it is. There be many kinds of good apples, howbeit will not bear passed once in five or six years to any purpose. Some other kinds will bear every second year exceeding full. Of both which sorts I have divers kinds, howbeit cannot give proper names to every of them. The good bearing fruit is fittest for cider, so it be also naturally moist and not dry. Howbeit the pear maketh the more delicate drink then the apple will do: and I have seen some perry of that strength, that it will warm the stomach even like white wine, and taste as pleasantly. And I am verily persuaded, that a ground planted with wild pears otherwise called choke pears, would be very beneficial unto the owner: for that such kind of fruit is fittest for perry, as also for the most part doth bear very full every year: and until your trees be of some ten or twelve years growth, you may take commodity by ploughing or mowing your ground, and grazing the same with horses, and afterward by mowing and grazing the same with any other cattle, especially if you set your trees twenty foot asunder one way, and thirty foot another way, as aforesaid.  
The Pear will prosper in a ground inclined to wet better than the apple will do.  
There is a disease in trees, which is called a canker, whereunto the pippin chiefly is greatly subject, and the same doth spoil many trees. I know no better remedy for the same, then to cut it cleave out in the winter time, which oftentimes doth help the same, so that the bark will again overgrow the sore, and do well: but if it have once gone more than half about the tree, it will hardly be ever recovered: and for the most part the best and most delicate fruit is most subject to this infirmity. It may be here expected I should treat of all kinds of grafting, as to graft in the cleft, in the leaf, in the noch, or otherwise: but surely for apples, pears, or most kind of plums, I have found to graft in the cleft some four inches above the ground to be the best. Howbeit the Abricocke plum, the vine, and such other as have great store of pith, they are fittest to be grafted in the leaf, or eye (as the call it.) The third way to graft in the noch, the cyent must be in effect as great as the stock, and such grafts for the most part grow to be top heavy, and therefore that kind of grafting to no great purpose in my opinion.  
Some writers teach, that apples may be grafted upon the willow, the Elm, the Ash, Alder, and such others: but a man had better be without such fruit-trees in his Orchard then to have them, for that they will have a taste of the stock that they are grafted on. An apple is not good to be grafted, but upon the stock of the wild apple or crab, as likewise the pear and warden upon the wild pear stock.  
If you graft a Pear or a Warden upon a white thorn, it will be final, hard, cappard, and spotted.  
The Medler is good to be grafted upon the white thorn.  
The Quince is best to be planted of the wild sciences that grow out of the root of other Quince trees, and so likewise the Philbard.  
The Chestnut and Walnut are to be set of Nuts: and besides the commodity of the fruit, do also become very good timber.  
The Chestnut timber will outlast the heart of oak, to lie either always wet or always dry, or sometime wet and sometime dry.  
The perry will not last well above one year, but the cider will last good two or three years.   
FINIS.