HEREFORDSHIRE ORCHARDS, A PATTERN For all England. Written in an Epistolary Address to Samuel Hartlib Esq By I. B. LONDON, Printed by ROGER DANIEL, Anno M. DC. LVII. To my very worthy Friend, The zealous solicitor of Christian peace Amongst all Nations, The constant Friend of distressed Strangers, The true-hearted lover of our Native country, The sedulous advancer of Ingenuous Arts, and Profitable Sciences, And the principal Contriver of general Accommodations, SAMUEL HARTLIB Esq SIR, YOur industrious endeavours for the benefit of all men, and particularly for the good of this Nation, hath well deserved the grateful acknowledgement of all good men, and of myself in special: for that in my rural retirement I have received some profit, and very much innocent and refreshing delights in the perusal of those treatises, which are by your diligent hand communicated to the public. My education was amongst Scholars in academies, where I spent many years in conversing with variety of books only. A little before our wars began, I spent two summers in travelling towards the South, with purpose to learn to know men and foreign manners. Since my return, I have been constantly employed in a weighty office, by which I am not disengaged from the care of our public welfare in the peace and prosperity of this Nation; but obliged to be the more solicitous and tender in preserving it, and promoting it. Wherefore, taking notice that this County is reputed the Orchard of England, and (in the generality of good husbandry) excelleth many other places; I offer it (as my duty) to give you some plain and unpolished account of our Agriculture in Herefordshire: which I do the more willingly undertake, for that I do not yet know of any other address is made unto you from this County. Here I observe the wisest and best of our Gentry to be very careful in setting forward such kind of husbandry, as best agrees with the nature of the soil where he inhabiteth. From the greatest persons to the poorest cottager, all habitations are encompassed with Orchards and Gardens; and in most places our hedges are enriched with rows of fruit-trees, pears, or apples, gennet-moils, or crab trees. Of these, the Pears make a weak drink fit for our hinds, and is generally refused by our Gentry, as breeding wind in the stomach; yet this drink (till the heat of Summer hath caught it,) is most pleasing to the female palate, having a relish of weak wine mixed with sugar. If mingled with some harsh kind of apples, it makes a happy mixture; and our observant housekeepers know how to mix them to the best advantage. Some pears are apt to incline 2the drink to be roapy, and they are known by giving a wheyish colour to the liquour. I know a good husband that cuts down and destroys such peartrees from off his ground, calling them the worst kind of weeds. For others are so nice as to refuse the drink, and women love it best, as sweetest, till it be roapy. Most other kinds of perry are of a more waterish colour, than apple-cider, and more luscious. The white-horsepear yields a juice somewhat near to the quality of cider; and the neighbourhood of Bosbury is famous for a peculiar perry, which hath many of the masculine qualities of cider. It is as quick, strong, and heady, high-coloured; and retaineth a good vigour two or three Summers, yea in great vessels and good cellars many years, before it declineth. The fruit is so hard and course, that a man cannot endure to bite a morsel of it, and a pig will refrain it. This Bosbury pear is there called the Bareland pear: and as the liquour approacheth to apple-cider in colour, strength, and excelleth in durance; so the bloom cometh forth of a damaskrose colour, like apples, not like other pears. Our jennet moils are commonly found in hedges, or in our worst soil, most commonly in Irchinfield, or towards Wales, where the land is somewhat dry and shallow. This fruit is nice, and apt to be discouraged by blasts, and we do ordinarily expect a failing of them every other year, especially in dry soil; and the reason is apparent and necessary. But this fruit makes the best cider in my judgement, & such as I do prefer before the much-commended red-straked must. For this jennet moil, if it be suffered to ripen upon the tree, not to be mellow but to be yellowish and fragrant, and then to be hoarded in heaps under the trees, a fortnight or three weeks before you grind them; it is (at distance) the most fragrant of all cider-fruit, & gives the liquour a most delicate perfume. So, for tarts and pies, it is much commended. The Crab is commonly ground for Verjuice, and sometimes hoarded till near December, and then mingled with cider, or washings of cider, to make a mordicant cider, which doth well please our day-labourers; and would surely well agree with a French peasants palate. And, for a fresh wonder, I assure you, that we have lately found out, that one of our most delicate kinds of Cider is made of a kind of Crab, called a Bromsbery Crab, thus hoarded: it being much like a stomach wine, of a very pleasing sharpness. This experiment is not yet known to many of our countrymen, it being reserved to few as a novel mystery. I have sometimes tried the Cider of Pippins only, well ripened, not green windfalls, nor overripened, and somewhat hoarded: and I find it to be a very pleasant drink, and do conceive it to be the most wholesome, and most restorative of all sorts of Cider. I need not tell you how all our villages, and generally all our highways (all our vales being thick set with rows of villages) are in the spring-time sweetened, and beautyfied with the bloomed trees, which continue their changeable varieties of Ornament, till (in the end of Autumn) they fill our Garners with pleasant fruit, and our cellars with rich and winey liquours. Few cottagers, yea very few of our wealthiest yeomen do taste any other drink in the family, except at some special festivals, twice or thrice in the year, and that for variety, rather than with choice. Orchards being the Pride of our country, and the Scene of my present discourse, I will offer unto you two Observations upon that argument, as properly directive to them that can affect the pleasure or profit, which must needs be, in many respects, very much: As, for that they do not only sweeten, but also purify the ambient air, (which I conceive to conduce very much to the constant health and long lives, for which our County hath been always famous;) and for that they fence our habitations and walks from the stroke of winds and storms in the Winter, and afford us shelter & shade in the heat of Summer; and (if I may acknowledge grateful trifles) for that they harbour a constant aviary of sweet singers, which are here retained without the charge or violence of the Italian wires. My first Observation is this; I conceive that, if other countries would submit to the same patience and industry, as is usual amongst us, they might partake of a great measure (at least) of the same blessings. As we see in our borderers of Shropshire, Worcestershire and Glocestershire, and also in Somersetshire; and much more in Kent and Essex, &c. My reason I take from the wonderful difference of soils where we abound with rich Orchards. About Bromyard, a cold air, and a shallow barren soil, yet store of Orchards of divers kinds of spicey and savoury apples. About Rosse and Webley, and towards the Hay, a shallow, hot, sandy or stony rye-land, & exposed to a changeable air from the disgusts of the black mountain; yet here, and all over Irchinfield, and also about Lemster, both towards Keinton, and towards Fayremile (which makes a third difference of shallow and starvy land,) in all these barren provinces, as good store of undeceiving Orchards, as in the richest vale of the County, even by from banks. Only, as I fore-noted, where the driest fruit-trees are planted in a very hot, shallow, and dry soil, there we must be content with a full and certain blessing every second year. This being also allowed, that some soil and some air is more agreeable for some kind of fruit, than for other: as for example, Worcestershire is more proper for pears and cherries, than Herefordshire, and Herefordshire more proper for Apples. The reason of the difference may in part appear by this following illustration. Where the turf is very shallow, the rough starvy ground (which in this country we wrongfully call Marle) hinders the tender root of the appletree from descending deep enough for due nourishment, and fit shelter. There (as in the ground which we esteem the most barren) the root of the pear-tree, having a more piercing vigour, breaks his way through this course Marle, as it will also cleave through some veins of rocks and stones; and, under this starvy ground, it finds a more congenial and richer nourishment; as appears by the store of fruit, fair and juicy, and also by the rind of the tree, smooth, bright-coloured, and free from moss. This we also note, that in a deep soil, that is most kind for apples, if the root of a pear-tree descends deep into a soft clay ground, the tree spends all his strength in growing downwards, and becomes less spacious, less beautiful in the head, and less fruitful. And where some pears find great difference of soil, whether grafted or planted by the stock, there it differeth sometimes in bulk, and oft times in other qualities very much. Which seemeth to me to explain, why there is such different kinds of pears in every country: their shape and their nature, and therefore also their names, being changed so often, and so easily. Also I have frequently noted, that the richest Cider, and the best-tasted apples for the table, do grow in the soil that is less deep and less commended for other uses, as in a high ground, or dry land. And you shall find the better-tasted fruit to be more wreathed or wrinkled, or spotted with warts, moles, or freckles, or of a more russet, or yellow colour. The other apple, that comes from the richer and lower ground, is more pallid, more plump, but more waterish and insipid. I conclude this observation with this direction, That since no kind of soil should wholly discourage us, and yet much regard must be had of fitting the fruit to the soil, therefore we must employ our first care in the plantation of a nursery, where our experiences may daily increase, and the plants also be educated, prepared and fitted for the neighbouring soil. For what Columella saith of Vines, I may as truly say of Fruit-trees; Quod ex longinquo petitur, parum familiariter nostro solo venit, propter quod difficilius convalescit alienum exterae regionis. Optimum est ergo eodem agro quo vitem dispositurus es, vel certe vicino, facere seminarium: idque multum refert loci natura &c. de arbour. cap. 1. My second observation is intended to encourage the plantation of a Nursery, by directing the sure way how to fit the soil with the greatest variety of fruits, and also to obtain the speediest reward together with a yearly delight in novelties, & a like growth in experiences. But because I must now embark ninto some paradoxes, which will not easily obtain belief, & least of all amongst our own countrymen here in Herefordshire, for some reasons which hereafter will occur, I will make my entrance with a plain and true story. Some years ago I read a small treatise of Orchards and Gardens written by William Lawsone, Printed 1626. a north-country man. In it I found many assertions which seemed to me so strange, so contrary to our general opinion, so discordant from our daily practice, and so incredible, that I could not forbear my smiles. I related the particulars to all our best Artists. Every man confirmed me, that the treatise wa● wholly ridiculous, and in no respec● worthy to be examined and weighed: yet I thought I found many signs of honesty and integrity in the Man, a sound, clear, natural wit, and all things attested and affirmed upo● his own experiences. This raised m● wonder the more. Amongst many particulars, some were as followeth. 1. That the best way to plant a● Orchard were to turn the groun● with a spade in February, and to se● from February till May, every month● some kernels of the best and sounde● apples, or pears &c. finger deep, a● a foot distance: And by removing the rest (as time and occasion should advise) to leave the likeliest plant to reside in the natural place unremoved. Ch. 7. pag. 17. 2. That the kernels of every apple would bring forth apples of the like kind. Chap. 7. pag. 18. 3. That by the leaves of each spiring plant you might distinguish each kind of fruit, whether delicate or harsh, &c. Ch. 7. pag. 18. 4. That trees thus raised might be preserved or continue for a thousand years, &c. Chap. 14. pag. 47. 5. That apples either grafted, or any time removed, could never be sound, durable, or otherwise perfect. 1. The first of these Assertions was rejected, as dilatory, and retarding our hopes & reward for half an age. 2. The second was contradicted by daily experience, which voucheth that many apple-kernels will degenerate to crabs, at least if taken from apples planted on a crab-stock: and that crab-kernels are better for a plantation, than any apple-kernels. 3. The third note was wholly unknown and unobserved in our country. 4. The fourth, like an unreasonable fancy. 5. The fifth, as refuted in all our Orchards everywhere. Notwithstanding these oppositions, I still retained my good opinion of the man's honesty and experience. Therefore I resolved to make exact trial with patience. I digged holes of three foot breadth in a parcel of ordinary clay-ground. [Note that the whole piece of clay-ground was turned somewhat deep with the spade before, that the settlings might gather root as well in that vulgar ground, as also in the finer mould.] I inquired slips of several trees that grew without graffing, and bore several fruits of their natural kind: these I placed each kind round about the verges of the several holes. By diligent enquiry the first Spring I found fourteen several sorts of these natural apples, the fruit much differing in taste, shape and colour; some only green and sowrish, some red-straked, some particoloured, and very pleasant, some table-fruit in Summer, some Winter fruit, some cider fruit. Of all these the Kentish coddling was by odds the worst: not many better than the French Cornel. Having placed these slips in the border of the hole at a foot distance, I filled up the hole with a fine kind of garden-mould, carried thither in barrows. This I raised not in Tumps, for I foresaw the inconvenience, that it would be a harbour for ants or pismires. I kept it also at an equal level, that the rain might not lodge there, and corrupt the young roots. In the midst of this fine mould, in the most temperate weather, I did monthly, from Autumn to the next Spring, set kernels of the finest sort of apples, with delineating in a sciograph the several kinds in several places. I now find that the kernels of apples grafted on crab-stocks prove not all crabs, nor (as I guess) altogether of the kind of that apple, whence the kernel was taken. 2ly That, as the mould is ●●ner where they first grow, so the fruit seemeth more civil, and in course ground they degenerate towards the crab. Our neighbours, for a nursery, sow the dross or must (as we call it) of apples ground in a cider-mill. But I have noted the fairest kernels to be bruised in the mill, the remainder being small, and sown in course land, become a kind of crabs. And that the kernels of natural apples do very much propend to the kind of which they are descended. This was neglected, and therefore unknown to our neighbours, who had no need of this curiosity, as being so addicted to graffing, that they take not notice of any natural apple, except the jennet moil, the Kydoddin, the Sweeting, and the French Cornel; which are found in all places. 'tis sure that kernels of the same apples, in a far differing soil, do produce a different apple; but (as I said) still with some inclination to the original, if it be the kernel of an ungrafted apple. And this may advertise the best season of designing variety; namely, in application of choice compost to the very kernel, as Gab. Plat prescribeth Exp. 14. pag. 210. of the Additions to the excellent Legacy. All other stories, of pouring liquours into the bark, or bulk of the tree, are effete and idle fancies, for nine days' wonder. 3ly, I find the truth, & that much more might be added to Lawsons' rules, of distinguishing the hopefulness of the fruit by the first leaves of the yearling plant. For a short and dark-green leaf prognosticateth a crabbed fruit. With a larger leaf and thick, but also dark-green, I have found a good Winter-apple, but the stock hardy to endure a stiff clay-ground. A fady willowish broad leaf noteth a flat, insipid apple, as the Kentish coddling, which holds out well against blasts. A paler green, as the Poppinjay, or barbery leaf, specially if the leaf be limber also, noteth a delicate fruit: and the broader the leaf, the fairer that fruit. A wrinkled leaf, neither very dark, nor very light, proves red-straked crab-stocks have reddish tops. More particulars will occur by ordinary observation. 4ly, For the incredible durance of appletrees to a thousand years, I have upon much experience & many reasons much abated the presumption of my censure. 'Tis certainly true (as Gabriel Plat in the foresaid place noteth,) that if a man aim at his present profit, then graffing is his way: but if he aim at the profit of his posterity, than it is best not to graft at all. This I add, that most ungraffed apples are apt by the overweight of their fruit to lean towards the ground: and I have seen many of them quelled quite to the ground; where they do renew their strength, and get up again into many Trunks, in a continued order, answerable to the old fable of the Giant Antaeus. Every aspiring Trunk of some of these natural apples, is much more lasting than any grafted fruit-tree: and many very aged people have assured me, that they have discerned no difference either of their growth or decay, in their whole age from their childhood. I will tell you upon my credit the wonders of one tree of this kind, now growing in Ocle Pitchard: the fruit is not very sappy, nor pleasant; the leaf dark-green, and stiff. My known friend (for trial) made of that tree five of our large hogsheads, consisting of sixty four Statute gallons of cider, without the mixture of any water. It ordinarily yieldeth four hogsheads, and seldom or (as they assure me that dwell there) never faileth of three. Yet few of our countrymen have heard of it, or take notice of it. This tree hath had very many uprisings, so that I conceive it hath been many hundreds of years making this progress. My dear alliance, Mr. Thomas Taylor, was owner of it many years, and dwelled always in that parish. He is now past eighty years old, of firm strength and fresh memory: yet he affirmeth, that he never could discern any change in the tree. And his wife for many years tried to plant the branches, but was utterly discouraged by their slow motion. I have for three years tried some branches, which seem only to keep a faint life, with very little progress. The ground on which this great tree grows, is pasture, and seems not in the age of man to have been broken up, or relieved with compost, or fresh mould; which may show, that it is a very hardy plant. So much upon the adventure of mine own credit, which may be examined by a thousand witnesses, to confirm the credit, or rather guess and proposal, of Mr. Lawson. 5ly. For duration of the fruit-tree, much care must be had in the removal, which should be soon after the leaf is fallen, when the autumnal reins have softened the earth at the roots, that the roots be not bruised or wounded in the removal: and then the tree should keep the same position towards the heavens; the roots laid also in the same posture, the smaller fibers or bearded roots rather cut at the ends, than crumpled up: and the earth in which the stock is laid, somewhat of the same kind, but bettered, and mellowed, not with undigested muck, but with fine mould, and shovellings of the fold. If the roots are cut or bruised, to the same proportion the branches must be lopped. In a grafted plant every bow should be lopped, at the very tops, in apples and pears; not in cherries and plums. In a natural plant, the bows should not at all be lopped, but some taken off close to the trunk; that the root at first replantation be not engaged to maintain too many suckers. And this must be done with such discretion, that the top-branches be not too close together; for the natural plant is apt to grow spiry, & thereby fails of fruitfulness. Therefore let the reserved branches be divided at a convenient roundness. The branches that are cut off, may be set, and will grow, but slowly. If the top prove spiry or the fruit unkind, than the due remedy must be in graffing. Neither is graffing to be used only as a remedy. For it doth most certainly improve the kind of the fruit: insomuch that a graft of the same fruit doth meliorate the fruit, as is lately much observed by our Welsh neighbours, who do graft the gennet-moil upon the same stock, and thereby obtain a larger apple, more juicy, and better for all uses: and some triplicate their graffings (for a curiosity) upon the same account. And it is noted amongst us, that a pearmain or any other pleasant fruit either for cider, or the table, is much sweeter, if grafted upon the stock of a gennet-moil, or Kydoddin, than if grafted on a crab-stock; though much less lasting upon the stock of the gennet-moil: the gennet-moil being also less lasting, especially amongst us, where they are generally planted of large settlings, which must needs wound them in their very beginnings, and therefore hinder their duration. Also graffing doth much precipitate, or at least expedite the reward, especially if the graft be taken from a branch that hath some years constantly born sound fruit plentifully. Trust not to one years' trial. Potest enim vel anni proventu, vel aliis de causis, etiam naturaliter infoecunda semel exuberare: sed ubi plurimis velut emeritis annorum stipendiis fides surculo constitit, nihil dubitandum est de foecunditate: nec tamen ultra quadriennium talis extenditur inquisitio, saith Columella in a like case; lib. 3. c. 6. 1. Thus we see how to hasten the reward both by graffing, and in the choice of the graft. 2. And how to sweeten the fruit and better it, both by the choice of a pleasing stock and also of a kind graft. 3. And how to multiply variety in the diversity of compost, especially at the first plantation of the kernel; and I add, with frequent application of pleasant infusions, and liquids, as in which anise seeds, fennel, rosemary, or other agreeable aromatics have been steeped: yet beware of giving too much juice to a young plant; for that may drown it, or make it less gustful: And I never saw an Orchard prove, where the ground was wetted with a water-gall, or where the moisture did for some time lie there, and could not be drained away. Yet near a running sink of soiled water, I have seen the approaching trees never fail of their fruit. 4. And hence we see how to plant an Orchard that may probably remain to the world's end. And in this point I have insinuated some part of my paradoxes, by the way of a story, and in pretence of defending another against the opinion & common practice of mine own countrymen. Mr. Lawsons' book I have not now at hand, neither can I record his judgement verbally, but I think I have stuck close to his sense. He addeth, that the fruit of the natural plant doth grow better and pleasanter by time, as better at thirty years' growth than at twenty years' growth. This I know not. See Chap. 7. pag. 18, 19 Also he requireth much more distance of the trees than we observe as sixty foot at least. Our common Orchards are at twenty foot distance; our best Orchards at thirty at least, by alternative rows per quincuncem. In large crofts of arable, reserved for constant tillage, which is a necessary help to fruit-trees, our best husbands graft high, and prefer Lawsons' utmost distance, even sixty yards, that the teams may not annoy the trees; and than the trees bear a full load of fruit, and spread to the natural perfection. This I add, that if you would have the trees grow tall, and shadow more in Summer, and keep off winds better in Winter, and the fruit the sweeter, than you should plant the closer together, yet never nearer than twenty foot. To conclude my paradoxes; He that is provided of a nursery, need not be very nicely provident for the longevity of his trees. A small parcel of ground will furnish store for all his grounds, and for all his neighbourhood, to play away upon graffings and novel experiments. And to encourage this nursery, I now sum up all with my last paradox, That for these four last years, whereof two were very dry Summers, I laid the fruitful sprays of natural apple-plants in the ground, some very small, not two foot above ground, all thereabout; and from the first Summer to this present Spring, they never failed to bear as thick as traces of onions. But it is better for the plant, if you pull off the young apples soon after they be knitted, the first year at least. Some I laid also of four yards' length under ground, the sprays lying slope above ground: these grow and bear incredibly. Others I slope, and pare away the bordering turf, that the reflected Sun may give me the early benefit of a dwarf Orchard; and these against Midsummer, are as big as a Lady's fist. I present them to store of witnesses. If I dwelled near Cheapside, I should make my new-planted Nursery as rich as an Orchard. All natural apples are not of this precocity: the more durable (as I said before) are much more sullen. Some require a knot for the root, others not: all three the better for it. To some a small slice from the bark is as good. Before December, whilst the spray grows on the tree, by the bluntness of the bud you may discover what branch will bear fruit the next Summer immediately following, if you cut off the branch, and set it before the buds be sprouted too far forward, (as you may in February, or the beginning of March.) This (with some) will pass as a prophecy. A sore blast or May-Frosts may deceive you. Of these natural apples there are not past six or seven kinds distinguished by proper names amongst us. I conceive they can never be distinguished, for that every individual always assumes a peculiar nature from the infinite variety of compost. In this nursery, 'tis the same pains, and no charge, to try the seeds of firres, pines, cypress, pitch, &c. which prove better for replantation than in hot beds. Of the Art of graffing either with the ciens, bud or leaf, I shall say nothing, because every village amongst us yieldeth store of Artists: and many books show the rules; but in these things an Artist can teach more in a day, than a book in a month. One reason why fruit do so abound in this County, is, for that no man hath of late years built him a house, but with special regard to the proximity of some ground fit for an Orchard, which should be of some depth, as is commonly towards the foot of a descending ground, and frequently with a proclivity towards the South; and the land not too friable or hollow, but somewhat tough, binding and tenacious, lest the winds root up the stocks. And many times servants when they betake to marriage, seek out an acre or two of ground, which they find fit for Orchard: for this they give a fine, or double value for years or lives; and thereon they build a Cottage, & plant an Orchard, which is all the wealth they have for themselves, and their posterity. For Gardens, we have little encouragement to design more than is for the necessary use of our own families, except our River Weigh may be made navigable for transportation. And by defect of transportation, our store of cider is become a snare to many, who turn God's blessings into wantonness & drunkenness. The credit of Cider being of few late years much advanced in the estimation of our best Gentry, who have sought out the right method of ripening and hoarding the choicest fruits, and of finding the right season of drawing it, and some also of bottling it. But I am confident that much more may be added to the perfection of it, when they shall also apply to it the due subtleties of the mysterious art of fermentation. I found it much amended, by putting pure cider upon the fresh lees of a butt of sack, newly drawn. In Vines our Gentry have lately contended in a profitable ambition to excel each other: so that the white muscadel is vulgar, the purple and black grape frequent, the parsly-grape and Frontiniack in many hands. Walnuts belong to our highway sides, and are fittest for dry and stony grounds. I find them for the driest ground of the Nursery a never-failing companion. In Columella we may find many excellent rules how to ascertain and hasten their growth, and to mend their quality. The large Chestnut being such a masculine food for lusty rustics, and so much used at the best tables in France, and so savoury in the condiment of our strongest cider with salt, I much blame our countrymen, that we have no more use of a food that would soon become cheap, common, and lasting. All these nuts and filberts do accelerate growth, (as I have proved,) by the rules of Columella: In aqua mulsa, nec ninius dulci macerato, it a jucundioris saporis fructum, cum adoleverit, praebebit, & interim melius & celerius frondebit, lib. 5. cap. 10. and again, de arb. 22. I cannot tell whether it should not be read, nec nimis dulci; but I tried it in milk, and also in stale urine steeped in sheeps-dung, with good success. He adds for an improvement, Et in medulla ferulae sine putamine nucem Graecam vel avellanam abscondito, & ita adobruito. A worthy person tried the kernels of cherry-stones and plum-stones, having first broken and cast away the shells, and setting them in Summer time, as soon as they were ripe; and he assureth that they got a years advantage in celerity. I do much wonder that such a singular honest man as Gabriel Plat should write, that it is found by experience, that a chestnut in ten or twelve years will grow into a fair tree, able to be the master-post of a fair building. And the like of the walnut, Exp. 13. pag. 269. Addit. to the Legacy. I am at the like wonder at honest Cap. Blithe's precedent of small quickset oaks, that at eleven years' growth made spars and small building-timber, Chap. 25. pag. 158. Edit. 1652. Our elm is of speediest growth, all timber, always shredded to be the tallest of English trees; and found in rows on our highways, and at every cottagers door, except they be compelled to give place to fruit-trees. In many journeys through Shropshire, I have scarce seen two elms of the right kind. The crust of the earth there is too shallow. But the root of the oaks cleaves through the harder earth, and surely finds a marly substance for his plentiful sustenance to the full depth of his stature, quod quantum vertice ad auras Aethereas, tantum radice ad Tartara tendit. Georg. 2. vers. 191. All our hills have sometimes born oaks, or few failed, and I conceive most are very apt for it. But of late the Iron-mills have devoured our glory, and deflowered our Groves. We are generally noted to excel in all kinds of husbandry: our ploughs are light, but we listen after further directions which come to us through your hands. The rye of Clehanger and of some parts of Irchinfield is as good as the Muncorne or Miscellane of many other countries; and our wheat is upon the ground far richer than I saw any in the fair vale of Esome in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, as in my travels, I sometimes examined it in the company of other more skilful husbandmen. For pastures we add improvements daily, and as a stranger passeth by our habitations, by our fences, Orchards, pastures, arable, he may distinguish a well-ordered housekeeper and a freeholder, from an over-wracked Tenant, and an unthrift. This is the country where Rowland Vaughan began his Water-works; and I can name you a great number of admirable contrivers for the public good. The Lord Scudamore may well begin to us; a rare example, for the well-ordering of all his family, a great preserver of woods against the day of England's need, maintaining laudable hospitality regularly bounded with due sobriety, and always keeping able servants to promote the best expediencies of all kinds of Agriculture. And Sr. H. L. hath heartily prosecuted the same encouragements. Our learned Mr. B.H. drives on the same design, as far as the glances of a most sedulous employment will permit. Mr. R. of L. is excellently apt, and constantly diligent in the pursuit as well of delicacies, as necessaries. Mr. S. of W. hath in few years raised an under-tenement, from 8l. yearly, & so rent, to be well worth 60l. yearly, and so rent, or thereabouts. He never fails in any point of good husbandry. Mr. F. of B. hath raised his poor pastures from the value of 2s.— 6d. to be better worth than 20s yearly. C. M. hath metamorphosed his wilderness to be like the Orchards of Alcinous; herein also a hearty patriot. I must cease to name men, since in every village there is some excellent republican. With one sad note I must now conclude this discourse. I wish this sore proverb, Bona terra, mala gens, may not belong to us. The most High hath filled us with his blessings, but we fail so much in returning due thanks, that we many times turn his blessings into heavy curses, and make his liberal gifts the prevailing cause of our hasty ruin. And whereas the rural life should in all reason be the most humble, tame, and innocent: yet daily experience showeth, that where any Trade of Manufacture is driven on, there the word of God bears a price: Where Trade thrives not, there the word of God is at the best but as a pleasant song: if sometimes they hear it, yet seldom they obey it. And all doors and highways are oppressed with idle and sturdy vagabonds: and it is more easy for an honest justiciary to do the work of Hercules in cleansing the Augaean stable, than to remedy such a customary and prevailing evil. Our fresh expectation is, that some worthy Patriot will break through the difficulties of an obstructive people, and force open a way for trade and commerce. Let our prayers and importunities press on all true-hearted patriots thus to advance the public. For this adventure is, without dispute, sure of a reward in heaven, and not only free from the envy of men, but also always acknowledged to deserve everlasting Monuments of glory. And thus also in the person of another (as under a fit veil of modesty) I briefly hint unto you, what esteem we do truly owe unto your labours. I pray the Lord to remember your diligence in the great day of his appearance in glory. May the 3d. 1656. Your hearty wellwisher, and obliged servant in the Lord, I. B. SIR, HAving employed one day upon a long letter to you concerning Orchards and the Culture of Herefordshire, and the Messenger being not yet gone, I shall now add somewhat, or at least sum up the result of my former discourse. The ground for an Orchard should rather incline towards the South than towards the North: yet no necessity of niceness in that point. They prove well towards the North. So rather towards the rising Sun, than towards the West. Yet the West wind is the best, and the Western Sun best ripening. And the blasts commonly come from the full South, and about Noon: wherefore we pray with the Psalmist, to be delivered from the evil that flieth at Noontide. Yet a diligent observer may find that the hurtful winds are apt to gather into channels upon the surface of the earth, as the streams of water do: and a man may find by his eye and reason, and see it confirmed by anniversary experience, that at a miles distance one point of the heavens is far more agreeable, or more hurtful than another, either by the conduct of hills and vales in the neighbourhood, or at distance, or by vapours arising from lakes, rivers, or moorish grounds, which by frosts are turned into blasts. For we have confirmed it into a proverb, that dry frosts do not blast, but moist frosts, and frosts following after rain do: and dampy grounds make frosts that would be dry in other places, become moist in the neighbourhood. Also sometimes in a very bottom the air is penned so close, and the sun's heat so multiplied by reflections, that it is apt to gather the Southern blasts (which, as I said, are the more frequent, and more hurtful to the nicer fruit, and to hops,) as in a furnace or oven. If the crust, or richer surface of the earth be near a foot deep, it is fully enough: and if the crust of the earth be deeper, yet I have seldom seen any of our stocks set more than a foot deep, except they be great stocks, which should keep their former depth. If the ground be equable, that is, in any proclivity relating towards a level, than it is pity to stock it with natural plants. The more expedite way were in October to settle crab-stocks at thirty foot distance in the forementioned best order, per quincuncem: and after three years, the next following Spring, send for an Artist to graft them with the best fruit. The Crab-stocks should not be above the bigness of a man's hand-wrist: if bigger, 'tis less apt to close with the graft, and then the rain finds hole, to the danger of the stock. Our usual custom was, upon the plain stock to set two or three grafts, which (for variety) might be different, without any hazard or damage. Of late many do slope the stock for one only graft conceiving this the more certain way to unite the stock and graft fully and speedily. In a Nursery, if the stocks be as small as twigs, the surest and speediest way is by the joint-graft, where no less than eight sides are engaged, and this is an improvement of the last stamp. We cannot trust to any Artist, but have need to use a true and careful friend in the choice of grafts from the fruitful branch of a sound and fruitful tree. And an error in this point (besides the mistake of the fruit,) may prorogue the reward for five years or more, which is a sad loss. Columella's former note is worthy to be remembered in this point. If the ground be very unequal, 'tis a great charge, and a very gross vanity to level it. For there is a kind of beauty, and a sure refreshment in a wilderness; at least it is a good soil if appendent to a pleasant garden. And it may be better, more kind, and more fruitful, most certainly more fit for variety, and for all change of seasons by inequality, than by equality. And this is the ground that is fittest for the natural apple, who is then wronged, maimed or wounded, when he is hindered from his natural course, or forced into order. Yet I should not plant him in such bottoms, where the water cannot pass away: the descent were best for his situation. The apples we commend for grafts, are the Stockin-apple, the jellyflower-apple, the Well-apple, the Eliot, the Queen-crab, the Quince-apple, the Winter-quining, the Harvey, the William, the Lenard, the john-apple, the Snouting, not forgetting the pearemain, and pippin, & leather-coat. These, and many more that are nameless, are for the Table. For cider, the streaked must is most commended; but 'tis but a kind of shrub or hedge-plant, not apt to grow to a large tree, and spending strength so thick and so constantly, that the planter commonly survives to see the decay of his own work. There is a white must, much commended for a strong lusty cider, the tree long lasting. Another white must hath this fault; they abide not on the tree, to be gathered together, but are always dropping one after another. I need not note such cautions as may afford choice for all seasons, early and late, and in the first stocking of the ground to plant pears and apples alternatively, at least if we have no certainty of the nature of the ground; and there is a beauty as well as profit in variety: and pears grow long before they take up much room, and for the most part begin to be in perfection, when the grafted apple is decayed. Or a Winter-apple, which lasts longer, and grows slower, may be alternative to a cider-apple. The clay-land binds the tree faster from wind-strokes, the sandy-land hasteneth the growth more. By rows of Elmes every Orchard and Village is generally fenced from the North and North-East wind: yet no necessity. For Hops, we make haste to be the chief hop-masters in England; our country having store of Coppice-woods, and many provident men within these three years planting abundance of the fairest & largest sort of hops. All about Bromyard in a base soil there is great store. At first we adventured only upon deep, low, rich and moorish grounds: now we climb up the hills with wonderful success. We find also that the bottoms are apt to gather heat as an oven (as is abovesaid) and that begets honeydews, when the more open air escapes it. Our Poets new and old, and all best judgements do highly commend the pleasure of a Grove, Horat. l. 2. Epist. 2. Scriptorum chorus omnis amat Nemus, & fugit urbes. We do commonly devise a shadowy walk from our Gardens through our Orchards (which is the richest, sweetest, and most embellished grove) into our Coppice-woods or Timber-woods. Thus we approach the resemblance of Paradise, which God with his own perfect hand had appropriated for the delight of his innocent masterpiece. If a gap lies in the way between our Orchard and Coppice, we fill up the vacancy with the artificial help of a hop-yard. Where a busy weed gives the shape of a wood. This must content us, till we can gain the credit of a Vineyard, which as yet hangs between hope and fear. The late dry Summers did swell us with hopes; the later fickle Spring & moist Autumn did blast, or drown our expectation. Some sow acorns, and ash keys, and other seeds for Woods, in wild and hilly grounds. Others count it much better to plant quicksets, which make more haste, and may be more reducible to the beauty of order. Before we adventure for Woods upon untried ground, 'tis not amiss to make use of Sr. Hugh plaits his augur. Myself having bought a small tenement, thought it worth the while to see the nature of mine own land, for nine foot depth, which was soon done. By that I found where sand, where stone, and where marvel of the best sort were nearest at hand: I found the reason why one piece of arable was more cold and moist, and less fruitful than another. We have a belief, that the most barren surface hath the richest entrails, not only of metallick minerals, but also of stone, yea of marvel, or some other rich material. And this is certain, that which we esteem the richest land, & buy it at the dearest rate by far, that is in many respects the poorest land: as for example, our richest land is esteemed to be on from banks, the pasture very rich, the arable a stiff clay bearing the best wheat; yet this clay is very unkind for Gardens, it does devour much compost. It is a slow ground for Orchards; the arable is much inclinable to mildews: if we have need to turn it into pastures, though we have great advantages of land-floods, or other fat waters, and the ground seem very likely for pasture, yet it is almost as good to give it away, as to go about to turn it into pasture. I have seen, that in twenty years it gathers not a turf, or sward. Yea lately, the want of winter-flouds two years together left the best pastures as bare, hard, starvy, chapped and cheany, as the basest land on the Welsh mountains. And if the arable be there once out of heart, or miss of one course of ploughing, it is costly work to recover it. On the contrary, in many places of the hot rye-land, where the pastures have a course sea-green blade, or short and poor, and where the fields refuse wheat, pease, and fitches, there sheep thrive best, and their dung suddenly recovers the arable, which is light, and easy for a weak team: in three or four years 'tis at the best for such pasture as it proves. The pastures quickly improved by fatting sheep there, that may lie upon it night and day. The land quick for Orchards, or any sort of trees, as well the tallest elms, as the Ash: easily fitted for Gardens, for hemp, flax, turnips, parsnips, &c. Hence you may judge which of these were more worthy to be called the richer land: if the rich water-floods did not give the rich pastures the advantage on one side. And hence you may see what a prevalency there is in the advantage of pasture only. I have seldom seen pastures forced by Compost in this country, as I have seen it elsewhere. Only in the Winter we feed our cattle on the higher pastures, and in the hazard of a rot, some follow the directions of Gabriel plaits, in putting out their sheep all nights; which hath proved a safeguard to the sheep, and a great help to the pasture. Other helps of pasture we do not omit, every rill of water is carefully conducted to the best use. If it runs from a fat stream, land-flood, or limestone, we find benefit in it, if withal we let it pass over and away, before it exchangeth its fatness into a cold hunger, which falls out in very few days. Some water we find so hungry, that we dare not receive it, but at seasons of necessity. Lime we have seldom tried upon pasture. Ashes we find excellent to beget the white and purple honeysuckle, if sifted on the ground in February, till it hath half candied the ground, like a hoare-frost. Our best English hay-seed is by experience found to be our more natural friend. Our graziers, which are butchers, do find this fault in the excellent pastures stored with gilt-cups, which is a kind of crowfoot, that it makes the fat of their beef look yellow, as if it were of an old beef. The honeysuckle and delicate grass we sort for cows, the sourer for the breed of young cattle, the harder and stronger for labouring Oxen; and if it be rough, and little better than sheep-pasture, 'tis the better for Horses, to mend the breed of them for the saddle. In an hyperbolical excess, for the fuller illustration, I may say, that a Nag fed upon high grounds and dry grounds is, for travel, as much beyond a Nag I bred in the lower meadows, as a lion exceedeth a cow in activity. For a bag to market, or a cart, you may breed them in the lower meadows, & you shall see them big-limmed, well-trussed, & apt to tire themselves with their own bulk and weight. The other that are bred on dry-ground, are airy and sinewy, full of spirits and vigour, in shape like the barb: they rid ground, and gather courage and delight in their own speed. Thus colts well chosen, and sheep well ordered, may be a rich help to repair the distresses of dry pasture. For sheep we are skilled beyond the rules of Gab. plaits. Our wool being the finest of England, and our sheep small, and not bearing above 16. ounces ordinarily, (yet I have seen our fairest wethers bear thirty ounces of wool) being small and nice, they are generally housed by night, Summer and Winter. And are therefore liable to two kinds of rot: the one is only of the liver at first, and if it be discerned, 'tis cured by the butcher's knife, without much loss to the owner; the other rot prevails over the whole body of the sheep, & makes the flesh sit for nothing but dogs. I know some places, in which there hath not been a rot in the memory of any of the inhabitants; but there they change often, because the ground is very stony, and in two or three years wears out their mouths: And nothing preserves sheep better than change of soil. Our common husbandmen keep their small flocks at all adventure without much care or caution. But for larger flocks our shepherds of Lemsters-oer and Irchinfield are most incomparably expert. Whilst this letter is under my hand, by a conference with Mr. S. concerning Orchards, I am assured, that upon a long trial (as in a way of contestation) it was found experimentally, that some apples raised of kernels did exceed the best that could be found of grafted apples in delicacy of taste. That he tried to meliorate the Kentish coddling, by a graft of the same kind, and it proved worse. That a near neighbour made a hogshead of cider of Kentish coddlings only: he tasted it this very week. It had a taste far differing from all our other cider, not bad, nor very excellent. That it looks like perry, of a wheyish colour. He also gave me at his own house a most pleasant drink, which I thought to be cider, and preferred it before red-straked cider, which was of the best, and, for trial, brought out to me and others at the same time. This commended drink was compounded of crabs never hoarded, but shaken from the tree, and immediately ground together with perry of that luscious kind, which at this time of the year is always wont to be roapy. This drink was not clear, but had some resemblance of roapy perry. But he assures, that the crab does by this composition always preserve the perry from being roapy. If so (as of all men I can best believe him, who will not break his word to save his life) this is an excellent art, at one time to make Crabs, which grow naturally in all wild, dry, and barren soil, a rich fruit; and by them also to make a rich benefit of those pears, which in the language of another good husband were called a Cumbersome Weed. He prescribeth, that the more luscious the pear be, the more crabs be added to it. By the taste in the mill, you may fit it, generally more pears than crabs. He noteth that these crabs were not of the forementioned Bromsbury crabs, but common crabs: of which common crabs he advertiseth there are two sorts. The first soon ripe, and yellowish, and fit to be mingled with the pears that are first ripe. And of this kind was the cider that he gave to us. The other is a more sullen crab, green about the end of Autumn. This agrees with its contemporary pears. Or to make a kind of Scythian wine, fit to quicken the palate of a sturdy hind, they may be laid in heaps, for a months hoarding, and then ground by themselves, or with Winter-apples. We know how welcome to foreign peasants, and also to our seamen, a rough vinegar or verjuice would be, either to mingle with pottage, or with water for drink. We have not yet felt so much want in England, as were necessary to teach us the use of crabs, or other general branches of frugality. The Bromsbury Crab, so often mentioned, is far larger than either of the other sort, and in shape like an apple. Sir, 'Tis time I should now give you rest. In this you may see my hearty desires towards the improvement and welfare of our Native country. If we must be hindered of Trade with Spain, I wish our English indignation would scorn to feed at their tables, to drink of their liquours, or otherwise to borrow or buy of them, or of any of their confederates, as long as our native soil did supply us with necessaries. I pray God to strengthen us all in a firm love to his holy truth, and in a mutual love to each other, under the shelter of his everlasting Mercies. Hereford May 13. 1656. Your servant in the Lord, I.B. An extract of Mr. Hartlib's letter dated September 4. 1656. He desires, that these letters may be presented to public view, for an example to worthy men in other countries to do the like in these, and other parts of Husbandry. That the Latin passages should be turned into the vernaculous Language, and many expressions altered into more plain and common English, that all vulgar capacities may understand them, &c. The Answer. 1. That it is now too late to polish any parts of those letters with such accurateness, as becomes a piece dressed for severe judgements. If it must fly abroad, it must go as it is, all parts alike, in the free garb of a natural simplicity; written with speed, and with more care of truth, than of fit words. Instead of a Translation of Columella's sentence pag. 12. lin. 19 I would annex this short English gloss; That which is far fetched, may have little familiarity with our soil, and may a long time take it unkindly to be banished from its native place. I dare not adventure for an exact translation, having no other edition but that of Hieron. Commeline 1595, which is so full of errors, that I suspect every line. It were an excellent work, if any man would publish a well-corrected copy of the four Roman Husbandmen, they being rare Monuments of Antiquity; the first, namely that of Cato the Censor, being almost 2000 years old. Being now destitute of Libraries, if I should undertake it, having no one old exemplar upon which I should frame my conjecture, at the best success, I should show more wit than honesty. For I hold it a most pernicious presumption, to intrude our own fancies instead of such great Authorities. Page 25. line 23. the Latin may be untranslated, being but a rational inference, to authorise that which is there said in English. Page 27. line 9 To the world's end. I use these words in a vulgar sense. For in very truth, and well-grounded Theology, we have no reason to conceive it to belong now, before the world shall be changed or consumed by the last fire. Pag. 28. line 5. To explain this per Quincuncem to the dullest, we may add these English words; as in a diaper-napkin, or in common glasse-windows, which is the rhombular figure. I dare adventure to use no more than the first letters of some men's names, lest I have blame for my good meaning. As in this I have merited little, so I expect no better reward: yet you have very much obliged me ever to subscribe, Yours unfeignedly I. B. The Reader may be further advertised, that upon Mr. Hartlib's motion, the argument of Herefordshire Orchards is by the same hand explained, confirmed, and for all capacities amplified on a much larger discourse, reduced to the form of a familiar dialogue, and now coming forth. FINIS.